By Laurie Haas
“The heart is so steeped in the poison of sin that it can breathe out nothing but a loathsome stench.” (Institutes, 340) Calvin has a pessimism that is unrivaled regarding fallen humanity. Against a backdrop of 21st century Americans whose bookshelves are lined with self-help books, Calvin’s message is particularly difficult to hear. However, he drives home an important truth: apart from God, we can do nothing. In fact, I believe a key passage to summarize this section of the Institutes is, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
Lane asks: What role, if any, does Calvin leave to human beings in conversion, in the Christian life, and in perseverance to the end? The message I heard in Calvin’s writing is that our role is nothing.(nada, zero, nil, zilch)
Lane asks: What role, if any, does Calvin leave to human beings in conversion, in the Christian life, and in perseverance to the end? The message I heard in Calvin’s writing is that our role is nothing.(nada, zero, nil, zilch)
Calvin spends the second half of chapter III describing our total dependence on God’s grace and redemption. “God begins his good work in us, therefore, by arousing love and desire and zeal for righteousness in our hearts; …He completes his work, moreover, by confirming us to perseverance.” (p.297) We are not coworkers in this process. It is all a gift from God based on his loving kindness, which is freely given. Any reaction we might have to this grace whereby we would be moved to obedience also comes from the movement of the Spirit.
In chapter IV Calvin leans into God’s power over everything in life, including Satan and even our own freedom. God uses whatever God wants to fulfill his purposes. Our very thoughts and actions are guided by God’s prompting rather than our “freedom to choose.” God hardens hearts and uses whatever Satan dishes up to accomplish God’s plans.
The final section in chapter V on free will was the most confusing for this student. According to Calvin, we do not have free will in the sense that we are bound to sin because of the fall of man. We are bound to sin through corruption, not creation. Although sin is not, therefore subject to free choice, it is nevertheless voluntarily done. The sins we commit stem from a voluntary desire and that should be punished. The good things we do stem from God, so the gift from God is to be praised, not us. Calvin goes on to state that humankind is both depraved and given over to wickedness, but through God’s mercy, not all people remain in wickedness. God uses both the Spirit and his Word to reach his chosen people. Once we are aware of the law and what is required of us, we are called to pray to God for the strength and power from God to obey. Again, we are dependent upon God’s goodness and grace to accomplish any good thing. Augustine’s profound words on this subject are, “God bids us do what we cannot, that we may know what we ought to seek from him.” (p.325) Once the Spirit restores our will, we are able to live into this new life, albeit imperfectly.
My question from this reading is: So much seems to be out of our control. I wonder if one should strive for a posture of openness to God and his Spirit-in an effort to hear his intention and purpose for our lives, in an effort to receive grace. If so, what does that “openness” look like?
Thank you for your generous post on the workings of the Heart by God. The Spirit within must be the driving force for any effort toward openness. In my life, what I find "Opening" is daily Centering Prayer, and nightly Examine. The purpose of my life becomes less about me and more about where the Lord is leading, and to whom I might be speaking, sharing or assisting in any given day. To understand this, is something I do not know. It seems that it must be by the Spirit of God that the desire to be at rest, to be near to God for a few moments each day comes upon me and allows me the space and time for this. Opening one's heart is to me, inviting the Lord into my day, into my time and my life.
ReplyDeleteClaire, I appreciate your comments on how one is to open her life to the grace of God. My "ONE WORD" for the year is REFLECT. I think it is so important to spend some time in the Word, to pray and to "reflect" on one's life and trying to be mindful where God is leading and guiding. Since Ash Wednesday, I have been writing daily to "reflect" on my day and to not only see God's presence in my life, but to thank God for all of it: the good and the bad. (Consolation and Desolation) Much of this posture for me, is designed to help me to "reflect" Christ in my interactions. I am far from doing this well, broken as I am.
DeleteIn a previous reply to a post I said I thought Lane had skipped a lot of important stuff about free will. Now I see why he did that. We are getting healthy doses of it by the spoonful in this section. Rather like swallowing castor oil.
ReplyDeleteAs you point out, our self-help modern culture cannot abide the thought that everything is not dependent upon us. Yet, I think Calvin does try to allow for more human agency than might be seen on the surface. In describing how we might still be responsible for our actions in the face of double predestination he brings out the fact that degraded humanity voluntarily sins. He says, "What difference does it make whether we sin out of free or servile judgment, provided it is by voluntary desire - especially since man is proved a sinner because he is under the bondage of sin?" (Institutes, 2.5.2, para 2)
In a sense, Calvin gives us a modicum of free will by saying that we acquiesce in good and evil acts. Yet, he will not call it that. In 2.4.14 Calvin is analyzing Augustine on the subject. He says, 'There is left to man such free will...that except through grace the will can neither be converted to God nor abide in God; and whatever it can do it is able to do only through grace."
I think you are correct in your assumption that we have to be open to God's grace. But I also think this does not mean being passive while doing so. For as Calvin points out in 2.3.10, People "ought to be taught that God's loving-kindness is set forth to all who seek it, without exception." He goes further to point out that it is those who seek it who are the elect (well, probably the elect), so to speak.
It his hard to let go and view salvation as a total act of God's grace. That is why it took the church so many councils and years to affirm Calvinism in the clear terms brought out in the Canons of Dort. Try reading this little book "But for the Grace of God" an exposition of the Canons of Dort by Cornelis P. Venema
DeleteThanks, Laurie. I think Calvin is addressing your question in 2.3.6, pg 297). Our part is to pray for a new heart of flesh. "A new heart shall I give you, and will put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I shall put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues" (Ezek. 36:26-27).
ReplyDeleteThen, later in chapter V, Calvin tell us that God works in us in two ways: his Spirit and his Word. Staying open to both will kindle in us the desire for good. "By his Spirit, illuminating their minds and forming their hearts to the love and cultivation of righteousness, he makes them a new creation. By this Word, he arouses them to desire, to seek after, and to attain that same renewal." (2.5.5, pg 322).
Thanks, Laurie. I'm with everyone here - pray! Pam points it out in 2.3.6 and I also found it affirmed in 2.5.7 - the law tells us what to do, the law shows us that the power to obey comes from God, then exhorts us to pray for that power.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with the defeatist position myself. If nothing I do is from my own power, why do I work so hard to do it? I found two things helpful from Calvin. First, we should not ignore anything that God might have thrown in our path to learn from. (2.5.4) (Arguably, self-help books would cause Calvin some digestive problems, but let's not throw them out yet.) Second, God gave us the mind, will, and striving for God to direct. (2.5.15) In other words, I should let God use what God created.
Great summary Laurie. I think my favorite part of the Institutes from Lan’s reading guidance in chapter 9 is: Somewhere Augustine compares man’s will to a horse awaiting its rider’s commands, and God and the devil to its riders….(Institutes, 2.4.1, second paragraph). This really drove home the point of who is in control and why good and bad things happen. Although it may be too simple to look at it in this light, it does provide a great illustration.
ReplyDeleteI think this illustration provides us with the gentle nudging in a good direction. It also explains why people fall over cliffs and end up face down in a gutter.
That is a good sum of it all, but I will add that through God’s redemptive power, God provide us with what we lack when He is working in us. By working in us, God desires and arouses love and righteousness in our hearts. When the work is done, God expects perseverance from us. God puts a new heart and spirit in us but He also removes the heart and flesh that has been damaged by sin. When God converts us, what we become is wholly from God. Yet it is by grace that all works of God in man is done. That we should understand that in the second creation, which is in Christ, every good thing started. For what God does in us by Grace and Salvation we are in debt to God by praise.
ReplyDeleteIn working in us, our evil wills are corrected or in better terms extinguished. God substitutes it with a good one from himself. The Lord directs, bends, and governs our heart.
Well said Kwasi. If there is nothing we can do, then why the 10 Commandments? I have heard it said that the Commandments point to our sin and our sin points to our need of a redeemer which is Christ. However our Redeemer points us back to the Commandments that we must try to obey.
DeleteWell said Kwasi. If there is nothing we can do, then why the 10 Commandments? I have heard it said that the Commandments point to our sin and our sin points to our need of a redeemer which is Christ. However our Redeemer points us back to the Commandments that we must try to obey.
DeleteThat is a good sum of it all, but I will add that through God’s redemptive power, God provide us with what we lack when He is working in us. By working in us, God desires and arouses love and righteousness in our hearts. When the work is done, God expects perseverance from us. God puts a new heart and spirit in us but He also removes the heart and flesh that has been damaged by sin. When God converts us, what we become is wholly from God. Yet it is by grace that all works of God in man is done. That we should understand that in the second creation, which is in Christ, every good thing started. For what God does in us by Grace and Salvation we are in debt to God by praise.
ReplyDeleteIn working in us, our evil wills are corrected or in better terms extinguished. God substitutes it with a good one from himself. The Lord directs, bends, and governs our heart.
Laurie, I concur with everyone else that this is a good summary of this portion of the Institutes. Calvin says, "The Lord's purpose is to exercise the patience of His servant by calamity" (2.4.2). I think this supports what you said that God is in control over even Satan. To answer your question, coming to the realization that it is God who gives grace is a good first step towards being open to receive. Thanks again for this great post.
ReplyDeleteIN reading all of these responses, I am thinking about Calvin who is writing in part against the Roman Catholic tradition of Salvation which is through works. In that tradition, you do "works" prayer, buy indulgences, pilgrimages etc after your confession of sin to be in a state of grace. This gives so much credit to the individual and yet never assures anyone of salvation. Afterall, what if I sin after i did all of my works, then I am not in a state of grace. While our nature is in "total depravity" what is more comforting to think than we with faith who rely God "will soar on wings like eagles" (Isaiah 40:31)
ReplyDeleteI think that we can choose sin makes it look like we can choose God's will. In all practical matters then it will look like humans have free will and I think we have misconstrued as a whole. But, ultimately, when we are making choices, what makes us choose one over the other. As Christians, many of us pray and look to God for guidance thus choosing what is God's choice for us - what is preordained. But, in having the choice to sin, we can be falsely under the impression that God is not involved. Ultimately, however, as Will noted, God has control even of Satan and while Good can always come out of evil, evil will never come out of good.