On the Christian Life (John Calvin)

On the Christian Life is an excerpt from John Calvin's magisterial Institutes of the Christian Religion. The broader work was first published in 1536 (and did not feature this material); Calvin would add and revise content until at least 1559 (considered the definitive edition, I'm told). "The final form of Calvin's Institutes is comprised of eighty chapters spread across four "books."" On the Christian life is Chapters 6-10 of book three ("How we Obtain the Grace of Christ"), and was separately published by Calvin to highlight how Christians should live. The chapter titles and points, as presented by the author:

Chapter 6: The Life of a Christian

1. It is necessary to derive a plan for ordering our lives from the Scriptures.
2. We are called to a love of holiness because God is holy.
3. A second motivation to holiness is the holiness of Christ, which God has made to be a pattern for us.
4. The gospel is a doctrine not just of intellect and tongue but of heart and life.
5. The mark of a Christian is not perfection but single-minded progress toward it.

Chapter 7: The Sum of the Christian Life, in Which We Discuss the Denial of Ourselves

1. Dedicating oursleves to God is the beginning of a new life.
2. The next step of righteousness is to seek the things of God for their own sake, not for our own advantage.
3. Paul presents the parts of a well-ordered life. [in Titus 2:11-14]
4. While self-denial especially concerns God, it also pertains to others.
5. We cannot fulfill our duties to others until we have first denied ourselves.
6. We should do good to others because they are made in God's image.
7. It is useless to perform works of charity without love.
8. The first part of self-denial is to depend wholly on God's blessing.
9. This means that we should not lust after wealth or honors or grumble impatiently.
10. Amid life's many miseries, our comfort is that they come not from blind fortune but fom the hand of God.

Chapter 8: Bearing the Cross

1. Bearing our cross entails an arduous life, following the pattern of Christ.
2. Affliction shows our weakness and need of God's grace.
3. Affliction teaches us to rest in God alone; his faithfulness gives us confidence in him.
4. Through affliction, God reveals the hidden virtues of his people and trains them in true obedience.
5. The flesh is stubborn, rebellious, and reckless until tamed.
6. Affliction is needed to correct our past offenses.
7. Suffering for the sake of righteousness is an honor and brings a reward.
8. Patience does not extinguish the bitter feelings in hardships but overcomes the anguish we feel.
9. The patience in affliction that God requires is not an unfeeling lack of grief.
10. The devout experience the conflict between natural feelings and glad submission to God's will.
11. The difference between Christian and philosophical patience.

Chapter 9: Meditation on the Future Life

1. The miseries of this life must teach us not to seek our happiness here.
2. We must break free from inordinate love for this world and recognize our mortality.
3. We are not to despise earthly goods such that we ungratefully diminish God's good gifts.
4. This life is not to be detested in itself but only in comparison to the life to come.
5. The hope of resurrection should conquer the fear of death in Christian minds.
6. Our minds will be troubled by present circumstances until we set our eyes on the future day of salvation.

Chapter 10: How We Must Use the Present Life and Its Means of Support

1. Some treat the use of earthly goods too strictly, others too indulgently.
   
2. Because God made earthly goods not only for necessity but also for delight, we can use them for both.
3. Grateful acknowledgment that we receive everything from God restrains lustful excess.
4. Contempt for the present life and meditation on immortality prevent excessive concern about external matters.
5. Peopl who are content to go without and ocnvinced they are accountable to God learn to restrain their use of earthly goods.
6. Consideration of our vocation is the principle and foundation of acting in every situation.

-----

I really enjoyed this little (65-page) book. Of course, it is hard (and dangerous) to rip chapters out of a larger work; I was convicted by the points Calvin presented, but left wanting more. But even this short treatise has its value. I need to remind myself of these truths daily.

Rating: A