Since Question 6 our catechism established God’s law and our inability to keep it as God requires, forcing us to conclude that we are, in our very nature, sinners and idolaters. Our present question follows logically and ought to be of the utmost importance: will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished? A rephrasing of this question might be: is there any chance that God might let us off the hook for our sins? Wouldn’t it be merciful of Him to just pass by our sins?

Of course, that is precisely what many believe God must do. Although they have transgressed the law of the Creator, they demand that the Creator overlook their rebellion. The catechism firmly rejects this erroneous thinking by first answering simply: no. No, God will not allow our sins to go unpunished. The remainder of the answer explains why that is the case.

First, every sin is against the sovereignty, holiness, and goodness of God. Because God is the Creator of everyone and everything, all people and all things are formed according to His design and have the obligation to conform to His will as revealed in His law. To deviate from His law is sin; thus, every sin is a rejection of God’s sovereignty. This remains true even for ‘little’ sins. For example, whenever we justify to ourselves the telling of a so-called white lie, we are establishing our own declared authority over what God has decreed. We know what our King has commanded, yet we willfully choose to do what is right in our own eyes.

Each sin is also an afront to God’s holiness. Whenever Scripture declares that God is holy, most fundamentally it means that He is utterly unique, that there is none like Him. Our rebellion against His law necessarily requires a rejection, at least subconsciously, of God’s holiness; otherwise, we would never sin against Him from whom the seraphim cover their faces and feet.

Finally, every sin is against God’s goodness. This was the root of Eve’s fall into temptation. The serpent sowed a distrust of God’s goodness, and Eve came to believe that God was withholding good from her by jealously keeping her from becoming like Him. In the same way, Psalm 84:11 tells us that “No good thing does [God] withhold from those who walk uprightly,” and our refusal to walk uprightly is declaration that that promise is true. It is a rejection of God’s goodness and an assertion that we can make things better for ourselves.

Of course, sin is also against his righteous law, which is the very definition of sin. Since God’s law is a reflection of Himself and His holy will, to sin against God’s law is sin against God Himself. Any attempt to divorce God from His law is as nonsensical as claiming to love someone while also hating the very sight of their physical body. Although we are more than our bodies, we are embodied creatures that will dwell for all eternity in resurrected bodies; thus, we cannot be separated wholly from our bodies. Similarly, though all such analogies can only be taken so far, God is more than His law, but He certainly cannot be separated from His law.

Thus, God is righteously angry with our sins. This is a crucial point. God’s anger, even wrath, against our sin is righteous. It is right that He is angry, and it would be wrong if He were not. Our sin is an injustice against God our King and Creator, and God’s burning wrath against our sin is good.

Finally, He will punish them in his just judgment both in this life, and in the life to come. God will indeed punish our sins, and He will do so with just judgment. Because His judgments are just, we never need to fear an ounce of punishment beyond what we deserve; however, we should rightly fear that He will also not let a drop of that deserved punishment be spared.

Often judgment comes within this life through circumstances or earthly authorities that God has providentially established. Yet since all sin is against the Eternal One, all sin requires an eternal punishment, which is the resurrection that the wicked will receive. All people will receive undying resurrected bodies on the day of judgment, yet some will go to eternal life while others will be cast into eternal death.

Those who receive eternal life do not do so because God ignored their sins. As this question has shown, God cannot pass over sins and still remain righteous. No, all sin must be punished, but those who are resurrected to eternal life do so because their eternal punishment has been taken by a Redeemer. But that is the subject of the following question.