This past weekend I finished reading John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion. Five or six years ago I began reading while at the University. It is as if a journey has drawn to a close.
As my reader no doubt knows, the Institutes are Calvin’s systematic theology. Better histories have been written of the work so I won’t bore my reader here. Likewise I will not attempt to write a full review of Calvin's magnum opus.
When I reflect on the work, I am amazed by the depth of John Calvin and his knowledge of the Word and the Church Fathers. Calvin packs much information into his paragraphs; frequently one has to reread him a few times to grasp what he is saying. It also helps to read him with a dictionary in hand, but where else would one learn the words ‘concupiscence’ and ‘anagogic’ and more than score of other words?
The sovereignty of God features prominently in this book. Calvin’s writing is saturated with this. Not only did God sovereignly work creation, but he sovereignly works redemption. Salvation is all of God, our faith (given to us by God) receives his gift of grace.
Some of the many excellent passages include the beginning where Calvin asserts that true knowledge of self leads to true knowledge of God leads to true knowledge of self. The more we see our own sin, it causes us to look outside ourselves for the remedy, and the more that we look to Christ and his grace, the more it causes us to be aware of our evil.
Calvin also has great sections on how we receive grace from Christ and the great benefits of justification and adoption. Truly God has lavished his riches upon us in Christ.
A wonderful read, Calvin was a student of the Word and marvelled at the depth of the grace of God. May we take this spirit into our own time and enjoy the work of a sovereign God!
