Confession in Corporate Worship

Besides the fact that ordinary confession has been commended by the Lord’s mouth, no one of sound mind, who weighs its usefulness, can dare disapprove it. For since in every sacred assembly we stand before the sight of God and the angels, what other beginning of our action will there be than the recognition of our own unworthiness? But that, you say, is done through every prayer; for whenever we pray for pardon, we confess our sin. Granted. But if you consider how great is our complacency, our drowsiness, or our sluggishness, you will agree with me that it would be a salutary regulation if the Christian people were to practice humbling themselves through some public rite of confession. For even though the ceremony that the Lord laid down for the Israelites was a part of the tutelage of the law, still the reality underlying it in some manner pertains also to us. And indeed, we see this custom observed with good results in well-regulated churches: that every Lord’s Day the minister frames the formula of confession in his own and the people’s name, and by it he accuses all of wickedness and implores pardon from the Lord. In short, with this key a gate to prayer is opened both to individuals in private and to all in public.

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

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Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.

John Calvin

A Quote

Therefore, in the midst of the bitterness of tribulations, we should recognize the kindness and mercy of our Father toward us. For even in such tribulations, He doesn't cease to promote our salvation. Indeed, He afflicts us not to ruin or destroy us, but instead to deliver us from the condemnation of the world. This awareness leads us to what Scripture teaches in another place: "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights" (Prov. 3.11-12).

When we discern our Father's rod of discipline in our lives, shouldn't we present ourselves to Him as obedient and teachable sons rather than as obstinate and hopeless men who've become hardened in wrongdoing?

John Calvin

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Adversity is either the rod with which He corrects our sins, or the test of our faith and patience.

John Calvin

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God's kindness should cause us to reflect on and delight in His goodness. But our perverse ingratitude is such that we make His kindness a means of growing ever more spoiled. Thus, we must be restrained by some discipline so that we don't break forth in obstinacy — acting wickedly because of our great wealth, becoming puffed up with pride because of honors, or growing arrogant because we possess other goods in ourselves or our circumstances. The Lord Himself providentially opposes, conquers, and restrains the ferocity of our flesh by the medicine of the cross.

John Calvin

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No one, then, has properly denied himself except the one who has entirely abandoned himself to the Lord so that every aspect of his life will be governed by His will. The person thus composed in soul will neither judge himself to be miserable, nor will he spitefully complain against God for his lot in life, come what may.

John Calvin

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It's remarkable, however, that many who brag about being a Christian are possessed by dread rather than longing for death. And so they tremble at the very mention of death, as if it were an ominous and disastrous thing. It is, of course, ordinary that our natural senses should react to the news of our own undoing. But it's entirely inappropriate that Christians should lack within themselves the light of piety that conquers and suppresses fear by a stronger feeling of consolation. If we remember that this unstable, vicious, corruptible, perishable, decaying, and rotten tabernacle of our flesh will be undone in order to be subsequently renewed in constant, perfect, incorruptible, and - in sum - heavenly glory, then faith will compel us to fervently desire that very death which nature dreads. If we remember that through death we are recalled from exile to dwell at home - indeed, our heavenly home - what can this thought produce but comfort? 

John Calvin

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In whatever trouble comes to us, we should always set our eyes on God's purpose to train us to think little of this present life and inspire us to think more about the future life. For God knows well that we are greatly inclined to love this world by natural instinct. Thus, He uses the best means to draw us back and shake us from our slumber, so that we don't become entirely stuck in the mire of our love for this world.

John Calvin

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Paul fittingly describes the war that believers wage against natural feelings of anguish in their pursuit of endurance and perseverance: "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor. 4:8-9). We see that bearing the cross with endurance doesn't mean that a person is absolutely stupefied or robbed of every feeling of sorrow. The Stoics of old foolishly idealized such a person — one who, having stripped himself of all humanity, feels the same whether he encounters adversity or prosperity, sorrow or success; or rather one who feels nothing — like a stone. And what did the Stoics achieve by such sublime wisdom? They painted a portrait of endurance that has never been found, nor can exist, among men. Indeed, while they wished to represent endurance accurately and precisely, they deprived humankind of the power of genuine endurance.

John Calvin

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Such nominal Christians demonstrate their knowledge of Christ to be false and offensive no matter how eloquently and loudly they talk about the Gospel. For true doctrine is not a matter of the tongue, but of life; neither is Christian doctrine grasped only by the intellect and memory, as truth is grasped in other fields of study. Rather, doctrine is rightfully received when it takes possession of the entire soul and finds a dwelling place and shelter in the most intimate affections of the heart. So let such people stop lying, or let them prove themselves worthy disciples of Christ, their teacher.

John Calvin

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For those whom the Lord has chosen and condescended to welcome into fellowship with Him should prepare themselves for a life that is hard, laborious, troubled, and full of many and various kinds of evil. For it's the will of their heavenly Father to test them in this way so that He might prove them by trials. Having begun this way with Christ, His only-begotten Son, He continues similarly with all His children.

John Calvin

Aphorism

[According to Calvin,] Christian prayer involves an ongoing reformation of desire. Living in and with God, little by little, we learn what to want.

 Matthew Myer Boulton

 Life in God:

John Calvin, Practical Formation,

 and the Future of Protestant Theology

Aphorism

The goal of God's work in us is to bring our lives into harmony and agreement with His own righteousness and so to manifest to ourselves and others our identity as His adopted children.

John Calvin

Aphorism

Christian prayer involves an ongoing reformation of desire. Living in and with God, little by little, we learn what to want.

 Matthew Myer Boulton

 Life in God:

John Calvin, Practical Formation, 
and the Future of Protestant Theology

Monday Morning Quote

You will do the thing of greatest value, if with all your zeal and ability you devote yourself to piety alone.

Piety is the beginning, middle and end of Christian living. Where it is complete, there is nothing lacking…. 

Thus the conclusion is that we should concentrate exclusively on piety, for when once we have attained to it, God requires no more of us.

John Calvin

The Gospel

The meaning of the Greek word for Gospel is well enough known. In Scripture is signifies kat’ exochn [pre-eminently] the glad and joyful message of the grace revealed to us in Christ, to teach us to despise the world and its transient riches and pleasures, and to desire with all our heart and to embrace this incomparable blessing when it is offered to us. The immoderate delight of irreligious men in the empty enjoyments of the world, who are not at all, or little, touched by a feeling for spiritual blessings, is innate in nearly all of us. Therefore, to correct this fault, God specially calls by the name Gospel the message which He commands to be proclaimed about Christ. For in this way He tells us that nowhere else can true and substantial happiness be obtained and that in Him we have in perfection all the parts of a blessed life.

John Calvin

Firmly Persuaded

The prophet, on the contrary, here teaches that no man can be duly animated to the fear and service of God, and to the study of his law, until he is firmly persuaded that all the ungodly are miserable, and that they who do not withdraw from their company shall be involved in the same destruction with them. But as it is no easy matter to shun the ungodly with whom we are mingled in the world, so as to be wholly estranged from them, the Psalmist, in order to give the greater emphasis to his exhortation, employs a multiplicity of expressions.

John Calvin

Commentary on Psalm 1

Christmas

This is the wondrous exchange made by his boundless goodness.
Having become with us the Son of Man, he has made us with himself sons of God.
By his own descent to the earth he has prepared our ascent to heaven.
Having received our mortality, he has bestowed on us his immortality.
Having undertaken our weakness, he has made us strong in his strength.
Having submitted to our poverty, he has transferred to us his riches.
Having taken upon himself the burden of unrighteousness with which we were oppressed, he has clothed us with his righteousness.

John Calvin

First Sunday in Advent

This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; 

that, becoming Son of man with us,
     he has made us sons of God with him; 

that, by his descent to earth,
     he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; 

that, by taking on our mortality,
     he has conferred his immortality upon us; 

that, accepting our weakness,
     he has strengthened us by his power; 

that, receiving our poverty unto himself,
     he has transferred his wealth to us; 

that, taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself (which oppressed us),
     he has clothed us with his righteousness.

John Calvin

Institutes 4.17.2

Heeding the Marks of the Church Guards Against Capricious Separation

The pure ministry of the Word and pure mode of celebrating the sacraments are, as we say, sufficient pledge and guarantee that we may safely embrace as church any society in which both these marks exist. The principle extends to the point that we must not reject it so long as it retains them, even if it otherwise swarms with many faults.