Question 13: Is it possible for someone to fully observe God’s law?
Since the fall, no human being has been able to perfectly observe God’s law, constantly violating it with thought, word, and action.
- As he says: There is no right person.
- Not even one.
- There is no one who understands; There is no one to seek God; they all strayed and together they became useless; there’s no one to do good.
- There’s no one.
© faithful of the Department, Exclusive content of faithful ministry and Let’s return to the gospel. Copying, printing, distributing or publishing Nova Vida Catechism devotions is prohibited without prior written permission.
JOHN OWEN
How does a traveler along the way, faced with a storm and heavy rains, immediately veer out of his way to find a house or tree to take refuge, but that doesn’t make him leave the trip?As soon as the storm passes, do you go back to your path and progress again?, also men trapped in sin: the law finds you in a storm of thunder and light from heaven, terrifies you and prevents you from following your own path; for a while, he diverts them from their course; they run to prayer or to correct their lives, seeking refuge from the storm of anger they fear will fall upon their conscience. Have your principles changed? Not even a little; because as soon as the storm passes, they return to the path they had once walked, again at the service of sin.
We must never imagine that our work in the fight against sin, crucifying it, mortifying it and subduing it, will come to an end. The place of its abode is unsinkable; when you think you’ve won completely in this area, you still have reserves you haven’t seen before, that you didn’t know. Many winners were ruined by negligence after a victory; Were many spiritually wounded after great successes against the enemy?There is no way to pursue sin in its unsinkable abode but to be tireless in this struggle.
LEO SCHUSTER
God created us to love, to have pleasure, to glorify and obey Him, and in doing so, to flourish as human beings. Why, then, do we offer so much resistance to that? As an incredibly sophisticated machine that is broken, we do not work as we were designed, due to the fall. And what’s the fall? God created human beings with the ability to keep his law perfectly, but this was lost when the first human being and representative of the human race, Adam, decided to rebel and disobey God, fell into sin, and dragged us all with him. describes this condition in several ways: spiritual rebellion, blindness, disease, incarceration, and death.
How does that affect us today? Because of the fall, we are not only spiritually disabled, but also totally disabled. We are not only weak; We do not have the innate power to obey or glorify God’s law. We are separated from the Creator, from each other and also from the rest of creation. In this deficient spiritual condition, we are unable to obey God’s law not only through our actions. and words, but also through our thoughts, attitudes and motivations. As the prophet Jeremiah said: “Deceptive and corrupt is the heart; Who can handle it?(17,9). Thus, we remain alienated and guilty before the holy God of heaven and earth.
Obviously, it is quite disheartening to contemplate this image, but this is not the end of the story, but only the beginning. It is the bad news that remains a backdrop to the spectacular good news of the gospel, which bring life and hope. Although we cannot keep God’s law perfectly, there is someone who has kept it perfectly for us. Jesus faithfully obeyed his Father, to the point of dying on the cross, so that those of us who trust alone in him will no longer live under the guilt, power, and slavery of sin, but be free. Jesus said, “Wherefore, if the Son delivers them, will they be truly free?”(John 8:36). Even though we fell into Adam, we were resurrected in Christ. We are convinced that the God who resurrected Jesus from the dead works with love in us and will not allow us to fall until the day he leads us to his eternal presence in glory, where we will no longer have to. fight us. There we will be definitive, obeying fully and freely the One who created and redeemed us.
Holy God, abandoned to our own mistakes, we break your law at all times. We have no defense, but we must plead guilty to your court. Your law condemns us and makes us see all our claims for justice, convincing us that I desperately need a Savior, Amen.
Basic questions and answers about biblical doctrine
Is the Catechism of the New City a current, gospel-centered resource that presents important doctrines of Christianity through 52 questions and answers and also offers a devotion that helps the reader transform through these doctrines. Designed for use in a variety of environments, it is a very useful resource to help Christians reflect on the doctrines at the heart of the Christian faith.