BC 5.5
Belgic Confession
5.5. 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.
Proof texts
- Rom. 8:3 — [3] For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
- Heb. 2:14 — [14] Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
- Rom. 3:25-26 — [25] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. [26] It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
- Rom. 8:32 — [32] He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
- Rom. 4:25 — [25] who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
For discussion
- The Assembly cited Rom. 8:3 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
- 5 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
- HC Q29 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
- HC Q37 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?