Heidelberg Catechism LD #03

Lord's Day 3

6.   Did God create man thus, wicked and perverse?
   

No,1 but God created man good and after His own image,2 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.3

[1] Gen. 1:31. [2] Gen. 1:26–27. [3] 2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24.

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,1 whereby our nature became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin.2

[1] Gen. 3 (The whole chapter). Rom. 5:12, 18–19. [2] Ps. 51:5; *Ps. 14:2–3.

8.   But are we so depraved that we are completely incapable of any good and prone to all evil?
   

Yes,1 unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.2

[1] Jn. 3:6; Gen. 6:5; Job 14:4; Isa. 53:6. [2] Jn. 3:5; *Gen. 8:21; *2 Cor. 3:5; *Rom. 7:18; *Jer. 17:9.