Question 3: From where do you know your sins and misery?

Answer: From the law of God.

The catechism does not inquire how we are doing. Perhaps we would answer: that is great. But we do not get a chance for such a reaction. We are addressed immediately about our misery. Apparently we all share in this.

What is misery?¹ And how do we come to know it?

How Do We Find Out What Our Misery Is?⤒🔗

Misery: everyone knows what that is. Therefore it may seem superfluous to ask from where we know it. The press and the media inundate us with attention-grabbing stories and images of misery around the world. Perhaps we are even more familiar with the misery from our immediate surroundings. We ourselves come face-to-face with it. But best of all, we know our own misery. From where do we know it? Where other than from our own bitter experiences? Yet the catechism anticipates a different answer. This is because it is not thinking about all kinds of rather familiar sorts of misery, but about the cause of all misery. In the previous answer it was already speaking about “my sins and misery”. That is why it does not want to hear from us about what we have all been through. Not as if that is unimportant. But such experiences, however shocking these may be, do not reveal what lies behind all the suffering and constitute the true misery.

We may be compared to patients in the grip of a high fever. They feel miserable and seriously ill. Yet fever is not their real ailment. The misery is deeper. It may even be that someone is not miserable at all. A patient might be mortally ill without feeling fever or pain for the time being. He imagines himself to be a healthy person. By the same token people can enjoy so much prosperity that they are blind to their real misery. But — fever or not, pain or not — the great culprit is somewhere: my sin.

We cannot directly see the root of our own misery. Just as we cannot see our own face: to see it we require a mirror. One look into it can give us quite a scare, as unpresentable as we may appear. In order to discover our misery we have to look very specifically into a certain mirror. Otherwise we will see nothing of it. What kind of mirror is it?

The Law As a Mirror←⤒🔗

Those who do not know any better look for the cause of all misery at the hopeless structures of our society, the blunt non-cooperation of people, disastrous coincidences and so on. That is as far as the yardstick goes.

The law of God probes deeper. That is why the catechism says that we know our misery from the law of God. As an argument Romans 3:20 is cited: through the law comes knowledge of sin. Granted, it does not say that the law reveals our ”misery” but “‘sin”. Yet, in this case, that is the same thing. Because this sin makes us “worthy of punishment” before God and is therefore the root of all misery.

The law of God opens our eyes to the horrible reality of sin. Sin exists. Because God exists, his law exists. Therefore, any transgression or sin is a very real crime against the supreme majesty of God. His indignation about it is equally real. That is the deadly reality that applies to all people. “The whole world” is “held accountable to God”. No one has a sensible excuse or alibi to escape his judgment. “Every mouth is stopped” (Rom. 3:19).

The inescapable consequence of this worthiness of undergoing his punishment is: misery in the fullest sense of the word.

As long as this punitive value remains, misery continues.

In his goodness, God can give health, prosperity and other good gifts. He gives people opportunities to combat all kinds of needs effectively. But all in all, this is no more than controlling some symptoms. It gives relief when the fever can be suppressed in a sick person. But that does not really help if the ailment remains. Sooner or later the sickness will take its toll.

So the law teaches us two things about our misery: it exists in guilt toward God and in punishment, which is its irrevocable consequence.² Not a pretty picture. Does God give us his law to make us afraid?

The Law...Not a Bogeyman←⤒🔗

Severe thunder and earthquakes accompanied the proclamation of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. In doing so, God made a deep impression on his people, the Israelites.

Not to make them fearful. That was not how he dealt with them. It would be contrary to the character of his covenant. Therefore, no one — by invoking the thunder of Sinai —   may turn the law into a “bogeyman”.³

What God commanded from Sinai is the same as what he asked for in paradise, although his voice sounded different coming from the smoking mountain than it did during his visits in paradise “in the cool of the evening” at the end of the day.

A good father may find it necessary to state his demands with the necessary raising of his voice. His children may force him by their behaviour to say exactly what he does — or does not — want. Meanwhile, he always demands the same thing from his children. For instance, God did not present Adam with the seventh commandment in as many words. There was no need to do so. Yet Adam’s song about his union with Eve was the paradise fulfillment of this commandment.⁴ The law is paradise-like. God holds out the same law to Adam in paradise and to Israel at Sinai as he does to us in a church hall on Sundays.

Adam and we look into the same mirror. The difference is that he did not have to be shocked at seeing himself. He appeared perfect (initially), the way God wanted him to. But what about us?

The Law...Source of Knowledge of All Misery?←⤒🔗

Not everyone gets to know his or her misery from the law. There are those who look at themselves in this mirror not with terror, but with gratification. A prime example is the praying Pharisee from the parable.⁵ He positioned himself right in front of the mirror and — being satisfied with himself — informed God of what he looked like. Compared to robbers, adulterers and “that tax collector over there” he appeared as an expedient example of obedience. Yet he was seriously mistaken and was rejected by God.

Given this ending, no one wants to be like that Pharisee. But how do we prevent this? What the Pharisee testified about his actions was true in itself. Indeed, he was not a robber or adulterer and he kept what the law said about fasting and temple contributions. Moreover, he did not claim that these were his own accomplishments. He explicitly thanked God that he was like this: oh, God, I thank you. He did not attribute his excellence to himself.⁶ So what was so wrong with him? That is what we would like to know. Ultimately people are addressed here who, according to QA 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism, have confessed that Christ makes them wholeheartedly willing to live for him. For that they thank God. They love to do this and they believe that this is what they should be doing.

What distinguishes such thankful Christians from that thankful Pharisee? The poet of Psalm 26 makes that clear. The latter says out loud to God — and in this he is incidentally not the only poet to do so — that he does not sit with men of falsehood, nor does he consort himself with the hypocrites, and that he walks in innocence. The Pharisee could have copied that word-for-word.

The cardinal difference, however, is that after this the poet then immediately exclaims: “redeem me and be gracious to me” (Ps. 26:11b). That is not what we hear from the Pharisee. He was busy — with thanks to God — with the construction of a ladder based on his good works so as to elevate himself above “those other people”, such as this tax collector. Jesus, therefore, characterized him as someone “who exalts himself”. He did not read from the law what was wrong with him, but paid attention only to what he accomplished in his own strength. That was not because of the mirror of the law. His mistake was that he looked at himself in a false mirror. For him, the law consisted of a series of precepts that were within reach, feasible for sinful people. He had done his best and kept the precepts perfectly. In comparison to “that tax collector” he certainly had scored enough points. He was very satisfied with himself. Because of this he could not see his terrible shortcomings. We only discover these when we mirror what God’s law demands of us in the deepest sense. That is therefore also the next question.

Question 4: What does God’s law require of us?

Answer: Christ teaches us this in a summary in Matthew 22:
                     You shall love the Lord your God
                     with all your heart
                     and with all your soul
                     and with all your mind.
                     This is the great and first commandment.
                     And a second is like it:
                     you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
                     On these two commandments depend
                    all the Law and the Prophets.

The law of God is permeated with his love. That defines its character. Each commandment is saturated with his love for us and therefore demands our love for him. Christ has accurately indicated this in his profound summary.

Why This Summary of the Law?←⤒🔗

The law contains everything that God wants from us: in every area; at every step; at any moment. That is a lot. But what is at the core of the many things he demands of us? It is a rich blessing that none other than his own Son teaches us this in an illuminating summary.

A Pharisee whose aim it is to trap Jesus in his words, requests this summary. He wants to know what, according to Jesus, is “the great commandment of the Law”. In doing so this lawyer was not necessarily thinking of a ranking of important and less important commandments.⁷ He is not trying to get Jesus to say which of all the commandments would be the ultimate commandment. For the Jews, too, all the commandments were equally important. Otherwise Jesus would have rejected his questioning, but instead he addresses it. Jesus also speaks of “the great and first commandment”. Like the Pharisee, he does not understand by this a specific commandment from the whole of the law, but the core or the summary of the entire law. The Pharisee therefore does not simply ask (Matt. 22:36) about what is the great commandment, but: of what nature is it?⁸ In other words: all things considered, what according to you carries the greatest weight in the law? In your view, what is at the core of it? What do you think is the essential element in the whole law?

It is not a question based on sincere interest. The man is full of suspicion of Jesus, because he has acted so authoritatively.⁹

He asks the question in order to “‘test” Jesus. It is a trick question. Where is the hidden snare? Why is the questioner so eager to hear what in Jesus’ opinion would constitute the most important thing about the law? Because he hopes that this will show how lightly Jesus is dealing with the heaviest aspect of the law. Did he not regularly speak and act as if he were God himself? He healed the sick on the Sabbath, forgave sins, chased traders away from God’s temple on his own authority, and allowed himself to be welcomed into Jerusalem while the people shouted their hosannas. In the final analysis, how heavy did God’s law weigh for him?

The question thus carries the suspicion that Jesus is acting arbitrarily, at the expense of God’s honour, at the expense of respect for God’s law. With his question the lawyer launches an extremely refined attack on what motivates Jesus in all his work on earth.

It must have hurt Jesus deeply. That is why it is so important for him to say precisely what this “great commandment” means to him. Before friends and foes alike he has to reveal what the law of God is asking from him, and therefore also from us, in the deepest sense. That is why his answer to this question is of inestimable value for our understanding of the law.

You Shall Love the Lord Your God←⤒🔗

According to the law there are a lot of requirements. All those cases of “thou shalt” and “thou shalt not” cover all of life. There is much that can be said about this. The catechism saves it for later. First it gives the floor to Christ who reveals to us what “the great commandment” consists of. That gives us insight into God’s deepest intention with his law.

Any sort of law comes with demands. It is not interested to find out whether or not we are happy to carry out those demands. A law is to be carried out. If not the proper way then possibly the hard way. Law is law.

God’s law is different. It does not even give us the chance to carry it out reluctantly — or with evil intentions. Because the ground rule for every commandment is: you are to love me with all your heart, soul and mind. Every commandment of God requires a practising of this love. For Jesus the great commandment is to love God; this is at the core of the entire law.

This is how Jesus refutes the poisonous charge that he does not take God’s law seriously. In all that he does, he is driven by the very first requirement of the law. It must have had special meaning to the lawyer that Jesus makes a connection with Moses. He quotes from the well-known “shema” according to Deuteronomy 6:4-5.¹⁰ With this he openly confesses how his love for God is his deepest and only motive.

The love that God demands from Jesus, he also demands from us. This may surprise us. It implies that God loves us also. How else would he want us to love him? Nobody likes the love of people they don’t like. Tyrants do not love their people. They do not demand it either. But God loves us so much that he insists that we to love him.

That God loves us is expressed in the great commandment. For here he calls himself: the LORD your God. In that “your” we feel the warmth of his love. Thanks to Christ we again belong to him. God gave his own Son to be our God again. That is how much he loved us. Therefore, his highest demand is not: carry out perfectly what I command you. But it is: love Me with all your heart. Someone pointed out that we do not only learn about our misery from the law, but “just as much and to an even greater extent” from the gospel. ¹¹ After all, the crucified Christ is portrayed for us there. In his grievous sufferings he illustrates in a shocking way the great extent of our misery. This is true in itself, however we hasten to add that this gospel comes to us along with the Law and is inseparably connected with it. It resounds with full force in the “your God”. Anyone who removes that word “your” mutilates the law into harsh commands.

The Lawgiver has proven his love to us in Christ. What he demands of us is nothing other than that we reciprocate his love. When seen in that light, any and every violation of the law implies a denial of his love. At such a time he is — as far as we are concerned — not our God for “a moment”. That is precisely where our misery begins. That is why this law is pre-eminently the knowledge source of our misery.

… And Your Neighbour As Yourself←⤒🔗

To a certain degree everyone loves his own self. Jesus accepts it as a given that everyone recognizes this in himself, because we are to love our neighbour “as ourselves”.¹² Jesus thus refers in a rather practical way to everyone’s experience of loving himself — selfishly or otherwise. Therefore, the intensity and spontaneity with which we care for ourselves is a good measuring stick of our love for our neighbour.¹³

This second commandment was also already noted in the law of Moses (see Lev. 19:18). What is new is that, according to Jesus, it is like the first. It is a surprising statement because after “the great and first commandment” we expect to hear a second commandment that is somewhat less great. But Jesus speaks of a second commandment that is equally great. With this he is saying two things about this second commandment: it is as important as the first and it is inseparable from it. As a result it does not stand independently by itself, next to the first, but as an extension of it. In concrete terms Jesus means: no one can love God and remain cold and aloof towards his neighbour. And conversely, no one can love his neighbour in a proper way without true love for God.

Jesus thus reveals the deepest motivation behind his dealings with people. He healed the sick, more than once on the Sabbath. He ate with tax collectors. He allowed himself to receive a royal welcome from the people in Jerusalem. All of this angered the Pharisees. But in his dealings with all these people he did not forget God’s law, as the trick question insinuated. On the contrary, his love for the neighbour flowed directly from his love of God.

God asks the same of us. In practice, all kinds of impure motives dominate our dealings with our neighbour. Our self-interest plays a significant role in this. In addition, sympathy and antipathy determine whether or not we love our neighbour. Therefore, this teaching of Jesus unmasks us. For God says: anyone who does not love his neighbour does not love me. As much as our love for the neighbour is lacking, so much we are lacking in our love for God. Those who want to know their misery must therefore examine not only their personal relationship with God, but no less that with their neighbour.

On These Two Commandments Depend (‘hang’) the Entire Scripture←⤒🔗

The core of the law is that we love God and our neighbour. Jesus adds that this is at the heart of the entire Bible. What God demands in the two commandments as mentioned, he demands exactly in that way throughout his Word. All other commandments in Scripture can be brought back to these two. In a profound sense they express what God always wants from us. The entire Bible hinges on these two commandments.

Jesus says it like this: on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Literally he says that they hang in the two commandments. It may be compared to a door hanging by its hinges. Hinges provide both a grip for the door and the necessary leeway. They keep the door in the right track when it turns and prevent it from wriggling and getting jammed. In a similar way this double commandment keeps the interpretation and the application of the entire Law and Prophets on the right track.

The Law and Prophets together constituted the Old Testament. Today, that is the Scriptures, and thus the gospel. The gospel, from Genesis to Revelation, is all about loving God and our neighbour. That is the core and content of God’s will throughout Scripture.

Jesus thus underlines how God is totally serious about his two commandments. What he asks therein from us, he asks on every page of his gospel.

Scripture hangs “in” these two commandments — in both at once. It will start to hang askew as soon as we tamper with either of the two. Where the love of God is the one and only thing, the gospel is separated from its hinges. The same happens where one’s mouth only speaks of compassion for others, but God is not mentioned.

The gospel is always about both commandments together. The question now is how we live up to these two commandments.

Question 5: Can you keep all this perfectly?

Answer: No, I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbour.

Love God and love my neighbour. Those who are able to do this need not be alarmed when they look in the mirror of God’s law. What do we look like? The answer fills us with shame.

An Exaggerated Admission of Guilt?←⤒🔗

Should I accept what is said about me in this answer? I am disposed to hate God and my neighbour. It may not say in as many words that I in fact hate God and all people continuously, but it is not far off. According to my nature, I am set on doing this. That is the way I am. Apparently I still am, because it is a statement of fact.

On the other hand, according to Answer 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism, I have been allowed to confess that Christ makes me wholeheartedly willing to live for him from now on. At least, we may assume that the Catechism is not suddenly introducing a random person here. The ‘I’ of this Answer is the same person who has identified himself as belonging to Christ. But what he acknowledges here is quite different from what we heard him say in Answer 1. Does his love for God and his neighbour amount to so little?

The text states that I am “inclined”, i.e., it’s my starting position. But one who is “inclined” to hate God and his neighbour does not in actual fact have to do this. He can give pushback to that inclination. Yet the word “inclined” is not meant here to be soothing. It does not indicate a low level of our hatred, or that matters are still okay, but how deep this hatred is rooted. It is not meant somewhat condescendingly that this hatred is “just” an inclination, but — exactly the opposite — that our predisposition, our drive and deepest motivation is all-round hatred. This hatred is present in the deepest roots of my feelings, thoughts, utterances and deeds.¹⁴ There is no other way than for this hatred to find its way into my feelings, my thoughts, words and deeds. Therefore, my whole nature is slanted toward hating God and my neighbour.¹⁵ That I am “inclined” to hate God and my neighbour does indeed mean that I am “bent on” doing so.

I am bent on doing this. Yes — this is the same “I” who confessed in Answer 1 to confess to belonging fully to Christ.

The Catechism is aware of this apparent contradiction. This is evident from two texts from Scriptures to which it traditionally refers. It points back to Ephesians 2:3. “By nature” we were “like the rest of mankind”. Now we are no longer. Naturally, that difference from those others has to become evident in our actions.¹⁶

On the other hand, we have not rid ourselves entirely from that past. It still has an effect, because it is deep inside us: as deep as a tendency can be. Therefore the catechism also refers to 1 John 1:8 and 10. Anyone who claims that he is without sin makes God out to be a liar. Therefore it is necessary that redeemed Christians know their misery. As they experience more of God’s love, they will gain a better awareness and increasing appreciation of the magnitude of that misery. The purpose of this is not that they would remain in uncertainty about their salvation during their lives, but that they should be and continue to be joyful in life and in death, with the comfort of knowing that they belong to Christ. That is why the law keeps this revealing function in all stages of their lives.¹⁷