Introduction (qq. 1–2)
Lord’s Day 1
1. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
ThatI, with body and soul, both in life and in death,I am not my own,2 but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ,3 who with His precious blood4 has fully satisfied for all my sins,5 and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; 6 and so preserves me7 that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; 8 indeed, that all things must work together for my salvation.9 Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life,10 and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him.11
1 Rom 14:7-9; 2 1 Cor 6:19-20; 3 1 Cor 3:23; Tit 2:14; 4 1 Pt 1:18-19; 5 1 Jn 1:7; 2:2; 6Jn 8:34-36; Heb 2:14-15; 1 Jn 3:8; 7 Jn 6:39-40, 10:27-30; 2 Thes 3:3; 1 Pt 1:5; 8 Mt 10:29-31; Lk 21:16-18; 9 Rom 8:28; 10 Rom 8:15-16; 2 Cor 1:21-22, 5:5; Eph 1:13-14;11 Rom 8:14
2. How many things are necessary for you to know, that in this comfort you may live and die happily?
Three things:1 First, the greatness of my sin and misery.2 Second, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery.3 Third, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption.4
1 Lk 24:46-47; Rom 7:24-25; 1 Cor 6:11; Tit 3:3-7; 2 Jn 9:41, 15:22; Rom 3:9-10; 1 Jn 1:10; 3 Jn 17:3; Acts 4:12, 10:43; Gal 3:13; 4 Mt 5:16; Rom 6:13; Eph 5:8-11; Col 3:17; 1 Pt 2:9-12
First Part: Guilt (qq. 3–11)
Lord’s Day 2
3. From where do you know your misery?
From the Law of God.1
1 Rom 3:20, 7:7
4. What does the Law of God require of us?
Christ teaches us in sum, Matthew 22: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.1 This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.2 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”3
1 Deut 6:5; 2 Lev 19:18; Gal 5:14; 3 Lk 10:27
5. Can you keep all this perfectly?
No,1 for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbour.2
1 Rom 3:10-12, 23; 1 Jn 1:8, 10; 2 Gen 6:5, 8:21; Jer 17:9; Rom 7:23, 8:7; Eph 2:3; Tit 2:3
Lord’s Day 3
6. Did God create man thus, wicked and perverse?
No, but God created man good1 and after His own image,2 that is, in righteousness and true holiness,3 that he might rightly know God his Creator,4 heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify Him.5
1 Gen 1:31; 2 Gen 1:26-27 3 Eph 4:24; 2 Cor 3:18; 4 Col 3:10; 5 Ps 8
7. From where, then, does this depraved nature of man come?
From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,1whereby our nature became so corrupt2 that we are all conceived and born in sin.3
1 Gen 3; 2 Rom 5:12, 18-19; 3 Ps 14:2-3, 51:5
8. But are we so depraved that we are completely incapable of any good and prone to all evil?
Yes,1 unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.2
1 Gen 6:5, 8:21; Job 14:4; Isa 53:6; Jer 17:9; Jn 3:6; Rom 7:18; 2 Jn 3:3-5
Lord’s Day 4
9. Does not God, then, do injustice to man by requiring of him in His Law that which he cannot perform?
No, for God so made man that he could perform it;1 but man, through the instigation of the devil,2 by wilful disobedience3 deprived himself and all his descendants of this power.4
1 Gen 1:31; Eph 4:24; 2 Gen 3:13; Jn 8:44; 1 Tim 2:13-14; 3 Gen 3:6; 4 Rom 5:12, 18-19
10. Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?
Certainly not,1 but He is terribly displeased with our inborn as well as our actual sins, and will punish them in just judgment in time and eternity,2 as He has declared: “Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”3
1 Heb 9:27; 2 Ex 34:7; Ps 5:4-6, 7:10; Nah 1:2; Mt 25:41; Rom 1:18, 5:12; Eph 5:6; 3Deut 27:26; Gal 3:10
11. But is not God also merciful?
God is indeed merciful,1 but He is likewise just;2 His justice therefore requires that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God, be punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment both of body and soul.3
1 Ex 20:6, 34:6-7; Ps 103:8-9; 2 Ex 20:5, 34:7; Deut 7:9-11; Ps 5:4-6; 2 Cor 6:14-16; Heb 10:30-31; Rev 14:11; 3 Mt 25:45-46
Second Part: Grace >>>
