Thomas Watson
Why does God permit such an inability in man to keep the law? He does it: (1) To humble us. Man is a self-exalting creature; and if he has but anything of worth, he is ready to be puffed up; but when he comes to see his deficiencies and failings, and how far short he comes of the holiness and perfection which God’s law requires, it pulls down the plumes of his pride and lays them in the dust; he weeps over his inability; he blushes over his leprous spots; he says with Job, “I abhor myself in dust and ashes.” (2) God lets this inability 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 that he owes perfect obedience to the law, but has nothing to pay, it makes him flee to Christ to be his friend and to answer for him all the demands of the law, and set him free in the court of justice.
Application 1. Here is matter of humiliation for our fall in Adam. In the state of innocence we were perfectly holy; our minds were crowned with knowledge, and our wills, as a queen, swayed the sceptre of liberty; but now we may say, “The crown is fallen from our head” (Lam 5:16). We have lost the power which was inherent in us. When we look back to our primitive glory, when we shone as earthly angels, we may take up Job’s words, “O that I were as in months past!” (Job 29:2). 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, how is the scene altered; our strength is gone from us; we tread awry at 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 should put us in deep mourning and spring a leak of sorrow in all our souls.
1An edited extract from The Ten Commandments.
Application 2. Of refutation. (1) It refutes 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 lack strength, but we lack the will to do what is good (Rom 5:6). The will is not only full of weakness, but obstinacy. “Israel would none of me” (Ps 81:11). The will hangs forth a flag of defiance against God. Such as speak of the sovereign power of the will, forget “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do” (Phil 2:13). If the power is in the will of man, then what need is there for God to work in us to will? If the air can enlighten itself, what need is there for the sun to shine? Such as talk of the power of nature and their ability to save themselves disparage Christ’s merits. I may say, “Christ is become of no effect” to them (Gal 5:4).
They who 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. I would ask, Can they keep the moral law perfectly? Evil is manifested in any blemish. If there be but the least defect in their obedience, they are lost. For one sinful thought, the law of God curses them, and the justice of God condemns 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.
(2) It refutes the sort of people who brag of perfection; and who, according to that principle, can keep all God’s commandments perfectly. I would ask such people whether a vain thought has ever come into their minds? If there has, then they are not perfect. The Virgin Mary was not perfect. Though her womb was pure (being overshadowed by the Holy Ghost), yet her soul was not perfect. Christ tacitly supposes a failing in her (Lk 2:49). And are they more perfect than the blessed Virgin was? Such as hold perfection need not confess sin. David and Paul confessed sin (Ps 32:5; Rom 7:25).
But they have got beyond David and Paul; they are perfect; they never transgress; and where there is no transgression, what need for confession? Again, if they are perfect, they need not ask pardon. They can pay God’s justice what they owe; therefore why pray, “Forgive us our debts”? O that the devil should rock men so fast asleep, as to make them dream of perfection! Do they plead, “Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded”? (Phil 3:15). Perfect there means sincere. God is best able to interpret his own Word. He calls sincerity perfection. “A perfect and an upright man” (Job 1:8). But who is exactly perfect? A man full of diseases may as well say he is healthy, as a man full of sins say he is perfect.
Application 3. For encouragement to those that are regenerate. Though you fail in your obedience, and cannot keep the moral law exactly, yet do not be discouraged.