God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
The most godly people, therefore, in your congregations, will find it worth their labor to learn the very words of a catechism. If, then, you would safely edify them, and firmly establish them, be diligent in this work.
The Old Covenant law was never given to earn salvation. God saved people back then just as He does today under the New Covenant – by faith! Even before the law we read that “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3). Therefore the Old Covenant law was given for God’s people to identify themselves as God’s people. The law was for those already saved so it may go well with them and they may know how to rightly honor God with their actions. In other words, the law didn’t save, but obedience to the law gave evidence of salvation. And when the law was violated, the whole sacrificial system was in place to make temporary atonement through blood for one’s transgression.
