Spurgeon's Catechism

On the Fall, Sin, and Misery

Question 12. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the state in which he was created? After creating man, God entered into a covenant of life with him, on the condition of perfect obedience (Gal 3:12), forbidding him to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, under penalty of death (Gen 2:17).

Question 13. Did our first parents remain in the state in which they were created? Our first parents, left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the state in which they were created by sinning against God (Eccl 7:29) and eating the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:6-8).

Question 14. What is sin? Sin is any failure to conform to, or any violation of, the law of God (1 John 3:4).

Question 15. Did all humanity fall in Adam's first sin? Because the covenant was made with Adam not only for himself but for all his descendants, every person born from him through natural generation sinned in him and fell with him in that first transgression (1 Cor 15:22; Rom 5:12).

Question 16. Into what condition did the fall bring humanity? The fall brought humanity into a condition of sin and misery (Rom 5:18).

Question 17. In what does the sinfulness of the condition into which man fell consist? The sinfulness of the state into which humanity fell consists of the guilt of Adam's first sin (Rom 5:19), the absence of original righteousness (Rom 3:10), and the corruption of our entire nature, which is commonly called original sin (Eph 2:1; Ps 51:5), along with all the actual sins that flow from it (Matt 15:19).

Question 18. What is the misery of the state into which humanity fell? All of humanity, through the fall, lost communion with God (Gen 3:8, 24), stands under His wrath and curse (Eph 2:3; Gal 3:10), and is therefore exposed to every misery in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever (Rom 6:23; Matt 25:41).

On Christ the Redeemer

Question 19. Did God leave all of humanity to perish in this state of sin and misery? God, acting out of His good pleasure from eternity past, chose some for everlasting life (2 Thess 2:13), and entered into a covenant of grace to rescue them from their state of sin and misery, bringing them into salvation through a Redeemer (Rom 5:21).

Question 20. Who is the Redeemer of God's elect? The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim 2:5), who, being the eternal Son of God, became a human being (John 1:14), and so was, and continues to be, both God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever (1 Tim 3:16; Col 2:9).

Question 21. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become a human being? Christ, the Son of God, became a human being by taking on a true physical body (Heb 2:14) and a rational soul (Matt 26:38; Heb 4:15), being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary and born of her (Luke 1:31, 35), yet entirely without sin (Heb 7:26).

Question 22. What offices does Christ carry out as our Redeemer? Christ, as our Redeemer, carries out the offices of prophet (Acts 3:22), priest (Heb 5:6), and king (Ps 2:6), both in His state of humiliation and in His state of exaltation.

Question 23. How does Christ execute the office of a prophet? Christ fulfills the office of a prophet by revealing God's will for our salvation through Himself (John 1:18), through His Word (John 20:31), and through His Spirit (John 14:26).

Question 24. How does Christ execute the office of a priest? Christ fulfills the office of a priest by offering Himself once as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice (Heb 9:28) and to reconcile us to God (Heb 2:17), and by continually interceding on our behalf (Heb 7:25).

Question 25. How does Christ execute the office of a king? Christ fulfills the office of a king by drawing us into submission to Himself (Ps 110:3), by ruling over us and defending us (Matt 2:6; 1 Cor 15:25), and by restraining and ultimately conquering all enemies, both His and ours.

Question 26. Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist? Christ's humiliation consisted in His being born into lowly circumstances (Luke 2:7), placed under the law (Gal 4:4), subjected to the sufferings of this life (Isa 53:3), the wrath of God (Matt 27:46), and the cursed death of the cross (Phil 2:8), then buried and held under the power of death for a time (Matt 12:40).

Question 27. Wherein consists Christ's exaltation? Christ's exaltation consists in His rising from the dead on the third day (1 Cor 15:4), ascending into heaven and taking His seat at the right hand of God the Father (Mark 16:19), and coming to judge the world on the last day (Acts 17:31).

On the Application of Redemption

Question 28. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ through its effective application to us (John 1:12) by His Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-6).

Question 29. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? The Spirit applies to us the redemption that Christ purchased by working faith in us (Eph 2:8), and through that faith uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling (Eph 3:17).

Question 30. What is effectual calling? Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit (2 Tim 1:9), by which He convinces us of our sin and misery (Acts 2:37), enlightens our minds with the knowledge of Christ (Acts 26:18), and renews our wills (Ezek 36:26), so that He persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, who is freely offered to us in the gospel (John 6:44-45).

Question 31. What benefits do those who are effectually called receive in this life? Those who are effectually called receive in this life the benefits of justification (Rom 8:30), adoption (Eph 1:5), sanctification, and all the various blessings that either accompany or flow from these gifts (1 Cor 1:30).

Question 32. What is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace, by which He pardons all our sins (Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7) and accepts us as righteous in His sight (2 Cor 5:21), solely on the basis of Christ's righteousness credited to us (Rom 5:19) and received through faith alone (Gal 2:16; Phil 3:9).

Question 33. What is adoption? Adoption is an act of God's free grace (1 John 3:1), by which we are welcomed into His family and given the full rights and privileges of the children of God (John 1:12; Rom 8:17).

Question 34. What is sanctification? Sanctification is the work of God's Spirit (2 Thess 2:13), by which we are renewed in our whole being according to the image of God (Eph 4:24), and are increasingly enabled to die to sin and live to righteousness (Rom 6:11).

Question 35. What are the benefits that in this life either accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification? The benefits that accompany or flow from justification in this life (Rom 5:1-2, 5) are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17), growth in grace, and perseverance in that grace until the end (Prov 4:18; 1 John 5:13; 1 Pet 1:5).

Question 36. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at their death? At death, the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness (Heb 12:23) and pass immediately into glory (Phil 1:23; 2 Cor 5:8; Luke 23:43), while their bodies, still united to Christ (1 Thess 4:14), rest in their graves (Isa 57:2) until the resurrection (Job 19:26).

Question 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection? At the resurrection, believers will be raised in glory (1 Cor 15:43), openly acknowledged and acquitted on the day of judgment (Matt 10:32), and made perfectly blessed in both soul and body, enjoying God fully (1 John 3:2) for all eternity (1 Thess 4:17).

Question 38. What shall be done to the wicked at their death? At death, the souls of the wicked will be cast into the torments of hell (Luke 16:22-24), while their bodies lie in their graves until the resurrection and judgment of the great day (Ps 49:14).

Question 39. What shall be done to the wicked at the day of judgment? On the day of judgment, the bodies of the wicked will be raised from their graves and sentenced, together with their souls, to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels forever (Dan 12:2; John 5:28-29; 2 Thess 1:9; Matt 25:41).

On the Ten Commandments

Question 40. What did God reveal to man as the rule of his obedience? The rule that God first revealed to man for his obedience is the moral law (Deut 10:4; Matt 19:17), which is summarized in the Ten Commandments.

Question 41. What is the sum of the ten commandments? The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:37-40).

Question 42. Which is the first commandment? The first commandment is, "You shall have no other gods before me."

Question 43. What is required in the first commandment? The first commandment requires us to know (1 Chr 28:9) and acknowledge God as the only true God and as our God (Deut 26:17), and to worship and glorify Him accordingly (Matt 4:10).

Question 44. Which is the second commandment? The second commandment is, "You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."

Question 45. What is required in the second commandment? The second commandment requires us to receive, observe (Deut 32:46; Matt 28:20), and keep pure and complete all the forms of religious worship and practice that God has appointed in His Word (Deut 12:32).

Question 46. What is forbidden in the second commandment? The second commandment forbids worshipping God through images (Deut 4:15-16) or in any other way that He has not appointed in His Word (Col 2:18).

Question 47. Which is the third commandment? The third commandment is, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who takes His name in vain."

Question 48. What is required in the third commandment? The third commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God's names (Ps 29:2), titles, attributes (Rev 15:3-4), ordinances (Eccl 5:1), Word (Ps 138:2), and works (Job 36:24; Deut 28:58-59).

Question 49. Which is the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment reads: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Question 50. What is required in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment requires that we keep holy to God those set times He has appointed in His Word, specifically one full day in seven, observed as a holy Sabbath to Him (Lev 19:30; Deut 5:12).

Question 51. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? The Sabbath is sanctified by resting completely throughout that day, setting aside even those worldly activities and recreations that are perfectly acceptable on other days (Lev 23:3), and devoting the entire time to both public and private worship of God (Ps 92:1-2; Isa 58:13-14), except for whatever time is genuinely required by works of necessity and mercy (Matt 12:11-12).

Question 52. Which is the fifth commandment? The fifth commandment reads: "Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."

Question 53. What is required in the fifth commandment? The fifth commandment requires us to preserve the honor of, and fulfill the duties owed to, everyone in their various positions and relationships, whether as superiors (Eph 5:21-22; Eph 6:1, 5; Rom 13:1), inferiors (Eph 6:9), or equals (Rom 12:10).

Question 54. What is the reason attached to the fifth commandment? The reason attached to the fifth commandment is a promise of long life and prosperity, to the extent that it serves God's glory and their own good, to all who keep this commandment (Eph 6:2-3).

Question 55. Which is the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment is, "You shall not murder."

Question 56. What is forbidden in the sixth commandment? The sixth commandment forbids taking our own life (Acts 16:28), taking the life of our neighbor unjustly (Gen 9:6), or doing anything that tends toward either of those ends (Prov 24:11-12).

Question 57. Which is the seventh commandment? The seventh commandment is, "You shall not commit adultery."

Question 58. What is forbidden in the seventh commandment? The seventh commandment forbids all impure thoughts (Matt 5:28; Col 4:6), words (Eph 5:4; 2 Tim 2:22), and actions (Eph 5:3).

Question 59. Which is the eighth commandment? The eighth commandment is, "You shall not steal."

Question 60. What is forbidden in the eighth commandment? The eighth commandment forbids anything that unjustly hinders or threatens our own wealth and material wellbeing (1 Tim 5:8; Prov 28:19; Prov 21:6), or that of our neighbor (Eph 4:28).

Question 61. Which is the ninth commandment? The ninth commandment is, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

Question 62. What is required in the ninth commandment? The ninth commandment requires us to uphold and promote truth in our dealings with one another (Zech 8:16), to protect our own good name (1 Pet 3:16; Acts 25:10) and that of our neighbor (3 John 12), and to do this especially when giving testimony (Prov 14:5, 25).

Question 63. What is the tenth commandment? The tenth commandment is: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, or his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Question 64. What is forbidden in the tenth commandment? The tenth commandment forbids all dissatisfaction with our own circumstances (1 Cor 10:10), envying or resenting the blessings our neighbor enjoys (Gal 5:26), and all disordered desires and longings for anything that belongs to him (Col 3:5).

Question 65. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No ordinary person, since the fall, is able to keep God's commandments perfectly throughout their life (Eccl 7:20), but breaks them daily in thought (Gen 8:21), word (Jas 3:8), and deed (Jas 3:2).

Question 66. Are all sins against the law equally serious? Some sins, both by their very nature and because of various aggravating factors, are more serious in God's sight than others (John 19:11; 1 John 5:15).

Question 67. What does every sin deserve? Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this present life and in the life to come (Eph 5:6; Ps 11:6).

On Faith, Repentance, and the Means of Grace

Question 68. How may we escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin? To escape the wrath and curse of God that our sins deserve, we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16), trusting in His blood and righteousness alone. This faith is accompanied by repentance for the past (Acts 20:21) and leads to a life of holiness going forward.

Question 69. What is faith in Jesus Christ? Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace (Heb 10:39), by which we receive (John 1:12) and rest on Him alone for salvation (Phil 3:9), as He is presented to us in the gospel (Isa 33:22).

Question 70. What is repentance to life? Repentance to life is a saving grace (Acts 11:18), by which a sinner, out of a genuine awareness of his sins (Acts 2:37) and a recognition of God's mercy in Christ (Joel 2:13), turns from his sin to God with grief and hatred for what he has done (Jer 31:18-19), with a firm commitment to pursue new obedience (Ps 119:59).

Question 71. What are the outward means by which the Holy Spirit communicates the benefits of redemption to us? The outward and ordinary means by which the Holy Spirit communicates the benefits of Christ's redemption to us are the Word, through which souls are born into spiritual life; Baptism, the Lord's Supper, Prayer, and Meditation, all of which further strengthen believers in their most holy faith (Acts 2:41-42; Jas 1:18).

Question 72. How is the Word made effective for salvation? The Spirit of God makes the reading, and especially the preaching, of the Word an effective means of convicting and converting sinners (Ps 19:7), and of building them up in holiness and comfort (1 Thess 1:6), through faith to salvation (Rom 1:16).

Question 73. How is the Word to be read and heard so that it may become effective for salvation? For the Word to become effective for salvation, we must attend to it with diligence (Prov 8:34), preparation (1 Pet 2:1-2), and prayer (Ps 119:18); receive it with faith (Heb 4:2) and love (2 Thess 2:10); store it in our hearts (Ps 119:11); and put it into practice in our lives (Jas 1:25).

On Baptism and the Lord's Supper

Question 74. How do Baptism and the Lord's Supper become spiritually helpful? The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper become spiritually beneficial not through any power they contain in themselves, nor through any merit in the person who administers them (1 Cor 3:7; 1 Pet 3:21), but solely through the blessing of Christ (1 Cor 3:6) and the work of the Holy Spirit in those who receive them in genuine faith (1 Cor 12:13).

Question 75. What is Baptism? Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, established by Jesus Christ (Matt 28:19), given to the person being baptized as a visible sign of their union with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection (Rom 6:3; Col 2:12), of their being grafted into Him (Gal 3:27), of the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4; Acts 22:16), and of their commitment to surrender themselves to God through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in an entirely new way of life (Rom 6:4-5).

Question 76. To whom should Baptism be administered? Baptism should be administered to all those who genuinely profess repentance toward God (Acts 2:38; Matt 3:6; Mark 16:16; Acts 10:47-48) and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and to no one else.

Question 77. Should the infants of professing believers be baptized? The infants of professing believers should not be baptized, because the Holy Scriptures provide neither a command nor a single example to support infant baptism (Exod 23:13; Prov 30:6).

Question 78. How is Baptism rightly administered? Baptism is rightly administered by immersion, meaning the complete submersion of the person's entire body in water (Matt 3:16; John 3:23), performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in accordance with Christ's own institution and the practice of the apostles (Matt 28:19-20). It is not rightly administered by sprinkling or pouring water, or by submerging only part of the body, since these are human traditions rather than biblical practice (John 4:1-2; Acts 8:38-39).

Question 79. What is the duty of those who have been rightly baptized? Those who have been rightly baptized are duty-bound to join themselves to a particular, well-ordered church of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:47; 9:26; 1 Pet 2:5), so that they may walk blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord (Luke 1:6).

Question 80. What is the Lord's Supper? The Lord's Supper is an ordinance of the New Testament, instituted by Jesus Christ, in which bread and wine are given and received according to His appointment, proclaiming His death (1 Cor 11:23-26). Those who receive it worthily become partakers of His body and blood, along with all the benefits He provides, not in any physical or material sense, but by faith, for their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace (1 Cor 10:16).

Question 81. What is required for receiving the Lord's Supper worthily? Those who wish to partake of the Lord's Supper worthily are required to examine themselves: whether they have the knowledge to discern the Lord's body (1 Cor 11:28-29), the faith to feed on Him (2 Cor 13:5), genuine repentance (1 Cor 11:31), love (1 Cor 11:18-20), and a renewed obedience (1 Cor 5:8). This self-examination is essential, because those who receive the Supper unworthily eat and drink judgment on themselves (1 Cor 11:27-29).

Question 82. What is meant by the words "until he come," as used by the apostle Paul in reference to the Lord's Supper? These words plainly teach us that our Lord Jesus Christ will return a second time, which is the joy and hope of all who believe (Acts 1:11; 1 Thess 4:16).