Heidelberg Q2: You may live happily

Photo courtesy of HeliosJinn

Heidelberg Catechism Q2: How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happily? A: Three; the first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance. Scripture Proofs: Matt.11:28-30, Luke 24:46-48, 1Cor.6:11, Tit.3:3-7, John 9:41, John 15:22, John 17:3, Acts 4:12, Acts 10:43, Eph.5:8-11, 1 Pet.2:9-10, Rom.6:1-2,Rom.6:12-13

Enjoying the comfort of our salvation, we may live happy!  Unlike the previous question and answer, this one does not sound at all Puritanical, at least not in the negative sense that the word has come to have.  It is a pure expression of the gospel, but it is not austere, as we have come to think of the Puritans.

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Three things are necessary for us to live and die happily and comfortably...

1. to understand the misery of our sin-nature
2. to know how to be reconciled to God through Christ
3. to know how to express our gratitude for our salvation

This past Sunday, Lane preached one of the most remarkable sermons I've heard him preach.  His topic was, "Our God is a Consuming Fire."  I really think that sermon should be written out and made available on our website (right alongside Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands...").  The gist of Lane's sermon was that one of the historical, orthodox understandings of God's nature is that He is a consuming, devouring, raging fire (see Heb 12:29, Deut 4, and Deut 9).

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One reason this was such a potent sermon was that it fulfilled all three of Heidelberg Q2's criteria - it presented our miserable status as like that of people facing an uncontrollable oncoming wildfire, it laid out the gospel message of our salvation through Christ, and it gave an image of how to express gratitude by lying down at Christ's feet and remaining there.

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The other remarkable part of the sermon was the excellent example of the Mann Gulch Fire of 1949.  Check out the Forest Service report for an impressive example of surviving a consuming fire by lying down and staying put where the fire's wrath has already burned out!