2009 marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. Like many, I am reading through his Institutes of the Christian Religion this year. From what I have seen looking through many blogs, Seminary websites, and sites dedicated to theology Calvin is going to get a lot of exposure this year; and that is a good thing. Say what you want about John Calvin, his commentaries, ecclesiastical writings, and magnum opus, the Institutes confess Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour of sinners. John Calvin repeats the Scripture’s main message, namely that God has been true and faithful to his promise in the gospel. God so loved the world that any who believes in him will not perish but be forgiven and have eternal life; and through this love the Father has purposed to change the world. John Calvin points the church to this again and again.
As I read through the Institutes I plan to record some notes and often give quotes from Calvin to add to this internet evangelism effort. May it bring many the joy of Jesus Christ. The edition I am reading through is the McNeil and Battles edition, from the Library if Christian Classics.
Notes on the Prefatory Address to King Francis.
Calvin basically begins his address to Francis by talking about the analogy of faith in relation to the study of Scripture. The editors highlight William Bucanus’s definition which I find very helpful. Bucanus defines it as, “The constant and perpetual sense of Scripture expounded in the manifest places of Scripture and agreeable to the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the general sentences and axioms of every point of divinity.”
Speaking to France of the analogy of faith Calvin says, “Now, if our interpretation be measured by this rule of faith (meaning analogy of faith), victory is on our side. For what is mores consonant with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God? That we are empty of all good, to be filled by him? That we are slaves of sin, to be freed by him? Blind, to be illumined by him? Lame, to be made straight by him? Weak, to be sustained by him? To take away from us all occasion for glorying that he alone may stand forth gloriously and we glory in him?” Pg, 13.
The bible in its totality gives these messages. And of course the ultimate revelation of God giving us freedom, righteousness, strength and so on is Jesus Christ our Lord.
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