Calvin 365

Ephesians 2:8

For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God

Last October 15, 2015, I picked up this devotional comprised of Calvin's commentaries on the Bible. I had tried using it before as my morning reading and it didn't stick so I put it aside for a few years. The last year, it did stick. I am now moving onto another morning reading but Calvin's writings have been a faithful companion during a year of growth.

Life is all about inputs. We can't necessarily control all outputs. There is a general sowing and reaping principle that exists but there are no guarantees. We can work hard and til the soil with skill and still get Nada. Others can stumble upon work not their own and appropriate for profit to their own ends. Alguno (maybe I should use French, the language of Calvin but I know a bit of Spanish). Life in a fallen world.

If you are not doing a devotional in the morning, why not? Now I am not talking about checking a list to make sure that God will be in your debt for being a good little law-abiding boy or girl. I am speaking of putting steel in your soul daily for what the day shall bring. Triumphs can make us prideful and tragedies can create bitterness. Both are deadly. And there is a good deal of the middle-ground, the monotony of the every day. The corrosive nature of the common. The demon of noonday.

A devotional that has good spiritual depth prepares us. Nutritionist say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If this is true for physical sustenance, how about the pure unadulterated Word of God. How much more true for soul food? And I am not talking fried chicken, mac and cheese, and collards. I am talking Truth with a capital T. 

Among all of the teachers, preachers, and theologians in history, Calvin was the best. He taught the Bible. 100 proof. 

Luther was a polemicist. A theological firebrand sticking his red hot poker into the boil of corrupt Catholicism. Calvin was the theological surgeon. Precise, exacting, pastoral, knocking out the presuppositional claims of Rome about authority. Calvin forced Rome to concede that its traditions, mumbo-jumbo, and downright voodoo religion didn't have any ultimate substantive basis in the Bible. Catholicism has much good in it and I think Catholics can be saved. But, I see all of the add-ons like a virus, a disease, a burden.

I was raised Catholic so I am a critic who knows well of the control of the Catholic Church. Moralism and Dogma are a weak substitute for revelation. Calvin read the Bible, wrote and preached on it, and let the consequential cards fall as they would. He was brave in the face of his own trials and weaknesses, which were many. 

What surprised me most about Calvin in his writings was his compassion. It is easy to pick and choose verses that make Calvin look like the Ayatollah of Geneva. A fair reading of his work and writing demonstrates the following:

- The ultimate grandeur of God in all of His essence and works.

- The utter lostness of humanity. If you evade this, you will never understand the Gospel. You will never understand others. You will never understand yourself. Beware of the man or woman who thinks himself/herself good alone on his/her own merit.  

- The sole hope of faith is in Christ as our Mediator and Sustainer. All other religions are mere ritual, rules, and rites. When we understand what it cost God the Father to send His Son into the abyss of this wayward world, we recognize the futility of other faiths. I have been reading the Koran and am more than halfway through. Much of it is beautiful and doxological. And wrong. God has a Son.   

- The understanding that being saved doesn't mean that Christians don't still struggle against sin. We are not to milk this to justify our disobedience. We do need to repent and leave sin behind for the shackle it is. One who walks in chains is not free even if in Church. 

Here are two additional corollaries:  
  
- Salvation is a once and done event in time and space, even though we may not be able to place it as such. It can but that is not true for all. Faith can be like a breaking of the clouds or the coming of the Dawn. 

- Sanctification is a process. We learn to love what God loves because He knows best and we learn to trust that His ways are so much wiser than our own.

If you are anything like me, reality has to whip me back into obedience. I am a strong-willed individual and God has had to treat me sternly at times to bring me afresh to repentance. It has been a long hard road but I am closer now than before to the celestial kingdom ahead. If the horse runs in the right direction, the rider can loosen the reins. If the horse insists in being wayward, the rider must pull harshly on the reins to redirect. He may even need to whip us unto wisdom. I have scars in my hide. I speak from experience. 

God wants His kindness to lead us to repentance. But if we refuse, get ready for discipline. Grace is a gift and we are not grateful, expect the wrath of God in return.

On October 9th, the Calvin devotional was particularly summative.

Calvin writes of "The Gift of God":

- Although we are be nature damned, He has deigned to have us as His children.

-  We should know that we cannot stir one of our little fingers to do any good unless we are governed by God and receive good works at His hand by His Holy Spirit.

- As often we feel our own weakness, let us flee to Him for refuge.

- Let us through all of life walk in such a way that we may from year to year, from month to month, from day to day, from hour to hour, and from minute to minute, continually acknowledge ourselves indebted to God for the goodness He had given us through His pure mercy.

Calvin 365.

Eric Bierker Ph.D is the author of "On The Edge: Transitioning Imaginatively to College." A book for the college-bound.