our true and righteous mediator

after soaking in Romans 3:21-26 in the service yesterday, this was a welcomed section from the catechism this morning…

Question 16: Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man?

Answer: Because God’s justice requires that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others.

Question 17: Why must he also be true God?

Answer: So that, but the power of his divinity, he might bear in his humanity the weight of God’s wrath, and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.

Question 18: Then who is this mediator — true God and at the same time a true and righteous man?

Answer: Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given to us for our complete deliverance and righteousness.

Question 19: How do you come to know this?

Answer: The holy [Good News] tells me. God himself began to reveal the [Good News] already in Paradise; later, he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; and finally he fulfilled it through his own beloved Son.

Heidelberg Catechism (1563)