JORDAN QUINLEY
Redeemer Catechism Series, Question 2
The opening question of the Redeemer Catechism asks, essentially, what our reason for living is. It answers by saying we are here to glorify God in Christ, finding our delight in him. The next question follows on its heels.
Q2: Where can we learn how to glorify God and delight in him?
A2: Only the Word of God contained in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible tells us all we need to know about God, and what he wants from us and for us, and how we can glorify him and find in him our joy and satisfaction.
In this question and answer, the catechism affirms the doctrine of revealed truth. We can find out how to glorify and enjoy God, but only if God tells us how. And because glorifying and enjoying God is our highest purpose, it follows that we need divine revelation to understand the meaning of our lives, our worth, and our destiny. Partially, our lack of understanding our own lives is because sin has broken our fellowship with God and even distorted our own sense of who we are. Indeed, the question of who we are is inseparable from how we relate to God. That is, our relationship to God as human beings determines what a human being is in the first place.
John Calvin, in opening his Institutes of Christian Religion, notes that our knowledge of God and our knowledge of ourselves are intertwined in such fashion that “it is not easy to tell which of the two precedes and give birth to the other.” Sin has disrupted our ability clearly to see God and ourselves as Adam and Eve could before they sinned. Thus our need for direct, verbal revelation from God is that much greater.
But our need for divine revelation also exists simply because we are creatures. As His creatures, we are dependent upon God as a source of true knowledge about how He is to be glorified and how He is to fulfill our truest needs and desires. We can only learn all we must learn about these things from God Himself. Importantly, the way He has spoken to us is through Scripture. Certainly, He has spoken to us most powerfully through His Son, the living and personal Word of God. And yet, as we live on this side of the ascension, we are dependent upon the inspired writings (illumined to us by God’s Spirit), to know what we know about Jesus and how His person and ministry revealed God to people.
That the catechism specifies that the “Word of God” referred to here is that “contained in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible” may seem like overkill. But it is good to be specific. The Westminster Confession of Faith—due especially to the Roman Catholic church’s official canonization of the Apocryphal books at the Council of Trent—stated that “Under the name of holy Scripture, or the Word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testament, which are these …” and goes on to list the 66 books of the Protestant canon by name. While the Redeemer Catechism does not list books by name, it’s not a bad idea for a Christian to memorize them in order.
I will note that the Catechism does not say that only the Bible tells us about God. Creation can tell us things about the nature and wisdom of God, and this fact is explored a little more in question No. 7. Our own experience of God’s hand in our lives, especially in hard times, can teach us about God, too. The Catechism says that only the Bible can tell us all we need to know about God, And this essential knowledge includes a number of vital pieces of our existential puzzle. Scripture reveals to us, for one thing, what God requires of us. If there is a God, it follows that discerning His will for us would be crucial. Without knowing His intentions for us, how could we possibly know how to conduct ourselves in this world?
Secondly, Scripture also tells us what God wants for us. The wonder is that God not only issues demands to us (though He does do that), He also makes plans for us. God has something in mind for each of us, and He also has a plan for His people collectively. We cannot intuit our part in in God’s plan, nor can we perceive our place and our teleology in the cosmic unfolding of time itself. On the contrary, God has to speak these things to us, and He has been gracious enough to do so.
Finally, the Bible reveals to us that if we put our faith in God, if we wait in hope for Him, if we walk with Him, it will be the joy of a lifetime. It’s not a drag. Living within God’s intention for us is the opposite of the listless wandering that comes of not knowing one’s Maker.
Yes, following Christ requires sacrifice, perhaps great sacrifice. But the reward for this life with Christ does not await heaven alone. It seeps into our earthly experience. Jesus speaks of sacrifice and reward together when He says, “No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life” (Mk 10:29–31).
David described the joy God brought to him in places like Psalm 16:11, 35:9, and 37:4. But I leave you with the words of the apostle Peter, who encouraged a church facing tribulation by reminding them that
though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:7–9).
Only by means of “the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ” can you know how to access the “inexpressible and glorious joy,” and the “peace of God, which transcends all understanding” which comes from a life lived for his glory.
This article is the second in Jordan’s series explaining the questions and answers in the new covenant Redeemer Catechism which he has written.
- How Did God Create Humankind? - February 29, 2024
- What is God’s Work of Creation? - August 24, 2023
- What Are God’s Decrees and How Does He Carry Them Out? - June 22, 2023