It is a thing that much troubleth men’s spirits, when they see the estate of the world so confused, that the most part do manifestly despite God, and it seemeth that they have conspired with the devil, to the end to give over themselves to all mischief.  For this is thought a thing greatly against reason, that GOD should create men to destroy them.   Wherefore then is it, that he suffereth the greatest number so to fall?  If it be said that this ought to be imputed not to God, but to those that of their own accord throw themselves so to perdition, yet this maketh no whit to the appeasing of those troubles, that we may conceive:  For could not God remedy it?  Why is it then that he doeth it not?  They that allege a simple permission, that God layeth the bridle upon every man’s neck, and that everyone guideth himself according to his own free will:  yet they cannot well undo this knot:  to wit, why God hath not created men of another sort:  and therefore he hath suffered that they should be so weak, yea and inclined to evil and corruption:  and seeing that he knew their infirmity, wherefore is it, that he doth not help them and provide them some remedy?  This therefore is to entangle ourselves in great torments and troubles.  But it behooveth that we go yet farther:  For it is certain (as the Scripture declareth) that there is nothing which doth not perish, saving that which God preserveth through his mere goodness and free bounty.   But now, how cometh it to pass, that God chooseth only the tenth or the hundredth part of men, and leaveth all the rest, knowing well that they are swallowed up in hell and lost?  Wherefore doth he not reach out his hand to help them, yea why hath he ordained them to destruction, as the Scripture speaketh? …

      … it is certain, that as he hath answered to our mother Rebecca, that which he knew to be expedient:  So the Scripture likewise will not deceive us in this point:  for it pronounceth clearly and manifestly, that God hath chosen us in Jesus Christ before the creation of the world, according to his good pleasure, the which he hath purposed in himself.  There needs no gloss:  behold God speaketh after this sort, that the most rude and ignorant may know, what there is contained therein.  God then hath chosen us (saith Saint Paul) and hereby he showeth that he hath discerned us from those which perish.  And mark how his mercy towards us hath the greater glory.  For what letted [prevented] that we should not remain in the same perdition that others did, but that God was merciful unto us, without any desert of ours?

     But the better to express all, Saint Paul saith, that he did choose us in Jesus Christ:  it followeth then that this is out of our persons.  If we had been chosen in ourselves, God should have found some matter in us to have been induced to love us, and to have been inclined to have called us to salvation.  But what?  We are chosen without ourselves:  that is to say:   God had no regard to that we were or might be, but our election is founded in Jesus Christ.  And moreover, he yet giveth a more ample declaration:  that is, according to his good purpose, which he had determined in himself:   it is certain that all that is according to the purpose of man, is manifestly excluded:  and again when he saith in himself:  this is to admonish us, that if we would know the cause why:  it is as if we would make an Anatomy of God, and go even into his heart and sound all his secrets.  And can we do this?   What overweening [high opinion] is this?  So then, when we shall suffer ourselves to be taught of God, it is certain, that he will answer us, in such sort, as shall be necessary for us, concerning that which belongeth to our salvation:   and namely we shall know that which surmounteth all man’s understanding, how the one sort are elected, and the other rejected, and why the one have no doctrine, as the Papists and other infidels, whom God leaveth as poor blind ones, and why the other are enlightened through the Gospel.  And farther, concerning those to whom the Gospel is preached, the one receive it with obedience, and they are touched therewith to the quick, and persevere in it to the end:  and the other remain blockish, or rather will be full of outrage, to strive against God:  or else will be fickle and give themselves over to all iniquity, throwing off the yoke, when they shall be brought into the good way.  And from whence cometh this diversity?  We must come to this fountain that the holy Scripture showeth us:   that is, that the like grace hath not been showed to all.  So then, behold our true wisdom that is, that we be God’s good scholars:  and we shall then be his scholars, when we seek to know nothing, but that he knoweth to be good and expedient for our salvation:  and when we shall rest there, and learn to bring into captivity all our senses, and to keep an hard hand upon them.  Then (say I) if we shall speak of the secret election of God, how he hath predestinated those whom he would to salvation, and how he hath cast off others:  we shall never be troubled.  And why so? because we having inquired of God’s will, we will conclude, that we must keep ourselves to that which he showeth us, and to that which the Scripture importeth, where he hath given us sufficient testimony of that which he knoweth to be good for us.  Finally, there are so many testimonies of Scripture, to certify us of this doctrine that it must needs be, that all they that cannot rest there, must be as it were impoisoned [poisoned] of satan, and that they have conceived the spirit of venom, of pride and rebellion, to the end not to be ordered under the will of God:  and that, to be short, they would despite all doctrine and instruction, and close up their eyes against the full light, and have their ears stopped, albeit God hath spoken loud and clearly, and that they have occasion to content themselves so much the more.   To heap up all the testimonies, is not needful:  but this is sufficient that we have had a sum, yea most evident as I have already briefly showed.

     Again we have also, whereof to bless God and to comfort ourselves in him, when we know rightly to apply this doctrine as it behooveth.  For instead that these fanatical and light brains, who would seem to be so subtle and sharp in fighting against God, and against his truth, instead that they search how they may gainsay him, we must mark how God doth satisfy us, and to what end he directeth this doctrine and to what purpose he would have it serve us, that is:  to know that we are elected, and not all.  For in the first place, when we see, that we cannot receive the Gospel, unless it be by the special gift of God, this serveth to make us so much the more to magnify his goodness towards us, and to see his just judgment against the reprobate, when he  depriveth them of this doctrine:  as we see in the Papacy, that men are as brute beasts, who err and wander through deserts, without keeping way or path.  Now concerning us, we have sure testimony, which ought so much the more to stir us up to esteem this singular grace towards us.  And also when we see some that have deaf ears, although it be daily declared unto them familiarly, and that which is requisite for their salvation be (as I may say) chawed unto them, they continue always in their estate:  or rather they are not a whit touched, and they pass not to give over themselves to all licentiousness of life, as it were in despite of God:  When we see this, it is certain, that our Lord hath so much the more bound us unto him, for that it hath pleased him to make us feel his goodness, and that we have taken such a taste of the hope of salvation which he hath propounded unto us:  that we have renounced the world and whatsoever weakness there be in us, howsoever we are full of vices and corruption, nevertheless we hate the evil that is in us, and we delight in that which is good.  When then we have this:  it is certain, that if we be not harder than iron and steel, we ought to have all rebellion shivered and broken:  and that we be inflamed with the love of God, and have our mouth open to bless and praise that so excellent and magnificent grace, which he hath showed towards us.  See then the mark that the Scripture setteth before us....

     ... Mark then, the sum of that we have to learn:  that is, when God declareth unto us his eternal election, and that he hath given us such a testimony, that we cannot doubt thereof:  when he hath showed us that this is our benefit and salvation:  and so that we take not too much liberty, to wrangle against him, and to enter in crooked and overthwart disputations, that then the whole shall profit us.  For it is certain, that this is the true rejoicing of the faithful, to be instructed concerning this election of God.  Moreover:  when we see the wicked to cast forth their cavils against God, and their slanders to pervert all, and to bring this doctrine into hatred, let us not think it strange:  for it must needs be that they declare themselves to [be] reprobates.  I have said, that we must rest ourselves in the everlasting counsel of God, whereby he hath chosen some, and cast off others.  If now the reprobate come to fight against the truth of God, it is no new thing:  For they are appointed to this, and it must needs be that they declare themselves to be such as they are:  and we must call to mind that sentence of Ose the which is put in the end of this Book:   “The ways of the Lord are good and right” (Hosea 14:9):   also “The righteous will walk in them, but the wicked shall fall therein.”  Now he addeth also:  “Who is wise that will understand this?”  The Prophet showeth that when we speak of the judgments of God, it behooveth that we have a special wisdom to receive them:  and shall this wisdom be found in all our brains? that is far off.  So then it behooveth that we have a wisdom given us by the mere mercy of God.

Life of John Calvin, “Pastor and Teacher”

Prof. Barrett Gritters
Prof. Gritters is professor of Practical Theology in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.  Ephesians 4:11,12

        Great gift to the church of Jesus Christ God gave in John Calvin.  Great example for pastors is this unusual man, fit by providence to serve God’s church at such a time.  Great inspiration for all God’s people, young people too, is Calvin, whose dedication and patient love for his fellow saints will move to tears.  Truly, God gave him, pastor and teacher, for the perfecting of saints, the work of the ministry, the building up of the body of Christ.

     Calvin was born in 1509, the fourth child of a church lawyer and his wife, in Noyon, France, a walled city of about 10,000.  Such were the times in the sixteenth century that the likelihood of surviving childhood was not good.  Calvin already had two older brothers who had died in infancy.  When he was only three, Calvin’s mother passed away; and he was raised by a stepmother with his older brother, Charles, younger brother, Antoine, and two stepsisters.

      His early education was the finest, manipulated as it was by his lawyer-father, financed by wages for church positions that he had obtained for Calvin, but which required no work.  Then, at age fourteen, Calvin had opportunity to study with his friends, sons of a local bishop, in Paris under world-renowned scholars.  He never returned to stay in Noyon, the city of his birth.

      Originally, his father destined Calvin for theology and the priesthood.  When his father saw that wealth was more likely in the practice of law, he directed his son in that way.  Unconverted, according to his own confession, Calvin did not object.  But he studied.  It was only later that Calvin returned to the study of theology.

      The Reformation was barely a few years old when Calvin was a boy.  Zwingli was writing and preaching the truth.  Erasmus had translated the New Testament.  Ministers whose names are unknown to us were preaching the reformed faith from the Scriptures.  By this preaching, the Lord was changing hearts.  Pope and bishops were angry at the changes.  Nations were warring.  Because church and state were so closely connected, the church was at the center.  In the midst of this turmoil, God was preparing the young man Calvin to be a tireless scholar, an eloquent preacher, a brilliant theologian, a passionate warrior for the faith, and a humble pastor.

      First, God would convert him.  “By a sudden conversion, God subdued my heart,” he confessed in the preface to his commentary on the Psalms.  From then on, his passion was boundless for the cause of Jesus Christ.  Till his death, this great gift of God to us served as an example for pastors today.

      Are there young men reading this?  Be encouraged, brethren, by the great joy this man found in suffering for the church of Christ as a pastor, and let these lessons from his life teach us about what it means to be a good pastor.  But rather than learn of Calvin from a chronological study of his life, let’s see five areas of Calvin’s ministry that illustrate for us what kind of man, pastor and teacher, God made him to be.

 Willing, in the Day of God’s Power

     Like other pastors in God’s church, Calvin was called to work where he had not chosen.   Calvin had been committed to a quiet life of private study.  But God dragged him, Jonah-like, to the center of the Reformation battle and the life of the church in a hostile city.  Thrust into a position he did not seek, did not want, indeed, ran from, he found himself as a pastor in Geneva, Switzerland.

      In 1536 (Calvin was 27 years old), when he was traveling back from his birth-place, where he had gone to settle the family estate after his father’s death, war forced him to take a long detour that led him to the beautiful Swiss town of Geneva.  Here, he would lodge for the night and be off in the morning to return to Strasbourg to write and study in peace.  But God would have nothing of this.  Pastors Farel and Viret, by whom God began reform in Geneva, looked him up and so pressed him to stay and help them in the work that he at last could not decline their “call.”  So began a life-time of self-denying but massively rewarding labor in the public pastorate among Christ’s sheep.

      After two years of “exile” (another long story you ought to read about in a good biography of Calvin), when Calvin was asked to return to Geneva, he wrote to his colleague Farel, “when I consider that I am not in my own power, I offer my heart a slain victim for a sacrifice to the Lord.  I yield my soul chained and bound unto obedience to God….”  To colleague Viret, about the same call:  “There is no place under heaven of which I can have a greater dread.”  The decision was not pleasant, but God’s will was clear.   He went back to Geneva.  “I shall follow wherever God leads, who knows best why He has laid this necessity upon me.”

      Does a young man today run from the pastorate, try to ignore the thoughts God plants, even feel terrified at the possibility of the work of the ministry?  So did John Calvin.  Remember, though, these two truths:  You cannot run from the Lord forever; and He will make you willing and joyful (see Ps. 110) in the day He stops you from running.

Capable, with the Spirit’s gifts

      The man God mastered to be the theologian and organizer of the Reformation, to carry through what Luther began, was a bright and capable young man.  Natural gifts that the Lord gave him were developed by a disciplined effort throughout his youth, so that his mind matured to be penetrating and his capacity for learning and memorizing became remarkable.

     He learned the languages.  Rising early each day to study, to his native French he added Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and learned them so that he was fluent in them.  His grammar was impeccable.  Logic and law were in his repertoire.  Philosophy and history became familiar friends.  Then, because God gave him rare memory and mind, he not only could recall most of what he read, but could grasp the big picture of God’s revelation in Scripture and the history of the church in the world.  He had natural gifts, indeed; but gifts that were developed through arduous work—the kind of work that should be required in today’s good, Christian school.

     The church needs scholars.  Yes, the Lord does use men with few gifts.  Most pastors have received from their Maker only a modest portion.  Nor will the Lord of the church likely give us very many Calvins again.  But God’s church needs capable men to step forward to do the kind of work that Calvin engaged in.  What kind of influence would he have had, had he not known history, and been unfamiliar with the church fathers and councils?  Who would have listened to a Calvin who used sloppy grammar?  What bishops and other enemies of the faith would have been silenced in a debate by a man whose mind was weak and whose logic was unclear?  The church needs scholars.  The people of God must pray for them.  Perhaps they ought to press, as did Farel and Viret, the young men who are pious and gifted, to consider the ministry.

     Young men, even if no one presses you, God calls you to use your gifts for His cause.   Are you seeking first the kingdom?  Perhaps in the ministry of the gospel?

Apt to teach

      The exceptional gift that Jesus Christ gave to Calvin was an aptitude to teach the people.  Reading his writing, one immediately senses his unique ability to make clear what is difficult.  To this aptitude Christ added a heartfelt desire.  The Lord gave Calvin a heart to teach the people.  A first-rate theologian, Calvin was interested in the common folk learning the truth and seeing the light.  So his first main work, his (relatively brief) 1536 edition of the Institutes (see Rev. Kleyn’s article in this issue) was an attempt to reach the common member of the church.

      Calvin’s heart yearned to free the people from the bondage of their ignorance, to deliver them from the soul-terrorizing errors of Rome.  For this, his instruction was antithetical, exposing in Luther-like fashion the folly of sacramentalism and the dead-end errors of works-righteousness.  When he taught, the people heard from Scripture the truth of God’s law, the believer’s liberty, the Christian life, worship and images, prophecy and escha-tology, and the magistrates.   They learned what it meant to be a joyful and obedient believer in God’s wide world.

     If the church today will prosper, will help the people of God to live in this late and evil day, she must have pastors who are teachers, who ask the question, as one pastor I know always asked himself as he took his walks, “How can I make this clear to the people of God?”  She must train men who yearn with the heart of Calvin (Christ’s own heart in him!) for a people who know the truth.

 Humility and modesty

      Gifts without wisdom are worthless.  Ability in a proud man is dangerous.  The church has found too often, to her great sorrow, that if the Lord does not mix in wisdom and humility, modesty and selflessness, a man with few gifts is far preferable than the man who towers with ability but is arrogant.

      The man God gave to the church from 1509 to 1564 was blessed with a sincere, selfless desire to serve Jesus Christ.  Without pretense, desiring nothing more than the honor of his master, John Calvin humbly served his Savior.

      Part of humility is a willingness to confess one’s faults.  Although Calvin struggled with acknowledging weaknesses like anyone else, the Lord gave him that gift as well.  More than once he apologized to the city council (church and city government were tightly bound together in those days) for his quick temper and what he considered unrighteous anger.  Also, when he and Farel were riding out of Geneva, expelled from their pastorates because pastors and city council could not agree, Calvin wanted to discuss the possibility that they had been less than wise in exerting the pressures for change.  It is doubtful that their expulsion came because of lack of judgment; but the desire to examine himself and be open to the prospect is commendable.

     The Reformer had no interest in money and possessions, another necessary quality in pastors.  His humility showed itself in a complete lack of desire for material things.  Content with the barest necessities, Calvin would reject raises, return salary, refuse gifts, and often use part of his meager salary for the French refugees in Geneva.  Once, when the other ministers asked Calvin to seek a raise for them, Calvin suggested to the city council that they lower his salary and give the difference to the other, poorer pastors.

      The reputation of the Reformer as completely disinterested in money reached the pope.  When Calvin died, Pope Pius IV said, “The strength of the heretic came from the fact that money was nothing to him.”  Cardinal Sadoleto, one of Calvin’s chief antagonists, visited Geneva incognito to see the famous Protestant.  When he knocked on Calvin’s modest apartment door, he was astounded that Calvin himself answered the door, and not one of his servants who he assumed would have been scurrying about doing his master’s bidding.  The most famous man in Protestantism lived in a little house, answering his own door.

     Let every aspirant to the ministry pray for such a spirit!  And may God give the church such pastors!

Steadfast under pressures

      Probably the most wonderful grace given to Calvin was the grace of endurance in severest trials.  What an example of a man of God who sacrificed himself for the church of Christ.  No fool who sought a martyr’s death, Calvin fled threats more than once, biding his time until he could return and be useful for God’s kingdom.  Yet the Reformer was willing to endure all things for Christ’s sake.

     He was literally chased from his own pulpit, threatened with swords on the streets, and driven from Geneva.  Guns were fired outside his bedroom window.  Calvin faced opposition from the very council who called him, had his friends punished for protecting him.   His dear friend and colleague, the blind pastor Claudet, was poisoned for standing for the truth.  Evil rumors were spread thick and far about him.  For the sake of the ministry, he risked his own life visiting the sick; he ministered to many at his own expense.  Only one of his physical ailments would have driven most pastors to a bed of rest; Calvin endured, without complaint, a dozen.  His own testimony was that he went twenty years without letup from headaches.   He suffered arthritis, gout, malaria, and finally five years of tuberculosis.  One story has a doctor recommending Calvin gallop hard on a horse to dislodge his kidney stones — but his hemorrhoids were so severe he could not bear to ride.  

      Yet he continued to labor, untiringly, for the cause of the One who delivered him from so great a death, and would yet deliver him.  When friends begged him to rest, recover, he responded, “What, would you want the Lord to find me idle when He comes?”

      None of this troubled the man of God, whose love for Christ and vision of His reward spurred him on to unceasing labor for the cause of God, “Who drew me out of the abyss … to the light of the gospel, Who so far extended His mercy towards me as to use me and my work to announce the truth of His gospel.  He will show Himself the Father of so miserable a sinner.”

      Lord of Thy beloved church, make us and fit us to be such servants of Thine!  Raise up men for us with such hearts, offered promptly and sincerely to Thee. 

      After his 55-year young colleague Calvin passed away, Farel, now in his 70s, said to the group of friends gathered at the deathbed, “Oh, how happily he has run a noble race.  Let us run like him, according to the measure of grace given us.” 

John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion

Rev. Daniel Kleyn
Rev. Kleyn is pastor of First Protestant Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota.

      An outstanding aspect of the work of John Calvin was the fact that he wrote voluminously.  His writings include his exegetical commentaries on most of the books of the Bible, his Institutes of the Christian Religion, his sermons and homilies, various catechisms and confessions, numerous polemical documents against opponents and errors, a number of apologetic writings in defense of specific truths, his ecclesiastical and liturgical writings, some minor treatises, and many letters.

      Without a doubt, the most important writing of John Calvin was his theological work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion.  As soon as it was published it was recognized as a most significant work.   Even Calvin’s main opponents, the Roman Catholics, realized its significance and immediately labeled it as heresy, ordering that it be burnt.  But especially significant is that the Reformed understood its importance.  They praised it as being the clearest and most powerful defense of biblical truth since the time of the apostles.

     The influence of the Institutes at the time of the Reformation was powerful.  And its influence has lasted.  Ever since the time of Calvin this work has had a significant impact in practically every age of the church’s history in the world.  Through it Calvin, by God’s providence, laid the foundation for all subsequent Reformed theology.

     John Calvin published the first edition of the Institutes in 1536.  He referred affectionately to it as his “little book.”  This “little book,” however, grew considerably throughout his lifetime as Calvin continued to edit and expand this work.

      In all, five editions were published: in 1536, 1539, 1543, 1550, and 1559.   Each new edition involved changes in size, in content, and also in the arrangement of the material.  Calvin not only expanded on what he had already written, but also included new material that he had not previously treated.  Calvin considered the 1559 edition, which was approximately five times the size of the original, the definitive and authoritative one.

     These revisions did not come about because of changes in Calvin’s thinking and doctrine.  Rather, they are a result of development in Calvin’s understanding of the truth.  This development came through his continued reading of the church fathers, his involvement in various doctrinal controversies, and his continued study and exegesis of the Scriptures.

     The various editions of the Institutes were also translated into other languages.  Calvin wrote the originals in Latin, the language of the learned of his day.  But Calvin himself also translated each edition, except for the first, into French.  He did this because he wanted the common people, his fellow countrymen, to read and profit from what he had written.

      Translations soon followed in nearly all the languages of Europe.  This included various English translations, among which are the well known ones by Henry Beveridge (1845), and by Ford Lewis Battles (1960).  Both of these are good translations and readily available today.   They include detailed tables of contents as well as various indices (topical, textual, and authors quoted).  These indices are certainly useful means for looking up and reading what Calvin has to say on specific truths.

      By means of these many translations, the work received a large audience and was able to give positive direction to Reformed theology throughout the world.  It was used by God both to preserve as well as to spread the truths of the Reformed faith.

     The significance and value of the Institutes can be seen by considering the purposes Calvin had in writing this work.  Calvin had especially two purposes.

     One purpose was that the Institutes be a defense of the Reformed faith.  The work is polemical.  Calvin writes in order to expose errors and to answer accusations against the truth.   This defense of the truth was needed in light of the severe persecution the Reformed received.  Calvin therefore shows throughout the Institutes that the Reformed are not extreme.  They are not heretics.  They are not those who rebel against God-appointed rulers.  They are to be distinguished from Roman Catholicism on the one hand, and from Anabaptism on the other.  The Institutes demonstrate that what the Reformed believe and confess is soundly and thoroughly biblical.

      Calvin’s main purpose, however, was that the Institutes be a book of instruction.

     Calvin discusses this purpose in his preface to his commentary on the book of Psalms.  In this preface he speaks at length concerning his Institutes.  He mentions that many, on account of their desire for pure doctrine, continually came to him in order to learn from him.  Calvin admits that he preferred solitude and was but a novice in the faith.  But the fact that so many came to him with the earnest desire to grow in their knowledge and understanding of the truth led Calvin to set it forth in writing so that others might learn it.

      The title of his work is also significant as regards his purpose.  The full title is as follows: Institutes of the Christian Religion: Embracing almost the whole sum of piety, and whatever is necessary to know of the doctrine of salvation: A work most worthy to be read by all persons zealous for piety, and recently published.

     The word “Institutes” in this title means “instruction.”  That was Calvin’s purpose.  He wrote the work with the idea that it would serve as a means to educate others in the truth.

     In the rest of the title, Calvin indicates that his work is a comprehensive summary of the main truths of salvation.  It sets forth what is necessary for the child of God to know and believe “of the doctrine of salvation.”  Calvin’s purpose was to give instruction in all the fundamental truths of the gospel.

     In this sense the Institutes can be considered a dogmatics, or a systematic treatment of doctrine.  The contents demonstrate this, for Calvin writes concerning all the main doctrines of Scripture.  Interestingly, he does not treat these doctrines, as most do, according to the six loci of Reformed dogmatics (Theology, Anthropology, Chris-tology, etc.).   Instead he uses a Trinitarian approach, similar to that which is found in the Apostles’ Creed.

      This was not true of all editions of the Institutes.  In the earlier editions he dealt with the truth under such sections as the law, the Apostles’ Creed, prayer, the sacraments, and the church.  In the final edition, however, he made a significant change in structure, dividing the truth into the following four books: Of the knowledge of God the Creator; Of the knowledge of God the redeemer in Christ; Of the mode of obtaining the grace of Christ, the benefits it confers, and the effects resulting from it; Of the holy catholic church.  The last two books really belong together as the truths concerning the Holy Spirit and His work.  In this way Calvin divided and treated the doctrines of Scripture according to the three persons of the triune God.

      On account of this purpose, there is much value and profit in reading and studying the Institutes.

      That profit consists first of all in this work being a means to know and to be well grounded in the Reformed faith.  Calvin was, by the grace of God, an outstanding leader in the Protestant Reformation.  To know what Calvin taught and believed is to know what it means to be Reformed — to be a Calvinist.  The Institutes are an important part of the heritage of the Reformed faith.

      That profit also consists in the fact that by reading the Institutes one can come to a better understanding of the Scriptures.  Calvin was thoroughly biblical in his writings.  In the providence of God, he was a masterful exegete of Scripture.  And that exegesis is present not only in his commentaries, but also throughout the Institutes.  In fact, Calvin himself, in his commentaries, often directs the reader to his doctrinal work for a further and more detailed discussion of certain truths.  Anyone who desires, therefore, to know what the Scriptures teach and what the child of God must believe unto salvation does well to read the Institutes.

      This is especially important and necessary because of the days in which we live.  Not only is there doctrinal ignorance, but we also constantly hear the cry for compromise of the truth.   On account of these things, the danger is real that we too depart from the truth.  We need, therefore, to be well read and well grounded in Reformed doctrine.  The Institutes can help in that.  Not only is it a tool to help us positively to know the truth, but it is also a tool that, on account of its polemical nature, can help us know and be able to combat errors.

      The profit of reading the Institutes, however, is due especially to the fact that Calvin was interested in instruction in “piety.”  He uses this word in his title, and does so deliberately.  He does not call his work a “sum of doctrine” or a “sum of the truth,” but a “sum of piety.”  By this term he refers to “godliness,” or the “fear of God.”  Calvin understood that true doctrine and true piety are inseparable — true doctrine produces true godliness; true godliness is grounded in true doctrine.

      Calvin did not view doctrine as mere cold and abstract propositions, but as the truth that is vital to godly living.  It is the truth that shapes believers to true godliness.  Calvin writes the Institutes from that perspective, which contributes to making this work most beneficial for and applicable to all.  It is a work not only for theologians, but for all believers.

      Interest in Calvin’s Institutes seems to be waning.  We live in a time of doctrinal indifference, a day in which many are ignorant of and have departed from the truths of Scripture and the Reformed faith.  What contributes significantly to this is that few are interested in reading, let alone in reading good, solid, Reformed literature.

      The Institutes ought to be read by us.  We must remember that Calvin intended that all read it.  He wrote it as a book of instruction for all believers, and placed priority upon translating it into the language of the common people.  He had every believer in mind when he wrote it.  We would do well, therefore, to read the Institutes of the Christian Religion.  

Calvin’s Doctrine of the Christian Life

Prof. David Engelsma
Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.

     John Calvin’s description of the Christian life in book three of his Institutes of the Christian Religion makes every charge that the Reformed faith minimizes holiness of life, not so much false as absurd.

      What a grand, gripping, humbling, sobering, moving description of the Christian life this is.  It is no wonder that this section of the Institutes was very soon published separately and that it still is published in English as a separate booklet, The Golden Booklet of the Christian Life.

      Our ministers must preach this biblical description of the Christian life to the congregations.  Preaching the Christian life as Calvin presents it is the preaching of doctrine.  It is the preaching of doctrine in doctrine’s necessary and glorious fruits and ends.  Calvin expresses the right relation of doctrine and life:

To doctrine in which our religion is contained we have given the first place, since by it our salvation commences; but it must be transfused into the breast, and pass into the conduct, and so transform us into itself, as not to prove unfruitful (Inst., 3.6.4, tr. Henry Beveridge, Eerdmans, 1957; all quotations from the Institutes in this and the following articles are from the Beveridge translation).

      When we preach the Christian life, we should warn our people—and ourselves—that “doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life” (Inst., 3.6.4).

      Such is the compressed wisdom, beauty, and power of Calvin’s treatment of the Christian life in this section of the Institutes that it defies any adequate summary.  One can do justice to it only by reading it in its entirety.  I urge every reader to do this:  read chapters six through ten of book three of the Institutes.  In this article, and a following, I call attention briefly to the main lines of this classic pattern of the Christian life according to a Reformed understanding of it, quoting a few of the more striking statements about the Christian life by the Reformer.

     What Calvin gives is the pattern of the Christian life.  He is concerned to “point out the method by which a pious man may be taught how to frame his life aright, and briefly lay down some universal rule by which he may not improperly regulate his conduct” (Inst., 3.6.1).  This pattern is drawn from Holy Scripture.  The pattern describes how the Spirit works in every one who is united to Christ by the bond of faith.  The Spirit works in such a way that we are called to be active in approximating this pattern.

      Because we are active in ordering our life according to the pattern revealed in Scripture and realized by the Spirit, Calvin begins with the motivations for living the Christian life.  We should strive to be holy as the God to whom we are united is holy.  Our life should express Christ.  And every benefit God gives us calls us to an appropriate thankfulness (Inst., 3.6.2, 3).

      As regards the pattern of the Christian life, Calvin says that, “although the Law of God contains a perfect rule of conduct admirably arranged, it has seemed proper to our divine Master to train his people by a more accurate method, to the rule which is enjoined in the Law” (Inst., 3.7.1).  Plainly, the subject is the objective standard, or rule, that forms the Christian life of us all.   Calvin holds up the law—the ten commandments—as “a perfect rule of conduct admirably arranged.”  Here is the well-known “third use of the law”—the use of the law as rule of a holy life—characteristic of Calvinism.  But the phrase advocating the law as the standard of the Christian life is concessive:  “although.”  The force of the sentence is to promote another, “more accurate method” that will shape us to the Christian life God intends for us.  This “more accurate method” is the doctrine found especially in the New Testament, particularly Romans 12:1ff., that the elect believer is not his own, but God’s.  That we belong to God is the implication of the exhortation in Romans 12:1, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.”      

      Even more than the law, the truth of our belonging to God must pattern our life.

The great point, then, is, that we are consecrated and dedicated to God, and therefore should not henceforth think, speak, design, or act, without a view to his glory…. But if we are not our own, but the Lord’s, it is plain both what error is to be shunned, and to what end the actions of our lives ought to be directed.  We are not our own; therefore, neither is our own reason or will to rule our acts and counsels.  We are not our own; therefore, let us not make it our end to seek what may be agreeable to our carnal nature.  We are not our own; therefore, as far as possible, let us forget ourselves and the things that are ours.  On the other hand, we are God’s; let us, therefore, live and die to him (Inst., 3.7.1).

     All that follows in Calvin’s description of the Christian life is a thorough, consistent working out of the truth of our belonging to God.  In describing the Christian life, Calvin does not explicitly use the law as the rule, but New Testament teachings concerning self-denial, bearing the cross, and the like.

      What immediately strikes everyone familiar with the Heidelberg Catechism is that Calvin’s rule for the Christian life is the same as the believer’s only comfort.  The same truth that is the comfort of the gospel—belonging to God—decisively forms and shapes our Christian life.

      What will the life be that conforms to the law and more especially to the truth that by the redemption of the cross and the renewal of the Spirit we are not our own but the Lord’s?

      First, it will be a life of the service of God.  “Let this, then, be the first step, to abandon ourselves, and devote the whole energy of our minds to the service of God.  By service, I mean not only that which consists in verbal obedience, but that by which the mind, divested of its own carnal feelings, implicitly obeys the call of the Spirit of God” (Inst., 3.7.1).

      Second, the Christian life is self-denial.  Calvin distinguishes self-denial toward the neighbor and self-denial toward God.   As regards self-denial toward the neighbor, Calvin exposes our wickedness in seeking self and despising the neighbor (Inst., 3.7.4).  He grounds our love of the neighbor in “the image of God, which exists in all, and to which we owe all honor and love” (Inst., 3.7.6).  Calvin warns that outward deeds of goodness to the neighbor are not enough.  We must have inward, sympathetic love of the needy neighbor.   Christians should “put themselves in the place of him whom they see in need of their assistance, and pity his misfortune as if they felt and bore it, so that a feeling of pity and humanity should incline them to assist him just as they would themselves” (Inst., 3.7.7).

      Self-denial toward God is resignation of ourselves and all we have to the Lord’s will (Inst., 3.7.8).  We are to depend only upon God’s blessing for the success of our earthly life.  We must bear adversity patiently.  Describing the troubles of life in vivid detail, Calvin writes that the believer can bear them without cursing God or resisting, because he has “resigned himself entirely to the Lord, placing all the course of his life entirely at his [God’s] disposal” (Inst., 3.7.10).

      At this point, certain observations are in order.  What is this aspect of the Christian life but living our belief and confession of divine sovereignty?  How radically different is the Christian’s self-denial toward God from the thinking of the world of the ungodly:  “Assert yourself!”  “Stand up for your rights!” 

     A third characteristic of the Christian life that the Spirit works in us and that we must strive for according to the pattern of belonging to God is bearing the cross.   Calvin tells us that this is an aspect of self-denial.  I make a confession.  By this point in his description of the Christian life, Calvin has stretched me to my limit, and beyond.   I am ready for his “Amen” to the Christian life.  Whereupon Calvin says, “The pious mind must ascend still higher” (Inst., 3.8.1).

      “Still higher”?

      “Still higher”!

      “Still higher,” because although Calvin has already foretold for us a life of trouble, now he tells us that we must expect to share the sufferings of Christ.   This is cross-bearing:  sharing the sufferings of Christ.  Every one of us, none excepted, must prepare for “a hard, laborious, troubled life, a life full of many and various kinds of evils.”  The pain of these evils is “the bitterness of the cross,” that is, the bitterness of the cross of Christ in our lives (Inst., 3.8.1).  

      Our cross is not atoning suffering.  Rather, it is our sharing in the hatred and reproach of Christ by the wicked.  “In maintaining the truth of God against the lies of Satan, or defending the good and innocent against the injuries of the bad, we are obliged to incur the offence and hatred of the world, so as to endanger life, fortune, or honor” (Inst., 3.8.7).  God imposes this cross upon us to prove our sonship:  We obey God in love, when obedience is painful and costly. 

      Precious benefits come to us from bearing the cross.  The cross teaches us not to depend on our flesh.  Through the cross we experience God’s faithful help, as we rest on Him alone.  In response to the cross, we manifest our endurance by grace.  The biblical name for this endurance is patience. The cross in our life guards us against wanton rebellion against God, which is the danger when all goes well for the Christian.  Calvin sees earthly prosperity as a threat to the Christian life.

Thus, lest we become emboldened by an over-abundance of wealth; lest elated with honor, we grow proud; lest inflated with other advantages of body, or mind, or fortune, we grow insolent, the Lord himself interferes as he sees to be expedient by means of the cross, subduing and curbing the arrogance of our flesh, and that in various ways (Inst., 3.8.5).

      The cross chastises us for our faults.  And the cross bestows honor upon us.  To suffer for the sake of Christ and righteousness is “the special badge of his [God’s] soldiers” (Inst., 3.8.7).  “We now see,” says Calvin, “how many advantages are at once produced by the cross” (Inst., 3.8.3).

      Although Calvin grants that the cross inflicts real and deep sorrow, which sorrow on our part is not sinful, nevertheless, in view of the benefits of the cross, we can and should bear the cross cheerfully (Inst., 3.8.8).  Indeed, so Calvin concludes, the benefits of the cross enable and require us to be thankful for the cross, with all its bitterness.  This is the explanation of the Bible’s exhortations to Christians, to be thankful for all things, evil things as well as good things.  The explanation is not that we enjoy the bitterness.  We do not.  Nor should we.  But we are thankful for the cross in our life in view of the benefits God brings us through the cross.

… to be concluded  

 Calvin on Justification

Rev. Mark Shand
Rev. Shand is a pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia.

A man is said to be justified in the sight of God when in the judgment of God he is deemed righteous, and is accepted on account of his righteousness; for as iniquity is abominable to God, so neither can the sinner find grace in his sight, so far as he is and so long as he is regarded as a sinner.  Hence, wherever sin is, there also are the wrath and vengeance of God.  He, on the other hand, is justified who is regarded not as a sinner, but as righteous, and as such stands acquitted at the judgment-seat of God, where all sinners are condemned….  A man will be justified by faith when, excluded from the righteousness of works, he by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, and clothed in it appears in the sight of God not as a sinner, but as righteous.  Thus we simply interpret justification, as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favor as if we were righteous; and we say that this justification consists in the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ (Institutes, III.11.2).

    Justification by faith alone was the fundamental distinguishing doctrine of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation.   It was regarded by all of the Reformers to be of central and paramount importance.  Luther declared this doctrine to be the article of the standing or falling church and contended that “nothing can be yielded or surrendered [nor can anything be granted or permitted contrary to the same], even though heaven and earth, and whatever will not abide, should sink to ruin” (Articles of Smalcald, Art. 1).

      Calvin described it as “the main hinge on which religion turns.”  He also described it as “the principle of the whole doctrine of salvation and of the foundation of all religion.”  At the outset of his treatment of justification in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin again emphasized the fundamental importance of this doctrine.

The doctrine of Justification is now to be fully discussed, and discussed under the conviction, that as it is the principal ground on which religion must be supported, so it requires greater care and attention.  For unless you understand first of all what your position is before God, and what the judgment which he passes upon you, you have no foundation on which your salvation can be laid, or on which piety towards God can be reared”  (Institutes, III.11.1).

      There was no significant difference among the Reformers as to their essential understanding of this doctrine.  The unity of thought and expression is reflected in the various formulations of justification in the Reformed creeds.  (Cf. Augsburg Confession, 1530, Art. IV; French Confession, 1559, Art. XVIII; Belgic Confession, 1561, Art.   XXII & XXIII; Heidelberg Catechism, 1563, Q & A, 60, 61; Second Helvetic Confession, 1566, chapter XV; Westminster Confession of Faith, 1643, chapter XI.)

     The Reformers developed their understanding of this doctrine in opposition to the doctrine of justification espoused by the Church of Rome.  The essence of the charge that the Reformers directed at the Church of Rome was that while she proclaimed accurately who Christ was and what He had accomplished with respect to the salvation of sinners, nonetheless, she perverted the gospel of the grace of God, maintaining erroneous and unscriptural views of the grounds on which, and the process through which, the blessings that Christ had procured on the cross were conveyed to sinners.  At issue was whether justification was wholly attributable to the grace of God and to the work of Jesus Christ or whether it was proper to ascribe to men and to their powers an active and contributory part in their salvation.

      Rome’s position with respect to justification had been crafted throughout the Middle Ages, with care being taken to maintain consistency with her underlying semi-Pelagian thinking that provided for the effective freedom of man’s will as regards salvation.  Though Rome’s views on justification were many years prior to the Reformation, they were not given official sanction until the Council of Trent (1543-1563).  The pronouncements of Trent on justification were characterized by vagueness, perhaps designedly so.

      Trent’s treatment of justification centered in the meaning of the term.   Trent defined justification as being “a translation, from that state wherein man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace, and of the adoption of the sons of God, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Savior” (Council of Trent, Chapter IV).  As the definition suggests, Rome viewed justification as incorporating the whole process of change that takes place in a man as regards his salvation, including his deliverance from guilt and depravity.  That position is made even plainer in chapter VII, where Trent defined justification to be “not remission of sins merely, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man, through the voluntary reception of the grace, and of the gifts.”  The result was a confounding of justification and sanctification, with justification comprehending not only the remission of sin and deliverance from the guilt of sin, but also the sanctification or renovation of a man’s moral nature.

      According to Rome, the ground of justification lay, at least in part, in the inherent righteousness of the sinner and in his good works, the requisite grace being infused into the sinner.  Therefore, inherent personal righteousness was the cause of justification, and baptism was the instrument by which it was communicated to the sinner.  “If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works;  but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof:  let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, Chapter XVI, Canon XXIV).  For Rome, justification was a cooperative effort involving both God and man.