QUESTION 19: From where do you know this?
“From the holy gospel, which God Himself revealed first in paradise, afterwards proclaimed by the holy patriarchs and prophets, and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; and finally fulfilled by His well-beloved Son.”
“One of the many wonders about the good news is that someone has told us where to find it. We do not need to go rooting about in all the wrong places, looking for the wrong thing.
What we need is salvation from the wrath of God, acceptance with God, true righteousness, and renewal in the image of Christ. The gospel announces that Jesus Christ has accomplished all these things for all of His people…
The gospel has always been present after the fall. It was first revealed to Adam and Eve in the garden and progressively unfolded through the history of salvation (historia salutis) in the patriarchs and in the prophets, symbolically represented in the entire sacrificial system. Finally our Lord himself fulfilled it in His incarnation, obedience, death, and resurrection…
When the gospel came in fulfillment of the types and shadows, it was not new. It had been revealed in types and shadows since the moment our Lord promised a suffering, head-crushing Savior (Gen 3:15). What is new in the new covenant is the reality, the end of types and shadows, but the substance of the gospel has been present since the garden…
When we look for salvation, it is essential that we look in the right place, in the gospel about Jesus the Savior. The gospel is that salvation finds and keeps us.”
–R. Scott Clark, The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2025), 127, 130, 131.
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