Study: Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 4

Lord’s Day 4
	HC9
	Q. But doesn't God do man an injustice by requiring in his law what man is unable to do?
	A. No, God created man with the ability to keep the law. Man, however, at the instigation of the devil, in willful disobedience, robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.
	HC10
	Q. Will God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
	A. Certainly not. He is terribly angry with the sin we are born with as well as our actual sins. God will punish them by a just judgement both now and in eternity, having declared: “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.
	HC11
	Q. But isn’t God also merciful?
	A. God is certainly merciful, but he is also just. His justice demands that sin, committed against his supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty - eternal punishment of body and soul.

	The questioner in this case is trying to get out of responsibility for his total depravity (as depicted in questions 3-8) by changing God. The catechism is specifically refuting that which is taught in most churches today regarding God’s nature, his view of sin, of his justice, even his mercy and grace. These questions illustrate how we dearly desire to remain in our sin, unrepentant and free to continue on our merry way. The answers deny our desperate wishes to escape God’s justice.

	Dr. Ursinus, “If a prince were to give a nobleman a fee and he were to rebel against him, he would lose it not only for himself, but for his posterity also; and the prince would do no injustice to his children by not restoring to them that which was lost by the rebellion of their father. And if he does restore it, it is because of his goodness and mercy.” God has not taken away our ability to keep his law perfectly. We have cast away our ability to do so. This section is calculated to lead us to acknowledge and deplore our inability. 

	So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. - Romans 7:21-25

	Dr. Beeke, “When we are children and our parents ask us to do something, we say ‘I can’t do it’ - by which we mean, ‘I won’t do it.’ We are trying to avoid responsibility. When Adam ate from the tree, he committed suicide and murdered countless multitudes, willfully. We are willing participants in Adam’s murderous choice. And the flames of hell will never go out because even there, we will go on sinning and heaping guilt upon ourselves - we will never “get better” though we spend a thousand years in hell.

	Sin is not just violation of God’s law, it is violation of our own original design, and rejection of God’s nature, even God himself. Sin is not offense against the law, but offense against the giver of the law. Think of it like this: God is not conforming to the law, his own standards, but is simply performing in keeping with his own character. Therefore, God punishes us for not only our evil actions, but for our evil hearts, for original sin must also be punished, that which infects all men as well as that which each man does on his own. 

	Rev Borvan, “Fallen man can only choose between types of evil. He is not able not to sin.” Our blessed hope is that, in the age to come, we will only be able to choose good.
The Purpose Of This Lesson in the Catechism is to lead us to TRUST IN HIM, to depend on HIM for mercy and forgiveness. It is to lead us to CHRIST. This is how we escape our horrible destiny of eternal punishment. There is no other solution. This is how we can have a God who is the God of both Justice and Mercy at the same time.

	How can God be both righteous and merciful at the same time? He provided his Son to receive the judgement that we deserve. His son received, though he was innocent, that supreme penalty. This is substitutionary atonement, called the Great Exchange. Christ became sin for us, took our sin upon himself, and then God poured out his justice on Christ.


Sources:
Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 4
Rev Dan Borvan, God’s Justice 24January2021
Dr. Joel Beeke, Divine Justice Justified 02March2003
Faith In Practice Podcast HC Q&A 9-11 06April2021
Dr. Zacharias Ursinus Commentaries on the Heidelberg Catechism