Conclusion

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. ROMANS 11:36

Twenty-one chapters may give the impression that Calvin taught a great many things, and he did. The Institutes covers almost every question a Christian might ask. But at its centre is the sentence with which it begins. True wisdom consists of two things: the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. Everything else is that sentence followed out, patiently, carefully and reverently, through the whole of Scripture.

Follow the thread and the shape appears. God is the fountain of all good, and the world is the theatre of His glory. But our eyes are dim, and our hearts are factories of idols, so He gives us the spectacles of Scripture and seals its truth in our hearts by His Spirit. He governs all things by a Father’s hand, so that we need not fear. We were made in His image and have ruined ourselves; our wills are bound, and the law shows us our sin and stops our mouths. So God gives us a Mediator, His own Son, true God and true man, our prophet, priest and king, who bore the curse that was ours. By His Spirit He unites us to Christ, so that all Christ has becomes ours: righteousness before God and holiness of life, the double grace. We receive Him by faith, a firm and certain knowledge of God’s kindness towards us in Christ. We live a life of daily repentance, denying ourselves because we are not our own, bearing the cross, longing for the life to come, and enjoying this life’s gifts with thanks. We stand before God justified freely, clothed in a righteousness not our own. We pray, digging up the treasures laid up for us. We rest in God’s choice, looking to Christ as its mirror. And we are nourished by the church, our mother, fed by Word and sacrament, living in the world as citizens, workers at our posts, singers of the Psalms, and servants of the poor and the stranger.

What he got wrong

This book has not hidden Calvin’s faults, and it would be no tribute to him to pretend he had none.

He took part in the burning of Michael Servetus, sought the sentence and defended it afterwards. The age was cruel, but others in his own time saw that it was wrong, and he did not.

He helped build in Geneva a system of discipline that reached into private life and was enforced by civil power. Its aims were often pastoral; its methods were often harsh.

He taught a doctrine of reprobation that many faithful readers of Scripture cannot follow, and at times he read texts about God’s love for all in ways that narrowed them.

And he wrote against his opponents — Catholic, Lutheran, Anabaptist — with a contempt that his own teaching on the image of God in every person should have restrained.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. PSALM 139:23–24

None of this is said to diminish him. It is said because he taught us to expect it. No one wrote more searchingly about the deceitfulness of the human heart, or insisted more firmly that even the best works of the holiest person are stained. He would not have wanted to be exempted from his own teaching. The proper response to his faults is not to throw him away, but to read him as he taught us to read everything: under Scripture, holding fast what is good.

What to carry away

If you carry nothing else from this book, carry three things.

First, look at God. Calvin’s whole life was an effort to get people to lift their eyes from themselves to the glory, holiness and goodness of God. Most of our troubles, he believed, come from looking too long at ourselves and too little at Him. Start each day by looking up.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. PSALM 121:1–2

Second, rest in Christ. Everything God gives, He gives in His Son. You do not have to find your righteousness in yourself, or your assurance in the secret decrees of God, or your strength in your own will. You will find all of them in Christ, and in Christ alone. Calvin’s sermons return to this again and again: we may come to Him as our brother, and worship Him as our God.

Third, give your heart. Calvin’s motto was the image of a hand holding out a heart to God, promptly and sincerely. It was not a pious slogan; it cost him everything he had wanted for himself. It is still the right response to everything this book has described. We are not our own. We belong to God. Let us live for Him.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. ROMANS 12:1

A last word about the man

Calvin died on 27 May 1564, worn out by illness and work, at not quite fifty-five. He had asked to be buried without a monument, and his grave was left unmarked. He did not want a shrine. He wanted people to read the Bible, to know God, and to give Him the glory.

He was a shy, sick, hard-working, sometimes hard man, who believed that God had laid His hand on him against his will and spent his whole life in obedience. His books have outlasted the city councils, the controversies and the wars of his century. The heart he offered to God has been offered again by countless readers who learned from him to say that they are not their own.

Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. PSALM 115:1

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Go back to the chapter of this book that unsettled you most, and work through its application points again.

2. Begin reading the Institutes for yourself this month, starting with the chapters on the Christian life (3.6–10).

3. Write down one fault you have seen in Calvin that you also find in yourself, and bring it to God.

4. Make the offering of your heart part of your daily prayer for the next month.

5. Tell one other person what you have learned from Calvin, and invite them to read him with you.

A PRAYER

Lord God, the fountain of all good, true wisdom is to know You and to know ourselves in Your light.

Thank You for Your servant John Calvin: for his clear mind, his reverent heart, his long labour for Your church. Forgive us where we have followed him into sin, and keep us where he followed You.

Let us look to You, rest in Christ, and give You our hearts, promptly and sincerely.

To You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be all the glory, now and for ever. Amen.