How we know God.

Having finished the “Prefatory Address to King Francis,” we move into the Institutes itself. Book I, “The Knowledge of God the Creator” has eighteen chapters. It basically tells us who we must learn about first if we are to have a knowledge of God. The who is God himself.

Again my thoughts are given in point form. Today I cover pages 35 to 41. Remember I am using the McNeill, Battles edition.

1. True and firm wisdom consists of two parts. The knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves.

2. Which one comes first? When we know God then we know ourselves. When we think about ourselves we will wonder about our creation and then our Creator. Calvin said, “In knowing God each of use also knows himself” (Pg. 36). But he also said, “No one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God” (Pg. 35).

So do we study anthropology and psychology, or theology first? Is natural theology able to begin to teach us first? What route does Calvin take? He begins with theology, the knowledge of God.

3. For Calvin natural theology cannot reveal God adequately due to the fall. Natural theology for Calvin is divided into two categories. Natural theology before the fall. Only, “If Adam had remained upright,” would nature have given us sound theology. Secondly, natural theology after the fall. This cannot give us sound theology. Consequently, our only hope is God’s revelation in Jesus Christ and his Word. Thank the Lord our hope is not empty. God has revealed himself, we can know him.

4. We cannot arrive at knowledge of ourselves or God unless God turns us to himself to bring us graciously to look and think upon him! Why? Our eyes and mind trick us when we contemplate ourselves first. We stand before a "trick mirror" as it were, which shapes us larger than what we really are, and then the god we conjure up is the kind of god we want to see. We think we are righteous, holy and good, and thus our god will be to our liking. We are inclined by the sinful nature to hypocrisy.

5. But if God, he will teach us about himself and ourselves. This is the beginning of a wonderful life!

6. We will see our sinfulness. Scripture informs us that men are stricken and overcome whenever they come into the presence of God. (Judg 13:22; Is 6:5; Ezek 2:1; 1:28; Judg 6:22-23; Job 38:1ff; Gen 18:27; 1 Kgs 19:13; Job 13:28; 7:5; Ps 22:6; Is 2:10, 19). “We infer from this, that man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of His lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty.” Pg, 39.

7. We will see God’s goodness and grace. Where sin abounds, grace super-abounds. This is the God who “sustains the universe by his boundless might, regulates it by his wisdom, preserves it by his goodness, and especially rules mankind by his righteousness and judgement, bears with it in his mercy, watches over it by his protection.” (Pg. 40).