JOHN CALVIN:
THEOLOGIAN OF THE REFORMATION

John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509, in the town of Noyonin Northern France. As a child, thoughphysically frail, he was not only morally upright but strict in all his dutiesand appointments, particularly of religious observances. When he was 12 yearsold, his father Gerald Calvin, who was the secretary to the bishop, managed topersuade the bishop to appoint his son as a chaplain in a small church.Obviously this was a paper position obtained through taking advantage of thecorrupt practices common in the church then, but Calvin was paid for it, and ithelped pay for his education.

Calvin in France

In 1523, a terrible plague forced most of the priests in Noyon to flee, andCalvin upon his father’s instruction left for Paris to study classics andLatin. This was obviously to prepare him for the priesthood. Providentially,the books of Martin Luther, who had left Wartburg Castle two years earlier,were beginning to arrive at Paris. Calvin was therefore just in time to havehis first taste of Protestant theology. Thus a Roman Catholic historianremarked: “Flying from one pestilence, he caught another.” However, Calvin wasstill steep in Roman Catholicism, and were it not for the Lord’s intervention,he would unlikely have been influenced by the Protestant theology. He was stillan unbeliever, and he was studying deeper and deeper into the Roman Catholicdoctrines and traditions. It was said that when Calvin was in Paris, there wasalways a light shining out of Calvin’s windows—deep into the night. It wouldappear that Calvin hardly slept!

This Lord’s intervention came by way of one of his cousins by the name ofOlivetan, who had earlier been convicted of Protestant theology, and had manyfriendly debates with Calvin. The effect was that Calvin began to doubt thedoctrines which he had always believed. He began to examine the validity of theProtestant theology more carefully. Perhaps there was some truth in what theywere teaching. But spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and Calvin wasstill hardened in unbelief. The Lord must intervene again.

Around 1528, Calvin’s father quarrelled with the Bishop, and so he instructedCalvin to leave Paris to study law at Orleans instead. Surely, this is again bythe sovereign providence of God. If you have read Calvin’s writings, you willnot fail to notice his keen sense of logic and polemics. Could it be that theLord used this short deviation to law to train Calvin’s mind? But a keen mindwithout a heart constrained by God’s Word is not enough.

By the Lord’s providence, one day, as Calvin was passing by Paris, he saw themartyrdom of some of the early French Protestants. As he beheld these menenduring the flames, he was impressed with their faith. He said to himself:“these men had peace I do not possess,” and asked himself how he would dieunder such circumstances. Awakened out of his complacency, Calvin took theadvice of his cousin and began to read the Scriptures. That night as hesearched the Scriptures into the morning, Calvin experienced a suddenconversion. Years later, he would testify: “My father had intended me fortheology from my childhood days… then changing his mind he send me to learninglaw… until God at last turned my course in another direction by the secret reinof His providence. By a sudden conversion He tamed to teachableness a mind sostubborn for its years, for I was so strongly devoted to the superstitions ofthe papacy that nothing less could draw me from the depths of mire.”

Returning to Orleans, Calvin’s heart was no longer in law but in Christ. Havingreceived some taste and knowledge of true godliness, Calvin was inflamed withan intense desire to make progress in it. Although he did not leave off otherstudies, he began to pursue them with less ardour. Before the year was up, hehad made so much progress in theology that many who desired purer doctrine werecoming to him for counsel. Remarkably, even with less effort, he made suchadvances in his law studies that he was occasionally called to supply the placeof professors. He was considered a doctor rather than a student.

Subsequently, Calvin left Orleans to Bourges where he studied Greek and Hebrew,though still in pursuit of a legal career. Bourges had already came under theinfluence of Protestant doctrines, and as Calvin’s views were already knownbefore his arrival, he was asked by some Protestants there to be their leader.Calvin at first did not agree as he felt unfit to the greatness of the work,but later under the influence of his Greek professor, he began to preach theGospel in the surrounding villages and from house to house. Calvin was barely20 years old.

Two years later, after a prolonged illness, Calvin’s father passed away. Calvinwas now free to give up his law career to pursue theology. He headed back toParis and there, in 1532, published his first book in beautiful Latin: acommentary on Seneca’s De Clementi. Thiswork was an appeal for mercy on behalf of the Protestants who were persecuted,banished, imprisoned and martyred. The next year, Calvin’s close friend,Nicolas Cop, was appointed Rector of the University. Calvin, apparently helpedhim to draft his inaugural address, which he delivered on November 1, 1533. Themessage was very evangelical and contained an attack on the old system. Whenthe King of France, Francis I, heard about it, he immediately ordered thearrest of the ‘heretics.’

Cop fled to his father’s house in Basel. Calvin was said to have been lowereddown through a window like the Apostle Paul, and escaped. He headed forOrleans, more than 250 miles south of Paris. After wandering for weeks, hearrived at Angouleme. There he found refuge in the home of a certain Louis DuTillet, a wealthy man with a library of 4,000 volumes. This was where Calvinfirst begun to collect materials and planned for the greatest book of theReformation,The Institute of the Christian Religion. Surely the higherhand of God is evident.

That same year, Calvin headed north to Poitiers. There a group of Protestants,including the chief magistrate, gathered around him to discuss the Reformedview of the Lord’s Supper. Essentially, for two months, Calvin became thepastor of this group. At first they met in a garden, but afterwards they met ina cave near the river for greater safety. The cave became known as Calvin’sGrotto to this day.

Towards the end of the year, however, Calvin and his student and friend Louisdu Tillet began to feel that their lives would be in danger if they continuedto remain in France, and so they fled to Strasburg, Germany, and then to Baselin Switzerland. Had they stayed a few weeks longer, they could have sufferedmartyrdom in the hand of King Francis I, who was angered by some radicalProtestants who had put up placards condemning the Mass. Many faithfulProtestants were tortured and burned alive by the king. Calvin did not simplythank God that he was safe and remained apathetic. He was moved to vindicatethe martyrs against French government’s propaganda that they were guilty ofsedition and treason. For this purpose, he began with all earnestness tocomplete the Institutes, and to prepare it for publication. Hebegan to write in January, 1535, and in seven months, he completed the book. ByMarch the next year, the first edition of the Institutes was published.The work was based on the Apostles’ Creed and was aimed at showing thatProtestants were thoroughly loyal to the Creed and thus could not be regardedas heretic. Although much smaller than the final edition of 80 chapters, thefirst edition of 6 chapters was the first really systematic exposition ofReformed theology. As a presentation of Christian doctrine it has never beensurpassed. Calvin was just 26 years of age.

Calvin in Geneva

Shortly after the publication of the Institutes, Calvin decided tohead for Strasburg where he intended to retire to a life of peacefulscholarship. The most direct route from Basel was, however, shut up because ofwar and he had to detour to Geneva, Switzerland. There, despite having resolvednot to stay any longer than a single night, he stopped by to visit WilliamFarel, a French reformer, 26 years older than him, who was already at work inGeneva. Farel had read the Institute and felt strongly thatCalvin ought to stay there to help him in the work of Reformation. Calvinprotested that he wanted to retire to some quiet solitude for personal study.Thereupon, Farel, with great vehemence, told Calvin that God would curse hisretirement and peace if he did not remain to help in the work in Geneva. Calvinwas so taken aback by this “dreadful imprecation,” that he felt as it were thatGod had from heaven laid His mighty hand upon him to arrest him. He must havefelt like Jonah, and with fear and trembling decided then to stay.

Farel and Calvin were powerful preachers. They insisted that the church mustlive according to the demands of the Scriptures. The people should not behearers only, but doers also. To bring this about they introduced strictdiscipline, including debarring from the Lord’s Supper anyone without a credibleprofession of faith. Soon a group of people called the Libertines who resentedCalvin’s teachings and frequently abused him verbally, incited the Genevangovernment against Farel and Calvin, and both of them were forced to leavewithout trial. It looked like the Reformation work in Geneva was to end in ashameful failure, but God had other plans.

Calvin in Strasburg

From Geneva, Calvin made his way to Strasburg in Germany where he wasdetermined once again to live in a private station, free from the burden andcares of any public charge. But there he met Martin Bucer who, according toCalvin, employed a similar kind of remonstrance and protestation as thatto which Farel had employed before, to challenge him to be the pastor of theFrench refugees.

Happily, the next three years were to be the happiest ones for Calvin. Inaddition to being pastor, he was also appointed professor of theology by thetown council. He preached four times a week and taught daily from the book ofRomans and John. These were transcribed and later became part of the Calvin’scommentaries set. The church at Strasburg was a very discipline one. He had400–500 members and he trained deacons to assist him in the pastoral duties. Healso converted many Anabaptists who yielded to having their infants baptised.

It was also in Strasburg, that Calvin finally found his bride. In a letter toFarel, Calvin revealed what kind of wife he was looking for: “I am not one ofthose insane lovers who embrace even the vices of those they are in love with,when they are smitten at first sight with a fine figure. The only beauty thatallures me is this—that she is chaste, not too nice or fastidious, economical,patient, and likely to take care of my health.” In 1540 Calvin married Idelettede Bure, the widow of an Anabaptist. Calvin found in her “the excellentcompanion of my life, the ever faithful assistant of my ministry and a rarewoman.”

Meanwhile, in Geneva, the moral standards of the society had sadlydeteriorated. Moreover, a Roman Catholic counter-attack was launched through acertain Cardinal Sadoleto. Sadoleto wrote to try to win the Genevans back tothe Roman fold, and there was no one to reply to him. The city council had norecourse but to request Calvin to help. Calvin agreed and wrote such adevastating demolition of Sadoleto’s eloquent arguments that the Genevangovernment, sensing that Calvin was the only one who could deliver Geneva fromher moral and civil disorders, pleaded with him to return.

At first Calvin refused. He felt unequal to the difficulties which awaited himin Geneva, and said “there is no place in the world that I fear more.”Nevertheless, after many private letters urging him to return, Calvin,determined to please the Lord, eventually agreed.

Calvin in Geneva Again

On September 13, 1541, Calvin was welcomed back to Geneva again. The first thing that he did wasto call the people to a service at the Cathedral to confess their sins. Then heimmediately demanded that the Genevan church be set right according to biblicalprinciples. This would have been difficult to sustain had it not been for thenegative experience of the people. Calvin remained in Geneva, for the rest of the 22 years of hislife. Under Calvin, Genevabecame the first European city ever to be organised so thoroughly for religiouspurposes.

There, despite all the difficulties that he faced, his life continued to be asproductive as when he first came to know the Lord. In addition to his heavywriting load, Calvin also had heavy pastoral duties. He preached regularly andoften. At first he preached twice on the Lord’s Day and three times during theweek, but from 1549, he preached from the OT on every week day at 6 am, everyother week; and every Lord’s Day he preached from the NT in the morning; and Psalmsin the afternoons. It was said that he preached, on this schedule, some 4,000sermons in addition to routine pastoral duties. Calvin also wrote commentariesand tracts; and compiled a Psalter, and still found time to correspondextensively with Reformers all over Europe. Inaddition, he established the Academy of Geneva which laterdeveloped into the University. Through this academy Calvin taught more than 900young men from all over Europe, including JohnKnox, the founder of Presbyterianism.

By the middle of the 16th century, Calvin had become the dominant figure of theProtestant Reformation and all who became convinced of the Reformation lookedto him for instruction and guidance. Calvin may rightly be called not only thetheologian of the Reformation, but the ‘father’ of the Reformed faith. Underhim, the Church was not only reformed in doctrine but in practice as well. Themotto:Sola Scriptura, which Luther also subscribed to but never reallyimplemented in the area of worship, was scrupulously applied to reform themanner of worship of the church. Only what is sanctioned in the Word of God wasallowed (not as what Luther had taught: that what is not forbidden is allowed).The worship of the Church was thus returned to New Testament simplicity andpurity.

Sadly, Calvin was ever in poor health in the midst of his heavy schedule. Hewas a victim of headache, dyspepsia, and insomnia, yet he never spared himselffor the sake of the Gospel. He died on May 27, 1564, completely worn out, at acomparatively young age of 55. According to his wishes, he was buried verysimply with no stone to mark his grave at all.

Calvin’s theology centred on the sovereignty of God in every area of life, nomatter how insignificant it may appear. He taught, more than others, that oursalvation is solely and wholly through the grace of God ministered to us by theHoly Spirit. Such knowledge must surely humble us to the dust, and cause us towant to serve the Lord with all our heart and soul. Our lives are bought with aprice; there is no valid excuse for slothfulness in the service of the Lord.This is the basis of Calvin’s life motto: prompte et sincere in operedomini (promptly and sincerely in the work of the Lord). It is saidthat Calvin did not like to waste a single minute of his time. Even at hisdeath bed, when his friends pleaded with him to refrain from his labours,Calvin retorted: “What! Would you have the Lord find me idle when He comes?”John Calvin’s work is done. Surely he was received by the Lord with those beautifulwords, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy ofthe Lord.” What about us? May the last words of Calvin about his servicefor the Lord put us,—who call ourselves Calvinists or Reformed,—to shame forour sloth; and may it stir our hearts to serve the Lord with greater zeal andlove for His sake:

Alas, the will I have had, and thezeal, if it can be called that, have been so cold and sluggish that I feeldeficient in everything and everywhere. If it were not for [God’s] infinitegoodness, all the affection I have had [from Him] would be nothing but smoke.Truly, even the grace of forgiveness He has given me only renders me all themore guilty, so that only recourse can be this, that being the Father of mercy,He will show Himself the father of so miserable a sinner.

—J.J. Lim