Good Morning!
As we start this new series through the Shorter Catechism I want to say a few words about what a catechism is, and why it can be helpful to your own walk with Christ. First of all, a catechism is a series of questions and answers, each building on the one before, that helps people come to a deeper understanding of something that is complicated. There is no question that there are things that the Bible teaches that can be harder to get. Peter testifies to this when it comes to Paul’s writings in 2 Peter 3:15-16. But anything worth doing is worth doing well, and it is more true about the Believer’s life than any other thing. If Jesus has done the perfect work of laying down His life for sinners, then it is incumbent on those for whom He died to desire to know more about Him. A sign of true faith is that we follow Christ because we love Him, not because He makes bread out of thin air. (John 6:26-27). Christians should not need to be begged to get a deeper, more full comprehension of who Jesus is, and what it means that we are blessed to be a part of His mission to bring men and women to salvation. It ought to be the natural desire of the new heart found in Believers, men and women who have partaken of the mercies of grace, to be constantly yearning in the depths of their heart to know their Redeemer better each and every day. Stagnant faith is a faith which will die, and which will be choked out by thorns and the heat of every day life.
And this is where the Catechism really helps us.
As I’ve noted before the men who wrote the Westminster Standards (Westminster Confession of Faith, Shorter and Larger Catechisms, the Directories for Worship and Church Government, etc…) were very concerned that everyone in the Church be made ready for the challenges of fighting the good fight against the world and the flesh. It didn’t matter if you were five years old, or a baby Christian of eighty. You needed to know what you believed and why you believed it. So they put together this Shorter Catechism as a help. If the illiterate and children of 1647 could benefit from it than I think those of us in 21st Century America can as well. Our culture (and if we are honest we do as well) has a tendency to believe that it is so much smarter and wiser than the folks who lived in the “Dark Ages” of four hundred years ago. So if these Q/A’s weren’t hard for the cobbler of Sheffield or the young girl in Ettrick I think we can handle it as well. If you do not have a copy of the Shorter Catechism I would be more than glad to provide you with one. There are several apps available on Google Play and in the Apple Store which can help as well.
You can also download a PDF here.
This morning as we continue to walk through the questions by taking up sections of the Catechism we come to the subject of God Himself.
Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being,
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?
A. There is but One only, the living and true God. p
Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;
and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
Remember what I said above about the Catechism using the question before to introduce the question which comes next? This pattern is clearly evident in #’s 4-6. You start with a simple inquiry: Who is God? Then you explain how many Gods there are and follow it up with a word on the Triunity of the Godhead. So now you’ve gone from not knowing anything about the Lord to now seeing that God is a Spirit, which means He is not a physical God like the gods of Egypt or Greece. It is also revealed that God has no beginning or end, unlike us. Our understanding of who God is has already grown! But what if we have some troubles coming to comprehend where the writers of the Catechism get their information? How can we trust that these questions/answers are true? Well, go back a question from last week.
Q. 2. What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A. The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments,
is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
If you have a copy of the Catechism, or have downloaded the free PDF I linked about you will notice little superscript letters in the midst of the answers. I’ve provided an example on Q.5. Usually either following the question or in the footnotes you can look down and find that next to the p is a list of Bible verses. In this case Deuteronomy 6:4 and Jeremiah 10:10 are cited. Well, get your Scriptures out and look those up, if you don’t have one nearby, I’ll copy them below:
Deut. 6:4 - “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
Jer. 10:10 – “But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King.”
Looking at these verses it is clear that the Westminster Divines have support for what they are teaching. Each of them testify that God is One, and that He is eternal and unchangeable. You may be saying to yourself that it seems as if it takes a lot of time to do this. It doesn’t. Hard work is its own reward. The more we learn the Catechism the easier it will be to gain strength from the Bible, and the stronger we get on that front, the sharper the sword shall be to fight off the attempts of the Evil One to disturb our peace and damage our faith. If we can learn the major of the backup long-snapper of Clemson football then we can study the Scriptures using the Catechism as a guide to help us walk the paths of righteousness for the sake of our Savior.
As always here is a helpful article to help us think more about who God is:
https://wscal.edu/blog/basics-of-the-reformed-faith-the-holy-trinity
Blessings in Christ!
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church