In accordance with the purpose of God for the
creation of man; (A) Man must serve God on
the basis of love, and (B) Man must be holy and
blameless before Him according to His will, so God created man
weak.
16E.1 Can
man be holy and blameless even if the works of righteousness is
not done by himself?
Yes!
What did God do to
all men?
In Romans 11:32,
the answer is given:
"For God has made all people
prisoners of disobedience, so that He might show mercy to them
all." (TEV)
God made all people prisoners of
disobedience.
16E.2
What is meant by all people were made prisoners of disobedience?
No less than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
explains, thus in Mathew 26:41,
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into
temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
(KJV)
Man was made prisoner of disobedience which
simply mean that man is
weak, hence susceptible or prone to commit sin.
16E.3
Where lies the
weakness of man?
The Lord did not refer to physical
strength when He said the flesh is weak.
Apostle Paul explains in Romans 7:18:
For I know that in me (that is, in my
flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will
is present with me, but how to perform
what is good I do not find. (NKJV)
The same verse in other versions of the Bible:
And really, I know of nothing good living in me, in my natural self, that is,
for though the will to do what is good is in me,
the power to do it is not:
(New Jerusalem Bible)
Man's weakness is in performing what
is good. Man lack the power to do what is good.
What is this good
that man find it hard or lack the power to do it?
Therefore the
law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. (Romans
7:12, NKJV)
Man find it hard to follow the
laws and commandments of God, thus he is prone to commit sin.
16E.4 Because man as flesh is weak—prone
to commit sin, what does he need?
In Rom. 7:24, Apostle Paul
posed a rhetorically
question, thus:
"What an unhappy man I am! Who
will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death?" (TEV)
The same verse in another version of
the Bible:
What a wretched
man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death?
(NJB)
Undoubtedly learned that he was,
Apostle Paul knew that as
flesh, he needed to be rescued or saved.
16E.5 From what does man
need to be saved? What has God decreed against the sinner, against one who lets
his weakness rule his whole being?
The answer is given in the following
verses:
For the wages of sin is death; but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (
Romans 6:23, KJV)
Then Death and
Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death
(Revelation 20:14, NKJV)
The wages or payment for sin is death.
This is the second death in the lake of fire. This is the full
payment of sin.
________________
God purposely
made all people weak—prisoners of disobedience, so
they become prone to commit sin. As a
consequence of his weakness, man is doomed to
die the second death in the lake of fire, which
is the full payment of sin. In such a wretched
situation, Apostle Paul said "man need to be
rescued from his body that is doomed to death".
Simply said: Man need to be saved from the
second death.
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16F.
God's Way Of Making Man Holy
In Spite Of His Sinful Nature