Question 10 asks whether God allows disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished. The catechism answers emphatically: by no means. God is "terribly displeased" with sin. Even with the addition of this adverb, the phrase "terribly displeased" may throw us. We may be tempted to think that God is just unhappy with those who sin. But the phrase "terribly displeased" in the 1563 German text of the Heidelberg Catechism is often rendered "highly enraged." God is very angry with sinners, and His just judgment against sin results in both temporal and eternal consequences. In this life, sin brings suffering, brokenness, and death. Yet, His judgments are just: He judges all sin, the punishment fits the crime, and judgment begins in time and continues into eternity. Question 11 is primarily about punishment, but it begins with an objection: "Is God not merciful?" Again, the answer is obvious. Yes! While God is indeed merciful, His justice cannot be compromised. Sin, committed against His infinite majesty, requires everlasting punishment of both body and soul, which means hell. Despite our sinful nature's distaste for the doctrine, Scripture clearly teaches that hell is a real and eternal place, with degrees of punishment. Why hell? Because God's justice requires that He must show his anger to the wicked. But—here is the hope of the Gospel—His justice also requires that He show His love to those who are in His Son and have been forgiven, for Jesus has taken away that anger. Either Jesus Christ is our substitute, who took the punishment we deserved when he died in our place, or we must pay for our own sins.