This week we will be reading Calvin’s Little Book, Ch 3, Sec.s 7-9, pp. 72-29 in the Denlinger and Parsons translation.
Calvin’s headings for these sections as translated by Beveridge are below:
7. Singular consolation under the cross, when we suffer persecution for righteousness. Some parts of this consolation.
8. This form of the cross most appropriate to believers, and should be borne willingly and cheerfully. This cheerfulness is not unfeeling hilarity, but, while groaning under the burden, waits patiently for the Lord.
9. A description of this conflict. Opposed to the vanity of the Stoics. Illustrated by the authority and example of Christ.
Calvin, J., & Beveridge, H. (1845). Institutes of the Christian religion (Vol. 2, p. 273). Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society.
The verses cited by Calvin for these sections are given below:
The Believer’s War
Here Calvin brings out another perspective of the calling to the life of a mature Christian, namely that of being at war. This presents a challenging perspective as this chapter in Calvin is about bearing our cross as part of self-denial. “War” seems incongruous with “bearing our cross” and even with “self-denial.” But as we will see, there is a direct connection. And we need to see that in bearing our cross we are quite incapable, humanly speaking, of conducting such war, as we are of submitting ourselves to self-denial. The reconciliation occurs when we realize that “we” are not alone, and the true “we” is Christ in us. The presence of the cross makes it, or should make it, clear of the necessity of that union with Christ, as we saw in our study of Chapter 1.
In Week #11, there was provided two links to messages by the late Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones from a parallel text (Romans 8) of the same concept of the inner war.
The Battle Armor of God (Ephesians 6)
In this chapter we are presented with an alternative application of the characteristic battle armor worn by the soldiers of the mighty Roman armies. The Apostle Paul is likely looking at and examining such gear directly from his place in his jail cell in Rome, and with which he is very familiar by virtue of his being confronted by it 24 hours a day, every day of the week, as he had been in one place or another since his arrest more than two year previously in the Temple area of Jerusalem (Acts 26).
Here is the text of Paul’s description and application of such armor that we, as soldiers of Christ, bear, should bear, and its purpose and use:
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
Ephesians 6:10-19 (ESV)
The ‘Armor’ of Hope
Looking ahead in Calvin’s Little Book, Chapters 4 and 5 (Beveridge, Book 3, Chapters 9 and 10) we can see that these are focused on our “Hope.” We need this reminder here, especially, in these sections of the “Bearing our Cross” chapter. So, this war is not forever, or even for very long in the true sense of time. And it is not unrelenting without consolation, encouragement, and engagement with fellow travelers, and with God Himself in prayer and primarily meditation, including meditation in the course of reading the Scriptures.
Persecution as Part of Bearing the Cross
In Sec. 9, Calvin recounts that the world’s response to anyone who “assert[s] God’s truth against Satan’s lies” including any support of the cause of “good” will “necessarily encounter the world’s displeasure and hatred.”
Such should be the Christian’s always expected condition. It is clearly in the New Testament, even by the model of Jesus Christ Himself. Texts we should consider include (all from the ESV):
John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
John 3:19-20, The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 7:7). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
Matthew 11:20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.”
Matthew 11:20-24, ESV
The above passage from Matthew 11 is an astonishing pronouncement of judgement on many levels. But as to our issue here, these three Galilean cities–Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum–where Jesus directly ministered, taught, and healed by miracles for the better part of three years, all rejected, as cities of the whole, Jesus Himself and His teaching, though there were individuals who did believe and follow Him. And we know that at the final Passover of Jesus’s earthly life, when thousands of Jewish men were in attendance as required by the Old Testament Law, the scream from the crowds to Pilate’s ears was “Crucify Him!”
John 7:1 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
John 7:1, ESV
Jesus in the above passage from John 7 appears to say that the world is unable, or not permitted by God, to hate Jesus’s disciples, but Jesus Himself only. However, the grounds of the world’s hatred of Jesus is His proclamation that its deeds are evil. What deeds? There is no evidence that such deeds were what we typically consider as the carnal matters of the flesh (sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, as they say). Rather the deeds at issue were religious ones, with the underlying false, but vehemently embraced, belief that such deeds had indeed earned personal and corporate righteousness from and of God, especially in contrast to all Gentile peoples everywhere including, especially the hated Romans. After Pentecost, the Apostles and others, down to us in our day, proclaim that same message hated still by the world, namely that it is only by Grace, and the finished work of Christ by which we are imputed as righteous before God. No form of “Law” as a principle of us gaining personal righteousness before God exists either from the Old or the New Testaments. It is by Grace, and anyone in any religious system undergirded by legal self-merit will hate such message.
24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (2 Co 11:24–27). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles
.In the above passage the reference to “my people” refers of course to the Jewish people but more specifically to The Religion Industry (TRI) institution, much as Paul in his previous life as Saul was doing on behalf of TRI. And the “Gentiles” above is in reference to The Political Institution (TPI), namely the organized government, more so than individual Gentile individuals, which, like TRI, violently opposed any movement of people or ideas that threatened its incumbent powers.
25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ac 4:25–28). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
The above passage shows the uniting of TRI with TPI to attack to extinguish (if possible) a common enemy, namely the Gospel message of Christ.
Persecution and Blessedness
Calvin cites one of the “Beatitudes” (which references the word “blessed” which begins each line of that passage) in the opening chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5. This passage is provided in the pdf below:
Highlighted are the occurrences of an important Koine Greek word translated “blessed” and the source of the term “beatitude,” namely: markarios (Strong’s G3107). This word is so important. It is the very first word of the very first Psalm (Psalm 1:1 in the LXX, Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Old Testament). There the blessedness is the keeping of the believer from the three impulses to error, which is likely a reference to the false lures of TRI. Markarios is also the word used by the Lord of Peter’s great confession in Matthew 16–“Blessed are you Simon Peter”–because God Himself had revealed Jesus’s identity to Peter.
Calvin in Sec. 8 cites the passage in 1 Peter 4:14 that claims we are blessed (and it’s the word makarios used here also) if insulted for the name of Christ, whereby “the name of” references the full identify and work of Christ, with is contained in the Gospel. (There is an ancient compromise temptation that the world sometimes tries, namely: Jesus was a good man but not all these deep spiritual stuff; CS Lewis famously refutes this by his “trilemma:” Jesus was either insane, a voice of the Devil, or God Incarnate–He left us no other alternative including that of being just “a good man.”)
But how, exactly, in the above passage from the Sermon on the Mount, is mourning and sorrow, and experiencing persecution and reviling, a “blessed” thing? The answer, at least in part, links up with Calvin’s reference in this entire Chapter 3 of the Little Book with taking up the cross. And how is that a blessing? I suggest the answer is in our previous study of the shelter provided by God away from the labyrinth of the world’s system (be it TRI or TPI or in combination). Consider again the final chart we used then as given below:
One of the most power lines of attack of the Enemy against the Gospel is to sieze control of its truth so as to reshape it such that it’s meaning is distorted, even unrecognizable. The common strategy is syncretism, meaning the joining together of two separate camps, or ideas, to find common ground, compromise. One form of such temptation was used by Satan on Jesus in the wilderness. Another form appeared with the Judaizers in Galatia. Another form appeared with the carnal practices and doctrines in Corinth. Yet another in the Epistle to the Hebrews where (particularly in Chapter 6) the Jewish people who had been following the Gospel message, were being lured back into the ancient practices of Judaism as a call ‘home.’ In the judgments pronounced on the seven churches in Asia in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, such compromise seems to be the universal ground of condemnation.
So, in such context, the absolute condemnation and rejection by the world’s system (TRI and TPI) causes us to seek and hold to the shelter of God’s provision, illustrated above, and not face the great temptation for compromising the purity of the Gospel message because no real, substantive part of such message will ever be acceptable to it.
Endurance
What then? If the world does and always will hate the message of the Gospel, and despise and persecute any proclaimers of it, how does all this play out over this age in which we live? The answer is that such will be the condition until the Lord’s Return and under which we are called to many things but including, and relevant here, our endurance. The word “endurance” only makes sense if there is something that cannot or will not change that is the cause of discomfort and sorrow.
In Section 9 Calvin addresses one of the common teaching errors, namely some form of Christian stoicism. The stoics were an ancient form of TRI, holding to a doctrine of remoteness and “indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain.” (OED definition). The essence of the teaching was not so much enduring such vicissitudes but being in an sense out of the reality of it so as to be un-affectable by misfortune.
Calvin clearly makes the case that our call to endurance is not about stoicism. Christian endurance feels the pain, the loss, that life can present especially when accompanied by injustice, specifically the suffering that can occur solely because of one’s faith God and His Word.
Note in the Beveridge translation the word “endurance” primarily used in D&P is instead expressed as “moderation,” which was more appropriate in the language of the 18th and 19th Century. Such word appears 48 times in the Beveridge translation, of Calvin’s Latin word moderatio which conveys “moderation” in the sense of “self-control,” here meaning that one does not respond to such persecution or other trials in accordance with how “self” would naturally do. The idea is restraining not one would commonly think of moderation as just being not in excess.