The First Part - Of The Misery Of Man

2. Lord's Day

Question 3.
Whence knowest thou thy misery?
Answer.
Out of the law of God. (a)

(a)
Rom. 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Question 4.
What does the law of God require of us?
Answer.
Christ teaches us that briefly, Matt. 22:37-40,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
This is the first and the great commandment; and the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (a)

(a)
Deut. 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Lev. 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:
I am the LORD.
Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Luke 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Question 5.
Canst thou keep all these things perfectly?
Answer.
In no wise; (a)
for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbour.(b)

(a)
Rom. 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom. 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Rom. 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
(b)
Rom. 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Eph. 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Tit. 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
Gen. 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Gen. 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Jer. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Rom. 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

3. Lord's Day

Question 6.
Did God then create man so wicked and perverse?
Answer.
By no means; but God created man good, (a)
and after his own image, (b)
in true righteousness and holiness, that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love him and live with him in eternal happiness to glorify and praise him. (c)

(a)
Gen. 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
(b)
Gen. 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen. 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
(c)
Col. 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Col. 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Eph. 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Eph. 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
2 Cor. 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Question 7.
Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature?
Answer.
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents,
Adam and Eve, in Paradise; (a)
hence our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin. (b)

(a)
Genesis 3.
Rom. 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom. 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Rom. 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
(b)
Ps. 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Gen. 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Question 8.
Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?
Answer.
Indeed we are; (a)
except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God. (b)

(a)
Gen. 8:21 The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Gen. 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Job 15:16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
Job 15:35 They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
Isa. 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
(b)
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
1 Cor. 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
2 Cor. 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

4. Lord's Day

Question 9.
Does not God then do injustice to man, by requiring from him in his law, that which he cannot perform?
Answer.
Not at all; (a)
for God made man capable of performing it;
but man, by the instigation of the devil, (b)
and his own wilful disobedience, (c)
deprived himself and all his posterity of those divine gifts.

(a)
Eph. 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Eccl. 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
(b)
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
2 Cor. 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Gen. 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
(c)
Gen. 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Rom. 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Gen. 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
1 Tim. 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
1 Tim. 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Question 10.
Will God suffer such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
Answer.
By no means; but is terribly displeased (a)
with our original as well as actual sins;
and will punish them in his just judgment temporally and eternally, (b)
as he has declared,
"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law, to do them." (c)

(a)
Gen. 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Rom. 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
(b)
Ps. 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Ps. 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.
Nah. 1:2 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
Exod. 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for
I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exod. 34:7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Rom. 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Eph. 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Heb. 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
(c)
Deut. 27:26 Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Gal. 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Question 11.
Is not God then also merciful?
Answer.
God is indeed merciful, (a) but also just; (b) therefore his justice requires, that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God, be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul.

(a)
Exod. 34:6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD,
The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Exod. 34:7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Exod. 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
(b)
Ps. 7:9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.
Exod. 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for
I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exod. 23:7 Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.
Exod. 34:7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Ps. 5:5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Ps. 5:6 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
Nah. 1:2 God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
Nah. 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.