Some Wonderful Calvin

I found this portion of John Calvin’s preface to Pierre Robert Olivétan’s French translation of the New Testament (1534) on Mike Bird’s blog Euangelion, and thought it so good, I’ve copied it here.

Without the gospel
everything is useless and vain;

without the gospel
we are not Christians;

without the gospel
all riches is poverty,all wisdom folly before God;strength is weakness,and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made
children of God,
brothers of Jesus Christ,
fellow townsmen with the saints,
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom
the poor are made rich,
the weak strong,the fools wise,
the sinner justified,
the desolate comforted,
the doubting sure,and slaves free.

It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe.

It follows that every good thing we could think or desire is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone.
For, he was
sold, to buy us back;
captive, to deliver us;
condemned, to absolve us;
he was
made a curse for our blessing,
[a] sin offering for our righteousness;
marred that we may be made fair;
he died for our life; so that by him
fury is made gentle,
wrath appeased,
darkness turned into light,
fear reassured,
despisal despised,
debt canceled,
labor lightened,
sadness made merry,
misfortune made fortunate,
difficulty easy,
disorder ordered,
division united,
ignominy ennobled,
rebellion subjected,
intimidation intimidated,
ambush uncovered,
assaults assailed,
force forced back,
combat combated,
war warred against,
vengeance avenged,
torment tormented,
damnation damned,
the abyss sunk into the abyss,
hell transfixed,
death dead,
mortality made immortal.

In short,
mercy has swallowed up all misery,
and goodness all misfortune.

For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in his battle against us, and the sting of death to pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn to our profit.

If we are able to boast with the apostle, saying, O hell, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? it is because by the Spirit of Christ promised to the elect, we live no longer, but Christ lives in us; and we are by the same Spirit seated among those who are in heaven, so that for us the world is no more, even while our conversation is in it; but we are content in all things, whether country, place, condition, clothing, meat, and all such things.
And we are
comforted in tribulation,
joyful in sorrow,
glorying under vituperation,
abounding in poverty,
warmed in our nakedness,
patient amongst evils,
living in death.

This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father.

Selderhuis on Calvin

Being the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth on the 10th of July, and yes, we had a cake and some nice French wine, I had to read another book on Calvin.

Generally I don't think Selderhuis is a good a read as McGrath or Parker on Calvin, or of course Wendel. However, having said that, the running theme of the Pilgrim Life is a good one and is well integrated to Calvin's life and time.

A few interesting comments from the book.

Selderhuis writes that Calvin devoted his life to the defense of God, page 22. This may be true but I find it a rather negative aim in life. Does God need any human to defend him? Can we not better give our lives to celebrate God, to enjoy him, to know him, to live in his presence?

I really liked the note on page 63 that the faith, which Selderhuis sees in Calvin, which depends upon God's mercy produces humility in a believer, not a smug self assurance. May it be so in our lives.

On page 117-118 writing of how Calvin engaged with his enemies, Calvin sought to make his enemies his friends and sought to achieve this by self-restraint. I think there are too many who would rather see an enemy destroyed than have an enemy changed into a friend. It would be good to reflect upon this example of Calvin and seek to win more friends for ourselves, even from our 'enemies'.

One final point, on page 208 - Calvin wrote of "the right of excommunication conferred upon us", by the city council in Geneva. I found the notion of what was for Calvin a crucial element in church discipline being conferred upon the church by a civil authority interesting. All the more since I've recently read my friend Marjory MacLean's book 'The Crown Rights of the Redeemer' in which much is made of the granting of a status upon the church of Scotland. No doubt, I'll have more on this later.

If this doesn't encourage you to read Selderhuis, I hope it may encourage you to read another account of Calvin's life and work, or even better - read Calvin himself.

The theme for the Keswick Convention this year was 'Faith That Works', during week 3 when we were there this theme was opened up by Vaughan Roberts in morning bible readings from Proverbs and in the evening celeberations by studies in Hebrews 11.

Stephen Gaukroger, who is the founder-director of the Clarion Trust International, spoke very helpfully on three evenings.
On the Tuesday evening Stephen opened with a definition of faith that I want to share here. Faith is difficult to define, we can end up piling words upon words to try to explain what we mean by this small word. However, faith is seen by its effect, by its fruit. An action is needed to demonstrate, or give validity to, a statement of faith.
This is not the same as saying faith is a verb rather than a noun, faith can be both, and at times needs to be both. However, every time we profess our faith, or seek to describe our faith, we should give thought to the action or deed of faith that will demonstrate, give life to that profession.

Although coming in the middle of the week this definition of faith was well illustrated in Hebrews 11. Let us pray that it will be similarly displayed in our living by faith, the faith that works.

Phatfish

A great band we heard at Keswick, both this year and last year. Here is a you tube video which they made for one of their songs - Rise Up.

In The Thick Of It

During the summer tearfund published a report In The Thick Of It on the theme of local churches engaging in the fight against poverty and injustice.

This is a good report and well worth reading, you can find it here.

The following is from the tearfund web site introducing their report:

We've been working with local churches around the world for over 40 years. It's been an adventure, and we've seen some great things happen through local churches as well as helping churches out when they're trying to meet the scale of the need in their communities.
We're passionate about the role that local churches play in meeting practical and spiritual needs, and we believe that their role should be recognised and encouraged. That's why we've put together In the Thick of It, which is our position paper on the role of the local church in development.
It's full of stories about local churches in tough situations, reaching out to the people around them and offering hope and help in times of need. It also recognises that churches have limitations and weaknesses at the same time as masses of potential, which is why we at Tearfund are uniquely placed to mobilise churches to get even better at working effectively within their own communities.

Please do continue to support tearfund and pray for the poor.

Brenton Brown

We bought this cd last week at Keswick and I've been listening to it since coming home, in the car and on the train to 121 yesterday.

What a great set of songs. Just now a favourite is 'Come Let Us Return (Gloria)'. A song which begins as a praise song ends up in a prayer for mercy and for God to establish justice.

Let mercy rise like praise to your throne,
let mercy rise like praise to you throne
Father touch your church, 'til justice fills the earth
Let mercy rise like praise to your throne

Check out Brenton's web site here, and there is a my space page where you can hear this song.
I hope you like it. Thanks to Fred Drummond for recommending Brenton's music, good one Fred!

Back To blogging

Sorry I haven't been blogging for a while. June turned out very busy and July was holiday time.

But, here we are back again.

Came home from holiday on Saturday, had three services on Sunday and a whole day at the Finance Group in 121 yesterday! The road rises up to meet you.

Over the holidays I've been reading - see the holiday reading list at the side, and we were able to be at week 3 of the Keswick Convention. So I'll be blogging on books, Keswick and new music over the next while.