Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 5, question 12. Since then, by the righteous judgment of God, we deserve temporal and eternal punishment. How may we escape this punishment and be again received into favor? God wills that His justice be satisfied. Therefore, we must make full satisfaction to that justice either by ourselves or by another. Question 13. Can we ourselves make this satisfaction? By no means, on the contrary, we daily increase our guilt. Question 14, can any mere creature make satisfaction for us? None, for first, God will not punish any other creature for the sin which man committed, and further, no mere creature can sustain the burden of God's eternal wrath against sin and redeem others from it. Question 15, what kind of a mediator and redeemer then must we seek? one who is a true and righteous man, and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God." Lord's Day 5 of the Catechism begins the second major section where, turning from man's misery, it begins to deal with the question of how man was redeemed. And of course it's very closely connected to what came before. In Lord's Day 4, we saw that God's justice formed a part of our misery, or part of the explanation for our misery, because God's justice has been offended. God will not leave such great disobedience and apostasy unpunished. And so all of humanity is in the situation that Adam and Eve were in when they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, when cherubim were placed there to guard, and when there was a burning sword that blocked the access to the tree of life. There was a symbol of God's justice. And justice can't be ignored. Justice can't be dismissed. Justice must be upheld. Well, that creates a huge problem for those who are on the wrong side of God's law. And that's where question 12 begins. By the righteous judgment of God, we deserve temporal and eternal punishment. What do we do now? And so these questions are really setting us up. They're transitioning from the problem of misery to the solution to it in God's redemption of us. And they take for granted, building on what's gone before, that we deserve temporal and eternal punishment. And then they also rule out any false hope. We need to make satisfaction, but we can't do it. That's question 13. No mere creature can substitute for us. That's question 14. And so then question 15 asks, almost in despair, what kind of a mediator and redeemer then must we seek? We appear to have ruled out all the available options. But this is not a section of misery, this is a section of redemption. And so it tells us that there are certain qualifications for a mediator and redeemer. A true and righteous man, more powerful than all creatures, one who is also true God. This is one of those places where you almost wish the Lord's Day division didn't come here, because at this point you're chomping at the bit. Your mouth is watering to get to the next question and answer. Who is that mediator and redeemer? Well, we know the answer to that because we've been through this before, but it's good to relive the problem. There was no hope for our redemption. There was no hope for our mediation. There was no way for us to escape God's punishment and be again received into favor unless somebody could be found who was a true and righteous man and yet also true God. But we'll leave everything in suspense until next week.