CATECHISM · 1563 AD · REFORMED (CONTINENTAL)
Heidelberg Catechism
WRITTEN
1563 AD
TRADITION
Reformed (Continental)
QUESTIONS
129
PROOF-TEXTS
1,054
QUOTED IN THE BEREAN TEXT
4 quotations in this document are given in the Berean Standard Bible. 62 more are left in the document's own older wording, each marked where it stands.
CONTENTS
QUESTION 1
What is your only comfort in life and death?
That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
1 Corinthians 6:19
1 Corinthians 6:2
Romans 14:7–9
1 Corinthians 3:23
Titus 2:14
1 Peter 1:18–19
1 John 1:7
1 John 2:2
John 8:34–36
Hebrews 2:14–15
1 John 3:8
John 6:39–40
John 10:27–30
2 Thessalonians 3:3
1 Peter 1:5
Matthew 10:29–31
Luke 21:16–18
Romans 8:28
Romans 8:15–16
2 Corinthians 1:21–22
2 Corinthians 5:5
Ephesians 1:13–14
Romans 8:14
QUESTION 2
What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
First, how great my sins and misery are; second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.
Romans 3:9–10
1 John 1:10
John 17:3
Acts 4:12
Acts 10:43
Matthew 5:16
Romans 6:13
Ephesians 5:8–10
1 Peter 2:9–10
QUESTION 3
From where do you know your sins and misery?
From the law of God.
Romans 3:20
QUESTION 4
What does God's law require of us?
Christ teaches us this in a summary in Matthew 22: You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
Deuteronomy 6:5
Leviticus 19:18
QUESTION 5
Can you keep all this perfectly?
No, I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbour.
Romans 3:10
Romans 3:23
1 John 1:8
1 John 1:10
Genesis 6:5
Genesis 8:21
Jeremiah 17:9
Romans 7:23
Romans 8:7
Ephesians 2:3
Titus 3:3
QUESTION 6
Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
No, on the contrary, God created man good and in His image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that he might rightly know God His Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.
Genesis 1:31
Genesis 1:26–27
Ephesians 4:24
Colossians 3:10
Psalms 8
QUESTION 7
From where, then, did man's depraved nature come?
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise, for there our nature became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin.
Genesis 3
Romans 5:12
Romans 5:18–19
Psalms 51:5
QUESTION 8
But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
Yes, unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.
Genesis 6:5
Genesis 8:21
Job 14:4
Isaiah 53:6
John 3:3–5
QUESTION 9
Is God, then, not unjust by requiring in His law what man cannot do?
No, for God so created man that he was able to do it. But man, at the instigation of the devil, in deliberate disobedience robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.
Genesis 1:31
Genesis 3:13
John 8:44
1 Timothy 2:13–14
Genesis 3:6
Romans 5:12
Romans 5:18–19
QUESTION 10
Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?
Certainly not. He is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as our actual sins. Therefore He will punish them by a just judgment both now and eternally, as He has declared: Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them (Galatians 3:10).
Exodus 34:7
Psalms 5:4–6
Psalms 7:10
Nahum 1:2
Romans 1:18
Romans 5:12
Ephesians 5:6
Hebrews 9:27
Deuteronomy 27:26
QUESTION 11
But is God not also merciful?
God is indeed merciful, but He is also just. His justice requires that sin committed against the most high majesty of God also be punished with the most severe, that is, with everlasting, punishment of body and soul.
Exodus 20:6
Exodus 34:6–7
Psalms 103:8–9
Exodus 20:5
Exodus 34:7
Deuteronomy 7:9–11
Psalms 5:4–6
Hebrews 10:30–31
Matthew 25:45–46
QUESTION 12
Since, according to God's righteous judgment we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, how can we escape this punishment and be again received into favour?
God demands that His justice be satisfied. Therefore full payment must be made either by ourselves or by another.
Exodus 20:5
Exodus 23:7
Romans 2:1–11
Isaiah 53:11
Romans 8:3–4
QUESTION 13
Can we ourselves make this payment?
Certainly not. On the contrary, we daily increase our debt.
Psalms 130:3
Matthew 6:12
Romans 2:4–5
QUESTION 14
Can any mere creature pay for us?
No. In the first place, God will not punish another creature for the sin which man has committed. Furthermore, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God's eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it.
Ezekiel 18:4
Ezekiel 18:20
Hebrews 2:14–18
Psalms 130:3
Nahum 1:6
QUESTION 15
What kind of mediator and deliverer must we seek?
One who is a true and righteous man, and yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is at the same time true God.
1 Corinthians 15:21
Hebrews 2:17
Isaiah 53:9
2 Corinthians 5:21
Hebrews 7:26
Isaiah 7:14
Isaiah 9:6
Jeremiah 23:6
John 1:1
Romans 8:3–4
QUESTION 16
Why must He be a true and righteous man?
He must be a true man because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin. He must be a righteous man because one who himself is a sinner cannot pay for others.
Romans 5:12
Romans 5:15
1 Corinthians 15:21
Hebrews 2:14–16
Hebrews 7:26–27
1 Peter 3:18
QUESTION 17
Why must He at the same time be true God?
He must be true God so that by the power of His divine nature He might bear in His human nature the burden of God's wrath, and might obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and life.
Isaiah 9:5
Deuteronomy 4:24
Nahum 1:6
Psalms 130:3
Isaiah 53:5
Isaiah 53:11
John 3:16
2 Corinthians 5:21
QUESTION 18
But who is that Mediator who at the same time is true God and a true and righteous man?
Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption (I Corinthians 1:30).
Matthew 1:21–23
Luke 2:11
1 Timothy 2:5
1 Timothy 3:16
QUESTION 19
From where do you know this?
From the holy gospel, which God Himself first revealed in Paradise. Later, He had it proclaimed by the patriarchs and prophets, and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law. Finally, He had it fulfilled through His only Son.
Genesis 3:15
Genesis 12:3
Genesis 22:18
Genesis 49:10
Isaiah 53
Jeremiah 23:5–6
Micah 7:18–20
Acts 10:43
Hebrews 1:1
Leviticus 1:7
John 5:46
Hebrews 10:1–10
Romans 10:4
Galatians 4:4–5
Colossians 2:17
QUESTION 20
Are all men, then, saved by Christ just as they perished through Adam?
No. Only those are saved who by a true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all His benefits.
Matthew 7:14
John 1:12
John 3:16
John 3:18
John 3:36
Romans 11:16–21
QUESTION 21
What is true faith?
True faith is a sure knowledge whereby I accept as true all that God has revealed to us in His Word. At the same time it is a firm confidence that not only to others, but also to me, God has granted forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation, out of mere grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits. This faith the Holy Spirit works in my heart by the gospel.
John 17:3
John 17:17
Hebrews 11:1–3
James 2:19
Romans 4:18–21
Romans 5:1
Romans 10:10
Hebrews 4:16
Galatians 2:20
Romans 1:17
Hebrews 10:10
Romans 3:20–26
Galatians 2:16
Ephesians 2:8–10
Acts 16:14
Romans 1:16
Romans 10:17
1 Corinthians 1:21
QUESTION 22
What, then, must a Christian believe?
All that is promised us in the Gospel, which the articles of our catholic and undoubted Christian faith teach us in a summary.
Matthew 28:19
John 20:30–31
QUESTION 23
What are these articles?
III.1.I believe in God the Father almighty, III.1. Creator of heaven and earth. III.2.I believe in Jesus Christ, III.2.His only begotten Son, our Lord; III.3.He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, III.3.born of the virgin Mary; III.4.suffered under Pontius Pilate, III.4.was crucified, dead, and buried; III.4.He descended into hell; III.5.On the third day He arose from the dead; III.6.He ascended into heaven, III.6.and sits at the right hand III.6.of God the Father almighty; III.7.from there He will come to judge III.7.the living and the dead. III.8.I believe in the Holy Spirit; III.9.I believe a holy catholic Christian church, III.9.the communion of saints; III.10.the forgiveness of sins; III.11.the resurrection of the body; III.12.and the life everlasting.
QUESTION 24
How are these articles divided?
Into three parts: the first is about God the Father and our creation; the second about God the Son and our redemption; the third about God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.
QUESTION 25
Since there is only one God, why do you speak of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
Because God has so revealed Himself in His Word that these three distinct persons are the one, true, eternal God.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Isaiah 44:6
Isaiah 45:5
1 Corinthians 8:4
1 Corinthians 8:6
Genesis 1:2–3
Isaiah 61:1
Isaiah 63:8–10
Matthew 3:16–17
Matthew 28:18–19
Luke 4:18
John 14:26
John 15:26
2 Corinthians 13:14
Galatians 4:6
Titus 3:5–6
THIS TEXT AND ITS SOURCES
- Berean Standard Bible Public domain
The document's own wording is unchanged apart from the quoted verses described above. Its proof-text references were resolved against this site's own copy of the Berean Standard Bible; the references it does not carry would be shown as references with no verse words.
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