Marriage Mania

Marriage Mania

So with all the weddings coming up (including my own) Calvin & Blogging have been put on hold.

Blogging the Institutes Day 57 : 2.7.2 - 2.7.7

We have heard in Galatians "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law".

Oh the glory of that line. There is however a cyclical view of this. That leads us to the topic of today's reading: How the law leads us to understand the curse, which leads us to Christ.

"Hence he properly calls Christ the end or fulfilling of the Law, because it would avail us nothing to know what God demands did not Christ come to the succor [aid] of those who are laboring, and oppressed under an intolerable yoke and burden."

"Is the Lord, then, you will ask, only sporting with us? Is it not the next thing to mockery, to hold out the hope of happiness, to invite and exhort us to it, to declare that it is set before us, while all the while the entrance to it is precluded and quite shut up? I answer, Although the promises, insofar as they are conditional, depend on a perfect obedience of the Law, which is nowhere to be found, they have not, however, been given in vain. For when we have learned, that the promises would be fruitless and unavailing, did not God accept us of his free goodness, without any view of our works, and when, having so learned, we, by faith, embrace the goodness thus offered in the gospel, the promises, with all their annexed conditions, are fully accomplished. For God. while bestowing all thing upon us freely, crowns his goodness by not disdaining our imperfect obedience; forgiving its deficiencies, accepting it as if it were complete, and so bestowing upon us the full amount of what the Law has promised."... !!!!

Blogging the Institutes Day 57 : 2.6.3 - 2.7.1

The theme of redemption flood Scriptures. From the fall of man to coming of the Kingdom. Christ as Mediator is a constant pursuit. The purpose of the laws, ceremonies, and rites in the Old Testament were to point the Jews to an "end". God is only interested in spiritual worship, for why would God be interested in the shouts of mere human mouths? He wouldn't. He wants man's soul to rejoice, he wants man's soul to sing to Him! These ceremonies were to draw the spiritual out of the dead human flesh. They were to draw the mind up so they could see that something greater would be needed to fully restore them with God. In short, the laws, ceremonies, and rites point to an ultimate sacrifice, of the most pure blood, that can reach deep enough to cleanse a soul! And that sacrifice was satisfied in Jesus Christ.

Blogging the Institutes Day 56 : 2.5.18 - 2.6.2

If you haven't picked up on it yet, Calvin is really trying to get across the depth of what it means to be a fallen human, and that due to our nature we must solely rely on God and His Grace to be near to Him and do good by Him.

"Only agree with me in this, that it is by his (man's) own fault he is stripped of the ornaments in which the Lord at first attired him, and then let us unite in acknowledging that what he now wants is a physician, and not a defender."

"Let it stand, therefore, as an indubitable truth, which no engines can shake, that the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the righteousness of God that he cannot conceive, desire, or design any thing uy what is wicked, distorted, foul, impure, and iniquitous; that his heart is so thoroughly envenomed by sin that it can breathe out nothing but corruption and rottenness; that if some men occasionally make a show of goodness, their mind is ever interwoven with hypocrisy and deceit, their sould inwardly bound with the fetters of wickedness."

Blogging the Institutes Day 55 2.5.13 - 2.5.17

We continue on the topic of man's ability to chose good, and further support the stance that man can do no good without the aid of God & Grace. Calvin makes two statements that I feel should be documented in order to build this further support.

This one is pretty funny, I can see Calvin saying this to his opposition.

"To the natural powers of man we ascribe approving and rejecting, willing and not willing, striving and resisting, i.e., approving vanity, rejecting solid good, willing evil and not willing good, striving for wickedness, and resisting righteousness."

And in response to those who say, "Then why do any thing at all".

Grace led "good acts" are our own! How great is that! We get a level of credit in God's eyes for those works which we could not do without His Help.

"But though every thing good in the will is entirely derived from the influence of the Spirit, yet, because we have naturally an innate power of willing, we are not improperly said to do the things of which God claims for himself all the praise; first, because every thing which his kindness produces in us is our own (only we must understand that it is not of ourselves); and, secondly, because it is our mind, our will, our sturdy which are guided by him to what is good."

Blogging the Institutes Day 54 2.5.9 - 2.5.12

Why do I think it is of such massive importance that we squash the idea of the human will's ability to chose good?

Answer: So that we can not boast. Because we would. If the human will was able to chose good without the aid of grace and faith, we would give ourselves the glory and rob God of His deserved glory.

"We must, therefore, attend to the admonition of Paul, when he thus addresses believers, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.' (Phil 2:12-13). He ascribes to them (man) a part in acting that they may not indulge in carnal sloth, but by enjoining fear and trembling, he humbles them so as to keep them in remembrance, that the very thing which they are ordered to do is the proper work of God -- distinctly intimating, that believers act passively inasmuch as the power is given them from heaven, and cannot in any way be arrogated to themselves."