Q 3: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
Answer: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
This answer is like the table of contents for the rest of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Questions 4-38 will describe what man is to believe concerning God and questions 39-107 will describe what duty God requires of man. These two parts can be describes as faith and life, doctrine and duty, indicative and imperative. As Paul said to Timothy, the Bible is given both for teaching and for training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Both are essential to a proper understanding of Christianity and to the purposes of God in giving us the Bible. And central to both doctrine and duty is God - through God’s word we learn to know God and God’s will for us.
The Bible is God’s revelation of his nature, purposes, works, and will. He reveals who he is, what he has done, what he will do, and what he would have us do. Why? So that we can know him and be his people. As we saw in last week’s question, the Bible is given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy God forever. The Bible is the “book of the covenant” (Exodus 24:7), according to which God reveals and commits himself to his people as their God and Savior and we entrust and commit ourselves to him as his people.
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