Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 26 image

Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 26

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[We are now halfway through the Heidelberg Catechism, and of course the year—but the relentless focus on the way Christian doctrine benefits, comforts and assures the believer has not changed. "How does baptism remind and assure you that Christ's sacrifice benefits you personally?" Ursinus and Olevianus are not worried that these sorts of questions will make Christians self-involved or individualistic; rather, they seem to assume that all Christians are asking them, and continually reply in ways that both answer the personal question and point us to Christ. Neither do their answers make either of the mistakes we can make about the relationship between faith and works: they affirm both the freedom of forgiveness ("as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body, so certainly his blood and his Spirit wash away my soul’s impurity, that is, all my sins") and the certainty of transformation ("the Holy Spirit has renewed and sanctified us to be members of Christ, so that more and more we become dead to sin and live holy and blameless lives"), and this in a Q&A on baptism, of all things. It's worth reflecting on carefully.]

Q69. How does holy baptism
remind and assure you
that Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross
benefits you personally?

A69. In this way:
Christ instituted this outward washing
and with it promised that,
as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body,
so certainly his blood and his Spirit
wash away my soul’s impurity,
that is, all my sins.

Q70. What does it mean
to be washed with Christ’s blood and Spirit?

A70. To be washed with Christ’s blood means
that God, by grace, has forgiven our sins
because of Christ’s blood
poured out for us in his sacrifice on the cross.
To be washed with Christ’s Spirit means
that the Holy Spirit has renewed
and sanctified us to be members of Christ,
so that more and more
we become dead to sin
and live holy and blameless lives.

Q71. Where does Christ promise
that we are washed with his blood and Spirit
as surely as we are washed
with the water of baptism?

A71. In the institution of baptism, where he says:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.”
“The one who believes and is baptized will be saved;
but the one who does not believe will be condemned.”
This promise is repeated when Scripture calls baptism
“the water of rebirth” and
the washing away of sins.

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