Heidelberg Catechism Sermons: Lord's Day 7 Question & Answers 21
LORD'S DAY 7
21. Q.
What is true faith?
A.
True faith is a sure knowledge whereby I accept as true all that God has revealed to us in His Word.1 At the same time it is a firm confidence2 that not only to others, but also to me,3 God has granted forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation,4 out of mere grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits.5 This faith the Holy Spirit works in my heart by the gospel.6
1 Jn 17:3, 17; Heb 11:1-3; Jas 2:19. 2 Rom 4:18-21; 5:1; 10:10; Heb 4:16. 3 Gal 2:20. 4 Rom 1:17; Heb 10:10. 5 Rom 3:20-26; Gal 2:16; Eph 2:8-10. 6 Acts 16:14; Rom 1:16; 10:17; 1 Cor 1:21.
The Heidelberg Catechism was written in Heidelberg at the request of Elector Frederick III, ruler of the most influential German province, the Palatinate, from 1559 to 1576. This pious Christian prince commissioned Zacharius Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick's court preacher, to prepare a catechism for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers.
Frederick obtained the advice and cooperation of the entire theological faculty in the preparation of the Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism was adopted by a Synod in Heidelberg and published in German with a preface by Frederick III, dated January 19, 1563. A second and third German edition, each with some small additions, as well as a Latin translation were published in Heidelberg in the same year. The Catechism was soon divided into fifty-two sections, so that a section of the Catechism could be explained to the churches each Sunday of the year.
In the Netherlands this Heidelberg Catechism became generally and favourably known almost as soon as it came from the press, mainly through the efforts of Petrus Dathenus, who translated it into the Dutch language and added this translation to his Dutch rendering of the Genevan Psalter, which was published in 1566. In the same year Peter Gabriel set the example of explaining this catechism to his congregation at Amsterdam in his Sunday afternoon sermons.
The National Synods of the sixteenth century adopted it as one of the Three Forms of Unity, requiring office-bearers to subscribe to it and ministers to explain it to the churches. These requirements were strongly emphasized by the great Synod of Dort in 1618-19. The Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and is the most influential and the most generally accepted of the several catechisms of Reformation times.
