The shorter Catechism (Q1 - 42)

Question 1

Q. 1. What is the chief purpose for which man is made?

Answer 1

The chief purpose for which man is made is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.

Question 2

Q. 2. What rule has God given to direct us how to glorify and enjoy him?

Answer 2

The Word of God, which consists of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how to glorify and enjoy him.

Question 3

Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

Answer 3

The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Question 4

Q. 4. What is God?

Answer 4

God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

Question 5

Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?

Answer 5

There is only one God, the living and true God.

Question 6

Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer 6

There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Question 7

Q. 7. What are the decrees of God?

Answer 7

The decrees of God are his eternal plan, according to the purpose of his will, by which, for his own glory, he has foreordained whatever comes to pass; yet in such a manner as to be in no way the author of sin.

Question 8

Q. 8. How does God carry out his decrees?

Answer 8

God carries out his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

Question 9

Q. 9. What is the work of creation?

Answer 9

The work of creation is the making by God of all things from nothing, by his powerful word, in the space of six days, and all very good.

Question 10

Q. 10. How did God create man?

Answer 10

God created man, male and female, in his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with rule over the creatures.

Question 11

Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence?

Answer 11

God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preservation and control of all his creatures, and all their actions.

Question 12

Q. 12. What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the state in which he was created?

Answer 12

When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, on condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on penalty of death.

Question 13

Q. 13. Did our first parents continue in the state in which they were created?

Answer 13

Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the state in which they were created by sinning against God.

Question 14

Q. 14. What is sin?

Answer 14

Sin is any failure to measure up to what God requires, or any disobedience to his commands.

Question 15

Q. 15. What was the sin by which our first parents fell from the state in which they were created?

Answer 15

The sin by which our first parents fell from the state in which they were created, was their eating the fruit that God had forbidden.

Question 16

Q. 16. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first disobedience?

Answer 16

Since the covenant of life was made with Adam for his descendants as well as for himself, all mankind descending from him in the ordinary manner, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression.

Question 17

Q. 17. Into what state did the fall bring mankind?

Answer 17

The fall brought mankind into a state of sin and misery.

Question 18

Q. 18. What is the sinfulness of that state into which man fell?

Answer 18

The sinfulness of the state into which man fell includes the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the lack of the righteousness which he had at first, and the corruption of every part of his nature, which is commonly called Original Sin; together with all actual sins which flow from it.

Question 19

Q. 19. What misery did the fall bring upon mankind?

Answer 19

The fall brought upon mankind loss of communion with God, and his wrath and curse, so that we are justly liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to punishment in hell for ever.

Question 20

Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the state of sin and misery?

Answer 20

God, solely out of his love and mercy, from all eternity elected some to everlasting life, and entered into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the state of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer.

Question 21

Q. 21. Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?

Answer 21

The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God became man, and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person for ever.

Question 22

Q. 22. How did Christ, the Son of God, become man?

Answer 22

Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to himself a body and a soul like ours, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

Question 23

Q. 23. What offices does Christ fill as our Redeemer?

Answer 23

Christ as our Redeemer fills the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, in his states both of humiliation and exaltation.

Question 24

Q. 24. How does Christ fill the office of a prophet?

Answer 24

Christ fills the office of a prophet in revealing to us by his Word and Spirit the will of God for our complete salvation.

Question 25

Q. 25. How does Christ fill the office of a priest?

Answer 25

Christ fills the office of a priest in his once offering up of himself to God as a sacrifice, to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God; and in making constant intercession for us.

Question 26

Q. 26. How does Christ fill the office of a king?

Answer 26

Christ fills the office of a king in making us his willing subjects, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

Question 27

Q. 27. In what did Christ’s humiliation consist?

Answer 27

Christ’s humiliation consisted in being born, and that in a poor circumstance; in being subject to God’s law; in undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God and the curse of death on the cross; in being buried; and in continuing under the power of death for a time.

Question 28

Q. 28. In what does Christ’s exaltation consist?

Answer 28

Christ’s exaltation consists in his rising again from the dead on the third day; in ascending into heaven; in sitting at the right hand of God the Father; and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

Question 29

Q. 29. How are we made to share in the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer 29

We are made to share in the redemption purchased by Christ by the effective application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.

Question 30

Q. 30. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer 30

The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by producing faith in us, and by this uniting us to Christ in our effective calling.

Question 31

Q. 31. What is effective calling?

Answer 31

Effective calling is the work of God’s Spirit, by which he convinces us of our sin and misery, enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renews our wills, and so persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

Question 32

Q. 32. What benefits in this life are shared by those who are effectively called?

Answer 32

In this life those who are effectively called share in justification, adoption and sanctification, and the further benefits in this life which accompany or flow from them.

Question 33

Q. 33. What is justification?

Answer 33

Justification is an act of God’s free grace in which he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight for the sake of the righteousness of Christ alone, which is credited to us and received by faith alone.

Question 34

Q. 34. What is adoption?

Answer 34

Adoption is an act of God’s free grace by which we are received into the number and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.

Question 35

Q. 35. What is sanctification?

Answer 35

Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace by which we are renewed throughout in the image of God and are enabled more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness.

Question 36

Q. 36. What benefits in this life accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?

Answer 36

The benefits in this life which accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification are: assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, progress in holiness, and perseverance in it to this life’s end.

Question 37

Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?

Answer 37

The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, rest in their graves until the resurrection.

Question 38

Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?

Answer 38

At the resurrection Christ will immediately raise up in glory all believers; he will openly acknowledge and acquit them in the day of judgement, /graciously rewarding them according to their works of faith,/ and they will enter into the full enjoyment of God for all eternity.

Question 39

Q. 39. What is the duty which God requires of man?

Answer 39

The duty which God requires of man is obedience to his revealed will.

Question 40

Q. 40. What rule did God at first reveal to man for his obedience?

Answer 40

The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law.

Question 41

Q. 41. Where is the moral law set out briefly?

Answer 41

The moral law is set out briefly in the Ten Commandments.

Question 42

Q. 42. What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?

Answer 42

The sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.