Calvin on Scripture

This Sunday, as I'm sure you know, is Bible Sunday. Being the good liturgical, lectionarical Anglican that I am, I'm going to preach on the Scriptures - what they are, what they do, etc., all, funnily enough, grounded in an exposition of 2 Timothy 3:14-4:4, but preceded by a (very) brief summary of how the Bible speaks of itself and how Christians throughout time have spoken of the Bible. In looking over the giants of church history I came across this quote from Calvin:

[speaking of 2 Tim 3:16] ... we owe to the Scripture the same reverence as we owe to God, since it has its only source in Him and has nothing of human origin mixed with it. (Calvin's Commentaries on the New Testament, 1 and 2 Timothy)

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a BIG fan of Johnny C. But, I think here he oversteps the mark. It's clear what he's trying to say - that what the Bible says God says, and that it is his word, not mans. But he makes absolute what the Bible leaves slightly more open. We don't venerate the book - for all the attacks on evangelicals of bibliolotry I've never seen anyone treat the Bible like it were God. In fact, I've seen liberals treat their (physical) bibles with far more care than evangelicals (primarily because they leave it in pristine condition on the shelf, whereas evangelicals get it out and use it). I don't revere my UltraThin (ironic, eh) Reference Edition NIV Holy Bible (all the way from Nashville, Tennessee) in the same way I revere my risen Lord. I don't fall flat on my face when I see my Bible in the same way that I'm sure I'm going to fall flat on my face when I meet Jesus.

And I'm glad that, contra Calvin, my Bible does have something of its human origin mixed in. Not that I think that some words are Gods and some aren't, of course not. All Scripture is exhaled by God. But he did it through normal men. He breathed out his word through Peter who, red-necked clown that he was, got so scared he thought it would be a good idea to pitch tents for the transfigured Lord and his buddies. Who in a fit of terrified insanity denied Jesus. But whom Jesus forgave, and breathed out his Spirit on, and through whom Jesus was pleased to have his gospel boldly proclaimed. He breathed out his word through Paul who got depressed and angry and sad, who modelled a self-giving, self-denying ministry both through what he did and how he wrote.

I understand what Calvin has said, and what he wants to protect. And I'm with him. But he, it seems, goes to far. What the Bible says, God says. But the Bible is not God. Everything that the Bible says is from God, breathed out by him. But he breathed it out through my brothers, who loved him and served him, and at times failed, but always looked to their Saviour for forgiveness.

Success is Prayer - Review of Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome

They next turn to prayer. Success is praying. Three reasons for prayer are identified – because of what it does to us, what it does to the church, and because Jesus prayed. Prayer aligns us to God’s will, to his desires, his priorities, his purposes. Prayer is used by God in his church – when people pray things happen (examples of Hudson Taylor’s sister, plus other examples are cited). Lastly, the example of Jesus taking time to pray, of retreating to the quiet place for communion with God, is taken as being of paradigmatic for us. From this point, the Hughes’ recognise the difficulty of prayer, and stress the importance of discipline. We need to be disciplined in our prayer – forcing ourselves to pray. Strong language, but I know my heart! Strong words are needed!

However, I’m not sure I know of a Christian who doesn’t think that they should pray more, or that they could be more disciplined in prayer. Prayer is important – it is vital – but not because of the effect it has on us, or the church, or even because Jesus did it (he did other things which we don’t take as mandated for the Christian life).

Prayer is vital because, as Calvin showed us, it is the primary work of faith. And if, as the Hughes’ have stated, success is first and foremost faithfulness (and, as we have already noted, more could have been made of our union with Christ by faith), then that faithfulness will show itself in prayer. That faith(fulness) will recognise that we are but jars of clay, that our words are weak and powerless, that our best efforts are useless. That faith(fulness) will see that Jesus is the only true minister – he ministers his gospel to his people by his Spirit, through us.

And so we will pray. We will pray that God will use us, work through us and by us. We will pray that God will glorify himself (John 17 – there’s a prayer of Jesus’ that we can echo!), that he will achieve his purposes through us, that we might be transformed into the likeness of our great saviour. Success is prayer, because success, like prayer, is always Godward-orientated.

Overstating Love

As part of a course we’re doing here at Moore, Peter and I have been reading through a series of classic works on the atonement. This past week was the other great John (Calvin, not Owen), and his three chapters on Christ’s work in book two of the Institutes. One thing which struck me again as I read it was his comment that God ‘loved us even when he hated us’. His grace precedes his wrath. His love for us - his love for me - triumphed over all.

Some time ago we were looking at T. F. Torrance’s The Christian Doctrine of God, in which he says (more than once!): ‘He [God] loved us more than he loved himself.’ The problem I had at that time with what Torrance says is that he seemed to overstate it. How can the perfect God who is complete in himself and needs nothing love externally more than he loves internally? To say that is surely to go too far? Torrance overstates God’s love, doesn’t he?

But that is exactly the point. How can you overstate love that overcomes, that overrules, that overwhelms that which is loved? How can you overstate love that meant that the one who loves, who is love, gives of himself for the unlovely – indeed he becomes unlovely for the unlovely. How can you overstate love that is unoverstatable?

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.