[If you're only going to spend three Lord's Days on "misery", before moving on to "deliverance" and "gratitude", then you've got to make it count - and I can't imagine a more brutal depiction of the state of unredeemed humanity than this. We are responsible for our "willful disobedience", and God is "terribly angry", not just with the sin we are born with, but also with the sins we personally commit (which, of course, bear out God's justice in judging us for Adam's sin in the first place); the result is punishment, both now and in eternity, which is then clarified as "the supreme penalty - eternal punishment of body and soul." Ouch.

Sections like this are a good example of why 450 year old confessional documents are useful. Many of us would love to avoid, water down or even deny the doctrines of original sin and eternal punishment; at the very least, we might fight shy of including them in binding theological statements. But Heidelberg's unapologetic tone, for all that the authors clearly recognised the problem (is God unjust?), is a powerful bulwark against fluffiness ancient and modern: it reminds us that the presuppositions of our generation are just as contingent, and just as needful of sceptical interrogation, than those of any other. In a church, let alone a world, where such ideas are greeted with (at best) an apologetic cough, the robust announcement of divine justice is a breath of fresh air.]