Daniel S Ralph: Recent Episodes
DanielSRalph
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can make us right with God and in order for this to happen two problems must be overcome, our sin and God's wrath. This means that if we are to be saved from both, salvation must be accomplished through judgement. Christ is our substitute, but too often the images we have of substitutes (from team games or films, which some use to illustrate what happened on the cross of Christ) often simplify the act of substitution into error. These next four questions in the Heidelberg Catechism address the importance of Christ as our substitute. "Why must he be truly human and truly righteous?", "Why must he be truly God?", "And who is the mediator - true God and at the same time truly human and truly righteous?" and "How do you come to know this?"
As we come to these next four questions in the Heidelberg Catechism, “According to God’s righteous judgement we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after: How then can we escape punishment and return to God’s favour? Can we pay the debt ourselves?, Can another creature-any at all-pay this debt for us? and What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then?”. Therefore, we should remember the ground we have already covered. Some may be convinced that mankind’s greatest problem is sin, this is a problem but to say it’s the greatest is to overlook the judgement of God that we will face because of our sin. The problem can be restated in this way, if i am not able not to sin (non posse non peccare) and God’s judgement is on those who have sinned and continue to do so, how can I escape the judgement of God if I cannot escape my sinful condition? The problem is much deeper than many believe and the way of escape is much greater than any of us can fully grasp.
When God created the first man and woman, they were created with the ability to keep God’s law and because they were free, they were also able to not keep God’s law. Adam was our representative, meaning that he represented all who came after him and when he sinned he took all future humans with him into sin in the same way an anchor takes its chain (not fastened to the ship) in to the sea when dropped. This is hard to understand by many today who think they live independent lives. Whatever people believe, the evidence of our fall into sin with Adam is found in our thoughts, words and actions.
The world that God created was good, but now it is corrupted and questions six, seven and eight ( "Did God create people so wicked and perverse?" "Then where does this corrupt human nature come from?" and "But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil?") of the Heidelberg Catechism address this corruption.
Here we address the next three questions of the Heidelberg Catechism (How do you come to know your misery?, What does God’s law require of us? and Can you live up to all this perfectly?) address the human condition before God. It is necessary for a person to come to know their misery in the same way it is necessary to have a foundation beneath your house.
A summary of the first two questions of the Heidelberg Catechism (“What is your only comfort in life and death?” and “What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?”) which deal with the source of true comfort.