Righteousness

⁸More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, ⁹and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
Philippians 3:8-9 (NASB)

You see here both a comparison of opposites and an indication that a man who wishes to obtain Christ's righteousness must abandon his own righteousness...If by establishing our own righteousness we shake off the righteousness of God, to attain the latter we must indeed completely do away with the former.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.11.13

Christ alone. He is the only way. I cannot do it. My own righteousness is self righteousness and it falls woefully short of where I need to be, where only He can bring me.

God knew it (that is why He sent His Son), Calvin learned it (that is why he wrote about it), I need to accept it as a fact in my life and the model for my behavior.

Forget Not The Present

I wrote yesterday about not getting too hung up in current events. The operative word is too. You cannot ignore this world either.

Thus Paul rightly persuades us to use this world as if not using it; and to buy goods with the same attitude as one sells them...Let this be our principle: that the use of God's gifts is not wrongly directed when it is referred to that end to which the Author himself created and destined them for us, since he created them for our good, not for our ruin.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.10.1-2

To ignore what God has given us to work with in the world is almost as bad as ignoring God. Ignoring the world is as bad as obsessing about it. What God wants for us is focus and balance: focus on Him, balance in our doing His will in this world while we wait for Him to bring us to the next.

¹⁹"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

²⁰teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Matthew 28:19-20 (NASB)

You cannot fulfill the Great Commission if you ignore the world; nor can you do it if you obsess on it.

So it is all about balance with the proper focus. Look at the Holy Trinity and how there is perfect balance and focus within that divine relationship.

Taking the steps we can take. Eyes on Jesus, listening to His words, hearing and seeing the world as He did. Going back to the future but not forgetting the present. And how can we do that?

⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8 (NASB)

Balance and focus.

Back to the Future

Indeed, there is no middle ground between these two: either the world must become worthless to us or hold us bound by intemperate love of it. Accordingly, if we have any concern for eternity, we must strive diligently to strike off these evil fetters.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.9.2

I found this a good reminder. Whenever we get too hung up in current events, we need to remember that this is all reserved for fire (2 Peter 3:7), that all this will flee (Revelation 20:11). While we cannot ignore our present circumstances, we cannot obsess on them.

God is sovereign, He is in control.

It is all going according to plan.

Just because you do not like it, doesn't mean it isn't.

Time for me to get back to the future and give Him thanks.

Proud Kings

For, such is the blindness with which we all rush into self-love that each one of us seems to himself to have just cause to be proud of himself and to despise all others in comparison...The very vices that infest us we take pains to hide from others, while we natter ourselves with the pretense that they are slight and insignificant, and even sometimes embrace them as virtues. If others manifest the same endowments we admire in ourselves, or even superior ones, we spitefully belittle and revile these gifts in order to avoid yielding place to such persons...Thus, each individual, by flattering himself, bears a kind of kingdom in his breast... Let us, then, unremittingly examining our faults, call ourselves back to humility... Now, in seeking to benefit one's neighbor, how difficult it is to do one's duty! Unless you give up all thought of self and, so to speak, get out of yourself, you will accomplish nothing here.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.7.4-5

We are all proud kings within our own bodies, we are all blind to our own faults, the sharper we see them in others, the blinder we are to them in us. Doesn't matter where we are in life, we struggle with our own pride.

I can imagine how silly I would look trying to defend my prideful actions before the divine judge. It cannot be done. His will be done. And He does not wish that we act in self pride but in service to others, to the throne, to His glory.

Today, think about a criticism you recently had of another, and search inside. The more vehement the criticism, the more deeply embedded within you is the same. We do not like what is in us, but it is much easier to criticize others. The Triune God has inexhaustible love resident within the Trinity, and as a result, endless love for us.

Think about that before you step in front of the divine judge to hear about your life. We will all squirm, but how much?

Dedication

Yet the first thing we realize when we do come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatsoever to our natural desires. We have the idea that we can dedicate our gifts to God. However, you cannot dedicate what is not yours. There is actually only one thing you can dedicate to God, and that is your right to yourself...A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Never try to make your experience a principle for others, but allow God to be as creative and original with others as He is with you.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: June 13 Devotional

You cannot give what you do not have. yesterday I wrote about we are not our own, talking about Calvin writing in the Institutes. Today it is Chambers. Two very different people bringing very similar thoughts into my head. I have to think about this, I hear the voice of God in my ears, now I need to listen. Since we are His and not our own, we cannot "dedicate" ourselves to Him. We can only pray that He pray that He takes us and allows us to discern His will for us. From that comes the joy that lasts.

It is an intensely personal experience between you and God; it is not the same for two people. Understanding that, and being content with His will for you, without regard for His will for another, is a sign of a high level of christian maturity. God knows what is best for you, stop looking around and look to Him for that answer.

Do not be so proud as to think you can dedicate yourself, offer yourself to God. Be so humble as to beg Him to take you.

We Are Not Our Own

We are not our own: let not our reason nor our will, therefore, sway our plans and deeds. We are not our own: let us therefore not set it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us according to the flesh. We are not our own: in so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours. Conversely, we are God's: let us therefore live for him and die for him. We are God's: let his wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions. We are God's: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal...Let this therefore be the first step, that a man depart from himself in order that he may apply the whole force of his ability in the service of the Lord...From this also follows this second point: that we seek not the things that are ours but those which are of the Lord's will and will serve to advance his glory.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.7.1-2

If we are not our own but God's, what Calvin notes that we are to do should be easy for us: Serve the Lord and advance His glory; but our wishes, wants and desires in the back seat. The fact that we struggle with this is an indication that the sinful self has not let go; pride and arrogance still struggle for dominance in a life which the heart and head knows belongs to God; but the flesh fights it still.

The fact is the flesh may never let fully go; the fact is the fight may continue until your last breath here on this earth. If that is true, just remember, we are not our own but His:

²¹They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."
Matthew 22:21 (NASB)

We need to keep that in mind. Be in the world, not of it. Seek the Lord not praise of others. Strive to put God first in your life, and He will put your life in the order it should be in.

We are not our own. That is a good thing, for we surely make a mess of our own when left to our own.

Love of Righteousness

Now this Scriptural instruction of which we speak has two main aspects. The first is that the love of righteousness, to which we are otherwise not at all inclined by nature, may be instilled and established in our hearts; the second, that a rule be set forth for us that does not let us wander about in our zeal for righteousness.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.6.2

I do not insist that the moral life of a Christian man breathe nothing but the very gospel, yet this ought to be desired, and we must strive toward it. But I do not so strictly demand evangelical perfection that I would not acknowledge as a Christian one who has not yet attained it. For thus all would be excluded from the church, since no one is found who is not far removed from it, while many have advanced a little toward it whom it would nevertheless be unjust to cast away.
John Calvin - Institutes of The Christian Religion: 3.6.5

Calvin is talking here of righteousness, being acceptable in the eyes of God. He is not talking about self-righteousness, which is being smug and acceptable only to yourself. Calvin is also not calling for perfection, he is calling for a love of God and the righteousness of God:

⁷For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness;
The upright will behold His face.
Psalm 11:7 (NASB)

The call to righteousness is because of His love for it and for us. It is in His never changing character to be righteous, one of His attributes:

²⁴"But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24 (NASB)

We are called to it because He is holy and just and righteous. Love righteousness but know you will never perfect it, seek righteousness but know you will never have it fully embrace you in this world. For you and I are works in progess in this world:

⁶For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until ^(A)the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:6 (NASB)

Be Not An Example To Others

There is another kind of "fear and trembling" [Phil. 2:12], one that, so far from diminishing the assurance of faith, the more firmly establishes it. This happens when believers, considering that the examples of divine wrath executed upon the ungodly as warnings to them, take special care not to provoke God's wrath against them by the same offenses; or, when inwardly contemplating their own misery, learn to depend wholly upon the Lord, without whom they see themselves more unstable and fleeting than any wind.
John Calvin - The Institutes of The Christian Religion 3.2.22

This is one example you do not want to be. And it is the easiest for any of us to be. Not the good, the bad and the ugly. The before picture. The sinner. The proud and self sufficient. If God chose any of us to be an example of divine wrath, would we have a shred of a basis to complain?

No.

Because we are all that He calls us in that circumstance. That there are not more examples of divine wrath and less of divine mercy is only due to one thing.

Divine grace.

We could, I could, easily be this example. Oh, that a merciful Lord and Savior does not require that, but takes it on Himself.

There are many examples to be in life, let's all try harder not to be this one.

Faith and Doubt

...Surely, while we teach that faith ought to be certain and assured, we cannot imagine any certainty that is not tinged with doubt, or any assurance that is not assailed by some anxiety...Scripture sets forth no more illustrious or memorable example of faith than in David, especially if you look at the whole course of his life. Yet with innumerable complaints he declares how unquiet his mind always was...
John Calvin - The Institutes of The Christian Religion 3.2.17

Do you ever struggle with doubt, and wonder about your faith?

You are not alone. King David, described by Scripture as a man after God's own heart, struggled with doubt. He struggled with sin, which had a lot to do with his doubt. Knowing his own imperfections, his own sinfulness, how could he not doubt his faith. And maybe, in his darkest thoughts, how could he not doubt God?

We are born to struggle with our sin nature and I have to look at that as a blessing. We can only be saved by Jesus, by our faith and trust which we place in him. If we did not struggle with sin, would we place that faith, or just give in to the nature we are born with. To me, the struggle places us on the roadside on the way to salvation, and it is Jesus who gives us the ride home.

Is it OK to doubt? Not really, we are called to faith and trust in Jesus.

Is it human to doubt? Absolutely, it is in our nature to do so.

Thank you Lord for the grace, mercy and love you show this natural doubter.

To Be With Him

We must now examine this question. How do we receive those benefits, which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son-not for Christ's own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us.
John Calvin - The Institutes of The Christian Religion 3.1.1

Jesus must be in us for us to fully experience what He has to offer. What that is quite frankly, is incomprehensible to us as finite beings, that is where the faith and trust in Him comes in. But there is such richness and joy, eternal joy, awaiting those who allow Jesus to step into their life, into their very core.

He is waiting patiently, lovingly. But He will not wait forever. One day He will come back. One day you will leave this earth and lose the opportunity to come to him anymore.

No one but God knows either of those days, but they are both coming. You can run from Christ in your heart and mind but not from that final day.

But with Him within you boith can be faced with calm, with peace and yes with the joy of being with the Lord.

The Calling In

Here is a passage from Calvin I find myself disagreeing with as I work through " The Institutes of the Christian Religion this year:

"The calling of the Gentiles, therefore, is a notable mark of the excellence of the New Testament over the Old. Indeed, this had been attested before by many very clear utterances of the prophets, but in such a way that its fulfillment was postponed until the Kingdom of the
Messiah. Even Christ at the beginning of his preaching made no immediate progress toward it...For it seemed completely unreasonable that the Lord, who for so many ages had singled out Israel from all other nations, should suddenly change his plan and abandon that choice. Prophecies had indeed foretold this. But men could not heed these prophecies without being startled by the newness of the thing that met their eyes...
John Calvin - The Institutes of the Christian Religion: 2.11.12

If I were to find the NT superior to the OT, it would be because Jesus is clearly talked about here: His life, His ministry, His teachings. But the Bible is the Bible and it is all superior to any other book, because it is inspired, written by God through the agency of His personally selected human authors.

God's plan is fulfilled perfectly through Jesus. The nation of Israel was not the light to the world, the nation of priests that God called them to be. They fell short because we are human. The Gentiles, called in by the ministry of Christ, fall short because we are human. Jesus succeeded because He is God, who came to earth as God incarnate. The agency of people will always be inadequate to fulfill the agency of the divine unless the divine steps in and brings it there. God designed it the way he did because it was the way to get us where we are.

To me, there is no superiority of one part of the Bible over another, just as there is no superiority of one type of people over another. The Bible is superior because it is the Word of God.

Any superiority I have is in Christ, for He has lifted me up where I could not go to on my own.

Future Blessedness

Finally, it is clearly established that in all their efforts in this
life they set before themselves the blessedness of the future life. If
Jacob was not intent upon a higher blessing, why did he desire so much
and seek at such great risk the right of the first-born, which was to
procure him exile and almost disinheritance, but bring no good at all?
John Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion: 2.10.14

The passage here is dealing the faith of Isaac and Jacob, two of the Old Testament patriarchs. The point is that they looked to the future for their blessings, indeed, possibly they looked beyond life on this earth.

As we struggle through the world today, the issues our country is facing, economic or political, or even our very physical safety, take comfort from these three facts:

• Our Lord is sovereign.
• He has promised us blessings.
• He is faithful to His Word.

We will get our blessings, so do not obsess on the problems of the world, but focus on He who is our King.

A Day of Rest

Do we really take a day of rest one day a week? Are we really engaging in a Sabbath rest (I do not mean a Saturday or a Sunday, I mean rest in the Lord). Are we engaging what He desires, what He commanded, what He laid out for our good, not His own?

We must be wholly at rest that God may work in us; we must yield our will; we must resign our heart; we must give up all our fleshly desires. In short, we must rest from all activities of our own contriving so that, having God working in us, we may repose in him...

John Calvin Institutes Of The Christian Religion 2.8.29

The Lord wants me (and you) to enter His rest. Think of the peace and calm, the serene comfort of resting in the Lord, knowing in His sovereign will, all is under His command. Can anything activity be better than that rest? Why do we go to great lengths to avoid it?

As a church, we have pretty much chosen the Lord's Day, Sunday, as the day of rest, of ceasing of normal activities, to spend time with the Lord. I say pretty much, because some follow the Saturday sabbath. I am not looking to debate it, but you can disagree with me.

However, the ancients did not substitute the Lord's Day (as we call it) for the Sabbath without careful discrimination. The purpose and fulfillment of that true rest, represented by the ancient Sabbath, lies in the Lord's resurrection. Hence, by the very day that brought the shadows to an end, Christians are warned not to cling to the shadow rite.

John Calvin Institutes Of The Christian Religion 2.8.34

Enter His rest, it is what He truly desires for us.

¹Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

²For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,
"AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST,"
although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Hebrews 4:1-3 (NASB)

Necessary Volunteerism

Unless I am mistaken, we have sufficiently proved that man is so held captive by the yoke of sin that he can of his own nature neither aspire to good through resolve nor struggle after it through effort. Besides, we posited a distinction between compulsion and necessity from which it appears that man, while he sins of necessity, yet sins no less voluntarily.
John Calvin - The Institutes of the Christian Religion 2.4.1

We are captive to sin and can only break free by putting our faith in Jesus as Savior (and hopefully as Lord of our lives as well). I truly believe that.

We are sinful by nature and want to sin deep at our core. I truly believe that.

So we sin by necessity of our captivity and voluntarily by our nature. I hate it when Calvin nails it dwon so firmly that I can only struggle like a butterfly pinned in someone's collection.

It is thinking along these lines that drives me back to Christ each and every day to seek His strength in overcoming what I am and what I am helpless to combat without my Lord and General.

I know many do not like Calvin and I can understand that getting hammered like this day after day as you read him is not most folks idea of fun. But the nuggets of truth buried herein, mined out and brought to the light of your day, can make you reflect on who you are, and more importantly who Jesus wants to be for you. Your Savior, your Lord, the General to lead you into battle against your sinful self.

Sin: Which Way Do You Spiral?

The chief point of this distinction, then, must be that man, as he was corrupted by the Fall, sinned willingly, not unwillingly or by compulsion; by the most eager inclination of his heart, not by forced compulsion; by the prompting of his own lust, not by compulsion from without. Yet so depraved is his nature that he can be moved or impelled only to evil. But if this is true, then it is clearly expressed that man is surely subject to the necessity of sinning.
John Calvin - The Institutes of the Christian Religion 2.3.5

Calvin's point is clear, we have no choice but to sin, it is our nature to do so. You may not always agree with Calvin, you may not even like him. But it is hard to argue as you look at the world, as you look at your own life, that we are sinful by nature and need to be saved.

As we have no choice but to sin, we have no choice as to how to be saved form sin. It is only through Jesus, through trust and faith in Him that you can be saved from the inevitability of your sin.

I think that is hard to accept because in our pride we do not like to admit we are helpless in anything, that there is something that is totally beyond our control. In essence, that is the result of the very sin nature that is embedded into our very core.

A never ending spiral, or so it would seem. You can either spiral down into your sin, getting ever deeper into it for i think there is truly no bottom to the depths one can sin to. Our you can spiral up and out to the Lord. The first way you can go it alone, the second you need to ask God for help.

He is calling, answer. His Spirit is willing, is yours?

Do Not Go It Alone

As we move through life seeking out God, as we look to accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord of our life, we must realize it is not a journey we can go alone:

It therefore remains for us to understand that the way to the Kingdom of God is open only to him whose mind has been made new by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion 2.2.20

Even after we have accepted Jesus, the fruit we exhibit in our lives, the fruit of the Spirit comes from without us and is instilled in us:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)

We are the vessel, those cracked earthenware bowls that hold that sweet and life affirming fruit that is so precious and dear in our life for it presages the life that is to come.

"Fruit is the overflow of life in the root through the branch"
Dwight Pentecost - Spring 2009 Class Notes

Do not go it alone, do not even try, but seek out the Lord and embrace the Spirit that will indwell you when you do.

Trying to Keep Up

Calvin in describing work of authors in trying to understand the ways of God compared to the ways of man, of using that which is not of God to explain Him wrote the following speaking of the good that can come of earthly writings:

Whenever we come upon these matters in secular writers, let that admirable light of truth shining in them teach us that the mind of man, though fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God's excellent gifts. John Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion: 2:2:15

Or put another way:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 (NASB)

Even Calvin cannot keep up with God. But it is good that he, and we try every day.

Bible Versions

I got a very clear lesson the other day in why it is important in studying the Bible to consider reference to more than the one version you normally read or study from (and those may be two different versions as reading and studying the Bible are two different things in my mind. But that is another story for another day). The lesson came not from studying the Bibke but from reading through John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. It was a sentence the the second book, second chapter, first section. One sentence struck me as I read:

"Also, it is no less to our advantage than pertinent to God's glory that we be deprived of all credit for our wisdom and virtue."

You are probably saying, huh? I have a confession, the above snippet comes from the website above. I have actually been reading along in a copy of the Institutes that I have had on my shelf for a copy of years but never got around to study. (My friend David at A Boomer in the Pew turned me on to working through the Institutes in a one year reading plan. He is doing a much better job of working through it and mining out meaning and application. Follow him to keep up on the book, not me). I seem to do much better reading from an actual book than on the computer screen, retaining and comprehending better. Does not bode well for me in the future on the on line world, but there it is. I have to have a book in my hand and not on my screen.

So what did I read? The following:

"Not having glorified him by the acknowledgment of his blessings, now, at least, he ought to glorify him by the confession of his poverty. In truth, it is no less useful for us to renounce all the praise of wisdom and virtue, than to aim at the glory of God."

Maybe it is just me, but that hits me completely differently. And I checked the location in the two texts. It is the same thought even if not the same sentence.

My point is that in studying something as deep as Calvin, the interpretation used can impact your understanding. In studying the Bible, which is so deep as to make Calvin seem the shallow end of the pool compared to the vastness of the ocean, how an interpretation translates even as much as just a word can vastly alter your comprehension and understanding.

"Dig in to the Word, but you may need to keep several shovels close at hand."

That isn't from Calvin. That's from me.

Forgiving Others

I found this excerpt in yesterday's reading of The Institutes of The Christian Religion by John Calvin very interesting:

To sum this up: when we are unjustly wounded by men, let us overlook their wickedness (which would but worsen our pain and sharpen our minds to revenge), remember to mount up to God, and learn to believe for certain that whatever our enemy has wickedly committed against us was permitted and sent by God's just dispensation.

Paul, to restrain us from retaliation for injuries, wisely points out that our struggle "is not with flesh and blood" [Ephesians 6:12], but with our spiritual enemy the devil [Ephesians 6:11], in order that we may prepare ourselves for the combat. Yet a most useful admonition to still all impulses to wrath is that God arms both the devil and all the wicked for the conflict, and sits as a judge of the games to exercise our
patience.
The Institutes of The Christian Religion - 1.17.8

Forgiving our fellow sinners because of what drives them to their sin. Do not get angry with others, but do forgive them because they are driven in their sin, helpless against it without the saving might of Jesus. I never looked at Paul's words as not only a warning against the evil forces of the spiritual realm but also as a plea to forgive those unfortunate souls who struggle as much as you or I do.

We are not to use it as an excuse to see, but it is a reason why we do. Forgiveness through that knowledge should flow easier and with more grace. The ability to graciously receive forgiveness from others should flow as well.

And I will try never to say "The devil made me do it".

A Little More Light

I blogged yesterday on a passage out of Rainsford.Then I read this excerpt from Calvin:

In the same vein is that saying of Solomon, "The poor man and the usurer meet together; God illumines the eyes of both" [Prov. 29:13; cf. ch. 22:2]. He points out that, even though the rich are mingled with the poor in the world, while to each his condition is divinely assigned, God, who lights all men, is not at all blind.
Institutes of the Christian Religion 1:16.6

God is not blinded by the light which He illuminates us in our sin and shortcomings. We may be blind in our darkness, by the light that God shines upon us lays that out in the open for us to see.

No matter how dark we believe, the Lord sees with total clarity. Nothing is hidden from him:

¹¹If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,"
¹²Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.
Psalm 139:11-12 (NASB)

That we let Him lead us, that we see through His sight. There is light all around us, even in our darkest thoughts or despair. I seem to keep stumbling into it and over it. I need to keep embracing it as it encourages and emboldens me.