Heidelberg Catechism
Monday, January 20, 2014 at 8:01PM
rebecca in historic church documents

Question 19. From where do you know this?

Answer: From the holy gospel, which God himself first revealed in Paradise; (a) and later proclaimed through the patriarchs (b) and prophets, (c) and represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; (d) and lastly, he fulfilled it through his only begotten Son. (e)

(Click through to see scriptural proofs.)

  • a. Genesis 3:15
  • I will put enmity between you and the woman,

    and between your offspring and her offspring;

    he shall bruise your head,

    and you shall bruise his heel.

  • b. Genesis 22:18

    … and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

          Genesis 12:3

    I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

         Genesis 49:10-11

    The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

    until tribute comes to him;

    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

    Binding his foal to the vine

    and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,

    he has washed his garments in wine

    and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

  • c. Isaiah 53
  • Who has believed what he has heard from us?

    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

    For he grew up before him like a young plant,

    and like a root out of dry ground;

    he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

    and no beauty that we should desire him.

    He was despised and rejected by men;

    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

    and as one from whom men hide their faces

    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

    Surely he has borne our griefs

    and carried our sorrows;

    yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

    But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

    All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

    and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

    He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

    yet he opened not his mouth;

    like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

    so he opened not his mouth.

    By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

    and as for his generation, who considered

    that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

    stricken for the transgression of my people?

    And they made his grave with the wicked

    and with a rich man in his death,

    although he had done no violence,

    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

    Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

    he has put him to grief;

    when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

    the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

    Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

    by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

    make many to be accounted righteous,

    and he shall bear their iniquities.

    Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

    because he poured out his soul to death

    and was numbered with the transgressors;

    yet he bore the sin of many,

    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

          Isaiah 42:1-4

    Behold my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

    I have put my Spirit upon him;

    he will bring forth justice to the nations.

    He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,

    or make it heard in the street;

    a bruised reed he will not break,

    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

    he will faithfully bring forth justice.

    He will not grow faint or be discouraged

    till he has established justice in the earth;

    and the coastlands wait for his law.

          Isaiah 43:25

    “I, I am he

    who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,

    and I will not remember your sins.

          Jeremiah 23:5-6

    Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

          Micah 17:18-20

    Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

    and passing over transgression

    for the remnant of his inheritance?

    He does not retain his anger forever,

    because he delights in steadfast love.

    He will again have compassion on us;

    he will tread our iniquities underfoot.

    You will cast all our sins

    into the depths of the sea.

    You will show faithfulness to Jacob

    and steadfast love to Abraham,

    as you have sworn to our fathers

    from the days of old. 

          Acts 10:43

    To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

          Romans 1:1-2

    Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures… .

          Acts 3:22-24

    Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.

          John 5:46

    For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

  • d. Hebrews 10:1-10

    For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

    Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

    “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

    but a body have you prepared for me;

    in burnt offerings and sin offerings

    you have taken no pleasure.

    Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,

    as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

    When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

  • e. Romans 10:4

    For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

          Galatians 4:4-5

    But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

         Colossians 2:17

    These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

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