Why We Need to Know About Calvin: an Interview with Burk Parsons
This year marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth in France in 1509. In celebration, a number of Web sites and books are being launched, including John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology. Below is an interview with Burk Parsons, editor of the book and the editor of Tabletalk, the monthly Bible-study magazine of Ligonier Ministries. John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology is a compilation of essays from Reformed leaders including Michael Horton, Richard D. Phillips, Phil Ryken, and Harry Reeder. More information about the 500-year anniversary of Calvin’s birth can be found at www.calvin500.org.
1. Why is Calvin still relevant today? What is his legacy?
John Calvin is relevant today because he was a churchman for all ages. Calvin’s legacy is summed up in this: He was a Reformer, a pastor, and a revolutionary. He was a selfless husband, a devoted father, and a noble friend. But above all Calvin was a man whose mind was humbled and whose heart was mastered by the Lord God Almighty. His life’s prayer—“I offer my heart to you, O Lord, promptly and sincerely”—was an unwavering declaration of surrender to the Lord, whom he sought to love with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
2. What is one of the lesser-known aspects of Calvin that you think people should know about?
In my research I came across a particular description of his character that fascinated me. It seems Calvin not only possessed a genuinely humble and honest view of himself but that he insisted others have an appropriate view of him as well. That is to say, he was not comfortable with others speaking more highly of him than he deemed appropriate. But understand, he didn’t rely on the façade of false modesty; rather, he would correct the person who spoke too highly of him and then proceed to explain to the one making the comment, whether friend or opponent, in private or public, why it was that he was unworthy of such high esteem. He did this, presumably, on account of his desire to make absolutely certain that God received all glory.
3. Why should laypeople today study John Calvin?
First of all, the people of God should be wholeheartedly engaged, first and foremost, in the daily study of God’s Word. Second, as God’s people study God’s Word in depth they will quickly understand the necessity of interpreting Scripture with Scripture, and that is precisely what Calvin helps us to do—to the end that we might know and proclaim the whole counsel of God. Third, John Calvin was not an ivory-tower theologian who was out of touch with the real-life struggles of God’s people. Not only did he struggle himself, but he knew well the plight of his people in his congregation. He could empathize with their afflictions and so shepherded them in preaching, praying, writing, and counseling. Calvin was, first and foremost, a pastor of God’s people.
4. What is your goal for this book?
I desperately wanted each chapter in the book to represent the man who was writing it. For instance, for the chapter titled “Calvin’s Heart for God,” which considers Calvin’s humble service to God and his motto—“I offer my heart to you, Lord, promptly and sincerely”—I wanted a man who represents such humble service and whose life manifests the simple majesty of Calvin’s motto. Therefore, I asked Sinclair Ferguson to write that chapter. My sincere prayer is that the Lord would use this book not first and foremost to help us love Calvin more but to love the Lord more with all our hearts so that we all might worship the Lord in the way he deserves our worship, demands our worship, and delights in our worship.
5. Tell us why you chose the subtitle A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology.
In my chapter in the book, “The Humility of Calvin’s Calvinism,” I write, “This is the three-fold foundation of Calvin’s Calvinism: devotion, doctrine, and doxology—the heart’s devotion to the biblical God, the mind’s pursuit of the biblical doctrine of God, and the entire being’s surrender to doxology. Calvin writes, ‘The glory of God so shines in his Word, that we ought to be so affected by it, whenever he speaks by his servants, as though he were near to us, face to face.’”
An Excerpt
By Burk Parsons
Among the many faithful voices from the past, there seems to be one that rises above them all. It is the voice of a man who desperately wanted us to hear not his own voice but the voice of God in His Word. It is precisely on account of the humility the Lord had instilled in the mind of Calvin that I am drawn to him. In fact, there is not a week that passes that I do not think about the example Calvin set forth for us and for Christians in every generation. And in life and ministry, as I have considered Calvin the man, I have observed the following things: Calvin was a man who died to himself and sought to take up his cross daily so that he might serve the Lord and the flock God had entrusted to him. He was a man who did not think of himself more highly than he should have, but sought to esteem others better than himself. He was a man who did not seek to please men first and foremost, but sought to please God ultimately and completely. …
Considering all of this, Calvin is among the greatest men of all time. However, his greatness, as B.B. Warfield recognized, was not in his service to himself but in his surrender to God: “Here we have the secret of Calvin’s greatness and the source of his strength unveiled to us. No man ever had a profounder sense of God than he; no man ever more unreservedly surrendered himself to the Divine direction.” This is Calvin’s greatness—his ultimate surrender to God. In this is Calvin’s legacy for those of us who desire not simply to wear the five-pointed badge of Calvinism, but who desire to clothe ourselves in the humbling power of the gospel. Let us not be so easily satisfied with a simple insignia of a simplistic Calvinism; rather, let us drape ourselves with Calvin’s Calvinism, a Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered, God-glorifying, gospel-driven Calvinism that shines so brilliantly that the deceitful darkness of sin would be conquered in our hearts so that, in turn, we might shine as the light of Jesus Christ to this dark world—for His kingdom and His glory.
Reprinted by permission
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Martyn Link
Scotland
I've also been inspired to spend 2009 reading and blogging the Institutes and can confirm that the depth and warmth of Calvin's devotions have come through strongly in the past two months I've spent in Book I.
http://martynlink.wordpress.com/
God bless,
Martyn