What is your only comfort in life and in death?

I’ve been getting jiggy with the Heidelberg Catechism. It’s a list of 129 questions and answers about God that came into circulation in the Reformed church in 1563. It’s a mediation on 3 main things: The Lord’s Prayer; The Ten Commandments; and the Apostles’ Creed. It is gold. Vintage Doctrine. Kevin DeYoung has just released a book that I’m half way through, The Good News We Almost Forgot. It’s great. Bite-sized chapters. Good for those with short attention spans.

Here’s the first 2 q+a’s in the Catechism:

1. What is your only comfort in life and in death? – 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. What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort? – Three things: first, how great my sin and misery are; seconds, how i am set free from all my sins and misery; third, how i am to thank God for such deliverance.

The other 127 q+a’s then follow this guilt/grace/gratitude structure. Read them all here.