January Catechism Discussion Questions

In the book, How to Teach The Catechism to Children, by Joyce M. Horton, there are some helpful discussion questions / topics you can use during the Truth Made Known time.

Q. Before Christ came, how did believers show their faith? A. By offering the sacrifices God required .

The Lord Himself required the shedding of blood as payment for sin, for He says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin,”

Think about what happened in Genesis when Adam and Eve had sinned and covered their nakedness with fig leaves. The leaves may have covered their nakedness, but did nothing to cover their sin.

The Lord killed an animal because blood HAD to be shed for their sin. Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover their nakedness (representing man’s effort to cover their sin).

The Lord killed the animal, clothed them with the skin of the animal, and thus covered their sins sufficiently through the shed blood of the animal.

Scripture Reference:

Hebrews 9:22 - Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 10:1 - The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

Q. What did these sacrifices represent? A. Christ, the Lamb of God, who would come to die for sinners.

Refer to John 1:29 when John the Baptist says, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”

All those years in the old testament they had sacrificed lambs, bulls, turtle doves and all manner of sacrifices, but the Lamb was the Passover offering.

John meant - “here comes the perfect sacrifice, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.”

They had to bring their own lamb for sacrifice. It had to be out of their own flock. If they didn’t own one, they had to buy one. They couldn’t borrow a neighbor’s; they had to sacrifice their own lamb.

So when John said, “The Lamb of God,” he meant, “Here comes God’s own sacrifice, He’s going to sacrifice His lamb and that’s going to take away the sins of the world.”

These sacrifices were types that showed the faith of the person in the Old Testament who looked toward the cross - the faith in a saviour to come.

What saves us is looking back at the very same cross. Our belief is in a Savior who did come. Their belief was in the same Saviour who was to come .

Scripture Reference

1 Peter 1:18 -19 - For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

John 1:29, 36 - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”