about God, Jesus, Faith, and Us
The following questions are sparked by the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. They provide answers for many of the questions people frequently ask about God, Jesus, faith and our relationship with God, each other, and the world.
More information about these F.A.Q.s - click here
Quick guide to...
Questions about
GOD
Overview 6-27; God
of love 7-9;"Father" 11-12,
126; God's care 22;
Creation 25-27; holy 127; God's
rule 128-129
Questions about JESUS
Overview 28-52; "perfect
image of God" 21; unique 29-30; "Lord" 31; Word
of God 56;
really
human & really
God 32-35;
his
roles 38-41; his
suffering 42-45;
his
resurrection 46-47.
Questions about the HOLY SPIRIT
Who is the Spirit? 54; receiving
the Spirit 55-59.
Questions about
US
and OUR LIFE
Overview 1-4; "image
of God" 16-20; trusting
God 23-24; facing
judgment 48; salvation
49; being
forgiven 80-81; forgiving 82-83,
131; relying
on God 130, 132.
Questions about
ISSUES
Men & women 13; what
about evil? 14; science
and religion 27; Jews
and Israel
36-37;
non-Christians 49-52,
60; the church
62-65; the
Bible 57,
61; community 66-67,
sacraments
68-69; baptism 71-76; communion
77-79; our resurrection 84-86;
human
suffering 65, 86; heaven 87-88; racism
115.
Questions about PRAYER
What is it? 120; how
it works 121-123; Lord'
prayer 124-134.
Questions about GOD'S COMMANDMENTS
Obeying God 89-92,
119; honoring
God 93-103; honoring
parents 104-106; murder
107-108; adultery 109-110; stealing
111-112; telling
the truth 113-115; coveting
116-117; summary 119.
Question
1. What is God's purpose for your life?
God wills that I should live by the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, for the love of God, and in the communion of the Holy
Spirit.
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Question 2. How do you live by the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ?
I am not my own. I have been bought with a price.
The Lord Jesus Christ loved me and gave himself for me. I entrust myself
completely to his care, giving thanks each day for his wonderful goodness.
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Question 3. How do you live for the love of God?
I love because God first loved me. God loves me in
Christ with a love that never ends. Amazed by grace, I no longer live for
myself. I live for the Lord who died and rose again, triumphant over death,
for my sake. Therefore, I take those around me to heart, especially those
in particular need, knowing that Christ died for them no less than for me.
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Question 4. How do you live in the communion of the
Holy Spirit?
By the Holy Spirit, I am made one with the Lord Jesus
Christ. I am baptized into Christ's body, the church, along with all others
who confess him by faith. As a member of this community, I trust in God's
Word, share in the Lord's Supper, and turn to God constantly in prayer. As
I grow in grace and knowledge, I am led to do the good works that God intends
for my life.
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Question 5. What does a Christian believe?
All that is promised in the gospel. A summary is
found in the Apostles' Creed, which affirms the main content of the Christian
faith.
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Question 6. What is the first article of the Apostles'
Creed?
"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth."
Question 7. What do you believe when you confess
your faith in "God the Father Almighty"?
That God is a God of love, and that God's love is
powerful beyond measure.
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Question 8. How do you understand the love and
power of God?
Through Jesus Christ. In his life of compassion,
his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead, I see how vast
is God's love for the world — a love that is ready to suffer for our
sakes, yet so strong that nothing will prevail against it.
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Question 9. What comfort do you receive from this
truth?
This powerful and loving God is the one whose promises
I may trust in all the circumstances of my life, and to whom I belong in life
and in death.
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Question 10. Do you make this confession only as an individual?
No. With the apostles, prophets and martyrs, with
all those through the ages who have loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and with
all who strive to serve him on earth here and now, I confess my faith in the
God of loving power and powerful love.
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Question 11. When the creed speaks of "God the Father," does
it mean that God is male?
No. Only creatures having bodies can be either male
or female. But God has no body, since by nature God is Spirit. Holy Scripture
reveals God as a living God beyond all sexual distinctions. Scripture uses
diverse images for God, female as well as male. We read, for example, that
God will no more forget us than a woman can forget her nursing child (Is.
49:15). "'As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you,' says
the Lord" (Is. 66:13).
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Question 12. Why then does the creed speak of God
the Father?
First, because God is identified in the New Testament
as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Second, because Jesus Christ is the
eternal Son of this Father. Third, because when we are joined to Christ through
faith, we are adopted as sons and daughters into the relationship he enjoys
with his Father.
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Question 13. When you confess the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, are you elevating men over women and endorsing male
domination?
No. Human power and authority are trustworthy only
as they reflect God's mercy and kindness, not abusive patterns of domination.
As Jesus taught his disciples, "The greatest among you will be your servant"
(Matt. 23:11). God the Father sets the standard by which all misuses of power
are exposed and condemned. "Call no one your father on earth," said
Jesus, "for you have one Father — the one in heaven" (Matt.
23:9). In fact God calls women and men to all ministries of the church.
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Question 14. If God's love is powerful beyond measure,
why is there so much evil in the world?
No one can say why, for evil is a terrible abyss
beyond all rational explanation. Its ultimate origin is obscure. Its enormity
perplexes us. Nevertheless, we boldly affirm that God's triumph over evil
is certain. In Jesus Christ God suffers with us, knowing all our sorrows.
In raising him from the dead, God gives new hope to the world. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, crucified and risen, is himself God's promise that suffering will
come to an end, that death shall be no more, and that all things will be made
new.
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Question 15. What do you believe when you say that
God is "Maker of heaven and earth"?
First, that God called heaven and earth, with all
that is in them, into being out of nothing simply by the power of God's Word.
Second, that by that same power all things are upheld and governed in perfect
wisdom, according to God's eternal purpose.
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Question 16. What does it mean to say that we human
beings are created in the image of God?
That God created us to live together in love and
freedom — with God, with one another, and with the world. Our distinctive
capacities — reason, imagination, volition and so on — are given
primarily for this purpose. We are created to be loving companions of others
so that something of God's goodness may be reflected in our lives.
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Question 17. What does our creation in God's image
reflect about God's reality?
Our being created in and for relationship is a reflection
of the Holy Trinity. In the mystery of the one God, the three divine persons
— Father, Son and Holy Spirit — live in, with and for one another
eternally in perfect love and freedom.
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Question 18. What does our creation in God's image
reflect about God's love for us?
We are created to live wholeheartedly for God. When
we honor our Creator as the source of all good things, we are like mirrors
reflecting back the great beam of love that God shines on us. We are also
created to honor God by showing love toward other human beings.
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Question
19. As creatures made in God's image, what responsibility do we have for the
earth?
God commands us to care for the earth in ways that
reflect God's loving care for us. We are responsible for ensuring that earth's
gifts be used fairly and wisely, that no creature suffers from the abuse of
what we are given, and that future generations may continue to enjoy the abundance
and goodness of the earth in praise to God.
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Question 20. Was the image of God lost when we turned from God by falling
into sin?
Yes and no. Sin means that all our relations with
others have become distorted and confused. Although we did not cease to be
with God, our fellow human beings, and other creatures, we did cease to be
for them; and although we did not lose our distinctive human capacities completely,
we did lose the ability to use them rightly, especially in relation to God.
Having ruined our connection with God by disobeying God's will, we are persons
with hearts curved in upon ourselves. We have become slaves to the sin of
which we are guilty, helpless to save ourselves, and are free, so far as freedom
remains, only within the bounds of sin.
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Question 21. What does it mean to say that Jesus
Christ is the image of God?
Despite our turning from God, God did not turn from
us, but instead sent Jesus Christ in the fullness of time to restore our broken
humanity. Jesus lived completely for God, by giving himself completely for
us, even to the point of dying for us. By living so completely for others,
he manifested what he was — the perfect image of God. When by grace
we are conformed to him through faith, our humanity is renewed according to
the divine image that we lost.
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Question 22. What do you understand by God's providence?
That God not only preserves the world, but also continually
attends to it, ruling and sustaining it with wise and benevolent care. God
is concerned for every creature: "The eyes of all look to you, and you
give them their food in due season. You open your hand, you satisfy the desire
of every living thing" (Ps. 145:15). In particular, God provides for
the world by bringing good out of evil, so that nothing evil is permitted
to occur that God does not bend finally to the good. Scripture tells us, for
example, how Joseph said to his brothers: "As for you, you meant evil
against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people
should be kept alive, as they are today" (Gen. 50:20).
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Question 23. What comfort do you receive by trusting
in God's providence?
The eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ watches
over me each day of my life, blessing and guiding me wherever I may be. God
strengthens me when I am faithful, comforts me when discouraged or sorrowful,
raises me up if I fall, and brings me at last to eternal life. Entrusting
myself wholly to God's care, I receive the grace to be patient in adversity,
thankful in the midst of blessing, courageous against injustice, and confident
that no evil afflicts me that God will not turn to my good.
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Question 24. What difference does your faith in
God's providence make when you struggle against bitterness and despair?
When I suffer harm or adversity, my faith in God's
providence upholds me against bitterness and despair. It reminds me when hope
disappears that my heartache and pain are contained by a larger purpose and
a higher power than I can presently discern. Even in grief, shame and loss,
I can still cry out to God in lament, waiting on God to supply my needs, and
to bring me healing and comfort.
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Question 25. Did God need the world in order to
be God?
No. God would still be God, eternally perfect and
inexhaustibly rich, even if no creatures had ever been made. Yet without God,
all created beings would simply fail to exist. Creatures can neither come
into existence, nor continue, nor find fulfillment apart from God. God, however,
is self-existent and self-sufficient.
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Question 26. Why then did God create the
world?
God's decision to create the world was an act of
grace. In this decision God chose to grant existence to the world simply in
order to bless it. God created the world to reveal God's glory, to share the
love and freedom at the heart of God's triune being, and to give us eternal
life in fellowship with God.
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Question 27. Does your confession of God as Creator
contradict the findings of modern science?
No. My confession of God as Creator answers three
questions: Who?, How? and Why? It affirms that (a) the triune God, who is
self-sufficient, (b) called the world into being out of nothing by the creative
power of God's Word (c) for the sake of sharing love and freedom. Natural
science has much to teach us about the particular mechanisms and processes
of nature, but it is not in a position to answer these questions about ultimate
reality, which point to mysteries that science as such is not equipped to
explore. Nothing basic to the Christian faith contradicts the findings of
modern science, nor does anything essential to modern science contradict the
Christian faith.
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Question 28. What is the second article of the Apostles' Creed?
"And I believe in Jesus Christ, his only 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.
On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and
is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the
living and the dead."
Question 29. What do you believe when you confess your
faith in Jesus Christ as "God's only Son"?
That Jesus Christ is a unique person who was sent
to do a unique work.
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Question 30. How do you understand the uniqueness
of Jesus Christ?
No one else will ever be God incarnate. No one else
will ever die for the sins of the world. Only Jesus Christ is such a person,
only he could do such a work, and he in fact has done it.
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Question 31. What do you affirm when you confess
your faith in Jesus Christ as "our Lord"?
That having been raised from the dead he reigns with
compassion and justice over all things in heaven and on earth, especially
over those who confess him by faith; and that by loving and serving him above
all else, I give glory and honor to God.
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Question 32. What do you affirm when you say he
was "conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary"?
First, that being born of a woman, Jesus was truly
a human being. Second, that our Lord's incarnation was a holy and mysterious
event, brought about solely by free divine grace surpassing any human possibilities.
Third, that from the very beginning of his life on earth, he was set apart
by his unique origin for the sake of accomplishing our salvation.
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Question 33. What is the significance of affirming
that Jesus is truly God?
Only God can properly deserve worship. Only God can
reveal to us who God is. And only God can save us from our sins. Being truly
God, Jesus meets these conditions. He is the proper object of our worship,
the self-revelation of God, and the Savior of the world.
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Question 34. What is the significance of affirming
that Jesus is also truly a human being?
Being truly human, Jesus entered fully into our fallen
situation and overcame it from within. By his pure obedience, he lived a life
of unbroken unity with God, even to the point of accepting a violent death.
As sinners at war with grace, this is precisely the kind of life we fail to
live. When we accept him by faith, he removes our disobedience and clothes
us with his perfect righteousness.
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Question 35. How can Jesus be truly God and yet
also truly human at the same time?
The mystery of Jesus Christ's divine-human unity
passes our understanding; only faith given by the Holy Spirit enables us to
affirm it. When Holy Scripture depicts Jesus as someone with divine power,
status and authority, it presupposes his humanity. And when it depicts him
as someone with human weakness, neediness and mortality, it presupposes his
deity. We cannot understand how this should be, but we can trust that the
God who made heaven and earth is free to become God incarnate and thus to
be God with us in this wonderful and awe-inspiring way.
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Question 36. How did God use the people of Israel to prepare the way for the
coming of Jesus?
God made a covenant with Israel, promising that God
would be their light and their salvation, that they would be God's people,
and that through them all the peoples of the earth would be blessed. Therefore,
no matter how often Israel turned away from God, God still cared for them
and acted on their behalf. In particular, God sent them prophets, priests
and kings. Each of these was "anointed" by God's Spirit —
prophets, to declare God's word; priests, to make sacrifice for the people's
sins; and kings, to rule justly in the fear of God, upholding the poor and
needy, and defending the people from their enemies.
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Question 37. Was the covenant with Israel an everlasting
covenant?
Yes. With the coming of Jesus the covenant with Israel
was expanded and confirmed. By faith in him Gentiles were welcomed into the
covenant. This throwing open of the gates confirmed the promise that through
Israel God's blessing would come to all peoples. Although for the most part
Israel has not accepted Jesus as the Messiah, God has not rejected Israel.
God still loves Israel, and God is their hope, "for the gifts and the
calling of God are irrevocable" (Rom. 11:29). The God who has reached
out to unbelieving Gentiles will not fail to show mercy to Israel as the people
of the everlasting covenant.
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Question 38. Why was the title "Christ,"
which means "anointed one," applied to Jesus?
Jesus Christ was the definitive prophet, priest and
king. All of the Lord's anointed in Israel anticipated and led finally to
him. In assuming these offices Jesus not only transformed them, but also realized
the purpose of Israel's election for the sake of the world.
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Question 39. How did Jesus Christ fulfill the office
of prophet?
He was God's Word to a dying and sinful world; he
embodied the love he proclaimed. His life, death and resurrection became the
great Yes that continues to be spoken despite how often we have said No. When
we receive this Word by faith, Christ himself enters our hearts, that he may
dwell in us forever, and we in him.
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Question 40. How did Jesus Christ fulfill the office
of priest?
He was the Lamb of God that took away the sin of
the world; he became our priest and sacrifice in one. Confronted by our hopelessness
in sin and death, Christ interceded by offering himself — his entire
person and work — in order to reconcile us to God.
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Question 41. How did Jesus Christ fulfill the office
of king?
He was the Lord who took the form of a servant; he
perfected royal power in weakness. With no sword but the sword of righteousness,
and no power but the power of love, Christ defeated sin, evil and death by
reigning from the cross.
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Question 42. What do you affirm when you say that he "suffered under
Pontius Pilate"?
First, that our Lord was humiliated, rejected and
abused by the temporal authorities of his day, both religious and political.
Christ thus aligned himself with all human beings who are oppressed, tortured,
or otherwise shamefully treated by those with worldly power. Second, and even
more importantly, that our Lord, though innocent, submitted himself to condemnation
by an earthly judge so that through him we ourselves, though guilty, might
be acquitted before our heavenly Judge.
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Question 43. What do you affirm when you say that he
was "crucified,
dead and buried"?
That when our Lord passed through the door of real
human death, he showed us that there is no sorrow he has not known, no grief
he has not borne, and no price he was unwilling to pay in order to reconcile
us to God.
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Question 44. What do you affirm when you
say that he "descended into hell"?
That our Lord took upon himself the full consequences
of our sinfulness, even the agony of abandonment by God, in order that we
might be spared.
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Question 45. Why did Jesus have to suffer as he
did?
Because grace is more abundant — and sin more
serious — than we suppose. However cruelly we may treat one another,
all sin is primarily against God. God condemns sin, yet never judges apart
from grace. In giving Jesus Christ to die for us, God took the burden of our
sin into God's own self to remove it once and for all. The cross in all its
severity reveals an abyss of sin swallowed up by the suffering of divine love.
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Question 46. What do you affirm when you say that
"on the third day he rose again from the dead"?
That our Lord could not be held by the power of death.
Having died on the cross, he appeared to his followers, triumphant from the
grave, in a new, exalted kind of life. In showing them his hands and his feet,
the one who was crucified revealed himself to them as the Lord and Savior
of the world.
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Question 47. What do you affirm when you say that
"he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father"?
First, that Christ has gone to be with the Father,
hidden except to the eyes of faith. Second, however, that Christ is not cut
off from us in the remote past, or in some place from which he cannot reach
us, but is present to us here and now by grace. He reigns with divine authority,
protecting us, guiding us, and interceding for us until he returns in glory.
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Question 48. How do you understand the words that "he will come again
to judge the living and the dead"?
Like everyone else, I too must stand in fear and
trembling before the judgment seat of Christ. But the Judge is the one who
submitted to judgment for my sake. Nothing will be able to separate me from
the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord. All the sinful failures that cause
me shame will perish as through fire, while any good I may have done will
be received with gladness by God.
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Question 49. Will all human beings be saved?
No one will be lost who can be saved. The limits
to salvation, whatever they may be, are known only to God. Three truths above
all are certain. God is a holy God who is not to be trifled with. No one will
be saved except by grace alone. And no judge could possibly be more gracious
than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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Question 50. Is Christianity the only true religion?
Religion is a complex matter. When used as a means
to promote self-justification, war-mongering or prejudice, it is a form of
sin. Too often all religions — and not least Christianity — have
been twisted in this way. Nevertheless, by grace, despite all disobedience,
Christianity offers the truth of the gospel. Although other religions may
enshrine various truths, no other can or does affirm the name of Jesus Christ
as the hope of the world.
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Question 51. How will God deal with the followers
of other religions?
God has made salvation available to all human beings
through Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. How God will deal with those who
do not know or follow Christ, but who follow another tradition, we cannot
finally say. We can say, however, that God is gracious and merciful, and that
God will not deal with people in any other way than we see in Jesus Christ,
who came as the Savior of the world.
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Question 52. How should I treat non-Christians
and people of other religions?
As much as I can, I should meet friendship with friendship,
hostility with kindness, generosity with gratitude, persecution with forbearance,
truth with agreement, and error with truth. I should express my faith with
humility and devotion as the occasion requires, whether silently or openly,
boldly or meekly, by word or by deed. I should avoid compromising the truth
on the one hand and being narrow-minded on the other. In short, I should always
welcome and accept these others in a way that honors and reflects the Lord's
welcome and acceptance of me.
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Question 53. What is the third article of the Apostles'
Creed?
"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic
church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection
of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen."
Question 54. What do you believe when you confess your faith in the Holy Spirit?
Apart from the Holy Spirit, our Lord can neither
be loved, nor known, nor served. The Holy Spirit is the personal bond by which
Jesus Christ unites us to himself, the teacher who opens our hearts to Christ,
and the comforter who leads us to repentance, empowering us to live in Christ's
service. As the work of the one Holy Spirit, our love, knowledge and service
of Christ are all inseparably related.
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Question 55. How do we receive the Holy Spirit?
By receiving the Word of God. As the midwife of the
new creation, the Spirit arrives with the Word, brings us to rebirth, and
assures us of eternal life. The Spirit nurtures, corrects and strengthens
us with the pure spiritual milk of the Word (1 Pet. 2:2).
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Question 56. What do you mean when you speak of
"the Word of God"?
"Jesus Christ as he is attested for us in Holy
Scripture is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to
trust and obey in life and in death" (Barmen Declaration, Article I).
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Question 57. Isn't Holy Scripture also the Word
of God?
Yes. Holy Scripture is also God's Word because of
its content, its function and its origin. Its central content is Jesus Christ,
the living Word. Its basic function is to deepen our love, knowledge and service
of him as our Savior and Lord. And its ultimate origin is in the Holy Spirit,
who spoke through the prophets and apostles, and who inspires us with eager
desire for the truths that Scripture contains.
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Question 58. Isn't preaching also the Word of God?
Yes. Preaching and other forms of Christian witness
are also God's Word when they are faithful to the witness of Holy Scripture.
By the power of the Spirit, preaching actually gives to us what it proclaims
— the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith comes by hearing
God's Word in the form of faithful proclamation.
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Question 59. Does the Holy Spirit ever speak apart
from God's Word in its written and proclaimed forms?
Since the Spirit is not given to the church without
the Word, true proclamation depends on Scripture. Since the Word cannot be
grasped without the Spirit, true interpretation depends on prayer. However,
as the wind blows where it will, so may the Spirit speak or work in people's
lives in unexpected or indirect ways, yet always according to the Word, never
contradicting or diluting it.
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Question 60. Aren't people without faith sometimes
wiser than those who have faith?
Yes. The important question for the church is not
so much where an insight may come from as the norm by which to test it. Truth
is where one finds it, whether inside or outside the church, and whether supporting
or contradicting one's own most cherished opinions. Our faithful discernment
of what is true, however, depends finally on God's Word as conveyed in Holy
Scripture. The church is therefore reformed and always being reformed according
to the Word of God.
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Question 61. Doesn't modern critical scholarship
undermine your belief that Holy Scripture is a form of God's Word?
No. The methods of modern scholarship are a good
servant but a bad master. They are neither to be accepted nor rejected uncritically.
Properly used they help us rightly and richly interpret Scripture; improperly
used they can usurp the place of faith (or establish an alternative faith).
Wise interpreters use these methods in the service of faithful witness and
understanding. The methods of modern scholarship remain a useful tool, while
Holy Scripture remains reliable in all essential matters of faith and practice.
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Question 62. What do you affirm when you speak
of "the holy catholic church"?
The church is the company of all faithful people
who have given their lives to Jesus Christ, as he has given and gives himself
to them. Since Christ cannot be separated from his people, the church is holy
because he is holy, and universal (or "catholic") in significance
because he is universal in significance. Despite all its remaining imperfections
here and now, the church is called to become ever more holy and catholic,
for that is what it already is in Christ.
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Question 63. What is the mission of the church?
The mission of the church is to bear witness to God's
love for the world in Jesus Christ.
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Question 64. What forms does this mission take?
The forms are as various as the forms of God's love,
yet the center is always Jesus Christ. The church is faithful to its mission
when it extends mercy and forgiveness to the needy in ways that point finally
to him. For in the end it is always by Christ's mercy that the needs of the
needy are met.
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Question 65. Who are the needy?
The hungry need bread, the homeless need a roof,
the oppressed need justice, and the lonely need fellowship. At the same time
— on another and deeper level — the hopeless need hope, sinners
need forgiveness, and the world needs the gospel. On this level no one is
excluded, and all the needy are one. Our mission as the church is to bring
hope to a desperate world by declaring God's undying love — as one beggar
tells another where to find bread.
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Question 66. What do you affirm when you speak
of "the communion of saints"?
All those who live in union with Christ, whether
on earth or with God in heaven, are "saints." Our communion with
Christ makes us members one of another. As by his death he removed our separation
from God, so by his Spirit he removes all that divides us from each other.
Breaking down every wall of hostility, he makes us, who are many, one body
in himself. The ties that bind us in Christ are deeper than any other human
relationship.
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Question 67. How do you enter into communion with Christ and so with one another?
By the power of the Holy Spirit as it works through
Word and sacrament. Because the Spirit uses them for our salvation, Word and
sacrament are called "means of grace." The Scriptures acknowledge
two sacraments as instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ — baptism and
the Lord's Supper.
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Question 68. What is a sacrament?
A sacrament is a special act of Christian worship,
instituted by Christ, which uses a visible sign to proclaim the promise of
the gospel for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The sacramental sign
seals this promise to believers by grace and brings to them what is promised.
In baptism the sign is that of water; in the Lord's Supper, that of bread
and wine.
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Question 69. How do you understand the relationship
between the word of promise and the sacramental sign?
Take away the word of promise, and the water is merely
water, or the bread and wine, merely bread and wine. But add water, or bread
and wine, to the word of promise, and it becomes a visible word. In this form
it does what by grace the word always does: it brings the salvation it promises,
and conveys to faith the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sacraments
are visible words which uniquely assure and confirm that no matter how greatly
I may have sinned, Christ died also for me, and comes to live in me and with
me.
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Question 70. What is the main difference
between baptism and the Lord's Supper?
While I receive baptism only once, I receive the
Lord's Supper again and again. Being unrepeatable, baptism indicates not only
that Christ died for our sins once and for all, but that by grace we are also
united with him once and for all through faith. Being repeatable, the Lord's
Supper indicates that as we turn unfilled to him again and again, our Lord
continually meets us in the power of the Holy Spirit to renew and deepen our
faith.
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Question 71. What is baptism?
Baptism is the sign and seal through which we are
joined to Christ.
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Question 72. What does it mean to be baptized?
My baptism means that I am joined to Jesus Christ
forever. I am baptized into his death and resurrection, along with all who
have received him by faith. As I am baptized with water, he baptizes me with
his Spirit, washing away all my sins and freeing me from their control. My
baptism is a sign that one day I will rise with him in glory, and may walk
with him even now in newness of life.
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Question 73. Are infants also to be baptized?
Yes. Along with their believing parents, they are
included in the great hope of the gospel and belong to the people of God.
Forgiveness and faith are both promised to them as gifts through Christ's
covenant with his people. These children are therefore to be received into
the community by baptism, nurtured in the Word of God, and confirmed at an
appropriate time by their own profession of faith.
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Question 74. Should infants be baptized if their
parents or guardians have no relation to the church?
No. It would be irresponsible to baptize an infant
without at least one Christian parent or guardian who promises to nurture
the infant in the life of the community and to instruct it in the Christian
faith.
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Question 75. In what name are you baptized?
In the name of the Trinity. After he was raised from
the dead, our Lord appeared to his disciples and said to them, "Go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19).
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Question 76. What is the meaning of this name?
It is the name of the Holy Trinity. The Father is
God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet they are not three
gods, but one God in three persons. We worship God in this mystery.
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Question 77. What is the Lord's Supper?
The Lord's Supper is the sign and seal by which our
communion with Christ is renewed.
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Question 78. What does it mean to share in the
Lord's Supper?
When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, the Lord Jesus
Christ is truly present, pouring out his Spirit upon us. By his Spirit, the
bread that we break and the cup that we bless share in our Lord's own body
and blood. Through them he once offered our life to God; through them he now
offers his life to us. As I receive the bread and the cup, remembering that
Christ died even for me, I feed on him in my heart by faith with thanksgiving,
and enter his risen life, so that his life becomes mine, and my life becomes
his, to all eternity.
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Question 79. Who may receive the Lord's Supper?
All baptized Christians who rejoice in so great a
gift, who confess their sins, and who draw near with faith intending to lead
a new life, may receive the Lord's Supper. This includes baptized children
who have expressed a desire to participate, and who have been instructed in
the meaning of the sacrament in a way they can understand.
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Question 80. What do you mean when you speak of "the forgiveness of sins"?
That because of Jesus Christ, God no longer holds
my sins against me. Christ alone is my righteousness and my life; Christ is
my only hope. Grace alone, not my merits, is the basis on which God has forgiven
me in him. Faith alone, not my works, is the means by which I receive Christ
into my heart, and with him the forgiveness that makes me whole. Christ alone,
grace alone, and faith alone bring the forgiveness I receive through the gospel.
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Question 81. Does forgiveness mean that God condones
sin?
No. God does not cease to be God. Although God is
merciful, God does not condone what God forgives. In the death and resurrection
of Christ, God judges what God abhors — everything hostile to love —
by abolishing it at the very roots. In this judgment the unexpected occurs:
good is brought out of evil, hope out of hopelessness, and life out of death.
God spares sinners, and turns them from enemies into friends. The uncompromising
judgment of God is revealed in the suffering love of the cross.
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Question 82. Does your forgiveness of those who
have harmed you depend on their repentance?
No. I am to forgive as I have been forgiven. The
gospel is the astonishing good news that while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us. Just as God's forgiveness of me is unconditional, and so precedes
my confession of sin and repentance, so my forgiveness of those who have harmed
me does not depend on their confessing and repenting of their sin. However,
when I forgive the person who has done me harm, giving up any resentment or
desire to retaliate, I do not condone the harm that was done or excuse the
evil of the sin.
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Question 83. How can you forgive those who have
really hurt you?
I cannot love my enemies, I cannot pray for those
who persecute me, I cannot even be ready to forgive those who have really
hurt me, without the grace that comes from above. I cannot be conformed to
the image of God's Son, apart from the power of God's Word and Spirit. Yet
I am promised that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
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Question 84. What do you mean when you speak of "the resurrection of
the body"?
Because Christ lives, we will live also. The resurrection
of the body celebrates our eternal value to God as living persons, each one
with a unique and distinctive identity. Indeed, the living Savior who goes
before us was once heard, seen and touched in person, after the discovery
of his empty tomb. The resurrection of the body means hope for the whole person,
because it is in the unity of body and soul, not in soul alone, that I belong
in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
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Question 85. What is the nature of resurrection
hope?
Resurrection hope is a hope for the transformation
of this world, not a hope for escape from it. It is the hope that evil in
all its forms will be utterly eradicated, that past history will be redeemed,
and that all the things that ever were will be made new. It is the hope of
a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, in which God is really honored
as God, human beings are truly loving, and peace and justice reign on earth.
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Question 86. Does resurrection hope mean that we
don't have to take action to relieve the suffering of this world?
No. When the great hope is truly alive, small hopes
arise even now for alleviating the sufferings of the present time. Reconciliation
— with God, with one another, and with oneself — is the great
hope God has given to the world. While we commit to God the needs of the whole
world in our prayers, we also know that we are commissioned to be instruments
of God's peace. When hostility, injustice and suffering are overcome here
and now, we anticipate the end of all things — the life that God brings
out of death, which is the meaning of resurrection hope.
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Question 87. What do you affirm when you speak of "the life everlasting"?
That God does not will to be God without us, but
instead grants to us creatures — fallen and mortal as we are —
eternal life. Communion with Jesus Christ is eternal life itself. In him we
were chosen before the foundation of the world. By him the eternal covenant
with Israel was taken up, embodied, and fulfilled. To him we are joined by
the Holy Spirit through faith, and adopted as children, the sons and daughters
of God. Through him we are raised from death to new life. For him we shall
live to all eternity.
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Question 88. Won't heaven be a boring place?
No. Heaven is our true home, a world of love. There
the Spirit shall be poured out into every heart in perfect love. There the
Father and the Son are united in the loving bond of the Spirit. There we shall
be united with them and one another. There we shall at last see face to face
what we now only glimpse as through a distant mirror. Our deepest, truest
delights in this life are only a dim foreshadowing of the delights that await
us in heaven. "You show me the path of life. In your presence there is
fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Ps. 16:11).
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Question 89. What are the Ten Commandments?
The Ten Commandments give a summary of God's law
for our lives. They teach us how to live rightly with God and one another.
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Question 90. Why did God give this law?
After rescuing the people of Israel from their slavery
in Egypt, God led them to Mount Sinai, where they received the law through
Moses. It was the great charter of liberty for Israel, a people chosen to
live in covenant with God and to serve as a light to the nations. It remains
the charter of liberty for all who would love, know and serve the Lord today.
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Question 91. Why should you obey this law?
Not to win God's love, for God already loves me.
Not to earn my salvation, for Christ has earned it for me. Not to avoid being
punished, for then I would obey out of fear. With gladness in my heart I should
obey God's law out of gratitude, for God has blessed me by it and given it
for my well-being.
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Question 92. What are the uses of God's law?
God's law has three uses. First, it shows me how
grievously I fail to live according to God's will, driving me to pray for
God's mercy. Second, it functions to restrain even the worst of sinners through
the fear of punishment. Finally, it teaches me how to live a life which bears
witness to the gospel, and spurs me on to do so.
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Question 93. What is the first commandment?
"You shall have no other gods before me"
(Ex. 20:3; Deut. 5:7).
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Question 94. What do you learn from this commandment?
No loyalty comes before my loyalty to God. I should
worship and serve only God, expect all good from God alone, and love, fear
and honor God with all my heart.
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Question 95. What is the second commandment?
"You shall not make for yourself an idol"
(Ex. 20:4; Deut. 5:8).
Question 96. What do you learn from this commandment?
First, when I treat anything other than God as though
it were God, I practice idolatry. Second, when I assume that my own interests
are more important than anything else, I make them into idols, and in effect
make an idol of myself.
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Question 97. What is the third commandment?
"You shall not make wrongful use of the name
of the Lord your God" (Ex. 20:7; Deut. 5:11).
Question 98. What do you learn from this commandment?
I should use God's name with reverence and awe. God's
name is taken in vain when used to support wrong. It is insulted when used
carelessly, as in a curse or a pious cliché.
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Question 99. What is the fourth commandment?
"Remember the Sabbath Day, and keep it holy"
(Ex. 20:8; Deut. 5:12).
Question 100. What do you learn from this commandment?
God requires a special day to be set apart so that
worship can be at the center of my life. It is right to honor God with thanks
and praise, and to hear and receive God's Word, so that I may have it in my
heart, and on my lips, and put it into practice in my life.
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Question 101. Why set aside one day a week as a
day of rest?
First, working people should not be taken advantage
of by their employers (Deut. 5:14). My job should not be my tyrant, for my
life is more than my work. Second, God requires me to put time aside for the
regular study of Holy Scripture and for prayer, not only by myself but also
with others, not least those in my own household.
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Question 102. Why do we Christians usually gather
on the first day of the week?
In worshipping together on the first day of the week,
we celebrate our Lord's resurrection, so that the new life Christ brought
us might begin to fill our whole lives.
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Question 103. What is the best summary of the first
four commandments?
These teach me how to live rightly with God. Jesus
summed them up with the commandment he called the first and greatest: "You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind" (Matt. 22:37; Deut. 6:5).
Question 104. What is the fifth commandment?
"Honor your father and your mother" (Ex.
20:12; Deut. 5:16).
Question 105. What do you learn from this commandment?
Though I owe reverence to God alone, I owe genuine
respect to my parents, both my mother and father. God wills me to listen to
them, be thankful for the benefits I receive from them, and be considerate
of their needs, especially in old age.<
