Opening Up the Heidelberg Catechism: Our Only Comfort in Life and in Death

What is your only comfort in life and in death? For more than 450 years the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) has taught Christians to answer: “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.” In this series of fifty-seven sermons preached in the evening services of Oceanside United Reformed Church from September 2016–May 2018, Dr. Daniel Hyde opens up the Catechism Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, expounding a passage of Scripture alongside each set of questions and answers.

The series follows the Catechism’s own outline of the Christian life: how great my sin and misery are; how I am delivered from all my sins and misery; and how I am to thank God for such deliverance. From our guilt, through God’s grace in Jesus Christ—confessed in the Apostles’ Creed and signed and sealed in baptism and the Lord’s Supper—to our gratitude expressed in the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer, these sermons are an invitation to live and die in the joy of belonging to Jesus Christ. Whether you grew up reciting the Heidelberg Catechism or have never heard of it, begin with the first question—and make its answer your own..

The old city of Heidelberg with the Castle in the background and the Old Bridge over the Neckar River.

Part One—Introduction & Our Only Comfort (Sermons 1–4)

Part Two — Our Sin and Misery (Sermons 5–8)

Part Three — Our Deliverance: The Mediator and Faith (Sermons 9–12)

Part Four — Our Deliverance: Apostles’ Creed and Justification (Sermons 13–31)

Part Five — Our Deliverance: The Means of Grace (Sermons 32–38)

Part Six — Our Gratitude: Good Works (Sermons 39–43)

Part Seven — Ten Commandments Prayer (Sermons 44–54)

Part Eight — Lord’s Prayer (Sermons 55–57)