Smaller Catechism of Zacharias Ursinus (c. 1561-1562)
1. Q. What comfort sustains your heart.in death as well as in life?
A. That God has truly forgiven all my sins because of Christ and has given me eternal life in which I may glorify him forever.
2. Q. How are you sure of that?
A. The Holy Spirit witnesses to this in my heart by the Word of God and the sacraments, and by the beginning of my obedience to God.
12. Q. What is faith?
A. It is a firm assent whereby we know that all things taught us in God’s Word are true, and a deep-rooted assurance created in the hearts of God’s elect through the Holy Spirit by which each one is personally convinced that forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life have been freely given to him by God because of Christ’s merit alone.
17. Q. What do you believe about the eternal Father?
A. That the eternal Father is the first person of the Godhead who from eternity generated the Son, his own image, through whom he made, out of nothing, heaven, earth, and all creatures, who upholds and rules them according to the eternal decree of his will for his own glory and the salvation of his own, and who works all good in all and through all creatures, even through the wicked who sin out of their own corruption. He has adopted me as his own son because of his only begotten Son, and takes such care of my body and soul that nothing can happen to me without his fatherly will, and that all things must work together for my salvation.
19. Q. Why do you call him “Jesus” meaning “savior”?
A. Because I am firmly persuaded that he alone by his merit and power is the author of perfect and eternal salvation for me and all who believe in him.
20. Q. Why do you say “Christ,” meaning “anointed”?
A. Because he has been ordained by his eternal Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit to be for me and all believers the chief prophet who reveals God’s will for us, our only high priest who reconciles us to God by his mediation and by the one sacrifice of his body on the cross, and our king who governs us by his Word and Spirit, guards the salvation won for us, and hands it over to us after this life as our perfect and eternal possession.
23. Q. Why do you say “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary”?
A. Because I am taught by God’s Word that God’s Son, from the flesh and blood of the virgin Mary through the working of the Holy Spirit, took to himself a human nature, so that he might at the same time be true God, as he was from eternity, and the true son of David, in all things like us his brothers except for sin, and so that he might cover my sins before God’s sight by his most perfect obedience.
33. Q. What do you believe concerning Christ’s resurrection?
A. That he, by his divine power, called his body back to life and adorned it with eternal glory, so that the man Jesus Christ might raise even me from the dead and all who believe in him at the appointed time and might make us share in righteousness and every heavenly good which he earned for us by his death, and so that in the meantime he might make us who are his members more certain of our resurrection.
39. Q. What do you believe concerning “the Holy Spirit”?
A. That the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is coeternal and consubstantial with both; and that he is sent to my heart and to the hearts of all the elect to sanctify us, works in us true faith and conversion to God, remains with us forever, and thus makes us share in Christ and all blessings.
40. Q. What do you believe concerning the “holy catholic church”?
A. That the Son of God, from the beginning of the world to its end, out of the entire human race, has and will gather to himself through his Word and Spirit, a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this church I am and always will be a living member.
42. Q. What do you believe concerning “the forgiveness of sins”?
A. That God, because of Christ’s atonement, has forever erased the memory of all my sins, receives me in grace, and credits to me the obedience of Christ so that I will never come under judgment.
44. Q. What do you believe concerning “life everlasting”?
A. That after this life I will enjoy perfect and eternal blessedness and joy in God, since already now I feel the beginning of a true knowledge of God and of the joy of the Holy Spirit in my heart.
45. Q. What do you gain by this faith, when you believe all these things?
A. That I am right with God and heir to life everlasting as certainly as I believe I am.
46. Q. How are you then right with God?
A. Only by faith in Jesus Christ, by which I am certainly persuaded that God, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned or had myself made satisfaction for all my sins and had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me.
48. Q. Why do you say that by faith alone you are right with God?
A. Because neither faith nor my other works, but only the suffering and obedience of Christ is the righteousness which pleases God in this life. This righteousness is granted and credited to me by God as if I had done it myself, if only I receive it with a believing heart. For, since this gift is invisible and spiritual, it cannot be received by us except with the heart, that is, by true faith.
51. Q. Doesn’t this view, in which you declare that you are elect to eternal life, make you careless, and more negligent in the daily exercises of repentance?
A. No. Rather, it kindles in me an even stronger desire to continue and advance in piety, since, without true conversion to God, I cannot take comfort in the confidence of my election. And the more certain I am of my salvation, the more I want to show God that I am thankful.
52. Q. But aren’t you inclined to doubt your own salvation when you hear that none are saved except those elected by God?
A. Not at all. Rather, precisely because of this I have a firm comfort in every temptation. For, if I desire with all my heart to believe and obey God, I ought to be convinced by this most certain proof, that I am included in those who have been chosen for eternal life and therefore can never be lost, no matter how weak my faith is.
54. Q. What are sacraments?
A. They are ceremonies instituted by God so that by these visible pledges and public testimonies, he may remind and assure all believers of the grace promised them in the gospel. And so that they, on their part, may obligate themselves to faith and a holy life, and distinguish themselves from unbelievers.
57. Q. What is baptism?
A. It is washing done with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, instituted by Christ so that by this visible pledge and public testimony, he may, through our whole life remind and assure us all who believe in him, that not only for others but also for each one of us our sins have been washed away by his blood and Spirit, and we on our part might be obligated to advance each day in true conversion.
59. Q. How can it be that the external, bodily washing with water makes us more certain of this internal, spiritual washing?
A. Because the Holy Spirit moves our hearts to believe more firmly through this promise of Christ, that a washing away of sins most certainly comes to all who believe and are baptized.
66. Q. How can it be that the external, physical breaking and eating of bread and drinking of wine make us more certain of this internal, spiritual eating?
A. Because the Holy Spirit moves our hearts to believe more firmly through this promise of Christ, that all believers who eat this broken bread and drink this given cup are most certainly given food and drink by the body of Christ himself which was broken on the cross and by his poured-out blood.
97. Q. What kind of prayer pleases God and is heard by him?
A. When we pray to the one true God in the name of Christ for everything he has commanded us to ask for, not with false desire in our heart, but with a true sense of our need and a firm confidence that he will listen to our prayer just as he promised us in his Word.
Source: Dr. Zacharias Ursinus, Large and Small Catechisms With the Heidelberg Catechism (translated by Fred H. Klooster and John Medendorp)
