John Calvin on Evangelism: Whoever We Come Across, We Shall Study to Make Him a Sharer in the Peace

 John Calvin did not limit the preaching of the gospel to those considered to be elect. He explains his views more fully in his treatise on predestination:

Since we do not know who belongs to the number of the predestined and who does not, it befits us so to feel as to wish that all be saved. So it will come about that, whoever we come across, we shall study to make him a sharer of peace . . . even severe rebuke will be administered like medicine, lest they should perish or cause others to perish. But it will be for God to make it effective in those whom He foreknew and predestined.

  from John Calvin, Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, trans. J. K. S. Reid (London: James Clarke and Co., Limited, 1961), 138.

John Calvin Continues to Inspire the Church with His Scriptural Insights

In his intro to T. H. L. Parker's biography of Calvin, John Piper explains how we honor God through appreciating Calvin in particular:

I am eager for people to know Calvin...because he took the Bible so seriously, and because what he saw on every page was the majesty of God and the glory of Christ. Calvin continues to inspire me because of his relentless focus on the greatness of God....

In the end, Calvin’s manifold ways of inspiring us have the effect they do century after century because he saw the gospel so clearly and made Christ so central....

If Jesus Christ, in all his majesty and excellence, is kept in clear view, the church will be kept from many errors. Therefore, Calvin continues to inspire and serve the church five hundred years after his birth....

To that we say Amen, Amen!

The Good We Do is What He Does in Us, By the Influence of the Spirit!

We should therefore learn that the only good we have is what the Lord has given us gratuitously; that the only good we do is what He does in us; that it is not that we do nothing ourselves, but that we act only when we have been acted upon, in other words under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit. -- John Calvin
 
    Source: Calvin's New Testament Commentaries, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, 1960, p. 317-318

Hold Fast to the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. (Gal. 5:1-3).

 

"Last time, we saw that in order to have an abiding place in the church, we need the Lord Jesus Christ as our foundation. There are many who claim to be children of God who have never been born again through that good seed which enlightens, and brings acceptance with God, who then acknowledges us as his children. We must hold fast to the pure doctrine of the gospel if we desire to be truly united to the Lord Jesus Christ. He, as our Head and our Mediator, unites us to God the Father. We have already spoken about the reason why Paul mentions both the servile and the free offspring. He tells us that those who seek justification through their own good deeds are severing themselves from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. For they are binding themselves to perform that which is impossible, that is, to satisfy God by keeping his commandments. Whereas, we are so full of weaknesses that we cannot possibly fulfil the least article of the law, let alone reach the perfection which the law requires. This is why Paul concludes that we must maintain the liberty that was purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ." 

-- John Calvin on the majesty and work of Jesus Christ

Calvin's forty-three sermons on Galatians, preached in French between 14 November 1557 and 8 May 1558, were taken down in shorthand by Denis Raguentier, the professional scribe hired for this purpose by the French emigrants in Geneva. They were later published and sold, but – in a decision which typified the remarkable practical Christianity which Genevan believers had learned from Calvin's preaching – the proceeds were used to provide relief for poor French-speaking refugees.

Christ, in His Obedience, Merited Divine Grace For Us, His Followers!

Christ by his obedience truly merited divine grace for us.
 
"That Christ, by his obedience, truly purchased and merited grace for us with the Father, is accurately inferred from several passages of Scripture. I take it for granted, that if Christ satisfied for our sins, if he paid the penalty due by us, if he appeased God by his obedience; in fine, if he suffered the just for the unjust, salvation was obtained for us by his righteousness; which is just equivalent to meriting. Now, Paul's testimony is, that we were reconciled, and received reconciliation through his death, (Rom. 5: 11.) 

"But there is no room for reconciliation unless where offence has preceded. The meaning, therefore, is, that God, to whom we were hateful through sin, was appeased by the death of his Son, and made propitious to us. And the antithesis which immediately follows is carefully to be observed, "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous," (Rom. 5: 19.)"

From The Institutes of Christian Religion, 2.17.3

Calvin on the Blessing of Prayer

A Prayer of John Calvin’s on the Matter of Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as you not only invite us continually by the voice of your gospel to seek you, but also offer to us your Son as our Mediator, through whom an access to you is open, that we may find you a propitious Father, –

O grant that relying on your kind invitation we may through life exercise ourselves in prayer; and as so many evils disturb us on all sides and so many wants distress and oppress us, may we be led more earnestly to call on you, and in the meanwhile be never wearied in this exercise of prayer. 

May we live a life of prayer until having been heard by you throughout life, we may at length be gathered to your eternal kingdom where we shall enjoy that salvation which you have promised us, and of which you also daily testify to us by your gospel. 

May we be forever united to your only-begotten Son of whom we are now members; that we may be partakers of all the blessings which he has obtained for us by his death. Amen.

From Devotions and Prayers of John Calvin, Charles E. Edwards, ed., [ Grand Rapids : Baker Book House, 1976] p. 39

John Calvin on the Necessity of Evangelism

"Since we do not know who belongs to the number of the predestined and who does not, it befits us so to feel as to wish that all be saved. So it will come about that, whoever we come across, we shall study to make him a sharer of peace . . . even severe rebuke will be administered like medicine, lest they should perish or cause others to perish. But it will be for God to make it effective in those whom He foreknew and predestined."

John Calvin, Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, trans. J. K. S. Reid (London: James Clarke and Co., Limited, 1961, 138.

John Calvin on Prayer

In The Institutes of Christian Religion, Book III, Chapter XX, John Calvin writes eloquently on prayer.. This somewhat lengthy chapter is entirely devoted to the subject of prayer, and it is one of the more amazing moments, I've found, in Calvin's massive work.

Prayer is central for Calvin. As he states at the beginning of Section 2, "It is, therefore, by the benefit of prayer that we reach those riches which are laid up for us with the Heavenly Father." And a little later, "Words fail to explain how necessary prayer is, and in how many ways the exercise of prayer is profitable."

Section 3 is devoted to giving six reasons for prayer. In particular he answers this objection: "But someone will say, does God not know, even without being reminded, both in what respect we are troubled and what is expedient for us, so that it may seem in a sense superfluous that he should be stirred up by our prayers--as if he were drowsily blinking or even sleeping until he is aroused by our voice?" His answer to this objection is clear enough: "But they who thus reason do not observe to what end the Lord instructed his people to pray, for he ordained it not so much for his own sake as for ours."

His six reasons for prayer may be summarized as follows:

That we increase in our zeal for God.


That we learn to be open and honest before God.


That we prepare ourselves to gratefully receive blessings from God.


To meditate on God's goodness after he has answered prayer.


To enjoy those things which God has given in answer to prayer.


To gain confidence in God's providence.

John Calvin: The Cross is The Wellspring of Our Sacraments

"As for our sacraments, the more fully Christ has been revealed to men, the more clearly do the sacraments present him to us from the time when he was truly revealed by the Father as he had been promised. For baptism attests to us that we have been cleansed and washed; the Eucharistic Supper, that we have been redeemed. In water, washing is represented; in blood, satisfaction. These two are found in Christ “… who” as John says, “came in water and blood” [1 John 5:6]; that is, to wash and to redeem. The Spirit of God is also witness of this. Indeed, “there are three witnesses in one: the water, the blood, and the Spirit” [1 John 5:8].


"In the water and the blood we have testimony of cleansing and redemption. But the Spirit, the primary witness, makes us certain of such testimony. This lofty mystery has been admirably shown us in the cross of Christ, when water and blood flowed from his sacred side [John 19:34]. For this reason, Augustine has called it the wellspring of our sacraments. "

(From John Calvin, Institiutes of Christian Religion, 4.14.22)

John Calvin and the Sacraments

"First we must consider what a sacrament is. It seems to me that a simple and proper definition would be to say that it is an outward sign by which the Lord seals on our consciences the promise of his good will toward us in order to sustain the weakness of our faith; and we in turn attest our piety toward him in the presence of the Lord and of his angels and before men.

"Here is another briefer definition: one may call it a testimony of divine grace toward us, confirmed by an outward sign, with mutual attestation of our piety toward him. "

(Instittues of the Chrisitan Religion, 4.14.1)

Defending God's Truth -- Are We Silent When We Should Making Noise?

John Calvin once said to the Queen of Navarre: "A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent." (April 28, 1545).  This insight is also recorded below, with a bit more explanation.  May we have similar courage to that displayed by John Calvikn in defending God's truth.

"A faithful dog barks at the first sound of a thief and risks his own life to protect his master's life and his family-shall the church be plundered by the thieving of the ungodly, shall God's majesty be stamped under foot, shall Christ be robbed of his own kingdom, while we watch and say nothing?"

(John Calvin,  The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, p 19)

Calvin on Prayer, No. 2: The Courage to Make Your Requests to God, Who is the Sovereign Disposer of All Good!

Calvin saw prayer as a great gift of God and he saw the Spirit giving us courage to pray rightly:

"We clearly see how completely destitute man is of all good, how devoid of every means of procuring his own salvation. Hence, if he would obtain succour in his necessity, he must go beyond himself, and procure it in some other quarter. It has farther been shown that the Lord kindly and spontaneously manifests himself in Christ, in whom he offers all happiness for our misery, all abundance for our want, opening up the treasures of heaven to us, so that we may turn with full faith to his beloved Son, depend upon him with full expectation, rest in him, and cleave to him with full hope.

This, indeed, is that secret and hidden philosophy which cannot be learned by syllogisms: a philosophy thoroughly understood by those whose eyes God has so opened as to see light in his light (Ps. 36:9). But after we have learned by faith to know that whatever is necessary for us or defective in us is supplied in God and in our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell, that we may thence draw as from an inexhaustible fountain, it remains for us to seek and in prayer implore of him what we have learned to be in him.

To know God as the sovereign disposer of all good, inviting us to present our requests, and yet not to approach or ask of him, were so far from availing us, that it were just as if one told of a treasure were to allow it to remain buried in the ground. Hence the Apostle, to show that a faith unaccompanied with prayer to God cannot be genuine, states this to be the order: As faith springs from the Gospel, so by faith our hearts are framed to call upon the name of God (Rom. 10:14).

And this is the very thing which he had expressed some time before, viz., that the Spirit of adoption, which seals the testimony of the Gospel on our hearts, gives us courage to make our requests known unto God, calls forth groanings which cannot be uttered, and enables us to cry, Abba, Father (Rom. 8:26)."

John Calvin, Insitutes of Christian Religion, 3.20.1

John Calvin on Prayer

John Calvin was a great person of prayer.  His reflections on prayer include this wonderful statement:

It is, therefore, by the benefit of prayer that we reach those riches which are laid up for us with the Heavenly Father. For there is a communion of men with God by which, having entered the heavenly sanctuary, they appeal to him in person concerning his promises in order to experience, where necessity so demands, that what they believed was not vain, although he had promised it in word alone. Therefore we see that to us nothing is promised to be expected from the Lord, which we are not also bidden to ask of him in prayers. So true is it that we dig up by prayer the treasures that were pointed out by the Lord’s gospel, and which our faith has gazed upon.

                                                                                                         --  John Calvin, Institutes III.20.2

John Calvin is Important for Today!

It is my belief that John Calvin important today?  The wonderful theologian Joel Beeke has some solid ideas about what Calvin taught and why he deserves our continued remembrance in all parts of the church of Jesus Christ?  Beeke proclaimes::

◦Calvin the historian, who unfolded redemptive history for us

◦Calvin the polemicist, who combated error and heresy on every hand

◦Calvin the pilgrim, who longed for home with eschatological hope

◦Calvin the traditionalist, who respected tradition so long as it was biblical

◦Calvin the catechist, who stressed the need to catechize children

◦Calvin the deacon, who showed sympathy to the poor

◦Calvin the vocationalist, who developed a sense of the sacredness of work

◦Calvin the law-promoter, who taught the law as a rule of life for believers

◦Calvin the author, who promoted God’s kingdom through scores of writings on an astonishing number of subjects

( from Joel Beeke’s great work, Calvin for Today)

Scripture is Like God Speaking Directly to Us, As if from Heaven Itself

John Calvin viewed Scripture as being equivalent to an utterance of God given from heaven:  Calvin believed Scripture to be the Word of God.(Institutes, 1.7.4)] He considered that Christians do not need the testimony of the church to appreciate its authority, since it is self-authenticating,and that it is only through the Holy Spirit that we know it to be the Word of God..  Calvin wrote that Scripture was like God talking directly to us:


"Since no daily responses are given from heaven, and the Scriptures are the only records in which God has been pleased to consign his truth to perpetual remembrance, the full authority which they ought to possess with the faithful is not recognised, unless they are believed to have come from heaven, as directly as if God had been heard giving utterance to them." 

Institutes of Christian Religion I.vii.1.

The Centrality of the Word -- Without the Gospel Everything is Useless!

John Calvin wrote a remarkable preface for Pierre Robert Olivétan’s French translation of the New Testament (1534). Calvin, writing as a man standing on God's Word, underlines Bible’s message and the significance of the gospel message revealed in Scripture. The gospel must always remain central to our work on behal of God.  Without the gospel, we are like sailing vessels without sails.  He writes,


“Without the gospel everything is useless and vain; without the gospel we are not Christians; without the gospel all riches is poverty, all wisdom folly before God; strength is weakness, and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God. But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, fellow townsmen with the saints, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom the poor are made rich, the weak strong, the fools wise, the sinner justified, the desolate comforted, the doubting sure, and slaves free. It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe …” (66)