In this post I want to answer 1 question and leave you with 1 question.
A brief preface to this post, perhaps to give a secondary reason for doing these posts (the first was to magnify the grace of God if you have forgotten already). I want us to think less highly about mankind (in many ways this is one of the biggest problems in talking with people, both Christian and non-Christian, they have too high of an opinion of man), and I want us to think more highly about God. For, indeed, we can never think too highly of God.
Now, the question to answer: Do commands in scripture imply the ability to fulfill them?
An initial human instinct may be to say, ‘Well, of course they do, otherwise why would God give them. It wouldn’t be fair for him to ask us to do something we can’t do, would it?” [footnote: this is perhaps the BIG question at the end of the day. I’m not going to deal with it here, but to think briefly about it: God did not sit around thinking ‘What can I command them to do that they are unable to do?’ Rather, he is supremely holy and cannot dwell with or tolerate sin. God’s holiness demands our perfection, irregardless if we have the ability to obtain it either through works or through faith borne out of ourselves. In his grace God provided a Redeemer in Jesus Christ and the question wasn’t ‘What is mankind capable of?’ but rather ‘What does mankind need?’ - end footnote]
That [a command implies ability] may seem logical, but is it biblical. If we think merely about the 10 commandments. Did God expect his people, indeed all people, to keep these. Absolutely. Has anyone been able to keep them? Has anyone even been close? Is there the possibility that someone down the road might keep them (these are rhetorical questions)?
Paul says that the law was added because of transgressions (Gal 3.19). So God adds a law demanding perfection to a people full of transgressions?
What about some other commands in scripture? Here are a few:
Deut. 10.16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
Jer. 4.4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.”
Ezek. 18.31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?
Matt. 14.16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
1Pet. 1.16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Luke 7.13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”
John 11.43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”
And you can add to that literally all of the commands of Christ to lame people to get up and walk, etc.
I don’t think anything really needs to be added to the reading of these passages. Clearly there are things asked here that cannot be done by the hearers.
To logically deduce that a command implies ability is to be unbiblical. Though I won’t do it here, it could probably be argued that the commands listed above, with all of the others given to us, at one level, are to help us see that we can’t do anything.
Now, we are thinking specifically related to the command to believe in Christ Jesus for salvation.
So, I leave you with this question. If we can’t affirm that a command implies ability, do the scriptures teach that man has the ability to choose Christ?
More to come...
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