Question 52: What hope does everlasting life hold for us? Answer: It reminds us that this present fallen world is not all there is; soon we will live with and enjoy God forever in the new city, in the new heaven and earth, where we will be fully and forever free from all sin and will inhabit renewed, resurrection bodies in a renewed, restored creation. One of the great hopes of our redemption to come is that one day sin will be a reality we can always speak about in the past

Question 50: What does Christ's resurrection mean for us? Answer: Christ triumphed over sin and death by being physically resurrected, so that all who trust in him are raised to new life in this world and to everlasting life in the world to come. Just as we will one day be resurrected, so this world will one day be restored. But those who do not trust in Christ will be raised to everlasting death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the paradigm for the resurrec

Question 41: What is the Lord's Prayer? Answer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The last three petitions of the Lord's prayer focus on our needs: (4) Give us today our daily bread. (5) Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (

Question 38: What is prayer? Answer: Prayer is pouring out our hearts to God in praise, petition, confession of sin, and thanksgiving. Why do we need to confess our sins regularly to God if we are already forgiven of all sins in Christ? It is important to recognize what the purpose of confession is not so that we can get a better understanding of what it is. When we confess our sins to God, we are not seeking to be justified before him again. Justification, or being declared

This week we begin with Question 37 of the New City Catechism, found in Part 3 (questions 36-52), which focuses on the Spirit, restoration, and growing in grace. Question 37: How does the Holy Spirit help us? Answer: The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, comforts us, guides us, gives us spiritual gifts and the desire to obey God; and he enables us to pray and to understand God’s Word. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). These w

Question 35: Since we are redeemed by grace alone, through faith alone, where does this faith come from? Answer: All the gifts we receive from Christ we receive through the Holy Spirit, including faith itself. Jesus told the Jewish religious leader Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Religious credentials and a respectable life do not gain entrance to the kingdom. Why is that? It is because “flesh” (f

Question 34: Since we are redeemed by grace alone, through Christ alone, must we still do good works and obey God’s Word? Answer: Yes, because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, also renews us by his Spirit; so that our lives may show love and gratitude to God; so that we may be assured of our faith by the fruits; and so that by our godly behavior others may be won to Christ. Christians often struggle with the question of assurance. How can I know that I truly belong to

This week we begin with Question 32 of the New City Catechism, found in Part 2 (questions 21-35), which focuses on Christ, redemption, and grace. Question 32: What do justification and sanctification mean? Answer: Justification means our declared righteousness before God, made possible by Christ’s death and resurrection for us. Sanctification means our gradual, growing righteousness, made possible by the Spirit’s work in us. The saving work of Christ affects two things about

Question 28: What happens after death to those not united to Christ by faith? Answer: At the day of judgment they will receive the fearful but just sentence of condemnation pronounced against them. They will be cast out from the favorable presence of God, into hell, to be justly and grievously punished, forever. The doctrines of the final judgment and hell have been among the most controversial in the history of the Christian church. The main reason for this controversy is th

Question 26: What else does Christ’s death redeem? Answer: Christ’s death is the beginning of the redemption and renewal of every part of fallen creation, as he powerfully directs all things for his own glory and creation’s good. The final two visions of the book of Revelation are of a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1-8), followed by a vision of the New Jerusalem, the holy city coming down out of heaven (Rev. 21:9-22:5). In these alternate pictures of the same reality, G

Question 26: What else does Christ’s death redeem? Answer: Christ’s death is the beginning of the redemption and renewal of every part of fallen creation, as he powerfully directs all things for his own glory and creation’s good. Jesus Christ came into this world as a man, where he lived his life in obedience to God and died in the place of men. The redeeming work of Christ was for the primary purpose of achieving the forgiveness of sins and the counting of righteousness to t

This week we begin with Question 26 of the New City Catechism, found in Part 2 (questions 21-35), which focuses on Christ, redemption, and grace. Question 26: What else does Christ’s death redeem? Answer: Christ’s death is the beginning of the redemption and renewal of every part of fallen creation, as he powerfully directs all things for his own glory and creation’s good. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, it was not only humanity that was affected by their acti

Question 25: Does Christ’s death mean all our sins can be forgiven? Answer: Yes, because Christ’s death on the cross fully paid the penalty for our sin, God graciously imputes Christ’s righteousness to us as if it were our own and will remember our sins no more. If we are going to be right with God and inherit eternal life, two things need to happen: (1) we must have our sins forgiven, which removes God’s wrath from us; (2) we must have righteousness counted to us, which enti

Question 24: Why was it necessary for Christ, the Redeemer, to die? Answer: Since death is the punishment for sin, Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God. By his substitutionary atoning death, he alone redeems us from hell and gains for us forgiveness of sin, righteousness, and everlasting life. Because Jesus Christ died our death, enduring our punishment, we have no punishment from God to face. We have been

Question 22: Why must the Redeemer be truly human? Answer: That in human nature he might on our behalf perfectly obey the whole law and suffer the punishment for human sin; and also that he might sympathize with our weaknesses. As one who was fully human, Jesus knew the experiences of human weakness. He got hungry and thirsty. He needed sleep. Although the Scripture never specifically tells us so, we can assume he got sick at times as we all do. His experiences as a man were

Question 22: Why must the Redeemer be truly human? Answer: That in human nature he might on our behalf perfectly obey the whole law and suffer the punishment for human sin; and also that he might sympathize with our weaknesses. It was specifically through his human nature that Jesus Christ “suffered the punishment for human sin.” By going to the cross as a sinless man, he offered up his own life in the place of his covenant people, bearing in himself the punishment that our s

This week we begin with Question 22 of the New City Catechism, found in Part 2 (questions 21-35), which focuses on Christ, redemption, and grace. Question 22: Why must the Redeemer be truly human? Answer: That in human nature he might on our behalf perfectly obey the whole law and suffer the punishment for human sin; and also that he might sympathize with our weaknesses. As a man, Jesus Christ obeyed God’s law perfectly. He is described as one who knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21). I

Question 20: Who is the Redeemer? Answer: The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom God became man and bore the penalty for sin himself. Not only did God the Son add humanity to himself, becoming the God-man in the incarnation, but he also “bore the penalty for sin himself” by dying on the cross in the place of sinners. The meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ is varied and rich, but the heart of it all is the bearing of the penalty for sin i

Question 19: Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favor? Answer: Yes, to satisfy his justice, God himself, out of mere mercy, reconciles us to himself and delivers us from sin and from the punishment for sin, by a Redeemer. The catechism notes that God “delivers us from sin and from the punishment for sin” through Christ. Notice the two accomplishments mentioned there. Let’s take the last one first: through Jesus Christ, God delivers us from th

Question 18: Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished? Answer: No, every sin is against the sovereignty, holiness, and goodness of God, and against his righteous law, and God is righteously angry with our sins and will punish them in his just judgment both in this life, and in the life to come. God judges sins both in history and at the end of history. There is a final judgment coming, but the word “final” indicates that there are other judgments that pre