The Institutes: part 5

(By: Chad Bennett)
Having dealt in the last article with the majesty of God that brings a sincere dread of God to all who encounter Him, we move now to further ponder what true religion is. Calvin says, “Here indeed is pure and real religion: faith so joined with an earnest fear of God that this fear also embraces willing reverence, and carries with it such legitimate worship as is prescribed in the law” (43). He further explains that “all men have a vague general veneration for God, but very few really reverence him” (43).

Calvin does not stop with a reverence for God but insists that a knowledge of God leads us to seek every good from Him and having received it to credit it to God. We who are his handiwork, are infinitely indebted to Him owing our very existence to Him. All that we would endeavor to do ought to be ascribed to Him. Since he is our creator and we owe our all to him, we are reminded of our depravity in as much as we fail to serve Him. In a recent study of Philippians I was reminded of the movie The Count of Monte Cristo. There is a scene in the book and movie where one characters has lost a fight. The penalty for losing the fight was his very life. The victor in the battle successfully appeals to have the other man’s life saved. The man’s response is to turn to the victor and say “I am you man for life.” He understands that he should be dead and whatever life he now has he owes to that man. How much more so is this true of our God who created us. We would not exist apart from God’s creative work. Further “we are dead in our trespasses and sins” and our savior gives His life that we may have life. We who should be dead owe our very lives to our gracious savior. The person who understands this “restrains itself from sinning, not out of dread of punishment alone; but, because it loves and reveres God as Father, it worships and adores him as Lord. Even if there was no hell, it would still shudder at offending him alone” (43). This is the reverence and trust in God that results from a true knowledge of Him.

The Institutes: part 4

(By: Chad Bennett)
The knowledge of God is not just conceiving that there is a God, but to grasp what can be comprehended about him that is to our advantage to know of him. God cannot be known in this way where there is no piety. Calvin defines piety as “that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces” (41). Since we are by nature dead in sins and at enmity to God it follows that we must first be reconciled to God by Christ our mediator. We can not revere God nor love him until this happens.

Calvin explains that mere religion is never sufficient to bring us to a knowledge of God. Piety affirms that “no drop will be found either of wisdom and light, or of righteousness or power of rectitude, or of genuine truth, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause” (41). All of these things we should expect from God and praise him when they are received. I am currently teaching a Bible study through Philippians. In the third chapter Paul makes it explicit that righteousness is found in Christ alone. Paul at one time had done much to be righteous in and of himself, but after Christ he accounts all his past works as manure compared to knowing Christ. Because those self righteous works were a hindrance to true knowledge of God. If we are to have a knowledge of God we must be reconciled to God and give ourselves over to Him. Calvin says “For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the Author of their very good, that they should seek nothing beyond him—they will never yield him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to him” (41).

Piety establishes its complete happiness in God and desires to seek nothing beyond Him. If we desire to know God we must also desire piety of this kind.