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Breakout Session
Preaching Forgiveness from the Heidelberg Catechism
Lyle Bierma

Learning Points

1. HC 126 paraphrases the petition of the Lord's Prayer, “Forgive us our debts,” as “Because of Christ's blood, do not hold against us, poor sinners that we are, any of the sins we do or the evil that constantly clings to us.”

Why do we need to pray that? After all, HC 52, 56, 60, 81, and 84 make clear that our sins are already forgiven and that Christ will never hold against us any of the sin that still clings to us. Why, then, do forgiven people need to ask for forgiveness?

This is a difficult question, but the way we have usually approached it in the Reformed tradition is to distinguish between a once-for-all “objective” forgiveness, of which believers can never be deprived, and a “subjective” assurance of forgiveness, which can be lost and restored many times. What we lose as believers is not our forgiven status but our sense of that forgiveness. Regularly to ask God to forgive us our debts, therefore, is to acknowledge our need for his ongoing assurance of pardon.

2. HC 126 paraphrases the second part of the fifth petition, “As we also have forgiven our debtors,” as “Forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of your grace in us, to forgive our neighbors.”

Why does the petition point to the past (we have forgiven) and the paraphrase point to the present and future (as we are determined to forgive)?

Actually, the text of the Lord's Prayer in the CRC's new translation of the HC is taken from the NIV, which reads “as we also have forgiven.” The Lord's Prayer as quoted in the original text of the HC read “as we forgive,” just like the King James Version in English (and the Lukan version of the Lord's Prayer). These different readings reflect different Greek manuscript traditions. In the last analysis, however, maybe they are not as far apart in meaning as we might first think. Both reflect our sincerity as petitioners in asking God for assurance of forgiveness, whether we have forgiven others in the past or are now determined to do so in the future.

3. How does the HC's treatment of forgiveness in Q&A 126 support the overall theme of gratitude in Part 3?

Asking God to assure us of forgiveness can lead to gratitude when we receive such assurance. Furthermore, as we have seen, we demonstrate the sincerity of our request for assurance of forgiveness by establishing a pattern in our lives of forgiving others. Such works of forgiveness are really one form of obedience to the law, since, as the HC implies, forgiveness of others is included in several of the commandments (cf. HC 104, 107, 111). In the doing of such good works, HC 86 makes clear, we show our thankfulness to God for all that he has done for us.

—provided by Lyle Bierma