Heidelberg Catechism

Heidelberg Catechism

Q and A 1

December 8, 2019

What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own,1but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—2 to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.3 He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,4 and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.5 He also watches over me in such a way6 that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven;7 in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.8 Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life9 and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.10

1 1 Cor. 6:19-20

2 Rom. 14:7-9

3 1 Cor. 3:23; Titus 2:14

4 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:2

5 John 8:34-36; Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:1-11

6 John 6:39-40; 10:27-30; 2 Thess. 3:3; 1 Pet. 1:5

7 Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18

8 Rom. 8:28

9 Rom. 8:15-16; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; 5:5; Eph. 1:13-14

10 Rom. 8:1-17

What is comfort?

We think of a fluffy pillow, a good movie, and an ice-cold drink after a hard day’s work.  Comfort is ease, rest, self-indulgence.  But that is not what it means here.

Comfort comes from two Latin words that mean “with strength.”  What comforts is what gives strength, or fortifies.  It is the courage to live by grace in this fallen world.

“Comfort is that which results from a certain process of reasoning, in which we oppose something good to something evil, that by a proper consideration of this good, we may mitigate our grief, and patiently endure the evil.  The good, therefore, which we oppose to the evil, must necessarily be great, and certain, in proportion to the magnitude of the evil with which it is contrasted.”  Zacharias Ursinus

This comfort is equal to anything that life or death can throw at us.

“Faith is more than knowledge, but it is, nevertheless, also knowledge; and without the knowledge of faith, the confidence of faith is impossible.  You cannot make a Christian by instruction, but the Christian can be indoctrinated, and by growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ may increase in the conscious possession of the true comfort in life and death…

The “only comfort in life and death” is concerned with a good, which “eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard and has never arisen in the heart of man.”  It is, therefore, a good that can be posited over against the evil of life and death only by the mind of faith.  And this faith lays hold upon that which the Spirit of God reveals to us, not by inner light, as the mystics would have it, but by the Word of God as we possess it in the Scriptures.  It is the believing mind that lays hold upon the promise of God, is certain of that promise, contemplates that promise so that the believing heart embraces the thing promised and esteems it so great and gracious, that the sufferings of this present times are not worthy to be compared with it.” Herman Hoeksema

Only comfort.  This is not one way of coping with the difficulties of life, but the only way.  It is the only comfort that is equal to the task.  There is only one comfort in a fallen world.  The promised grace of God embraced by living faith.

This is personal comfort.  What is your comfort?  Everyone tries something to cope with a fallen world.  Drink to deaden the pain, the exercise of power to try to control something, the diversion of entertainment.  We do need to ask ourselves what is our comfort?  How are we trying to cope with the evil of human life?

The answer is that I belong to Jesus Christ, and I am not my own.  We have been told to be true to ourselves, to listen to the voice within, to be authentically yourself, and to do what we think is best.  The secular answer is to go deeper into yourself for you define your own morality, and shape your own identity.  This is Friedrich Nietzsche Ubermensch, “an overman is someone who can establish his own values as the world in which others live their lives, often unaware that they are not pre-given.”

The Bible, and the Catechism which summarizes its teaching, points away from self to God in Christ.  We belong to a faithful Savior.  This savior saves. Saves us from our fallen condition, our fallen world, and saves us from ourselves.  Jesus, the savior,  Christ, the anointed promised messiah is my certain and only comfort.

We are redeemed by God the Son

He is faithful.  True to his word.  He will do what he has said.  Most of the promises given in the Bible have already been realized, especially those promising the coming of the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent and deliver us from our fallen world.  He is faithful.  His word is our comfort, our strength in this broken world.

What is the source of all my discomfort?  If you trace your diseases back to their source, it is sin.  The underlying issue is always sin.  Sin is our biggest problem.

What does this faithful God and Savior do for me that provides such unshakable comfort?  Three things.  He forgives my sins, he protects me in this fallen world and he leads me home, to a perfect place.

Forgiveness.  Jesus pays for my sins with his precious blood.  The Son of God has taken away my guilt and shame.  He hasn’t merely overlooked my sins, but he has paid for them in full.

We are preserved by God the Father

Protection. The tyranny of the devil.  The devil has hidden himself in our day.  So much so that many think of the devil in the same category as the tooth faerie, mother nature, and Santa Clause.  It is a pleasing fiction.  But, the devil is real and his tyranny and destruction can be seen everywhere.  My faithful savior shields me from the evil that is in the world, the temptations in this world in opposition to God.  I am no longer a slave to sin.  I can walk in newness of life.

Not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my heavenly father.  God is near.  Everything that happens is preparing me for glory, for perfection.  God promises that all things work together for the good of those who love him.

We are Renewed by God the Holy Spirit

Assurance of Salvation –  It is one thing to have sufficient strength to do something and another to actually do it.  To have comfort, fortification, given to you, you still must know that it is yours, and you still must use it.  To be assured that we belong to God means that we can draw on his all-sufficient bank account.  We can sign the check and draw from his account.

The Holy Spirit grants us the well-founded certainty that we belong to God.  He gives us assurance of salvation.  This is confidence that we have eternal life and that we are heading into life eternal.  We are living the heavenly life, in some sense, now.  The future blessing is also assured.  This provides comfort in life and in death.

Wholeheartedly Willing to live for Him –  We do not live for ourselves, for that is a leaky, unstable bucket to invest in.  We live for the glory of God.  We seek to make his name great in all the earth, not our own.  We are willing, with all that we are, to live for him.

If this is not your conviction you really don’t understand your only comfort.

Ready, equipped, to live for Him.  The Holy Spirit makes us ready to live for him.  Equips, enables and empowers us to walk with God in this life and to follow the path he weaves to glory.

Heidelberg Catechism

Lord’s Day 8, Q 26

June 13, 2021

What do you believe when you say, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”?

That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of nothing made heaven and earth with all that is in them,1 who likewise upholds, and governs them by His eternal counsel and providence,2 is for the sake of Christ, His Son, my God and my Father,3 in whom I so trust as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for  body and soul;4 and further, that whatever evil He sends upon me in this valley of tears, He will turn to my good;5 for He is able to do it, being Almighty God,6 and willing also, being a faithful Father.7

[1] Gen. 1:31; Ps. 33:6; *Col. 1:16; *Heb. 11:3. [2] Ps. 104:2–5; Matt. 10:30; Heb. 1:3; Ps. 115:3; *Acts 17:24–25. [3] Jn. 1:12; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5–7; Eph. 1:5; *Eph. 3:14–16; *Matt. 6:8. [4] Ps. 55:22; Matt. 6:25–26; Lk. 12:22–24; Ps. 90:1–2. [5] Rom. 8:28; *Acts 17:27–28. [6] Rom. 10:12. [7] Matt. 7:9–11; *Num. 23:19.

We believe in God, but what do we believe about him? I have often thought that we should examine potential pastors with one simple question, “Tell me about God.”  If they could not talk accurately and edifyingly about God for one hour, they fail. So, what do you believe about God?  The Apostles Creed is a good place to start.

God the Father is the eternal Father. Since before eternity past God has been the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There has never been a time when Christ was not; despite what the Arians claim. They have forever existed in a fellowship of love and light.  Fatherhood is an essential part of God; it has always defined him. God is not the ‘father’ of all mankind.  He has created all and rules over all, but is not the father of all. Only those who believe in Jesus are given the right to be called the children of God (John 1:12).

God the Father is the creator.  Out of nothing, He spoke the universe into existence by the power of His Word. Ex nihilo – Latin for out of nothing (Hebrews 11:3). He started with nothing and with it, He made all things.  We can reform and reshape the substance of what God has made, but we cannot call things into existence from nothing.

God the Father sustains the universe. He upholds and fuels its continual existence. We don’t think about this very often but it should amaze us as much as the original creation.  Our God sustains billions of stars spanning countless light-years.  Everything has its unique place and function. All creation serves God’s design and they fulfill God’s purpose. Including us.

God the Father governs us by his eternal counsel and providence. “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’ (Isaiah 46:9-10). 

Does God really sovereignly decree all things for me? Yes, everything that happens to me comes from my Father’s hand. We can call God our Father! God becomes our father as we are united to Christ through faith. Just as a Father does, God provides for us, chides, teaches, and grows us to maturity in Christ.  God, like Job understood, gives what we experience as both good and bad.  More on this later.

God the Father is faithful. We trust him for all that we need for both soul and body, and God provides.  We need have no doubt that God will fail in his role as father and provider. He may lead down bumpy roads, but he leads, he provides, he cares, and he has a purpose in it all. He provides what is necessary for us to fulfill our purpose in His grand design to display His glory.  He does not fulfill our dreams nor meet all our wants and desires.  Confusion here drains the life out of faith.

 God the Father sends evil. What? That can’t be right, can it? “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity;I am the Lord, who does all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). There is no one like God; no one comparable to God.  He has no equal, no competition. There is no dualism or eternal struggle between the good god and the bad god.  There is only one God, and He can work with evil and form something good with it, and not get his hands dirty in the process. God contains and controls evil so that it serves his purposes.  Think again of Job. The evil that came to Job was limited by God and made purposeful by God. “All things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

God the Father guides us through this valley of tears. This fallen world is saturated with tears.  The pain and destruction of sin is real and it is evil. We each experience unequal measures of the evils of a sinful world. Yet, the measure of evil that I experience in this world God my Father uses for my good. “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). And again, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Yet, how is that possible? How can  God turn evil into good? There are many promises of God that seem impossible to us.  Namely, “I will give you new spiritual bodies.” “I will raise you from the dead.” “I will turn the evil that you experience into a blessing for you.”  I do not understand the math on this, nor can I fully explain it.  The eternal God is still a mystery to me in many ways.  But, I know him as almighty. Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).  None can change His mind nor thwart His purpose.  If he says it He will do it. And He is Father – He would do anything good for his children.