HC 36

Q36. What benefit do you receive from the holy conception and birth of Christ?

He is our Mediator, and with His innocence and perfect holiness covers, in the sight of God, my sin, in which I was conceived and born.

Proof texts

• 1 Tim. 2:5-6 — [5] For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, [6] who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
• Heb. 9:13-15 — [13] For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, [14] how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. [15] Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
• Rom. 8:3-4 — [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, [4] in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
• 2 Cor. 5:21 — [21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
• Gal. 4:4-5 — [4] But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
• 1 Pet. 1:18-19 — [18] knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, [19] but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

For discussion

1. The Assembly cited 1 Tim. 2:5-6 in support of this answer. Read it in context — how does it bear on what is claimed here?
2. 6 passages are cited here. Which does the most work, and is anything claimed that the proofs do not obviously carry?
3. WSC Q20 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?
4. WSC Q21 treats the same ground. What does it add, and why might it put things differently?

Read alongside

WSC Q20 · WSC Q21 · WLC Q30 · WLC Q36 · WCF 7.1 · WCF 8.1 · BC 5.2 · BC 5.3 · BC 5.4 · BC 5.5 · BC 5.6 · 1689 7.1 · 1689 7.2 · 1689 7.3 · 1689 8.1