Heidelberg Catechism

LORD’S DAY 4

Question 9: Doth not God then do injustice to man, by requiring from him in His law that which he cannot perform?

Answer: Not at all;1 for God made man capable of performing it;2 but man, by the instigation of the devil,3 and his own wilful disobedience, deprived himself and all his posterity of those divine gifts.4

Question 10: Will God suffer such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?

Answer: By no means; but is terribly displeased5 with our original as well as actual sins; and will punish them in His just judgment temporally and eternally,6 as He hath declared, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”7

Question 11: Is not God then also merciful?

Answer: God is indeed merciful,8 but also just; therefore His justice requires9 that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God be also punished with extreme,10 that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul.11

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1Eccl. 7:29, Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

2John 8:44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

2 Cor. 11:3, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

3Gen. 3:4, 7, And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

4Rom. 5:12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

5Ps. 5:5, The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.6Rom. 1:18, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

Deut. 28:15, But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.

Heb. 9:27, And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

7Deut. 27:26, Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Gal. 3:10, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

8Ex. 34:6, And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.

9Ex. 20:5, Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me.

Job 34:10–11, Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that He should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that He should commit iniquity. For the work of a man shall He render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.

10Ps. 5:5–6, The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.

11Gen. 2:17, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die the death.