The New City Catechism — Week 14
Question 1 — Did God create us unable to keep his law?
Answer — No, but because of the disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, all of creation is fallen; we are all born in sin and guilt, corrupt in our nature and unable to keep God’s law.
Romans 5:12 (ESV)
12Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
I remember as a small child being taught that my actions have consequences. I remember being taught this and reminded constantly throughout my childhood. This was probably due to that fact that I was always in church—if the doors were open, I was there. But also, as my wife can attest, I was always in trouble. I was the kind of kid that liked to push the limits of everyone around me and it wasn’t until later in life that I realized the truth that my grandparents, teachers, and pastor were trying to instill in me—actions have consequences.
But even as that is so very true, we sometimes think our actions can only go so far and affect so many people. It is in those moments when we go to the Bible and we are reminded just how far reaching our actions go and how deeply they are rooted in the fall of Genesis 3.
God made everything good in the beginning. Mankind lived and worked in the garden as God walked along side us. Adam and Eve had no troubles or problems until they were deceived, sinned, and broke the only law God gave them. And from that moment, their actions led to a consequence that has affected the entire human race and all of creation.
God made us capable of keeping his law, apart from sin. But now that sin exists in the human heart and present in creation, we cannot. Sin messes up the mind, heart, and body. It leads us astray, away from God and everything that we were born to be. The sin that our first father and mother committed has been passed down through every generation all the way up to us today. We are born with sin because of the sin committed in the garden.
As God looks at us in our desperate state, he has mercy on us. God could have left us to our sin and die in the bed that we have made, but the Bible is a story of redemption. Romans 5 tells us of the gift that God gives that comes in the form of mankind, but absent of the sin that is in the rest of humanity. Jesus was born free from the inherited sinful heart; he fought sin every single day of his life, and then died in our place to redeem us from the consequential death that came from our sin.
This week, as you reflect on Q&A 14, examine your heart. It doesn’t take much to see the state and condition of the human heart and the sin that is there. How does that change the way you think about yourself, family, and others? From there, then consider the price God paid to remove that sin and transform you into something that better reflects our God and his design. We cannot keep the law of God, but we can live in hope because of the work of Jesu Christ.