Having looked at the Old Covenant, Ten Commandments, Sin and Redemption, and Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, we turn in the Catechism to the New Covenant, the Covenant instituted through Christ’s sacrificial death to reconcile the whole world to God and make possible the church, the community of people reconciled to God drawn from all nations.

The final question related to God the Son acts as a kind of pivot point for the Catechism. The rest of the Catechism serves as a kind of exposition of this answer, with it taking the position that the Christian life inaugurated at Baptism is indeed participation in, rather than merely anticipation or an earning of, Christ’s victory.

The Apostles’ and Athanasian Creeds both affirm that after being crucified Christ descended to the dead—or even into Hell if you go with older translations. While such an affirmation can seem an easy one to gloss over, this article of faith actually offers us that hope that there is truly no place that is too far gone to receive the power of God’s love and the possibility of redemption.