"Man's highest knowledge is that of God and of himself. Enough comes by nature to leave man without excuse, but adequate knowledge is given only in the Scriptures, which the witness of the Spirit in the heart of the believing reader attests as the very voice of God. These Scriptures teach that God is good, and the source of all goodness everywhere. Obedience to God's will is man's primal duty.
"As originally created, man was good and capable of obeying God's will, but he lost goodness and power alike in Adam's fall, and is now, of himself, absolutely incapable of goodness. Hence no work of man's can have any merit; and all men are in a state of ruin meriting only damnation. From this helpless and hopeless condition some men are undeservedly rescued through the work of Christ. He paid the penalty due for the sins of those in whose behalf He died; yet the offer and reception of this ransom was a free act on God's part, so that its cause is God's love.
"All that Christ has wrought is without avail unless it becomes a man's personal possession. This possession is effected by the Holy Spirit, who works when, how, and where He will, creating repentance; and faith which, as with Luther, is a vital union between the believer and Christ. This new life of faith is salvation, but it is salvation unto righteousness. That the believer now does works pleasing to God is the proof that he has entered into vital union with Christ. 'We are justified not without, and yet not by works.' Calvin thus left room for a conception of 'works' as strenuous as any claimed by the Roman Church, though very different in relation to the accomplishment of salvation. The standard set before the Christian is the law of God, as contained in the Scriptures, not as a test of his salvation but as an expression of that will of God which as an already saved man he will strive to fulfill. This emphasis on the law as the guide of Christian life was peculiarly Calvin's own. it has made Calvinism always insistent on character, though in Calvin's conception man is saved to character rather than by character. A prime nourishment of the Christian life is by prayer.
"Since all good is of God, and man is unable to initiate or resist his conversion, it follows that the reason some are saved and others are lost is the divine choice -- election and reprobation. For a reason for that choice beyond the will of God it is absurd to inquire, since God's will is an ultimate fact. Yet to Calvin election was always primarily a doctrine of Christian comfort. That God had a plan of salvation for a man, individually, was an unshakable rock of confidence, not only for one convinced of his own unworthiness, but for one surrounded by opposing forces even if they were those of priests and Kings. It made a man a fellow laborer with God in the accomplishment of God's will.
"Three institutions have been divinely established by which the Christian life is maintained -- the church, the sacraments, and civil government. In the last analysis the church consists of 'all the elect of God'; but it also properly denotes 'the whole body of mankind . . . who profess to worship one God and Christ.' Yet there is no true church 'where lying and falsehood have usurped the ascendancy.' The New Testament shows as church officers, pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons, who enter on their charges with the assent of the congregation that they serve. Their 'call' is twofold, the secret -------p. 352
"Calvin recognized only two sacraments - baptism and the Lord's Supper. Regarding the burning question of Christ's presence in the supper, he stood part way between Luther and Zwingli, nearer the Swiss reformer in form, and to the German in spirit. With Zwingli he denied any physical presence of Christ; yet he asserts in the clearest terms a real, though spiritual, presence received by faith. 'Christ, out of the substance of His flesh, breathes life into our souls, nay, diffuses His own life into us, though the real flesh of Christ does not enter us.'" p. 352
"On the publication of the Institutes in the spring of 1536, Calvin made a brief visit to the court of Ferrara, in Italy, doubtless intending to advance the Evangelical cause with his liberal-minded and hospitable fellow countrywoman, the Duchess Renee. His stay was short, and a brief visit to France followed, to settle his business affairs and to proceed to Basel or Strassburg with his brother and sister. The perils of war took him to Geneva in July 1536, and there Farel's fiery exhortation, induced him to remain.
"Calvin's work in Geneva began very modestly. He was a lecturer on the Bible, and was not appointed one of the preachers till a year later. . . . Calvin and Farel undertook to accomplish three results in Geneva itself. In January, 1537, they laid before the Little Council a series of recommendations from Calvin's pen. These proposed monthly administration of the Lord's Supper. For better preparation, the city government should appoint 'certain persons' for each quarter of the city, who, in connection with the ministers, might report the unworthy to the church for discipline up to excommunication. This was Calvin's first attempt to make Geneva a model community, and likewise to assert the independence church in its own sphere. A second effort was the adoption of a catechism composed by Calvin, and a third the imposition on each citizen of a creed, probably written by Farel. These recommendations the Little Council adopted with considerable modification. . . . Calvin crowned his Genevan work by the foundation in 1559 of the 'Genevan Academy' -- in reality, as it has long since become, the University of Geneva. it became immediately the greatest center of theological instruction in the Reformed communions, as distinguished from the Lutheran, and the great seminary from which ministers in numbers were sent forth not only to France but in less degree to the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Germany, and Italy.
"Calvin's influence extended far beyond Geneva. Thanks to his Institutes, his pattern of church government in Geneva, his academy, his commentaries and his constant correspondence, he molded the thought and inspired the ideals of the Protestantism of France, the Netherlands, Scotland, and the English Puritans. His influence penetrated Poland and Hungary, and before his death Calvinism was taking root in southwestern Germany itself. Men thought his thoughts after him. His was the only system that the Reformation produced that could organize itself powerfully in the face of governmental hostility, as in France and England. It trained strong men, confident in their election to be fellow workers with God in the accomplishment of His will. courageous to do battle, insistent on character, and confident that God has given in the Scriptures the guide of all right human conduct and proper worship. The spiritual disciples of Calvin, in most various lands, bore one common stamp. This was Calvin's work, a mastery of mind over mind, and certainly by the time of his death in Geneva, on May 27, 1564, he deserved the description of 'the only international reformer.' " "A History of the Christian Church," pp. 351-357
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Original Post: Oct. 19, 1999
Tuesday, 19-Oct-1999 11:04:14 MDT