In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John i. 1.
139. Why is Jesus Christ called the Son of God, Only-begotten?
By this is signified that he only is the Son of God begotten of the substance of God the Father; and so is of one substance with the Father; and consequently excels, beyond comparison, all holy angels and holy men, who are called sons of God by grace. John i. 12.
140. Does holy Scripture call Jesus the Only-begotten?
It does. For instance, in the following places of the Evangelist John: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John i. 14. No man hath, seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. John i. 18.
141. Why in the Creed is it said further of the Son of God that he is begotten of the Father?
By this is expressed that personal property by which he is distinguished from the other Persons of the Holy Trinity.
142. Why is it said that he is begotten before all worlds?
That none should think there was ever a time when he was not. In other words, by this is expressed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God from everlasting, even as God the Father is from everlasting.
143. What mean in the Creed the words Light of light?
Under the figure of the visible light they in some manner explain the incomprehensible generation of the Son of God from the Father. When we look at the sun, we see light: from this light is generated the light visible every where beneath; but both the one and the other is one light, indivisible, and of one nature. In like manner, God the Father is the everlasting Light. 1 John i. 5. Of him is begotten the Son of God, who also is the everlasting Light; but God the Father and God the Son are one and the same everlasting Light, indivisible, and of one divine nature.
144. What force is there in the words of the Creed, Very God of very God?
This: that the Son of God is called God in the same proper sense as God the Father.
145. Are not these words from holy Scripture?
Yes. They are taken from the following passage of John the Divine: We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us [light and] understanding, that we may know the true God, and be in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 1 John v. 20.
146. Why is it further added of the Son of God in the Creed that he is begotten, not made?
This was added against Arius, who impiously taught that the Son of God was made.
147. What mean the words, Of one substance with the Father?
They mean that the Son of God is of one and the same divine substance with God the Father.
148. How does holy Scripture speak of this?
Jesus Christ himself speaks of himself and of God the Father thus: I and the Father are one. John x. 30.
149. What is shown by the next words in the Creed, By whom all things were made?
This: that God the Father created all things by his Son, as by his eternal Wisdom and his eternal Word.
All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made which was made. John i. 3.
On the Third Article.
150. Of whom is it said in the Creed, that he came down from heaven?
Of the Son of God.
151. How came he down from heaven, seeing that as God he is every where?
It is true that he is every where; and so he is always in heaven, and always on earth; but on earth he was before invisible; afterwards he appeared in the flesh. In this sense it is said that he came down from heaven.
152. How does holy Scripture speak of this?
I will repeat Jesus Christ's own words: No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. John iii. 13.
153. Wherefore did the Son of God come down from heaven?
For us men, and for our salvation, as it is said in the Creed.
154. In what sense is it said that the Son of God came down from heaven for us men?
In this sense: that he came upon earth not for one nation, nor for some men only, but for us men universally.
155. To save men from what did he come upon earth?
From sin, the curse, and death.
156. What is sin?
Transgression of the law. Sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John iii. 4.
157. Whence is sin in men, seeing that they were created in the image of God, and God can not sin?
From the devil. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. 1 John iii. 8.
158. How did sin pass from the devil to men?
The devil deceived Eve and Adam, and induced them to transgress God's commandment.
159. What commandment?
God commanded Adam in Paradise not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and withal told him, that so soon as he ate thereof he should surely die.
160. Why did it bring death to man to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
Because it involved disobedience to God's will, and so separated man from God and his grace, and alienated him from the life of God.
161. What propriety is there in the name of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
Man through this tree came to know by the act itself what good there is in obeying the will of God, and what evil in disobeying it.
162. How could Adam and Eve listen to the devil against the will of God?
God of his goodness, at the creation of man, gave him a will naturally disposed to love God, but still free; and man used this freedom for evil.
163. How did the devil deceive Adam and Eve?
Eve saw in Paradise a serpent, which assured her that if men ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would know good and evil, and would become as gods. Eve was deceived by this promise, and by the fairness of the fruit, and ate of it. Adam ate after her example.
164. What came of Adam's sin?
The curse, and death.
165. What is the curse?
The condemnation of sin by God's just judgment, and the evil which from sin came upon the earth for the punishment of men. God said to Adam, Cursed is the ground for thy sake. Gen. iii. 17.
166. What is the death which came from the sin of Adam?
It is twofold: bodily, when the body loses the soul which quickened it; and spiritual, when the soul loses the grace of God, which quickened it with the higher and spiritual life.
167. Can the soul, then, die as well as the body?
It can die, but not so as the body. The body, when it dies, loses sense, and is dissolved; the soul, when it dies by sin, loses spiritual light, joy, and happiness, but is not dissolved nor annihilated, but remains in a state of darkness, anguish, and suffering.
168. Why did not the first man only die, and not all, as now?
Because all have come of Adam since his infection by sin, and all sin themselves. As from an infected source there naturally flows an infected stream, so from a father infected with sin, and consequently mortal, there naturally proceeds a posterity infected like him with sin, and like him mortal.
169. How is this spoken of in holy Scripture?
By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Rom. v. 12.
170. Had man any benefit from the fruit of the tree of life after he had sinned?
After he had sinned, he could no more eat of it, for he was driven out of Paradise.
171. Had men, then, any hope left of salvation?
When our first parents had confessed before God their sin, God, of his mercy, gave them a hope of salvation.
172. In what consisted this hope?
God promised that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head. Gen. iii. 15.
173. What did that mean?
This: that Jesus Christ should overcome the devil who had deceived men, and deliver them from sin, the curse, and death.
174. Why is Jesus Christ called the seed of the woman?
Because he was born on earth without man, from the Most Holy Virgin Mary.
175. What benefit was there in this promise?
This: that from the time of the promise men could believe savingly in the Saviour that was to come, even as we now believe in the Saviour that has come.
176. Did people, in fact, in old time believe in the Saviour that was to come?
Some did, but the greater part forgot God's promise of a Saviour.
177. Did not God repeat this promise?
More than once. For instance, he made to Abraham the promise of a Saviour in the following words: In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Gen. xxii. 18. The same promise he repeated afterwards to David in the following words: I will set up thy seed after thee, and I will establish his throne forever. 2 Kings vii. 12, 13.
178. What do we understand by the word incarnation?
That the Son of God took to himself human flesh without sin, and was made man, without ceasing to be God.
179. Whence is taken the word incarnation?
From the words of the Evangelist John: The Word was made flesh. John i. 14.
180. Why in the Creed, after it has been said of the Son of God that he was incarnate, is it further added that he was made man?
To the end that none should imagine that the Son of God took only flesh or a body, but should acknowledge in him a perfect man consisting of body and soul.
181. Have we for this any testimony of holy Scripture?
The Apostle Paul writes: There is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. ii. 5.
182. And so is there only one nature in Jesus Christ?
No. There are in him, without separation and without confusion, two natures, the divine and the human, and answering to these natures two wills.
183. Are there not, therefore, two persons?
No. One person, God and man together; in one word, a God-man.
184. What says holy Scripture of the incarnation of the Son of God by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary?
The Evangelist Luke relates that when the Virgin Mary had asked the angel, who announced to her the conception of Jesus, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? The angel replied to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Luke i. 34, 35.
185. Who was the Virgin Mary?
A holy virgin of the lineage of Abraham and David, from whose lineage the Saviour, by God's promise, was to come; betrothed to Joseph, a man of the same lineage, in order that he might be her guardian; for she was dedicated to God with a vow of perpetual virginity.