The Unfairness of it all.

Time to do some work and the boss has given us a task to complete. We did most of what was to be done, sure the instructions were a bit hard to follow but it got pretty close to what it was suppose to look like. Of course our mind wandered a bit too while we were at work thinking of things we’d rather do and taking a break here and there to do some “errands”… or is that goofing off…. Oh well, as long as we did most of what was expected it’s just fine. We did a good job didn’t we?

When we got hired there was a job description. Even the previous employee could not do all of what the description said. So why is the boss angry, talking about firing us or taking it out of our pay. That’s not fair! We did the work and it looked good enough. What do they expect from us when we aren’t “perfect” anyway?

Now… the person that wanted the task done did have expectations of what it was supposed to look like and it wasn’t quite what they were paying for. Actually it was not at all what they were hoping they would get… all those little differences that made it almost good enough sort of made it a lot more different than it was meant to be. But… we worked hard on it and they should appreciate that effort, they are getting something for what we did. Come on, they are just being uptight about it, they should relax and accept what they get.

And what’s with this God that expects us to be perfect anyway, He’s so unfair and He knows we can’t obey all the rules anyway. What a mean god, a cruel tyrant!

What Lord’s Day 4 says about it;

Question 9. But doesn’t God do man an injustice by requiring in his law what man is unable to do?

Answer. No, God created man with the ability to keep the law. Man, however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience, robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.

Question 10. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?

Answer. Certainly not. He is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge he punishes them now and in eternity. He has declared: “Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.”

Question 11. But isn’t God also merciful?

Answer. God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty, eternal punishment of body and soul.

So in this wonderful Garden of Eden humanity did have the ability to follow all the rules… and there weren’t that many to follow back then….. but the rules were that for us to have something we had to do something.

We like to get paid for our work. Let us turn this around a bit first… suppose we did everything we were supposed to do, our work is perfect, it looks great, no flaws, just what they ordered and nothing to complain about. What? Where is our pay? What do you mean they aren’t paying us for our work? We are angry now! How can they not pay us, we required them to pay us for what we were doing for them. We are going to take them to court and punish them for it, make them pay and then some.

We are after all talking about our pay here. It was in the deal we had with them, and they better pay up. It’s bad news for them if they don’t. The Bible backs us up on this.

Jerimiah 22:13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not his hire;

Leviticus 19:13 Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbor, nor rob him: the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.

Corinthians 9:7 -10 What soldier ever serveth at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Do I speak these things after the manner of men? or saith not the law also the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God careth, or saith he it assuredly for our sake? Yea, for our sake it was written: because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, to thresh in hope of partaking.

Oh.. now it doesn’t seem so easy. When the situation is turned around we aren’t so graceful, merciful, or forgiving…. kind of obvious that God has every right to be angry and to punish. Fair is fair when our own attitudes are that someone should not get away with cheating, stealing or whatever else. It also wouldn’t be fair to those that did what they were told to do, somehow they get what we got and didn’t work as hard… or maybe at all.

It is indeed easy to view God as the one being unfair because we can’t keep His rules perfectly, though at one time we did have that ability to do so, but isn’t God the one being cheated? We are being unfair to Him expecting to get something we did not earn. He made a deal with humanity and got less than He bargained for. True, He made the deal with “Adam”… so why are we still required to finish the job? The deal was with us not with one person. We are obligated to do things in the contract. If we are to get the same things promised to Adam so to are we required to do the same things Adam was commanded to do.

Romans 5:12-14 Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned: for until the law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of him that was to come.

Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

We owe God, a God that is merciful, and we can’t compensate for His loss in the deal made with humanity. So what is the answer?

The evil child.

The evil child! A born hell raiser. Spawn of Satan.... describes some people very well, being bad is cool. We are all like that, we like to do things that are a bit edgy and risky, a little bit on the dark side of things. A little scandal here and there makes us look tough and dangerous. Being a rebel is freedom... free of rules and authority. Hey, question authority, we have our own minds, no one should tell us what to do.

Some rules are just wrong, they don't make sense and they get in the way of having fun or living our life. Rules are meant to be broken or life gets boring. They are limits to what we want to do and come from people that want to tell us not to do this or that. What is right for one person might not be right for another, everyone should make up their own mind as long as no one gets hurt. Things just work better without all those rules. We decide to do what is best.... at least for us. We still follow the rules and help other people when we can, don't get into a lot of trouble and when we do it is really someone else's fault.

Sure we make mistakes and go against the flow of things. There is that saying "to err is human". So there you have it, human nature is already messed up and prone to doing things wrong. Why did God make a morality we can't even follow? So really it must be God's fault if we aren't totally good. If God created everything then where did "evil" come from anyway? Maybe He created evil and made us bad. If we were perfect we wouldn't make so many mistakes or fail at life.

It just doesn't make any sense, "God does not make junk".... as some might say. How can God not make junk and there be evil in the world? Isn't that just proof that there is no "god"? Maybe it is just some neurosis, some babbling myth maker coming up with a great story to tell around the campfire. First this "god" makes some creatures and then he tells them they are going to burn in Hell if they don't obey him. That's just crazy talk isn't it? Creatures that can't be perfect and are expected to be perfect, what kind of freakish god comes up with that? You can just hear the crowd howling with laughter at that one.

In Lords Day 3 of the Heidelberg Catechism we read this;

Question 6. Did God then create man so wicked and perverse?

Answer. By no means; but God created man good, and after his own image, in true righteousness and holiness, that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love him and live with him in eternal happiness to glorify and praise him.

Question 7. Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature?

Answer. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise; hence our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin.

Question 8. Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?

Answer. Indeed we are; except that we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.

Well... maybe God didn't create people bad to begin with.... as it says in Gen 1:31 " And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." ....but He let it happen didn't He? Mankind went rogue and turned out bad. He tells man right there in Gen 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." So, He knew man was going to "sin" by giving him a rule to follow, "don't eat from that tree right yonder there...". Just a little temptation, just the knowledge of good and evil hanging there getting ripe and tasty..... and then it happens.....

Gen 3:1-13 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"
And the man said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."
He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

Okay, so it is easy to worship God when we feel good about ourselves. When we see no sin or failures in our life and having nothing to be ashamed there is no stopping us from believing that God is a loving God. We wouldn't run and hide from God. That really is part of why we avoid God, even wanting to deny He exists, we don't like the idea of being failures. If God is perfect and we were made in His image then we should be perfectly good too, yet we know we aren't and we don't reflect that image of God at all. So we run and hide, we pass the blame to others, we don't own up to what is our responsibility.

It really is true that to err is human. The person that denies it is not being honest about how they live their lives. And when confronted with a mistake they made they will blame it on someone else, no it is never their fault... it's... it's circumstances... it's the weather... it's "the devil made me do it"..... or even it's God's fault. But it is never their fault is it? Really kind of pathetic. And if we are honest we are no better, but at least we recognise we are not perfect... although then again some will say being bad is okay, which is really trying to get away from being blamed for it by blaming their personal flaws.

We are corrupt and our nature has been that way for a long time. God didn't make us that way, we choose to be that way and continue to chose that way of life. Try as we might we can not be perfect by deciding to, we aren't God. We do have that knowledge of good and evil now and it was by our own will, and it has affected our lives completely. God can do something about that, but we can't.

The Heidelberg questions and answers come from public domain documents.