Harald Ulrik Sverdrup

“ What benefit do we have from the resurrection of Christ?
1. The resurrection assures us that Christ is the Son of God, and that He has conquered death and fully satisfied for our sins.
Rom. 1:4. Declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.
1 Cor. 15:14. If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
[Pg 48] 2. The resurrection gives us power to arise from spiritual death, and to live a new and holy life.
Rom. 6:4. As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. ”

“ When do we trust in God above all things?
We trust in God above all things when we have confidence in Him as in a loving father, and when we look to Him for every blessing, and put all our affairs into His hands. ”

“ Sin should be rooted out from us through daily sorrow and repentance, and our love to God and man should grow up within us more and more, so that it may appear in all our conduct that we have the mind of Christ. ”

“ Do the children of God always live according to the will of their heavenly Father?
They hate sin, and heartily strive to keep the law of God; but it is their experience that they sin every day, and that the new life within them is weak. ”

“ For without the Word of God, the water is water alone, and no Baptism. But with the Word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Ghost; as Paul says in the third chapter of the epistle to Titus:
"According to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." ”

“ For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.
372. How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?
It is not the eating and drinking, indeed, that does it, but the words which stand here: "Given and shed for you, for the remission of sins." These words, together with the bodily eating and drinking, are the chief thing in the sacrament; and He that believes these words, has what they say and mean, namely, the forgiveness of sins. ”

“ What is required that a Christian may receive the forgiveness of sins every day?
That he repents every day, or that he daily feels his sins with deep shame and sorrow, confesses his sins to God, and earnestly seeks the grace of God in Christ. ”

“ What must we do in order that we may not partake of the Lord's Supper unworthily?
We must prayerfully search our own hearts as in the presence of God, whether we repent our sins and believe in Jesus Christ, and whether we have an honest purpose to abstain from even our bosom sins. ”

“ Sanctification is the gracious work of the Holy Spirit whereby He day by day renews the believer more and more after the image of God.
230. How is the daily renewal accomplished?
The old man, or sin, is put away more and more, and the new man, or the new spiritual life, appears more and more in all our conduct.
Eph. 4:22–24. [R. V.] Put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit;
And be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind,
And put on the new man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. ”

“ We should fear and love God, and not estrange, force, or entice away from our neighbor, his wife, servants, or cattle, but urge them to stay and do their duty.
98. What do the ninth and tenth commandments forbid?
All sinful desire to get what belongs to our neighbor.
99. What does God require of us in the ninth and tenth commandments?
We must heartily wish our neighbor all good, rejoice in his success, and help him to keep what he owns.
100. What, then, does God require of us in His holy Law?
Perfect purity and holiness in all our thoughts and desires, words and acts. ”

“ Can we be saved through the Law?
No; since the fall in sin no man can perfectly keep the Law.
Rom. 8:7. The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.
16. Of what benefit, then, is the Law?
1. It points out to us our sins and the wrath of God toward sin.
Rom. 3:20. [R. V.] Through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.
[Pg 4] 2. It makes us anxious to seek Christ.
Gal. 3:24. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
3. It points out to the believer what fruits his faith must bear. ”

“ Even as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and preserves it in fellowship with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
In this Christian church He daily forgives me and all believers all our sins, and He will raise up me and all the dead on the last day, and will give me and all believers everlasting life. ”

“ By no means; God, who is holy and loving, does not tempt any one to sin.
James 1:13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. ”

“ It is a dead knowledge only, which does not lead to repentance and faith, but leaves us in our sins.
[Pg 54]
212. What is the true and living faith in Jesus Christ?
This is faith, that a repentant sinner lays hold of Christ as his only Savior from sin, and death, and the power of Satan;
That he takes refuge with Christ and His righteousness, and builds thereon with the confidence of his whole heart.
213. Can only a repentant sinner have this faith in Christ? ”

“ When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son born of a woman.
THE SECOND ARTICLE. CONCERNING REDEMPTION.
I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
That is,
I believe that Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity ”

“ Sin has made the body a tool of every evil passion, and has brought upon it disease, distress, countless pains, and finally death.
Job 14:1, 2. Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. ”

“ The attitude of our hearts should be one of constant prayer, and our communion with God should not be confined to certain times and places, but we should speak with Him whenever we feel the need of it. ”

“ Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
128. How does God govern men with regard to their sins? ”

“ Through this sacrament the believer is brought into spiritual fellowship with his Lord and Savior, who imparts Himself to him and thus preserves and strengthens him in faith, hope, and love unto eternal life.
John 6: 56. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
371. Does not the sacrament of the Lord's Supper also bring about a more intimate fellowship between believers?
Yes; believers are united in a closer fellowship through partaking in common of the Lord Jesus and eternal life in Him. ”

“ Does not also he who remains true to the covenant of his Baptism need repentance?
Yes; he needs daily repentance and daily renewal. See 250.
355. What does the baptizing with water signify?
It signifies that the old man in us should, by daily sorrow and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil desires; and again a new man daily appear more and more, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever. ”