Calvin began the Little Book in the very opening paragraph of Ch 1 with the overarching idea of a “rule” for the Christian Life based upon certain principles. In Ch 5 he returns and completes the idea with a discussion of how we should live and journey in the present world, given all that he covered in Ch 1-4.

In Ch 5 he suggests several principles for establishing one’s boundaries on one’s life-journey: determining that which is useful / purposeful for God’s Calling on our life, and that we causes us to recognize and be grateful for, God’s multiple provisions for such journey (and used only within such bounds).

Now, how should be make specific the idea of such boundaries?

A New Testament Law?

One answer that recurs during this church age is the development of a legal code, closely aligned with the OT, including all the many rabbinic extensions such as were in place in the NT period.

This is, or quickly becomes, what is known as “legalism.” The term has a range of meaning. At one extreme it becomes a work based life that earns (as if such a thing were possible) justification in the sight of God. Basically such perspective is that all that failed in the OT did so only because it not have the example of Christ and the teaching of the NT. So, in such ‘new’ standing, man can now do what he did not, and (according to this view) perhaps could not, do under the OT ‘economy.’

Such a view is not taught in the NT as evidence by many places, including the entire Epistles to Romans, Galatians, and Hebrew, but also such passages as Col. 2 below:

⁶ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ¹⁰ and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.¹¹ In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³ And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

¹⁶ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. ¹⁸ Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, ¹⁹ and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

²⁰ If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— ²¹ “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” ²² (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? ²³ These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Colossians 2, ESV

The NT as Defining a Period Where “God is Love”

A phrase popularized especially in current times is the singular emphasis on “God is Love.” Well, indeed, God is love, which is the foundation of Grace, Redemption, Election, Propitiation, Regeneration, Forgiveness, and so forth.

But “God is Love” has become a code for license to feel, do, say, or go whatever one is inclined to be or act. Such “whatever” is then deemed to be unrestricted in any way, except as society / culture may establish (“consenting adults,” etc.) because, well, “God is Love” and so He will always support what makes us happy, or what we think will make us happy, by whatever course of life we may be inclined to follow.

Such alternate perspective to legalism, the opposite of legalism, is likewise not consistent with either the Character of God nor the teaching of the NT. God is more at a fundament level than just love: He is “Holy, Holy, Holy,” the so-called “Try-Hagion.” God cannot even look upon sin (and does not, but for the blood of the Lamb which covers such sin–but does not become the universal ointment that means sin may abound).

Consider this passage from Romans:

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹² Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ¹³ Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans Ch 6, ESV

Establishing Boundaries

Jonathan Edwards’s Example

Jonathan Edwards is noted for many things, among which are the 70 “Resolutions” he recorded for himself, beginning as a young man, to acts as recurring reminders of boundaries on his actions. After his untimely death (as we think of it) these were found among his many writings and published. They are not available in many forms, and as part of whole books expounding on Edwards’s ideas. A pdf of these resolutions organized into useful categories is below:

Key Boundary Words

Let us consider four ordinary English words relating to “boundaries” in the context of establishing such in practical matters of Christian life.

1-Barrier

The word, and idea, of “barrier” comes from the root “bar” which means something that obstructs or hinders / impedes movement, and came to mean any that has the physical shape / geometry of what might be used as a “bar.” (So we have “candy bar,” “bar codes,” and “bar graphs”).

Like the other examples below, a “barrier” (“bar”) can be a good thing–because it prevents one from wandering into harms way–or it can be a harmful thing as something that is being used to prevent me on a rightful journey.

In our context of Calvin Ch 5, we are considering the “good” barriers, just the kind one would construct as a parent of children in some area where beyond such boundary harm could occur. So such a barrier could be, for say a teenager, home by 10 p.m., because, as all parent know, nothing good happens after 10 p.m.. It could be a level of performance, say, the grade letter “C” is such a barrier, meaning that C+ is the lowest, right on the edge, acceptable level of performance and the student needs to orient their level of preparation, help-seeking accordingly.

2-Fence

The word “fence” actually comes from “defense,” which in turn comes from Latin de + fensum (fendere is the verb form), where “de” means “from, away” and “fendere” to “strike, hit, push.” So we, being lazy, dropped the “de” and made “fence” which means, then, an instrument that can push or hold back someone or something attempt to cross over.

Fences come in myriad forms. One of the most interesting is the “barbed wire” fence, invented in the form we know it today, as a double wire trend, by Joseph Glidden of DeKalb IL in a patent application October 27, 1873. This invention revolutionized the American West, as it made a very cheap, quite effective fence against range animals, particularly cattle, and the associated annual cattle drives. As someone has aptly said, barbed wire converted space to place. In our context, metaphorical strung barbed wire transform our limitless, endless wanderings to a road ahead (dromos, as discussed in the Pilgrim, Pilgrimage special topic).

3-Rail(s)

The word “rails,” as would be used of “handrails,” comes from the Latin word “regula” which means “rule, or a straight section of wood;” the verb form, regere, means to straighten and comes from the PIE root *reg- meaning “to move in a straight line.” So, one would presume that “regular troops” would be those adequately trained that they march in straight lines.

When we think of railings, such as on the side of stairs or encompass balconies, they have the special purpose of keeping one from falling over the side. What is perhaps not fully appreciated is how uncomfortable a person will be walking up or down stairs, or standing even on a large balcony, with railing. Railings provide a visual security that changes a fearful context to a comforting one.

And if one you speak to an anthropomorphic train locomotive to ask its view of the constriction provided by the twin rails confining its wheels, we would hear the relief of joy for such rails and the enduring wish that they be forever well-maintained. Rails to trains provide the essence of its being to be expressed: no rails, no train, no journey, no value.

4-Routine, Route, Rupta

Routine is made up of two parts, with the “-ine” suffix designating the idea of “according to” or “derived from.” So dropping it, “routine” becomes “rout” (and “route”).

The secret behind any “route” is the “rout” that made it possible.

Obstacles

The word “obstacle” comes from the Latin and Koine, where the prefix “ob” means “in front of” and “stacle” in Latin is from “stare” meaning “to stand.” So a principle of our legal system is “stare decisis,” which means that it stands on prior decisions, that is case law.

In the Koine the word translated “stand” comes from “histemi.”

What, then, are “obstacles?” Well in one sense they are those boundary key words considered above, as such are obstacles to departing from our road, our journey. But obstacles, and those boundary words, can also arise on and across our road to travel. In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress we see multiple occasions where Christian is confronted by such obstacles and seeks, or hopes, for some alternative way, beginning at the beginning of his journey out of the City of Destruction where he conform the “slough of despond.”

As in many other examples, we can see two different situations with obstacles. One the one hand, they are not of our doing, and not able to be removed by our doing (Paul’s thorn in the flesh), and so we must go forward under those conditions, praying for relief, and perhaps not experiencing relief.

In other situations it is ourselves who have placed those obstacles or even commonly are carrying them with us. Consider this passage from Hebrews Ch 12, coming immediately after the recounting of various heroes of the faith in Ch 11:

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.¹¹ For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

¹² Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. ¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; ¹⁶ that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Hebrews Ch 12, ESV

What Form Might Obstacles Take?

We can almost use Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress as a checklist for the kinds of obstacles a Pilgrim might face. Consider just these examples:

• The slough (or bog, quicksand) of despond (depression, discouragement)
• A false-teacher directing one off the journey’s road to some dead end (such as legalism)
• Sloth (stopping one’s journey out of sheer laziness, seeking ease in rest)
• A false ideal of some easier bypass (“Bypass Meadow,” crossing the boundary by a “style”)
• Forgetfulness, or having lost one’s way, so as to require back-tracking
• Vanity Fair (the lure of the world’s ‘treasures’ including honors as well as ‘stuff’)
• The direct combat with an / the enemy (Christian had to face the dreaded Apollyon)
• Fright is sights and sounds emanating messages of terrors both present and ahead
• Perseverance failure, even for one who has coming a long way at the very end of physical life

What can be especially tricky, and such can be the delight of the devil, is that a pilgrim’s journey has many moments of delight, joy. These are of course refreshing, restoring. But they have a consequence that the next obstacle then feels more incongruous and more painful. This seems to be the way of torture strategies are used in the world today to break people down: show compassion then extreme cruelty, back and forth, causing even more anguish, as well as being greatly disorienting.

Although our enemies within and without have their workings, we cannot forget that it is God Whose Providence controls the entire journey. So we can fully appreciate those periods of refreshment as being gifts from God, even if the enemy has some evil hope in them or by the wrongful use of them. And God uses even the adversities of obstacles purposefully, however incomprehensible them may seem to us.

Below is a list of places that Pilgrim encountered on his journey. It reflects this variation between smooth, delight travel and severe or sneaky obstacles.

Places in The Pilgrim’s Progress[edit]

A map of the places Pilgrim travels through on his progress; a fold-out map from an edition printed in England in 1778

City of Destruction, Christian’s home, representative of the world (cf. Isaiah 19:18)

Slough of Despond, the miry swamp on the way to the Wicket Gate; one of the hazards of the journey to the Celestial City. In the First Part, Christian falling into it, sank further under the weight of his sins (his burden) and his sense of their guilt.

Mount Sinai, a frightening mountain near the Village of Morality that threatens all who would go there.

Wicket Gate, the entry point of the straight and narrow way to the Celestial City. Pilgrims are required to enter by way of the Wicket Gate. Beelzebub’s castle was built not very far from the Gate.

House of the Interpreter, a type of spiritual museum to guide the pilgrims to the Celestial City, emblematic of Calvary and the tomb of Christ.

Hill Difficulty, both the hill and the road up is called “Difficulty”; it is flanked by two treacherous byways “Danger” and “Destruction.” There are three choices: Christian takes “Difficulty” (the right way), and Formalist and Hypocrisy take the two other ways, which prove to be fatal dead ends.

House Beautiful, a palace that serves as a rest stop for pilgrims to the Celestial City. It apparently sits atop the Hill Difficulty. From the House Beautiful one can see forward to the Delectable Mountains. It represents the Christian congregation, and Bunyan takes its name from a gate of the Jerusalem temple (Acts 3:2, 10).

Valley of Humiliation, the Valley on the other side of the Hill Difficulty, going down into which is said to be extremely slippery by the House Beautiful’s damsel Prudence. It is where Christian, protected by God’s Armor, meets Apollyon and they had that dreadful, long fight where Christian was victorious over his enemy by impaling Apollyon on his Sword of the Spirit (Word of God) which caused the Foul Fiend to fly away. Apollyon met Christian in the place known as “Forgetful Green.” This Valley had been a delight to the “Lord of the Hill”, Jesus Christ, in his “state of humiliation.”

Valley of the Shadow of Death, a treacherous, devilish Valley filled with demons, dragons, fiends, satyrs, goblins, hobgoblins, monsters, creatures from the bottomless pit, beasts from the mouth of Hell, darkness, terror, and horror with a quicksand bog on one side and a deep chasm/ditch on the other side of the King’s Highway going through it (cf. Psalm 23:4).

Gaius’ Inn, a rest stop in the Second Part of the Pilgrim’s Progress.

Vanity Fair, a city through which the King’s Highway passes and the yearlong Fair that is held there.

Plain Ease, a pleasant area traversed by the pilgrims.

Hill Lucre, location of a reputed silver mine that proves to be the place where By-Ends and his companions are lost.

The Pillar of Salt, which was Lot’s wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The pilgrim’s note that its location near the Hill Lucre is a fitting warning to those who are tempted by Demas to go into the Lucre silver mine.

River of God or River of the Water of Life, a place of solace for the pilgrims. It flows through a meadow, green all year long and filled with lush fruit trees. In the Second Part the Good Shepherd is found there to whom Christiana’s grandchildren are entrusted.

By-Path Meadow, the place leading to the grounds of Doubting Castle.

Doubting Castle, the home of Giant Despair and his Giantess wife, Diffidence; only one key could open its doors and gates, the key Promise.

The Delectable Mountains, known as “Immanuel’s Land.” Lush country from whose heights one can see many delights and curiosities. It is inhabited by sheep and their shepherds, and from Mount Clear one can see the Celestial City.

The Enchanted Ground, an area through which the King’s Highway passes that has air that makes pilgrims want to stop to sleep. If one goes to sleep in this place, one never wakes up. The shepherds of the Delectable Mountains warn pilgrims about this.

 The Land of Beulah, a lush garden area just this side of the River of Death.

The River of Death, the dreadful river that surrounds Mount Zion, deeper or shallower depending on the faith of the one traversing it.

The Celestial City, the “Desired Country” of pilgrims, heaven, the dwelling place of the “Lord of the Hill”, God. It is situated on Mount Zion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress

The Obstacles of Our Own Nature

Finally, let us return to the text of Hebrews 12 quoted above to consider the obstacle(s) we bring with and upon ourselves. Here is Heb. 12:1 and the first part of vs. 2 arranged to highlight four actions (bold font) as to four objects (underlined):

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also
(a) lay aside every weight, and
(b) [lay aside also every] sin which clings so closely, and 
(c) let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 
(d) looking to Jesus,

Heb. 12:1, 2a (ESV, highlights mine)

We could memorialize the above by “3 E’s and 1 L:” Every, Every, Endurance, and Looking. Below is a ‘deep dive’ form of this text, following the similar format as given previously in such charts: