The Invisible Hand by R.C. Sproul

I just finished the final page of The Invisible Hand by R.C. Sproul and in reflection I must say that this will go down as "one of those books" that absolutely changed me. If you haven't noticed the sub title of this blog it references the Providence of God, which this book inspired. This book was so influential because reading a book on the Providence of God forces you to constantly reflect on your every moment and how God is there and working in that exact moment, its a reflection that springs so much joy, and makes me feel so small.

Reading this book while reading Calvin was like riding a full speed train into the wall of humility.

Blogging the Institutes Day 45 2.2.12 - 2.2.17

In yesterday's post we ended with stating that the pursuit of humility does not mean that we should slothfully ignore the powers and skills God has bestowed to us, but inversely we should give God the deserved glory and use them for the spreading of His Fame. So in the next few sections Calvin analyzes our natural and supernatural gifts and how the natural have been corrupted by sin and the supernatural (the pursuit of faith and righteousness for attainment of heavenly life) have been completely withdrawn. It is funny that I encounter this subject as just yesterday I was listening to a seminar by John Piper on TULIP, and he was covering the same topic. That unbelievers do not have the ability to do good, and by good we mean that every act should be done to the Glory of God and if it is not, it can not be "good". But this is not to say that we should not Glorify God for the work He does through unbelievers. If an unbeliever builds a hospital and that hospital saves thousands and thousands of lives, but never acknowledges God's role in that hospital, the building of that hospital was not "good", but we as believers can give all the Glory to God for using those people to carry out His healing.

Calvin says it like this, "But if the Lord has been pleased to assist us by the work and ministry of the ungodly in physics, dialectics, mathematics, and other similar sciences, let us avail ourselves of it, lest, by neglecting the gifts of God spontaneously offered to us we be justly punished for our sloth."

How wonderful it is that God fulfills His promise, that he works everything for the good of those who love Him, even in the use of the ungodly.

Blogging the Institutes Day 44 2.2.8 - 2.2.11

There is no such thing as free will, there is only will freed by God.

"Without the Spirit the will of man is not free, inasmuch as it is subject to lusts which chain and master it. And again, that nature began to want liberty the moment the will was vanquished by the revolt into which it fell. Again, that man, by making a bad use of free will, lost both himself and his will [Adam]. Again, that free will having been made a captive, can do nothing in way of righteousness. Again, that no will is free which has not been made so by divine grace. Again, that the righteousness of God is not fulfilled when the law orders, and man acts, as it were, by his own strength, but when the Spirit assists, and the will (not the free will of man, but the will freed by God) obeys.

Calvin goes so far as to warn the use of the term "free will" because of its immediate implied meaning. "Declaring that the freedom of man is nothing else than the emancipation or manumission from righteousness, he seems to jest at the emptiness of the name [will]. If any one, then, chooses to make use of this term, without attaching any bad meaning to it, he shall not be troubled by me on that account; but as it can not be retained without very great danger, I think the abolition of it would be of great advantage of the church. I am unwilling to use it myself; and others, if they will take my advice, will do well to abstain from it.

This entire discussion of free will was for the end purpose of creating a foundation on which true understanding of humility can be built. Once we understand that "free will" is nothing more than our freeing from compulsion, and is not our ability to equally choose good over evil, we will see that without divine grace we can do no good. No good, that is the foundation of humility. Calvin puts it this way, "Here however, I must again repeat what I premised at the outset of this chapter, that he who is most deeply abased and alarmed, by the consciousness of his disgrace, nakedness, want, and misery, has made the greatest progress in the knowledge of himself. Man is in no danger of taking too much from himself, provided he learns that whatever he wants is to be recovered in God." As Augustine once said, "As the orator, when asked, 'what is the first precept in eloquence? answered, Delivery: What is second? Delivery: What the third? Delivery: so, if you asked me in regard to the precepts of the Christian religion, I will answer, first, second, and third, Humility."

We see that our ultimate goal is humility, but this is not the humility that leaves us secluded in a room all ours of the day, with no interaction. As Calvin says, "I do not ask, however, that man should voluntarily yield without being convinced, or that, if he has any powers, he should shut his eyes to them, that he may thus be subdued to true humility; but that getting quit of the disease of self-love and ambition, under the blinding influences of which he thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think, he may see himself as he really is, by looking into the faithful mirror of Scripture."

Blogging the Institutes Day 43 2.2.4 - 2.2.7

In discussion of "free will" it is important to come to a consensus on the meaning of the word. The common opinion of those who Calvin referenced was free will is the "power of reason to discern between good and evil; of will, to choose the one or other." Calvin's ultimate purpose is not to refute each of the stances he observed, but to simply list them as to provide context for his argument leading up to the idea that free will is not the ability to choose equally between good and evil, but to the extent of which it frees us from compulsion. "In this way, then, man is said to have free will, not because he has a free choice of good and evil, but because he acts voluntarily, and not by compulsion. This is perfectly true; but why should so small a matter have been dignified with so proud a title?"

Calvin's problem was not solely with the idea of free will, but the definition and the words themselves. He felt that ascribing this idea of "the extent to which we are free from making decisions based on compulsion" was not worthy of the the title of "will". And this is why, "How few are there who, when they hear free will attributed to man, do not immediately imagine that he is the master of his mind and will in such a sense, that he can of himself incline himself either to good or evil? It may be said that such dangers are removed by carefully expounding the meaning to the people."

Calvin's wanted to break down this idea of free will so that when people heard the term, they did not assume it was referencing the total free ability to choose good over evil, but simply the extent to which we do not respond immediately to compulsions.

Blogging the Institutes Day 42 2.1.9 - 2.2.3

As we continue to barely scratch the surface of the second book we see Calvin laying a foundation for the redemptive power of Christ. He begins, as discussed in the previous post, with the fall of man and "original sin", and has now moved to the deprivation of free will due to that fall. In today's section we do not get very deep into how man is now deprived of freedom of will, that should be coming very shortly... stay tuned.

Blogging The Institutes Day 41 2.1.5 - 2.1.8

In continuation of the analysis of Adam's Fall we take a step deeper to look at "original sin" and its effects on those following Adam. There have been arguments made that man should not have to suffer for and are not responsible for the fall of one man. I'm sorry but that is just not the case. For Adam held the responsibility of being the perfect human. It was his job to glorify God through righteousness. He failed to do that. And in that failure tainted his original state. "It should be enough for us to know that Adam was made the depository of the endowments which God was pleased to bestow on human nature, and that, therefore, when he lost what he had received, he lost not only for himself but for us all." An example would be "from a corrupt root corrupt branches proceeding, transmit their corruption to the saplings which spring from them."

"Surely there is no ambiguity in David's confession, 'I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me'. His object in the passage is not to throw blame on his parents; but the better to commend the goodness of God toward him, he properly reiterates the confession of impurity from his very birth. Ad it is clear, that there was no peculiarity in David's case, it follows that it is only an instance of the common lot of the whole human race. All of us, therefore descending from an impure seed, come into the world tainted with the contagion of sin. No, before we behold the light of the sun we are in God's sight defiled and polluted. 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one,' says the book of Job."

But this knowledge is not meant for defeat, but for growing an attitude of humility toward Jesus. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned; even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5:19-21)

It is this depth of knowledge that helps foster humility and an understand of true Grace. The Grace that Jesus showed on the Cross. The deeper the understanding of Grace the closer we come to our Father, and the closer we come to our Father, the more we are satisfied and He is ultimately most Glorified.

Amen

Blogging The Institutes: Day 40 2.1.1 - 2.1.4

Understanding Adam's fall and the impact it has on the rest of mankind following him is an absolute necessity in understanding ourselves and what we can do to re-attain our original state. We first must look for the cause of Adam's sin, "infidelity opened the door to ambition, and ambition was the parent of rebellion, man casting off the fear of God, and giving free vent to his lust." In short, Adam's ambition to attain more, his pride, resulted in his casting off the fear of God, and once the consequence was blinded, the action prevailed. So "the strongest curb to keep all his affections under due restraint, would have been the belief that nothing was better than to cultivate righteousness by obeying the commands of God, and that the highest possible felicity was to be loved by him." Easy enough right? Just realize that when all the options are on the table, the best one is to realize that by cultivating righteousness we experience the highest emotion, the love of God.

Wouldn't it be great if that were it. Seems simple. Do Good, Experience Love. But that scenario only factors in our actions, and since the moment of Adam's fall, we became incapable of cultivating righteousness on our own.

Enter Jesus. Enter the Cross. Enter Grace. For God knows we are not able to cultivate righteousness so He made a way for us to still experience His love by sending His Son to die, to cover our inabilities with Grace.

So without understanding our inability to cultivate righteousness, without understanding the root cause of Adam's fall, we subject ourselves to the exact same trap, the trap of pride. And where pride lives, Grace can not.

So how do we re-attain our original state? We can't. Only by humbling ourselves and allowing the blood of Christ to cover our sin do we experience "the highest possible felicity" to be loved by Him.