Q: Did God create us unable to keep his law?
A: 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 “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.”
Man was created in the image of God, and in the beginning, we also were given truly free will, free from the encumbrance of sin. Not that we were incapable of choosing sin, but we were not yet stained from the effects of sin. In our original state we were in perfect relationship with God, there was not yet a requirement for mediation between us and God. He walked with man in the garden, and we did not hide from him because we had caused him no offense.
Some theologians have postulated that man was created in a state of moral neutrality, but Scriptures like Genesis 1:31 “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” and even more explicitly; Ecclesiastes 7:29 “God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.” point to an initial state of righteousness.
However, this initial state, did not last. Adam’s sin, in his representation of mankind as our federal head, and natural head as progenitor of the human race, had a twofold effect on us. We bear the effects of both imputed sin and original sin.
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.” Imputed sin is the guilt of the sin which transpired in the garden rightly being attributed as our guilt as well. This is the sin that renders us guilty from conception, and worthy of God’s wrath.
Romans 3:10-12 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
Louis Berkhof, in his systematic theology, talks of original sin like this “original sin as consisting of the guilt of nature (the nature of the entire human race), contracted by a single act of Adam, and the resulting inherent corruption of human nature, handed down to posterity and manifesting itself in a tendency to sin.”
The next issue we need to look at that ties closely to this, is to differentiate between fleshly and sinful nature. These are terms that are often thrown around, interchangeably but their are important distinctions between them.
Our sinful nature is the outworking of original sin within us, it is our inability to not choose sin as a result of the corruption of our being.
Ephesians 2:1-2 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience”
While all Christians agree that we have been corrupted by sin, the extent of that corruption has historically been an area of some debate. Scripture clearly communicates the true depths of our inability. We are not, as some would wrongly teach, able to play any part in choosing God. We are truly in a state of spiritual death apart from the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit, enslaved to sin with no desire to break free from its grasp.
Proverbs 20:9 “Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?”
Romans 5:18 “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
This also reflects the doctrine of Total Depravity, not to be confused with utter depravity, in that we are as bad as we could be at all times, but, instead that every area of our being has been tainted by original sin. Our sinful nature has corrupted our hearts, our minds, our wills, our desires, every aspect of our being. Thus, we are completely unable and unwilling to seek God, or to please him, apart from his work by the Spirit setting us free from our bondage to sin.
When discussing our fleshly nature, we must be sure we do not fall into error as the Gnostics did early on. The Gnostic school of thought taught that all of the physical realm was inherently evil. We know however, that this is not the case, Christ came in the flesh, fully human and fully divine, yet he knew no sin. Clearly for Christ to come in the likeness of sinful prone flesh, the flesh itself could bear no sin inherently. Verses like Romans 8:3 attest to this “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
While the flesh is not inherently sinful, what is inherent to the flesh is weakness. It is this weakness that the temptations of the world appeal to, it is this weakness to which we defer when we seek to satisfy the flesh and its desires when we turn from God. Weakness in itself is not sinful.
Christ also shared in the flesh and its weaknesses. Satan appealed to Jesus’ hunger in the desert, likewise, Jesus preferred that he not have to endure the pain of the cross. But, unlike us, Jesus did not succumb to his weakness. In his victory over the flesh Jesus instead was able to condemn sin in the flesh, showing that this inherent weakness was not an excuse for our failing.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
It is in this way that we can, as Paul says, boast in our weakness, knowing that God is glorified in his Spirit’s work of enabling us to overcome the temptations inherent to the weakness of the flesh. We cannot overcome temptation on our own, indeed all works apart from faith are sin, but through faith, and reliance on the Spirit, there is no temptation that we cannot bear.
1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
This should bring us to humility, knowing that on our own we are unable to please God, unwilling and unable to restrain ourselves from sin. We likewise should overflow with joy and thanksgiving, that God has chosen to love his enemies, that while we rebelled against him he was faithful to fulfill the covenant on our behalf and reconcile us to him. We should likewise be thankful that we are no longer slaves to sin, dead in our trespasses, but we are slaves to righteousness, slaves to Christ! And he is faithful to complete the work of sanctification that he has started in us.
This also should produce in us hope, hope in the knowledge that there is no condemnation for those in Christ. We should view temptation as an opportunity to turn to Christ, remembering he is faithful to keep us from sin if we indeed trust in him and run to him in times of temptation.