LORD’S DAY 25

65. Since, then, we are made partakers of Christ and all His benefits by faith only, where does this faith come from?

The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts¹ by the preaching of the Holy Gospel, and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments.²

[1] Jn. 3:5; *Rom. 10:17. [2] Rom. 4:11; *Acts 8:37.

 

66. What are the sacraments?

The sacraments are visible holy signs and seals appointed by God for this end, that by their use He may the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of the Gospel, namely, that of free grace He grants us the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life for the sake of the one sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross.¹

1 [1] Gen. 17:11; Rom. 4:11; Deut. 30:6; Heb. 9:8–9; Ezek. 20:12.

 

67. Are both the Word and the sacraments designed to direct our faith to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?

Yes, truly, for the Holy Spirit teaches in the Gospel and assures us by the holy sacraments, that our whole salvation stands in the one sacrifice of Christ made for us on the cross.¹

[1] Rom. 6:3; *Gal. 3:27; *Heb. 9:12; *Acts 2:41–42.

 

68. How many sacraments has Christ instituted in the New Testament?

Two: Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper.

 

Means of Grace

Having established the necessity and sufficiency of faith for salvation, the Catechism now turns to the question of how that faith is worked in us.  The expression “means of grace” refers to the instruments which God has established to do His work of grace in His people.

God is not bound by the means of grace. He established them; they cannot restrict Him.  He can work faith any way He chooses, and He uses a great many means.  A sunset, a moral crisis, the death of a loved one or many other events can be an important spur to faith.  The means of grace God established, the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments, do bind us.  Looking at sunsets is optional in the Christian life.  Attending to the preached Word is not.

An active, lively faith in a person is normally connected to the preaching of the Word.  People will hear the verbal message of the gospel and believe the propositions contained therein.  “Always preach the gospel; if necessary, use words” is a statement attributed (though probably wrongly) to St. Francis of Assisi, and has always been popular with a certain kind of socially active reform-minded Christian, but it is unfortunate nonsense.  The gospel is news.  It is a verbal message from God to mankind, and without words it cannot be communicated.  It is through the foolishness of preaching that God elected to save the world, and we cannot decide we know better than He does.

In addition to the preaching of the message of the gospel, God also instituted sacraments, which are symbols of the message of salvation in visible and tangible form.  God commanded us to observe these sacraments.  Jesus told His disciples to “do this”, speaking of the Lord’s Supper, until He returned as a remembrance.  And when He ascended into heaven He told them to go forward and baptize as a process of making disciples.

As Question 67 makes clear, the sacraments can never function in isolation from the Word.  This is one of the main errors of the medieval church with which the Reformation was concerned.  The medieval theology focused on the sacraments and viewed them as a channel of grace from God to man, merely by the performance of the act.  With the Reformation’s strong focus on the necessity of faith, the sacraments needed to be rethought.  Most of the sacraments practiced by the Roman church were discarded as being without Scriptural foundation, and the two that remained, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, were understood as signs and seals of the gospel.  A “sign” is a visible thing which points to some spiritual truth, and a “seal” is a promise, a guarantee.  The Catechism will focus on these two aspects of sacraments throughout this section explaining the two sacraments, showing how the sacrament not only displays the nature of the promises of the gospel, illustrating them by the ceremony performed, but also provides the believer with a solemn promise from God, that if the participant in the sacrament truly believes the promise held out in the sacrament, then that participant can have absolute confidence that the thing promised is truly his.

 

So the sacraments are more than just symbolic portrayals of the gospel, though they are that.  They are also powerful means of aiding and strengthening our faith, by re-confirming the promise of the gospel to the believer.  They cannot function in isolation from the preached Word, however.  Faith is required in order to benefit from the sacraments, and faith comes as a response to the preaching of the Word.  One must believe in the promise contained in the sacraments for the sacraments to be of any aid or purpose, and one cannot believe something one does not understand.

 

If we trust God, then we will lay hold of the instruments He has given us for our salvation, just as Noah’s faith in God’s promise of salvation led him to build the boat that was the instrument of it.  Noah’s building the boat to save him from the flood did not indicate any lack of trust in God to save him; not building it would have proved that he did not believe God’s warning or God’s promise, whatever he claimed, since the same God who promised to save him also commanded him to build the boat.  Likewise, those who have received the promise of God’s salvation in Christ are going to use the means He has provided to achieve that salvation.

LORD’S DAY 24

62. But why cannot our good works be the whole or part of our righteousness before God?

Because the righteousness which can stand before the judgment seat of God must be perfect throughout and entirely conformable to the divine law,¹ but even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin.²

[1] Gal. 3:10; Deut. 27:26. [2] Isa. 64:6; *Jas. 2:10; *Phil. 3:12.

 

63. Do our good works merit nothing, even though it is God’s will to reward them in this life and in that which is to come?

The reward comes not of merit, but of grace.¹

[1] Lk. 17:10; *Rom. 11:6.

 

64. But does not this doctrine make men careless and profane?

No, for it is impossible that those who are implanted into Christ by true faith, should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness.¹

[1] Matt. 7:18; *Rom. 6:1–2; *Jn. 15:5.

Lord’s Day 24

Not of Merit But of Grace

The doctrine taught in this question is something we should keep continually before our eyes.  It is so easy to slip into human pride and think we deserve God’s favor.  If we are trained in the Christian faith at all, it might be unlikely that we would so badly fall as to think that we completely merited God’s grace, but it’s quite common, virtually universal among even true believers, to think we deserve it at least a little bit.  Some theologies even teach explicitly that Jesus does most of it and then we need to add our part to finish our salvation, or that Jesus makes it possible for us to save ourselves by our labors.

When we consider that all good things are God’s grace and favor to us, in this life and in that which is to come, the problem becomes even more explicit.  I might confess that I only deserve eternal life because of God’s grace, and yet believe that I deserve a good life now.  I might think I earned my nice house and nice car and comfortable middle-class life because of my hard work or good choices.

But when I remember what is taught in the Scriptures and repeated here in the catechism, that God is so perfect that He cannot tolerate any sin at all, any challenge to His sovereignty and justice, then we will not presume to believe I can ever stand before Him with my own good deeds and think the very best things I have ever done can merit the least thing from Him.  The very best works I do are mixed with sin.  I do good at least partly to be seen of others, to think well of myself, or to gain some other earthly advantage.  I do good according to my own opinions of what good is instead of God’s law.

Further, whatever goodness I have within me is only God’s grace, and therefore, as Article 24 of the Belgic Confession says, whatever good works I do only increase my debt to God and create no debt in Him toward me.  How can God owe me anything for the good works which His own grace works in me, especially since those good works are what was due to God in return for our existence?

But it is God’s desire to crown His good gifts with more gifts, and thus our sanctification does produce rewards, like the teacher that gives the child a gold star once the child has successfully repeated his lessons.  That child hasn’t earned anything in any real sense, and God likewise owes us nothing, but because He is a good and gracious God and desires to encourage righteousness in His children, He blesses obedience in us, both now and in eternity.  But we must never fall into the trap of thinking that God owes us something or that He withholds His blessings until we learn to obey.

Contrary to the assumptions so many make, it is not fear and anxiety over our salvation which will work true sanctification.  Rather, it is heartfelt love and thankfulness for our salvation which produces righteousness in the believer’s life.  Paradoxically, then, it is the doctrine of justification by faith alone, apart from works, which has done the most to advance the cause of morality in the world.  Legalism in all its forms simply produces guilt, and guilt drives us away from God.  Free forgiveness by the grace of God produces love and thankfulness, drives us toward God, and produces real righteousness in our hearts as a result.  Paul calls us to obedience in Ephesians 4 and Romans 12 only after establishing the absolute certainty of our salvation in God’s grace through faith in Ephesians 1-3 and Romans 1-12.

Jesus also makes this point with the story of the sinful woman who washed His feet with her tears and anointed Him with oil.  He says her great love for Him was produced from the knowledge of the great forgiveness she had received.  The Pharisees thought they earned their place in the kingdom and thus did not love Jesus, having no thankfulness.  The firm assurance of God’s grace and forgiveness will always produce this same love, and the obedience that flows only from it.

 

LORD’S DAY 23

59. What does it help you now, that you believe all this?

That I am righteous in Christ before God, and an heir of eternal life.¹

[1] Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Jn. 3:36; *Tit. 3:7; *Rom. 5:1; *Rom. 8:16.

 

60. How are you righteous before God?

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ:¹ that is, although my conscience accuses me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them,² and am still prone always to all evil;³ yet God, without any merit of mine,⁴ of mere grace,⁵ grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction,⁶ righteousness, and holiness of Christ,⁷ as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me;⁸ if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.⁹

[1] Rom. 3:21–25; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8–9; Phil. 3:9. [2] Rom. 3:9–10. [3] Rom. 7:23. [4] Tit. 3:5. [5] Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2:8. [6] 1 Jn. 2:2. [7] 1 Jn. 2:1; Rom. 4:4–5; 2 Cor. 5:19. [8] 2 Cor. 5:21. [9] Jn. 3:18; *Rom. 3:28; *Rom. 10:10.

 

61. Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only?

Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because only the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is my righteousness before God;¹ and I can receive the same and make it my own in no other way than by faith only.²

[1] 1 Cor. 1:30; 2:2. [2] 1 Jn. 5:10. *Isa. 53:5; *Gal. 3:22; *Rom. 4:16.

 

Righteous by Faith

We have just concluded looking at the Apostles’ Creed, a summary of the basic articles of the faith, which ends with the word “amen,” a declaration that we believe what we said, not just reciting it by rote.  The natural question to ask is, “So what?”  This Lord’s day section tells us how it benefits us to believe these things, expanding on what was said back on Lord’s Day 7, where we were told that we are ingrafted into Christ and receive all His benefits only by true faith.  The Apostles’ Creed summarizes for us the content of that faith, and the questions we look at this week tell us the result of believing those doctrines.

Very simply, the result is justification.  I am righteous before God and an inheritor of eternal life.  Question 60 defines it further, explaining what it means that we are “righteous before God.”  The term for this is justification, and the justification we receive as a result of faith in the gospel is emphatic.  We are regarded as being just as righteous as Jesus Himself.  His righteousness is “imputed” to me, meaning that it is charged to my account, reckoned as if it belongs to me.

This “imputation” is not just that I am regarded by God as innocent, as if I had never committed any sin.  It is that, but more.  God sees me as having done all the good works which Christ fulfilled, perfectly obeying the requirements of God in every respect.  In a sense these are just different ways of saying the same thing, since any failure to do what God commands is a sin, just as much as my commission of an act which God has prohibited.  But it makes the point emphatically that Christ’s death on my behalf doesn’t just wipe the slate clean so I can start fresh on earning my way to salvation.  Christ’s life and death on my behalf means that it is completely done.  My salvation is guaranteed when I believe the gospel.  The one who truly believes the gospel of Jesus Christ is as certainly beloved of God as Christ Himself is and can have absolute confidence that he will inherit the joys of eternal life.

Sadly, churches and teachers have so often muddled this point.  They have frequently added requirements to the simple obligation to believe the gospel.  They have added ceremonies and sacraments.  They have added obligations to do good works or penance of some prescribed type.  They have required that a person have some specific kind of “conversion experience” or level of emotional intensity about Christ.

To be sure, many of these things are good things and will inevitably be produced by true faith.  Faith without works is dead—that is, a faith which does not produce change in the believer is not real faith, and we cannot be saved by a sham faith.  The person who does not turn from his sin, who refuses to be a part of Christ’s body, and who despises the signs which God has given the Church to strengthen and nourish our faith has no business considering himself as in Christ.  But we must not make any of those things the grounds of our justification, or even the grounds of our assurance of justification.  The promise of the gospel is that if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be saved, and we must not add anything to that or take anything from it at the risk of God’s wrath.  The Apostle Paul in the book of Galatians sharply condemned any who would add conditions to the gracious forgiveness that people have in Christ by faith alone.

We must even avoid the mistake of thinking that God accepts our faith as a substitute for obedience.  Even this is to suspend our salvation on something in us, leaving us to wonder whether we believe enough or not.  But as question 61 tells us, it is the perfect righteousness of Christ which is substituted for our own lack of righteousness, not our faith.  Faith is what the Spirit of God works in me to lay hold of that righteousness.  Grasping this point, I can recognize that my justification is something objective: the perfect and complete obedience of Christ and His perfect sacrifice on my behalf.  There is no need to wonder whether or not I have met the bar, whether I have done enough.  We can rest completely in that perfect salvation.  In fact, that’s just what faith is.

LORD’S DAY 22

57. What comfort do you receive from the “resurrection of the body”?

That not only my soul after this life shall be immediately taken up to Christ its Head,¹ but also that this my body, raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul, and made like the glorious body of Christ.²

[1] Lk. 23:43; Phil. 1:21–23. [2] 1 Cor. 15:53–54; Job 19:25–27; 1 Jn. 3:2.

 

58. What comfort do you receive from the article “life everlasting”?

That, inasmuch as I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy,¹ I shall after this life possess complete blessedness, such as eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man,² therein to praise God forever.³

[1] 2 Cor. 5:2–3. [2] 1 Cor. 2:9. [3] Jn. 17:3; *Rom. 8:23; *1 Pet. 1:8.

A Life of Hope

The Christian life is a life of hope.  Peter tells the saints in 1 Peter 3:15 to be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us.  Hope, according to Peter, will distinguish the Christian from the world and prompt the discussions that give the Christian an opportunity to witness to the gospel.  Jesus says in another place that love is the characteristic that will identify one as a disciple of Christ.  These two are closely related, however, for the love we have for one another flows out of the hope we have in the future.

Hope does not mean a sort of general optimism or wishful thinking, but a confident expectation in God’s promises.  That means that the Christian life is forward-thinking.  It is the opposite of the mindset that says, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”  Our goal is not to make the best of the present life, but to prepare for the future life.  This is what Paul means when he exhorts us to set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth (Col. 3:1-2).  It’s not about focusing on “otherworldly,” so-called “spiritual” things as opposed to everyday life like jobs, family, and the like.  Paul focuses our attention on the coming appearance of Christ, at which point our real life will begin.  This is where our hope is, and it drives our life now.  So the “things above” for Paul are the promises of God reserved in heaven with Christ for us, which will be granted to us in the future when Christ comes again.  The distinction Paul is drawing is not “physical” vs. “spiritual”, but “present” vs. “future”.

The physical resurrection must be kept in mind to understand this forward orientation properly.  If our eternal life were a merely spiritual existence, that would imply that our physical life now is simply irrelevant, an evil to be endured.  But our actual bodies will be raised, and we will do things with those bodies.  We will eat.  We will enjoy the physical creation.  We will build things, will interact with animals, and will do all sorts of other wonderful, physical things that we can’t even comprehend now.  That all means that our physical lives now, though badly hampered and afflicted with the effects of sin, are not irrelevant, but are preparatory as well.  In the present day we begin to learn how to rule over our bodies and how to think rightly about the physical creation, in preparation for what is to come.

In our physical existence now, we are learning to be truly human.  So Paul tells us to set our minds on things above, but then talks about marriages, families, professions, and the right use of our bodies and possessions.  This is no contradiction, for that perspective of hope teaches us the right way to use all of those things—not to squeeze all the pleasure we can get out of them right now with no thought for the future, the attitude of the drunkard, glutton and fornicator—but to use them moderately and according to God’s truth, knowing that we will not get true satisfaction and joy out of the things of this life, but will only be able to enjoy God’s blessings properly, including physical blessings, in the life which is to come when the sin that ruins our proper enjoyment of things now is finally eliminated.

So many of our failings in this life are driven by a fear of missing out.  How sad it would be to never have joy, never have beauty, never have intimacy or the enjoyment of the finest things in life, or to have all of these things only in very limited quantities.  What if I can never travel, or never have very good health, or never have a very good circle of friends?  What if my house is never all that nice?  But if we believe in a real physical resurrection, to a real physical world chock full of all the greatest joys and pleasures God can derive for us, then we need never fear missing out.  The best architects and the biggest bank account will never buy you a mansion as beautiful as the one you’ll have in eternity.  We’ll be what we were created to be.  We’ll be able to explore, create, produce, and learn in eternity, and enjoy all of this in the community of God’s perfected saints, for we know that this is what God created Adam to be.

Our life in eternity will be a full, real, vibrant life.  Too often Christians have thought of our eternal life as a truncated “spiritual” existence totally foreign to what we experience now, a kind of gnostic otherworldly “angel sitting on a cloud” kind of thing.  But the promise throughout Scripture is very different.  We will worship and praise God for all eternity, the way Adam was created to—by bearing God’s image and likeness through dominion over creation.

This hope drives the Christian life, not the defective and inadequate temptations of the present existence.  Hope changes the way we view everything now, and teaches us to hold lightly the things of this world, and to trust in Christ and the future glory for the satisfaction of all our desires.  That is the comfort and hope of the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

 

LORD’S DAY 21

54. What do you believe concerning the “holy, catholic Church”?

That out of the whole human race,¹ from the beginning to the end of the world,² the Son of God,³ by His Spirit and Word,⁴ gathers, defends, and preserves for Himself unto everlasting life a chosen communion⁵ in the unity of the true faith;⁶ and that I am and forever shall remain a living member of this communion.⁷

[1] Gen. 26:4. [2] Jn. 10:10. [3] Eph. 1:10–13. [4] Rom. 1:16; Isa. 59:21; Rom. 10:14–17; Eph. 5:26. [5] Rom. 8:29–30; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:3–6. [6] Acts 2:46; Ps. 71:18; 1 Cor. 11:26; Jn. 10:28–30; 1 Cor. 1:8–9. [7] 1 Jn. 3:21; 1 Jn. 2:19; *Gal. 3:28.

 

55. What do you understand by the “communion of saints”?

First, that believers, one and all, as members of the Lord Jesus Christ, are partakers with Him in all His treasures and gifts;¹ second, that each one must feel himself bound to use his gifts readily and cheerfully for the advantage and welfare of other members.²

[1] 1 Jn. 1:3. [2] 1 Cor. 12:12–13, 21; 13:5–6; Phil. 2:4–6; *Heb. 3:14.

 

56. What do you believe concerning the “forgiveness of sins”?

That God, for the sake of Christ’s satisfaction,¹ will no more remember my sins, nor the sinful nature with which I have to struggle all my life long;² but graciously imputes to me the righteousness of Christ, that I may nevermore come into condemnation.³

[1] 1 Jn. 2:2. [2] 2 Cor. 5:19, 21; Rom. 7:24–25; Ps. 103:3, 10–12; Jer. 31:34; Rom. 8:1–4. [3] Jn. 3:18; *Eph. 1:7; *Rom. 4:7–8; 7:18.

Salvation Applied

As was discussed in last week’s notes, the work of the Holy Spirit is to apply the decrees of God to creation.  The Spirit of God hovered over the waters when God was about to create and order everything on earth, and the Spirit of God descended like a dove on Christ when He was to begin His ministry.  The Spirit of God descended like tongues of fire on the first Christians when the time came to empower them to begin taking the truth of the church out to the world.  This Lord’s Day tells us some things about how the Spirit of God applies salvation to the elect of God.

We live in a very individualistic culture, and this starts with our Christianity.  The forms of Christianity which have always been popular in America, suited to a spread-out, ruggedly self-contained kind of people who often came to America precisely to get away from a strangling class system and oppressive government, have been forms of Christianity that were often suspicious of the institutional church, and their experience with the church in Europe gave them good reason.  But today this individualism has reached epidemic levels, so that people see Christianity purely as an individual thing, a personal relationship between God and man in which some local church may or may not have some role.

The catechism shows us, reflecting the ancient creed itself, that the church exists right at the center of God’s plan for salvation.  The work of the Holy Spirit is to draw those that God is saving into the church, and in that church to do the work of salvation in their lives.  It is a “chosen communion” which Christ is drawing to Himself, and all who are saved in Christ are part of this holy communion.  The Word of God is and must be central to this communion, for it is the truth of that word which draws the communion together and which provides the basis for the unity of that communion.  We are one with other believers because we believe the same things, not because of familial or ethnic or linguistic ties.

This common fellowship is not just an abstract idea.  As question 55 teaches us, this fellowship is experienced and lived out as we interact with other believers in a real and concrete manner.  The passages which question 55 refer to, like 1 Corinthians 12 and Philippians 2:4-6, indicate a real interaction with other believers, doing specific good things for one another like teaching each other, helping in times of trouble, forgiving each other’s failings and being concerned with what will benefit others rather than only myself.  That means that to be part of the church, one has to be part of a church, part of a local fellowship of believers with all the messiness and difficulty that usually involves.  The invisible, catholic, universal church, so vital to our life as Christians, is experienced within the visible church; otherwise, it is just an abstraction, something you say, that has nothing to do with what you do.

Our salvation in Jesus Christ is all about restoring the human race to what it was always supposed to be.  It is about creating for God a holy nation and royal priesthood, a group of people living in love and truth toward one another and toward God.  The church is the place where we start to be that people, imperfectly and messily and surrounded with hypocrites and false brothers, all of which prepares us and shapes us to be who God has for us to be.

Question 56 is about the forgiveness of sins and might seem out of context in this section, belonging more to the teaching of what Jesus has done for us rather than what the Spirit does for us in applying our salvation.  But the forgiveness of sins is the basis for the whole Christian life.  It is relevant throughout our lives, not just at the beginning of our Christian walk.  We are continually forgiven, continually learning what it means to be forgiven, and what it means to forgive others, as I struggle “all my life long” with a sinful nature.  It is in the body of believers where forgiveness begins to be most fully experienced by the believer, as it is taught from the pulpit, modeled by other believers, and lived out in our lives as we fail and are failed by others.  The life of the church, to the degree that it is healthy at all, will be a life of forgiveness and grace toward others.

We cannot claim to be united to Christ without being united to His people.  If I am connected to the vine, then I am also connected to all the other branches.  It cannot be otherwise.  The Spirit of God works life in me by connecting me to the body of Christ, with Christ as the head, and through that body and the truth of the gospel which unites it, teaches me, strengthens me, comforts me, chastises me and heals me.  It is often painful, but it’s supposed to be.  The church will always have hypocrites in it, but it’s supposed to; they teach me patience and grace, and by their false example point me to the true.  My own sins and failings will be highlighted and painfully poked and prodded, and one expects this is the real reason so many avoid church, more than the failings of other people.  But through all of this I will have the life of Christ worked in me. I will learn the true magnitude of what He did for me on the cross.  And through the power of grace and forgiveness, I will start to become the holy creature the Father has predestined me to be, to bring glory forever to His name.

LORD’S DAY 20

53. What do you believe concerning the “Holy Spirit”?

First, that He is co-eternal God with the Father and the Son.¹ Second, that He is also given unto me:² by true faith makes me a partaker of Christ and all His benefits,³ comforts me,⁴ and shall abide with me forever.⁵

[1] Gen. 1:2; Isa. 48:16; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Acts 5:3–4. [2] Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 1:21–22. [3] 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:17. [4] Acts 9:31. [5] Jn. 14:16; 1 Pet. 4:14; *1 Jn. 4:13; *Rom. 15:13.

One of the texts the Catechism uses to prove the deity of the Spirit is 1 Corinthians 6:19, where Paul asserts that the believer is a temple to the Holy Spirit.  But only God has a right to a temple being erected to Him.  Therefore the Holy Spirit must be God.  But the Spirit is also distinct from God, because the Spirit is received by us from God, according to 1 Cor. 6:19.  So we have the doctrine of separate persons in the Trinity, yet persons who are equally God.

But this is no mere doctrinal abstraction.  In the passage, Paul is exhorting them against lawlessness (sexual immorality in particular), and to seek to be obedient to God.  There are many ins and outs of the whole argument that are beyond our scope here.  But in verse 19 he reminds them of something they should know already, that their bodies are temples to the Holy Spirit.   The Old Testament temple was the place where God made His presence known in symbolic and covenantal fashion to His people.  But the temple was always a shadow of something coming, something more real and permanent than an earthly building, and that came when the Spirit of God was poured out at Pentecost.  The presence of God at the old tabernacle was manifested by fire falling from heaven and consuming the sacrifice, a fire that was always kept burning.  At Pentecost, the Spirit descended like tongues of fire, showing the new consecration of God’s temple in every believer.

In Charles Wesley’s great hymn, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, the third verse says,

Come, Almighty, to deliver;

Let us all thy life receive;

Suddenly return, and never,

Nevermore thy temples leave.

The Spirit of God is the life of God’s people, and we have this promise, that Wesley evokes here, that after the Messiah comes, God would rebuild His temple and would never again leave it.  Pentecost is the fulfillment of that promise, which is ongoing in the hearts and lives of all those whom God calls to Himself.  We are all God’s temples, and God will never leave us.

God is pure and holy and will not allow His temple to be corrupted by idolatry and sin.  In the Old Testament that was a fearful threat, and ultimately the reason for the destruction of the nation was just this, their filling of the temple in Jerusalem with idols and immorality (Ezekiel 8).  In the New Testament, however, we have the promise of God that He would never again abandon His people, and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross made good on that promise.  Therefore, God will work through His Spirit to cleanse His temple, to work the knowledge of life and the power to overcome sin in our hearts and minds.

That is the meaning of the word “sanctification”.  It really has two implications- one is to make morally righteous, and the other is to set apart for holy service.  Both come together here, for God, through His Spirit, sets us apart for His holy service, and in doing so makes us righteous.  He grants us strength and life to turn from sin, to understand better who He is and what He has made us to be, and in that knowledge to live our lives more and more according to His truth and for His glory.  He inhabits us as His temples, and then cleans us up so that we will glorify Him through holy service, as He intended.

Another way of saying this is just what the catechism says, that the Spirit of God makes me a partaker of Christ and all His benefits.  He works faith in me, which is to say He creates the capacity within me to understand and believe what Jesus has promised us in His Word.  So the Spirit of God communicates to me, in a mystical way, but through the mechanism of faith, the power of Christ’s perfected humanity, so that I become conformed to His image, more and more like Him every day.  He was and is the perfect servant of God, always doing all that His Father gave Him to do.  Being made like Him means becoming more and more perfect servants of God ourselves.

The work of the Spirit is too often turned into some transcendental, ecstatic experience, being worked up into some emotional, irrational frenzy.  This is to separate the work of the Spirit in salvation from the work of the Father and the Son, always a no-no in sound Trinitarian theology, and to deny that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Truth, as the Scriptures say.  The work of salvation, decreed by the Father and achieved by the Son, is applied to us by the Spirit, so that the Trinity as a whole is perfectly united and God’s intention for salvation infallibly comes to pass.  We can rest comforted, as the Catechism says, in the assurance that God’s work will be complete, that it is His power that does it and not mine, and joyfully and in faith strive to obey Him in my life and partake of the Spirit’s power through the means He has given us.

LORD’S DAY 19
51. What does this glory of Christ, our Head, profit us?
First, that by His Holy Spirit He pours out heavenly gifts upon us,
His members;¹ then, that by His power He defends and preserves us against all enemies.^{2
[1] Eph. 4:10–12. [2] Ps. 2:9; Jn. 10:28–30; *1 Cor. 15:25–26; *Acts 2:33.}

52. What comfort is it to you that Christ “shall come to judge the living and the dead”?
That in all my sorrows and persecutions, I, with uplifted head, look for the very One who offered Himself for me to the judgment of God, and removed all curse from me, to come as Judge from heaven,¹ who shall cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation,² but shall take me with all His chosen ones to Himself into heavenly joy and glory.³
[1] Lk. 21:28; Rom. 8:23–24; Phil. 3:20–21; Tit. 2:13. [2] 2 Th ess. 1:6, 10; 1 Th ess. 4:16–18; Matt. 25:41. [3] *Acts 1:10–11; *Heb. 9:28.

All of these truths about who Christ is and what He has done and is doing, truths we have discussed over the last few Lord’s Day lessons, come together to work in the Christian life a profound comfort.

Life can be quite hard. Whether we have a lot of hardships in our life or somewhat fewer, whether we suffer greatly from the hatred of our societies or from the ravages of disease, whether we struggle with conflict in our marriages and families or experience financial hardship and want, the truth is that the world is not our home. God is very gracious in this present life and gives us many good gifts and luxuries, and yet the most privileged and pampered life will still fall far short of the glory we are created for. Above all we will all struggle with our own sin and misery. No amount of wealth and pleasure can overcome our own guilt over sin. And every believer will suffer the hostility, more or less obvious, of a world that hates the truth of God’s word.

If God is not sovereign and Christ is not ruling, then there can never really be any reason for the great tragedies we suffer. The death of a child will just be something that happened. You make a mistake, marry the wrong woman, and the rest of your life is ruined. Wicked men prosper by their wickedness and there is no answer, no cure for it, no reason. It’s just something that happens. No amount of man’s effort has ever fixed these problems.

But with Christ at the right hand of God, sending us His Spirit to guide us home and directing all the affairs of history to the accomplishment of His purpose and glory, we can take comfort even in the greatest sorrow. He has promised to return once He is done achieving everything He wishes to achieve in this present age of history, and Jesus always keeps His promises. So one day He’ll come back to earth, purge it with fire, right every wrong, and settle every score. He’ll raise all His people from the dead to enjoy eternal blessedness with Him.

A major theme of the first chapter of Paul’s second letter to Timothy is the exhortation not to be ashamed of Christ. This is especially true because Paul is in prison, a criminal and enemy of the Roman state. It would be easy in such a position to be embarrassed of the gospel, since one of its chief proponents had been denounced and defeated by its enemies. It’s just as easy to fall into that state of mind because of disease, poverty, or other hardship. But if Timothy understands the gospel and believes its promises, then he will not be ashamed. He need not be embarrassed that he trusted that promise, for notwithstanding Paul’s present state, Christ is glorified, has achieved His purpose and will fulfill His promise. Paul says, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day.” (2 Tim. 1:12) And therefore he is not ashamed. This is a powerful statement of confidence that Christ will keep His promise and that Paul’s faith in Christ’s promise will not go unfulfilled. But Paul knows that He must look to the return of Christ for the fulfillment of that promise.

Persecution can take a lot of different forms. We are perhaps more keenly aware of the persecution of our brothers and sisters in places where it is illegal to be a Christian, and where Christians are beaten and imprisoned, where their church services run the risk of being discovered by the police or the local mob and attacked, or where Christians are even enslaved or beheaded for the faith. But persecution isn’t really about causing suffering. It’s about pressure, pressure to conform. When we in America live pretty comfortable lives and can worship freely, but are subjected to the constant ridicule and contempt of the dominant power, we experience a powerful form of pressure. The material comforts we enjoy can even make the pressure greater, as it provides additional levers to use against us, by threatening us with their loss. The success of that pressure will depend on how highly we as Christians value our material comforts, so be warned.

Sometimes we can get fooled by influence and power into thinking that the achievement of earthly goals is the purpose of the Christian life, but when we lack that influence, as is the case around the globe and increasingly in present-day America, it’s easy to fall into despair and become ashamed. Both errors are the result of looking to the present age for the fulfillment of the promise of the gospel, instead of to eternity. The victory of Christ is already accomplished, but this is the age of faith, not the age of sight. Faith shows us a victorious and sovereign Christ Who will preserve all of His people and advance His church throughout the world and throughout the age, and at the end will return to complete the accomplishment of all His plans for His complete triumph and the abundant reward of all those who put their trust in Him and who were not ashamed of the promise of His salvation.

LORD’S DAY 18
49. What benefit do we receive from Christ’s ascension into heaven?
First, that He is our Advocate in the presence of His Father in heaven.¹ Second, that we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge, that He as the Head, will also take us, His members, up to Himself.² Third, that He sends us His Spirit as an earnest,³ by whose power we seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, and not things on the earth.⁴
[1] 1 Jn. 2:1; Rom. 8:34. [2] Jn. 14:2; 20:17; Eph. 2:6. [3] Jn. 14:16; Acts 2:33; 2 Cor. 5:5. [4] Col. 3:1; *Jn. 14:3; *Heb. 9:24.

50. Why is it added: “And sits at the right hand of God”?
Because Christ ascended into heaven for this end, that He might there appear as the Head of His Church,¹ by whom the Father governs all things.²
[1] Eph. 1:20–23; Col. 1:18. [2] Jn. 5:22; *1 Pet. 3:22; *Ps. 110:1.

The Effects of Christ’s Ascension
Every aspect of the work of Christ is important. Each of Christ’s great acts has a vital role to play in our salvation. These events are not told to us for idle curiosity, and all of the Gospels record the ascension of Christ. It may be something we think about less than we should, less than the nativity or certainly the death of Christ, but it is nonetheless vital. If we do not think about it much, that identifies a deficiency in our understanding of our salvation. The Catechism can help us here.

The first thing to realize is that Jesus’ ascension has a particular purpose. He didn’t just go to heaven to have a place to wait out the church age until it was time to come back. He told His disciples that they were actually better off with Him leaving (John 16:7) because then He would send the Holy Spirit to them. The Holy Spirit is tremendously important for us, because the Spirit of God is the “earnest” of our salvation, the down payment of all the benefits we will receive in eternity (2 Cor. 5:5). The Spirit of God works in the lives of believers post-Pentecost in a new and greater way than was ever the case before, showing the huge importance of the ascension of Christ and how much closer we are to the consummation of our salvation. The Old Testament saints certainly had the influence of the Holy Spirit in their lives; nobody can know anything true about God without the Spirit’s aid. But the level of understanding and the power of the believer to turn away from sin is much higher after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit than before.

Revelation 12 shows us a battle in heaven that is kicked off by the ascension of Christ. The result of that battle is that Satan loses much of his influence and power. He is thrown out of heaven, can no longer accuse the brethren and is limited to the earth. He still causes much death and destruction, but his power over the earth is greatly limited. This is also the “binding” of Satan spoken of in Revelation 20. Why is the knowledge of the true God so much greater and so much more widespread in the earth today than it was before Christ’s coming? It is because of the ascension and the resulting change in the way God works in creation, and the limit that was put on Satan’s influence.

The great focus of Christ’s ascension is in the church. When He ascended, He told His Apostles that all authority was given to Him, and that they were therefore to go out into all the nations of the world, build the church and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). He promised to be with them throughout their work. The work Christ commissioned is ongoing; more of God’s elect are joined to the church every day. When the Great Commission is completed, the end will come. Therefore, the whole purpose of this present age is the building of the church. Everything that happens serves that end. Nothing can stop it, for no power can challenge Jesus, who has been given all authority and power. Therefore we sing,

For this is His word, His saints shall not fail.
But over the earth, their power shall prevail.
All kingdoms and nations shall yield to their sway.
To God be the glory and praise Him for aye.

This is an adaptation of Psalm 149. It does not speak of the physical power of Christian people. It’s not through armies or politics or money that we will exercise this power, but through the preaching of the gospel, empowered by the Holy Spirit, commissioned by Christ to exercise His rule throughout the world, through the church of Jesus Christ.

His ascension therefore helps us understand everything happening in the world. It is so easy to get discouraged by the headlines and the affairs of this life; I suspect this is intentional on Satan’s part, to discourage us into thinking that Christ is not really in control. But consider the last two thousand years of history. There have always been these evil things happening. Nations have been evil and corrupt. The church has often been filled with hypocrites and liars. Man’s inhumanity to man has been a constant feature. And yet the church has spread and the gospel goes forth. However it may look at any given moment, Jesus is ascended, and no power on earth can challenge His rule. He will finish the salvation that He began until all of His lost sheep are brought home to Him.

LORD’S DAY 17
45. What benefit do we receive from the “resurrection” of Christ?
First, by His resurrection He has overcome death, that He might make us partakers of the righteousness which He has obtained for us by His death.¹ Second, by His power we are also now raised up to a new life.² Third, the resurrection of Christ is to us a sure pledge of our blessed resurrection.³
[1] 1 Cor. 15:15,17, 54–55. Rom. 4:25; 1 Pet. 1:3–4, 21. [2] Rom. 6:4; Col. 3:1–4; Eph. 2:5. [3] 1 Cor. 15:12; Rom. 8:11; *1 Cor. 15:20–21.

46. What do you understand by the words “He ascended into heaven”?
That Christ, in the sight of His disciples, was taken up from the earth into heaven,¹ and continues there in our behalf² until He shall come again to judge the living and the dead.³
[1] Acts 1:9; Matt. 26:64; Mk. 16:19; Lk. 24:51. [2] Heb. 4:14; 7:24–25; 9:11; Rom. 8:34. Eph. 4:10. [3] Acts 1:11; Matt. 24:30; *Acts 3:20–21.

47. But is not Christ with us even unto the end of the world, as He has promised?¹
Christ is true man and true God. According to His human nature He is now not on earth,² but according to His Godhead, majesty, grace, and Spirit, He is at no time absent from us.³
[1] Matt. 28:20. [2] Matt. 26:11; Jn. 16:28; 17:11. [3] Jn. 14:17–18; 16:13; Eph. 4:8; Matt. 18:20; *Heb. 8:4.

48. But are not, in this way, the two natures in Christ separated from one another, if the manhood is not wherever the Godhead is?
Not at all, for since the Godhead is incomprehensible and everywhere present,¹ it must follow that the same is not limited with the human nature He assumed, and yet remains personally united to it.²
[1] Acts 7:49; Jer. 23:24. [2] Col. 2:9; Jn. 3:13; 11:15; Matt. 28:6; *Jn. 1:48.

Lord’s Day 17
The Power of His Resurrection
There are some modern versions of Christianity that try to get along without a belief in the resurrection of Christ. This is usually portrayed as a nod to modern sensibilities, especially a skepticism about miracles. Such versions of Christianity usually die out fairly quickly, and rightly so, for without these historical events and the benefits we receive from them, Christianity, as we have said before, just becomes another set of pious ideas about how we ought to get along. It loses all its force and power.

The Catechism draws our mind to this truth by asking us what benefits we receive from the resurrection. It is always vital to remember that it is the historical event itself by which God achieved these gifts for His people. If the resurrection didn’t actually happen, then God’s people receive no benefits from it.

What are those benefits? The first that the Catechism mentions is that the power of death is broken. Death reigns over the human race because of the curse of God for sin, for the wages of sin is death. But Christ received those wages, drunk the cup in full, and did not remain under death’s power. Thus, death’s absolute claim on every human being is broken. Death has no more power over Jesus, or over any of those who are united to Him by faith.

Being united to Him means being joined to His glorious resurrected life, so that Jesus’ life is now at work in us, resurrecting us as it did Him. That principle of death which works so much evil and destruction in the human race is being replaced by new life in Christ in all those who believe in Him, so that we are being made like Him. And we know that as He is now in heaven in His perfected human body, so too we will one day be reunited to Him in a glorified state as well. That gives us courage and strength to endure the sufferings of the present time, because we know that all of this is just temporary. One day Christ will return, will purge this earth of all evil and suffering, and will bring the glories of heaven with Him for all of His people to enjoy forever. Once again, if Christ is not actually returning in the flesh, then Christians are just deluded fools. The belief in the event brings no benefits if the event itself is a lie.

But even though Christ is at the present time not with us in the flesh, the Catechism points out that by His Spirit He is never absent from us. He is God, and thus everywhere present. It is truly a mystery how Jesus can be physically limited to heaven and also everywhere present since He is God, but this is the mystery of the incarnation. We can affirm what the Scriptures tell us fairly simply- that “He is not here, for He is risen, just as He said!” and, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth.” We don’t need to know how that can be or to understand all the ins and outs of it to know that it is true. But it is true and is important, and not in the sort of vague “he’ll always be with you in your memories” kind of way. He is really and powerfully with us. His Spirit is a constant force in our own hearts and also in history and in the spread of the church. The Spirit of God is sent by the Son to implement the Son’s will, and the Spirit does so. The next Lord’s Day of the Catechism will explain in more detail how it is that Jesus works through His Spirit to achieve His will on earth. But by His Spirit, and in His Godhead, the power of His risen Humanity is at work throughout creation, bringing to fruition all the results and benefits of His resurrection.

LORD’S DAY 16
40. Why was it necessary for Christ to suffer “death”?
Because the justice and truth¹ of God required that satisfaction for our sins could be made in no other way than by the death of the Son of God.²
[1] Gen. 2:17. [2] Heb. 2:9; *Rom. 6:23.

41. Why was He “buried”?
To show thereby that He was really dead.¹
[1] Matt. 27:59–60; Jn. 19:38–42; Acts 13:29.

42. Since, then, Christ died for us, why must we also die?
Our death is not a satisfaction for our sin, but only a dying to sin and an entering into eternal life.¹
[1] Jn. 5:24; Phil. 1:23; Rom. 7:24–25.

43. What further benefit do we receive from the sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross?
That by His power our old man is with Him crucified, slain, and buried;¹ so that the evil lusts of the flesh may no more reign in us,² but that we may offer ourselves unto Him a sacrifice of thanksgiving.³
[1] Rom. 6:6–8; Col. 2:12. [2] Rom. 6:12. [3] Rom. 12:1; *2 Cor. 5:15.

44. Why is it added: “He descended into hell”?
That in my greatest temptations I may be assured that Christ my Lord, by His inexpressible anguish, pains, and terrors, which He suffered in His soul on the cross and before, has redeemed me from the anguish and torment of hell.¹
[1] Isa. 53:10; Matt. 27:46; *Ps. 18:5; 116:3.

Lord’s Day #15 taught us that Christ suffered in body and soul the penalty due to mankind for our sin and rebellion against God. In Genesis 2:17 God told Adam that on the day he eats of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil he would surely die. Adam surely did die as a consequence of his disobedience, for God cannot lie. The first few Lord’s Day articles showed us how that death plays out in Adam and Eve and in the human race in general. It is the source of all our misery, so that the terror of death hangs over the human race perpetually. The knowledge of God’s justice and the guilt of our own sin is inborn, and that knowledge is the driving force behind man’s self-destructive behavior.

If Jesus did not actually die, then my sin and guilt remain. God is true and just, and man must die for his sin. He must die to the uttermost. So Jesus, our substitute, died, and He died to the uttermost. His cry to His Father on the cross shows what death is, being forsaken and abandoned by God, our source of life. How it is possible for the second Person of the Trinity to experience such a thing, even only in His humanity, is a mystery that will remain unsolved until eternity, if even then. Nonetheless, we know it happened, for the Scriptures record for us the truth. He was cut off from the land of the living, cut off even from His Father.

He died for His people, and we know He did because He was innocent, and thus did not die for His own sins. His resurrection proves His innocence, that He is approved of God. With that witness, I can know that my sin is paid for to the uttermost.

The death that hangs over the human race need no longer terrify the one who knows he is redeemed in Christ. I need never fear having my own life torn away from me. I do not have to live with the dark cloud of impending doom lurking in the future. I need not fear the judgment of God crashing down on me in full force, revealing all my shame and guilt and separating me forever from all life, from all that is good which comes from Him alone. I will never face being torn away from my Father as He was.

We still die, of course, but only in a physical sense. The death we experience as believers is but a small shadow of that death promised to Adam, just the last remnant of the curse falling away from us, as our sin-corrupted bodies finally fall into the ground, like seed to be reborn into something far more glorious in the age to come.

The sentence is executed, the guilt of sin is punished, and the law is satisfied. Our life in Christ, therefore, is the fading away of the power and the guilt of sin. The stink of the grave is still on us; all believers will still wrestle with sin in their lives, but no longer does that slavery define us as it would outside of Christ. As question 43 tells us, the sentence of death is executed not only against Christ on our behalf but against the old sinful nature as well, so that having died with Him we can also rise from the dead with Him, and our new life in Christ is then the becoming of what we are. We can begin to put away sin, to have our eyes opened to the truth of what a human being really is created to be, and to start being that.

The death of Christ is a great victory for Christ and for the believer. Only because He underwent that trial and descended all the way to the grave on our behalf is the believer’s hope secure. He died, and therefore we live.