Question 85

A new section of the Catechism commences with this Question. The last Answer has stopped every mouth, and made all the world guilty before God, much as the 19th Answer had shut up the human race to “God’s wrath and curse.” And just as Answer 20 immediately began to introduce the covenant of grace, and made mention of a Redeemer, so here Answer 85 sets before the individual sinner what God now requires of him that he may escape the wrath and curse due to him for sin. And it is here pointed out that God requires of us three things: first, faith in Jesus Christ; second, repentance unto life; and third, the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption. Faith and repentance are then described in Answers 86, 87, and in 88 the “outward means” are resolved into the word, sacraments, and prayer, which again are successively treated of, after which the Catechism closes.

God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, etc.—“And, indeed, that I may speak more plainly, what is faith, and love, and repentance, and all these to salvation? They are salvation itself, they are parts of it. When God requires of you that you should believe, and repent, and mortify sin, and walk holily, doth He require these as conditions? No, He requires them as parts of salvation itself, as essentials to salvation. When God bids us believe, what is it? It is to bid us be saved, it is to bid us have eternal life, and the comforts of eternal life in our hearts” (Goodwin).