Great Christian Biographies with John Piper: John Calvin, Part 2

John Calvin’s Birth, Early Education, and Move Toward Law

Together let's bring the story from his birth up to where it happened. He was born on July 10 1509. Luther has now turned 25 is lecturing just this year in Wittenberg for the first time In Noyon, France.

He was a Frenchman all his life broke his heart that the Reformation was so horribly brutally Persecuted and squelched in France. We know almost nothing of his childhood at age 14. His father sent him to study theology at the University of Paris where the Reformation had not touched anybody at that time or was just beginning to Five years later.

He's 19 years old now. He's been studying Medieval theology for all of that time as well as some of the basic things that you study as a 14 year old at the university. His father ran afoul of the church in Noyon and Changed his mind about what his son should study and told him if he wants to any support He should go study law, which he then obediently did.

Calvin was all his life long Incredibly submissive to authority. We'll hear it with Farrell. We'll hear it with Booster. We know it with his dad and above all with God. He he loved the word submit. He moved to Orleans and Bougie and he finished a law degree.

Was very good at it during this time. He mastered Greek because he fell in love with the Classics on the side. He was reading Duns Scotus and William of Ockham and Gabriel Briel and then Beal and his father died Fifteen thirty one which is a great and transforming thing for him because it freed him to leave law.

Because he didn't like it after he had finished it and returned to his first love which had become the classics. And so what did he do right off the bat? He writes a book called a commentary on Seneca 1532 first book he ever wrote at age 23 but sometime between age 21 and age 23 or 24.

The scholars go around on just when and how it happened something powerful happened November 1533 she's 22 years old now 20 was that 24 years old born 1509 Nicholas Copp a very good friend of his Gave the opening sermon at the ceremonies at the University of Paris and It sounded so Luther like that the authorities of the University immediately called him in For interrogation and he escaped Paris and France Barely with his life and What we find is that Calvin escapes with him and suddenly on the pages of history Calvin's a reformer and the question is how he got to be that way and Many scholars believe he wrote the sermon that Nicholas Copp delivered Francis the one Francis the first the king of France Called a persecution on the cursed Lutheran sect in Paris and Calvin and many of the others had to leave.

Calvin’s Conversion and the Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit

So what happened? Calvin recounts he's writing seven years later now on his conversion He writes that he struggled to live out his traditional Catholic faith Just like Martin Luther sounds a lot like Luther when you read this passage in the preface to the Psalms and then he says when low a very different form of doctrine started up.

Not one which led us away from the Christian profession But one which brought it back to its fountain to its original purity. Offended by the novelty I lent an unwilling ear and at first I confess strenuously and passionately resisted To confess that I had all my life long been in ignorance and error.

I at length perceived as if light Had broken in upon me. That's a very important phrase in the Institutes keep it in your mind as If light had broken in upon me. You know that I had been in a sty of error I had wallowed and how much pollution and impurity I had thereby contracted being Exceedingly alarmed at the misery into which I had fallen as a duty bound as duty bound I made it my first business to betake myself to thy way.

Oh God Condemning my past life not without groans and tears but by a certain by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame. Having thus received some taste another crucial phrase and knowledge of true godliness.

I was immediately Enflamed with an intense desire to make progress. Now that's the end of his quote. What was the foundation of Calvin's faith? That yielded a life of devotion To displaying the glory of the majesty of God.

And I believe the answer is that Calvin suddenly as he said Saw and tasted in Scripture the majesty of God he suddenly as it were by a miracle saw and Tasted the majesty of God in his word two things.

He saw God and He saw it in his word. These things were powerfully conjoined and Thus the scriptures and God were simultaneously Self-authenticated for Calvin. Which becomes very crucial in the way he unfolds this matter now.

Scripture, the Majesty of God, and the Witness of the Spirit

How did this happen? This is extremely extremely important and I'm going to use the Institute's books Book one and chapter seven and eight. They are the key books on How you come to a saving knowledge of God?

In the scriptures and you all read these chapters probably because they are the key chapters that every student is assigned to read on the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit and here I wrestle with because I Have not appreciated I don't think to the degree that I should Calvin's teaching on this until recent years and even recent weeks I would say as I've really wrestled more than anything else with this issue right now that we're addressing.

How did John Calvin? Come to a saving knowledge of God such that he was devoted for the rest of his life to the Majesty of God and the glory of God and wrote the way he did and preached the way he did.

His answer in this part of the Institute's is the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. For example, he says in book 1 chapter 8 Paragraph 13 and I see at least one person has the volume back there looking up the text.

Scripture will ultimately suffice for a saving knowledge of God. Only when its certainty is founded upon the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit. So two things came together for John Calvin sometime between 21 and 24 in his life.

Scripture and the inward persuasion of the Holy Spirit neither alone suffices. Scriptures do not save and the Holy Spirit does not save alone. But how does it work? This is what? I've got to get. I feel like I've got to get this.

What does the Spirit do? The answer is that he does not add Revelation like he doesn't sow the thought this Bible is the Word of God. I'm telling you it is so believe it and then you look at the Bible says he said you're the Word of God and so I got to believe you.

That's not the dynamic. It's not that the Holy Spirit adds a sentence. That you then bank on and go to the Bible with that sentence. Rather this is my effort now and we can talk about this in the question answer time.

The Holy Spirit awakens us. Awakens us gives life to us opens the eyes of us from death and blindness and dead taste buds to see and taste the divine reality of God in the scripture. Which authenticates it as God's own Word he says.

Quote our heavenly father. Revealing his Majesty. Key phrase revealing his majesty in scripture lifts reverence for scripture beyond the realm of controversy. Close quote. Now here's a key for Calvin the witness of God to scripture is Immediate unassailable life-giving revelation to the mind of the majesty of God in the scriptures themselves.

Over and over again in his description of what happens in coming to faith you see his references to the majesty of God revealed in scripture. Vindicating scripture. The majesty of God revealed in scripture.

Vindicating scripture so already the dynamics of his conversion. Was or were the central passion of the rest of his life namely the majesty of God now. We've got to go deeper here. We still don't have it yet.

I don't think we haven't gotten to the bottom of how this Works. If we go a little bit deeper, I think we will see clearly why this conversion resulted in an Invincible constancy in this man's life in a lifelong allegiance to the majesty of God through incredible suffering and persecution and difficulty.

The words that take us deeper are these first this is one book seven paragraph five therefore Illumined by the Spirit's power we believe. Neither by our own now that just blew me away for years. I used to stop at that in seminary.

You don't know what I'm saying because didn't finish the sentence therefore illumined by the Spirit's power. We believe neither by our own or anyone else's judgment. And I used to have the well if I don't believe by my own pray tell who's do I believe by?

I mean what else is there for me to believe with but my judgment and and The and anybody else's judgment teacher or the church. I mean what's left? I Mean this is a baffling sentence note this. The Institutes were written first edition 1536.

They went through five Rewritings and enlargements to 1559. These are not throwaway sentences. Okay. Read it again. Therefore illumined by the Spirit's power. We believe neither by our own Nor anyone else's judgment that scripture is from God but here comes the alternative above human judgment.

We affirm with utter certainty Just as if we were gazing upon the majesty of God himself that it scriptures has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men that was an unintelligible sentence to me for years and only recently.

Has I believe God? Granted me some light to know my own experience and Calvin's and you know where it's come from The Bible and I direct your attention if you want to open your Bible to see what I Have been wrestling with to first John chapter 5.

It is amazing to me and I would scold him. That in books book 1 chapter 7 and chapter 8 of the Institutes Calvin never except in my mind two places and they're weak base what he says on scripture. Explicitly.

But all the implicit scripture that's there I believe now having seen links with first John 5 7 to 11 so I want to read these verses with you and see if Lights don't go on for you the way they've been going on for me just in coming to terms with what this man meant by the internal testimony of the spirit whereby we come to a settled conviction that God is speaking in the Bible and therefore in his majesty is to be trusted and lived for Verse 7 first John 5.

It is the spirit Who bears? Witness now, okay. That's that's all over the place in the Institutes book 1 chapter 7 the spirit who bears witness. Because then here's an unintelligible phrase almost the spirit is The truth.

John MacArthur preach on that for me. I don't know what that means. The spirit is the truth. The least it means is they're inseparable. The spirit is the truth now drop down to verse 9. If we receive the witness of men.

The witness of God now, that's the same as the witness of the Spirit in verse 7, I believe the witness of God is greater. Now see I think Calvin if he were reading and expositing this right now would say when it says witness of man, it means me and you.

My judgment and your judgment. My capacities to see things and draw conclusions from them and your capacities to see things and draw conclusions from them. If we receive that kind of witness from ourselves and from others the witness of God is greater for The witness of God is this.

They get some of this Johanning Talk that's so provocative and baffling that he has borne witness concerning his son. The witness is this. He has borne witness concerning his son. Okay. I I thought you were gonna tell me how I witnessed.

Tell me how he witnesses. Tell me the experience you're talking about here. What's the experience of the witness of the Spirit the witness of God and now I believe verse 11 does that? It's the way I see it now.

The witness is this that God Has given us Eternal life. The witness is the giving of life. That caused Lights to go on everywhere for me in recent weeks. Let me tell you how I connect it with Calvin now.

I believe Calvin did what I'm doing right now. I believe he poured over these verses as well as many others in coming to an understanding of the internal testimony of the Spirit and how it brings you to a settled conviction of the majesty of God in Scripture and thus the divinity of Scripture.

I think what he would say is If you base your convictions about Scripture on a series of logical inferences drawn from Observations, even he would say the indicia the majesty of Scripture itself. Finally your faith rests on man.

That's what he says. Baffles me he he says that even the the list in the Westminster Catechism I know it was written later, but he lists them all they got him from him. That list in the the 41st question or wherever it is where it says How shall we know that the scriptures are of God and it says the scriptures bear witness?

That they are of God by and then it lists six things that you behold in scriptures their unity and their the Uniformity of parts, you know what they are. He's Calvin says even if they inspire reverence in you.

That's your judgment. I Said what are you leaving me with? You know what? He's leaving me with the miracle of verse 11. Lazarus heard a witness in the tomb and He did not infer that he was alive from any prior observation, I think that's exactly what Calvin means.

I Can't make sense out of not by your own judgment any other way than to say Calvin means that a miracle happens when God stands forth in his Holy Word and awakens The soul as from death. Immediately.

No chain of reasoning. But immediately like Edward says and and Calvin does too when he doesn't use the word honey. He says black and white. He says how do you prove black isn't it's not white. It's to look at it and.

And Calvin Edward said how do you prove to anybody honey is sweet? There's no inferences involved put on a tongue if you don't get it, I can't do anything for you. This is awesome to me what we're because the implications of this for me in the way I do evangelism and the way I preach and where my faith settles and what I think of apologetics.

Which I do not jettison and don't believe in fact read Chapter 8 after he shoots all the legs out from under arguments. He spends chapter 8 giving arguments. Nevertheless to perceive that a settled Conviction about the divinity of the majesty of God in Scripture rests on Not your judgment nor another person's judgment but on Something above judgment what the closest I can get biblically is verse 11.

Where this is the witness this is the witness of the Spirit, this is the witness of the Father. This is the witness of God. God gives life and When you have life you breathe. You see you taste and it's there and you can't ever turn from it again and I've walked to this church a Thousand times across the bridge from where I live in the last 16 years and year in and year out the seasons come and the Seasons go and I watch the leaves come out on the tree and I watch this Magnificent tree over there just down 12th Street.

That's about as tall as this room here. And I imagine set getting up there somehow and a little leaf springing out up there in the same perfect magnificent shape to do whatever green stuff is supposed to do to make life in that tree and I make no inferences, I feel God.

You could put a bullet to my head and say deny that that's God and all I could say is shoot me dead. And at the judgment, you know what I expect to hear. I expect to hear Jesus called Professor Hawking over and call me up and he say John tell him about the tree.

Tell me about the tree and I'll tell him about the tree and God will cause him to see at that moment what a folly to deny God. But what I you see what I meant earlier was this is helping me understand me and what God's done with me.

I grew up in a Christian home. I don't why I believe what I believe. I always believed now. My experience of general revelation and my experience of God in the scriptures that I simply absolutely Cannot deny cannot escape as much as I often was tempted to try.

My oh my I'm gonna totally Get out of hand here. That was one page out of 30. What am I gonna do? Hmm. Here's the way Jay I Packer here's the way Jay I Packer put it. Packer is very helpful on this issue.

The in turn see if this isn't almost the same as what I'm saying I hope it is because I want to. I want somebody to agree with me. Because this is so fresh for me if I'm right on the way, I understand Calvin here.

Okay Packer quote the internal witness of the Spirit of John count of the Spirit in John Calvin is a work of enlightenment whereby through the medium of verbal testimony the blind eyes of the Spirit my spirit are Opened and divine realities come to be recognized and embraced for what they are.

This recognition Calvin says is as immediate and Unanalyzable as the perceiving of color or taste by the physical sense an event About which no more can be said than that when appropriate stimuli Were present it happened and when it happened, we know it happened period close quote.

I Think that's what I'm saying. And that's Packers Interpretation of John Calvin and that's my explanation in answer to my first question. So I'm I'm at the end of question number one. What happened to John Calvin?

Between the ages of 21 and 24 that bound this man heart and soul To the majesty of God not aloof out there somewhere but in the Bible such that he lived Bible for the supremacy and majesty of God and my answer has been His own exposition of the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit in chapter 7 and 8 of book 1 is Autobiographical.

Though he doesn't say so. Now here's the second part of my question and I'm somehow gonna figure out how to shorten this down. What Kind of ministry Does that on leash? What does it look like? What do you do with your life?

If you have had that happen to you and you now believe that the Majesty of God is what the Bible is about the majesty of God is where you What you find in the Bible and where you meet the majesty of God is in the Bible.

What happens to you? Calvin thought he was cut out for a literary life. He was cut out for a literary life and many of you are cut out for literary lives and he He was forbidden to lead a literary life.

Let's let's take his life a little farther. He escapes from Paris. He leaves France entirely. He spends two years of exile in Basel Switzerland to redeem the time. What would you do if you were running from your life from King Francis the first in Basel?

And you had just had this happen to you and you were hiding an underground. What would you do? You know what he did he learned Hebrew. It's never too late brothers. Get yourself exiled for a couple of years and March 1536. He published his another thing.

He did on the side. He wrote the Institute's first edition little teeny book 26 years old. Went through five enlargements. Why do you write the Institute's? I want to I want to change your perception of this thing here.

Why did he write this? What drove these two volumes? Here's what it was. He tells us we don't believe any question about it. But lo while I lay hidden at Basel and known only to a few people. Many faithful and holy persons were burned alive in France.

It appeared to me that unless I opposed the perpetrators to the utmost of my ability. My silence could not be vindicated from the charge of cowardice and treachery. This was the consideration which induced me to publish my institutes of the Christian religion.

It was published with no other design. Then that men might know what was the faith held by those. I saw basically and wickedly Defamed close quote. So when you hold the Institute's in your hand sure it's controversial sure it's got all kinds of polemical language in it, but know that the seed of it was the blood of French young pastors who had fallen in love with the gospel the furnace of burning flesh is the forge of the institutes of the Christian religion.

Would I'm tempted to say and we'll say. Would more were at stake for us today in doing theology? We'd do it differently wouldn't play.