Human Inability

The doctrine of human inability teaches that fallen people cannot save themselves, keep God's law perfectly, or even take the first step toward God by their own strength. This truth matters because it strips away every false hope and drives sinners to Jesus Christ as their only righteousness and life. The authors gathered here agree that human nature is spiritually dead, hostile to God, and powerless to produce what God requires. They differ in emphasis: Spurgeon stresses the law's work in exposing helplessness, Edwards focuses on the impossibility of self-justification, and Henry traces the corruption of mind and will through Scripture.

The law exposes but cannot cure human inability Spurgeon insists that God gave the law to show sinners the impossibility of being justified by their own works and to drive them to accept mercy through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:20). The law does not cleanse the heart; instead, it revives, strengthens, and increases sin in the soul because it reveals and forbids sin but gives no power to subdue it (Romans 5:20; Romans 7:9; 1 Corinthians 15:56). Henry agrees that the law, by commanding and threatening fallen man without offering grace to cure him, only stirred up his corruption and made his sin worse (Romans 7:5). Because the fall has lamed human nature, the law directs us but provides no healing or help, so it makes us stumble more (Romans 7:5).

this is to show thee, that the law, instead of cleansing the heart (by its working) from sin, doth revive, Romans 7:9, put strength into, 1 Corinthians 15:56, and increase it in the soul, Romans 5:20, even as it doth discover and forbid it, for that doth not give power to subdue Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace”

Spurgeon adds that the law's work leaves the sinner spiritually dead and helpless, unable to repent, believe, pray, or feel grief over sin (Romans 5:20). Henry notes that the law can discover and convince of sin, but it cannot conquer or subdue sin; deliverance from sin's dominion is found only in Christ (Romans 7:14–25). The law can make a person cry out in wretchedness and leave him still captive, giving only a spirit of bondage to fear, not deliverance (Romans 7:24).

The carnal mind is hostile to God and spiritually dead Edwards argues that a carnal man cannot be the immediate cause of his own vital union with Christ, because the carnal mind is hostile to God and spiritually dead (Romans 8:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 2:1). Henry explains that the carnal mind cannot be subject to God's law because its unholiness is irreconcilable with the law's holiness; it must be broken and expelled by divine grace (Romans 8:7). The carnal mind's enslavement to sin proves that any change in a person comes from God's grace, not from the freedom of man's will (Romans 8:7).

It is unscriptural; for the scripture asserts that “The carnal mind is enmity against God;” how then can it be the cause of a vital union? “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus; ”—” and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; ”—it is not therefore the carnal man that unites himself to Christ, or quickens himself in order to effect it Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone”

Henry also shows that the corruption lies in the understanding, which is blinded and perverted, so that sinners are fools who do not understand (Romans 3:11). No one naturally seeks after God or has any true regard or desire for him; the carnal mind is enmity against God (Romans 3:11). The blindness of their understanding was caused by the willful aversion of their wills and affections; they did not retain God in their knowledge because they did not like it, since it contradicted their lusts (Romans 1:28). When people willfully reject the truth, God justly gives them over to a reprobate mind that cannot discern spiritual things (Romans 1:28).

Human works cannot justify or prepare a sinner for grace Edwards contends that imperfect or sincere obedience cannot justify, because before a judge only what answers the law counts as righteousness. Even our good deeds and virtuous acts are in a sense corrupt, and their corruption infinitely outweighs whatever good is in them. The defect in our holy acts is properly sin, an expression of a vile sinfulness of heart that provokes God's just anger. Our love and other graces are sinfully defective because they are vastly disproportionate to the occasion given for them by God's loveliness, kindness, and our advantages.

Because our good deeds and virtuous acts themselves are in a sense corrupt; and the hatefulness of the corruption of them, if we are beheld as we are in ourselves, or separate from Christ, infinitely outweighs the loveliness of the good that is in them Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone”

Henry agrees that no sinful human being can be justified in God's sight by works of the law, because corrupted human nature makes all our works defective (Romans 3:20). Because man is depraved and sinful, he can never gain acceptance with God by his own works; justification must come purely from God's free grace through Jesus Christ received by faith (Romans 3:28). The righteousness of the law demands perfect, sinless obedience as the condition of life and happiness, which makes it impossible for fallen sinners to be justified by it (Romans 10:5).

Spurgeon adds that salvation by works is impossible because the law requires perfect obedience in every point and to its uttermost degree (Romans 3:27). The law requires inward heart obedience, not merely outward conformity, and any inward failure ruins a person (Romans 3:27). No one can be saved by the law because perfect obedience must continue to the end of life, and no one can maintain that (Romans 3:27). God cannot accept sincere but imperfect obedience, because his law cannot be altered or relaxed, and it demands perfect obedience (Romans 3:27; Luke 16:17).

Human inability is moral and culpable, not merely weakness Spurgeon explains that the human race is spiritually helpless, like a sick man with no strength to save himself, and this helplessness is culpable because it is a moral unwillingness rather than mere inability (Romans 5:6). Humanity's helpless condition is not merely a calamity but also a fault, because people love the evil that destroys them and their 'cannot' is really a 'will not' (Romans 5:6). The word translated 'ungodly' means impious or godless, describing those who have cast off God and love for what is right (Romans 5:6).

Only there is this darker shade in your picture, that your condition is not only your calamity, but your fault. In other diseases men are grieved at their sickness, but this is the worst feature in your case, that you love the evil which is destroying you Charles Spurgeon, sermon “For Whom Did Christ Die?”

Henry shows that people know some truth about God and good and evil, but they suppress it and keep it from changing their wicked lives (Romans 1:18). All people know enough about God from what he has revealed to leave them without excuse for not worshiping him alone (Romans 1:20–21). When they abandoned the plain truth about God, their reasonings became vain and they multiplied foolish errors and speculations (Romans 1:21). The corruption and wickedness of the heart darkens and perverts the understanding (Romans 1:21).

Even religious knowledge and conviction cannot overcome sin Henry observes that a person under strong conviction of the law may know God's will, approve what is excellent, and feel conscience warning against sin, yet still remain a slave to reigning lusts (Romans 7:14–25). A person may consent that the law is good, delight to know God's ways, and have something within witnessing against sin and for holiness, yet all this is overpowered by the reigning love of sin (Romans 7:22–23). Even notorious sinners may have faint desires to leave off their sins and yet persist in them, showing the impotency and insufficiency of their convictions (Romans 7:14–25).

He may consent to the law that it is good, delight to know God's ways (as they, Isa. lviii. 2), may have that within him that witnesses against sin and for holiness; and yet all this overpowered by the reigning love of sin Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

Spurgeon notes that even the gospel preached by a minister cannot by itself bring relief to a sinner who refuses to believe that Christ is for him (Romans 5:21). Human eloquence, wisdom, and zeal cannot bring spiritually dead sinners to life (Romans 5:21). The law of Moses is powerless to give life to those dead in sins (Romans 5:21). Human resolutions and vows are powerless to deliver a person from the mastery of sin (Romans 5:21). Worldly pleasures and human consolation cannot free a convicted sinner from his despair (Romans 5:21).

Regeneration and faith are gifts of divine power, not human achievement Edwards argues that man cannot believe until Christ, through vital union, slays his enmity and enables him to believe; this enabling is the effect of gracious influence flowing from union to Christ. A spiritual man cannot be the cause of his own vital union, because he cannot be spiritual without a prior spiritual influence, and such influence already implies union. Fallen humanity chiefly needed divine revelation to teach how sinners may be accepted by God again, since natural reason could not discover this.

We are obliged to believe on him as our justifying righteousness, under pain of God’s displeasure, but man will ever continue in unbelief until Christ slays his enmity, and enables him to believe. But to slay a sinner’s enmity, to change his nature, or to give him ability to believe, is the effect of a vital union; for as there is no such ability without gracious influence, so there is no gracious influence without union to the source of spiritual life Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone”

Spurgeon agrees that human free will cannot take credit for conversion, because Scripture teaches that God works in us to will and to do, and that the new birth is not by human will (Romans 3:27). Christ dealt a death-blow to free will by declaring both that sinners will not come to him for life and that no one can come unless the Father draws him (Romans 3:27). Regeneration is a work that creates life where there was death and gives a new heart to those whose hearts were stone (Romans 5:6). Christ can give life to those who are spiritually dead, just as He raised the dead without finding any spark of life in them (Romans 4:19–21).

Henry adds that whatever good comes from God to man is not due to human desire or effort but only to the free grace and mercy of God (Romans 9:16). Those who are saved must thank God only, while those who perish must thank themselves only (Romans 9:18). Sanctification is God's work of preparing the soul for glory; sinners fit themselves for hell, but only God prepares saints for heaven (Romans 9:23). The transformation commanded in Romans 12:2 is not something we can accomplish by our own power; it is God's work, yet we must use the appointed means (Romans 12:2).

Self-despair is the path to faith in Christ alone Spurgeon teaches that saving faith is giving up trust in yourself and resting entirely on Jesus Christ as your Savior (Romans 5:8). Sinners must come to Christ not because they feel qualified or have anything good in themselves, but solely because they are sinful, vile, and empty (Romans 5:1). Trusting in feelings, repentance, or spiritual experiences to save is just another form of salvation by works (Romans 3:27). Nothing in ourselves can be offered to God; even repentance must look to Christ, because everything done by the creature is defiled (Romans 3:27).

But come because you are a sinner. Because you have nothing to recommend you. Because, if God should search you through and through, He could not find a point in you, a spot in you large enough to put the point of a pin upon that which was good Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Peace By Believing”

Henry notes that we could not enter this state of grace by our own ability, but are led into it by Christ, as blind or weak people are led by the hand (Romans 5:2). Christ died for people who were spiritually powerless and completely unable to save themselves (Romans 5:6). Abraham believed God's promise even when all natural hope and human reasoning were against him (Romans 4:18). Abraham did not dwell on the deadness of his own body or the natural impossibility of having a child (Romans 4:19).

Spurgeon concludes that self-despair over one's own powerlessness is the nearest way to faith, because it throws a man upon his God (Romans 4:19–21). Weakness in ourselves can coexist with strength in the Lord when faith lays hold of God's omnipotence (Romans 4:19–20). The spirit of faith is conscious it can do nothing alone, yet equally clear it can do everything through God (Romans 4:19–21). God shows His strength in our weakness, and when our own power ends, His power begins (Romans 4:19).