The Heidelberg Catechism
What is your only comfort in life and death?
The Elector Frederick III of the Palatinate commissions a new catechism in 1562 — a document that will be accessible to ordinary people, warm rather than polemical in tone, and comprehensive enough to serve as the confessional standard for the Reformed church in his territory.
Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus are the primary authors, though the precise extent of each man's contribution is still debated. They complete it in 1563.
The Heidelberg Catechism opens with a question and answer that is, by common consent, the most beautiful single exchange in the history of Reformed catechetics:
Q: What is your only comfort in life and death? A: That I am not my own, but belong — body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
That is the whole gospel in one answer. Not a doctrine — a relationship. Not a system — a belonging. Not an achievement — a gift received.
“That I am not my own, but belong — body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”
— Heidelberg Catechism, Answer 1, 1563 AD
“Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.”
What is your only comfort in life and death?
The question assumes you need comfort — that life and death are the kinds of things that require it. That is honest. Most catechisms begin with doctrine. The Heidelberg begins with the human condition: you are mortal, you are anxious, you need something to hold onto.
And the answer does not give you a doctrine to hold onto. It gives you a person. Not: your comfort is the doctrine of justification. Your comfort is that you belong to Jesus Christ — body and soul, in life and death. The belonging precedes everything else.
I am not my own. This is either the most terrifying sentence in the catechism or the most liberating one, depending on whose hands you believe you are in.
Whose are you? And is the answer a doctrine you affirm or a reality you live inside?