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Q&A Salvation What is your only comfort in life and in death?
That I am not my own, but belong - body and soul, in life and in
death - to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all
my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of
the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can
fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all
things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me
wholeheartedly willing and ready for now on to live for him.
What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
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.
How do you come to know your misery?
The law of God tells me.
What does God’s law require of us?
Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22 - Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
and with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law
and the Prophets hand on these two commandments.
Can you live up to all this perfectly?
No, I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbour.
Did God create people so wicked and perverse?
No. God created them good and in his own image, that is, in true
righteousness and holiness, to that they might truly know God their
creator, love him with all their heart, and live with him in eternal
happiness for his praise and glory.
Then where does this corrupt human nature come from?
From the fall and disobedience of our first parent, Adam and Eve, in
Paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are born sinners
- corrupt from conception on.
But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good
and inclined toward all evil?
Yes, unless we are born again, by the Spirit of God.
But doesn’t God do us an injustice by requiring in his law what
we are unable to do?
No, God created humans with the ability to keep the law. They,
however, tempted by the devil, in reckless disobedience robbed
themselves and all their descendants of these gifts. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
Certainly not. He is terribly angry about the sin we are born with as
well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge he punished them
now and in eternity. He has declared: “Cursed is everyone who does not
continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
But isn’t God also merciful?
God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands
that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the
supreme penalty - eternal punishment of body and soul.
According to God’s righteous judgement we deserve punishment both
in this world and forever after: how can we escape this punishment and
return to God’s favour? God requires that his justice be satisfied.
Therefore the claims of his justice must be paid in full, either by
ourselves or another.
Can we pay this debt ourselves?
Certainly not. Actually, we increase our guilt every day.
Can another creature - any at all - pay this debt for us?
No. To begin with, God will not punish another creature for what a
human is guilty of. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of
God’s eternal anger against sin and release others from it.What kind
of mediator and deliverer should we look for?
One who is truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than
all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.
Why must he be truly human and truly righteous?
God’s justice demands that human nature, which has sinned, must pay
for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for another.Why must he also
be true God?
So that, by the power of his divinity, he might bear the weight of
God’s anger in his humanity and earn for us and restore to us
righteousness and life.
And who is this mediator - true God and at the same time truly
human and truly righteous? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given us to set us completely free and
to make us right with God.
How do you know this?
The holy Gospel tells me. God himself begun to reveal the gospel
already in Paradise; later, he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and
prophets, and portrayed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the
law; finally, he fulfilled it through his own dear Son.
Are all saved through Christ just as all were lost though Adam?
No. Only those are saved who by true faith are grafted into Christ
and accept all his blessings.
What is true faith?
True faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God
reveals in his Word (the Bible) is true; it is also a deep-rooted
assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, that,
out of sheer grace for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, have
had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have
been granted salvation. |