No one keeps the law perfectly

This week's questions

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

Question 82

Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous? Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.

Question 83

What doth every sin deserve? Every sin deserveth God's wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come.

Question 84

After the tenth commandment (last week), these three questions close the catechism's teaching on the law, and Question 85 (next week) turns at once to the way of escape.

Daily we break them; daily the blood cleanses

Question 82 chooses its words with care. ‘No mere man’, because Christ, God as well as man, kept the commandments perfectly. ‘Since the fall’, because Adam as first made could have kept them. ‘In this life’, because the saints in glory will be made perfect. Of all others the first proof text says:

Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Ecclesiastes 7:20

Sin begins in thought: before the flood the LORD saw that "every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time" (Genesis 6:5), and James admits, "We all stumble in many ways" (James 3:2). The proof texts after Ecclesiastes are 1 John 1:8 and 1:10, and between them stands a promise:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.

1 John 1:8-10

Those who break the commandments daily may confess and be forgiven daily, as the Lord's Prayer asks forgiveness beside our daily bread (week 51).

Christians weigh this ‘daily’ differently. John Wesley taught Christian perfection as a grace received by faith in this life: not a faultless life, but a heart made whole in love of God and neighbour; even such a heart, he held, still needs Christ's atoning merit Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. The Reformed confess that no one keeps the commandments perfectly ‘either of himself, or by any grace received in this life’ Larger Catechism, Q. 149; even the holiest, says the Heidelberg Catechism, ‘have only a small beginning of this obedience’, yet with earnest purpose begin to live according to all the commandments Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 114. Both seek holiness that grows by grace. See Wesley and the Methodist movement and Holiness and perseverance.

Heavier sins, and every sin

Question 83 teaches that sins differ in weight. As God shows Ezekiel the abominations in the temple, he tells him again and again, "You will see even greater abominations" (Ezekiel 8:6; 8:13). Jesus said that the servant who knew his master's will and did not do it would be beaten with many blows (Luke 12:47-48), and told Pilate that the one who handed him over "is guilty of greater sin" (John 19:11). The Larger Catechism traces the aggravations to the persons offending, the parties offended, the nature of the offence, and the circumstances of time and place Larger Catechism, Q. 151.

Yet Question 84 allows no sin to be small. "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law" (Galatians 3:10; see James 2:10); "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Every sin, says the Larger Catechism, even the least, deserves God's wrath and curse, and ‘cannot be expiated but by the blood of Christ’ Q. 152. And that blood "cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7); we have an advocate with the Father, who is "the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 2:1-2). There is, says the Westminster Confession, ‘no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent’ WCF 15.4.

The Catholic Church, reading John's sin that leads to death and sin that does not (1 John 5:16-17), distinguishes sins by their gravity. A sin in a serious matter, done knowingly and by free choice, is mortal: it kills the love of God in the heart; a venial sin hurts that love but leaves it alive. Mortal sin, too, can be forgiven when God's mercy turns the heart back, usually in the sacrament of penance Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1854–1864. The Reformed also teach degrees of sin, but confess that every sin deserves death; both teach that God's mercy is open to all who repent. See What is sin? and What is the unforgivable sin?

The law shows us this to send us to Christ. John Calvin likens it to a mirror: "in the Law we behold, first, our impotence; then, in consequence of it, our iniquity; and, finally, the curse" Calvin, Institutes 2.7.7. But the Heidelberg Catechism gives God's first reason for commanding so strictly: that knowing our sinful nature, we may ‘the more earnestly seek forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ’ Q. 115. The law became "our guardian to lead us to Christ" (Galatians 3:24).

To ponder this week

Which sins do I treat as small, and which as too great to be forgiven? What does 1 John 1:9 say to both? It is not for scolding yourself but for bringing both to Christ. At the end of a day, look back over your thoughts, words and deeds, tell God plainly what comes to mind, and read 1 John 1:9 aloud. If heavy guilt will not lift, talk with your pastor.

Practice