This is Why I Read Calvin: He Points Me to Jesus

CalvinThis, this is Gospel-gold. It doesn’t get better than this:

“We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ [Acts 4:12]. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is “of him” [1 Cor 1:30]. If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects [Heb 2:17] that he might learn to feel our pain [compare Heb 5:2]. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion: if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross [Gal 3:13]; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.”

-John Calvin Institutes 2.16.19

Passages like this make me mourn for those who refuse to read Calvin because of the bad taste some Youtube video, or jerky Calvinist, left in their mouth. Please don’t rob yourself of the spiritual riches to be found as Calvin points you to Christ in passage after passage.

Soli Deo Gloria

6 thoughts on “This is Why I Read Calvin: He Points Me to Jesus

  1. Could not agree more. It’s time to reclaim up the term “Calvinist” as a good thing. Or, as Bono so famously quipped once on “Helter Skelter” [paraphrase] “This is a term/way of understanding the whole of Scripture that hyper-Cals and misrepresenters stole from John Calvin – tonight, we’re stealing it back.”

  2. Pingback: And This is Why I Read Bavinck: Jesus–the Miracle of History | Reformedish
  3. Pingback: Articles of The Week (2/27-3/5) | The Odd Theologian

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