Real Life Catechism

Part I - Misery

The Lord’s Day 2

  • Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22:37-40:

    “‘You shall love the Lord your God

    with all your heart,

    and with all your soul,

    and with all your mind.’ 1

    This is the greatest and first commandment.

    “And a second is like it:

    ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’2

    “On these two commandments hang

    all the law and the prophets.”

    1 Deut. 6:5

    2 Lev. 19:18

  • “‘You shall love the Lord your God

    with all your heart,

    and with all your soul,

    and with all your mind.’1

    This is the greatest and first commandment.

    “And a second is like it:

    ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’2

    “On these two commandments hang

    all the law and the prophets.”

    1 Deut. 6:5

    2 Lev. 19:18

  • No.1

    I have a natural tendency

    to hate God and my neighbor. 2

    1 Rom. 3:9-20, 23; 1 John 1:8, 10

    2 Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 7:23-24; 8:7; Eph. 2:1-3; Titus 3:3

The Lord’s Day 3

  • No.

    God created them good1 and in his own image,2

    that is, in true righteousness and holiness,3

    so that they might

    truly know God their creator,4

    love him with all their heart,

    and live with God in eternal happiness,

    to praise and glorify him.5

    1 Gen. 1:31

    2 Gen. 1:26-27

    3 Eph. 4:24

    4 Col. 3:10

    5 Ps. 8

  • The fall and disobedience of our first parents,

    Adam and Eve, in Paradise.1

    This fall has so poisoned our nature2

    that we are all conceived and born

    in a sinful condition.3

    1 Gen. 3

    2 Rom. 5:12, 18-19

    3 Ps. 51:5

  • Yes,1 unless we are born again

    by the Spirit of God.2

    1 Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Job 14:4; Isa. 53:6

    2 John 3:3-5

The Lord’s Day 4

  • No, God created human beings with the ability to keep the law.1

    They, however, provoked by the devil,2

    in willful disobedience,3

    robbed themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.4

    1 Gen. 1:31; Eph. 4:24

    2 Gen. 3:13; John 8:44

    3 Gen. 3:6

    4 Rom. 5:12, 18, 19

  • Certainly not.

    God is terribly angry

    with the sin we are born with

    as well as the sins we personally commit.

    As a just judge,

    God will punish them both now and in eternity,1

    having declared:

    “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey

    all the things written in the book of the law.”2

    1 Ex. 34:7; Ps. 5:4-6; Nah. 1:2; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 5:6; Heb. 9:27

    2 Gal. 3:10; Deut. 27:26

  • God is certainly merciful,1

    but also just.2

    God’s justice demands

    that sin, committed against his supreme majesty,

    be punished with the supreme penalty—

    eternal punishment of body and soul.3

    1 Ex. 34:6-7; Ps. 103:8-9

    2 Ex. 34:7; Deut. 7:9-11; Ps. 5:4-6; Heb. 10:30-31

    3 Matt. 25:35-46