This article reminds us of the absolute necessity of our Salvation and Justification being based solely upon God's work! If we trusted or relied upon our own works at all, Alas, we would be undone. Article 23: The Justification of Sinners We believe that our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins because of Jesus Christ, and that in it our righteousness before God is contained, as David and Paul teach us when they declare those people blessed to whom God grants righteousness apart from works. And the same apostle says that we are “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” And therefore we cling to this foundation, which is firm forever, giving all glory to God, humbling ourselves, and recognizing ourselves as we are; not claiming a thing for ourselves or our merits and leaning and resting on the sole obedience of Christ crucified, which is ours when we believe in him. That is enough to cover all our sins and to make us confident, freeing the conscience from the fear, dread, and terror of God’s approach, without doing what our first parents, Adam and Eve, did, who trembled as they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. In fact, if we had to appear before God relying—no matter how little—on ourselves or some other creature, then, alas, we would be swallowed up. Therefore everyone must say with David: “[Lord,] do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.”

Today we focus on our Justification, how God can now treat us just as if we had never sinned nor been a sinner! How? Not by works, but through the gift of Faith! Article 22: The Righteousness of Faith We believe that for us to acquire the true knowledge of this great mystery the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith that embraces Jesus Christ, with all his merits, and makes him its own, and no longer looks for anything apart from him. For it must necessarily follow that either all that is required for our salvation is not in Christ or, if all is in him, then those who have Christ by faith have his salvation entirely. Therefore, to say that Christ is not enough but that something else is needed as well is a most enormous blasphemy against God— for it then would follow that Jesus Christ is only half a Savior. And therefore we justly say with Paul that we are justified “by faith alone” or “by faith apart from works.” However, we do not mean, properly speaking, that it is faith itself that justifies us— for faith is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ, our righteousness. But Jesus Christ is our righteousness in making available to us all his merits and all the holy works he has done for us and in our place. And faith is the instrument that keeps us in communion with him and with all his benefits. When those benefits are made ours, they are more than enough to absolve us of our sins.

In contrast to the never ending sacrifices of the Old Testament, in Jesus atonement, we learn how our Lord, by his precious blood, provided the effective and once for all sacrifice for my sins! Article 21: The Atonement We believe that Jesus Christ is a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek—made such by an oath—and that he presented himself in our name before his Father, to appease his Father’s wrath with full satisfaction by offering himself on the tree of the cross and pouring out his precious blood for the cleansing of our sins, as the prophets had predicted. For it is written that “the punishment that made us whole” was placed on the Son of God and that “by his bruises we are healed.” He was “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter”; he was “numbered with the transgressors” and condemned as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, though Pilate had declared that he was innocent. So he paid back what he had not stolen, and he suffered—“the righteous for the unrighteous,” in both his body and his soul—in such a way that when he sensed the horrible punishment required by our sins “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And he endured all this for the forgiveness of our sins. Therefore we rightly say with Paul that we know nothing “except Jesus Christ, and him crucified”; we “regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus [our] Lord.” We find all comforts in his wounds and have no need to seek or invent any other means to reconcile ourselves with God than this one and only sacrifice, once made, which renders believers perfect forever. This is also why the angel of God called him Jesus—that is, “Savior”—because he would save his people from their sins.

The Gospel can be distorted, when one focuses only upon God's Justice or Mercy. But, as Article 20 teaches, the good news of the Gospel is that these two have perfectly met in Christ' sacrifice! Article 20: The Justice and Mercy of God in Christ We believe that God—who is perfectly merciful and also very just— sent the Son to assume the nature in which the disobedience had been committed, in order to bear in it the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death. So God made known his justice toward his Son, who was charged with our sin, and he poured out his goodness and mercy on us, who are guilty and worthy of damnation, giving to us his Son to die, by a most perfect love, and raising him to life for our justification, in order that by him we might have immortality and eternal life.

What do we do with the Biblical account of who Jesus is? Divine? Human? We see that He was both, yet He was just one person? This reality is our focus today, what theologians call the Hypostatic Union. Article 19: The Two Natures of Christ We believe that by being thus conceived the person of the Son has been inseparably united and joined together with human nature, in such a way that there are not two Sons of God, nor two persons, but two natures united in a single person, with each nature retaining its own distinct properties. Thus his divine nature has always remained uncreated, without beginning of days or end of life, filling heaven and earth. Christ’s human nature has not lost its properties but continues to have those of a creature— it has a beginning of days; it is of a finite nature and retains all that belongs to a real body. And even though he, by his resurrection, gave it immortality, that nonetheless did not change the reality of his human nature; for our salvation and resurrection depend also on the reality of his body. But these two natures are so united together in one person that they are not even separated by his death. So then, what he committed to his Father when he died was a real human spirit which left his body. But meanwhile his divine nature remained united with his human nature even when he was lying in the grave; and his deity never ceased to be in him, just as it was in him when he was a little child, though for a while it did not so reveal itself. These are the reasons why we confess him to be true God and truly human—true God in order to conquer death by his power, and truly human that he might die for us in the weakness of his flesh.

We worship on Sunday, remembering Jesus resurrection. But as we do, we are also remembering and celebrating the incarnation that made Jesus' death, and thus resurrection possible! Article 18: The Incarnation So then we confess that God fulfilled the promise made to the early fathers and mothers by the mouth of the holy prophets when he sent the only and eternal Son of God into the world at the time appointed. The Son took the “form of a slave” and was made in “human form,” truly assuming a real human nature, with all its weaknesses, except for sin; being conceived in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, without male participation. And Christ not only assumed human nature as far as the body is concerned but also a real human soul, in order to be a real human being. For since the soul had been lost as well as the body, Christ had to assume them both to save them both together. Therefore we confess (against the heresy of the Anabaptists who deny that Christ assumed human flesh from his mother) that Christ shared the very flesh and blood of children; being the fruit of the loins of David according to the flesh, descended from David according to the flesh; the fruit of the womb of the virgin Mary; born of a woman; the seed of David; the root of Jesse; descended from Judah, having descended from the Jews according to the flesh; descended from Abraham—having assumed descent from Abraham and Sarah, and was made like his brothers and sisters, yet without sin. In this way Christ is truly our Immanuel—that is: “God with us.”

One of the shortest Articles in the Confession, here we continue to explore what our God has done to accomplish our salvation. Article 17: The Recovery of Fallen Humanity We believe that our good God, by marvelous divine wisdom and goodness, seeing that Adam and Eve had plunged themselves in this manner into both physical and spiritual death and made themselves completely miserable, set out to find them, though they, trembling all over, were fleeing from God. And God comforted them, promising to give them his Son, born of a woman, to crush the head of the serpent, and to make them blessed.

Recognizing our hopeless condition in sin, the Belgic now turns our attention towards our Lord, as we begin to consider what He has done to save us, first through His electing love in Jesus Christ. Belgic Confession Article 16 Eternal Election We believe that all the posterity of Adam being thus fallen into perdition and ruin, by the sin of our first parents, God then did manifest himself such as he is; that is to say, merciful and just: Merciful, since he delivers and preserves from this perdition all, whom he, in his eternal and unchangeable counsel of mere goodness, hath elected in Christ Jesus our Lord, without any respect to their works: Just, in leaving others in the fall and perdition wherein they have involved themselves.

The world shares the message of Lady Gaga, encouraging us that "we are on the right track because we were born this way." But David, Job, and Paul, warn us that we have a problem from our conception. Article 15: The Doctrine of Original Sin We believe that by the disobedience of Adam original sin has been spread through the whole human race. It is a corruption of the whole human nature—an inherited depravity which even infects small infants in their mother’s womb, and the root which produces in humanity every sort of sin. It is therefore so vile and enormous in God’s sight that it is enough to condemn the human race, and it is not abolished or wholly uprooted even by baptism, seeing that sin constantly boils forth as though from a contaminated spring. Nevertheless, it is not imputed to God’s children for their condemnation but is forgiven by his grace and mercy—not to put them to sleep but so that the awareness of this corruption might often make believers groan as they long to be set free from the body of this death. Therefore we reject the error of the Pelagians who say that this sin is nothing else than a matter of imitation.

Here we begin to consider the tragedy that is humanity, in that we were created with such honor, in the image of God, but in sinful rebellion, have plunged ourselves into animal like shame. Article 14: The Creation and Fall of Humanity We believe that God created human beings from the dust of the earth and made and formed them in his image and likeness—good, just, and holy; able by their will to conform in all things to the will of God. But when they were in honor they did not understand it and did not recognize their excellence. But they subjected themselves willingly to sin and consequently to death and the curse, lending their ear to the word of the devil. For they transgressed the commandment of life, which they had received, and by their sin they separated themselves from God, who was their true life, having corrupted their entire nature. So they made themselves guilty and subject to physical and spiritual death, having become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all their ways. They lost all their excellent gifts which they had received from God, and retained none of them except for small traces which are enough to make them inexcusable. Moreover, all the light in us is turned to darkness, as the Scripture teaches us: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Here John calls the human race “darkness.” Therefore we reject everything taught to the contrary concerning human free will, since humans are nothing but the slaves of sin and cannot do a thing unless it is given them from heaven. For who can boast of being able to do anything good by oneself, since Christ says, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me”? Who can glory in their own will when they understand that “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God”? Who can speak of their own knowledge in view of the fact that “those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit”? In short, who can produce a single thought, knowing that we are not able to think a thing about ourselves, by ourselves, but that “our competence is from God”? And therefore, what the apostle says ought rightly to stand fixed and firm: God works within us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. For there is no understanding nor will conforming to God’s understanding and will apart from Christ’s involvement, as he teaches us when he says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”