January 7 – LD 1, Day 7: What We Must Know to Have Comfort
by Prof Herman Hanko
Read: Luke 24:47; I Corinthians 6:10, 11; John 17:3; Ephesians 5:8-10.
To be able to confess
that we belong to Jesus, there are certain things we must know about ourselves.
Question and answer 2 of
Lord’s Day 1 bring another question to our attention which tells us the things
we must know. Notice again how personal the HC is: How many things are
necessary for thee to know, that thou,
enjoying this comfort, mayest life and die happily?
Three things are
important to know. They are so important that without knowing them, we cannot
have comfort.
The first is that we must
know how great our sins and miseries are. This is understandable. I cannot know
the blessedness of having good health unless I know what it means to be sick to
death. I cannot know the joy of comfort unless I know the horror of sorrow at
the loss of one I love. Likewise, I cannot know any comfort if I have no
sorrow. People who are happy and without sorrow do not need comfort.
We are told an important
truth in this Q & A. The real misery that makes us long for comfort is not
sickness or disappointment or death; it is sin. All these other reasons for
misery are all present in our lives because of sin. If we had no sin, we would
not have misery. If we were perfect, we would not have pain and trouble. Sin is
the great reality that makes us miserable. We must understand, therefore, how
great our sins are.
Second, we then are ready
to know the great work Christ did for us to deliver us from our sins. Only
through tears clearing the blindness of our sins can we see clearly the need of
Christ’s cross. We can walk the way to
Finally, we have to have
knowledge of how in our lives we express gratitude to God for what He has done
for us. We show our gratitude by walking in obedience to His law. Disobedient
children are unthankful children. We will not know any comfort when we live
wickedly.
Those three things are
the three chapters of the HC, in which the HC will teach us our comfort.
May we humbly learn these
lessons.