I generally do not make new years resolutions, not because they are not valuable or helpful, but mainly because I rarely keep them. What I have done on many occasions to great benefit is take up reading the bible in one year. Some have been from cover to cover, others chronologically, others an Old Testament and New Testament reading plus Psalms, and others using a devotional bible reading scheme. In whatever way I have done it, they are all fruitful and instructive and I would encourage anyone to tackle the opportunity wholeheartedly and expectantly.
This year, however, I have chosen another tome to tackle (that has a certain ring to it)…Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. This is a two-volume set encompassing approximately 1500 pages of doctrinal theology that Calvin edited 3 or four times, each time lengthening his magnum opus. Not wishing to embark on this project alone, I have yoked myself with fellow believers so that we might question each other concerning our understanding of Calvin’s theology, encourage each other as we will inevitably encounter “the valley of dry bones”, and pray for one another that this undertaking may enrich our understanding of God, His work, His plan, and His Truth.
Today I began to read the section in the beginning that is entitled “Prefatory Address to the King Francis”. (In case you don’t know prefatory is a preface…I had to look it up along with several other words in just the first few pages. This does not bode well.)
“When Paul wished all prophecy to be made to accord with the analogy of faith [Rom. 12:6], he set forth a very clear rule to test all interpretation of Scripture. Now, if our interpretation be measured by this rule of faith, victory is in our hands. For what is more consonant [harmonious] with faith than to recognize that we are naked of all virtue, in order to be clothed by God? That we are empty of all good, to be filled by him? That we are slaves of sin, to be freed by him? Blind, to be illumined by him? Lame, to be made straight by him? Weak, to be sustained by him? To take away from us all occasion for glorying, that he alone may stand forth gloriously and we glory in him.”
So naked, empty of all good, slave to sin, blind, lame, and weak, I embark on this journey through Calvin’s Institutes in hopes of more fully understanding a brilliant man of faith, who adjures those who undertake a study of his work “to have recourse to Scripture in order to weigh the testimonies that I adduce from it.” And so I shall.
Glory be to God.
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