Tag Archives: heidelberg

We wrap up our study of the atonement with penal substitutionary atonement, the term that describes the Biblical view of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Listen as Pastor Nate Harlan teaches on the concept in our family study.

In today’s family study, Pastor Nate Harlan works through another theory of the atonement: The Governmental Theory as taught by the Arminian jurist Hugo Grotius.

As we consider the questions in the Heidelberg Catechism that concern the atonement, Pastor Nate Harlan ledas us through a conversation about theories about the atonement: Ransom Theory, Moral Influence Theory, and Penal Substitutional Atonement.

Pastor Nate Harlan leads the family study through Questions 12 and 13 of the Heidelberg Catechism, in which we affirm that we are all incapable of paying our debt to God and deserve the punishment of Hell.

Pastor Nate Harlan and the Trinity family study take a short detour from the Heidelberg Catechism to consider the inheritance of Christ and the doctrine of Hell.

The study finishes up Question 11 of the Heidelberg Catechism which addresses God’s mercy and justice. But why is there a Hell? As Pastor Nate Harlan says, “There is a direct correllation between our appreciation of the work of Jesus and the severity of the punishment that we deserve.”

As the family study at Trinity Evangelical Church moves through the Heidelberg Catechism, Pastor Nate Harlan asks: How can God be merciful and yet also punish sin? 

After a short recap of Question 9, Pastor Nate Harlan takes the class through Question 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which concerns itself with God’s just judgment of disobedience and apostasy.

After reviewing our study of Question 8, Pastor Nate Harlan continues to the next question and answer in The Heidelberg Catechism concerning the depravity of man and the justice of God:

Q. But does not God do man an injustice by requiring in his law what man cannot do?
A. No, for God so created man that he was able to do it. But man, at the instigation of the devil, in deliberate disobedience robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.

After a short review of Question 7 of the Heidelberg Catechism, Pastor Nate Harlan leads a discussion on Question 8: “Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness? Answer: Indeed we are; except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.”