Katechismus

Rom 3:26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Question 12

This is the cry of one who has been awakened to his state, is aware of the misery of his present condition, and cries out for deliverance from the punishment he justly deserves. Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (HCSB)

1. Deliverance is relative – from something to something. Deliverance is from sin and death to a full restoration of righteousness, holiness and life. It is also from the punishment and misery due a sinner to the blessings bestowed on the righteous.

2. Deliverance is possible because of God's attributes – His goodness would not allow the entire race to perish; His knowledge suffices to devise a plan to bring it about; His power is adequate to the task. Human reason and natural revelation are insufficient to provide knowledge of the possibility of deliverance; the promises of God as contained in the Gospel are necessary for our enlightenment.

3. Deliverance as promised by God is complete, begun in this life and consummated in the next. Philippians 1:6 I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (ESV) Partial deliverance from an infinite debt is no deliverance at all.

4. Deliverance is accomplished by providing full satisfaction for sin (not by providing a sacrifice that God graciously accepts as a substitute for full payment, per Arminius) and by renewing our nature enabling us to forsake sin.

Question 13

Satisfaction for God's justice can only be made in two ways – by obedience or by punishment.

Regarding obedience:

1. God's standard for obedience is perfection.

2. Since we cannot obey perfectly, we cannot even “keep up” with our present obligation.

3. Since we cannot keep up with our obligation, we certainly cannot make up for previous obligations.

4. On the basis of obedience our debt is increasing daily.

5. We are daily getting further away from the goal of satisfaction.

Regarding punishment:

1. Our sin is against an infinite God.

2. Sin against an infinite Being requires an infinite punishment.

3. The only way our punishment can be infinite is to be eternal.

4. If our punishment is eternal we cannot be delivered from it.

5. On the basis of punishment, either we satisfy God or are delivered from it, not both.

Bottom line – if God is to be satisfied and we are to be delivered from sin and death, it must be accomplished by someone else.

Question 14

“The exclusive particle mere is added in this question, that the negative answer may be true; for it was necessary that a creature should make satisfaction for the creature's sin, but not such an one as was merely or only a creature, because such an one could not make the satisfaction which was required.”

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Hebrews 10:1-4 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

1. No creature except man can satisfy for man.

2. No creature can withstand a finite punishment equivalent to what is necessary for an infinite insult. The creature would be consumed before satisfaction could be made – cf animal sacrifice. Thus there can be no just proportion between sin and its punishment in another creature.

3. No creature has equal dignity to that of man. Therefore the punishment of a creature is not a price of sufficient dignity and value for the redemption of man.

4. No mere creature has the power or ability to change man's nature. A renewed and sanctified nature is a necessary condition for our deliverance from sin.

Question 15

Here's our dilemma:

1. We cannot save ourselves.

2. We need another to save us.

3. A mere creature is incapable of saving us.

4. Mere God cannot satisfy God because God didn't sin. Neither can God die in the way He meant as part of the curse.

5. We must then look for one who is man, because it was man who sinned, and at the same time is God, because only God has the necessary qualifications to be able to make proper satisfaction.

What confidence do we have that we will find such a deliverer?

1. God's immense goodness and mercy that would not allow the entire race to perish.

2. God's infinite wisdom that makes Him able to devise a means of showing mercy and satisfying justice.

3. God's power, sufficient to create man in His own image, also sufficient to restore him from the ruins of the fall.

4. God's promises that He will do just that and provide a Deliverer for His people.
   

// posted by sundoulos @ 3:33 PM