Institutes of Christian religion by John Calvin (Available from Amazon or free here)
Firstly Calvin teaches us about our self knowledge and its importance: '...self-knowledge consists in this, first, When reflecting on what God gave us at our creation, and still continues graciously to give, we perceive how great the excellence of our nature would have been had its integrity remained, and, at the same time, remember that we have nothing of our own, but depend entirely on God, from whom we hold at pleasure whatever he has seen it meet to bestow; secondly, When viewing our miserable condition since Adam’s fall, all confidence and boasting are overthrown, we blush for shame, and feel truly humble.'
Then Calvin discusses the reasons Adam sinned: ' infidelity was at the root of the revolt'.
Next Calvin examines how Adam's ruin involved and ruined us. Thus Calvin defines original sin as: 'Original sin, then, may be defined a hereditary corruption and depravity of our nature, extending to all the parts of the soul, which first makes us obnoxious to the wrath of God, and then produces in us works which in Scripture are termed works of the flesh.'
To finish the chapter Calvin asserts who is to be blamed for our sin: 'The blame of our ruin rests with our own carnality, not with God, its only cause being our degeneracy from our original condition. And let no one here glamour that God might have provided better for our safety by preventing Adam’s fall.'
By God's grace we are not as bad as we could be.
Nevertheless, to our shame, 'all the parts of the soul were possessed by sin, ever since Adam revolted from the fountain of righteousness.'
Next week's reading
Read Chapter 2
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
No comments:
Post a Comment