That's no fair

Last time in the catechism, we discovered that we have nae chance of keeping God's law.  You might think that's not only tough - it's no fair.  The next question helps us understand more.

Q14.  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.

This helps us understand the issue more.  Here are a couple of things to ponder.

• Something went wrong

God made us perfect.  We have the ability to keep his law.  We had the freedom to do our own thing.  And that is exactly what Adam and Eve did.  They choose to ignore God's law and go their own way.   Like a fall which leads to a cut and scar on our bodies; their fall scared the whole of creation.    Since then, it was impossible for us to keep God's law.

• We have lost our freedom

Once we where free.  Now we are enslaved.  We are enslaved by sin.  We want to do the right thing, we can do the right thing from time to time.  But we are dragged back down.  As the catechism puts it our nature is corrupt, we are unable to keep God's law. Neither is sin something we grow into.  We don't learn it.  We are not influenced to sin by our surroundings.  Yes these things are factors, but they are not the reason why we sin.  We sin, because we are sinners.   Born in sin.  Guilty from birth.  Corrupt in our natures.

• We do have hope

That hope is a person. His name is Jesus.  He has set us free.