Question 88: 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 daily falls short of inward and outward perfection.

DAY 1:

We have completed the examination of each of the Ten Commandments. As a result, we have seen how far we fall short from the standard that God has established. We have made some comments about what the law does and will deal with it in more detail in the following lessons next week. However, after we have dealt with each of the commandments, it almost seems ludicrous that someone might think that they could keep the commandments perfectly. Yet, there are some who do think they can. Therefore, let us see exactly what the Scriptures say regarding man’s ability to keep the commandments of God perfectly.

We begin in the book of Ecclesiastes. In 7:20 we read, “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.” This comes immediately following the statement about wisdom strengthening the wise more than ten rulers. Solomon, who was the wisest man who ever lived, besides the Lord Jesus, wrote these words. Solomon’s wisdom brought him great fame and wealth and strength. Yet the wisest man the world had known succumbed to sin. His wisdom could not keep his sinful nature under control. He was a man whose heart was drawn after all kinds of things and many of those things took the place of God. He sought after wisdom, knowledge, wine, song, women and the list could go on. Now none of these things are bad in and of themselves, but Solomon’s heart was bad from the start. He was depraved just like all men are. He allowed these things to be the consuming passion of his life. As he says later in Ecclesiastes, “All is vanity”. He later realized that all the “things” of life are vanity.

His words are strikingly similar to those of the apostle Paul in the New Testament book of Romans. In Romans 3:23 the apostle says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We often hear the definition of sin as “missing the mark.” However, if we think in terms of what the practical implications are we might clearly define it as “choosing a way other than God’s or following the dictates of our own hearts rather than obeying the revealed will of God.” Solomon as well says, “there is (no man who) does not sin. All have sinned.

Secondly, not only do Solomon and Paul attest to the fact that every man is a sinner, but that every man is unjust. Solomon says there is not a just man on earth. The word just here is tsaddiyq (tsad-deek’) and means, “just, lawful, and righteous”. It does not mean that men will not occasionally do just or right things. The issue speaks to their being consistently just, lawful, and righteous. We might refer to a judge as just. We might refer to a plaintiff in an argument as being right. We may refer to someone as righteous in their actions. But, the Word of God is clear that men are not any of these things by their own nature.

As a matter of fact, Solomon is clear that there is no man on earth who does good. That may be shocking to us in our culture, where we often speak of people as “being a good man” or we might hear people say, “I know he did this, but he has a good heart”. No. If the truth is known, we are not good and cannot do what is good in the sight of God. From our perspective we might see people as good and compliment them on that apparent goodness, but we must be aware that all men are incapable of doing what is good and pleasing in the sight of God (Rom. 3:12; 8:7, 8). This seems to always present problems for some people because they will bring up examples like Abimelech (Gen. 26:28) and say, “See someone can do good.” What they fail to see is that they are arguing against Paul. Paul is very clear that no one is able to do good from the heart, because, as we have seen, all things come from our hearts and our hearts are exposed as sinful, depraved, and desperately wicked. This good is specifically addressed to the relationship between God and man and Paul makes it clear that man is incapable (ou dunatai) in Romans 8:8. The Lord Jesus expressed the same inability of man to come to the Son in John 6:44. All men lack the ability to do that which is good and pleasing in the sight of God, which is obedience to the law and includes accepting and believing the spiritual gospel (John 6:44; 1 Cor. 2:14).

Are any of the members of your family convinced that they cannot please God? Do any of them seem desperate to be saved from their sins? Do they truly seem willing to submit themselves unto God or are they content with some form of self-righteousness? What about us as fathers? Are we really desperate for the Savior? Is our hope in Him and in Him alone? Or is He or has He become some add-on in our life rather than our life? Let us seek the face of God and come boldly before His throne of grace and find forgiveness and refuge in Christ and let us intercede to the Father on behalf of our spouses and the children which He has so graciously placed in our stewardship.

DAY 2:

The story of Noah is probably one of the most well known stories in the world. Notably, in many children’s books today, though, there is little mention of why God had Noah build an ark and why he destroyed the wicked men of the antediluvian world. Most people today don’t think little children should be confronted with issues of sin, God’s wrath, and the fear of the Lord. However, our aim is to be pleasing to Him and so we seek to give the whole counsel of God.

Therefore let us focus on the serious nature surrounding the time of Noah. In Genesis 6:5 we read, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Moses uses the phrase “every intent” which in Hebrew is the word yetser (yay’-tser). This word means, “form, framing, purpose, framework.” It appears that no matter what came into the mind of man that it had an evil purpose behind it. Even if men claimed that what was in their minds applied to the true God, it seems that they were deceived and had wicked intentions. Not only that, but the Scripture says that these thoughts of their hearts were evil continually. The word here for continually is yowm (yome). It carries the meaning of “day, time, year”. The idea is that from birth this becomes man’s state. In the vernacular, his thoughts and intentions are always sinful 24/7. In Psalm 14:1-3 we see the condition of man. There is none that doeth good, no not one. This again parallels what we saw in the previous lesson. As John Gill points out rightly in his commentary on this verse,

“Hence appears the necessity of regeneration, and proves that the new creature is not an improvement of the old principles of corrupt nature, since there is no good thing in man but what is put into him; also the disability of man to do that which is good, even to think a good thought, or do a good action; therefore the works of unregenerate men are not properly good works, since they cannot flow from a right principle, or be directed to a right end.”

If, by chance, we are led to believe that this only applied to those at the time of the flood, let us look to Genesis 8:21 and there God promises never to destroy the earth again in that fashion, but reminds Noah that He does know men and that they have evil hearts from their youth. The term youth there can refer to babes and children. Before we raise an objection to the Word of God, let us consider our own children. Is it not clear that even at the youngest age we can see the rebellion against God in them, by the manifestation rebellion and disobedience towards us? We see that though they may be “cute” to some, they are born as the enemies of God.

The question might arise, “Well then, how was Noah and his family able to escape the wrath of God if no man can do good and please God?” I say that this is a good question. However, let us look at Genesis 6:8. We are told that Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Now John MacArthur seems to indicate that in the economy of the Old Testament that works had some type of merit. That is not true. Both the old and new covenants are covenants of works. They are dependant upon fulfillment of obedience. The difference is that in the new covenant we are graced by the obedience of Christ. Even those who were before Christ come under the grace provided in the perfect life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lest we forget, Paul was very clear in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Abraham did not find grace in God’s sight because of his faith or because of his works. Rather, the fact that someone finds grace is evidenced by his faith and by his works. The same is true of Noah. The fact that Noah found grace in the eyes of God is evidenced by his faith and by his works. Where was this evidence? It was in this monstrous structure called an ark, in the midst of the desert at a time when it had never rained. It was evidenced in the fact that he would preach for 120 years. It was evidenced by teaching his family. It was evidenced by one word: obedience.

I have heard people, especially of late, say that there must have been something on Noah’s part that resulted in him finding grace in the eyes of God. Pray tell, what would that have been? Have we not already seen that God is clear as to the nature of man? Is it not those who want man to be free that are at odds when it comes to true biblical anthropology? As a matter of fact, it is this same mindset that seems to be set against the biblical teaching about the freedom of God.

Man is dead in trespasses and in sins (Eph. 2:1). He is like Lazarus dead in the grave. The biblical definition of dead in trespasses in sins means that man is unable to perform that which God requires. However, he is quite capable of being responsible for his actions and all his actions are sin.

Make sure that your family understands their inabilities before God. Make sure they understand that there is no such thing as a “free will”. Rather, they must understand that their will is enslaved to sin (Rom. 6:16). Once they see their hopeless and helpless state, they will then desire the grace of the gospel. Let me add that their ability to truly see their true condition is not a natural work, but a supernatural work of the grace of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:10-16).

DAY 3:

After these past days lessons, there might be some who would say, “Well, man has just a tad of good in him. I mean aren’t there some people who are obviously better than others and good men?” It is true that some men do not manifest their sin as much as others. It is true that we perceive them to be good. However, as we have seen, the Scripture is clear on this issue and that is the standard is not other men, but God Himself. The issue is not how we perceive men, but how God actually sees men. Therefore we have concluded that all men are sinners, cannot perform what is good and pleasing before God and thus remain under his judgment.

I recall some years ago running into a gentleman through a mutual friend of ours. He worked for the local police department and claimed to be a Christian. He was member of a charismatic association and seemed to be a very pleasant man. I remember he began to talk about holiness. At the time, I was very ignorant of a lot of things about the Scriptures and wanted to learn, so I listened. What he said greatly disturbed me and I might add, should have disturbed him. He said that he had reached a point in his life where he no longer sinned. I was breathless that someone who claimed to be a Christian would actually have the audacity to make such a statement. The first thing I challenged him with once I caught my breath was 1 John 1:8.

John’s epistle is given to the church to protect her from the heresies of the early Gnostics, which in most instances are the same types of lies propagated by false religions today. One of the things that Gnosticism taught was that spirit was good and matter was evil. Therefore, a Gnostic could say that his body was sinful, but his inner man was not. John tells us very clearly that if we say we have no sin that we are deceiving ourselves. We are pulling the wool over our own eyes and not honest with ourselves. Why man must somehow apply his “fig apron” and act as if he is not standing bare and naked before God is the essence of his depravity. Man is hopelessly a sinner. He cannot help but sin. The Bible makes it clear as we have seen that men are sinners from their mother’s womb.

Not only that, but John also adds some very sobering words. Many like to think of Peter and John as these loving disciples who didn’t use strong language or judge people like others did. However, notice that he says a person who claims that he has no sin, not only deceives himself, but also doesn’t have the truth in him. Wow! No matter what you may claim about Christ or the gospel or about yourself, if you do not affirm the truth about your own sin, you don’t even have the truth in you. Those are strong words. Who claimed to be the truth? Jesus Christ. Does Jesus Christ not take up residence within the life of a believer? Yes He does. Therefore, it seems clear that one who would make such a boastful statement that he no longer sins is in fact making God a liar. This is exactly what John says later in verse 10.

The apostle Paul in Romans 7:15 tells us that he struggled with sin even after his conversion. This should be no surprise for the true believer. We know, not only from the text of Scripture, but also from experience that we sin. However, in this verse from Romans we can see the distinction that is made by Paul. Notice that Paul finds himself doing that “which he does not understand”. The word here for not understand can be understood as knowledge that could be applied before his conversion. He is not saying that he does not understand sin. Nor is he saying that he does not understand how it comes about. Rather he is affirming that sin is uncharacteristic of the new man, which Jesus Christ has man him into. He therefore does not approve of the things that he does that is sin.

This is a characteristic of a believer. There was a time when believers didn’t care much about sin. They may have had certain values and morals, but they were not at war with sin. Paul, as you remember, was not an immoral man in the eyes of many. Rather he was very religious and proud of the law and his “ability to keep it”. However, Paul makes clear that his keeping the law was merely external. The internal working of sin manifested itself and he could not silence the loud shrieks of sin within his own soul. Now as a believer, he agrees with God. He agrees that his disobedience to the law is sin. He is now at war with sin and his new nature desires to uphold the law and glorify the God who gave the law and saved him by His grace.

So we see that even Christians, though they do not have the pattern of a sinful life, do sin. One of the marks of the true believer is that his mind has been changed in regards to sin. He sees sin as sin. He sees it as a rebellion and attack upon His Creator and his desire is one that seeks to obey God from the heart. Paul goes on to say in verse 25 that “with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” What are believers to do then? Do we still sin? Yes. Is it habitual and do we not care about it? No. In fact, God has made provision for our sin. 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But we might ask, “Upon what basis is this accomplished?” It is accomplished by the perfect work of Christ who is our Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5) and our Advocate (1 Jn. 2:1). The term Advocate here is parakletos (par-ak’-lay-tos) and means, “one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate”. This is the work of the glorified Christ on our behalf now. He intercedes for His own and pleads for the pardon of our sins. How can He do this? 1 John 2:2 tells us that He is the propitiation for our sins and for those of the whole world. He has given Himself for His people, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles. What we could not perform, that is true goodness, holiness, and righteousness, Christ was the essence of it and thus fulfilled the law on our behalf. Then He sacrificed Himself for sin on the cross and thus made atonement for our sins. Thus He became the propitiation (hilasmos hil-as-mos’), or appeasement for our sin.

Still think you are a pretty “good” person? Then you have yet to see yourself in light of the truth of God. You have failed to see the glory of the Son of God. You have failed to hear the Word of the Lord. May God grant you ears to hear and repentance and faith. May the Lord Jesus Christ glorify Himself by saving you completely. May you glorify Him with a life made new and the exaltation of His law.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 7:20; Genesis 6:5; 8:21; 1 John 1:8; James 3:2,8; Romans 3:23; 7:15; Philippians 3:12.