March 13, 2009

This week I have been in Greenville, South Carolina,
at Greenville Theological Seminary, attending a
conference there on the life and theology of John
Calvin. This year marks the 500th anniversary of the
great reformer’s birth in 1509, and across the world,
literally, Christians are celebrating God’s goodness
to His church and world through this man and his
legacy. I am writing this on Monday, before I leave;
Lord willing I will be able to tell you more about
what I learned at the conference itself. But for now,
allow me to share with you a little bit about his life.

Calvin was born on July 10, 1509, in Noyon,
France. His mother died 3 years after he was born,
and his father was a lawyer and financial agent in the
Roman church. Calvin went to the University of
Paris in 1523 at the age of 14, and transferred to the
University of Orleans in 1528. His father had been
excommunicated by the church, and urged his son to
become a lawyer rather than a preacher. He listened
to his dad, and in 1532 he published a brilliant legal
commentary on Senaca’s On Mercy.

God had other plans for Calvin, however.
Throughout the early days of his life, Luther’s ideas
were making their way into France, and the French
government was persecuting Lutherans. The German
reformer was a generation ahead of Calvin
(recall that Luther had hung his 95 Theses on Oct.
31, 1517, when Calvin was eight years old). We
don’t know exactly when Calvin was converted, but
his first formal association with Reformation teaching
came when his friend Nicolas Cop preached an
anti-Romanist sermon in 1533 at the University of
Paris. In the coming months Calvin had to flee
France for Switzerland. On his way, he decided to
write the Institutes of the Christian Religion, his greatest
work, to give a positive statement of the biblical
faith, and to defend Reformed theology to King Francis,
who had begun persecuting Reformed believers.
It was published in 1536, when Calvin was only 27
years old. Calvin eventually produced five editions of
the Institutes, the final being written in 1559.

In 1536, Calvin was on his way to Strasbourg, and
had to take a detour in Geneva. His life would never
be the same. A Reformed pastor, William Farel, persuaded
Calvin to stay in Geneva and become the pastor
of the church there. Calvin attempted to bring
theological, ecclesiastical, and moral order to the city,
but the citizens ended up driving him out of town in
1538. He was asked to return in 1540, the same year
he married his wife Idelette. Unfortunately, she and
their three children all died by 1549. Calvin himself
died in Geneva in 1564.

His legacy was enormous, not only in Geneva, but
across Europe, as Protestants driven out of France,
England, Scotland, and the Netherlands came to Geneva
to take refuge and to learn from Calvin. They
returned to their countries thoroughly Reformed.
Through an enormous number of personal letters he
was also able to influence the church far and wide,
and his published commentaries and sermons spread
his teaching even further. As Presbyterians, we trace
our theological heritage to Calvin through John Knox,
the Scottish Reformer who pastored English refugees
in Geneva from 1556-1559. One of the main slogans
of the Reformation is Post tenebras lux – “after darkness,
light” – and the life and ministry of John Calvin
was one of the main means that God used to bring
the light of His truth back into the church and the
world. Calvin’s vision of a sovereign, gracious God for
whom we live in every area of life has been an encouragement
and spark to the church ever since he died.

If you want to read Calvin for yourself, I encourage
you to jump right into the Institutes themselves. There
are some highlights on Page One (if you buy the Institutes,
make sure you get the edition edited by Battles,
not Beveridge). You can join us every Monday at noon
at Alexis and Beth Pope’s house as we read through
them together. More to come next newsletter!

On another note, I encourage you to visit our
church’s website again (www.gracecookeville.org).
We have made some changes to it, and hopefully it
will become a more informative and helpful way for
you to keep up with the life of our church, and to
learn how you can be involved in serving with us.