I have always been curious about this, maybe you can help me. How come God commands men to do something that cannot be done? I mean, if only the elect are able to respond to the command,Do you see my difficulty?
Well, God has the right to command all mankind to conform to His moral perfection because He is the Creator and we are the creatures. All sin is falling short of what God commands for all us. The first four commandments in the 10 commandments is our duty to God. The next six commandments is our duty to our fellowman. We can summarize the 10 commandments by lovining God with all of our hearts, soul, strength, and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Nobody is able to keep the 10 commandments in the manner required by God, yet God still commands this from us. The good news is that God did not gives us the 10 commandments as a method of salvation, since He knew beforehand that nobody would be able to keep them perfectly due to our fallen nature. The 10 commandments reveals our sinfulness; therefore, driving us to Christ as our Savior and Lord.
**The Law and the Promise **
Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.
What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.
Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. - Gal 3
**But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? **
…and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?” But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea:
"I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; - Rom 9