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John Calvin Gets Fired

December 23, 2011 in Life of John Calvin with 0 Comments

It is always interesting to see how people respond to difficult circumstances. Here we have the opportunity to see how Calvin responds when not only told he’d been fired form his post in Geneva, but that he has 3 days to leave the town.

The syndics, who were at the head of the seditious, profiting by these divisions, assembled the people, when, the majority being under their influence, they procured an order from the council, by which these three faithful ministers were commanded to leave the town in three days. This order being communicated to Calvin, “Certainly,” said he, “if I had served men, I should have been ill recompensed; but, I have served a Master who, far from not rewarding his servants, pays them what he does not owe them.”
Theodore Beza and John Mackenzie, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of John Calvin (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 45.

Such an amazing Gospel-centered response!

All Calvin Did Was Worth Nothing

May 13, 2011 in Letters, Life of John Calvin with 0 Comments

In reading through John Calvin’s last letter to the ministers at Geneva, I was struck by the following paragraph.

I have had many infirmities which you have been obliged to bear with, and what is more, all I have done has been worth nothing. The ungodly will greedily seize upon this word, but I say it again that all I have done has been worth nothing, and that I am a miserable creature. But certainly I can say this that I have willed what is good, that my vices have always displeased me, and that the root of the fear of God has been in my heart; and you may say that the disposition was good; and I pray you, that the evil be forgiven me, and if there was any good, that you conform yourselves to it and make it an example.
Jules Bonnet, Dr., vol. 4, Letters of John Calvin. Vol. I-IV (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 375.

I wonder what Calvin meant by “all I have done has been worth nothing.” Surely Calvin was aware of his great contributions to the reformation and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I almost expected him conclude that statement with something like “compared to the surpassing greatness of what God has done for us in Christ.” But he does not. However, I can only assume that is what he means. He indicates such when he points out that the “ungodly will greedily seize upon this word.”

In death, Calvin in short words reminds us that he, and we, are miserable creatures when compared to the greatness of God’s kindness in Christ.

John Calvin’s Health Prior to Death

April 29, 2011 in Letters, Life of John Calvin with 0 Comments

John Calvin, in a dictated letter to the ministers of Geneva, shares some final words with them prior to his death. Among all that is recorded, we see the fragility of Calvin’s final state before his death, shared in his own words.

It may be thought that I am too precipitate in concluding my end to be drawing near, and that I am not so ill as I persuade myself; but I assure you, that though I have often felt myself very ill, yet I have never found myself in such a state, nor so weak as I am. When they take me to put me in bed, my head fails me and I swoon away forthwith. There is also this shortness of breathing, which oppresses me more and more. I am altogether different from other sick persons, for when their end is approaching their senses fail them and they become delirious. With respect to myself, true it is that I feel stupefied, but it seems to me that God wills to concentrate all my senses within me, and I believe indeed that I shall have much difficulty and that it will cost me a great effort to die. I may perhaps lose the faculty of speech, and yet preserve my sound sense; but I have also advertised my friends of that and told them what I wished them to do for me, and it is for this very reason I have desired to speak with you before God call me away; not that God may not indeed do otherwise than I think; it would be temerity on my part to wish to enter into his counsel.
Jules Bonnet, Dr., vol. 4, Letters of John Calvin. Vol. I-IV (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 373.

John Calvin’s Last Will and Testament

April 15, 2011 in Life of John Calvin with 3 Comments

I came across John Calvin’s will the other day. It was fascinating (and encouraging) to see the degree that more than half of Calvin’s will is devoted to honoring God’s grace in the gospel. I was reminded of Philippians 1:20b “but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.”

IN the name of God, be it known to all men by these presents that in the year 1564, and the 25th day of the month of April, I Peter Chenelat, citizen and sworn Notary of Geneva, have been sent for by Spectable John Calvin, minister of the word of God in the Church of Geneva, and burgess of the said Geneva, who, being sick and indisposed in body alone, has declared to me his intention to make his testament and declaration of his last will, begging me to write it according as it should be by him dictated and pronounced, which, at his said request, I have done, and have written it under him, and according as he hath dictated and pronounced it, word for word, without omitting or adding anything—in form as follows:
In the name of God, I John Calvin, minister of the word of God in the Church of Geneva, feeling myself reduced so low by diverse maladies, that I cannot but think that it is the will of God to withdraw me shortly from this world, have advised to make and set down in writing my testament and declaration of my last will in form, as follows:
In the first place, I render thanks to God, not only because he has had compassion on me, his poor creature, to draw me out of the abyss of idolatry in which I was plunged, in order to bring me to the light of his gospel and make me a partaker of the doctrine of salvation, of which I was altogether unworthy, and continuing his mercy he has supported me amid so many sins and short-comings, which were such that I well deserved to be rejected by him a hundred thousand times—but what is more, he has so far extended his mercy towards me as to make use of me and of my labour, to convey and announce the truth of his gospel; protesting that it is my wish to live and die in this faith which he has bestowed on me, having no other hope nor refuge except in his gratuitous adoption, upon which all my salvation is founded; embracing the grace which he has given me in our Lord Jesus Christ, and accepting the merits of his death and passion, in order that by this means all my sins may be buried; and praying him so to wash and cleanse me by the blood of this great Redeemer, which has been shed for us poor sinners, that I may appear before his face, bearing as it were his image.
I protest also that I have endeavoured, according to the measure of grace he has given me, to teach his word in purity, both in my sermons and writings, and to expound faithfully the Holy Scriptures; and moreover, that in all the disputes I have had with the enemies of the truth, I have never made use of subtle craft nor sophistry, but have gone to work straight-forwardly in maintaining his quarrel. But alas! the desire which I have had, and the zeal, if so it must be called, has been so cold and so sluggish that I feel myself a debtor in everything and everywhere, and that, were it not for his infinite goodness, all the affection I have had would be but as smoke, nay, that even the favours which he has accorded me would but render me so much the more guilty; so that my only recourse is this, that being the Father of mercies he will show himself the Father of so miserable a sinner.
Moreover, I desire that my body after my decease be interred in the usual manner, to wait for the day of the blessed resurrection.
Touching the little earthly goods which God has given me here to dispose of, I name and appoint for my sole heir, my well beloved brother Antony Calvin, but only as honorary heir however, leaving to him the right of possessing nothing save the cup which I have had from Monsieur de Varennes, and begging him to be satisfied with that, as I am well assured he will be, because he knows that I do this for no other reason but that the little which I leave may remain to his children. I next bequeath to the college ten crowns, and to the treasure of poor foreigners the same sum. Item, to Jane, daughter of Charles Costan and my half-sister, that is to say, by the father’s side, the sum of ten crowns; and afterwards to each of my nephews, Samuel and John, sons of my aforesaid brother, forty crowns; and to each of my nieces, Anne, Susannah, and Dorothy, thirty crowns. As for my nephew David their brother, because he has been thoughtless and unsettled, I leave to him but twenty-five crowns as a chastisement. This is the total of all the property which God has given me, according as I have been able to value and estimate it, whether in books, furniture,6 plate, or anything else. However, should the result of the sale amount to anything more, I mean that it should be distributed among my said nephews and nieces, not excluding David, if God shall have given him grace to be more moderate and staid. But I believe that on this subject there will be no difficulty, especially when my debts shall be paid, as I have given charge to my brother on whom I rely, naming him executor of this testament along with the spectable Laurence de Normandie, giving them all power and authority to make an inventory without any judicial forms, and sell my furniture to raise money from it in ordér to accomplish the directions of this testament as it is here set down in writing, this 25th April, 1564.
Witness my hand,
JOHN CALVIN.
Jules Bonnet, Dr., vol. 4, Letters of John Calvin. Vol. I-IV (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 365-68.

Calvin and the Wine Bribe

March 18, 2011 in Letters, Life of John Calvin with 0 Comments

Reading more of Calvin in His Letters I came across a fun piece where John Calvin uses a cask of wine to try and lure a friend to join him in Geneva. I couldn’t help laughing as this seems like the sort of trick I might use to get a friend to join me (or that could be used on me).

When he would induce his friend M. de Falais to come to Geneva and take up his abode there, he slyly adds that he has laid in a cask of good wine for his benefit. “I wish very much that it may please God to bring you hither to drink of the wine upon the spot and that soon. If the bearer had left this earlier in the morning, you might have had a flask of it. If there were any means of sending you the half of it, I should not have failed to do so, but when I inquired, I found that it could not be done.” Calvin, we see, had some very human traits.
Henry Henderson, Calvin in His Letters (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 27.

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John Calvin the Match Maker

March 4, 2011 in Blog, Letters, Life of John Calvin with 0 Comments

I was reading Calvin in His Letters the other day. This truly fascinating book serves as a guide to the Letters of John Calvin. It was interesting to see such personal correspondences, like this one where Calvin is assisting a friend in the hunt for a wife for a friend. Calvin writes:

Think of what you are going to do, and then write to me again what resolution you have come to. The more we inquire, the more numerous and the better are the testimonies with which the young lady is honoured. Accordingly, I am now seeking to discover the mind of her father. As soon as we have reached any certainty I will let you know. Meanwhile, do you make yourself ready. This match does not please Perrin, because he wishes to force upon you the daughter of Rameau. That makes me the more solicitous about pre-occupying the ground in good time, lest we be obstructed by having to make excuses. To-day, as far as I gather, he will enter upon the subject with me, for we are both invited by Corna to supper. I will gain time by a civil excuse. It would tend to promote the matter if I, with your permission, should ask her. I have seen her twice: she is very modest, with an exceedingly becoming countenance and person. Of her manners, all speak so highly that John Parvi lately told me he had been captivated by her. Adieu; may the Lord govern you by His counsel, and bless us in an undertaking of such moment
Henry Henderson, Calvin in His Letters (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 93-94.

Just a simple (and interesting) reminder that Calvin wasn’t stuck at his desk studying and writing all the time. He even tried his hand at being a match maker from time to time.

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Gospel Seeds in John Calvin’s Early Life

January 4, 2011 in Letters, Life of John Calvin with 0 Comments

I recently posted a portion of a letter written to John Calvin by his cousin, Peter Robert Olivetan. Later in the letter we begin to see some of the gospel seeds making their way into the life of Calvin at the young age of 10. While it would be many years until Calvin would turn his heart and devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is clear that there were people in his life who were hearing and receiving the gospel, and trying to share it with Calvin.

I am delighted with my studies. * * * I must tell you of a dear old man, who is one of our teachers. His name is Doctor James Lefevre. I am proud of him because he is a Picard. He was once a poor boy in the village of Etaples, where he was born about sixty-five years ago. Perhaps there is some hope for us Noyon lads, if we will be as studious and pious as he has been. He is a small man of a mean appearance, but his great soul, his vast learning, his deep piety and his powerful eloquence make him the most charming man in the university. He has travelled into Asia and Africa, and it is whispered about here that he saw things in Rome which he does not consider to be Christian, but of which it will not do to tell. We all know that he reads and talks about the Holy Scriptures, as few others do in our day. A child can understand him when he preaches. Some of the students are beginning to make an uproar about the gospel that he preaches to us. They think he is fighting against the church. But I am sure that he tells us more about Jesus Christ than we ever heard before.* The students all love him, unless there be some who turn everything holy into ridicule. But it seems that nearly every priest in all Paris hates him, just because he would have us study the Bible and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wm. M. Blackburn, College Days of Calvin (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 7-9.

A Letter to Young John Calvin

December 7, 2010 in Letters, Life of John Calvin with 0 Comments

I recently read William Blackburn’s College Days of Calvin and thoroughly enjoyed the book. Using history and some good story telling, Blackburn brings the early days of John Calvin to life in a vivid manner. I think, for me, the only problem with this is how horribly convicting it is to read about the devotion, energy, and vigor that Calvin put into everything he did, especially his studies. What’s more is that he was apparently this way, even at the young age of 10. A letter from his cousin, Peter Robert Olivetan, indicates that Calvin is already quite a serious young boy.

… I wish your father was able to send you to a good school; do not let him rest till he does. But do not study too hard. You do not play half enough. If I were writing to the Montmor children, I would say play less and study more; but you need to learn how to fish in the Oise and hunt in the woods, as the cavaliers did in the times of Charlemagne, when our good town of Noyon was the capital of the empire. When I am home again I must take you to Pont l’Eveque,* and give you a romp in your grandfather’s cooper-shop. I do not mean that play is the grand object of a boy’s life, but only that it may help to give him health and cheerfulness. Need I tell you what to live for? Your kind parents will do that; but yet as this is your birth-day, I may remind you that you ought to be a good Christian….
Wm. M. Blackburn, College Days of Calvin (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 7-9.

While a little conviction is good, I often have to remind myself that I don’t have the same calling as John Calvin. It is apparent from his work and ministry that God had a very specific task for this young man to accomplish, and God created him in a way that led him to hours of intense study, preaching, and writing. At the same token, I think it is important to look to someone like Calvin, and all he did with such vigor, and use that to spur myself on to working hard for the calling God has given me.

Either way, I commend College Days of Calvin to all who want to get a look at this great man and his early years.

John Calvin the Pietist

August 4, 2010 in Calvinism, Life of John Calvin with 1 Comment

Reason #8: Calvin models for us how to bring all of life under the rubric of a biblical, comprehensive piety.

Piety was the primary reason Calvin wrote his Institutes. For Calvin, piety is best defined as the development of a right attitude toward God. This attitude includes six things: true knowledge, heartfelt worship, saving faith, filial fear, prayerful submission, and reverential love. All of these have the glory of God as their goal. Calvin’s notion of piety comprehensively impacted his worldview theologically, ecclesiastically, and practically.

Theologically, Calvin rooted piety in the believer’s mystical union with Christ, which produces communion with Christ and participation in His benefits. He viewed the Holy Spirit and saving faith as the double bond of piety, for the Holy Spirit works piety in us through faith. Then, too, Calvin presented us with the central doctrines of salvation, justification, and sanctification through the grid of piety, for justification is imputed piety and sanctification is imparted or actual piety.

Ecclesiastically, piety is nurtured through the Word and the church. The Word gives content and shape to genuine piety. The church nurtures piety through preaching, which is our spiritual food and medicine for spiritual health. The church also nurtures piety through members using their gifts to strengthen each other in the fear of God. The communion of saints encourages the growth of one another’s gifts and love, since to grow in grace, Calvin said, we are “constrained to borrow from others.” Calvin called the sacraments exercises of piety, for they help promote a right attitude to God. He defined them as testimonies “of divine grace toward us, confirmed by an outward sign, with mutual attestation of our piety toward God.” The Lord’s Supper, in particular, prompts piety of grace received and given. Psalm singing also promotes piety, Calvin argued, for the psalms are “an anatomy of parts of the soul,” and therefore relate to all of a believer’s experiential life with God. Calvin viewed the book of Psalms as the canonical manual of piety. Practically, Calvin’s section in the Institutes (6–10) on the Christian life strongly promotes piety. Prayer is the principal and perpetual exercise of faith and the chief element of piety, both privately and corporately. Repentance, which involves both mortification (the killing of sin) and vivification (coming alive to life and righteousness in Christ), is the way of piety. God has always intended to give repentance as a lifelong grace. Self-denial is the sacrificial dimension of piety by which we learn that we belong to God rather than to ourselves, and we are to learn to yield ourselves and everything we own to God as a living sacrifice. While self-denial focuses on inward conformity to Christ, cross-bearing centers on outward Christ-likeness. If Christ’s life was a perpetual cross, ours also must include suffering. Cross-bearing tests piety, Calvin said. Through cross-bearing, we are roused to hope, trained in patience, instructed in obedience, and chastened in pride. Through a proper estimation of this life, believers learn that they are stewards of this world and recognize that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Thus, they are called to unconditional obedience to God’s will, which is the essence of piety.

For Calvin, piety involves the entire life of the devout believer and the entire family of the church community. Living piously means dedicating every minute to living coram Deo (in the presence of God) with intense consciousness, realizing that we must yearn for God every minute of our lives.

How urgently we need to recover this kind of pious living—and how richly Calvin’s own life models it for us! When Calvin died, Theodore Beza wrote, “Having been a spectator of his conduct for sixteen years…I can now declare, that in him all men may see a most beautiful example of the Christian character, an example which it is as easy to slander as it is difficult to imitate.”

Through Calvin’s influence, theology always pursued piety, for protestant theology and spirituality focused on how to live the Christian life in solitude with God, in the family, in the fields, in worship, and in the marketplace. Few today realize the importance of this comprehensive piety. A few years ago, when I studied Calvin’s view of piety for a chapter in the Cambridge Companion to Calvin, I asked one of the world’s leading Calvin historians how I should commence my study. Her response was, “Why would you want to study that outdated subject?” Though sadly neglected, comprehensive piety, as much as anything else, is what makes Calvin so important today.

(Taken with permission from Joel Beeke’s, Calvin for Today)

John Calvin the Pastor

July 30, 2010 in Calvinism, Life of John Calvin with 0 Comments

Reason #9: Calvin models for us how to faithfully pastor the sheep of God as under-shepherds of the Chief Shepherd.

John Calvin was first and foremost a pastor. He faithfully pastored in Geneva for more than twenty-five years and in Strasbourg for three years. As Jim Garretson writes:

“Calvin’s work as a pastor to his respective flocks has been a matter of growing academic interest in recent years. Biographers and historians alike have come to realize the profound pastoral focus that characterized his labors in Geneva and Strasbourg. The more one reads his letters and listens carefully to his sermons and treatises, the more one recognizes a shepherd who carried the burdens, hopes, and fears of his people upon his heart. His transparency and humility reveal a tender-hearted man who, like his Master, went about doing good while seeking to act in the best spiritual interests of those entrusted to his care.”

Erroll Hulse adds:

“As a pastor, Calvin was exemplary in personal godliness, in family life, and in the ministry of prayer. His pastoral care for people is reflected in his letter writing, there being four thousand letters extant. Calvin stuck to his pastoral calling through trials of every kind and persevered through terribly painful physical afflictions.”

When Sinclair Ferguson was asked at Ligonier Ministries’ pre-conference seminar on Calvin in March 2009, “What have you learned from Calvin’s life or writings?” he answered:

“For me, Calvin has been the model of what a gospel minister in a local congregation should be. He preached every second week, preaching probably eight sermons, and the other week probably five. He counseled, but he understood that the counseling arose either out of emergency crises that he was able to help, or because under the ministry of the Word all the filth and sludge of human hearts came to the surface. I feel the church desperately needs to get back to the centrality of the ministry of the Word that characterized Calvin’s preaching and pastoring. You just need to read his sermons to think, You know, if I could take my lunchtime and listen to him for forty minutes, asthmatic as he was, struggling for breath, this would be mind-changing and life-changing. Here is this totally unspectacular man, who never had a laugh in his church, patiently unfolding the Scriptures. It transformed lives pastorally and it gave multitudes of young men the courage to be martyrs for the gospel.”

We are crying out for ministries like that—just ministers in local congregations feeding the people of God with the Word of God. And at the end of the day, this is all Calvin thought he was doing. He was a local pastor.