Calvin the Evangelist

Calvin the Evangelist

If Calvin is taken as a model, Reformed theology ought to produce not only the best theologians. but also the best pastors and missionaries.

Calvin's Prayer on Going to School

O Lord, you are the fountain of all wisdom and learning. Out of Your special goodness to me, You have granted that the years of my youth should be instructed in an education that can assist me to be honest and to live a life dedicated to You. I pray that You would also grant that my mind might be enlightened and energized, which sometimes is slow and lazy, so that I might be able to acquire more knowledge. Also, strengthen my memory so that I can remember what I have learned. And move my heart so that I may be willing and even eager to profit from what I have studied, or else the opportunity that You have given me to educate my mind will be lost through my sluggishness. I pray that You will be pleased to have Your Spirit work within me, the Spirit of understanding, so that my studies will be successful and that my teacher will not have wasted his or her time in teaching me.

In whatever I study, help me to keep this in mind: that I am to know You in Christ Jesus Your Son. May everything that I learn assist me to live a life that is pleasing to You. I pray that you will teach me to be humble, so that I will prove myself to be teachable and obedient to you first, and then to others that You may place in authority over me. Finally, in all that I do in school, let my goal be this: that I may be glorify You in all that I do, and in doing so, qualify myself to be a servant that You can use in whatever You will have me do when I grow up.

Amen.

Calvin on How to Speak about the Baptism of the Faithful

Let us know, that the Apostle does not simply exhort us to imitate Christ, as though he had said that the death of Christ is a pattern which all Christians are to follow; for no doubt he ascends higher, as he announces a doctrine, with which he connects, as it is evident, an exhortation; and his doctrine is this — that the death of Christ is efficacious to destroy and demolish the depravity of our flesh, and his resurrection, to effect the renovation of a better nature, and that by baptism we are admitted into a participation of this grace. This foundation being laid, Christians may very suitably be exhorted to strive to respond to their calling. Farther, it is not to the point to say, that this power is not apparent in all the baptized; for Paul, according to his usual manner, where he speaks of the faithful, connects the reality and the effect with the outward sign; for we know that whatever the Lord offers by the visible symbol is confirmed and ratified by their faith. In short, he teaches what is the real character of baptism when rightly received. So he testifies to the Galatians, that all who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Thus indeed must we speak, as long as the institution of the Lord and the faith of the godly unite together; for we never have naked and empty symbols, except when our ingratitude and wickedness hinder the working of divine beneficence.

(HT: Horne: Calvin on how we speak of baptism to the faithful)

Calvin on Baptism

"All then that Ananias meant to say was, Be baptized, Paul, that you may be assured that your sins are forgiven you. In baptism, the Lord promises forgiveness of sins: receive it, and be secure" (Institutes, Book 4, Ch. 15, Sect. 15).

"But from this sacrament, as from all others, we gain nothing, unless in so far as we receive in faith. If faith is wanting, it will be an evidence of our ingratitude, by which we are proved guilty before God, for not believing the promise there given.

"It is irrational to contend that sacraments are not manifestations of divine grace toward us, because they are held forth to the ungodly also, who, however, so far from experiencing God to be more propitious to them, only incur greater condemnation" (Institutes, Book 4, Ch. 14, Sect. 7).