thoughts on the catechism

So I was reading a friends blog and it’s got me thinking about things. I even dug through a bunch of already packed boxes of books(!!) to find a copy of the Heidelberg Catechism that I can keep in my room and read. Here’s what I found. Just as a warning though, I’m writing this as I think about it, so some things might be kind of random, or not make sense. I have a feeling this might end up going a few different directions. I don’t think in very logical patterns!

Lord’s Day 1

2. Q. What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?

A. Three things; first, how great my sin and misery are; second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.

Gratitude, that’s what we are to have. There is no way that we can pay back God for all He has done for retched sinners like us – nothing except be thankful – and show that in our lives, in EVERYTHING we do and say.

Lord’s Day 33

88. Q. What is involved in genuine repentance or conversion?

A. Two things; the dying-away of the old self, and the coming-to-life of the new.

89. Q. What is the dying-away of the old self?

A. It is to be genuinely sorry for sin, to hate it more and more, and to run away from it.

Talk about very descriptive language! “And to RUN away” from sin. It’s sad to realize that WAY to often we don’t run away from things we encounter everyday that cause us to sin. I think that we tend to think that some sins are not as bad as others. But God doesn’t think the way we do. He says, through James, in James 2:11-12:

“For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do no commit adultery’, also said, ‘Do not murder’. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”

Lord’s Day 33

90. Q. What is the coming-to-life of the new self?

A. It is whole-hearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to.

Lord’s Day 32

86. Q. We have been delivered from our misery by God’s grace alone through Christ and not because we have earned it: why then must we still do good?

A. To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by His blood. But we do good because Christ by His Spirit is also renewing us to be like Himself, so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all He has done for us, and so that He may be praised through us. And we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.

Okay, here is what I was originally intending to post about.J Our gratitude for deliverance from our sin. This question and answer summarizes very well what I was going to attempt to put into words. So, I guess I’ll just add this passage from Ephesians 2:4-7.

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Doesn’t reading that put fire in your heart to serve God? Meaning, every corner of your life, every second of a day, no matter how hard your “old self” battles against this urge from your “new self”?

Hopefully that made sense! . . . and was a little bit encouraging.