Heidelberg Catechism

Question 1: What is your only comfort in life and death?

Answer: That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

Question 2: What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?

Answer: Three things: first, how great my sin and misery are; second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.

Question 3: How do you come to know your misery?

Answer: The law of God tells me.

Question 4: What does God's law require of us?

Answer: Christ teaches us this in a summary in Matthew 22: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Question 5: Can you keep all this perfectly?

Answer: No, I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbor.

Question 6: Did God create people so wicked and perverse?

Answer: No, God created them good and in His own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might truly know God their creator, love Him with all their heart, and live with God in eternal happiness for His praise and glory.

Question 7: Then where does this corrupt human nature come from?

Answer: From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are all conceived and born in a sinful condition.

Question 8: But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?

Answer: Yes, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God.

Question 9: But doesn't God do us an injustice by requiring in His law what we are unable to do?

Answer: No, God created humans with the ability to keep the law. They, however, provoked by the devil, in willful disobedience, robbed themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.

Question 10: Does God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?

Answer: Certainly not. God is terribly angry with the sin we are born with as well as the sins we personally commit. As a just judge, God will punish them both now and in eternity, having declared: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."

Question 11: But isn't God also merciful?

Answer: God is certainly merciful, but also just. God's justice demands that sin, committed against His supreme majesty, be punished with the supreme penalty - eternal punishment of body and soul.

Question 12: Since, then, by God's righteous judgment, we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, is there any way by which we may escape that punishment and be again received into favor?

Answer: God wills that His justice be satisfied; therefore, we must make full payment, either by ourselves or through another.

Question 13: Can we ourselves make this payment?

Answer: Certainly not. On the contrary, we daily increase our debt.

Question 14: Can any mere creature pay for us?

Answer: None. First of all, God will not punish another creature for the sin that man has committed. Furthermore, no mere creature can bear the weight of God's eternal anger against sin and release others from it.

Question 15: What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for, then?

Answer: One who is truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is at the same time true God.

Question 16: Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man?

Answer: God's justice demands that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin. But a sinner could never satisfy God's justice.

Question 17: Why must the mediator also be true God?

Answer: So that the mediator, by the power of His divinity, might bear in His human nature the weight of God's wrath and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.

Question 18: But who is that mediator who at the same time is true God and a true and righteous man?

Answer: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is freely given to us for complete redemption and righteousness.

Question 19: From where do you know this?

Answer: From the Holy Gospel, which God Himself revealed in the beginning in the Garden of Eden, afterward proclaimed through the holy patriarchs and prophets, and foreshadowed through the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law. Finally, He fulfilled it through His own beloved Son.

Question 20: Are all people, then, saved through Christ just as they were lost through Adam?

Answer: No. Only those are saved who by true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all His benefits.

Question 21: What is true faith?

Answer: True faith is a sure knowledge whereby I accept as true all that God has revealed to us in His Word. It is also a firm confidence that not only to others but also to me, God has granted forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation, out of mere grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits.

Question 22: What, then, must a Christian believe?

Answer: All that is promised us in the Gospel, which the articles of our catholic, undoubted Christian faith teach us in summary.

Question 23: What are these articles?

Answer: I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, our Lord; He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy, catholic Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Question 24: How are these articles divided?

Answer: Into three parts: the first is about God the Father and our creation, the second about God the Son and our redemption, and the third about God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.

Question 25: Since there is only one divine Being, why do you speak of three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Answer: Because God has so revealed Himself in His Word that these three distinct persons are the one, true, eternal God.

Question 26: What do you believe when you say: "I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth"?

Answer: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by His eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father because of Christ His Son.

Question 27: What do you understand by the providence of God?

Answer: The almighty and ever-present power of God, whereby He upholds, as with His hand, heaven and earth and all creatures and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come to us not by chance but by His fatherly hand.

Question 28: How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us?

Answer: We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future, we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing in creation will separate us from His love. For all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will, they cannot even move.

Question 29: Why is the Son of God called Jesus, meaning "Saviour"?

Answer: Because He saves us from all our sins, and because salvation is not to be sought or found in anyone else.

Question 30: Do those who seek their salvation in idols, by human duties, or elsewhere, really believe in the only Saviour Jesus?

Answer: No. Although they boast of Him in words, they deny Him in deeds. For they do not embrace the only Mediator and Saviour Jesus. They do not hold to Him alone for complete salvation, as they must do to gain it.

Question 31: Why do you call Him "our Lord"?

Answer: Because, not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood, He has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of the devil. He has bought us, body and soul, to be His very own.

Question 32: But why do you call Him "Christ," meaning "anointed"?

Answer: Because He has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be our chief Prophet and Teacher, who perfectly reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our deliverance; our only High Priest, who has redeemed us by the one sacrifice of His body, and who continually pleads our cause with the Father; and our eternal King, who governs us by His Word and Spirit and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom He has won for us.

Question 33: Why is Christ called God's "only begotten Son" when we also are God's children?

Answer: Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God - adopted by grace through Christ.

Question 34: Why do you call Him "our Lord"?

Answer: Because He has redeemed us, body and soul, from all our sins, not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood, and has set us free from all the power of the devil to make us His own possession.

Question 35: What is the meaning of "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary"?

Answer: That the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to Himself, through the working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary, a truly human nature so that He might become David's true descendant, like His brothers in every way except for sin.

Question 36: What benefit do you receive from the holy conception and birth of Christ?

Answer: He is our Mediator, and with His innocence and perfect holiness, He removes from God's sight my sin - mine since I was conceived.

Question 37: What do you understand by the word "suffered"?

Answer: That during His whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the anger of God against the sin of the whole human race. This He did in order that, by His suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, He might set us free, body and soul, from eternal condemnation and gain for us God's grace, righteousness, and eternal life.

Question 38: Why did He suffer "under Pontius Pilate" as judge?

Answer: So that He, though innocent, might be condemned by a civil judge and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us.

Question 39: Is it significant that He was "crucified" instead of dying some other way?

Answer: Yes. By this I am convinced that He shouldered the curse that lay on me since the death sentence due to me because of my sin should have fallen upon me. Yet He took it upon Himself willingly in order to deliver me from the judgment of God that lay on me.

Question 40: Why did Christ have to go all the way to death?

Answer: Because God's justice and truth demand it. Nothing else could pay for our sins except the death of the Son of God.

Question 41: Why was He "buried"?

Answer: His burial testifies that He really died.

Question 42: Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die?

Answer: Our death does not pay the debt of our sins. Rather, it puts an end to our sinning and is our entrance into eternal life.

Question 43: What further benefit do we receive from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross?

Answer: Through Christ's death, our old selves are crucified, put to death, and buried with Him, so that the evil desires of the flesh may no longer rule us, but that instead, we may dedicate ourselves as an offering of gratitude to Him.

Question 44: Why does the Creed add, "He descended into hell"?

Answer: To assure me in times of personal crisis and temptation that Christ, my Lord, by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul, especially on the cross but also earlier, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell.

Question 45: How does Christ's resurrection benefit us?

Answer: First, by His resurrection, He has overcome death, so that He might make us share in the righteousness He won for us by His death. Second, by His power, we too are already now resurrected to a new life. Third, Christ's resurrection is a sure pledge to us of our blessed resurrection.

Question 46: How do you understand the words "He ascended into heaven"?

Answer: Christ, while His disciples watched, was lifted up from the earth to heaven and will be there for our good until He comes again to judge the living and the dead.

Question 47: But isn't Christ with us until the end of the world as He promised us?

Answer: Christ is truly human and truly God. In His human nature Christ is not now on earth; but in His divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit He is not absent from us for a moment.

Question 48: If Christ is true and eternal God, why does He say, "I am with you only until the end of the world"?

Answer: Christ is true and eternal God. With respect to His human nature, however, He is no longer on earth. But with respect to His divinity, majesty, grace, and Spirit, He is never absent from us.

Question 49: How does Christ's ascension to heaven benefit us?

Answer: First, He pleads our cause in heaven in the presence of His Father. Second, we have our own flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that Christ our head will also take us, His members, up to Himself. Third, He sends His Spirit to us on earth as a corresponding pledge. By the Spirit's power, we seek not earthly things but the things above, where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand.

Question 50: Why is it added, "And sits at the right hand of God"?

Answer: Christ ascended to heaven, there to show that He is head of His church, the one through whom the Father rules all things.

Question 51: How does this glory of Christ our head benefit us?

Answer: First, through His Holy Spirit, He pours out His gifts from heaven upon us, His members. Second, by His power, He defends us and keeps us safe from all enemies.

Question 52: How does Christ's return "to judge the living and the dead" comfort you?

Answer: In all my distress and persecution, I turn my eyes to the heavens and confidently await as judge the very One who has already stood trial in my place before God and so has removed the whole curse from me. All His enemies and mine, He will condemn to everlasting punishment: but me and all His chosen ones, He will take along with Him into the joy and glory of heaven.

Question 53: What do you believe concerning "the Holy Spirit"?

Answer: First, He is co-eternal God with the Father and the Son. Second, He is given to me personally, so that, by true faith, He makes me share in Christ and all His benefits, comforts me, and remains with me forever.

Question 54: What do you believe concerning "the holy catholic Christian church"?

Answer: I believe that the Son of God, through His Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for Himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community, I am and always will be a living member.

Question 55: What do you understand by "the communion of saints"?

Answer: First, that believers one and all, as members of this community, share in Christ and in all His treasures and gifts. Second, that each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and joyfully for the service and enrichment of the other members.

Question 56: What do you believe concerning "the forgiveness of sins"?

Answer: I believe that God, because of Christ's satisfaction, will no longer remember any of my sins or my sinful nature which I need to struggle against all my life. Rather, by grace, God grants me the righteousness of Christ to free me forever from judgment.

Question 57: What comfort does the resurrection of the body offer you?

Answer: That not only my soul after this life shall be immediately taken up to Christ its head, but also that this my body, raised by the power of Christ, will be reunited with my soul and made like Christ's glorious body.

Question 58: What comfort does the article concerning "life everlasting" offer you?

Answer: That since I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, I shall after this life possess perfect blessedness, which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived - a blessedness in which to praise God forever.

Question 59: But what does it help you now that you believe all this?

Answer: In Christ, I am righteous before God and an heir of eternal life.

Question 60: How are you righteous before God?

Answer: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments, of never having kept any of them, and of still being inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without any merit of my own, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. As if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me.

Question 61: Why do you say that through faith alone you are righteous?

Answer: Not because I please God by the worthiness of my faith. It is because only Christ's satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness make me righteous before God. And I can receive this righteousness and make it my own by faith only.

Question 62: But why can our good works not be our righteousness before God, or at least a part of it?

Answer: Because the righteousness which can pass God's judgment must be entirely perfect and must in every way measure up to the divine law. Even the very best we do in this life is imperfect and stained with sin.

Question 63: Do our good works merit nothing, even though God promises to reward them in this life and the next?

Answer: This reward is not earned; it is a gift of grace.

Question 64: But doesn't this teaching make people indifferent and wicked?

Answer: No, it is impossible for those grafted into Christ by true faith not to produce fruits of gratitude.

Question 65: Since, then, we are made righteous through faith alone, where does this faith come from?

Answer: The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel, and confirms it through the use of the holy sacraments.

Question 66: What are sacraments?

Answer: Sacraments are visible, holy signs and seals. They were instituted by God so that by their use He might the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of the gospel. And this is the promise: that God graciously grants us forgiveness of sins and everlasting life because of the one sacrifice of Christ accomplished on the cross.

Question 67: Are both the Word and the sacraments, then, intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?

Answer: Yes, indeed. The Holy Spirit teaches us in the gospel and assures us by the sacraments that our entire salvation rests on Christ's one sacrifice for us on the cross.

Question 68: How many sacraments has Christ instituted in the New Testament?

Answer: Two: baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Question 69: How does baptism remind and assure you that Christ's one sacrifice on the cross is for you personally?

Answer: In this way: Christ instituted this outward washing and with it gave the promise that, as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body, so certainly His blood and His Spirit wash away my soul's impurity, in other words, all my sins.

Question 70: What does it mean to be washed with Christ's blood and Spirit?

Answer: To be washed with Christ's blood means that God, by grace, has forgiven my sins because of Christ's blood poured out for me in His sacrifice on the cross. To be washed with Christ's Spirit means that the Holy Spirit has renewed me and set me apart to be a member of Christ so that more and more I become dead to sin and increasingly live a holy and blameless life.

Question 71: Where does Christ promise that we are washed with His blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of baptism?

Answer: In the institution of baptism, where He says: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Question 72: Does this outward washing with water itself wash away sins?

Answer: No, only Jesus Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sins.

Question 73: Why then does the Holy Spirit call baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins?

Answer: God has good reason for these words. To begin with, God wants to teach us that the blood and Spirit of Christ take away our sins just as water removes dirt from the body. But more important, God wants to assure us, by this divine pledge and sign, that we are as truly washed of our sins spiritually as our bodies are washed with water physically.

Question 74: Should infants also be baptized?

Answer: Yes. Infants as well as adults are included in God's covenant and people, and they, no less than adults, are promised forgiveness of sin through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit who produces faith. Therefore, by baptism, the sign of the covenant, they too should be incorporated into the Christian church and distinguished from the children of unbelievers. This was done in the Old Covenant by circumcision, in place of which baptism was instituted in the New Covenant.

Question 75: How does the Lord's Supper signify and seal to you that you share in Christ's one sacrifice on the cross and in all His benefits?

Answer: In this way: Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat this broken bread and to drink this cup in remembrance of Him. With this command, He gave these promises: First, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup given to me, so surely was His body offered for me and His blood poured out for me on the cross. Second, as surely as I receive from the hand of the one who serves, and taste with my mouth the bread and cup of the Lord, given me as sure signs of Christ's body and blood, so surely does He Himself nourish and refresh my soul to everlasting life with His crucified body and poured-out blood.

Question 76: What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink His poured-out blood?

Answer: First, to accept with a believing heart all the suffering and the death of Christ and so receive forgiveness of sins and life eternal. Second, to be united more and more to His sacred body through the Holy Spirit, who lives both in Christ and in us. Therefore, although Christ is in heaven and we are on earth, yet we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, and we forever live and are governed by one Spirit as members of our body are by one soul.

Question 77: Where has Christ promised that He will nourish and refresh believers with His body and blood as surely as they eat this broken bread and drink this cup?

Answer: In the institution of the Lord's Supper: "The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes."

Question 78: Are the bread and wine changed into the real body and blood of Christ?

Answer: No. Just as the water of baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ and is not the washing away of sins itself but is simply God's sign and assurance, so also the bread in the Lord's Supper does not become the body of Christ itself, though it is called the body of Christ in keeping with the nature and language of sacraments.

Question 79: Why, then, does Christ call the bread His body and the cup His blood or the new covenant in His blood, and Paul use the words "a participation in Christ's body and blood"?

Answer: Christ has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that just as bread and wine nourish the temporal life, so too His crucified body and poured-out blood truly nourish the spiritual life of our souls. But more important, He wants to assure us, by this visible sign and pledge, that we, through the Holy Spirit's work, share in His true body and blood as surely as our mouths receive these holy signs in His remembrance, and that all of His suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally had suffered and made satisfaction for our sins.

Question 80: What difference is there between the Lord's Supper and the papal Mass?

Answer: The Lord's Supper testifies to us that we have full forgiveness of all our sins by the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which He Himself once accomplished on the cross. And it is also an invitation to us to celebrate the memorial of this sacrifice and of all the benefits which He Himself has obtained for us by His death and resurrection. The Mass, however, teaches that the living and the dead do not have forgiveness of sins through the sufferings of Christ unless Christ is still offered for them daily by the priests. And, it also makes people uncertain whether they have forgiveness of sins unless they have performed the act of the Mass.

Question 81: Who are to come to the table of the Lord?

Answer: Those who are displeased with themselves for their sins, yet trust that these are forgiven them, and that their remaining infirmity is covered by the suffering and death of Christ. Those, who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and to lead a better life. Hypocrites and those who are unrepentant, however, eat and drink judgment on themselves.

Question 82: Are those also to be admitted to the Lord's Supper who, by their confession and life, show that they are unbelieving and ungodly?

Answer: No, for by this, the covenant of God would be profaned and His wrath kindled against the whole congregation. Therefore, according to the command of Christ and His apostles, the Christian church is duty-bound to exclude such persons by the official use of the keys of the kingdom until they reform their lives.

Question 83: What are the keys of the kingdom?

Answer: The preaching of the holy gospel and Christian discipline toward repentance. Both preaching and discipline open the kingdom of heaven to believers and close it to unbelievers.

Question 84: How does preaching the holy gospel open and close the kingdom of heaven?

Answer: According to the command of Christ: The kingdom of heaven is opened by proclaiming and publicly declaring to all believers, each and every one, that, as often as they accept the gospel promise in true faith, God, because of Christ's merit, truly forgives all their sins. The kingdom of heaven is closed, however, by proclaiming and publicly declaring to unbelievers and hypocrites that, as long as they do not repent, the anger of God and eternal condemnation rest on them. God's judgment, both in this life and in the life to come, is based on this gospel testimony.

Question 85: How is the kingdom of heaven closed and opened by Christian discipline?

Answer: According to the command of Christ: Those who, though called Christians, profess unchristian teachings or live unchristian lives and, after repeated brotherly counsel, refuse to abandon their errors and wickedness, and after being reported to the church, that is, to its officers, fail to respond also to their admonition - such persons the officers exclude from the Christian fellowship by withholding the sacraments from them, and God Himself excludes them from the kingdom of Christ. Such persons, when promising and demonstrating genuine reform, are received again as members of Christ and of His church.

Question 86: Since we are redeemed from our sin and its wretched consequences by grace through Christ, without any merit of our own, why must we yet do good works?

Answer: To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by His blood. But we do good because Christ, having redeemed us by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit to be His image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for His benefits, so that He may be praised through us, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.

Question 87: Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent ways?

Answer: By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like will inherit the kingdom of God.

Question 88: What is the true repentance or conversion of man?

Answer: It is the dying of the old nature and the coming to life of the new through the Holy Spirit. It means heartfelt sorrow for sin, causing us to hate and turn from it always more and more.

Question 89: What is the dying of the old nature?

Answer: It is to grieve with heartfelt sorrow that we have offended God by our sin, and more and more to hate it and flee from it.

Question 90: What is the coming to life of the new nature?

Answer: It is a heartfelt joy in God through Christ and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.

Question 91: What are good works?

Answer: Only those which are done out of true faith, conform to God's law, and are done for God's glory. And not those based on our own opinion or human tradition.

Question 92: What is God's law?

Answer: God's law is summarized in the Ten Commandments.

Question 93: What does God require in the first Commandment?

Answer: That I, not wanting to endanger my own salvation, avoid and shun all idolatry, magic, superstitious rites, and prayer to saints or to other creatures. That I rightly come to know the only true God, trust Him alone, submit to Him with all humility and patience, expect all good from Him only, and love, fear, and honor Him with my whole heart. In short, that I give up anything rather than go against His will in any way.

Question 94: What does God require in the second Commandment?

Answer: That we in no way make any image of God nor worship Him in any other way than He has commanded in His Word.

Question 95: What does God require in the third Commandment?

Answer: That we neither blaspheme nor misuse the name of God by cursing, perjury, or unnecessary oaths, nor share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders. In summary, that we use the holy name of God only with fear and reverence so that we may rightly confess Him, pray to Him, and glorify Him in all our words and works.

Question 96: What does God require in the fourth Commandment?

Answer: First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be maintained, and that, especially on the day of rest, I diligently attend church to learn the Word of God, to use the sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian alms. Second, that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works, let the Lord work in me through His Spirit, and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.

Question 97: What does God require in the fifth Commandment?

Answer: That I show honor, love, and faithfulness to my father and mother and to all those in authority over me; submit myself with due obedience to their good instruction and discipline; and also have patience with their weaknesses and shortcomings since it is God's will to govern us by their hand.

Question 98: What does God require in the sixth Commandment?

Answer: I am not to belittle, hate, insult, or kill my neighbor - not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture, and certainly not by actual deeds. I am not to be party to this in others; rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge. I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself either. Prevention of murder is also why government is armed with the sword.

Question 99: What is God's will for you in the seventh Commandment?

Answer: God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and, married or single, live decent and chaste lives.

Question 100: What does God teach us in the eighth Commandment?

Answer: God forbids not only outright theft and robbery but also such wicked schemes and devices as false weights and measures, deceptive merchandising, counterfeit money, and usury. God abhors all these practices and wants to drive them out of the world in order to free us from our sinful nature so that our hearts may be renewed with true love and trust, and so that we may promote the general welfare of our neighbor.

Question 101: But may we lend or borrow money by charging and accepting interest?

Answer: Yes, we may, provided it does not lead to the greed or exploitation of our neighbor.

Question 102: What is God's will in the ninth and tenth Commandments?

Answer: That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any one of God's commandments should ever arise in our hearts. Rather, with all our heart we should always hate sin and take pleasure in whatever is right.

Question 103: Can we by our own strength make even the least good beginning in obedience to God's commandments?

Answer: Certainly not. Rather, we daily increase our guilt.

Question 104: Does God, in this commandment, forbid only such scandalous sins as robbery, theft, murder, adultery, and the like?

Answer: We are to do whatever we can to prevent our neighbor from suffering. We should not harm or recklessly endanger anyone. But having caught the thief or murderer, the judge is to inflict on him the punishment he deserves.

Question 105: What does God require in the sixth commandment?

Answer: I am not to belittle, hate, insult, or kill my neighbor - not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture, and certainly not by actual deeds. I am not to be party to this in others; rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge. I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself either. Prevention of murder is also why government is armed with the sword.

Question 106: Does this commandment refer only to killing?

Answer: By forbidding murder, God teaches us that He hates the root of murder: envy, hatred, anger, vindictiveness. In God's sight, all such are murder.

Question 107: But is this commandment aimed at the heart?

Answer: It is required of us that we thoroughly hate the sin of murder as something God forbids.

Question 108: What does the seventh commandment teach us?

Answer: That all unchastity is cursed by God. We must therefore detest it from the heart and live chaste and disciplined lives, both within and outside of holy marriage.

Question 109: Does God, in this commandment, forbid only adultery and similar shameful sins?

Answer: We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why He forbids all unchaste actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires and whatever may incite someone to them.

Question 110: What does God forbid in the eighth commandment?

Answer: God forbids not only outright theft and robbery but also such wicked schemes and devices as false weights and measures, deceptive merchandising, counterfeit money, and usury. God abhors all these practices and wants to drive them out of the world in order to free us from our sinful nature so that our hearts may be renewed with true love and trust, and so that we may promote the general welfare of our neighbor.

Question 111: What is God's will in the ninth and tenth commandments?

Answer: That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any one of God's commandments should ever arise in our hearts. Rather, with all our heart we should always hate sin and take pleasure in whatever is right.

Question 112: Is God, then, not unjust by requiring in His law what is impossible for us to do?

Answer: No, because God so created man that he was able to do it. But man, at the instigation of the devil, in deliberate disobedience robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.

Question 113: But can the corrupt human nature, by itself, make this law of God perfectly?

Answer: No. On the contrary, human nature adds to its corruption every day.

Question 114: But does not God then unjustly demand of man what is beyond his ability?

Answer: No. For God so created man that he was able to do it. But man, at the instigation of the devil, in deliberate disobedience, robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.

Question 115: No one in this life can obey the Ten Commandments perfectly: why then does God want them preached so pointedly?

Answer: First, so that the longer we live, the more we may come to know our sinfulness and the more eagerly look to Christ for forgiveness of sins and righteousness. Second, so that we may never stop striving and never stop praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be renewed more and more after God's image until after this life we reach our goal: perfection.

Question 116: But why is prayer necessary for Christians?

Answer: Because it is the chief part of thankfulness which God requires of us. And also because God will give His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who earnestly and without ceasing ask them of Him and render thanks unto Him for them.

Question 117: What is the Lord's Prayer?

Answer: Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Question 118: Why did Christ command us to call God "our Father"?

Answer: To awaken in us, at the very beginning of our prayer, that childlike reverence and trust toward God, which are to be the foundation of our prayer: namely, that God has become our Father through Christ, and will much less deny us what we ask of Him in faith than our fathers would refuse us earthly things.

Question 119: What are the words, "Hallowed be thy Name"?

Answer: This means: Help us first of all to honor and praise you as you deserve, so that we may live and act as though everything we do is for your honor and glory.

Question 120: What does the first request mean?

Answer: "Your kingdom come" means: Rule us by your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Preserve and increase your church. Destroy the devil's work. Destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy Word. Do all this until your kingdom is so complete and perfect that in it you are all in all.

Question 121: What does the second request mean?

Answer: "Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven" means: Help us and all men to reject our own wills and obey your will without any back talk. Your will alone is good. Help us one and all to carry out the work we are called to, as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven.

Question 122: What does the third request mean?

Answer: "Give us this day our daily bread" means: Do take care of all our physical needs so that we come to know that you are the only source of everything good, and that neither our work and worry nor your gifts can do us any good without your blessing. And so help us to give up our trust in creatures and to put trust in you alone.

Question 123: What does the fourth request mean?

Answer: "And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors" means: Because of Christ's blood, do not hold against us, poor sinners that we are, any of the sins we do or the evil that constantly clings to us. Forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, to forgive our neighbors.

Question 124: What does the fifth request mean?

Answer: "And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil" means: By ourselves, we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment. And our sworn enemies - the devil, the world, and our own flesh - never stop attacking us. And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory.

Question 125: How does the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer affirm that it is true?

Answer: "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." This means: We have made all these requests of you because, as our all-powerful king, you not only want to, but are also able to give us all that is good; and because your holy name, and not we ourselves, should receive all the praise, forever.

Question 126: What does that little word "Amen" express?

Answer: "Amen" means: This shall truly and certainly be! For my prayer is much more certainly heard by God than I feel in my heart that I desire these things from Him.

Question 127: What does the word "Amen" signify?

Answer: "Amen" signifies: It is true and certainly so. For God has heard my prayer.