We cannot make it by obedience, because whatever good we perform we owe to God by present obligation. “We cannot make…satisfaction by and of ourselves, neither by obedience nor by punishment. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism, on the necessity of both the passive (suffering) and the active (law-fulfilling) obedience of Christ in his satisfaction for the sins of his people for our justification: Here are a few excerpts from the Commentary of Dr. Only by true faith in Jesus Christ: that is, although my conscience accuses me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has filfilled for me if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart. Ursinus was one of the main authors of the Heidelberg Catechism, whose Q&A 60 has to be one of the most powerful and encouraging statements of the gospel ever written outside inspired scripture:
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