Fear of the Lord

The most natural sense of “fear” to English speakers is the idea of terror. We find that ‏ירא‎ is often used in this sense in the OT. A general sense in which ירא is used to denote a genuine terror or dread is Ex 2:14 in which Moses fears that he will be discovered to have killed the Egyptian who was persecuting a Hebrew. Essentially, there is dread that punishment will obtain for his actions in killing an Egyptian.

This general concept of fear as terror or dread gets applied with reference to God in several places in the OT:

· Jonah 1:10 Then the men were even more afraid, and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them so.

· Jonah 1:16 Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

· Hab. 3:2 O LORD, I have heard of your renown, and I stand in awe (fear), O LORD, of your work. In our own time revive it; in our own time make it known; in wrath may you remember mercy.

The sailors on board Jonah’s ship feared YHWH because they were in terror that their lives would be taken from them. Although “fear” language is not always present, when a prophet was visited with a vision of YHWH’s presence, there was often fear:

· Is. 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

· Ezek. 1:28 Like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the appearance of the splendor all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking.

· Rev. 1:17 When I saw him (Jesus), I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last…

In each of these instances, it seems that the prophet or seer was in fear for his life. This is likely based on YHWH’s statement to Moses:

· Ex. 33:20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.”

So, when a human being perceived himself to be in the presence of YHWH, there was a genuine terror that his life would be taken because, as a sin tainted human being, he could not stand in God’s presence.

A second step in the Fear of the Lord, especially in the Old Testament, is provided in looking again at Jon 1:16

· Jonah 1:16 Then the men feared the LORD even more, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.

This verse links the idea of fear as terror with a worship context. Because they were afraid of YHWH killing them with the storm at sea, they worshipped Him by offering sacrifice in hopes that He would spare their lives. Thus fearing a deity was often synonymous with worship and devotion towards that deity.

· 2Chr. 19:9 He charged them: “This is how you shall act: in the fear of the LORD, in faithfulness, and with your whole heart;

· 2Kings 17:7 ¶ This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had feared other gods

· 2Kings 17:35-39 The LORD had made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not worship other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, but you shall worship the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to observe. You shall not worship other gods; you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not worship other gods, but you shall worship the LORD your God; he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.”

· Deut. 10:12-13 So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being.

· Psa. 22:23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

The reason why fear language would be used synonymously with worship and devotion is apparent from the ANE background to worship. Deities were worshiped in the ANE because of the benefits that they could provide for the people. They were thus feared because people recognized that the deity had the ability to give or withhold that which the people wanted or needed, i.e. abundant crops, victory over enemies, etc. (all of which were life or death matters). This is made explicit in Ps 90:11

· Psa. 90:11 Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

Therefore, YHWH is to be feared because of the potential of His wrath which would take away happiness.

Thus from the OT perspective, those who did not worship YHWH are described as those who did not fear him:

· Gen. 20:11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.

· Deut. 25:18 how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and struck down all who lagged behind you; he did not fear God.

· Psa. 55:19 God, who is enthroned from of old, will hear, and will humble them— because they do not change, and do not fear God.

For Israel, the Fear of the Lord was mediated by the context of the covenant. In Lev 18:5, Moses makes it clear that life (life in the land as a picture of eschatological life) would be the result of Israel’s covenant faithfulness. Interestingly then, there are several instances in which life is said to be the result for those who fear the Lord.

· Prov. 10:27 The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.

· Prov. 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, so that one may avoid the snares of death.

· Prov. 19:23 The fear of the LORD is life indeed; filled with it one rests secure and suffers no harm.

· Prov. 22:4 The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.

Thus, fearing the Lord is linked very closely with obedience in that it results in the same thing as obedience. This is confirmed in that there are many places where the “Fear of the Lord” is said to result in covenantal obedience or hating that which is evil:

· Gen. 22:12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

· Ex. 18:21 You should also look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

· Is. 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the LORD and relies upon his God?

· Job 1:1 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.

· Prov. 14:2 Those who walk uprightly fear the LORD, but one who is devious in conduct despises him.

· Psa. 19:9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.

· Prov. 8:13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

· Prov. 16:6 By loyalty and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one avoids evil.

· Neh. 5:15 The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people, and took food and wine from them, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.

· 2Chr. 19:9 He charged them: “This is how you shall act: in the fear of the LORD, in faithfulness, and with your whole heart;

Fear of God is inextricably linked with obedience. However, it is not just abstracted obedience to some universal standard, it is obedience that is within the covenant relationship. Fearing God leads to acting faithfully within the confines of the covenant relationship. It is important to recognize that obedience here flows directly out of worship. Because fear is used in the context of covenant in the sense of “worship” it is this worship of God for God’s sake which will lead to obedience which will then bring about the covenant blessings.

In addition, Jer 32 makes it explicit that fearing God is something that ultimately can be given to a person only by God Himself.

· Jer. 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me.

Therefore, it is important to recognize that the “Fear of the Lord” can thus become the basis of confident expectation for God to work on one’s behalf. In other words, someone who fears God can have hope that God will grant Him the blessings of life.

· Job 4:6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope?

Job’s friends were wrong in the fact that they thought that fearing God would result in temporal blessings now and insulate one from sufferings. However, they were correct to judge that fearing God, which is something that God gives to us, is the basis upon which we can hope for God to work on our behalf now but more especially in eternity. In light of this, fearing God removes the need to fear anything else in all creation:

· Psa. 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Nothing else can be feared because when one fears the Lord and is in right covenant relationship with Him, there is nothing that can threaten to take away what satisfies us because God is what gives us our satisfaction. In Christ, there is nothing that can remove us from His grasp.

· 1Pet. 3:14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,

Fear implies a mastery over something. What someone is afraid of, that he is a slave to. Fearing someone who persecutes us implies that they have mastery over us. Fearing God means that no person or thing on earth is able to control us or have mastery over us save God.

Furthermore, in Christ, even the threat of God’s wrath is removed. As John says:

· 1John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Therefore, for Christians, the terror element of God’s wrath is forever removed. Although, if perfect love casts out fear and there is no fear of God’s wrath anymore, then what is the cause of Christians continuing to fear God after being regenerated and justified?

· 1Pet. 1:17-19 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

These passages indicate that, for the Christian, fear (in the sense of worship and devotion) is the result of knowing that God judges impartially and recognizing that the cost of our ransom was the life of Jesus, the Son of God. The knowledge of this should produce an awe or reverence that works itself out in a life of obedience that magnifies the ransoming work of God in Christ.

"Heart" in the Old Testament

1. The first step in understanding what the term “heart” (‏לב or ‏ לבב) means in the OT is that, at its core, refers to the organ of a person’s internal life or reality.

• Gen 17:17- “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’”
• Gen 24:45- “Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder, and went down to the spring and drew, and I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’”

This encompasses intellect, emotions and will. Out of 867 total occurrences, Beale notes that the term refers to intellectual activity 205 times, emotional activity 166 times and volitional activity 195 times.

• Intellectual: 1 Kings 10:24 “All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.”
• Emotional: Gen 42:28- Then he said to his brothers, “My money has been returned, and behold, it is even in my sack.” And their hearts sank, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, “What is this that God has done to us?”. See also Is 30:29 “You will have songs as in the night when you keep the festival, And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute, To go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.”
• Volitional: Is 32:4 “The mind (‏‏לבב) of the hasty will discern the truth, And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.”

2. The OT is very clear that God is in control of the human heart in each of its dimensions (intellectual, emotional, volitional) to do with as He wills. This is clear in the Exodus account of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.

• Ex 4:21 “The LORD said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.’”

The Exodus narrative details this prediction of what YHWH would do with Pharaoh followed by a consistent hardening of Pharaoh’s heart through each of the ten plagues.
God is not merely sovereign in when it comes to a judicial hardening; the OT also views Him as responsible for the heart having a right orientation to God:

• Ezek 36:26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

While God is ultimately sovereign in determining the orientation of the heart, this is fully compatible with mankind being responsible before God for their thoughts, decisions and actions:

• Deut 15:7 “If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother”

3. The heart, in its intellectual, emotional and volitional dimensions, is the organ through which a person’s spiritual relationship with God is governed. It is this three-dimensional internal reality through which a person is oriented to God, either rightly or wrongly. An improper orientation to God has already been seen in the example of Pharaoh’s hard heart. Moses, in several places, exhorts Israel to be rightly related to God with reference to the heart:

• Deut 6:5-6 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.”
• Deut 8:2 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

As it applies to one’s relationship with God, the heart is to be totally and completely devoted to God. The Psalmist prays that His heart would be undivided in love for God:

• Ps 86:11-12 “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever.”

The wholeness of heart and right relationship with God that is an internal reality in the heart is expected to spill out in outward obedience to God as is seen in David’s prayer to God on behalf of Solomon:

• 1 Chr 29:19 “and give to my son Solomon a perfect heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies and Your statutes, and to do them all, and to build the temple, for which I have made provision.”

However, it was precisely a division of heart or lack of “wholeness” of heart that lead to Solomon’s spiritual downfall:

• 1 Kgs 11:4 “For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”

However, God foretells a time when He would, through the Spirit, orient His whole people’s hearts to Himself properly with the corresponding outworking of covenantal obedience:

• Jer 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

4. If 1-3 above are true, then it follows Biblically that when God acts to bring a person into right relationship with Himself by acting internally on their heart, it has a corresponding result that transforms a person intellectually, emotionally and volitionally. The prophecy in Ezekiel 36 that God would give His people a new heart of flesh indicates spiritual transformation. If the heart consists of an intellectual, emotional and volitional component then it follows that all three will be renewed when God acts to give people a new heart. Those who have been spiritually transformed and given a new heart should think about the world and their life differently. Their emotions will be correspondingly affected so that they will respond to God with the proper emotional response. In addition, it should affect the way a person lives their lives and the decisions that they make.
When these three dimensions are combined, it results in an internal life that is wholly committed to God and the cause of His glory and kingdom on the Earth. Because we are whole beings and not merely a body a soul loosely united, the transformation of a person’s internal reality will result in a life that manifests outward obedience to God that is properly motivated by the heart.

• Ps 119:34 “Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart”

Mark Driscoll on CNN

Mark Driscoll talks straight about sex and Jesus on CNN with D.L. Hughley.

Tortured for Christ

By all accounts, Christianity has been a religion of suffering from its very inception. It was birthed out of the ashes of Christ’s suffering and crucifixion and was spread through the sufferings and eventual violent deaths of all but one of the 13 Apostles. The Apostle Paul himself wrote of Christian suffering in Philippians 1:19, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake….” In the second century, it was the noted Father Tertullian who wrote that, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

While the persecution in the early centuries of the Church was certainly fierce, our modern period, with the Twentieth Century in particular, have seen the worst persecution of Christians on a global scale. The rise of the Totalitarian states and world Communism at the dawn of the Twentieth Century particularly signaled troubled times ahead for the Church who desired to remain faithful to their profession of Christ and His mission in the World. It was into this milieu that Richard Wurmbrand, a Lutheran pastor in Romania, began to minister. Because of his profession of faith and ministry involvement with the underground Church in the Soviet Bloc countries, he was imprisoned for a total for fourteen years and suffered intense periods of torture and solitary confinement. Eventually, his plight became known in the West and he was ransomed out of Romania so that he could be a spokesman for the suffering, underground Church worldwide. After leaving Romania, he recounted his experiences along with the vibrant faith of the underground Churches in his book Tortured for Christ. Three aspects of Wurmbrand’s testimony in this book particularly stuck me as lacking and needing work in my own life; first, the necessity of Christian suffering; second, the love of Christians for their enemies and third, the Gospel zeal that should be an enduring mark of every Christian.

As I read Wurmbrands portrayal his time of intense suffering under the Communists and the sufferings of his fellow Christians, I was struck not merely by their perseverance through suffering but their willingness to suffer. He wrote, “A man really believes not what he recites in his creed, but only the things he is ready to die for. The Christians of the underground Church have proved that they are willing to die for their faith.” Rather than deny Christ or remain private with their faith, the underground Christians in the Soviet countries were prepared to go public with their confession knowing full well that do to so was to invite prison, torture and likely death. How different is this from my faith, which is not really willing to suffer anything, let alone intense torture that could not have been conceived of even in the worst of nightmares? Yet, this is clearly the standard that the New Testament sets for followers of Christ. To follow Him is to take the way of the Cross. The path of suffering leading to the cross is not incidental to the Christian life, it IS the Christian life and is the main means by which God has appointed that the faith should spread. I pray that our faithful God would strengthen me individually and our Western Church corporate to be willing and eager to suffer in order to show the world the dazzling beauty of Jesus.

The Christians of the Underground Church were not only willing to suffer, they suffered in such a way that they have become a model for us of loving our enemies. At one point in the book Wurmbrand writes,

“I have seen Christians in Communist prisons with fifty pounds of chains on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, in whose throats spoonfuls of salt had been forced, being kept afterward without water, starving, whipped, suffering from cold- and praying with fervor for the Communists. This is humanly inexplicable! It is the love of Christ which was poured out in our hearts.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lists humble love for enemies as one of the marks of those who are truly a part of His New Creational rule. Such a mark is conspicuously absent from most of the Western Church and my life in particular. I want to see such a powerful demonstration of the Spirit’s power in my life and in the life of the Church here in the West but sadly we are so often consumed with our rights and we tend to cover our hatred for our enemies by calling it our “righteous indignation”. I desperately need God’s grace through His Spirit to produce this astonishing fruit that is so counter-cultural but so central to God’s purposes on Earth.

One of the astounding facets of Wurmbrand’s narrative is how zealous Soviet Christians were to tell of the grace of God through Jesus in their lives. In reality, both the suffering of those Eastern Christians and their passion to show Christ’s love to their enemies are ways in which the Gospel spread in the Soviet Bloc. However, their evangelism was not confined merely to this sort of “lifestyle evangelism”. They were very quick to want to be witnesses to the grace of God to the Communists. Wurmbrand writes of his own zeal for evangelism, “In the first days after my conversion, I felt that I would not be able to live any longer. Walking on the street, I felt a physical pain for every man and woman who passed by. It was like a knife in my heart, so burning was the question of whether or not he or she was saved.” In the midst of the suffering of the Communist nations, there was a blood earnestness about the work of evangelism and discipleship which is greatly lacking in my life. I greatly need God’s grace to push the reality of the Gospel deeper into my soul to feel this kind of passion and desire that Wurmbrand felt for the evangelism of the Communists around him.

Winter Life

This is our front walk in the process of being shoveled

This is our front walk when the shoveling was done!

As a native Southern Californian, this whole winter thing is still very new and strange even though it is our second winter in Chicago.  The sun-loving beach bum in me wants to revolt against staying indoors for the majority of 5 months of the year, not to mention all the snow shoveling and car cleaning that must take place.  However, in experiencing real seasons and real winter for the first time, I think there is a kind of natural rhythm that God has built into life by the seasons.  Winter is a time when God slows life down and we have more time to think and reflect.  If such seasons are used well, they can be profitable times of introspection, ministering the Gospel to my soul and greater reflection on the greatness of our God!  This runs totally contrary to how I'm wired as a white, Western, Southern-Californian male.  If it weren't for times like this, I might never stop for extended periods of time to slow down the pace of life.  So, while I'm still not a huge fan of dealing with winter in the frozen North, I'm learning to appreciate its beauty and God's grace through giving us each season of the year.  

Reflections on a Semester with Calvin

It looks as if for once in my life I'm ahead of the game.  While everyone who is (worthily) celebrating the 500th Anniversary of John Calvin's birth by reading through his Institutes of the Christian Religion is only beginning their work, I just completed reading through the Institutes for my Pastoral Ministry Apprenticeship.  In the spirit of the Calvin Quincentennial, I offer this reflection on my past semester with Calvin.

John Calvin was likely the greatest theological mind that God has brought the church since Augustine of Hippo. While many have recognized Calvin’s theological and exegetical brilliance, far less realize that he was also a deeply pastoral man whose heart beat for Christians to know God and live in covenant relationship with Him. This is evident all throughout his commentaries, which are not obscure, scientific observations on the Biblical texts in the ancient languages but incisive, careful exegesis combined with a pastor’s confidence that God’s Spirit authored the Scriptures so that we might know him. Such a concern is also evident in Calvin’s magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion, a work that Calvin intended to have the dual function of an apologia for the faith of the Protestants and an instruction for Christian on what being a Christian is all about. The Institutes is certainly a towering work of theology but it is not theology in the vein of dusty Scholasticism; it is theology that bleeds a passion for God and a passion for men to know Him and ascribe to Him the honor that He is due. Such is evident in the very first sentence of the Institutes, in I. i. 1., “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” After having spent the last semester with Calvin reading the Institutes, I can say that through this study Calvin has helped me to know God and myself more. Not only this, but Calvin lays God before us and in so doing allows us to understand ourselves better in His light. Therefore, I seek to lay out in this paper some reflections on how Calvin has helped me to know God and know myself better in the course of reading the Institutes of the Christian Religion. 

From the very beginning of the Institutes, Calvin is concerned to demonstrate God’s utter freedom and majesty. God is totally “other” and can in no way be sought out through mere human reason. Calvin writes in I. iv. 13.,

“In short, even if not all suffered under crass vices, or fell into open idolatries, yet there was no pure and approved religion, founded upon common understanding alone. For even though few persons did not share in the madness of the common herd, there remains the firm teaching of Paul that the wisdom of God is not understood by the princes of this world.”

In this way, Calvin rejects the entire scope of Medieval “Natural Theology” which found its ultimate expression in Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. Such a strong insistence on the transcendence of God can often have the negative effect of making God seem quite remote from humankind. However, the Triune God is not only transcendent, He is paradoxically very immanent and intimate with His people. Such is the importance of revelation. Everything that we know about God is what God chooses to reveal to us by means of His Word. Therefore Calvin writes, “since either the custom of the city or the agreement of tradition is too weak and frail and bond of piety to follow in worshiping God, it remains for God himself to give witness of himself from heaven.” Revelation is our lifeline to God and ultimately this revelation was given to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Now, any knowledge of God must come through the working of the Spirit on a person’s life to allow them to see the glorious radiance of God in the person of Jesus.

While it is wonderful good news that the transcendent God makes Himself immanent through revelation in the living Word of His Son and the written Word that bears testimony to Him, Calvin also offers us caution about our knowledge of God. In I. xiii. 1. Calvin writes,

“For who even of slight intelligence does not understand that, as nurses commonly do with infants, God is wont in a measure to ‘lisp’ in speaking to us. Thus such forms of speaking do not so much express clearly what God is like as accommodate the knowledge of him to our slight capacity. To do this he must descend far beneath his loftiness.”

As Paul writes in 1 Cor 12:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” Because God is transcendent and we are mere finite creatures, God must accommodate himself to our limited capacities for knowledge and understanding if he is to reveal anything of Himself to us. It seems that such an insight as this should lead us to great caution in how we do Theology. We don’t know God as He is in Himself, we know Him as He has accommodated Himself to us through revelation, the primary and fullest means of which is Jesus. The implication of this is that Jesus is central to revelation and to our ability to know God.

In addition, it was encouraging to see that Calvin understood the essence of what Piper calls “Christian Hedonism. He writes in I. xiv. 22., “It is to recognize that God has destined all things for our good and salvation but at the same time to feel his power and grace in ourselves and in the great benefits he has conferred upon us, and so bestir ourselves to trust, invoke, praise, and love him.” Here is contained the astounding truth that God’s work on our behalf is what bring Him the most glory. God destines all things for our good which displays his power in the creation and also invokes the response of love, trust and praise. So, in this way, when we are satisfied in God, God is most glorified.

In III. ii. Calvin deals with the topic of faith in a way that is more comprehensive and sweet to the Christian than I have seen anywhere else. He defines faith in III. ii. 7. As “a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” It is this faith that God uses to unite us to Christ and which assures us that God is merciful and kind towards us. This kind of firm and confident assurance must be present in the life of a Christian as it is one of the primary marks of the Spirit’s work in a person.

However, this is not to say that in this “now/not yet” age that faith will not have its moments of doubt. While it is certainly true that doubt in faith should cause to always go back and examine ourselves to see whether we are truly in the faith. However, weak or doubting faith is not a sign that one is not a Christian; it is actually an assurance that one is indeed a Christian. Calvin writes, “He who, struggling with his own weakness, presses toward faith in his moments of anxiety is already in large part victorious.” So a faith that, despite its weakness and doubt, still moves toward Christ and longs for Him is actually a sign that ones faith is real and genuine.

Again, God knows the human frailty and weakness and sustains us with faith empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit so that we remain faithful to Him in confident assurance of His grace towards us throughout our life. However, this sign of God’s goodness towards us is not merely an internal reality, it is something that is signified for us through the two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Calvin’s understanding, particularly of the Supper, is a beautiful exposition of God’s love and care for us. Calvin writes of this in IV. xviii. 19., “the Supper should be a sort of continual food on which Christ spiritually feeds the household of his believers.” It is a visible sign of the invisible reality that Christ flesh and blood are our true food which nourish us and give us life which will fully be experienced in His presence for eternity. So, as the Church gathers to partake of the Lord’s Supper, Christ is there present through His Word, continuing the flow of grace towards us that was begun with His sacrificial, atoning death on the Cross.

Lastly, it should be mentioned that Calvin does as points fall into a sort of Platonic dualism by which he seems to indicate that the “body” is evil and the “spirit” is good. Such dualisms have had a powerful influence on Western Society and the Church in particular. So for a man such as Calvin, who got so many things right in his theology and understanding of the Scriptures, such accommodations to the culture should serve as a warning that there are “gaps” in our theology where we have unwittingly become entangled with the philosophy of the age and not with the doctrine from the Word of God.

So much more could be recounted in spending a whole semester soaking in the God entranced theology of a man such as John Calvin. Space hinders me from discussing Calvin’s Trinitarian vision, his account of the substitutionary atonement, his vision of the Church that is so desperately needed in our Western, individualistic society and his stunning accounting of God’s sovereignty both over the entire creation in general and in the salvation of man more specifically. If his theological work were studied more closely and heeded more carefully, it could have the same radical, powerful impact on the Church of the 21st century as it had in the 16th century when Calvin lived and wrote.