Heidelberg Catechism

Lord’s Day 6
16 Q. Why must he be truly human and truly righteous?
A. God’s justice demands it: man has sinned, man must pay for his sin, but a sinner can not pay for others.

17 Q. Why must he also be true God?
A. So that, by the power of his divinity, he might bear the weight of God’s anger in his humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.

18 Q. And who is this mediator – true God and at the same time truly human and truly righteous?
A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God.

19 Q. How do you come to know this?
A. The holy gospel tells me. God himself began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise; later, he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets, and portrayed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; finally, he fulfilled it through his own dear Son.


Lord’s Day 7
20 Q. Are all men saved through Christ just as all were lost through Adam?
A. No. Only those are saved who by true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his blessings.

21 Q. What is true faith?
A. True faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in his Word is true; it is also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation.

22 Q. What then must a Christian believe?
A. Everything God promises us in the gospel. That gospel is summarized for us in the articles of our Christian faith – a creed beyond doubt, and confessed throughout the world.

23 Q. What are these articles?
A. I believe in God the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit; I believe a holy catholic church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.


Lord’s Day 8
24 Q. How are these articles divided?
A. Into three parts:
God the Father and our creation;
God the Son and our deliverance;
God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification

25 Q. Since there is but one God, why do you speak of three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
A. Because that is how God has revealed himself in his Word: these three distinct persons are one, true, eternal God.


Lord’s Day 9
26 Q. What do you believe when you say: “I believe in God the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth”?
A. That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father because of Christ his Son.
I trust him so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul, and he will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends me in this sad world.
He is able to do this because he is almighty God;
He is able to do this because he is a faithful Father.


Lord’s Day 10
27 Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty – all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand.

28 Q. How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?
A. We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from his love. All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.