Question 25: Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?
Answer: The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person, forever.
Scripture: Galatians 3:13; 1 Timothy 2:5; 3:16; John 1:14; Romans 9:5; Colossians 2:9.
Question 26: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
Answer: Christ, the Son of God became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and was born of her, yet without sin.
Scripture: Hebrews 2:14; 4:14; 7:26; Matthew 26:38; Luke 2:52; John 1:14; 12:27; Luke 1:31, 35; 2:52; Colossians 2:9.
Comment: I am typing this on a Personal Computer. I have virtually no idea how it works. That it works I am certain: I have typed hundreds of sermons on it. So it is with the "incarnation"--the "how" is (as the old theologians used to say) "ineffable". We believe it because the Scriptures teach it and because it "works" to make sense out of God's whole redemptive plan.
Question 27: What offices does Christ perform as our Redeemer?
Answer: Christ, as our Redeemer, performs the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his condition of humiliation and exaltation.
Scripture: Acts 3:22; Hebrews 5:6; Psalm 2:6.
Question 28: How does Christ perform the office of a prophet?
Answer: Christ performs the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.
Scripture: John 1:18; 14:26; 15:15.
Question 29: How does Christ perform the office of a priest?
Answer: Christ performs the office of a priest by once offering himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and to reconcile us to God; and by making continual intercession for us before God.
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:24; Hebrews 2: 17; 7:25; 9:28; Ephesians 5:2; Romans 8:34.
Question 30: How does Christ perform the office of a king?
Answer: Christ performs the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
Scripture: Psalm 110:1-2; Matthew 2:6; Luke 1:32-33; 1 Corinthians 15:25.
Question 31: What do we mean by Christ's humiliation?
Answer: By Christ's humiliation we mean that he was born, and that in a low condition; that he was made under the law, and underwent the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; that he was buried, and continued under the power of death for a time.
Scripture: Luke 2:7; Galatians 4:4; Isaiah 53:3; Luke 22:44; Matthew 12:40; 27:46; Philippians 2:8; Mark 15:45-6.
Question 32: What do we mean by Christ's exaltation?
Answer: By Christ's exaltation we mean his rising again from the dead on the third day, ascending up into heaven, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and coming to judge the world at the last day.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:4; Acts 1:11; Mark 16:19; Acts 17:31.
Question 33: How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
Answer: We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effective application of it to us, by his Holy Spirit.
Scripture: John 3:5, 6; Titus 3:5, 6.
Question 34: How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
Answer: The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.
Scripture: 1 John 5:1; Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 2:8; Acts 16:14; 18:27; John 3:8; 6:64f.
Question 35: What is effectual calling?
Answer: Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, to convince us of our sin and misery, to enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ, to renew our wills, and thus persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:9; John 6:44, 45; 16:8-11; Acts 2:37; 26:18; Ezekiel 36:26; Romans 8:30; 1 Corinthians 1:24; 12:3.
Question 36: What benefits do those who are effectually called receive in this life?
Answer: Those who are effectually called receive in this life justification, adoption, sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life accompany or flow from them.
Scripture: Romans 8:30-32; Galatians 3:26; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 6:11; Ephesians 1:5.
Comment: We must distinguish effectual calling from the general call of the gospel. Not all who hear the gospel believe. But all who are effectually called by God do believe. The call creates what it commands.
Question 37: What is justification?
Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace, by which he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
Scripture: Romans 3:24; 5:19; Ephesians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9; Galatians 2:16.
Question 38: What is adoption?
Answer: Adoption is an act of God's free grace, by which we are received into the company of God's children and have a right to all the privileges of his sons.
Scripture: 1 John 3:1; John 1:12; Romans 8:16, 17.
Question 39: What is sanctification?
Answer: Sanctification is the work of God's free grace by which we are renewed in the whole person after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 4:23, 24; Romans 6:11.
Question 40: What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
Answer: The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, fellowship with Christ, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, the privilege of prayer, and perseverance therein to the end.
Scripture: Romans 5:1-5; 14:17; Proverbs 4:18: 1 Peter 1:5; 1 John 5:13; 1 Corinthians 1:9; John 15:7.
Question 41: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
Answer: At death the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness, and immediately pass into glory. Their bodies rest in their graves till the resurrection.
Scripture: Hebrews 12:23; Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Luke 23:43; 1 Thessalonians 4:14; Isaiah 57:2; Job 19:26.
Question 42: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the Resurrection?
Answer: At the resurrection, believers are raised up in glory; they shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the Day of Judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity.
Scripture: Philippians 3:20, 21; 1 Corinthians 15:42, 43; Matthew 10:32; 1 John 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
Question 43: What shall be done to the wicked at death?
Answer: The souls of the wicked shall at death, be cast into the torments of hell, and their bodies lie in their graves till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.
Scripture: Luke 16:22-4; Daniel 12:2; John 5:29; Revelation 20:11- 15.
Question 44: What shall be done to the wicked at the Day of Judgment?
Answer: At the Day of Judgment, the bodies of the wicked, being raised out of their graves shall be sentenced, together with their souls, to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels forever.
Scripture: Daniel 12:2; John 5:28, 29; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:14-15.
Question 45: What is the duty which God requires of man?
Answer: The duty which God requires of man is the obedience that comes from faith.
Scripture: Galatians 5:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:11; Romans 1:5; 16:26; 15:18.
Comment: See questions 16-18.
Question 46: What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?
Answer: The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law.
Scripture: Rom. 2:14; 15; 5:13, 14.
Question 47: Where is the obedience of faith given in summary form?
Answer: A summary form of the obedience of faith is given in the Ten Commandments.
Scripture: Hebrews 3:18-19; 4:2; Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 10:4; Romans 9:32.
Question 48: What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?
Answer: The sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Scripture: Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-33.
Question 49: What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?
Answer: The preface to the Ten Commandments is, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
Scripture: Exodus 20:2.
Question 50: What does the preface to the Ten Commandments teach us?
Answer: The preface to the Ten Commandments teaches us that because God is the LORD, and our gracious Redeemer, his commandments are for our good and he does not will for us to depend on ourselves in keeping them, but to trust his grace and power.
Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:13, 16; 30:6.
Question 51: Which is the first commandment?
Answer: The first commandment is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Scripture: Exodus 20:3.
Question 52: What is required in the first commandment?
Answer: The first commandment requires us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God, and to worship and glorify him accordingly.
Scripture: Joshua 24:15; 1 Chronicles 28:9; Deuteronomy 26:17; Psalm 29:2; Matthew 4:10.
Question 53: What is forbidden in the first commandment?
Answer: The first commandment forbids us to deny or not to worship and glorify the true God as God and our God; and to give that worship and glory to any other, which is due unto him alone.
Scripture: Joshua 24:27; Romans 1:20-21, 25; Psalm 14:1.
Question 54: What are we especially taught by these words, "before me," in the first commandment?
Answer: These words "before me," in the first commandment teach us that God, who sees all things, takes notice of, and is much displeased with the sin of having any other God.
Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:17, 18; Psalm 44:20-21; 90:8.
Question 55: Which is the second commandment?
Answer: The second commandment is, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."
Scripture: Exodus 20:4-6.
Question 56: What is required in the second commandment?
Answer: The second commandment requires the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances, as God has appointed in his word.
Scripture: Deuteronomy 12:32; 32:46; Matthew 28:20.
Question 57: What is forbidden in the second commandment?
Answer: The second commandment forbids the worshipping of God by images, or any other way that draws the heart away from his glory rather than toward his glory.
Scripture: Romans 1:22, 23; Deuteronomy 4:15, 16; Colossians 2:18; 3:17; 1 Corinthians 10:31.
Question 58: What are the reasons added to the second commandment?
Answer: The reasons added to the second commandment are God's holy jealousy for his name, and the zeal he has for his own worship.
Scripture: Exodus 20:4-6; Exodus 34:14; 1 Corinthians 10:22.
Question 59: Which is the third commandment?
Answer: The third commandment is, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."
Scripture: Exodus 20:7.