Article XIV
The Creation and Fall of Humanity
God created humanity in His image, but through disobedience, we fell into sin and total corruption.
We believe that God created humanity from the dust of the earth and formed human beings in his own image and likeness—good, righteous, and holy, with a will able to conform in every way to God's will. But when humanity held this place of honor, it failed to understand it and did not recognize its own excellence; instead, it willingly subjected itself to sin and, as a result, to death and the curse by listening to the devil's word.✦✦✦ For he broke the commandment of life he had received and, through his sin, cut himself off from God, who was his true life, corrupting his entire nature; in this way he became liable to both physical and spiritual death. Having become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all his ways, he lost all the excellent gifts he had received from God, and nothing remained of them except faint traces—enough to leave humanity without excuse—because all the light within us has turned to darkness, as Scripture teaches when it says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it,” a passage in which Saint John calls human beings darkness.✦✦1
The Bondage of the Human Will
Humanity is enslaved to sin and incapable of any good apart from the enabling grace of God.
Therefore, we reject everything taught about human free will, because humanity is nothing but a slave to sin and can do nothing unless it is given from heaven. For who can boast of being able to do any good by themselves, since Christ says, “No one can come to me unless my Father who sent me draws them”?✦✦2 Who can appeal to their own will, knowing that the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God?✦ Who can speak of their own understanding, seeing that the natural person does not understand the things of the Spirit of God?✦3 In short, who can claim even a single thought as their own?✦ For that person understands that we aren't capable of thinking anything by ourselves, but our ability comes from God.✦ That is why the Apostle's words rightly remain firm and settled: God works in us both the will and the action according to his good pleasure.✦
Christ as the Source of All Good
Our understanding and will are only aligned with God through the active work of Christ within us.
Neither our understanding nor our will can conform to God’s unless Christ has worked in us, just as he teaches us when he says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
Read the original Latin
Nous croyons que Dieu a créé l'homme du limon de la terre, et l'a fait et formé à son image et ressemblance, bon, juste et saint, pouvant par son vouloir accorder en tout au vouloir de Dieu; mais quand il a été en honneur, il n'en a rien su; et n'a pas reconnu son excellence, mais s'est volontairement assujetti au péché, et par conséquent à mort et à malédiction, en prêtant l'oreille à la parole du diable. Car il a transgressé le commandement de vie qu'il avait reçu, et s'est retranché de Dieu, qui était sa vraie vie, par son péché, ayant corrompu toute sa nature, par où il s'est rendu coupable de mort corporelle et spirituelle, et étant devenu méchant, pervers, corrompu en toutes ses voies, a perdu tous ses excellents dons qu'il avait reçus de Dieu, et il ne lui en est demeuré de reste que de petites traces, qui sont suffisantes pour rendre l'homme inexcusable, d'autant que tout ce qui est de lumière en nous est converti en ténèbres, comme l'Écriture nous enseigne, disant: La lumière luit dans les ténèbres et les ténèbres ne l'ont point comprise où saint Jean appelle les hommes ténèbres. Par quoi mous rejetons tout ce qu'on enseigne du franc arbitre de l'homme, parce qu'il n'est que serf de péché, et ne peut aucune chose, s'il ne lui est donné du Ciel; car qui est-ce qui se vantera de pouvoir faire quelque bien, comme de soi-même, puisque Christ dit: Nul ne peut venir à moi si mon Père qui m'a envoyé, ne l'attire? Qui alléguera sa volonté, entendant que l'affection de la chair est inimitié contre Dieu? Qui parlera de sa connaissance, voyant que l'homme sensuel ne comprend point les choses qui sont de l'Esprit de Dieu? Bref, qui mettra en avant une seule pensée? vu qu'il entend que nous ne sommes pas capables de penser quelque chose comme de nous-mêmes mais que notre capacité est de Dieu? C'est pourquoi ce que dit l'Apôtre doit à bon droit demeurer ferme et arrêté, que Dieu fait en nous le vouloir et le faire selon son bon plaisir.
Car il n'y a ni entendement ni volonté conforme à celle de Dieu si Christ n'y a opéré, ce qu'il nous enseigne, disant: Sans moi vous ne pouvez rien faire.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.2.7 — Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
- ↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.27 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- ↩Ps.49.12 — Their inward thought is that their houses are forever, their dwelling places for generation after generation; they have called out over the lands by their own names.
- ↩John.1.5 — And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
- ↩Rom.1.20 — For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes have been clearly perceived, being understood through the things that have been made: both his eternal power and divine nature. So they are without excuse.
- ↩John.3.27 — John answered and said, 'A person cannot receive even one thing unless it has been given to him from heaven.'
- ↩John.6.44 — No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
- ↩Rom.8.7 — Because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, for it is not able to do so—
- ↩1Cor.2.14 — But the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- ↩2Cor.3.5 — Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.
- ↩2Cor.3.5 — Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.
- ↩Phil.2.13 — For God is the one working in you, both to desire and to work for his good pleasure.
Notes
- 1 ↩The French verb may mean either “comprehend” or “overcome.” The surrounding explanation, which identifies human beings with the darkness, favors “comprehend” here.
- 2 ↩Rendered as “free will,” the standard theological sense of the French expression.
- 3 ↩Rendered as “the natural person,” reflecting the theological contrast between unaided human nature and the Spirit rather than modern sexual connotations of “sensual.”
The Belgic Confession companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit