Lord’s Day 2
Q4. What does God's law require of us?
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. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
Deuteronomy 6:5
“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”
Leviticus 19:18
“Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.”
Modernized Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
In this section of the catechism dealing with human misery, we need to consider primarily the subject of sin, along with its effects and punishment. Several related topics connect to this discussion: the creation of humanity, the image of God in humanity, the fall and first sin, original sin, the freedom of the will, and afflictions. Regarding our misery, we must consider in general terms what it is, where it comes from, and how it can be known.
The word "misery" is broader in meaning than the word "sin," because it covers both the evil of guilt and the evil of punishment. The evil of guilt is sin in all its forms; the evil of punishment includes every kind of affliction, torment, and destruction of our rational nature, as well as subsequent sins that serve as punishment for earlier ones. David's census of the children of Israel, for example, was itself a sin, and at the same time a punishment for his earlier sins of adultery and murder, meaning it carried both the evil of guilt and the evil of punishment. Human misery, then, is the wretched condition we have lived in since the fall, consisting of two great evils: first, that human nature is corrupted, sinful, and cut off from God; and second, that because of this corruption, all people stand under the threat of eternal condemnation and deserve to be rejected by God.
We come to know this misery through the law of God, because "through the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom 3:20). The law declares, "Cursed is everyone who does not uphold all the words of this law by carrying them out" (Deut 27:26). The two questions that follow in the catechism show us how the law brings our misery to light. Question 4: What does the law of God require of us?