Today is the 500th birthday of one of the greatest and most influential Christians of all time, the Frenchman Jean Cauvin, known to the world as John Calvin (1509-1564). With the exception of Augustine, to whom Calvin readily recognised a huge debt, he is the most significant Christian thinker of all time, whose ministry continues to reverberate around the world, and whose Gospel faith has shaped thousands of pulpit ministries the world over, including our own. The Pastor of Geneva would feel no pride in having his name remembered today, but would insist that we magnify his Saviour with him. Still, Hebrews 13.7 is our mandate to study church history, and especially its leaders. Whether you'll salute the Tricolour, raise a glass of Bordeaux, light a Gaulois, fish out an old Serge Gainsbourg CD (well, on second thoughts), remember this wonderful day. And thank the Lord for this great servant of God.
Maybe you're new to Calvin, and wonder what the fuss is all about. In brief, here's a starter for ten (or ten starters), to give you a sense of the importance and relevance of this man:-
Maybe you're new to Calvin, and wonder what the fuss is all about. In brief, here's a starter for ten (or ten starters), to give you a sense of the importance and relevance of this man:-
1. He shows us what God can do with one life. Calvin had brilliant intellectual and organisational gifts. He also had also many weaknesses, of which he was all too aware. He knew that he had just one life to live for Christ, and hungered for God to use it for His glory. The astonishing output of Calvin, as preacher, pastor, theologian, evangelist, apologist and reformer, equals what ten others can do. He was serious about honouring God, and clearly God honoured him.
2. He shows us the grace of God at work. Grace abounded in the course of Calvin's pressured, painful and acutely difficult life. Calvin endured overwork, active hostility on many levels from enemies and sometimes friends; he never enjoyed good health, he lost a wife and a child and severe family traumas, he faced up to death threats, was expelled one time from Geneva, and knew a life of continual struggle which would have broken many. In Calvin we see the strength of God in human weakness.
3. He urges us to take doctrine seriously. In Calvin's day people died for doctrine, God's truth in Scripture. Today, many believers couldn't care less what they heard in the pulpit, or read in their Christian books. Calvin challenges our laziness and complacency. Into our fuzzy conceptions of Christian truth he brings a piercing clarity, teaching us what truth is, and how different parts of Christian truth (doctrine) together make up the entirety of God's revelation in Scripture. Calvin teaches us that truth matters, truth brings life. That is worth getting serious about.
4. He teaches us to love and to trust God's Word. Calvin was at home in every passage of Scripture. He loved his Bible, every verse, line and word of it. He wanted to explore it all, to preach it all. There is no text or doctrine of Scripture which Calvin majored on at the expense of others. There is no part of the Word which he overlooked, or quietly dropped from his theology. He believed all, and preached all.
5. He shows us Jesus Christ like no other. All of Calvin's writings and sermons and full of Christ. He saw Christ on every page of Scripture, and shows us the beauty of the Saviour. His sermons and writings soar with devotion to Jesus, and are brimful of insights into His meaning for us.
6. He teaches us to have childlike faith. Calvin's writings, and especially his sermons, are so simple and applied to our hearts. Above all, Calvin excels when he is commending us to trust Jesus, fully, deeply, implicitly. Calvin endured his hard life, and gave so much to others, because he remained unshaken in his simple faith.
7. He models love for other people. Calvin loved people, praying for them, writing sackfuls of letters which went all around Europe, visiting, encouraging, reassuring, instructing all he met. No ivory-towered theologian, this man, but a servant of others, who gladly gave of himself to others for Jesus' sake.
8. He burned with a passion for the lost. Calvin was always looking beyond his small, turbulent city to the needs of the world. He was deeply concerned for his own country, France. He gave himself to the evangelisation of the nation, training literally hundreds to do mission in France, when the life expectancy of those men was often counted in a matter of months. Calvin was a pioneering mission trainer.
9. He shows us that he is no fool who gives everything to Jesus. Calvin's motto was 'j'offre mon coeur comme immole, en sacrifice au Seigneur' ('I give my heart as a burnt offering to the Lord'). The intensity and passion of Calvin's discipleship showed that those were no empty words, but a true life-statement. That sacrifice was often painful and always costly. Calvin was a suffering disciple as he laboured to bring the true Reformed Faith to Europe. But God strengthened Him to do so, and created an astonishing legacy from his ministry.
10. He has left written works which are the church's treasury of truth and devotion. Calvin is not hard to read, believe me. He wrote in plain language for plain people. He is a master of clarity as well as of good theology. When my children each turn 18 I will give them a set of Calvin's great work, the Institutes. I've been teaching them the Institutes effectively all of their lives, as it has, more than any other human work, shaped my theology. To encounter Calvin's God, in Calvin's writings, is to meet life-giving and life-changing truth. Take hold of Calvin's works, and they will take hold of you.
If any text might be said to be Calvin's text, then I would make a case for Galatians 2.20: "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Interested in finding out more? The church historian Michael Haykin has two talks on Calvin, the early years and the ministry years:-
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1215081028522
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=122908820195
Also, a little gem (52 pages) is J.H. Merle d'Aubigne's 'Let Christ be Magnified' (Banner of Truth Trust), which outlines Calvin's teachings and their abiding significance.
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