REFORMATION 500 WEEK 5: HEIDELBERG CATECHISM, QUESTIONS 12-15

Reformation 500 WEEK 5: Heidelberg Catechism, QUESTIONS 12-15

Question 12: Since, then, by the righteous judgment of God we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, how may we escape this punishment and be again received into favor? God wills that His justice be satisfied; therefore, we must make full satisfaction to that justice, either by ourselves or by another.

The only way for sinful man to escape God’s just punishment of sin and be restored to God’s favor is “if satisfaction be made on the part of man by a sufficient punishment for his disobedience,” a punishment which “is equivalent to that which is eternal” [Daniel 9:24; Hebrews 9:12]” (Ursinus).

Question 13: Can we ourselves make this satisfaction? Certainly not; on the contrary, we daily increase our guilt.

We cannot satisfy God’s justice because “we sin continually, and in sinning we increase our guilt and the displeasure of God toward us.” Plus, “our guilt being infinite, deserves an infinite punishment – one that is eternal, or that is equivalent to everlasting punishment…. But we cannot make satisfaction by a punishment that is eternal, because then we would never be freed from it [Psalm 130:3]” (Ursinus).

Question 14: Can any mere creature make satisfaction for us? None; for first, God will not punish any other creature for the sin which man committed; and further, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin and redeem others from it.

Man sinned; and therefore, man must be punished. It would be unfair if other creatures, whether angels or animals, should be eternally punished for something of which humanity is guilty (Heb. 2:14-18; 10:4). Furthermore, no creature, not even a sinless creature, could endure and survive the heavy weight of God’s wrath against sin. “God is a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24). If the creature being punished in our place cannot survive the punishment, then how can that creature deliver us from the punishment?

Question 15: What kind of mediator and redeemer then must we seek? One who is a true and righteous man, and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.

The only substitute capable of fully satisfying God’s justice for us, is one who must be a perfect man and yet more than a mere man. He must be God also. Our substitute must be a person who is both God and man, so that he may truly be a middle person, and mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5); one who will bring it to pass that God loves men, and men love God, so that an eternal peace or agreement is established between them (Isaiah 54:10). As we will see, Jesus Christ the God-Man has offered the all-pleasing sacrifice to fully satisfy God’s justice.

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Heidelberg Catechism QAs 12-15

For a double-sided PDF for easy printing: Reformation 500 Week 5

Official Seal of  the RCUS

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.

Page on Omaha Reformed Church's Website: Links to all Bulletin Inserts. 

Reformation 500 WEEK 3: Heidelberg Catechism, QUESTIONS 6-8

Question 6: Did God create man thus wicked and perverse? No, but God created man good and after His own image, that is, in righteousness and true holiness, that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify Him.

Question 5 told us that mankind has a natural tendency to hate God and neighbor. Question 6 tells us that God did not create man in this sinful condition. Rather, on the sixth day of creation, God created man good, without any sin at all. “Then God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). God created man’s body out of the dust of the ground [Adam means ground]. “And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). “God created man in His own image… male and female” (Gen. 1:27). Mankind is as much like God as a creature can be – which makes man different from animals and angels. We were created with a mind to rightly know God (John 17:3), affections to heartily love God (1 Peter 1:8), and a will to praise and glorify God in “righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24) – to imitate God in all of life (Eph. 5:1), to work six days for His glory and to rest one day for His glory just like He did (Exodus 20:8-11).

Question 7: From where, then, does this depraved nature of man come? From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise, whereby our nature became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin.

Though God created Adam and Eve good, He created them changeably good, which means they could fall from goodness if they disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the forbidden tree (Gen. 2:16-17). By their fall and disobedience, they separated themselves from God, who was their true life, having corrupted their whole nature. This corruption of the whole nature [original sin] is a hereditary disease which extends to all mankind. We are all conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12).

Question 8: But are we so depraved that we are completely incapable of any good and prone to all evil? Yes, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.

The corruption of our whole nature is totally depraved, completely incapable of any good in the eyes of God. “There is none who does good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:12); “every intent of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5; cf. Jeremiah 17:9; Eph. 2:1). Fallen man is still made in God’s image. A shattered mirror is still a mirror: a corrupt and distorted image is still an image. Fallen man still has a mind, affections, and a will; but his mind is darkened, his affections hate God and his neighbor, and his will is not free to obey God but is “a slave of sin” (Rom. 3:22); he can give money to the poor, but not of love for God (1 Cor. 13:3). Only God can cause us to be born again (regenerated), making us spiritually alive, so that our eyes are open to believe the truth, our hearts are clean to love the truth, and our wills are set free to practice the truth (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:26-27). 

NOTE: These Posts were written and  designed as bulletin inserts by Pastor David Fagrey of the Grace Reformed Church of Rapid City, SD .  

Here is a link to this blog entry as a bulletin insert:  Reformation500 Heidelberg QAs 6-8

This is the seal of the Reformed Church of the United States (RCUS).  As you can see its history goes back to 1748, when the RCUS began.  We celebrate with the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we praise God for what is probably the most amazing spiritual revival in the history of the world.