Lord's Day #5 The Possibility of Reconciliation

As part of our morning worship service we read and I make a few comments about the Lord's Day of the Heidelberg Catechism that corresponds to the week of the year.

Our hope for preserving these is they can provide some instruction for those who are learning the catechism and or wanting to understand it better.

Today's Lord's Day recognizes the result of man's sin and misery, and asks if there is any hope... if there is any way that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God, our Creator and Judge.

The Answer to this questions is guarded. Neither we ourselves nor another creature or person is able to reconcile us to God. We will need a Mediator who is truly God and a true and righteous man.

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;1 therefore, we must make full satisfaction to that justice, either by ourselves or by another.2

[1] Ex. 20:5; 23:7. [2] Rom. 8:3–4.

13. Can we ourselves make this satisfaction?

Certainly not; on the contrary, we daily increase our guilt.1

[1] Job 9:2–3; 15:15–16; Matt. 6:12; *16:26.

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;1 and further, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God’s eternal wrath against sin2 and redeem others from it.

[1] Heb. 2:14–18. [2] Ps. 130:3.

15. What kind of mediator and redeemer, then, must we seek?

One who is a true1 and righteous man,2 and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.3