books of the Reformed church. The reader will find here in modern language, but always at the same time in classic language that designates things by their names, the substance of the questions and answers of both catechisms. I am aware of supporting here both the tradition of the Reformed church and its spiritual fruit.
But this catechism is an effort at adaptation to today’s needs. It includes therefore certain developments, occasionally of great importance, which cannot be found in the two above-mentioned books. They also account for general omissions found today among the young people and believers in our churches. In ten or twenty years other points will probably need to be accented.
I have always especially tried to place in relief the fact that Jesus Christ is living today, that he has taken our condition to give us his; that his work, acts, reign, intercession, dispense his gifts liberally, and that he presides over the destiny of his Church; that the Christian’s condition, miserable in the world’s eyes, is in fact glorious above all privilege. At every turn, I insist on making clear that every man is called by God to the Christian life, and that each can receive personally the gifts He offers. . . .
General Introduction
Lesson 1
The Highest Goal and Greatest Happiness of Human Life
SUMMARY: The chief goal of human life and its greatest happiness is to know God our Father, and Jesus Christ, our faithful Savior.
In order to honor God appropriately, and to profit from all his mercies, I must know how great my sin and misery are, how I may be delivered from them, how I may trust in God and in my Savior Jesus Christ, and express all my gratitude to Him.
Bible readings for the week: Monday, Question 3: 1, (2), 3, (4). Tuesday, Question 4: (1), 2, 3. Wednesday, Question 4: 4, 5. Thursday, Question 4: 6. Friday, Question 5: (1), 2, (3), 4. Saturday, Question 5: (5), 6, (7), (8), 9.
1. What is the highest goal of human life?
To know God. God has created us and placed us in the world in order to glorify himself in us. It is therefore very reasonable, since He is the Author and Source of our life, that we return our life, all of it, to his glory.
Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:23–24
2. What is the supreme happiness of men?
To know God. Jesus affirmed this when he said: “This is life eternal that they know Thee, the only true God, and the one whom Thou hast sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). This is our happiness because God is also our glory.
Preserve me O God, because I take refuge in Thee. I said to the Lord, “Thou art my Lord; I have no good besides Thee.” Psalm 16:1–2
3. What comfort does this knowledge provide you?
My only comfort is to know that, both in life and in death, my body and soul are not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. By his sacrifice on the cross, he has accomplished everything necessary that God not hold against me the great guilt of my sins, and he has delivered me from all the power of Satan.
Today he protects me so well, that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my heavenly Father. Thanks to him, all things must work together for my salvation (Matthew 10:29–30; Romans 8:28).
Therefore God gives me by his Holy Spirit the assurance of eternal life, and makes me live henceforth for Him, loving Him with all my heart.
For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Romans 14:7–9
Bible readings:
1. God is my shepherd: Psalm 23.
2. God is my rest and my peace: Psalm 62:2–3, 6–13.
3. God is my joy: Isaiah 61:1–3, 10–11.
4. I can love God as a Father: Romans 8:14–17.
4. Do we not see by this that there can be no greater misfortune than to live separate from God and from our Savior Jesus Christ, and not to learn the knowledge of them?
Yes, because it does not profit a man anything to gain the whole world and to lose his soul (cf. Matthew 16:26).
Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and we know that you are the holy one of God.” John 6:68–69
Bible readings:
1. Martha and Mary: Luke 10:38–42.
2. The misfortune of those who do not know God: Psalm 53:1–6.
3. Neither truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God: Hosea 4:1–10.
4. Unhappiness and happiness: Jeremiah 17:5–8.
5. It is always the same in this earthly life, everything is colorless and tiresome; everything begins again for the one who does not have a Savior: Ecclesiastes 1:3–11. Neither work (1:12–15), nor knowledge (1:16–18), neither pleasure nor leisure (2:1–2), neither the raucous fling nor folly (2:3), nor philosophy (2:12–16), nothing can satisfy the melancholy or the homesickness of him who has no Savior.
6. The absence of a Savior in our life leads to hatred of life (Ecclesiastes 2:17–19), to inconsolable despair (2:20–23), to fatalism (3:14–15), to complete scorn of the human condition (3:18–22, 4:2–3). It leads finally to the mundane practice of those moral principles or maxims, most often bitter and disillusioned, that do not succeed in deceiving the unappeased disquiet of a heart which does not know the “reason” of its existence and of things (7:23–29). It causes at last a complete unbelief and blasphemy of the work of God on earth, and the repudiation of eternal life (9:1–12).
5. What must you know and what must you do in order to honor God as He invites, and live and die with this blessed comfort?
First, I must know how great my sin and my misery are (Questions 6–15).
Jesus said to them, “If you were blind you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains. John 9:41
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned, but now they have no excuse for their sin. John 15:22
Bible readings:
1. David confesses his sin and his misery: Psalm 38.
2. A barrier between our God and us: Isaiah 59:2–15.
3. Sinners, but beloved by God: Titus 3:3–7.
Second, I must know how I may be delivered from my sin, and how I may place all my trust in God and in my Savior Jesus Christ (Questions 16 to 193).
Bible readings:
4.
