When you hear people making universal judgments about good and evil, you must not believe that this judgment is correct in every respect. Even though people have a sense of justice and injustice inscribed on their heart, it doesn’t mean that they are able to discern the truth in particular cases. People can’t even avoid being convicted by their own conscience. In fact, they even now have a foreboding sense of future judgment. 

If we examined our own reasoning abilities under the scrutiny of God’s Law—which is the standard of righteousness—we would find out limited it actually us. We cannot reason our way to obedience of the first set of the Ten Commandments such as the worship of God, bearing his name properly, and observing his day of rest. Did anyone ever, through their own natural reason, ever figure out this was the proper way to worship God? When unbelievers try to worship God, they constantly relapse into speculative and vain practices. They would even admit that sacrifices are not pleasing to God unless accompanied by sincerity of our hearts. When they admit this, they testify that they have some concept of spiritual worship. Yet they immediately pervert it with false practice. It is impossible to persuade them that everything the Law commands is true. Should I praise natural human reason which cannot acquire wisdom nor listen to advice?

People have much more knowledge of the second set of the Ten Commandments because they are closely connected with the preservation of civil society. Even with those, however, there is something defective in their knowledge. Most people believe that it is absurd to submit to unjust governments. They think that it is weak to submit to it and bear under it patiently. In fact, the most honorable thing to do is to rise up and overthrow such governments. Some philosophers even believe that revenge is a good thing. But the way of the Lord is different. He tells his people to be patient. 

In regard to obeying the law, our sinful desires escapes our notice. Unbelievers cannot bear to recognize faults in his desires. The light that God gives through nature is stifled in us immediately. Philosophers sometimes only classify as vices those truly evil acts which people commit. Yet they give a pass to depraved desires which reside in the mind. 

“Blogging the Institutes” is my on-going attempt to paraphrase John Calvin’s work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. You can find out more about the series in the Introduction. For all the posts in this series, check out the Master List.