QUESTION 14

Question 14: Did God create us unable to keep his law?

Answer 14: 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.

When you go through the creation account, one of the clear affirmations is that God created everything good. After each of the days of creation it says God looked at what he created and said, “it is good”.  Then after creating man in his image, male and female, it says “behold it was very good.” God created our first parents, Adam and Eve good, upright, holy, and capable of serving and obeying Him. But Adam and Eve did not continue long in that innocent state. When given the choice of listening to and trusting the words of the God who made and loved them or rebellion and listening to the serpent, they chose the latter. The effects were catastrophic!

Adam and Eve fell into a state of guilt, corruption, and ultimately ruin. And all of humanity after was plunged into the same guilt, depravity, and sin. This is what theologians call the doctrine of original sin and we see its effects all around us, every day. I think it was GK Chesterton who said that we have “thousands of years of empirical evidence to back up the doctrine of Original Sin”, which of course is exactly right. When you look at the history of the world, the sinful actions of men loom large. And here is an important point. Original sin does not just affect our actions, but it has infected deep within, it has corrupted us to the core. And our sinful actions come from this deep depravity. 

As Jesus puts it, “Men love the darkness rather than the light.” This shows the depth of the corruption. It is lodged deep within, at the level of what we love. Apart from Christ, we love to do what is evil. And therefore, from Adam and Eve’s sin to the present, every person has been born in this radical corruption, incapable of doing what pleases God and unable to obey his law. 

Again, God didn't create us with this inability. We have inherited it from Adam and Eve, our first parents. Which means that this inability can only be cured by God. Only God can rescue us from this perilous state. Only the redeeming work of Christ can give us new life, with a new heart, and a new desire to love and obey God through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Romans 5:12 - Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.