Gospel Gold From John Calvin
Posted July 25th, 2009 by Tullian TchividjianA friend sent this nugget of gospel gold to me the other day. It comes from a stunning preface John Calvin wrote for Pierre Robert Olivétan’s French translation of the New Testament in 1534. Calvin wrote:
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, 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 [life] 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 [verbal abuse], 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.
Do your soul a favor and read this over and over and over. It just doesn’t get more nutritious than this!
July 25th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
a feast for the soul. thanks
Paul
July 25th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Amen!!
July 25th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Wow!
July 26th, 2009 at 12:21 am
absolutely beautiful - I can still taste it
July 26th, 2009 at 11:27 am
How nutritious — and how healthy! Medicine for our souls!
July 26th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Here’s the scoop. I’m all for Calvinism and I think that it does a much better job of explaining salvation and our relationship with God than Arminianism. However, whenever I start to bring up the 5 points on different websites where these things are discussed, one of the first things that (predictably) happens is that I get Michael Servetus thrown in my face. How do you people deal with this obstuction? (assuming that others here have experienced this as well)
July 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
May the message flourish and get wind behind it - blowing it over the land.
Come, Lord Jesus, let your kingdom come.
July 26th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
JD,
To help you with Servetus this is a good place to start. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP7Zcrj6CfI
Karin Maag is Director of H. Henry Meeter center for Calvin studies at Calvin College. I would also recommend Robert L. Reymond’s book “John Calvin: His Life & Influence.” He offers 5 considerations from William Cunningham and 8 more of his own to help place the Servetus incident in context. Hope this helps.
July 26th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Pastor Tullian-
Thank you for this ‘much needed’ spiritual meal!
So wonderful to sit under your rich teaching again this morning, my husband and I were so incredibly blessed.
Welcome HOME!
July 26th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Thanks Louis. I’ll check it out later.
July 26th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
[…] Tchividjian hat in seinem Blog einen Auszug aus John Calvin’s Vorwort zu Olivétan’s »Märtyrerbibel« wiedergegeben (die […]
July 27th, 2009 at 10:14 am
[…] see the original post by Tullian Tchividjian here. […]
July 29th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Tullian,
Can you give me a description in your words of the “Emergent church” and your opinion of it. I’ve been reading some of House2house, the simple church and Brian McLaren.
Praying for Friday’s Town Hall meeting.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
David,
I know you were asking Tullian, but I offer my 2 cents.
I use to go to Brian McLaren’s church when he was pastor, for about 2 or 3 years, before I switched to my current, and much more biblically based Bethany Community Church in Laurel, MD.
While Brian is a very gracious and humble man, I discovered his overall theology is not biblically grounded in the solid historical Christian faith. It is like ‘liberalism’ dressed up with a bit of alluring psuedo-theological sounding stuff, but the core seems to be absent.
I found the whole postmodern/emergent thing to make a lot of noise in the kitchen, but ‘dinner’ was never served!
After awhile, I found I was really hungry for the Word and left.
Matt
July 29th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
[…] 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. ____________ What worship and adoration flow from his pen to the Lamb of God for our great salvation. Amen? *This is a portion from a preface of one of Calvin’s commentaries he wrote for Pierre Robert Olivetan French translation of the NT in 1534. Though we do not pay homage to Calvin which is deserving of Christ alone, we are grateful for how the Lord used this great patriarch of the Christian faith in standing for and guarding the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. HT: Tullian Tchividjian […]
July 29th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
David, I am not a fan of anything emergent. My friend Kevin DeYoung wrote an excellent book entitled “Why We’re Not Emergent.” Also, D.A. Carson wrote an excellent book entitled “Becoming Conversant With Emergent.” Both books are charitable but thorough critiques of the emergent church. In my opinion, it’s a passing (but dangerous) trend. It won’t last.
July 30th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I came across this thread awhile back re: The Emergent Church from Vox Day. I see little use for it. From the linked article “I’m not the least bit suprised to hear that they’re little more than intellectually immature, emotional Episcopalians in the process of moving away from Christianity in favor of a New Age unitarianism”
July 30th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
[…] so nourishing that Tullian recommends reading the entire excerpt over and over (which you can do here). Sounds like good […]
July 30th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Sounded very deceptive, big tent Christianity kind of thing.
Thanks.
August 3rd, 2009 at 12:07 am
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October 6th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
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October 17th, 2009 at 1:40 am
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