Guilt, grace and gratitude

Our only comfort

In 1563 Frederick III, Elector of the Palatinate in Germany, had a new catechism published at Heidelberg for the churches and schools of his land. Its authors have long been named as Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus; many scholars today think Ursinus did most of the drafting, with a group of theologians and ministers working alongside him. Ursinus taught the catechism at Heidelberg, and his students gathered his lectures into a commentary that is still read Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism.

Its first question has become one of the best-loved sentences of the Reformation. "What is thy only comfort in life and death?" The answer: "That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ" Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 1. It goes on to say that Christ has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and set me free from the devil's power, that he so watches over me that not a hair can fall from my head without my Father's will, and that by his Spirit he assures me of eternal life and makes me willing and ready from now on to live for him.

For none of us lives to himself alone, and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Romans 14:7-8

Comfort, in other words, does not rest on anything in us. It rests on whose we are. "You are not your own; you were bought at a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And notice how the first answer ends: with a life lived for Christ. Gratitude is there from the start.

Three things to know

The second question asks what we must know to live and die in this comfort. Three things, the catechism answers: how great my sins and misery are; how I am set free from all my sins and misery; and how I am to thank God for such deliverance Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 2. The whole catechism follows that plan.

Where do we learn our misery? From the law of God, and the catechism lets Christ himself sum up what the law requires.

Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:37-40

Then it asks whether we can keep all this perfectly, and answers honestly that we cannot: by nature we are inclined to hate God and our neighbour. Paul says the same: "the law merely brings awareness of sin" (Romans 3:20). But the catechism does not linger there to crush us. The point of knowing our misery is to look for a deliverer, and the long second part presents him: a Mediator who is true and righteous man and also true God, received by true faith, confessed in the Creed and sealed in the sacraments. The lesson Grace alone, faith alone looks at that deliverance more closely. Many readers have noticed that the three parts follow the movement of Romans, and Paul's own cry holds all three in a breath.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:24-25

A life of thanks

The third part opens with the obvious objection. If we are delivered from our misery by grace alone, through Christ, without any merit of our own, why must we still do good works? Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also renewing us by his Spirit into his own image, so that with our whole life we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits and that he may be praised through us; and also so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruit, and by a godly life may win our neighbours to Christ Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 86.

The New Testament's own vocabulary makes the link. Grace is charis (χάρις), and thanksgiving is eucharistia (εὐχαριστία), built from the same root: thanks is grace coming back as an echo. That is why Paul's appeal for a whole life offered to God rests on what God has already done: "on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1).

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone. It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

Titus 2:11-12

Christ gave himself "to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds" (Titus 2:14). Matthew Henry's comment on that verse is the whole third part in a sentence: "He loved us, and gave himself for us; and what can we do less than love and give up ourselves to him!" Matthew Henry. We are not saved by works, yet we are "God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works" (Ephesians 2:10).

So the catechism teaches the Ten Commandments under gratitude, not under misery alone. The law is not a ladder of merit to climb into heaven; it is a guide for the feet of children already brought home. Calvin called this the third and principal use of the law: among believers, in whose hearts the Spirit already lives and reigns, the law teaches them more fully each day what the Lord wills and stirs them to obey Calvin, Institutes 2.7.12. The uses of the law are set out in One covenant of grace in many ages. John can say, "His commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3), and an ancient commentator on Matthew, long thought to be Chrysostom, reads the great commandment the same way: "God does not desire to be served servilely by men as a master, but to be loved as a father" Pseudo-Chrysostom. The catechism ends with the Lord's Prayer, calling prayer the chief part of the thankfulness God asks of us.

Answering grace

Lutheran theology, which shares this confession of grace, gives special weight to the distinction between law and gospel: the law exposes our sin and drives us to Christ, and the gospel promises forgiveness in him. The Formula of Concord (1577) also confesses, in its sixth article, a third use of the law for believers Formula of Concord, Art. 6, though many Lutheran theologians stress that the law goes on accusing believers too. Reformed teaching more often speaks of the same law as the rule of a thankful life within the covenant of grace. Both confess that no one is justified by works of the law and that true faith bears the fruit of love.

Gratitude is not repayment. "How can I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me?" the psalmist asks, and his answer is to receive still more: "I will lift the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD" (Psalm 116:12-13). Matthew Henry hears in this psalm the voice of a servant set free: "The bonds thou hast loosed shall tie me faster unto thee" Matthew Henry. Those who belong to Christ live not from fear but from thanks. For more on grace itself, see What is grace?.

Practice