2.8 KiB
Lord’s Day 6
16. Q. Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man?
A. Because God’s justice requires that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin;1 but a sinner could never pay for others.2
1 Rom. 5:12, 15; 1 Cor. 15:21; Heb. 2:14–16 2 Heb. 7:26–27; 1 Pet. 3:18
17. Q. Why must he also be true God?
A. So that, by the power of his divinity, he might bear in his humanity the weight of God’s wrath, and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.1
1 Isa. 53; John 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:21
18. Q. Then who is this mediator—true God and at the same time a true and righteous man?
A. Our Lord Jesus Christ,1 who was given to us for our complete deliverance and righteousness.2
1 Matt. 1:21–23; Luke 2:11; 1 Tim. 2:5 2 1 Cor. 1:30
19. Q. How do you come to know this?
A. The holy gospel tells me. God himself began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise;1 later, he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs2 and prophets3 and foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law;4 and finally he fulfilled it through his own beloved Son.5
1 Gen. 3:15 2 Gen. 22:18; 49:10 3 Isa. 53; Jer. 23:5–6; Mic. 7:18–20; Acts 10:43; Heb. 1:1–2 4 Lev. 1–7; John 5:46; Heb. 10:1–10 5 Rom. 10:4; Gal. 4:4–5; Col. 2:17