Frederick the Pius

In February 1559 Otto Henry, Elector of Palatinate died, and with his death the world would change. Otto Henry was a devout Roman Catholic, but his brother, Frederick III had become a protestant and supporter of the Reformation. Frederick had married Maria of Brandenberg who was protestant from age 17, and she asked him to read the Bible as a condition of their marriage. As always happens when people read the Bible without preconceptions, Frederick came to embrace the Reformed Faith. After his brother Otto’s death, Frederick became the Elector of Palatinate, and he quickly used his position to build a solidly Reformed University and attracted Reformed teachers and preachers from all over Europe. Frederick (later known as Frederick the Pius) commissioned the writing of the Heidelberg Catechism which was subsequently adopted by the Synod of Heidelberg. It has since become the defining document of the Reformed Faith.

The entire Heidelberg Catechism can be summed up in the Lord’s Day 23, Question 60:

Question 60. How are thou righteous before God?

Answer: Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.

My faith can be summed up in this statement. I am humbled. I am thankful. I am totally dependent upon the Lord. I praise the Lord for so graciously giving me a believing heart.