Question 82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?

Answer. “No mere Man, since the Fall, is able in this Life perfectly to keep the Commandments of God, but doth daily break them, in Thought, Word, and Deed.”

James 3.2, In many things we offend all.  Man in his Primitive State of Innocency was endued with Ability to keep the whole Moral Law.  Adam had rectitude of Mind, Sanctity of Will, Perfection of Power: Adam had the Copy of God’s Law written on his Heart; no sooner did God command, but he did obey.  As the Key is suited to all the wards in the Lock, and can open them; so Adam had a power suited to all God’s commands, and could obey them.  Adam’s Obedience did exactly run parallel with the Moral Law, as a well-made Dial goes exactly with the Sun.  Man in Innocency was like a well-tuned Organ, he did sweetly tune to the Will of God.  He was adorned with Holiness as the Angels, but not confirmed in Holiness as the Angels.  Adam was Holy but Mutable; he fell from his Purity, and we with him.  Sin cut the Lock of Original Righteousness where our Strength lay.  Sin hath brought such a Languor and faintness into our Souls, and hath so weakened us, that we shall never recover our full Strength till we put on Immortality.  The thing I am now to demonstrate is, That we cannot yield perfect Obedience to the Moral Law. — In many things we offend all.

1. The Case of an Unregenerate Man is such, that he cannot perfectly obey all God’s Commands.  He may as well touch the stars, or span the ocean, as yield exact obedience to the Law.  A person unregenerate cannot act spiritually, he cannot pray in the Holy Ghost, he cannot live by Faith, he cannot do duty out of love to Duty; and if he cannot do Duty spiritually, then much less perfectly.  Now, that a natural man cannot yield perfect obedience to the Moral Law, is evident: (1.) Because he is spiritually dead, Eph. 2.1.  And being so, how can he keep the commandments of God perfectly?  A dead man is not fit for action.  A Sinner hath the Symptoms of Death upon him.  1. He hath no Sense; a dead man hath no sense: he hath no sense of the evil of sin, of God’s Holiness and Veracity; therefore he is said to be without feeling, Eph. 4.19.  2. He hath no strength, Rom. 5.6.  What strength hath a dead man?  A natural man hath no strength to deny himself, to resist temptation; he is dead: And can a dead man fulfil the Moral Law?  (2.) A natural man cannot perfectly keep all God’s commandments, because he is so interlarded with sin.  He is born in sin, Ps. 51.5. Job 15.16 — He drinks iniquity as water.  All the imaginations of his thoughts are evil, and only evil, Gen. 6.5.  Now the least evil thought is ἀνομία, a Breach of the Royal Law: and if there be Defection, there cannot be Perfection.  And, as a natural man hath no power to keep the moral law, so he hath no will.  He is not only dead, but worse than dead.  A dead man doth no hurt, but there is a life of resistance against God goes along with the death of sin.  A natural man not only cannot keep the law through weakness, but he breaks it through wilfulness, Jer. 44.17, We will do whatsoever goeth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven.

2. As the Unregenerate cannot keep the Moral Law perfectly, so neither the Regenerate.  Eccl. 7.20, There is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good and sinneth not; nay, that sins not in doing good.  There is that in the best actions of a righteous man that is damnable, if God should weigh him in the Balance of Justice.  Alas! how are his duties fly-blown?  He cannot pray without wandering, nor believe without doubting.  Rom. 7.18, To will is present with me, but how to perform I find not.  In the Greek it is, κατεργάζεσθαι, How to do it thoroughly I find not.  Paul, though a saint of the first magnitude, was better at willing than at performing.  Mary asked where they had laid Christ: she had a mind to have carried him away, but she wanted strength: so the regenerate have a will to obey God’s law perfectly, but they want strength: their obedience is weak, and sickly: the mark they are to shoot at, is Perfection of Holiness; [but] though they take a right Aim, yet do what they can, they shoot short.  Rom. 7.19, The good which I would, I do not.  A Christian, while he is serving God, is hindered; like a ferryman, that plies the oar, and rows hard, but a gust of wind carries him back again.  So saith Paul, The good I would, I do not, I am driven back by temptation.  Now, if there be any failure in our obedience, we cannot make a perfect commentary upon God’s law.  No Christian alive can write a copy of holiness without blotting.  The virgin Mary’s obedience was not perfect, she needed Christ’s blood to wash her tears.  Aaron was to make atonement for the altar, Exod. 29.37, to shew that the most holy offering hath defilement in it, and needs Atonement to be made for it.

Question 1. But if a man hath no power to keep the whole Moral Law, then why doth God require that of man, which he is not able to perform? How doth this stand with his Justice?

Answer. Though man hath lost his Power of Obeying, God hath not lost his Right of Commanding.  If a master entrusts a servant with money to lay out, and the servant spends it dissolutely, may not the master justly demand this money?  God gave us a power to keep the Moral Law; we by tampering with Sin lost it: But may not God still call for perfect Obedience? or, in case of default, justly punish us?

Question 2. But why doth God suffer such an Impotency to lie upon man that he cannot perfectly keep the Law?

Answer. The Lord doth it, (1.) To humble us.  Man is a self-exalting creature, and, if he hath but any thing of worth, he is ready to be puffed up: but when he comes to see his ὑστερήματα, Deficiencies and Failings, and how far short he comes of the Holiness and Perfection God’s law requires, this is a means to pull down his plumes of pride, and lay them in the Dust.  He weeps over his Impotency, he blusheth for his leprous spots; he saith, as Job, I abhor myself in dust and ashes. [Job 42.6.]  (2.) God lets this Impotency and Infirmness lie upon us, that we may have recourse to Christ to obtain pardon for our defects, and to sprinkle our best Duties with his Blood.  When a man sees himself indebted, he owes perfect Obedience to the Law, but he hath nothing to pay: this makes him flee to Christ to be his Friend, and answer all the demands and challenges of the law, and set him free in the court of justice.

Use I. Is matter of humiliation for our Fall in Adam.  In the state of Innocency we were perfectly holy; our minds were crowned with Knowledge, and our wills, as a Queen, did sway the Sceptre of Liberty: but now we may say, as Lam. 5.16, The crown is fallen from our head.  We have lost that power which was inherent in us.  When we look back to our Primitive Glory, when we shined as earthly angels, we may take up Job’s words, chap. 29.2, O that it were as in months past!  O that it were with us as at first, when there was no stain upon our virgin-nature, when there was a perfect harmony between God’s law and man’s will!  But alas! Now the scene is altered, our strength is gone from us, we tread awry every step; we come below every precept; our dwarfishness will not reach the sublimity of God’s Law; we fail in our obedience; and, while we fail, we forfeit.  This may put us in close mourning, and spring a leak of sorrow in all our souls.

Use II. Of confutation

Branch 1st. It confutes the Arminians, who cry up the Power of the Will: they hold they have a Will to save themselves.  But, by nature we not only want [lack] strength, Rom. 5.6, but we want Will to that which is good.  The Will is not only full of impotency, but obstinacy. Ps. 81.11, Israel would none of me.  The Will hangs forth a flag of Defiance against God.  Such as speak of the sovereign power of the will, forget Phil. 2.13, It is God that worketh in you τὸ θέλειν καὶ τὸ ἐνεργεῖν, both to will and to do.  If the Power be in the Will of Man, then what needs God work in us to will?  If the air can enlighten itself, what needs the Sun to shine?  Such as talk of the Power of Nature, and the Ability they have to save themselves, they disparage Christ’s merits.  I may say, as Gal. 5.4, Christ is become of no effect to them.  This I affirm, such as advance the power of their will in matters of salvation, without the medicinal grace of Christ, do absolutely put themselves under the Covenant of Works. And now I would ask them, Can they perfectly keep the Moral Law?  Malum oritur ex quolibet defectu.  If there be but the least defect in their obedience, they are gone.  For one sinful thought, the Law of God curseth them, and the Justice of God arraigns them.  Confounded be their Pride, who cry up the power of nature, as if by their own inherent abilities, they could rear up a building, the top whereof should reach to Heaven.

Branch 2. It confutes a sort of people that brag of Perfection; and according to that principle, they can keep all God’s commandments perfectly.  I would ask these, has there at no time a vain Thought come into their minds? if any have, then they are not perfect.  The Virgin Mary was not perfect; though her womb was pure, (being overshadowed with the Holy Ghost) yet her soul was not perfect.  Christ doth tacitly imply a failing in her, Luke 2.49; And, are they more perfect than the Blessed Virgin was?  Such as hold perfection, need not confess sin.  David confessed sin, Psalm 32.6.  And Paul confessed sin, Rom. 7.24-25.  But they are got beyond David and Paul; they are perfect, they never transgress; and where there is no Transgression, what needs Confession?

2. If they are perfect they need not ask Pardon: They can pay God’s Justice what they owe; therefore what need they pray, Forgive us our debts?  O that the devil should rock men so fast asleep, as to make them dream of perfection!  And whereas they bring that, Phil. 3.15, Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded.  Answer. Perfection there, is meant of Sincerity.  God is best able to interpret his own word: he calls Sincerity Perfection, Job 1.8, A perfect and an upright man.  But who is exactly perfect?  A man full of diseases may as well say he is healthful, as a man full of sin say he is perfect.

Use III. To Regenerate Persons. Though you fail in your obedience, and cannot keep the Moral Law exactly, yet be not discouraged.

Question. What comfort may be given to a regenerate person under the failures and imperfections of his obedience?

Response 1. That a believer is not under the Covenant of Works, but under the Covenant of Grace.  The Covenant of Works requires perfect, personal, perpetual obedience: but in the Covenant of Grace, God will make some abatements: He will accept of less than he required in the Covenant of Works.

(1.) In the Covenant of Works God required Perfection of Degrees.  In the Covenant of Grace he accepts Perfection of Parts; There he required perfect working, here he accepts sincere believing.  In the Covenant of Works God required us to live without sin; in the Covenant of Grace, God accepts of our Combat with Sin.

(2.) Though a Christian cannot, in his own person perform all God’s commandments, yet Christ as his Surety, and in his stead hath fulfilled the Law for him, and God accepts of Christ’s obedience, which is perfect, to satisfy for that obedience which is imperfect.  Christ being made a curse for believers, all the curses of the Law have their sting pulled out.

(3.) Though a Christian cannot keep the commands of God to Satisfaction, yet he may to Approbation.

Question. How is that?

Answer 1. He gives his full Assent and Consent to the Law of God.  Rom. 7.12, The Law is Holy and Just: there was assent in the judgment.  Rom. 7.16, I consent to the law: there was consent in the will.

2. A Christian mourns that he cannot keep the commandments fully: when he fails, he weeps: He is not angry with the Law, because it is so strict; but he is angry with himself because he is so deficient.

3. He takes a sweet complacential Delight in the Law, Rom. 7.22. I delight in the Law of God in the inward man.  Gr. συνήδομαι, I take pleasure in it.  Psalm 119.97, O how love I thy Law! Though a Christian cannot keep God’s Law, yet he loves his Law.  Though he cannot serve God perfectly, yet he serves him willingly.

4. It is his cordial Desire to walk in all God’s Commands.  Psalm 119.5, O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.  Though his Strength fails, yet his Pulse beats.

5. He doth really endeavour to obey God’s Law perfectly, and wherein he comes short he runs to Christ’s blood to make supply for his defects.  This cordial Desire and real Endeavour God esteems as perfect obedience: 2 Cor. 8.12, If there be a willing mind, it is accepted.  Let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy Voice, Cant. 2.14.  Though the Prayers of the Righteous are mixed with Sin, yet God sees they would pray better; God picks out the weeds from the flowers; he sees the Faith and winks at the failing.  The saint’s obedience, though he falls short of Legal Perfection, yet having sincerity in it, and Christ’s Merits mixed with it, finds gracious Acceptance.  When the Lord sees endeavours after Perfect Obedience, this he takes well at our hands: as a father that receives a letter from his child, though there be blots in the letter, and false spellings, yet the father takes all in good part.  O what blottings are there in our holy things! but God is pleased to take all in good part.  Saith God, It is my child, and he would do better if he could; I will accept it.

[The above content is excerpted from Mr. Watson’s exposition of the Presbyterian Shorter Catechism, which exposition is commonly titled, “A Body of Divinity.”]