Calvin on Why We Pray

“But if God knows what things we have need of, before we ask him, where lies the advantage of prayer? If he is ready, of his own free will, to assist us, what purpose does it serve to employ our prayers, which interrupt the spontaneous course of his providence? The very design of prayer furnishes an easy answer. Believers do not pray, with the view of informing God about things unknown to him, or of exciting him to do his duty, or of urging him as though he were reluctant. On the contrary, they pray, in order that they may arouse themselves to seek him, that they may exercise their faith in meditating on his promises, that they may relieve themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into his bosom; in a word, that they may declare that from Him alone they hope and expect, both for themselves and for others, all good things. God himself, on the other hand, has purposed freely, and without being asked, to bestow blessings upon us; but he promises that he will grant them to our prayers. We must, therefore, maintain both of these truths, that He freely anticipates our wishes, and yet that we obtain by prayer what we ask. As to the reason why he sometimes delays long to answer us, and sometimes even does not grant our wishes, an opportunity of considering it will afterwards occur.”

John Calvin

Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, volume 1

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Calvin on the Believer's Security

"Christ instructs his followers to remember that, in this world, they may be said to be in the midst of a forest, surrounded by innumerable robbers, and are not only unarmed and exposed as a prey, but are aware that the cause of death is contained in themselves, so that, relying on the guardianship of God alone, they may walk without alarm. In short, our salvation is certain, because it is in the hand of God; for our faith is weak, and we are too prone to waver. But God, who has taken us under his protection, is sufficiently powerful to scatter, with his breath alone, all the forces of our adversaries. It is of great importance for us to turn our eye to this, that the fear of temptations may not dismay us; for Christ even intended to point out the way in which sheep are made to live at ease in the midst of wolves."

John Calvin
Commentary on John 10:28

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Calvin on the Principal Office of Christ

"The principal office of Christ is briefly but clearly stated; that he takes away the sins of the world by the sacrifice of his death, and reconciles men to God. There are other favours, indeed, which Christ bestows upon us, but this is the chief favour, and the rest depend upon it; that, by appeasing the wrath of God, he makes us to be reckoned holy and righteous, that, by not imputing our sins, he receives us into favour."

John Calvin
Commentary on John 1:29

A Word for Preachers...T.H.L. Parker on the Example of Calvin

"There is no threshing himself into a fever of impatience or frustration, no holier-than-thou rebuking of the people, no begging them in terms of hyperbole to give some physical sign that the message has been accepted. It is simply one man, conscious of his sins, aware how little progress he makes and how hard it is to be a doer of the Word, sympathetically passing on to his people (whom he knows to have the same sort of problems as himself) what God has said to them and to him."

T.H.L. Parker (regarding John Calvin)
Calvin's Preaching
as cited in The Expository Genius of John Calvin by Steven J. Lawson

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Calvin on the Asylum of Prayer

"We are not made of iron, so as not to be shaken by temptations. But this is our consolation, this our solace -- to deposit, or (to speak with greater propriety) to disburden in the bosom of God everything that harasses us. Confidence, it is true, brings tranquility to our minds, but it is only in the event of our exercising ourselves in prayers. Whenever, therefore, we are assailed by any temptation, let us betake ourselves forthwith to prayer, as to a sacred asylum."

John Calvin
Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians (chap. IV. 6.)

Christian Biographies for Young Readers

I have been impressed by a Simonetta Carr's series Christian Biographies for Young Readers published by Reformation Heritage Books.  The series is targeted at children between the ages of 7 and 12, but I have found that they can serve as great introductions for the whole family to such figures in church history as John Calvin, John Owen, Augustine and Athanasius.

The fifth and latest title in the series is Lady Jane Grey. Below is a video trailer for the book.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Calvin on Salvation

"Our mind is always impelled to look at our worthiness; and as soon as our unworthiness is seen, our confidence sinks. Accordingly, the more any one is oppressed by his sins, let him the more courageously betake himself to Christ, relying on this doctrine, that he came to bring salvation not to the righteous, but to 'sinners.'"

 John Calvin
Calvin's Commentaries, Volume XXI

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Calvin on the Primacy of God

"For, quite clearly, the mighty gifts with which we are endowed are hardly from ourselves: indeed. our very being is nothing but subsistence in the one God. Then, by these benefits shed like dew from heaven upon us, we are led as by rivulets to the spring itself. Indeed, our very poverty better discloses the infinitude of benefits reposing in God. The miserable ruin, into which the rebellion of the first man cast us, especially compels us to look upward...Thus, from the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and--what is more--depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, fell abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in the Lord alone."

John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion

Helpful Quotes from a Study of Galatians

Last night I led our congregational Bible study which is working its way through the book of Galatians. Our text was Galatians 4:8-11, and as I prepared for it, I came across a number of helpful quotes from people far wiser than me. I thought I'd share some of them with you here:

Philip Ryken: “A Christian simply is someone who knows God – not someone who knows about God, as if Christianity were some sort of philosophy, but someone who has a relationship with God. In the Bible, the knowledge of God is always personal. It involves an intimate encounter with God the Father, through the Spirit of his Son. Christianity is not a matter of what we know; it is a matter of whom we know.” 

John Calvin : “Paul reminds the Galatians whence they had derived the knowledge of God. He affirms that they did not obtain it by their own exertions, by the acuteness or industry of their own minds, but because, when they were at the farthest possible remove from thinking of him, God visited them in mercy.  What is said of the Galatians may be extended to all; for in all are fulfilled the words of Isaiah, ‘I am sought by them that asked not for me: I am found by them that sought me not.’ (Isaiah 65:1)”

Martin Luther: “Therefore, as many as trust to their own strength and righteousness, do serve a god, but such a god as they themselves have devised, and not the true God. For the true God speaketh thus: No righteousness, wisdom, nor religion, pleaseth Me, but that only whereby the Father is glorified through the Son.”

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom...Calvin on Mystery and Revelation

"And let us not take it into our heads either to seek out God anywhere else than in his Sacred Word, or to think anything about him that is not prompted by his Word, or to speak anything that is not taken from that Word. But if some distinction does exist in the one divinity of Father, Son, and Spirit-something hard to grasp-and occasions to certain minds more difficulty and trouble than is expedient, let it be remembered that men's minds, when they indulge their curiosity, enter into a labyrinth. And so let them yield themselves to be ruled by the heavenly oracles, even though they may fail to capture the height of the mystery."

John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1

Weekly Words of Wisdom...Calvin on Prayer

"We may conclude...that no prayers are lawful or rightly composed unless they consist of these two members: First, all who approach God ought to cast themselves down before him, and to acknowledge themselves deserving of a thousand deaths; next, to enable them to emerge from the abyss of despair, and to raise themselves to the hope of pardon, they should call upon God without fear or doubt, and with firm and stable confidence. This reliance upon God can have no other support than the nature of God himself, and to this he has borne ample testimony."

John Calvin
Commentaries on The Prophet Daniel, Volume 2

A Word for Preachers...Calvin on Constantly Learning from God's Word

"We must all be pupils of the Holy Scriptures, even to the end; even those, I mean, who are appointed to proclaim the Word. If we enter into the pulpit, it is on this condition, that we learn while teaching others. I am not speaking here merely that others may hear me; but I too, for my part, must be a pupil of God, and the word which goes forth from my lips must profit myself; otherwise woe is me! The most accomplished in the Scripture are fools, unless they acknowledge that they have need of God for their schoolmaster all the days of their life."

John Calvin

How We Approach God in Prayer

"Now, as it would be the folly and madness of presumption, to call God our Father, except on the ground that, through our union to the body of Christ, we are acknowledged as his children, we conclude, that there is no other way of praying aright, but by approaching God with reliance on the Mediator."

John Calvin

You Are the Salt of the Earth

In 2011 I've had the pleasure of teaching an adult Sunday School class on The Sermon on the Mount.  One of my favorite parts of teaching is all the learning that I get to do.  In my preparations for class, I try to glean insights from a number of scholars who are far more learned than I am (there's no shortage!).  To this end I have loved studying a number of fine commentaries on The Sermon on the Mount (Carson, Doriani, Ferguson, Stott) in addition to commentaries on Matthew from my two favorite sets by Calvin and Hendriksen.

Another commentary on Matthew that was recently introduced to me by a friend is Frederick Dale Bruner's Matthew: A Commentary. Volume 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12.  I've only had the commentary for a couple weeks and I can't speak to all of Bruner's theology.  What I can say though, is I have already been richly blessed by the devotional nature of his writing and some of the insights he offers on Matthew 5.  Included in this would be the following words I came across today preparing for this week's lesson on being "the salt of the earth":

"Blessing is given to believers so that they will be blessings -- to the world (cf. especially the seminal promise of Gen 12:1-3: "I will bless you and make you a blessing; and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed"); salt is made salt in order to be salty in food.  We are put on notice that while it is from nothing (gratis) that we have been made salt, it is not for nothing (frustra).  We are to live for other people.  Christians, we learn here for the first time explicitly, are in danger if they do not live as Christians.  This is what is meant by the warning's sad conclusion, "It is absolutely useless except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."  Here is deserved persecution.  In the world this "persecution" often takes the form of simple contempt or of complete disinterest."

May we always remember how very blessed we are to have found favor in the eyes of God in spite of our sin. And may we also remember that we, like Abraham, are blessed that we might be a blessing.

A Word for Preachers...Calvin on the Power of God's Word

"Let the pastors boldly dare all things by the Word of God, of which they are constituted administrators. Let them constrain all the power, glory, and excellence of the world to give place to and to obey the divine majesty of this Word.  Let them enjoin everyone by it, from the highest to the lowest. Let them edify the body of Christ. Let them devastate Satan's reign. Let them pasture the sheep, kill the wolves, instruct and exhort the rebellious. Let them bind and loose, thunder and lightning, if necessary, but let them do all according to the Word of God."

John Calvin

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

“And lest we should adopt the opinion of the philosophers, that ignorance, which leads us into mistakes, is only an incidental evil, Paul shews that it has its root in the blindness of their heart, by which he intimates that it dwells in their very nature. The first blindness, therefore, which covers the minds of men, is the punishment of original sin; because Adam, after his revolt, was deprived of the true light iof God, in the absence of which there is nothing but fearful darkness.”

John Calvin

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

"It is indeed true, that we are justified in Christ through the mercy of God alone; but it is equally true and certain, that all who are justified are called by the Lord, that they may live worthy of their vocation.  Let then the faithful learn to embrace him, not only for justification, but also for sanctification, as he has been given to us for both these purposes, lest they rend him asunder by their mutilated faith."

--John Calvin, Commentary on Romans, pg. 294.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

“For what is more consonant with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God? That we are empty of all good, to be filled by him? That we are slaves of sin, to be freed by him? Blind, to be illumined by him? Lame to be made straight by him? Weak to be sustained by him? To take away from us all occasion for glorying, that he alone may stand forth glorious and we glory in him?”

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

Calvinists are Evil

"Calvinists are evil." That was the title and opening sentence of a blog entry I came across today. Well, seeing as I'm a Calvinist (I've got the bobblehead to prove it), you might expect that this post upset me a bit. As it turns out though, I couldn't agree with the author more. His thoughts included the following:

All of us, Christians or otherwise, are intrinsically evil and the moment we start thinking well of ourselves is the moment we have begun to take our eyes off the Gospel to compare ourselves with ourselves. This standard of “by comparison” is mere relativism and it’s what the world does when it tries to sort out evil without attaching blame to itself.

and

Thinking well of ourselves is not only unwise; it’s spiritually deadly. It leads to the same self-righteousness that entrapped the hearts of the Pharisees. It isn’t faith. It doesn’t lead us to God’s eternal kindness through forgiveness.

As Brad so provocatively points out, we must realize that our goodness always and forever rests in and emanates from Christ. This is right in line with today's edition of Wednesday's Words of Wisdom. You can read Brad's whole post here.

Great Father's Day Gifts

Well, my family took heed to Friday's post and got me a Father's Day gift that was a great gift for me. Many others might not have enjoyed it quite as much as I did, but for me, it was perfect. What was this gift of gifts? Why, it was a genuine John Calvin bobblehead doll!


What are the best Father's Day gifts you've ever gotten or given? Please leave a note in the comments to let us know.