Lord's Day 33
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Q. 88. Of how many parts doth the true conversion of man consist?
A. Of two parts: of the mortification of the old, and the quickening of the new man.1 -
Q. 89. What is the mortification of the old man?
A. It is a sincere sorrow of heart that we have provoked God by our sins, and more and more to hate and flee from them.2 -
Q. 90. What is the quickening of the new man?
A. It is a sincere joy of heart in God, through Christ,3 and with love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.4 -
Q. 91. But what are good works?
A. Only those which proceed from a true faith,5 are performed according to the law of God,6 and to His glory;7 and not such as are founded on our imaginations or the institutions of men.8
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Rom 6:4-6. Eph. 4:22-24. Col. 3:5. 1 Cor. 5:7.
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Psa. 51:3, 4, 17. Luke 15:18. Rom. 8:13. Joel 1:12, 13.Joel 2:12, 13.
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Rom 5:1, 2. Rom. 14:17. Isa. 57:15.
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Rom 5:1, 2. Rom. 14:17. Isa. 57:15.
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Rom. 14:23.
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1 Sam. 15:22. Lev. 18:4. Eph. 2:10.
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1 Cor. 10:31.
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Deut. 12:32. Ezek. 20:18. Mat. 15:9.
Lord's Day 32
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Q. 86. Since then we are delivered from our misery merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works?
A. Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit after His own image; that so we may testify by the whole of our conduct our gratitude to God for His blessings,1 and that He may be praised by us;2 also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith by the fruits thereof;3 and that by our godly conversation others may be gained to Christ.4 -
Q. 87. Cannot they then be saved, who, continuing in their wicked and ungrateful lives, are not converted to God?
A. By no means; for the Holy Scripture declares that no unchaste person, idolator, adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or any such like, shall inherit the kingdom of God.5
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1 Cor. 6:19, 20. Rom. 6:13. Rom. 12:1, 2. 1 Pet. 2:5, 9,10.
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Mat. 5:16. 1 Pet. 2:12.
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2 Pet. 1:10. Gal. 5:6, 24.
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1 Pet. 3:1, 2. Mat. 5:16. Rom. 14:19.
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1 Cor. 6:9, 10. Eph. 5:5, 6. 1 John 3:14,15. Gal. 5:19-21.
Lord's Day 31
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Q. 83. What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven?1
A. The preaching of the holy gospel, and Christian discipline,2 or excommunication out of the Christian church;3 by these two, the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers, and shut against unbelievers. -
Q. 84. How is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by the preaching of the holy gospel?
A. Thus: when according to the command of Christ4 it is declared and publicly testified to all and every believer, that, whenever they receive the promise of the gospel by a true faith, all their sins are really forgiven them of God, for the sake of Christ’s merits;5 and on the contrary, when it is declared and testified to all unbelievers, and such as do not sincerely repent, that they stand exposed to the wrath of God and eternal condemnation, so long as they are unconverted;6 according to which testimony of the gospel God will judge them, both in this and in the life to come. -
Q. 85. How is the kingdom of heaven shut and opened by Christian discipline?
A. Thus: when according to the command of Christ,7 those who under the name of Christians maintain doctrines, or practices inconsistent therewith,8 and will not, after having been often brotherly admonished, renounce their errors and wicked course of life, are complained of to the church,9 or to those who are thereunto appointed by the church;10 and if they despise their admonition, are by them forbidden the use of the sacraments;11 whereby they are excluded from the Christian church, and by God Himself from the kingdom of Christ; and when they promise and show real amendment, are again received as members of Christ and His church.12
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Mat. 16:19.
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John 20:23.
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Mat. 18:15-18.
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Mat. 28:19.
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John 3:18, 36. Mark 16:16.
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2 Thes. 1:7-9. John 20:21-23. Mat. 16:19. Rom. 2:2, 13-17.
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Mat. 18:15.
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1 Cor. 5:11, 12.
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Mat. 18:15-18.
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Rom. 12:7-9. 1 Cor. 12:28. 1 Tim. 5:17. 2 Thes. 3:14.
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Mat. 18:17. 1 Cor. 5:3-5.
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2 Cor. 2:6-8, 10,11. Luke 15:18.
Lord's Day 30
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Q. 80. What difference is there between the Lord’s Supper and the popish mass?
A. The Lord’s Supper testifies to us that we have a full pardon of all sin by the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which He Himself has once accomplished on the cross;1 and that we by the Holy Ghost are ingrafted into Christ,2 who according to His human nature is now not on earth, but in heaven at the right hand of God His Father,3 and will there be worshiped by us4—but the mass teaches that the living and dead have not the pardon of sins through the sufferings of Christ, unless Christ is also daily offered for them by the priests; and further, that Christ is bodily under the form of bread and wine, and therefore is to be worshiped in them; so that the mass, at bottom, is nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry.5 -
Q. 81. For whom is the Lord’s Supper instituted?
A. For those who are truly sorrowful for their sins,6 and yet trust that these are forgiven them for the sake of Christ, and that their remaining infirmities are covered by His passion and death;7 and who also earnestly desire to have their faith more and more strengthened, and their lives more holy;8 but hypocrites, and such as turn not to God with sincere hearts, eat and drink judgment to themselves.9 -
Q. 82. Are they also to be admitted to this supper, who, by confession and life, declare themselves unbelieving and ungodly?
A. No; for by this the covenant of God would be profaned, and His wrath kindled against the whole congregation;10 therefore it is the duty of the Christian church, according to the appointment of Christ and His apostles, to exclude such persons,11 by the keys of the kingdom of heaven, till they show amendment of life.
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Heb. 7:27. Heb. 9:12, 26. Mat. 26:28. Luke 22:19, 20. 2 Cor. 5:21.
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1 Cor. 6:17. 1 Cor. 12:13.
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Heb. 1:3. Heb. 8:1ff.
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John 4:21-23. Col. 3:1. Phil. 3:20. Luke 24:51-53. Acts 7:55.
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Isa. 1:11, 14. Mat. 15:9. Col. 2:22, 23. Jer. 2:13. Heb. 10:12, 14.
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Mat. 5:3, 6. Luke 7:37, 38. Luke 15:18, 19.
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Psa. 103:3.
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Psa. 116:12-14. 1 Pet. 2:11, 12.
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1 Cor. 10:20ff. 1 Cor. 11:28ff. Tit. 1:16. Psa. 50:15, 16.
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1 Cor. 10:21. 1 Cor. 11:30,31. Isa. 1:11, 13. Jer. 7:21. Psa. 50:16, 22.
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Mat. 18:17, 18.
Lord's Day 29
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Q. 78. Do then the bread and wine become the very body and blood of Christ?
A. Not at all; but as the water in baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ, neither is the washing away of sin itself, being only the sign and confirmation thereof appointed of God;1 so the bread in the Lord’s Supper is not changed into the very body of Christ,2 though agreeably to the nature and properties of sacraments,3 it is called the body of Christ Jesus. -
Q. 79. Why then doth Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the new covenant in His blood; and Paul, the “communion of the body and blood of Christ”?
A. Christ speaks thus not without great reason, namely, not only thereby to teach us that as bread and wine support this temporal life, so His crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink whereby our souls are fed to eternal life;4 but more especially by these visible signs and pledges to assure us that we are as really partakers of His true body and blood (by the operation of the Holy Ghost) as we receive by the mouths of our bodies these holy signs in remembrance of Him;5 and that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly ours as if we had in our own persons suffered and made satisfaction for our sins to God.6
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1 Cor. 10:1-4. 1 Pet. 3:21. John 6:35, 62,63.
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1 Cor. 10:16ff. 1 Cor. 11:20ff.
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Gen. 17:10, 11,14. Ex. 12:26, 27,43, 48. Acts 7:8. Mat. 26:26. Mark 14:24.
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John 6:51, 55,56.
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1 Cor. 10:16, 17. 1 Cor. 11:26-28. Eph. 5:30.
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Rom. 5:9, 18, 19. Rom. 8:4.