Catechisma
Heidelberg
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Lord’s Day 14

Q36. How does the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you?

He is our mediator, and with his innocence and perfect holiness he removes from God's sight my sin—mine since I was conceived.

Scripture Proofs — King James Version

1

1 Timothy 2:5–6

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Hebrews 9:13–15

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

2

Romans 8:3–4

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Galatians 4:4–5

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

1 Peter 1:18–19

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

CommentaryZacharias Ursinus (1616)

There are two benefits resulting from the holy conception and nativity of Christ. First, the confirmation of our faith that he is the mediator; and, secondly, the consolation that we are justified before God through him. The reason of this arises from the fact, that he could not be the mediator between God and man, who is not himself very man, and perfectly righteous, and who is not united with the Word. It behooved the mediator to be, by nature, true God and man, that he might preserve the salvation purchased for us. "For such an High-Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." (Heb. 7:26.)

What, therefore, is the meaning of this article, "I believe in Jesus Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary?"

First, I believe that this natural Son of God was made true man in a miraculous manner, and that he is one Christ having two natures, the divine and human, joined together by a personal union, and that he was sanctified by the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.