Heidelberg Catechism, Question 115
Question 115
Why will God then have the ten commands so strictly preached, since no man in this life can keep them?
First, that all our life time, we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature, and thus become the more earnest in seeking the remission of sin, and righteousness in Christ (Rom. 3;20); likewise, that we constantly endeavor and pray to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we may become more and more conformable to the image of God, until we arrive at the perfection proposed to us, in a life to come (1 Cor. 13;9, 10).
OF PRAYER.
Scripture references for paragraph 1
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Romans 3:2020Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
Romans 10:33Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
Romans 10:44For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 7:77What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
Matthew 5:66Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
1 Corinthians 13:99For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1 Corinthians 13:1010but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
1 John 3:22Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.
Philippians 3:12-1412Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.
Psalms 51:1010Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Deuteronomy 31:11-1311when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel.
12Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law.
13Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
Psalms 119:44You have ordained Your precepts, that we should keep them diligently.
Psalms 119:55Oh, that my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes!
Source and edition
Heidelberg Catechism. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879
Public Domain (historic text); CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikisource transcription). Source transcription.
Transcription licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.
Berean Blue opens December 1, 2026 for Bible reading, study, and research. View this work in the app preview.