My husband recently encouraged me, as only a seminary student can, to try centering my daily devotional around the Heidelberg Catechism. He pointed me to Kevin DeYoung's book, The Good News We Almost Forgot. Today, I took his advice, and I was glad I did. The book starts out with the first two questions/answers of the Heidelberg Catechism:
1. Q) What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A) That I am not my own, but belong - body and soul, in life and in death - to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
2. Q) What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
A) Three things: first, how great my sin and misery are; second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.
Wow. There is so much life-changing theology packed into those two statements. I was also glad that DeYoung chose to include the first two questions/answers in juxtaposition, because they really cannot be separated. As he says, "Question 1 of the Catechism shapes our whole existence. The first thing we need to know as a Christian is that we belong to Jesus and not ourselves."
But I love what he says next:
"All three things are necessary. If we don't know about our sin - which brings a true sense of guilt - we will be too confident in our abilities to do right and make the world a better place. We will ignore our most fundamental problem, which is not lack of education, or lack of opportunity, or lack of resources but sin and its attendant misery. But if we don't know how we are set free from this sin and misery - which comes through God's grace - we will try to fix ourselves in futility or give up altogether in despair. And if we don't know how to thank God, showing gratitude for such deliverance, we will live in a self-centered, self-referential bubble, which is not why God saved us from our sin and misery in the first place. If Christians would hold to all 'three things' and not just one or two, we would be saved from a lot of poor theology and bad ideas." (emphasis mine)
I long to live in such a way that I understand, embrace, and apply all three things. I am really looking forward to working through this book and this catechism in the weeks ahead.
Labels: books, sanctification