Heidelberg Catechism – Sunday 4

LORD’S DAY 4

9. Does not God, then, do injustice to man by requiring of him in His Law that which he cannot perform?

No, for God so made man that he could perform it,1Ephesians 4:24 but man, through the instigation of the devil, by willful disobedience deprived himself and all his descendants of those divine gifts.2Romans 5:12

10. Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?

By no means,3Hebrews 9:27 but He is terribly displeased with our inborn as well as our actual sins, and will punish them in just judgment in time and eternity, as He has declared: “Cursed is everyone who continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them.”4Deuteronomy 27:26; Galatians 3:10; Romans 1:18; Matthew 25:41

11. Is not God then also merciful?

God is indeed merciful,5Exodus 34:6-7 but He is likewise just;6Exodus 20:5; Psalm 5:5-6; 2 Corinthians 6:14-16; Revelation 14:11 His justice therefore requires that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God, be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment both of body and soul.


Zacharias Ursinus & Caspar Olevianus, 1563

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