-- What means are there for you to escape this damnable state?
III. What means are there for you to escape this damnable state?
Q: If damnation is the consequence of sin, then a man is the most miserable of all creatures. When a dog or a toad dies, all their misery ends, but when a man dies, that is the beginning of his suffering.
A: It would indeed be so if there were no means of deliverance.
However, God has shown His mercy by providing a Savior for mankind.
Q: What is this Savior called?
A: Jesus Christ.
Q: Who is Jesus Christ?
A: He is the eternal Son of God, made man in every way, even in His weaknesses, like other men, except for sin.
Q: How was He made sinless as a man?
A: He was conceived in the womb of a Virgin and sanctified by the Holy Ghost at His conception.
Q: Why must our Savior be both God and man?
A: He must be a man because man has sinned, and therefore, a man must die for sin to appease God's wrath. He must be God to support and uphold His humanity and to conquer and defeat death.
Q: What are the roles of Christ that make Him a fully sufficient Savior?
A: He is a Priest, a Prophet, and a King.
Q: Why is He a Priest?
A: To work out the means of salvation on behalf of mankind.
Q: How does He work out the means of salvation?
A: First, by offering satisfaction to His Father for the sins of man, and secondly, by making intercession.
Q: How does He offer satisfaction?
A: By two means, the first being by offering Himself as a Sacrifice.
Q: What is this sacrifice?
A: Christ Himself, as both man and God, consisting of body and soul.
Q: What is the Altar?
A: Christ, as He is God, serves as the Altar upon which He sacrificed Himself.
Q: Who was the Priest?
A: None other than Christ, as both God and man.
Q: How many times did He sacrifice Himself?
A: Only once.
Q: What kind of death did He experience when He sacrificed Himself?
A: He suffered a death on the Cross, unique to Him alone, for in addition to the separation of body and soul, He also felt the torments of hell, as the entire wrath of God, due to the sin of man, was poured out upon Him.
Q: What benefit comes from this sacrifice?
A: God's wrath is appeased for sin.
Q: Could Christ's suffering, which was only for a short time, appease God's wrath?
A: Yes, because when Christ suffered, God Himself suffered, which is greater than if all the people in the world had suffered forever.
Q: Now tell me the other means of satisfaction.
A: It is the perfect fulfillment of the Law.
Q: How did He fulfill the Law?
A: Through His perfect righteousness, which consists of two parts: firstly, the integrity and purity of His human nature, and secondly,
His obedience in fulfilling all that the law required.
Q: You have explained how Christ makes satisfaction; now also tell me how He makes intercession.
A: He continually appears before His Father in Heaven, making the prayers of the faithful acceptable to Him through the merits of His own perfect satisfaction.