2008-02-06 - Heidelberg 6.2

Heidelberg Catechism Series, Part 13

Question 6.2: Did God create people so wicked and perverse?

Answer: No. God created them good and in his own image, that is in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might truly know God their creator, love him with all their heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory.

We easily make the mistake of looking to the creature rather than the Creator. To some extent, we need to look to ourselves, but that look should draw us back to the source from where we draw all our provisions. God created man good, but he has sought out many devices. It is still true today. However, we were created for more, and the catechism brings this out here. Not only was man created in God's image, in true righteousness and holiness, but also we were created to know our Creator. We were created to love God with all our being. We were created to live with Him in eternal happiness. All of this speaks of the glory and praise of God. That is what we were created unto. We were created to glorify God. We are His; ee are not our own. We often live as if we were our own, but this is how we manifest that we are, in fact, wicked and perverse. There is no one reading this, who, in looking honestly at himself/herself, does not know that they all too frequently live unto themselves, forsaking the very end to which God created us, namely: unto His glory and praise.

There is more to this life than the spiritual gadding that so many settle for. Maybe this why so many float from one "permanent fix" for their problems and frustrations to another. So many look for the latest gimmick that will give their life "true" meaning, and they never find it. It is a way of running from that unto which we were created. We were created to glorify God. We were not created to indulge our selfish lusts, but our world bombards us with these very thoughts. Needs we don't even know we have are brought to our attention, and rather than seek the Lord and His glory, we float from one of the world's lies to the next. A jet ski will not give your life meaning. A new handbag will not make you the talk of the office (in a good way). Happiness is not found in the things of Earth. It is not the way we were created. We were created to glorify God. God is the highest end of all we can be. When we settle for the dung drops the Earth gives us, we are never satisfied, and are always looking for something new.

Where do we learn to "know God," "love him," "and live with him," as the catechism says, "for his praise and glory"? We only begin this soul-satisfying awareness when we come to Christ. Christ has taken our stupid sentiments and feelings for the things of the Earth and crucified them. He gives us to higher, better, and more desirable eternal concerns. None of us were created to be wicked and perverse, as the question states. We were created to know God, commune with our Creator, and most of all to give Him glory in our lives. We only find the means to do this in Christ. Your sins may reach unto Heaven, but Christ reigns in Heaven. We come to Him in faith, and our sins - which are many and cry loudly - are covered in Christ's blood, which cries louder. The love of God in Christ is where we find the restoration of what sin has stolen from us. We no longer need to seek solutions to all our split hairs. When we come to Christ, our search is over. In Christ, all our seeking ends in finding.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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