tohu va bohu

Those of you who went to the 05SR and who were in big church this morning probably recognized that there were a few tweaks to my introduction message on the Reformation. One of the additions that you did hear was a quote from Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion about God being the “sole aim of all our actions.”

“when duly absorbed with the knowledge of Him, the whole aim of our lives will be to revere, fear, and worship His majesty, to enjoy a share in His blessings, to have recourse to Him in every difficulty, to acknowledge, laud, and celebrate the magnificence of His works, to make Him, as it were, the sole aim of all our actions” (Institutes, 2.8.16)

Seeing and knowing His glories moves us to seek satisfaction in God and praise God for His majesty and seek to live only for Him.

But I had another quote from Calvin in my notes that I didn’t read for the sake of time. I thought I’d share it here. Calvin instructs us:

“it will not be sufficient simply to hold that He is the only being whom all ought to worship and adore, unless we are also persuaded … that we must seek everything in Him, and in none but Him. … we must be persuaded not only that as He once formed the world, so He sustains it by His power, governs it by His wisdom, preserves it by His goodness, in particular rules the human race with justice and judgment, bears with them in mercy, shields them by His protection; but also that not a particle of light, or wisdom, or justice, or power, or (uprightness), or genuine truth, will anywhere be found, which does not flow from Him, and of which He is not the cause; in this way we must learn to expect and ask all things from Him, and thankfully ascribe to Him whatever we receive. … Until men feel that they owe everything to God, that they are cherished by His paternal care, and that He is the author of all their blessings, so that nought is to be looked for away from Him, they will never submit to Him in voluntary obedience; nay, unless they place their entire happiness in Him, they will never yield up their whole selves to Him in truth and sincerity” (Institutes, 1.2.1)

Depending on how you count, there are perhaps over twenty different attributes and works of God to be seen and praised just in this one quote, let alone in all of Scripture and creation and history. In other words, we should train our eyes to see in everything a praise for God and we should be weaned off of seeking any happiness excpet for in God.

This was the burden of the Reformers, to publicize and display and advertise the true God in as grandiose of terms as they possibly could (since God’s glory is infinitely grandiose) to as many people as they could.

Likewise, it should be our unbroken pursuit to witness and promote the glory of God on the earth. God’s own aim in everything is to display the glory of God. So the Son of God has purchased our freedom from the scales of sin that made us blind to His glory. The Spirit of God has made peace in our hostile, hating hearts in order that we would love and see the beauty His glory. The Word of God is revealed to us that we would learn the whys and hows of reverence for the One exposed in it. The end is that zeal for glorifying God ought not to seize us only at certain moments, but urge us without intermission, so that every circumstance should appear favorable for doing so.