Q. Has God created thee naturally so wicked and perverse?
  A.  By no means: but he created  me good and after his  own image, in the
  true knowledge of God, in righteousness and in holiness.

  While we see that men are  so wicked and perverse, the question may arise
  whether God has created us so badly. The answer is: no, He hasn't. He has
  made us very good,  as Scripture testifies. The Preacher says:  "Lo, this
  only  have I found, that God  hath made man upright." (Ecclesiastes 7:29)
  God made man upright, namely in His image. "God created man in his image,
  in the  image of God  created he him."  (Genesis 1:27) Adam  had the true
  knowledge of God, was righteous and holy. When we look  around us, we see
  that many  are unholy, unrighteous  and wicked. Yet,  God had  created us
  good, and righteous. When we, after our fall, are renewed, as  Paul says,
  we get back our lost  virtues, namely righteousness and holiness. "Put on
  the  new  man, which  after  God  is created  in  righteousness  and true
  holiness." (Ephesians 4:24)  And in another place,  the same apostle says
  that  the renewed man gets back the true knowledge of God, wherein he was
  created. "Put on the new [man],  which is renewed in knowledge after  the
  image of him that created him." (Colossians 3:10)

  Q. Whence then proceeds that depravity which is in thee?
  A. From the fall and disobedience of Adam and Eve in Paradise; hence  our
  nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin.

  The origin of  our depravity is in the fall of Adam  and Eve in Paradise.
  They ate the forbidden fruit, against the express commandment of God. All
  posterity was comprised by Adam. When  he had been obedient in  Paradise,
  all his posterity  also had inherited eternal  life. Likewise, because he
  sinned, all his posterity  also fell with him. They were  counted in him,
  as in  the father of the  whole human race. He was the  head of the human
  race, and we all were counted  in him. So, he fell, and became corrupted.
  Likewise we are fallen, and are corrupt now. Experience proves this. Look
  around you, and  you see how corrupt the world is. By the disobedience of
  one  man, of Adam,  are we  made sinners. This  Paul says:  "by one man's
  disobedience many were  made sinners." (Romans 5:19)  We are corrupt from
  our birth,  as also David testifies:  "behold, I was  shapen in iniquity;
  and in sin  did my mother  conceive me."  (Psalms 51:5) The  nature of  a
  babe, when  born, is already corrupted. He is unable to do any real good.
  For, when a child is shapen in iniquity, as David says, he is wicked. The
  child being  wicked, also  its deeds, how  good they  may seem,  are also
  corrupted in God's eyes.

  Q. What was that disobedience?
  A. That they  did eat of the  fruit of the tree,  which God had forbidden
  them.

  The disobedience of Adam and  Eve, as is already said, was  that they ate
  of  the forbidden fruit. "And  when the woman saw that  the tree was good
  for food, and that it was pleasant  to the eyes, and a tree to be desired
  to make wise, she took  of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and  gave also
  unto  her  husband  with  her;  and  he  did  eat."  (Genesis  3:6)  They
  transgressed God's express  words, for He had  said: "of the tree  of the
  knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that
  thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:17)

  Q. Does the disobedience of Adam concern us?
  A. Certainly: for he is  the father of us all; and we have  all sinned in
  him.

  Adam was the father of us all, and we have all sinned in him. By this one
  man, sin  entered into  the world,  and also death  with it,  as God  had
  warned. Likewise,  the death, which  came into the world,  passed upon us
  all, because we all were counted in Adam.

  This shows us the hopeless state of us all. Many try to be righteous, but
  they will never succeed in own power. Some think they are pretty advanced
  on the way to become  righteous, but I say you, that they only  can think
  this  because of  their  blindness. They  see  not their  daily sins.  Of
  course, when  you close your  eyes for  your sins,  you may  think to  be
  righteous in some  measure. But  when God  awakens you  from this  deadly
  sleep, you will understand the truth.


  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Chr-Exp, a Christian explanation of the Bible to Israel
  Editor: Teus Benschop  -  t.benschop@pobox.ruu.nl
  Institution Practical Bible-education, the Netherlands

     End of   Catechism, 17



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