THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
OF CALVINISM
What, then,
are the personal implications of Calvinistic thought and truth both in the life
of the individual and in the ministry exercised by the individual?
by Al
Martin
B. B.
Warfield describes Calvinism as 'that sight of the majesty of God that pervades
all of life and all of experience'. In particular as
it relates to the doctrine of salvation its glad confession is summarized in
those three pregnant words, God saves sinners. Now whenever we are confronted with great doctrinal statements in Holy
Scripture, God does not leave us merely with the statement of doctrine. The end
of God's truth set before the minds of God's people is that, understanding it,
they might know its effect in their own personal experience. So
the grand doctrinal themes of Ephesians, chapters 1, 2 and 3 are followed by
the application of those doctrines to practical life and experience in
Ephesians, chapters 4, 5 and 6. The end for which God gave his truth was not so
much the instruction of our minds as the transformation of our lives. But a person cannot come directly to the life and
experience, he must come mediately through the mind. And so God's truth is addressed to the understanding and the
Spirit of God operates in the understanding as the Spirit of wisdom and
knowledge. He does not illuminate the mind simply that the file drawers of the
mental study may be crammed full of information. The end for which God
instructs the mind is that he might transform the life.
What, then,
are the personal implications of Calvinistic thought and truth both in the life
of the individual and in the ministry exercised by the individual
? By personal implications I mean the
implications of your own relationship to God without any conscious reference to
the ministry.
Now, these
things cannot be separated in an absolute sense, for
as has been well said, 'The life of a minister is the life of his ministry'.
You cannot separate what you are from what you do; you cannot separate the
effect of truth upon your own relationship to God personally from the effect of
truth through you ministerially. For the sake of
bringing the principles into sharp focus I am
separating them, but in no way do I want to give the impression that these two
are in rigid categories.
I ask then,
What are the implications of Calvinistic thought, this
vision of the majesty of God and of the saving truth of Scripture as it relates
to us as individuals? In answer let us go back to that general principle which
B. B. Warfield calls the 'formative principle of Calvinism'. I quote Warfield's
words: '
It lies
then, let me repeat, in a profound apprehension of God in His majesty, with the
poignant realisation which inevitably accompanies
this apprehension, of the relation sustained to God by the creature as such,
and particularly by the sinful creature. The Calvinist is the
man who has seen God, and who, having seen God in His glory, is filled on the
one hand with a sense of his own unworthiness to stand in God's sight as a
creature, and much more as a sinner, and on the other hand, with adoring wonder
that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners. He who believes in God without reserve and is determined that God
shall be God to him in all his thinking, feeling and willing - in the entire
compass of his life activities, intellectual, moral and spiritual - throughout
all his individual social and religious relations, is, by force of that
strictest of all logic which presides over the outworking of principles into
thought and life, by the very necessity of the case, a Calvinist.
Notice that
when B. B. Warfield defines Calvinism and the Calvinist he used words of a
strongly experimental nature. The words 'apprehension' and 'realisation'
deal primarily with the understanding, though they go beyond that, but when we
come to words such as 'seen God', 'filled on the one hand with a sense of his
own unworthiness', 'adoring Wonder', 'thinking, feeling and willing', these are
words of experience. Warfield is really saying that no person is a Calvinist,
no person is truly Biblical in his thinking of God, no man is truly religious, no man is truly evangelical until these concepts have been
burned into the nerve fibres of his experience. In
other words, Warfield would say that an academic Calvinist is a misnomer, as
much as to speak of "a living corpse' is a misnomer. When the soul and the
body are separate death has taken place, and Warfield would teach us that when
the soul of Calvinistic thought is dead or absent, all that remains is a carcase, a stench in the nostrils of God, and so often a
stench in the church when found in a minister.
With this
sort of background as to the personal implications, I want us next to consider
a passage of Scripture, in which we have a historical account of how God makes
a Calvinist. Turn to Isaiah, Chapter 6.
'In the
year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne. Isaiah, who knew king Uzziah
well, and had seen him upon his throne, says that in the year that that king
died he saw the true King. He mentions that again at the end of verse 5: for my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And he saw
him essentially as an enthroned king:
In the year
that King Uzziah died
I saw the
Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and
lifted up;
and the
train of his robe filled the temple.
Above him stood the seraphim.
Each had
six wings:
with two
he covered his face,
and with
two he covered his feet,
and with
two he flew.
And one
called to another and said:
"Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole
earth is full of his glory!"
And the
foundations of the thresholds
shook at
the voice of him who called,
and the
house was filled with smoke.
And I
said:
“Woe is me!
For I am lost;
for I am
a man of unclean lips,
and I
dwell in the midst
of a
people of unclean lips;
for my
eyes have seen
the King
— the Lord of Hosts!”
Then one of
the seraphim flew to me,
having in
his hand a burning coal
that he
had taken with tongs from the alter.
And he
touched my mouth...
The sensitive tissues of the lips; a coal so hot that the seraph could
not take it barehanded but had to take it with tongs. It sears the lips of the prophet.
Then follow the words of comfort,
“Behold,
this has touched your lips;
your
guilt is taken away,
and your
sin atoned for.”
And I
heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall
we send, and who will go for us?”
Then I
said, “Here am I! Send me.”
And he
said, “Go, and say to this people:
‘Keep on
hearing, but do not understand;
keep on
seeing, but do not perceive.
Make the
heart of this people dull,
and their
ears heavy, and blind their eyes;
lest they
see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
and
understand with their hearts,
and turn
and be healed.’”
Then I
said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he
said:
“Until
cities lie waste without inhabitant,
and
houses without people,
and the
land is a desolate waste.”
Here is the
record of how God makes a Calvinist, how God brought a man to a vision of the
majesty of God that so affected him that his life was never the same again. The
first thing that struck him in this vision was this sight of God as the high
and the lofty One, seated upon a throne, so that whatever else is introduced
into the vision — the holiness of God, the grace of God, the forgiveness of God
— it is the shining forth of God from a position of enthronement:
I saw the
Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and
lifted up.
So we may
say rightly that it was sovereign holiness as well as a holy sovereignty that
was exercised. It was sovereign grace as well as a gracious sovereignty. And this display of the Lord as the King brought with it
several distinct results in the life of the prophet.
In the
first place, it brought a deep experimental acquaintance with his own sinfulness. 'Woe is me! I am undone. I've been shocked. I've gone to
pieces. I've fallen apart'. Now who was he ? Was he some hippie yanked off the streets who had been
holding up little four-lettered words to those who did not like his interests ? Was he some kind of student who had been running
around under the guise of the so-called insights of new morality giving bent to
his animal passions ? No, this was Isaiah, from all
indication in the record of Scripture a holy man, a man of God, what would be
termed a dedicated Christian. But he had yet to have a
sight and vision of the Lord that shattered him and shook him and exposed the
inherent corruption of his own heart and life.
And I
submit that God never makes Calvinists by displaying to them his glory and his
majesty without bringing with it this commensurate exposure of sin in the light
of his sovereignty and his holiness. It brought with it also a deep insight
into the state of his own generation, for note that in his own confession he
not only says, 'I am a man of unclean lips' but 'I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips'. In the record of the state of the people as found for
example in Isaiah 58, we find that they were extremely religious; they came
daily to the temple and offered sacrifices. Read Isaiah 1,
and you will find the prophet's contemporaries bringing their sacrifices and
keeping their feast days. Yet God said, 'I am sick and tired of the whole
thing. Bring no more vain oblations, . . . When you
make many prayers I will not hear'. And if you and I
had been standing there as onlookers we would have said that religion in
Next it
brought an experimental acquaintance with grace and forgiveness. As Isaiah
feels his uncleanness, his undoneness in the presence
of the Lord, the seraph takes a live coal from off the altar of sacrifice, a
coal which becomes the symbol of the basis upon which
God forgives sinners. It touches the lips of the prophet, and though there is
inner pain, there is also that wonderful word of
grace, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. Here is a man who has
been brought to the sight of his own sin in such a way that he wonders how it
can be that such a person as he is can dwell in the presence of such a One as
the Lord is. It is that person to whom the word of
forgiveness is a humbling, overpowering, captivating word. The reason
why grace is so little appreciated in our days is that the transcendent majesty and sovereignty and holiness of God are so little
appreciated, and we do not see much more than a half step between God and our
sinful selves. But Isaiah saw as it were an infinite
chasm, and when the Lord sovereignly extended mercy
across that chasm and touched him, he became a man who then evidenced the fruit
of grace.
Thirdly, it
tells us of a man who was brought to utter resignation
before God. Having been purged, Isaiah next tells us, “I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for
us?” Note the prophet's reaction. Having seen the Lord in his sovereignty and
holiness, and himself in his uncleanness, and having heard the word of grace
and forgiveness, what can a man do when this Lord speaks and he hears His
voice, but say, 'Here am I. There is nothing here of
the missionary telling tear-jerking stories about human sin and human need, in
the attempt to wrench young people from their seat of complacency and rebellion
to the revealed will of God and to get them to crank out an Here am I. This was
just the reflex action of a man who had seen the Lord and heard his voice, and
he says,
'Here am I,
Lord, send me. And then, as it were, the Lord tests the depths of that
confession and we find an utter resignation to the will and ways of the Lord,
no matter how strange they seem, for it is immediately made clear to the
prophet that he is to have a ministry primarily of judgment:
“Go, and
say to this people:
‘Keep on
hearing, but do not understand;
keep on
seeing, but do not perceive.
Make the
heart of this people dull...’”
I“saiah,
I am commissioning you to a ministry of hardening and of judgment.” Now what
does the prophet do? Does the prophet recoil and say, “O Lord, that isn't fair.
Do not call me to such a work as that.” No, no! He
simply says, How long, O Lord? In other words, “Lord,
it is your perfect right to send me on a ministry which will be primarily a
ministry of hardening and judgment. You are God. You are on the throne. I am
the creature before the throne. You are holy. I am sinful. What can I do but be
held captive by the expression of your will, no matter what the implications
may be?”
This is how
God makes a man a Calvinist. In one way or another he
gives him such a sight of his own majesty and sovereignty and holiness as the
high and the lofty One, that it brings with it a deep, experimental
acquaintance with human sinfulness personally and in terms of our own
generation. It brings experimental acquaintance with the grace of God, an
intimate acquaintance with the voice of God, an utter resignation to the will
and the ways of God.
I say by
way of application, do not talk about being a Calvinist simply because your
itch for logical consistency has been relieved by
Calvinism's theological system.
Have you
seen God ?
Have you
been brought near to Him ?
That is the
issue.
I remind
you of the words of B. B. Warfield:
A Calvinist
is a man who has seen God.
The
expression, a proud Calvinist, is a misnomer. If a Calvinist is a man who has
seen God as He is high and lifted up, enthroned, then
he is a man who has been brought to brokenness before that throne as was
Isaiah. A carnal Calvinist? Another
misnomer! The enthroned One is the holy One, and He dwells in conscious
communion with those who are rightly related to Him as
the enthroned One and as the holy One. These two things are brought together
beautifully in Isaiah 57.15 where the prophet says: '
For thus
says the the One
who is
high and lifted up,
who
inhabits eternity,
whose
name is Holy:
I dwell in
the high and holy place,
and also
with him who is
of a
contrite and lowly spirit.
What is
contrition? It is the reaction of a sinner in the presence of
a holy God; and, what is humility? It is the reaction of a subject in
the presence of a sovereign. Isaiah never forgot this vision, and he says,
“This great God dwells in that high and holy place, with him also that is of a
humble and a contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive
the heart of the contrite ones.”
If your understanding
of Calvinistic thinking has led you to the place where you can, as it were,
boast in your liberty and use it as an occasion for licence,
then you have never become a biblical Calvinist. God makes Calvinists today the
same way he made them in Isaiah's day.
I submit
that a man has no right to speak of being a Calvinist because he can repeat
like a parrot phrases brought to him in the great heritage of Reformed
literature. He must ask himself, Has the Holy Spirit
brought me to this profound sense of God that has worked in me at least in some
measure the grace of humility. Has God endowed me with gifts and abilities? If
so, what have I that I did not receive? Who makes me to differ
? If God has endowed me with gifts and abilities whether intellectual or
otherwise, I acknowledge that I have those because a Sovereign upon a throne
was pleased to dispense them to me, and the only difference between me and that
poor retarded child that moves the pity of my heart, is that He was pleased to
make me different. “Who maketh thee to differ?” The
man who stands in the presence of a God upon the throne, and who has had this
sight and sense of the majesty of God, recognizes that all that he has, has been given. Humility is not diffidence. Humility is
that disposition of honest
recognition:
He is God, I am but a creature. All that I have comes from him and must be rendered to him in praise, and in honour. It will bring with it the submission that we see in
Isaiah. He sits upon a throne; I have no rights to assert, but I have the
unspeakable privilege of knowing and doing his will. Was not that the reflex
action of Isaiah? The Lord is upon the throne; I am the creature. What else can
I do but say, “Here am I?”
Oh, the
unspeakable delight of knowing and doing the will of God! It brings not only
humility and submission, but true contrition, for I
see then that all sin has been basically a violent anarchist spirit exerted
against the throne-rights of God. Have I failed to love Him with the whole
heart? Then this has been anarchy. He demands and is worthy of my undivided
affection. Have I failed to love my neighbour as
myself and given expression to this sin in a disrespect for parents, a
disrespect for the rights and life of others, the purity and sanctity of
others, the reputation of others ? Go through the Ten
Commandments, and learn that any breach of them is at its core violent anarchy
against the throne-rights of God. All pride — what is it but an attempt to
share the glory that belongs to the throne, and to the God upon that throne,
and to say in reality, “O God, please let me sneak into the picture and get glory ?” Is not that pride ? — a wicked attempt to share the praise of the enthroned God!
And so this sight of God cannot help but produce humility, submission,
contrition, and on the brighter side, it cannot help but produce gratitude,
that in the exercise of His sovereign rights I should be blessed of God with
sanity, with soundness of body, clearness of mind, and, above all, that I
should be blessed with grace, confidence that God is on His throne, that
nothing past, present or future has ever made that throne twitter
one-thousandth of an inch. Jehovah reigneth! let the earth tremble. Confidence,
unshakable confidence, joy, regardless of what transpires in the sphere that I
can see! All is well where He sits.
Has God
made you a Calvinist? I am not asking whether you have read a book by Boettner, or Kuyper or Warfield
and become a Calvinist. I am asking, Has God given you a vision of himself ? Did He shatter you? and
bring you to that place by his grace of humility, submission, contrition,
gratitude, confidence and joy? That is what makes a Calvinist. If we know this we will want to say, My God, how wonderful Thou art,
Thy majesty how bright!
How
beautiful Thy mercy-seat,
In depths of burning light!
O how I
fear Thee, living God,
With
deepest, tenderest fears,
And
worship Thee with trembling hope
And
penitential tears!How
beautiful, how beautiful
The sight
of Thee must be,
Thine
endless wisdom, boundless power,
And awful purity!
as of 1-2007