Heidelberg Catechism, Question 69
Question 69
How art thou admonished and assured, by holy baptism, that the one sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is of real advantage to thee?
Thus, that Christ appointed this external washing with water (Matt. 28;19), adding thereunto this promise, that I am as certainly washed by his blood and Spirit, from all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as I am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away (Acts 22;16).
Scripture references for paragraph 1
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
Matthew 28:1919Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
Mark 16:1515And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:1616Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Acts 22:1616And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name.’
Titus 3:55He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
1 Peter 3:2121And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1 John 5:66This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ—not by water alone, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies to this, because the Spirit is the truth.
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.
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