Heidelberg Q9 - It's all God's fault - NOT!

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Part of the job of the elders (preachers and teachers) of the church is to equip the church members with the tools and knowledge that they need to do God's work.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2Tim3:16-17; emphasis mine)

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Heb 13:20-21; emphasis mine)

That is also part of the purpose of a catechism in general - and of Heidelberg Q9 in particular - to equip you with an answer to common objections to scriptural doctrines.

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In discussing God and Christ with other sinners, we will occasionally hear someone whining an excuse to the effect of, "Well, God made me this way - that's why I can't follow this part of the law," The implication being that anything that is morally wrong with people is God's fault for making them that way.  Here's Heidelberg's answer to that...

Q9. Does not God then do injustice to man, by requiring from him in His law, that which he cannot perform? A: Not at all; for God made man capable of performing it; but man, by the instigation of the devil, and his own wilful disobedience, deprived himself and all his posterity of those divine gifts. Scripture Proofs: Eph 4:24, Eccl 7:29, John 8:44, 2Cor 11:3, Gen 3:4, Gen.3:6, Rom.5:12, Gen.3:13, 1 Tim.2:13-14.

God made man good but man corrupted himself and all of his posterity.