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Heidelberg Catechism, Question 9

Question 9

Doth not God then do injustice to man by requiring from him, in his law, that which he cannot perform?

Not at all (Rom. 3;20); for God made man capable of performing it (Ecc. 7:29); but man, by the instigation of the devil, and his own willful disobedience (Rom. 5;19), deprived himself and all his posterity of those divine gifts (Rom. 5;12).

Scripture references for paragraph 1

Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.

Galatians 3:10

10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Romans 3:5

5But if our unrighteousness highlights the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unjust to inflict His wrath on us? I am speaking in human terms.

Romans 3:6

6Certainly not! In that case, how could God judge the world?

Romans 1:32

32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.

Romans 3:20

20Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

Revelation 15:3

3and they sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb: “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!

Ecclesiastes 7:29

29Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”

Romans 5:19

19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Genesis 3:13

13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”

2 Corinthians 11:3

3I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

Romans 5:12

12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

1 Corinthians 15:22

22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Source and edition

Heidelberg Catechism. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879

Public Domain (historic text); CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikisource transcription). Source transcription.

Transcription licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.

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