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

Three things(a): first, how great my sin and misery are;(b)
second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery;(c)
third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.(d)

(a) Matt.11:28-30; Luke 24:46-48; 1 Cor.6:11; Tit.3:3-7;Rom 10:13-14 (b) John 9:41; 15:22; Rom 7:24, 6:23 (c) John 3:16, 17:3; Acts 4:12; Acts 10:43. (d) Ps 116:12; 2 Cor 9:15; Eph.5:8-9,10-11; 1 Pet.2:9,10; Rom.6:1-2,12-13, 12:1,2.

Confessional Parallels:

Calvin’s Geneva Catechims of 1545 covers similar ground:

M. What is the true and right knowledge of God?

S. When he is so known that due honor is paid to him.

M. What is the method, of honoring him duly?

S. To place our whole confidence in him; to study to serve him during our whole life by obeying his will; to call upon him in all our necessities, seeking salvation and every good thing that can be desired in him; lastly, to acknowledge him both with heart and lips, as the sole Author of all blessings.

Article X of the French Confession says “We believe that all the posterity of Adam is in bondage to original sin, which is an hereditary evil, and not an imitation merely, as was declared by the Pelagians, whom we detest in their errors. And we consider that it is not necessary to inquire how sin was conveyed fro one man to another, for what God had given Adam was not for him alone, but for all his posterity; and thus in his person we have been deprived of all good things, and have fallen with him into a state of sin and misery.[1]

1. Gen. 8:21; Rom. 5:12; Job 14:4

Belgic Confession Article XV says “We believe that by the disobedience of Adam original sin has been spread through the whole human race.

It is a corruption of all nature– an inherited depravity which even infects small infants in their mother’s womb, and the root which produces in man every sort of sin. It is therefore so vile and enormous in God’s sight that it is enough to condemn the human race, and it is not abolished or wholly uprooted even by baptism, seeing that sin constantly boils forth as though from a contaminated spring.

Nevertheless, it is not imputed to God’s children for their condemnation but is forgiven by his grace and mercy– not to put them to sleep but so that the awareness of this corruption might often make believers groan as they long to be set free from the “body of this death.”(30)

Therefore we reject the error of the Pelagians who say that this sin is nothing else than a matter of imitation.

(30) Rom. 7:24

Regarding Gratitude the 2nd Helvetic Confession, Article XVI discusses the “The End of Good Works. These same works ought not to be done in order that we may earn eternal life by them, for, as the apostle says, eternal life is the gift of God. Nor are they to be done for ostentation which the Lord rejects in Matt., ch. 6, nor for gain which he also rejects in Matt., ch. 23, but for the glory of God, to adorn our calling, to show gratitude to God, and for the profit of the neighbor. For our Lord says again in the Gospel: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16). And the apostle Paul says: Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called (Eph. 4:1). Also: And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and to the Father through him (Col. 3:17), and, Let each of you look not to his own interests, but to the interests of others (Phil. 2:4), and, Let our people learn to apply themselves to good deeds, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not to be unfruitful (Titus 3:14).”

Synopsis of Ursinus’ Commentary:

Ursinus notes that the divisions within this question are both the divisions of the catechism and how the Law and the Gospel function in the Christian Life.

The knowledge of our deep misery does not in itself bring consolation, but is required to make us seek deliverance and consolation like disease makes us seek a cure. Like the woman who loved much because she was forgiven much (Luke 7:46), we are only grateful to Jesus Christ to the extent we understand our sin and misery. And without being prepared by the knowledge of the hatefulness of our sin, we cannot escape a carnal sense of security that keeps us from seeking refuge in the salvation of Jesus Christ.

The knowledge of how we are set free from our sin and misery through Jesus Christ and not ourselves keeps us from despair as we grapple with the reality of our corruption that daily confronts us anew. Likewise, knowing the benefits of Christ’s redemption encourages us to seek it wholly and avoid the folly of seeking some other good in place of the salvation of Jesus Christ. This knowledge allows us to receive cleansing and deliverance by faith so we may be thankful to God.

Ursinus notes repeatedly in his lecture on this question that God is pleased to grant deliverance only to the thankful (p.22). “He hath adopted us to the praise of the glory of His grace.” (Eph. 1:4) Proper thankfulness can only be learned from the Word of God and we are constantly in danger of replacing a proper estimation of the gift of God in Jesus Christ with our own devices and damningly inferior substitutes. Many things are substitutes. Here is one extreme – but all too true – example.

Works done from true gratitude will not be confused as meritorious but, instead, the obligations of grace (Luke 17:10). According to Ursinus (p. 22) the gospel defines the shape of gratitude in general because gratitude is what follows repentance. It is the law of God, however, which explains the nature of gratitude in detail and particulars and so it is appropriate to provide an exposition of the law as it explains the way of gratitude.

Sometimes, our natural instinct is to believe that gratitude is “automatic”. Extolling the virtues of gratitude is most necessary though because we must be taught what gratitude is from Holy Scripture and not leave the matter to accident.

Conclusions

The topics of this question are, of course, dwelt with at greater length throughout the balance of the catechism. It is sufficient to note here how this cycle begins in the opening chapters of scripture and only finds final resolution in the Resurrection of Christ and the Book of Revelation. Therefore this question in particular and the catechism as a whole undertake to summarize the Bible’s teaching as a whole.

We see the entrance of Sin and Misery in Genesis 1 – 3 where the motif of “Creation-Fall-Redemption” is introduced for the first time as God creates our father Adam, Adam rebels, tastes misery and then experiences the beginning of God’s redemption beginning with the promise of Genesis 3:15. We see the cycle recapitulated  in the Flood and Noah’s mandate to populate the world. A similar event happens in the episode of the Tower of Babel and God’s call of Abram. The pattern is repeated and is only broken with Jesus our Lord, the One without sin who began a new race (Romans 5).

We only fully understand this cycle and find hope that it may be broken in history and eternity only when, in our own personal experience, we come to know in our minds and heart the “triple knowledge” summarized here in Question 2 and subsequently unfolded in the catechism.

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