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The Misery of Man

SUMMARY: The law of God reveals to me my misery and sin. The holiness of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ shows better still the destructive work of sin in my spirit and in my heart.

Given over to my strength alone, I am inclined to evil and I am in­capable of doing good; I disobey without ceasing the holy, just and good will of my God; I bear in my body and in my soul the wages of my sins which lead me to suffering and to death, and expose me to the fearful consequen­ces of God’s indignation and judgment.

Bible readings for the week: Monday, Question 6: (1), (2), and Question 7: 1, 2. Tuesday, Question 9: 1, (2), 3, 4. Wednesday, Question 9: (5), 6, 7, (8), 9, 10. Thursday, Question 11: (1), 2, and Question 12: (1), 2, 3. Friday, Question 14: (1), 2, 3. Saturday, Question 15: 1, 2, (3).

6. How do you know of your misery?

By the law of God. “It is the law,” said Saint Paul, “which gives the knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:20). We feel in our conscience a testimony of this law.

Bible readings:

1. The law and the conscience: Romans 2:12–16.

2. Sin is manifested by the law: Romans 7:7–13.

7. What does the Law of God require of us?

Jesus Christ teaches us by the summary of the Law of which he reminds us in the Gospel:

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremo­st commandment; and a second is like it, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37–40; Luke 10:27).

I must recognize myself as guilty before my own conscience. And this in two respects: (1) for the things that it tells me I ought to do and I have not done. What are they? And (2) for the things which it forbids to me and I do in spite of it. What are thes­e?

But though the conscience is a universal “preaching” by God to the heart of all men, it is only a very imperfect testimony of the requirements of his Law revealed in the Holy Scriptures.

What are the sins that I presently know, revealed to me by the Law of God and which my conscience ignores? (Cf. Romans 7:7–1­3) Are there things which I love to do simply because God forbids them?

8. Can you keep all these commandments perfectly?

No, because I am not spontaneously inclined to love God and my neighbor.

As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become use­less; there is none who does good, there is not even one. There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:10–12, 22, 23

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiv­ing ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to clea­nse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and his Word is not in us. 1 John 1:8–10; cf. Romans 8:7, 8, Ephesians 2:3, 4.

Bible readings:

1. We are all convicted of sin by the law: Romans 3:9–20.

2. I will, but I do not!: Romans 7:14–25.

9. Is the law the only means by which you have a knowledge of your misery?

No. I also receive a knowledge of great misery by the fact that God makes Himself known to me in the Scripture as the thrice-Holy God whose purity is infinite.

Bible readings:

The holiness of God reveals the sin of man.

1. Isaiah 6:1–7.

2. Daniel 10:4–12, 15–19.

3. Job 4:17–19, 15:14–16.

The knowledge of my misery and sin is even more clearly seen if I consider that Jesus, in his humanity, is like us in all things except sin. Every difference between Jesus the man and myself can be attributed to my sin. If I were not a sinner I would be identical to the man Jesus.

In measuring the abyss which separates me from my Savior, I measure too the greatness of my sin and the depth of my misery.

In the light of this revelation I understand that I do not possess in myself real love, that is, the purity and the humility that God requires of me. Instead of seeking his glory, I seek mine. Instead of living for him I live for myself. I do not operate out of love for God but love for myself.

Bible reading:

4. We do not seek the glory of God: John 5:41–47.

Sin creeps into every area of our life. By our own power we are not able to escape. We remain “carnal men” who only love our own selves. Our existence is nothing more than open or secret revolu­tion against God. We are all as straying sheep, each following his own way (cf. Isaiah 53:6).

Do you see that your situation before God is quite impossible, and that before his holiness you have only one alternative: you can revolt against Him in an act of despair or accept his judgment and confess your sin?

Bible readings:

5. The revolution of men: Isaiah 1:2–4.

6. They hate and run from the light: John 3:17–21; 7:7.

7. They speak and believe the lie: John 8:42–47.

8. They do not believe the truth: 2 Corinthians 4:3–5.

9. They disguise themselves as servants of righteousness: 2 Corinthians 11:15.

10. They make God a liar: 1 John 5:9–13.

10. Did God therefore create man so wicked and perverse?

No, on the contrary! God created man good and in his image (Genesis 1:26–27), in true righteousness and holiness, and in complete innocence, in order that he might love Him with all his heart and live with Him in eternal happiness, glorifying and praising Him.

Do you believe this is the reason that God gives you your life, why He created you?

11. What is the source of this corruption of man?

It comes from the disobedience and fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve. By this fall, our nature has become so spoiled that we are conceived and born in sin (Ps. 51:7). “By the sin of one man sin entered the world,” said Saint Paul, “and by sin, death; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12).

The sign of our personal corruption for which we are responsible, is that we are pleased with ourselves in this state of sin, and apart from the intervention of the grace of God, we love sin. God does not hold the guilt of Adam’s sin against us, as though it was a sin we did not commit; the guilt of the sins and faults abound in us. For these we are, whether we wish or not—personally responsible.

We feel their testimony in our conscience (albeit intermittently).1

We know that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.1 John 5:19

Bible readings:

1. The fall of man: Genesis 3.

2. Our responsibility: Jer. 2:4–9, 12–14, 17, 21, 22, 26–35.

12. Are we so corrupted that we are completely “inclined to evil” and “incapable of doing any good?”

Yes we are lost, unable to find our Savior again for ourselves, and do his will. To be under the impossibility of loving God, of serving and pleasing Him, even despite our “wishes” and our “good resolutions,” is perdition, or “lostness.”

Can the black Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard change his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to evil. Jeremiah 13:23

Bible readings:

1. How God sees us: Romans 1:29–32; 3:9–20.

2. We are slaves to our sin: Psalm 51.

3. The slave of sin will be rejected: John 8:34–35.

13. But would it not be unjust for God to require of man in his Law those things he cannot do?

Not at all; because God created him able to do all those things. But at the instigation of Satan, man has deprived himself, and all his children, of these gifts by his wickedness and disobedience.

14. Will God allow this disobedience and fall to go unpunished?

Absolutely not! God reveals himself to be the Lord to whom belong­s, by the law of creation, the right to condemn my sin.

God feels a holy wrath against sin. “Cursed ­is everyone who does not continue in all things, which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Deuteronomy 27:26). God neither can, nor will treat the guilty as innocent (Ex.34:7).

God says about those who become hardened in sin: “But as for Me, My eye will have no pity nor shall I spare, but I shall bring their conduct on their own heads.” Ezekiel 9:10.

“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your apostasies will reprove you; know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God, and the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the LORD God of hosts. Jeremiah 2:19

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7–8.

Bible Readings:

1. The righteous severity of God: Genesis 3:9–19.

2. Why would I pardon you? Jeremiah 5.

3. The wrath of God: Romans 1:18–22.

We are more inclined to accept the Scripture passages we find agreeable, about pardon and love, than those that judge and condemn us. The characteristic of faith, though, is to accept and believe all the words of God. Do you accept and believe, as God says, that He can curse the sinner, hold him guilty, have no more pity on the one He rejects, because he is under no obligation to pardon, and justly bring our crimes on our heads?

15. But is God not also very merciful?

Yes! God is very merciful, and this is the first word of our faith. But he is also just. It is because his justice requires it that sin (which is committed against his sovereign majesty) must be punished in body and soul to the highest degree, which is to say, by a most severe punishment.

The Name LORD: And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands; who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.’ Exodus 34:5–7

The boastful shall not stand before thine eyes; thou dost hate all who do iniquity. Thou dost destroy those who speak falsehood; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. But as for me, by thy lovingkindness I will enter thy house, at Thy holy temple I will bow in reverence for thee. Psalm 5:5–7.

. . . what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 2 Corinthians 6:14–15

The soul who sins will die. Ezekiel 18:4

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteous­ness. Romans 1:18

Bible Readings:

1. Jesus condemns sinners: John 3:17–21, 36; 5:29–30; 8:21–26; 12:47–48.

2. How will I be righteous before God? Job 9:1–20.

3. God calls me in righteousness: Job 14, 17:13–16.

Because of our sin, we are therefore condemned to death. We can no longer hope for acquittal. The sentence is pronounced by our Judge, and it appears to be without appeal! (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14).

1. In the original, Dr. Marcel’s sentence reads, “God does not hold the guilt of Adam and Eve’s sin against us, sins we did not commit, but the guilt of sins and faults which abound in us, and for which we are . . .” A L’ Ecole de Dieu, page 33.