Calvin Turns 500 Today!

In light of John Calvin's 500th...

Almost His Birthday!

"Every one of us is, even from his mother’s womb, a master craftsman of idols."

-John Calvin

I wonder if Calvin cared much for birthdays.

Preservation from God Alone

Here is a short and helpful observation from John Calvin on God-centered faith and perseverance:

“Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You…”

-Psalm 70:4a

"We may infer from this, that our faith is only proved to be genuine when we neither expect nor desire preservation otherwise than from God alone. Those who devise various ways and means of preservation fro themselves in this world, despise and reject the salvation which God has taught us to expect from him alone. What had been said before, those who seek you, is to the same purpose. If any individual would depend wholly upon God, and desire to be saved by his grace, he must renounce every vain hope, and employ all his thoughts towards the reception of his strength" (John Calvin, Heart Aflame, p.165).

Warning and Encouragement Concerning the Lord's Supper

"Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord."

-1 Corinthians 11:27

Here is John Calvin's thoughts on the serious offensiveness of taking the Lord's Supper "in an unworthy manner":

"To eat unworthily, then, is to pervert the pure and right use of it by our abuse of it. Hence there are various degrees of this unworthiness, so to speak; and some offend more grievously, others less so. Some fornicator, perhaps, or perjurer, or drunkard, or cheat, (1 Corinthians 5:11,) intrudes himself without repentance. As such downright contempt is a token of wanton insult against Christ, there can be no doubt that such a person, whoever he is, receives the Supper to his own destruction. Another, perhaps, will come forward, who is not addicted to any open or flagrant vice, but at the same time not so prepared in heart as became him. As this carelessness or negligence is a sign of irreverence, it is also deserving of punishment from God. As, then, there are various degrees of unworthy participation, so the Lord punishes some more slightly; on others he inflicts severer punishment" (1 Corinthians in Calvin's Commentaries, pp.385-386).

And here is Calvin's thoughts on encouraging the weak to partake of the Lord's Supper:

"At the same time, it is not a perfect faith or repentance that is required, as some, by urging beyond due bounds, a perfection that can nowhere be found, would shut out for ever from the Supper every individual of mankind. If, however, thou aspirest after the righteousness of God with the earnest desire of thy mind, and, trembled under a view of thy misery, dost wholly lean upon Christ’s grace, and rest upon it, know that thou art a worthy guest to approach the table — worthy I mean in this respect, that the Lord does not exclude thee, though in another point of view there is something in thee that is not as it ought to be. For faith, when it is but begun, makes those worthy who were unworthy" (p.388).

The Constant and Gradual but Never Static Goodness of God

"We are not to understand that believers are fully replenished with the goodness of God at any one moment; it is conveyed to them gradually; but while the influence of the Spirit are thus imparted in successive measures, each of them is enriched with a present sufficiency, till all be in due time advanced to perfection. While it is true, as stated (Ps. 103:5), that 'God satisfies our mouth with good things,' at the same time it is necessary to remember what is said elsewhere, 'Open your mouth, and I will fill it.'"

-John Calvin, Heart Aflame, p.155

God Is Our Helper!

“O give us help from against the adversary, for deliverance by man is in vain.”

-Psalm 60:11

Here is a great and necessary reminder that believers ought to seek help from God. It is indeed a basic Christian principle, but one that our pride tends to dispense with. Note carefully how John Calvin distinguishes God’s help that arrives via human agency:

“God, in accomplishing our preservation, may use the agency of man, but he reserves it to himself, as his peculiar prerogative, to deliver, and will not suffer them to rob him of his glory. The deliverance which comes to us in this manner through human agency must properly be ascribed to God. All that David meant to assert is, that such confidences as are not derived from God are worthless and in vain. And to confirm this position he declares in the last verse of the psalm, that as, on the one hand, we can do nothing without him, so, on the other, we can do all things by his help” (Heart Aflame, Calvin, p.144).

Do you see the implication? The implication that while we may cry and seek God to hear and answer us in our deepest troubles, and even in the ordinary struggles of everyday life, that He is not absent nor has He turned a deaf ear to you? The very encouraging words you hear from a brother or sister in the midst of your discouragement, the very gracious monetary gift you receive in the midst of your economic struggles, the very hug that you receive from your spouse or child in the midst of your weakness, the very piercing words that you hear in a sermon in the midst of your self-pity and doubt, and so forth, are divine mercies that flow down to you from our helping God above. Perhaps, we may have thought to ourselves, “How is it that so and so shows me so much love and care but God seems absent?” or “How is it that that my friend seems to listen to my struggles but God just seems to not care?” Well, the chances are, and biblically speaking, that very love and care you have received, that very friend who cares to listen to your struggles, is not merely that which arises out of his or her virtue but rather “God’s help that arrives via human agency.” Now, this human agency does not negate human responsibility, which means that we ought to sincerely thank the very individuals who sincerely help, love, and support us, but it does entail God’s sovereign arrangement of people, place, and time to help you in your time of need. So, look back at all the gifts and helps you have received from man, and hopefully you will be able to see God’s helping hand in much of it. From henceforth, rob Him not of His glory.