John Calvin’s spiritual eyes were filled with Jesus Christ, whose glory he sought to accentuate at every opportunity. Calvin’s theology was, at its heart, redemptive, evangelical theology. Without neglecting the Father or the Spirit, Calvin saw Christ as the theme of the whole Bible and at the center of man’s reconciliation with God. On Luke 24.46, Calvin wrote,

By these words we are likewise taught what it is that we ought chiefly to learn from the Law and the Prophets; namely, that since Christ is the end and the soul of the law, whatever we learn without him, and apart from him, is idle and unprofitable. Whoever then desires to make great proficiency in the Scriptures ought always to keep this end in view.

The more familiar I have become with Calvin’s thought, the more clearly I grasp its Christocentrism. As a great expert on Calvin, T. H. L. Parker observed,

Calvin’s gospel, like that of the Scriptures, is concerned with Jesus Christ. It is concerned with Him as the Son of God and the suffering Servant; as the one who has died for our sins and risen again for our justification; as the eternal Lord. He emphasizes the place he gives to Christ and makes it explicit by working it out in regard to the whole of theology (with, as we have seen, some inconsistencies1) and of the life of the Church and of the individual Christian2.

Likewise, Sinclair Ferguson has offered his analysis of the centrality of Christ in Calvin’s theology: “Everything lacking in us is given to us by Christ; everything sinful in us is imputed to Christ; and all judgment merited by us is borne by Christ.”3

John Piper has peculiar insight into what was Calvin’s fundamental problem with Romanism: it was essentially apostate because it had come systemically to robbing God in Christ of the glory he was due.

For Calvin, the need for the Reformation was fundamentally this: Rome had “destroyed the glory of Christ in many ways—by calling upon the saints to intercede, when Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man; by adoring the Blessed Virgin, when Christ alone shall be adored; by offering a continual sacrifice in the Mass, when the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross is complete and sufficient” [citing Parker] by elevating tradition to the level of Scripture and even making the word of Christ dependent for its authority on the word of man [citing Institutes].

Calvin asks, in his Commentary on Colossians, “How comes it that we are ‘carried about with so many strange doctrines’(Heb 13.9)?” He answers, “Because the excellence of Christ is not perceived by us.” In other words, the great guardian of biblical orthodoxy throughout the centuries is a passion for the glory and the excellency of God in Christ. Where the center shifts from God, everything begins to shift everywhere—a fact which does not bode well for doctrinal faithfulness in our own non-God-centered day.4

Romanism is not alone in being guilty of losing a deliberate aim to glorify God in Christ in all of worship and ministry. This problem is prevalent in much so-called evangelicalism, including some churches identifying themselves as “Reformed.” An erosion of passion for the glory of God in Christ is an early indicator of apostasy from the gospel.

A Fearless Stand for Truth

Countless illustrations of Calvin’s God-given fearlessness could be elicited from biographies. One of his bravest acts was surely his return to Geneva, and this while Calvin fully realized that martyrdom was a very real prospect, as he was often writing letters to strengthen the souls of preachers facing execution for their faithfulness to Christ and his Word. Writing in a letter to Farel of his feelings about returning to Geneva, Calvin said, “I would submit to death a hundred times rather than to that cross on which I had daily to suffer a thousand deaths.”5 But return he did—not for any personal gain but for the same reason he had ministered in Geneva in the first place. He considered it God’s call which he could not refuse. Calvin feared God more than he feared men.

To my judgment, the most impressive single incident demonstrating Calvin’s amazing courage occurred during his second period of ministry in Geneva. Lawson’s retelling is excellent and succinct:

For Calvin, these prolific years in Geneva were anything but an “ivory tower” experience. While ascending his pulpit regularly, he met with much difficulty on every side. Frail in stature, Calvin suffered many ailments. He also endured physical threats to his life. Yet Calvin never ceased his exposition.

Further, groups of Geneva’s citizens caused him much pain, not the least of them being the Libertines, who boasted in sinful licentiousness. Sexual immorality was permissible, they claimed, arguing that the “communion of the saints” meant that their bodies should be joined to the wives of others. The Libertines openly practiced adultery and yet desired to come to the Lord’s Table. But Calvin would have none of it.

In an epic encounter, Philibert Berthelier, a prominent Libertine, was excommunicated because of his known sexual promiscuity. Consequently, he was forbidden from partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Through the underhanded influence of the Libertines, the City Council overrode the church’s decision, and Berthelier and his associates came to church to take the Lord’s Supper with swords drawn, ready to fight. With bold audacity, Calvin descended from the pulpit, stood in front of the Communion table, and said, “These hands you may crush, these arms you may lop off, my life you may take, my blood is yours, you may shed it; but you shall never force me to give holy things to the profaned and dishonor the table of my God.”6 Berthelier and the Libertines withdrew, no match for such unflinching convictions.7

The Grace of the Gospel

“Predestination” may be the single word associated with Calvin more than any other. I believe he insisted on it, not only because it was a biblical doctrine, but also because it was key to preserving a gospel of salvation that was by grace alone, totally apart from any consideration of the faith or works a man may do in this life.

Of course the famous “five points of Calvinism” were never stated as five points by Calvin himself.The later formulation was a product of the Synod of Dort and the weighty “canons” it drafted, which were only a response to the five points raised by the Remonstrants in the Netherlands.8 Nevertheless, the refined theology of grace in the gospel represented today as historic Calvinism is found in its totality in Calvin’s own teaching.

There is no need to rehearse the classic formulations to my fellow Reformed pastors. Many years ago I wrote a booklet entitled “God’s Astounding Grace” with the express purpose of winning consent to the five points from well-meaning if relatively ignorant Christians prejudiced against Calvinism.9 In it I attempt to persuade by appealing to Scripture alone and avoiding extrabiblical theological buzzwords that could trigger a bad reaction to the truth. I only care if my readers believe the truth, not whether they realize they are embracing Calvinism.

Composing that booklet, I realized that the “doctrines of grace” could all be identified in terms of their relation to grace: our need of grace (total depravity/inability), the election of grace (unconditional election), the price of grace (limited atonement or particular redemption), the attraction of grace (irresistible grace or the effectual call), and the triumph of grace (perseverance of the saints). Grace completely permeates the biblical gospel from beginning to end.

So much more could be written about these five commendable areas of Calvin’s thought and example, and these are only a few of the long list that might be compiled. If this lecture becomes a means of your edification by means of Calvin’s legacy and thus promotes the glory of God in Christ, it will have achieved its aim.

Notes:

1 Parker is referring to Calvin’s doctrines of God the Creator and predestination, where there is an alleged failure of sufficient relation of these topics to Christ. I withhold my judgment on the question of Calvin’s inconsistency here.

2 Portrait of Calvin (1954, SCM Press Ltd), p. 61.

3 Cited by Eric Alexander in his chapter from John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology (2008, Reformation Trust Publishing), “Chapter 9: The Supremacy of Jesus Christ,” p. 110.

4 John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God (2009, Crossway Books), p. 18.

5 Portrait, p. 64.

6 Citing William Wileman, John Calvin: His Life, His Teaching, and His Influence (Choteau, MT: Old Paths Gospel Press), p. 96. This famous line has also been rendered as: “I will die sooner than this hand shall stretch forth the sacred things of the Lord to those who have been judged despisers” (Beza, The Life of John Calvin, p. 71).

7 Expository Genius, pp. 15-16.

8 http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/dort.htm

9 Upon email request, I can and will, God willing, respond with the text as an email attachment in PDF to any interested parties.