Inadequacy of Ministerial Formation

In John Calvin as Teacher, Pastor, and Theologian: The Shape of His Writings and Thought (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), Randall C. Zachman writes:

John Calvin lived during a time when many Christians, both Roman and evangelical, recognized that the ministry of the church was in crisis. It is difficult for us to imagine what the training of ministers must have been like before seminaries were created precisely to address the lack of adequate ministerial formation during this period. John Calvin was well aware of the dire consequences of this lack of ministerial formation. According to Calvin, neither bishops nor priests were skilled in the interpretation of Scripture or particularly adept at teaching the summary of the doctrine that leads to genuine piety…Due to the neglect of Scripture and its teaching by the leaders of the church, Calvin thought that the ordinary people in the church were liable to believe anything that their pastors told them, leading to the superstitious worship of God. (p. 11)

In Calvin’s time, the church was in crisis. In our time, the church is still in crisis. Whenever and wherever there is a lack of ministerial formation, there will be a congregational de-formation. The spiritual formation of pastors shapes the congregation’s health unimaginably. Calvin wrote the Institutes and his biblical commentaries to train future pastors so that they were theologically sound and biblically competent to take care of local congregations. “Once pastors are equipped with such a summary of doctrine [through the Institutes], Calvin with his biblical commentaries offers them further assistance in their reading of Scripture.” (pp. 63-64)

As a teacher or doctor of the church, Calvin saw the consequence of pastoral deformation, which led to congregational deconstruction inevitably. That’s why he devoted all his efforts to restore the proper interpretation of Scripture and Christian dogmas in the life of the church.

Conversation Partners

There are many people showing up in my life, but only some have influence on me like a stamp on the envelope. I have read many books over the years. I realize that there are only a few individuals I have constantly conversed with, like Eugene Peterson, Walter Brueggemann, N. T. Wright, John Calvin, etc…These people have judged me, corrected me, encouraged me, and affirmed me through the years. Most important of all, they have kept bringing me back to God in conversion, in prayer, in silence, in adoration, in thanksgiving, and in praise. How does the Holy Spirit guide us into all the truth? I believe one of the ways is to have conversation partners across the ages.

Peterson guided me through my pastoral ministry. He still does. Whenever I encountered problems or I felt downcast in ministry, I turned to his writings. He wrote four books for pastors: The Five Smooth Stones; Under the Unpredictable Plant; Working the Angles; and The Contemplative Pastor. In different periods of time, I read these four books at least 3-4 times. I gained wisdom from them. I got encouraged by his pastoral struggle, wisdom, and theology in his own ministry. I believe he is the first one to show me how to draw a connection between the Bible and the congregation. No one does it better than him. 

Brueggemann is a radical biblical interpreter. He is not conservative in a lot of ways. The way he talks about the God in the Old Testament is filled with insights and passion. After reading his works, you don’t find the text as a static document. Rather, the word of God is dynamic, and the dynamic of God is fully revealed in his interaction with Israel. God’s involvement with human affairs is beyond human imagination. I think he got me interested in reading the Old Testament with a sense of anticipation as well as imagination.

I heard N. T. Wright delivering a lecture on Pauline theology at Gordon College while I was studying at Gordon-Conwell Seminary. He only held a Greek Bible with his right hand while he was lecturing. He kept quoting the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, without notes. He just quoted them from his memory. Back in my mind I was thinking, “Paul is speaking right in front of me. If Paul were still alive, this person standing in front of me would be him.” He is bold with beard. I guess this is what Paul looked like back then.

John Calvin was 500 years old in 2009. I think his pastoral endeavor was insane. He accomplished more than he could have accomplished. I think what drew me to him in the first place is that I found out he wrote the Institutes in order to feed God’s people with God’s word and theology in a systematic way. He first wrote it in 1536 and revised it five times over the years until 1559. He expanded the Institutes because of his pastoral concern for the congregation. There is no room for theological speculation in Calvin’s theology.  The goal of his theology is to bring glory to God by building up the church. Shawn D. Wright, Associate Professor of Church History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes about John Calvin’s pastoral theology in the Institutes:

Indeed, it may be its pastoral orientation that makes the Institutes so relevant for twenty-first century readers. I think that it is this pastoral focus, which gives the Institutes its “feet,” so to speak, and allows modern readers to connect so familiarly with Calvin, even though he inhabited a different world—several religious, political, social, and intellectual revolutions ago. In fact, I believe that Calvin’s “pastoral vision,” that is, his view of the priority of God and a relationship that all human beings must have with him in either friendship or judgment, permeates the Institutes and makes it intensely relevant for us.[1]

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[1] Shawn D. Wright, “John Calvin a Pastor,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 13, no. 4 (2009): 5.

Hindrance and Providence

“I want you to know, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but this far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles” (Rom. 1:13, ESV; cf. 15:22).

Paul attempted to visit the church in Rome. He was prevented to do so even though his purpose of his visit was to win some converts among the Christians in Rome and the Gentiles. In Rom. 15:23-24, 28, Paul then elaborated what he introduced in the beginning of this letter that the ultimate reason of his visit was to convince the Romans to participate in the mission of God by supporting his mission to Spain.[1]

Paul did finally arrive at Rome. But his journey to Rome was a captive one (see Acts 27:1-28:31). He did not arrive at Rome according to his own time; however, he was escorted there in God’s time. Whatever the reasons why Paul got hindered in the first place, he did not get what he prayed for in his time. Nevertheless, he always got what he prayed for only according to the divine pleasure and sovereign will. Paul’s mission was to “bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations (Rom. 1:5, ESV; also see 16:26). He planned to go to Rome with good will, but Paul was not exempted from being stopped.

In commenting on Rom. 1:13, John Calvin noted:

The Lord frequently upsets the purposes of his saints, in order to humble them, and by such humiliation to teach them to regard his Providence, that they may rely on it…The hindrances of the godly and of the unbelieving differ: the latter perceive only that they are hindered, when they are restrained by the strong hand of the Lord, so as not to be able to move; but the former are satisfied with an hindrance that arises from some approved reason; nor do they allow themselves to attempt anything beyond their duty, or contrary to edification.[2]

Paul was hindered; however, it did not stop him from pursuing God’s will in his life. He waited and submitted to God’s providence.

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[1] Acts 1:8, ESV—“…And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In Paul’s mind, “Spain was regarded as the ‘end(s) of the earth.’” See Walter C. Kaiser Jr. Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), pp. 75-82.

[2] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. Translated and edited by John Owen. 500^th Anniversary Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009), p. 59.

Discipleship Letters 113-114

Discipleship Letter 113                                              Nov. 21^st, 2010

The veteran tempter, Screwtape, writes to his young nephew, Wormwood, about human beings:

“To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing…We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct” [C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters; with, Screwtape Proposes a Toast (New York: Touchstone, 1996), p. 41.].

The nature of human beings is to suck in; the essence of Christian servanthood is to give out. Christians are not suckers, but givers. This is a simple comment, but it applies to most of us. After we converted to Christ Jesus, we’ve still carried this self-absorbed nature and kept sucking in. Christians become dull when we don’t flow out after being filled. Christian servicing is anti-human nature. Giving out is the way to be filled. “My purpose is to give life in all its fullness” (Jn. 10:10b). This is Christ’s promise. Whenever there is no giving out in serving, we turn His fullness into our dullness. Christian dullness is natural, for giving out is unnatural. Redemption is an unnatural act, for it reverses the sin order. 

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Discipleship Letter 114                                              Nov. 28^th, 2010

“For Calvin, theological understanding and practical piety, truth, and usefulness are inseparable. Theology first of all deals with knowledge—knowledge of God and of ourselves—but there is no true knowledge where there is no true piety” [Joel R. Beeke, “Calvin’s Piety”, in The Cambridge Companion to John Calvin. Edited by Donald K. McKim (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 125.].

The theme of Calvin’s theology is the knowledge of God and of ourselves. True knowledge of God shapes true godliness; true godliness propels us to pursue His knowledge. “…Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:7-8). In commenting on 1 Tim. 4:7-8, Calvin said, “Godliness is the beginning, middle and end of Christian living” (p. 126). For Christians, godliness is practical piety.

In Greek the word “godliness” (eusebeia) was first used by the Greek poet, Homer, in about 1000 B.C. It was used to describe “a person who was faithful in fulfilling his duties to whatever Greek gods dominated the city in which he lived.” [See http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/topics/godliness.html]

A godly person is not a sinless, religious freak. Rather, he fulfills his duties as if he owed to God, for God has done gracious works in his life.

Discipleship Letters 109-110

Discipleship Letter 109                                              Oct. 24^th, 2010

The tabernacle is the movable place of worship representing God’s presence with His people; the temple, the stationary place of worship representing God’s presence with His people. Jesus became flesh and “tabernacled” among us (Jn. 1:14). The tabernacle is replaced by the temple; the temple, by Jesus as the tabernacle; Jesus, by the Spirit as the temple of God’s people. In the Bible, we see that God is a mobile God. God said, “I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling” (2 Sam. 7:6).

God traveled along with Israel. In the desert, God’s pillar of cloud signified the presence of God in the place where there was no sign of progress. In the desert, did Israel progress or regress? Could God regress because of Israel’s regression? Perhaps when God determined to travel with Israel, His primary concern was not progression, but formation. It was in the desert they were instructed to build the tent of meeting. From there, God spoke to them (Lev. 1:1-2).

John Calvin viewed that the world is “the Promised Land—that is to say, the Promised Land can be found wherever the Word is preached.” In the desert, God is “a moveable pulpit.” “Where the Word of God is preached, heard and practiced, there is the Promised Land. There, in fact, is heaven on earth.” [Herman J. Selderhuis, John Calvin: A Pilgrim’s Life. Translated by Albert Gootjes (Downers Grove: IVP Academic; Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2009), p. 43.]

In the desert Israel learned to focus not on the journey, but the formation. Geographically, Israel might be at the point of stagnation. However, it was at this point of their journey they learned to listen to God’s Word and to turn the desert into the Promised Land.

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Discipleship Letter 110                                              Oct. 31^st, 2010

“We writers are not Nouns, he [C. S. Lewis] used to say. We are mere adjectives serving the great Noun of truth” [Philip Yancey, What Good is God? In Search of a Faith that Matters (New York: FaithWords, 2010), p. 100.].

Pastors are not Nouns. We are mere adjectives pointing the congregants to the great Noun named God. In pastoral works, it seems that I am always at the center of attention: I teach. I preach. I open and end with prayers. I hold the church keys. But I am a mere adjective. In other words, I am always on a periphery and yet with pastoral functions. I am on the side to protect the center from being invaded with false doctrinal teachings and relative moral standards. Once the center is invaded, the congregants become vague regarding with Christian belief and living. I am on the side to make sure that the congregants are in tune with the center. However, once again, I am not and should not be the center even though I want to.

Who wants to be the attachment instead of the centerpiece? It’s a hard fact we must swallow. It’s life. “Clowns are not in the center of the events. They appear between the great acts, fumble and fall, and make us smile again after the tensions created by the heroes we came to admire. The clowns don’t have it together, they do not succeed in what they try to do, they are awkward, out of balance, and left-handed, but…they are on our side. We respond to them not with admiration but with sympathy, not with amazement but with understanding, not with tension but with a smile…The clowns remind us with a tear and a smile that we share the same human weaknesses” [Henri Nouwen, Clowning in Rome: Reflections on Solitude, Celibacy, Prayer, and Contemplation (New York: Image, 1979), p. 3.].

Discipleship Letters 103-104

Discipleship Letter 103                                              Sept. 12^th, 2010

“For Calvin, preaching was at the center of the work of a pastor and required that a minister be thoroughly educated in the biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew and in theology. Preaching is the way in which God speaks to his people and therefore must be done with the greatest care and faithfulness…Edification is central to proper preaching” [W. Robert Godfrey, John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2009), p. 67.].

Preaching is not the only element in worship service. But it’s central and essential because it directly expounds Scripture and applies it to the lives of the congregation. Modern media exists to entertain, not to edify; preaching is designed to edify, not to entertain. Preaching the Word of God not only comforts our brokenness, but also confronts our demons within. Edification means improvement of mind and character morally and intellectually. To preach is to edify. Thus, when we come to worship and listen to God’s Word being expounded and applied, we ought to be ready to be edified, to be improved, to be converted, to be conformed, and to be transformed. In other words, we are here to be changed. No one should be here to remain unchanged.

We are not here to speculate unprofitable curiosity of the Word of God. Rather, we are here to receive spiritual nourishment from the Word of God.

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Discipleship Letter 104                                              Sept. 19^th, 2010

“Many churches have not learned the lessons that most parents stumble on sooner or later. Churches imagine that the less they ask or expect of believers, the more popular they will become and the more contented the worshippers will be. The reverse is true. Those who ask little find that the little they ask is resented or resisted; those who ask much find that they are given much and strengthened by the giving” [David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), p. 226.].

One of the problems of the modern church is that we are afraid of demanding Christians to live and give in sacrificial ways. We feel uncomfortable to make people uncomfortable. People feel uncomfortable because their comfort is shaken and challenged by biblical demands. Nowadays, we can pick and choose from different demands. We, as Christians, have no right to tell other Christians how to keep those demands and what it means to live sacrificially to God and to one another.

Christians are not strengthened by receiving. The work of the Spirit is resisted if we keep receiving. Christians stop growing when there is no sacrificial giving. Receiving worshippers are idolaters; giving sinners are worshippers.

Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Discipleship Letters 101-102

Discipleship Letter 101                                              August 29^th, 2010

“His greatest quality as a commentator was his self-disciplined subordination to the text. The technical studies were merely a means to this end. But he did not simply listen to the voice of the Bible. As he listened to the context he questioned the immediate text; as he listened to the immediate context he questioned the context. It was by this continual process of hearing and of asking on the basis of what he had heard that Calvin was able to arrive in the remarkable way that he did at the ‘mind’ of the author” [T.H.L. Parker, John Calvin: A Biography (Louisville: Westminster, 2007), pp. 101-102.].

This is John Calvin’s conviction as a reformer. His self-disciplined subordination to the Scriptures is what we ought to pursue after. In modern church, God’s word is trivialized, marginalized, and decentralized. As a result, modern Christians are spiritually malnourished, morally degenerated, and mentally weakened.

Subordination to the Scriptures requires us to study God’s word diligently. We labor to get something out of it. I believe that if we make effort to know Him and His word, He and His word can be known, for He is not only a hidden God (Isa. 45:15), but also a revealed One (Jn. 1:18). “There are secret things that belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our descendants forever, so that we may obey these words of the law” (Deut. 29:29).

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Discipleship Letter 102                                              Sept. 05, 2010

I was reading The Message on the train. Eugene Peterson is a pastor. The main reason why he translated the Bible into down-to-earth language is not for his own profit, but for the profit of the congregation he pastured. Every pastor handles both worlds: the biblical world and the world of the congregation. The biblical world is not that difficult to understand in comparison with the world of the congregation. Biblical interpretation assists a pastor handle the text better. As times goes by, interpretive skill can be developed and sharpened.

Nevertheless, no present knowledge out there assists the pastor handle the context of the congregation. Only the pastor knows the congregation. No outside expert can give him insight. Big truth can be preached. But only small works, done in daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, make a difference: these small works must be done in silence, discernment, wisdom, and hard working.

The more I pastor a church, the more I understand the Bible, or vice versa. On the train, I was reading Romans 8. It said, “All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within…That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging in us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy” (vv. 22-25).

Discipleship Letters 99-100

Discipleship Letter 99                                                August 15^th, 2010

In defense of himself before the young emperor, Charles V, in the early evening of April 18, 1521, Martin Luther said, “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason…I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience” [Mark A. Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. 2^nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), p. 154.]. Luther’s conscience was captive to the Word of God.

Today not too many people embrace Scripture in such a high regard. All of us say that Scripture is God’s Word—divine revelation. But we don’t have such a high view of Scripture, and let the Scripture become our measuring rod. In this technological age, we know almost about everything. However, we almost know nothing about Scripture.

“You search the Scriptures because you believe they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” (Jn. 5:39). We rarely search Scripture; we merely read it, skim through it, and take a look at it. We should search Scripture, and let Scripture searches our conscience. Our conscience says yes to one thing; God’s word says no to our conscience. We then learn to say no to that thing. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts” (Ps. 139:23). It has something to do with searching and knowing Scripture.

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Discipleship Letter 100                                              August 22^nd, 2010

In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin said, “The knowledge of God, as I understand it, is that by which we not only conceive that there is a God but also grasp what befits us and is proper to his glory…Indeed, we shall not say that, properly speaking, God is known where there is no religion or piety” (I. ii.1).

There is no knowledge of God if there is no piety of people. God can’t be known if He is not approached by people with reverence, honor, devotion, and delight. In Christian theology, the knowledge of God is not mere rational knowledge, but relational knowledge. He is someone whom we can know and relate to. He can be known because He reveals Himself to us through Christ; we can relate to Him due to the mediation and indwelling of the Spirit. He is the God who can freely demand on His people; we, as His people, have freedom to respond to His calls. But any response requires some sense of devotion and delight.

“For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him—they will never yield him willing service” (I.ii.2).

In our age, we need Christians who have rational knowledge (e.g. biblical, theological, and cultural knowledge) as well as relational knowledge (e.g. personal piety, high moral standard, and willing service).

In Waiting, I Wait

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Ps. 40:1, ESV).

David inclined upward to the Lord in prayer; God inclined downward to David in listening.  The phrase “He inclined to me” means that the Lord bent down to pay attention to David. God accommodated Himself in order to hear a mortal human like David. Such an inclination tells us something about the nature of God: He is always towards us and more than willing to relate to us. David understood his God in a relational and covenantal way. David knew that the God whom he believed was the God of covenant, not a Greek god, who is only up there without getting involved with human affairs.

The God of covenant got involved with Israel, made a covenant with Israel, and promised to dwell among Israel: “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God” (Exod. 29:45-46, ESV).

For David, his present context was a context of trial. He could only wait. Not only did he wait, but also waited patiently. John Calvin translated it as “In waiting, I waited.” In the Commentary on the Book of Psalms, Calvin noted:

He tells us, not merely that he had waited, but by the repetition of the same expression, he shows that he had been a long time in anxious suspense. In proportion then as his trial was prolonged, the evidence and proof of his faith in enduring the delay with calmness and equanimity of mind was so much the more apparent. The meaning in short is, that although God delayed his help, yet the heart of David did not faint, or grow weary from delay; but that after he had given, as it were, sufficient proof of his patience, he was at length heard.[1]

As one theologian said, “God may delay, but He is never too late.” In waiting, David waited again and again because he believed that God would never be too late to rescue him. God’s “delay” was His loving concern for David. It was in His delay David learned the lesson of waiting. In waiting, God created a space for David to meditate upon his faith. David reflected and prayed, “Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart’” (Ps. 40:6-8, ESV). In God’s “delay”, David had a space to distinguish true religion from false religion. How easy it is to use sacrifice and offering to substitute for doing His will with gladness.  

David grew toward maturity in God’s likeness in God’s gracious “delay.”

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[1] John Calvin, Psalms 36-92. Calvin’s Commentaries, vol. V. 500^th Anniversary Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009), pp. 89-90.

Calvin's Reformed Preaching

Calvin’s preaching is first and foremost theological. John H. Leith said, “Calvin understood preaching to be the will of God for his church…Preaching is rooted in the will and intention of God. The preacher, Calvin dared to say, was the mouth of God. God does not wish to be heard but by the voice of his ministers.”[1] The preacher preaches the Word of God as if God himself spoke in person in front of the congregation. That’s why the reformers emphasized the importance of the proclamation of the Word.

Preaching “is not simply the preacher’s discourse about Christ...Rather, as Bayer summaries, ‘the preached Word that comes to us by word of mouth is Jesus Christ himself now present with us.’”[2] Calvin said, “The preaching of the heavenly doctrine has been enjoined upon the pastors…But as he did not entrust the ancient folk or angels but raised up teachers from the earth truly to perform the angelic office, so also today it is his will to teach us through human  means.”[3] Human ministers have been entrusted with “the preaching of the heavenly doctrine.”

For the reformers, preaching the Word was teaching, but it was more than that. The reformed preachers preached as if God spoke to the congregation here and now. Human ministers were God’s accommodated means of grace to reach down to the congregation. Preaching the Word was a holy encountering.

Nowadays, the pulpit is often turned into a place where preachers talk, share, and teach. Preaching, for the reformers, was a life-and-death matter, for “the Word not only describes salvation, but also conveys it.”[4]

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[1] John H. Leith, “Calvin’s Doctrine of the Proclamation of the Word and Its Significance for Today,” in John Calvin and the Church: A Prism of Reform. Edited by Timothy George (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990), p. 210.

[2] Michael S. Horton, People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), p. 47.

[3] Institutes, 4.1.5.

[4] Michael S. Horton, People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology, p. 48.

Calvin's Double Knowledge

John Calvin begins his theology with the knowledge of God and of self. It’s Calvin’s “double knowledge” in relationship. It is in a relationship where the Self finds a place in God’s goodness and benevolence. For Calvin, God’s goodness and benevolence is always towards us. The God as he is to us compels us to say Amen to him. As sinners we turn to him with confession, repentance, and praise. Calvin’s “double knowledge” of God and of self is not therapeutic in nature: heal me, comfort me, and fill me. “Calvin understood this knowledge of the self to be moral in nature rather than psychological, however, and held that its import was soteriological rather than therapeutic. To know one’s self in truth was to know one’s need for God’s redemption.”[1]

For Calvin, God is not defined by our religious experience. Rather, we interpret and re-interpret our religious experience according to the Scriptures revealed to us. The former is self-centered approach to Christianity; the latter, God-centered and Scripture-based. True knowledge of God and of self comes not from the inside (our experience), but from the outside (the centrality of God and the revelation of the Scriptures).

[1] David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of fading Dreams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), p. 103n.

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Calvin's Institutes

The first edition of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion had been published in 1536. The first edition had only six chapters. Over the years, Calvin kept revising the Institutes as time went by. In 1559, five years before Calvin died, the final form of the Institutes had been published. It had eighty chapters. In twenty-three years, on the one hand, Calvin worked as a pastor to participate in the life of a congregation. On the other hand, Calvin educated the congregation to think doctrinally and act ethically as a theologian. The fact that the Institutes had been expanded from six chapters to eighty chapters did not happen out of an ivory tower or out of Calvin’s theological speculation. Rather, it happened out of the exercise of his pastoral office.

Ford Lewis Battles said,

“Calvin claimed a double pastoral intent for the Institutes: (1) to introduce neophytes to the study of the Scriptures; (2) to justify the French evangelicals before a hostile government and…to hearten these evangelicals in their effort to lead a Christian life under harsh circumstances.”[1]

Calvin developed his theology while he was developing the congregation as a pastor. Calvin’s theological development, in other words, was driven by his pastoral concern. One of the reasons why he developed the doctrine of predestination later in the Institutes was to assure the salvation of believers under harsh circumstances. Believers doubted the love of God and their own salvation. Calvin assured them with God’s sovereign election. It was out of Calvin’s pastoral intent that the controversy of the doctrine of predestination was given birth.

Bruce Gordon said,

“The 1559 Institutes was a masterpiece of organization and clarity, despite Calvin’s serious illness. His goal in this work is to present a comprehensive account of doctrine in a clear, brief and persuasive manner. This doctrine, he maintains, is what the true Church has always taught. His purpose is to explain the teachings of the Church in the right order so that the faithful might understand. This does not replace scripture, but is intended to act as a guide to key topics to be founded in the Bible…The purpose is to bring people to God. And the constant revising of the Institutes reflects Calvin’s continuing struggle to find a better way of educating and edifying.”[2]

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[1] Ford Lewis Battles, Interpreting John Calvin. Edited by Robert Benedetto, with Introductory Essays by I. John Hesselink and Donald K. McKim (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), p. 301.

[2] Bruce Gordon, Calvin (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 302-303.

Calvin's Careful Consideration

Preaching is a difficult task. In comparison with media that conveys a message with sound, special effects, music, light, and attractive casts, preaching is monotonous. Preaching with PowerPoint is the most a preacher can do. I think that if a preacher does more than that, preaching is not preaching. It may be turned into acting or sharing. There is definitely a message. But it’s not preaching. Preaching has to do with words: the Word of God and the words of the preacher. The Word sets boundaries for the words; the words explain, contextualize, and apply the Word. Preaching has to do with the plots of the words. The flow of the argument of the Word shapes the plots of the words of the preacher.

Preaching is a difficult task. However, it is the task we pastors must try to finish well every Sunday. John Calvin’s dictum on preaching is this:

“When I expound Holy Scripture, I must always make this my rule: That those who hear me may receive profit from the teaching I put forward and be edified unto salvation. If I have not that affection, if I do not procure the edification of those who hear me, I am a sacrilege, profaning God’s Word.”[1]

Preaching is an act of edifying the church as a whole in one occasion. It’s the time all church people listen to God’s Word being expounded and applied. It’s the time all church people say that we’re here to listen and obey God’s Word and be convicted and challenged by it.

“As present, God is sovereign Lord over his Church. It is by the preaching of his Word, which is the declaration of his will, that he governs his Church and consequently guides his people in his way. This is why Calvin calls the pulpit the throne of God…”[2]

The people of God is standing before the “throne of God” while the Word of God is being preached. Preaching the Word of God, in other words, mediates the presence of God and the worship of people.

“Calvin took his task as a preacher seriously. He saw the preacher as God’s ambassador to the church. Calvin thought that when he spoke as a preacher, it was God himself who spoke. This also meant that Calvin would have to account for every word he uttered. It was for this reason that Calvin could not ascend the pulpit without careful consideration, because he thought of it as ‘throne of God, and from that throne he wants to govern our souls.’”[3]

Calvin’s high view of the pulpit shows his pastoral godliness towards God and the ministry entrusted to him. While Calvin preached on the pulpit, he was operating the souls of the congregation.  This is Calvin’s theological understanding of preaching as a pastoral act.

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[1] T. H. L. Parker, Calvin’s Preaching (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1992), pp. 11-12.

[2] Ibid., p. 42.

[3] Herman J. Selderhuis, John Calvin: A Pilgrim’s Life. Translated by Albert Gootjes (Downers Grove: IVP Academic; Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 2009), p. 110.

Calvin's Mother Tongue

(This is taken from http://www.andrewfullercenter.org/blog/2009/07/john-calvins-mother-tongue/)

It is not well known, but the mother tongue of John Calvin was not French—which he learned later in life—but Picard, a Romance language still spoken today that is close to but distinct from French, for he was born in Noyon, Picardy, in north-eastern France.[1]

[1] Bruce Gordon, Calvin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 4. For an overview of Picard, see “Picard language” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picard_language; accessed July 4, 2009).