Calvin and Courage - Under The cross
By
J. E. Hazlett Lynch
Copyright 2012 J. E. Hazlett Lynch
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CALVIN and COURAGE: Under the Cross
by
J. E. Hazlett Lynch
[This book is the substance of a lecture delivered by Dr Lynch at the Amyraldian Association's Annual Conference at Attleborough, Norfolk, in which the 500th anniversary of the birth of Genevan Reformer, John Calvin (1509-1564) was marked by a series of lectures on various aspect of Calvin's thought.]
For this final session, there’s one thing I want you to believe and experience, and that is the wonderful goodness and kindness of God to His children. I want you to leave this conference so encouraged that you will believe in your hearts that with Christ you can face anything. I want you to be encouraged by the truth of God, which tells us that whatever we may be called upon to go through for His Name’s sake, He will enable us to do it. I want the very thought of God to fill your entire being, so that as you leave this conference, you will dare to be a Daniel and to stand alone for the truth of the Gospel, to suffer for it, and even to die for it. I want you to leave with your hearts and minds filled to overflowing with love for our great Saviour. We’ve been thinking about Calvin throughout this conference, and that’s good; but I don’t just want you to think of Calvin, but of Calvin’s glorious Saviour.
So, I'd like turn your attention initially to 1st Peter 1, written by the apostle Peter to the persecuted believers scattered throughout Asia Minor. Peter’s letter is written to the ‘strangers,’ ‘sojourners,’ ‘pilgrims,’ in Asia Minor, believers who had been forced to leave their homeland and go elsewhere because of intense persecution for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They were in the world, but they did not belong to it. They were aliens, foreigners, displaced people, suspects, people who did not belong. They were different, they did not fit in, they stood out like a sore thumb; and they were hated because they were different. They did not belong to this world, but they belonged to Christ - Christians.
The wise apostolic pastor was acutely aware of the urgent need of persecuted believers - the multiplication of grace, v.2, etc. He seems to be saying that in these dire situations, grace simplicitor is insufficient. The greater the suffering, the more grace is needed. Persecution demands grace and persecution unto death requires enormous supplies of grace, and abundant mercy. Indeed persecution does something to God – it gives Him the opportunity to display the magnificence and splendour of His grace. The greater the need, the greater the grace that is shown. And God gives grace in that proportion.
In 1 Peter 1, the apostle, for the comfort and encouragement of the “pilgrims,” takes them back to first principles - back to the sovereign God, Whose purposes of salvation for them are being carried out despite their unfavourable circumstances, back to the redemption purchased by Christ for them, vs.18,19, back to the precious blood of Christ which bought that redemption, v.19. He takes them to real time history, to things that really happened, to historical events that Peter and others witnessed. God had acted in history for the salvation of His people – it was not a figment of their imaginations; this really did happen, this is real. Christ died for them, v.19. He died, shedding His precious blood, died “as a lamb without blemish and without spot,” the perfect “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” Jn.1:29. Therefore they were being assured by Peter that they were included in that death, and having trusted in the crucified Christ, they had nothing but shadows to fear. Christ died for them – an historical reality and verity. He takes them back to the Cross.
But further, Christ was raised again for them and He received glory from this same God, v.21. And having trusted in the risen Christ, their “faith and hope are in God,” v.21. ‘What you are,’ says Peter in effect, ‘you are because of Who God is, and what God has done for you in Christ. Your entire standing is the result of the gracious intervention of God in your lives, and you are safe in Christ. This is historical reality, and this resurrection of Christ did happen, because I saw Him afterwards, I spoke to Him, and He made me my breakfast,’ Peter assures them. ‘Your faith has the strongest possible basis.’ He takes them back to the empty tomb.
But as if that is not enough, Peter takes them to the fact that something absolutely revolutionary has happened to them, a major miracle – they have been born again, v.3. How did they come to be born again? What took place? Well, God came upon them in the secret work of the sovereign Holy Spirit; He renewed their hearts and give them a completely new disposition, one that impelled them towards holiness. He overcame the spiritual death in which they found themselves, and gave them new life, and now it’s as if they have been born all over again from above. They were once children of wrath, but now they are the children of God. If they had been born naturally as the children of God, they would not have needed, nor received, this new supernatural birth. This is the work of God’s sovereign Holy Spirit. God did something revolutionary in them, something that changed them, and that made them new men.
And what did God’s Spirit use to bring you to the new birth? The imperishable Word of God, v.23. ‘You were delivered for this present evil age, and brought into the Kingdom of Christ,’ he tells them. ‘God has done something spectacular in you that has made you what you now are, has given you what you never had before, and is taking you to where you would not have gone before. You are what and where you are because of God’s sovereign, merciful and gracious work for you and in you,’ v.3.
You see how Peter, for their encouragement, holds before them the sovereign work of God, God’s mysterious work in their very souls, the divine initiative in showing them His mercy. He says to them in reality, ‘This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.’
He also reminds them that they are to receive an inheritance, v.4. This also is a gracious gift/reward from God for the believer, held out to us in the Word of God. Whatever the world might do to believers, who are elect and begotten, can say with conviction, “I’m a rich man – God Himself has named me His beneficiary.” Again, the fact that we have been elected by God is not the point of arrival, but the starting point, the start of the journey with God, a life that has its entire future before us, all the experiences – good and bad – on the road to entering fully into our inheritance. And what characterises this inheritance is that it is incorruptible, undefiled and unfading, v.4. This inheritance is eternal, and is being”reserved in heaven for you.” That means that it is kept for them “beyond the reach of danger,” says Calvin. He adds,
‘If it were not in God’s hands, it would be exposed to endless dangers. If it were in this world, how could we regard it without qualms amidst so many changes? In order, therefore, to free us from all fear, he maintains that our salvation is placed in safety beyond the harms which Satan can do.”
Alan Stibbs unpacks this idea very well, when he says that the
‘three negative compounds are strung together to indicate that, unlike any inheritance in this world, it is not exposed to destruction or defilement from outside, or decay from inside. It cannot, like the earthly Canaan, be ravaged or polluted (see Lev. xvii. 27); nor will it ever, like earthly possessions, wear out or waste away.’
This inheritance is something that eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. It is about glory, honour and immortality for those who love Christ – and these are the most desirable things that any Christian can want. These things represent the very pinnacle of Christian experience and destiny, the things every Christian desires – or ought to desire - the highest point imaginable. This is the heavenly reward that God will confer on His friends, His children. And please note this: this reward stands opposed to contempt, poverty and want among men. “Here, they are DESPISED by men; there, they shall be HONOURED by God.” The difference between how men treat God’s children/servants and how the world does, couldn’t be greater.
Now place yourself in the situation of the persecuted believers in Asia Minor, if you can, and allow this truth to permeate your mind and fill your heart. Whatever is happening to you, or taking place around you, God is keeping your eternal inheritance safe for you, out of the reach of all dangers. It is there waiting for you to enjoy. And what is that inheritance? Stibbs so rightly reminds us that, ultimately, that inheritance is God Himself, and His blessed Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Their crowning satisfaction is in Him Who sits at the right hand of God. They will behold His beauty, see His splendour and glory and sheer magnificence, meditate on His sweetness, bow down before His incomparable majesty, and cast their crowns before His feet. Christ will be their all-in-all, the altogether lovely One, the Fairest of ten thousand to their souls, the One their hearts desire above all else. They will be ‘lost in love, wonder and in praise’ at the sight of the One Who loved them and gave Himself for them.
Does that not stir your soul to desire Christ above all else? Does that truth not warm the cockles of your heart? Do you feel the closeness of our blessed Saviour as you hear these uplifting truths? Of course they do. This is God ministering to your souls this very day, caring for you, loving you.
See the personal aspect of all this – all that Peter has said would be of little worth to them if it had they not personally appropriated it. This is being kept “for you.” It is out of reach of any danger, is reserved in heaven, and is being kept “for you” personally. And you will get it! There is no doubt about it whatsoever. God’s honour is at stake if this does not happen.
How can Peter say this? He can say this because they are being”kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” v.5. We are being kept safe in this world, and our inheritance is being kept safe for us in Heaven. In his commentary on Peter’s letters, we can see the pastoral concern of Calvin for persecuted brethren. He knows well the doubts that often fill the human heart, our human frailty.
So, to address this matter, he raises a theoretical objection.
What help is it to us that our salvation is laid up in heaven, when we are tossed here and there in this world as in a stormy sea? What help is it to us that our salvation is secured in a quiet harbour, when we are driven to and fro among a thousand shipwrecks?’
Calvin, never one to give simplistic answers to profoundly baffling personal questions, says that “though we are exposed to dangers of the world we are yet kept by faith, and that though we are thus near to death we are yet safe under the guardianship of faith.”