Heidelberg Catechism · Question 5

Explaining Part I: Man's misery

Can you keep all this perfectly?

Scripture proofs King James Version

• Rom. 3:10, 23 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: ... For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
• I John 1:8, 10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ... If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
• Gen. 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
• Gen 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
• Jer. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
• Rom. 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
• Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
• Eph. 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
• Tit. 3:3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.