The Inexorableness of the Law

by John Calvin

Now what is to be learned from the law can be readily understood: that God, as he is our Creator, has toward us by right the place of Father and Lord; for this reason we owe to him glory, reverence, love, and fear; verily, that we have no right to follow the mind's caprice wherever it impels us, but, dependent upon his will, ought to stand firm in that alone which is pleasing to him; then, that righteousness and uprightness are pleasing to him, but he abominates wickedness; and that, for this reason, unless we would turn away from our Creator in impious gratitude, we must cherish righteousness all our life.  For if only when we prefer his will to our own do we render to him the reverence that is his due, it follows that the only lawful worship of him is the observance of righteousness, holiness, and purity.  And we cannot pretend the excuse that we lack ability and, like impoverished debtors, are unable to pay.  It is not fitting for us to measure God's glory according to our ability; for whatever we may be, he remains always like himself: the friend of righteousness, the foe of iniquity.  Whatever he requires of us (because he can require only what is right), we must obey out of natural obligation.  But what we cannot do is our own fault.  If our lust in which sin reigns [cf. Rom. 6:12] so holds us bound that we are not free to obey our Father, there is no reason why we should claim necessity as a defense, for the evil of that necessity is both within us and to be imputed to us

Excerpt from The Institutes of Christian Religion by John Calvin, Volume 1, p. 369

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Inexorable: not able to be stopped or changed

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