Heidelberg Catechism, Question 70
Question 70
What is it to be washed with the blood and the spirit of Christ?
It is to receive of God the remission of sins, freely, for the sake of Christ’s blood, which is shed for us by his sacrifice upon the cross (1 John 1;7); and also to be renewed by the Holy Ghost, and sanctified to be members of Christ, so that we may more and more die unto sin, and lead holy and unblamable lives (1 Cor. 6;11).
Scripture references for paragraph 1
Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.
1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Revelation 1:55and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood,
Ephesians 1:77In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
1 Peter 2:2424He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
1 Corinthians 6:1111And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Romans 6:44We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:66We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
Romans 6:1111So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 4:22-2422to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23to be renewed in the spirit of your minds;
24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
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.
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.