The Chief and Highest Good
Knowing the One Who is Alone Sufficient and Complete
Good Morning!
While it may seem like we are re-inventing the wheel by going through the Larger Catechism after having spent a year in the Shorter Catechism I want to assure you of two things: first, it’s always good to go back over things we’ve heard before, second, I don’t think even I remember what I wrote in 2021, so it will be review for me as well. It is always a blessing to spend time learning about what the Bible teaches on who God is and why He is worth worshipping and serving, our salvation, grace, the commandments, prayer, the sacraments, etc… So I am positive that these studies on the Larger Catechism will be helpful and bring a positive light on your life as a believer, and just in general. Without further adieu here are the first two questions:
Q. 1. What is the chief and highest end of man?
A. Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever.
Q. 2. How does it appear that there is a God?
A. The very light of nature in man, and the works of God, declare plainly that there is a God; but His word and Spirit only do sufficiently and effectually reveal him unto men for their salvation.
The first thing you probably notice being a difference between the first question of the Shorter Catechism and the first question of the Larger Catechism is that the answer has more words in it.
Deep thoughts there.
Yet, does that mean that it actually says more than the one we are more familiar with? Well, yes and no. It doesn’t change anything, but it does give us more to think about.
The two added to Q.1 , “highest” and “fully” express something that you will notice as we walk through the catechism, and that is more emphasis is placed on the superiority of the Christian faith against all comers. It is essential at this point to remember something about the nature of human beings and their relationship with the Lord. As Cornelius Van Til says, “All men know God. Every fact of the universe has God’s stamp of ownership indelibly and with large letters engraved upon it. All men know not merely that a God exists, but they know that God, the true God, the only God, exists.”[1] As part of that truth it is rightly understood that regardless of what one’s heart is made of, stone or flesh, there is nothing that can compare to the holiness, the goodness, and the majesty of Jehovah. It’s why men make idols of stone and wood. They know they need to worship, but because they are in rebellion against the Creator they make do with what they have, which is the Creation, whom God Himself has made. So much of unbelief is engaging in completely illogical and knowingly ignorant things. It’s why in Romans 1 the sin that God gives people over to in their rebellion is sodomy. It is a self-destructive act of the very image. It’s why when we talk about sex (in the gender sense) our culture has to play word games, and yet at the end of day give in to the way God has made biological reproduction to work in His glory. In attempting to defame the Lord they show forth His ways, that there is no getting around the reality of His existence and His world. If man is going to make a false deity he has to use the very dust that God made to do it. There is nothing outside the eyes of the Lord.
There is a reason why things only make sense in the world God has made. It is why mankind can only find happiness and peace in a right relation to Him.
Things only work if the circuit is complete.
Sometimes the Larger Catechism gets a bad rap from unsteady men who say that it is full of dead orthodoxy. What they mean by that is the Westminster standard we are looking at over the next two years has no devotional quality, no lyrical movement of the spirit, yet only a person unacquainted with these open inquiries could say such a silly thing. A mere moment spent considering the highest good should cause the heart of the Christian to remember the majestic felicity of who God is and how He has revealed Himself to man. Who is the fullness of that revelation?
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
We see in Jesus Christ the perfection of the work of God. In Him we see the beauty of Heaven and it should cause the heart of man either to weep in joy, or flee in sorrow, for the very light of nature witnesses to us His work. That is why the Pharisees hated Him so. They knew He was the Redeemer promised of old and desired to see Him destroyed for His very presence reminded them of their rebellion and sin. Yet, what effect did Jesus have on those He came to save? The woman with the flow knew that if she could just touch the hem of His garment she would be healed, the Centurion knew the very word of His power would heal his servant. Mary washed His feet because she knew the weight of His glory, and what He would do for her at the cross.
Jesus, Jesus, how precious the name in all the Earth!
That’s what this question is seeking to tell and teach today.
There is nothing higher, nothing more full, than Jesus Christ.
Flee from idols and take up the real thing.
Here’s a word more:
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-is-the-highest-good
Blessings in Him,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church
[1] Cornelius Van Til, Common Grace and the Gospel (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2015), 150.