The Sin of Man and the Justice of God

The Augsburg Confession rightly says that God is not the cause of man’s sin:

Of the Cause of Sin they teach that, although God does create and preserve nature, yet the cause of sin is the will of the wicked, that is, of the devil and ungodly men; which will, unaided of God, turns itself from God, as Christ says John 8:44: When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. (Article XIX)

The Augsburg Confession also say that man can do no other than sin.

Of Free Will they teach that man’s will has some liberty to choose civil righteousness, and to work 2] things subject to reason. But it has no power, without the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual righteousness; since the natural man 3] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Cor. 2:14; but this righteousness is wrought in the heart when the Holy Ghost is received 4] through the Word. (Article XVIII)

The Augsburg Confession shows that God makes man only able to sin, and then holds man accountable for the way God made him. This is a view of God that makes God unjust. Yet, we know that God is just. Those who hold this view often defend it by saying that this contradiction is a mystery and is in the hidden will of God.

Our Covenant Church ancestors rejected the Augsburg Confession because of the Anselmian view of the atonement (satisfaction theory) found in the Confession. They believed that the Confession put too tight a box on God.