Heidelberg Catechism Devotional Q18

Q.18. And who is this mediator – true God and at the same time truly human and truly righteous?

A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God.

Monday

We have already seen that Jesus fulfills the demands for a mediator, but let us look at further scriptures in order to firmly establish this truth in our hearts and minds.  Read Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:21-23.  In this passage we find that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy that God will be with his people and will save them from their sins.

Tuesday

Read Luke 2:11.  Again, the baby Jesus is called the Lord and he is referred to as the savior.  Jesus is the culmination of all our hopes and dreams.  He alone holds the ‘keys of death and Hades’.  Read Revelation 1:18.

Wednesday

Read Luke 1:30-33.  Mary is promised that her son, will also be the Son of God and he will have kingly authority and power.  He will rule the creation by his powerful word.  Nothing will come in his way and he will be the good king that all Israel had longed for.  In this, pronouncement God is reclaiming the Kingship, which the Israelites had rejected when they asked for Saul to begin ruling over them.  Read 1 Samuel 8:7.

Thursday

Did Christ accomplish our redemption?  Certainly.  He rescued us from sin and restored us to communion with God.  Therefore he must be both God and man.  Read Galatians 1:1-5.

Friday

The Gospel of John opens with a wonderful statement describing the recreation of the cosmos in the advent of Jesus Christ.  It is a beautiful retelling of the Genesis narrative, but from the perspective of Jesus’ human birth.  In these opening verses, Jesus is presented as God but also as having come in human flesh.  He is both, truly God and truly human.  Read John 1:1, 14.

Saturday

After his death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and showed them his physical body, but before his death he had prayed that he be glorified as he had been glorified before he became a human.  These words of Jesus show that he conquered death, but also that he knew who he was, fully God in a human body.  Read Luke 24:39 and John 17:5