Bearing the Cross

Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. HEBREWS 13:13

Calvin wrote about suffering as a man who knew it. He lived as a refugee for most of his adult life. He buried his only son and his wife. He was ill for years with painful diseases. And he pastored a city full of exiles, and wrote constantly to believers in France who were in prison or facing death for the gospel. When he says in Institutes 3.8 that the Christian must bear the cross, he is not speaking from a comfortable study.

The cross belongs to the Christian life

The chapter begins by saying that the godly mind must rise higher still than self-denial, to where Christ calls every disciple to take up his cross. Those whom the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome and restless life, full of many and various kinds of evil. It is the Father’s will to exercise His children in this way (Institutes 3.8.1).

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 2 TIMOTHY 3:12

Calvin’s reason is Christ Himself. If the Son of God, whom the Father loved above all, was treated this way, why should we expect to be spared? And he adds a comfort: by sharing Christ’s sufferings, we share also in His resurrection. The cross is the road, not the destination.

He preached the same in his sermon on Enduring Persecution for Christ, in the Ochorus library, taken from the words of Hebrews 13:13. There he says plainly that “there are two things which can not be separated,” namely “to be members of Christ, and to be tried by many afflictions.” And he pictures the Christian as a soldier always ready: “a Christian, even in repose, must always have one foot lifted to march to battle.”

Why God sends the cross

Calvin gives several reasons why God lays the cross on His children, and each of them is worth weighing.

First, to humble us. We are all inclined to trust our own strength. When things go well, we imagine we are invincible. God sends trouble to show us how weak we really are, and to teach us to lean on Him alone (Institutes 3.8.2).

Second, to prove and strengthen our faith and patience. Calvin often uses the image of gold refined in the fire, which he also uses in the sermon: if gold and silver, which are only corruptible metals, are tested by fire, it is reasonable that our faith, which is worth more than all the riches of the world, should be tried too.

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 PETER 1:7

Third, to correct us. Some of our troubles are the Father’s discipline, meant to call us back when we stray. Calvin insists that this is the chastening of a father, not the punishment of a judge.

For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. HEBREWS 12:6

Fourth, and most honourably, some suffering is persecution for righteousness’ sake. To suffer for the gospel, Calvin says, is a special mark of God’s favour. In the sermon he asks who we are, poor worms of the earth, full of vanity, that God should use us as witnesses to His truth — an honour, he says, that does not even belong to the angels.

Not a stoic

One of the most humane things in Calvin’s teaching on the cross is his rejection of stoicism (Institutes 3.8.9). The Stoic philosophers taught that the wise man should feel no grief. Calvin thought this was neither possible nor Christian. Christ Himself groaned and wept, and was troubled in spirit. We are not asked to be unfeeling. We are asked to bear our grief with patience and to submit to God in the midst of it.

Jesus wept. JOHN 11:35

In the sermon he admits the same honestly: “it is only too natural for us to shun the cross.” Prophets and apostles, he says, went to death not without feeling some inclination to recoil. The flesh rebels. What matters is that the will of God has the mastery in the end. We may weep; we must not rebel.

This is the kind of patience that fits a man who, after his wife’s death, told a friend that he was trying to master his grief. He did not pretend it did not hurt.

Courage from the promises

The sermon on Enduring Persecution is a powerful piece of pastoral encouragement for believers who might be arrested at any time, and it contains Calvin’s most concrete comforts for the suffering. He sets out three promises. First, God holds our life and death in His hand, and nothing can happen to us without His leave. Second, God will sustain us by His Spirit so that our enemies gain no real advantage. Third, our suffering will bear fruit, and we will be gathered with Christ into His glory.

He tells, too, of a young man who had lived in Geneva and was arrested at Tournai. He was told he would be beheaded if he recanted and burned alive if he did not. When asked what he meant to do, he answered: “He who will give me grace to die patiently for His name, will surely give me grace to bear the fire.” Calvin tells his hearers to take that as the voice of the Holy Spirit.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 CORINTHIANS 12:9

And he offers one of the tenderest sentences in all his sermons, drawn from Christ’s words to Saul on the Damascus road, that He Himself is persecuted in His members: “Jesus Christ must forget Himself before He can cease to think of us when we are in prison, or in danger of death for His cause.”

A word of honesty

It must be said that Calvin, who wrote so movingly for persecuted believers, was himself party to the persecution of Servetus. He saw no contradiction, because he believed Servetus was a blasphemer and not a witness to truth; in the sermon he is careful to distinguish true martyrs from those who die for their own absurd opinions. Few Christians today would accept that the state should put anyone to death for heresy. The reader may take Calvin’s comfort for the persecuted with gratitude, and turn it, as he did not, into a reason never to persecute.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. MATTHEW 5:10

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Name the cross you are carrying at present. Ask which of Calvin’s purposes God may be working through it.

2. Do not pretend. If you are grieving, tell God so honestly, and then ask for patience to submit to Him in it.

3. Pray by name this week for Christians who are in prison or in danger for their faith.

4. Ask whether you are ready, as Calvin says, with one foot lifted — prepared to be put to some cost for Christ.

5. Examine whether you have ever made others suffer for their convictions, and ask forgiveness where you have.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You bore the cross for me, and You call me to follow You and bear mine.

When trouble comes, humble my pride, refine my faith, and correct me as a Father corrects a child.

Let me weep without rebelling and suffer without despair, knowing that my life and death are in Your hand.

Strengthen Your persecuted people everywhere, and keep me from ever causing others to suffer for Your name. Amen.