Why Study the Catechism? Part 2

Means to Study the Catechism for its Purpose

1. Study the Catechism frequently. It is better to study the Catechism for 10 minutes a day for the entire week than to spend one hour on it the evening of catechism class. This is not only best for learning the objective contents of the Catechism but is also the best way for the truths of Scripture as they are expressed in the Catechism to benefit you spiritually! In fact, I have a rule in my class – if you spend more than 10 minutes each and every day on memorizing your catechism and you still have difficulty learning it come and see me and I’ll make adjustments to the amount of memory work you will need to learn. After several years of catechism I’ve never had anyone come to me to ask me to re-evaluated the amount of memory work – and that is not because it is always been perfect – but rather I suspect because they could not honestly say they spent 10 minutes each and every day on the memorization of their catechism. Yes, study your catechism frequently.

In fact, I know a way you can learn your catechism perfectly every week without it taking one extra moment of your time. Do you want to know how? This is what you do. On the morning after your catechism class write out your memory work on a little 3x5 card. In the St. Thomas FRC we even provide the students with this card. You place the card in your pocket and then through the day read it several times – when you’re walking from the bus to the school; when your walking from your car to the shopping plaza; or at any other time when you can read your memory work while doing something else. If you do that 10x per day for 6 days I’m sure that almost everyone will know the answers perfectly; without it taking one extra moment of your time! Study your catechism frequently! It is a way to learn it easily and thoroughly!

2. Learn the precise text of the Catechism. Sometimes students ask at the beginning of the year if it is all right if they simply learn the truths of the Catechism and put it in their own words. This sounds all right – for it seems to reason that if a student is able to put it in their own words that they must have come to understand what they are learning. But I’ve always said – and I’m convinced that it is best – that the actual text of the Catechism should be learned. This will enable you to precisely and completely express the answer. When giving liberty to the students to express it in their own words my experience shows that they often leave out parts – or else they word the answer in a way which is at times even heretical! The precise wording of the Catechism was very carefully chosen and the best way to learn it is as it is written.

Further it is fallacy to think that as a student you need to understand everything that you are learning. Some of you have taught your very young children – or been taught - the answers to questions from a children’s catechism. The reality is that you can teach them the answers to questions which they don’t understand. You can teach them about the Trinity; the covenant of grace; the covenant of works; the necessity of faith; none of which they may fully understand. But why do you teach them? So that they learn that these are truths of Scripture! They may come to understand them – and most of it they will – but there are aspects of Scripture which none of us understand. Who of you can really explain the Trinity? Who of you can really understand the incarnation? Yes, you might be able to explain it somewhat – but that God became man? Therefore, it is best to learn the answers as they are written whether or not you understand them! Don’t make an excuse that you can’t learn them because the answer is beyond your understanding!

3. Study the Catechism by quoting it audibly. This will involve more of your senses in the learning of the Catechism. It has the further advantage of causing one to learn to confess the answers as their own rather than simply objective truth. You will notice as you orally confess the Catechism that it is written in such a style that to audible speak it results in confessing its truths. The pronouns of the Catechism speak of my God, my Saviour, your only comfort, … Let’s just do that for a moment with Question and Answer #1 from the Catechism. Here I use the same version our young people use in catechism classes. I’ll emphasize the personal pronouns. Read it out loud with emphasis on the personal pronouns.

What is your only comfort in life and ?

I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and , to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious , and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him!

Do you see the advantage of quoting it audibly? Now, just imagine doing that 10-20 times a week! Do you see how this will begin to have an effect on your spiritually? Do you see how this will challenge you but at the same time comfort you? You see, it is no comfort at all if it is someone else’s comfort! It is only comfort if it is my comfort! It is no comfort at all if Christ is a Saviour unless he is my Saviour! It is no comfort if God is a Father, unless he is my heavenly Father! It is no comfort at all to know that there is salvation, unless it is my salvation! Do you see the advantage of quoting the Catechism audibly as you learn it? Do you understand how this will lead you not only to be acquainted with its truths but also actually to experience them?

4. Study your catechism by writing out the memory work. Again this will aid you in learning the Catechism more thoroughly and experientially. To write involves a more active part of the mind and requires one to work through the truths of the lesson systematically. It is by writing you will begin to understand the structure of each answer and the way that all the parts work together. If you write it out in the same format each time it will aid you in giving you a visual image of the answer making it easier to recite or write in the future.

5. Look up the biblical cross-references and see how they relate to the answer of the Catechism. This will convince you that the answer which you are learning, precisely and thoroughly expresses a truth of Scripture. Now this is an important truth because it is the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [Hebrews 4:12] It is the Bible that shall not return unto LORD void, but it shall accomplish that which HE pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto HE sent it. [Is. 55:11] Therefore in considering the biblical references to the Catechism you will become absolutely convinced that the truths it articulates are accurate to Scripture. It will also make you realize the preciousness and beauty of the Catechism. But it is also the study of the Word of God, which is a means that the LORD uses in both giving and nurturing faith! In this way the study of the Catechism accomplishes its purpose.

6. Study the Catechism prayerfully. In order that the Catechism might be something of both the heart and the mind it is necessary to prayerfully consider its contents and its application to daily life. Without the work of the Holy Spirit the truths of Scripture as they are expressed in the Catechism will never enter your heart and change your life.

Just knowing the truths of Scripture as they are expressed in the Catechism is no guarantee that they will impact your soul – nor that you will believe them in your heart. Just think of the unbelief of the Jews as recorded Romans 10. They had received all the oracles of God. No doubt their young people, as they do today, had to memorize large parts of the Torah, but that is no guarantee that these truths brought them to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If the purpose of the Catechism is that you might learn to confess Christ properly from your heart you must pray that the Holy Spirit would indeed work with the Word in your heart!

Learning your catechism involves more than simply reproducing the answers to the questions on Sunday morning or Tuesday evenings – but it requires you to experientially become acquainted with its truths. That requires the Holy Spirit and should drive you to prayer. Just the knowledge of truth without appropriating it can never lead to your salvation. Remember what James said in his epistle: The devils believe and tremble. [James 2:19] That brings us to the next important application:

7. Study your catechism by meditating on its truths. What do I mean by meditate? Well, it means that you think about it; you pray about it; you consider it; you turn it over in your mind; you think of the implications of what you are learning; you consider applications of what you are learning; you think about situations in which you would find it helpful. You consider what you are learning about man in general and your life specifically through the question and answer. You consider what the questions and answer tells you about the character and attributes of God; does it speak about his justice; does it speak about his mercy; does it speak about his love or care. You consider what it says about salvation; how does this question and answer reveal my need; how does this question and answer show me the way of salvation; how does this question and answer show me how I must live before my God. When you meditate on the truths of Scripture as they are revealed in the Catechism you will not only be able you to grasp the objective answer, but also it will help to bring home to your heart and conscience the truth of Scripture. In this way you can take ‘ownership’ of the Catechism – not only memorizing its truths but making them your own. It is through reflection on the truths expressed in the Catechism that they are brought home to the heart.

As we conclude let me remind you again what it states in Romans 10:9-10 - That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the , thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. In other words, yes, confession must be made with your mouth – but it must ring from your heart. Confession of the mouth without believing in the heart is not an expression of saving faith and visa-versa claiming that one believes in the heart but never confessing with the mouth is also not a proper concept of faith. The subjective truths of the Catechism need to be individually and internally appropriated and these are means to accomplish that end! May the Lord bless each of you who are involved in either teaching or learning the Heidelberg Catechism!