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John Calvin – Sparks of His Glory Wherever We Cast Our Gaze

23 Apr

The final goal of the blessed life, moreover, rests in the knowledge of God [cf. John 17:3]. Lest anyone, then, be excluded from access to happiness, he not only sowed in men’s minds that seed of religion of which we have spoken but revealed himself and daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe. As a consequence, men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see him. Indeed, his essence is incomprehensible; hence, his divineness far escapes all human perception. But upon his individual works he has engraved unmistakable marks of his glory, so clear and so prominent that even unlettered and stupid folk cannot plead the excuse of ignorance…in the creation of the universe he brought forth those insignia whereby he shows his glory to us, whenever and wherever we cast our gaze…wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory.

~John Calvin~






The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press; 1974) Vol. 1.5.1.

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John Calvin – Why Deism Can’t Be Right

10 Apr

There is nothing less in accord with God’s nature than for him to cast off the government of the universe and abandon it to fortune, and to be blind to the wicked deeds of men, so that they may lust unpunished.

~John Calvin~






The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press; 1974) Vol. 1.4.2. p. 48

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Herman Bavinck – The Infinite God is Knowable!

4 Apr

The moment we dare to speak about God the question arises: How can we? We are human and he is the Lord our God. Between him and us there seems to be no such kinship or communion as would enable us to name him truthfully. The distance between God and us is the gulf between the Infinite and the finite, between eternity and time, between being and becoming, between the All and the nothing. However little we know of God, even the faintest notion implies that he is a being who is infinitely exalted above every creature. While Holy Scripture affirms this truth in the strongest terms, it nevertheless sets forth a doctrine of God that fully upholds his knowability. Scripture, one must remember, never makes any attempt to prove the existence of God, but simply presupposes it. Moreover, in this connection it consistently assumes that human beings have an ineradicable sense of that existence and a certain knowledge of God’s being. This knowledge does not arise from their own investigation and reflection, but is due to the fact that God on his part revealed himself to us in nature and history, in prophecy and miracle, by ordinary and by extraordinary means. In Scripture, therefore, the knowability of God is never in doubt even for a moment. The fool may say in his heart, “There is no God,” but those who open their eyes perceive from all directions the witness of his existence, of his eternal power and deity (Isa. 40:26; Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:19-20). The purpose of God’s revelation, according to Scripture, is precisely that human beings may know God and so receive eternal life (John 17:3; 20:31).

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 2: God and Creation (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2004) p. 30.

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Geerhardus Vos – Jesus as the Center of God’s Work in the World

28 Mar

Most clearly of all the theological genius of Paul can be seen at work in the manner in which he subsumes the entire saving work of God under his conception of the person of Christ. It would be inaccurate to say that Paul’s theology is Christocentric, in as much as the work of Christ remains subordinate to the glory of the Father (1 Cor. 15:28). But it would be quite proper to say that Paul’s soteriological teaching amounts to a Christologizing of the gospel on the grandest of scales. From the beginning to the end man’s salvation appears to Paul not merely associated with Christ, but capable of description in terms of Christ. We are chosen in Him in the premundane eternity and shall share His glory in the eternity of the world to come. And in all that lies between the figure of Christ accompanies that of the believer through every stage of its progress in the grace of God. The determination with which the apostle has carried through this principle appears from the fact that even such subjective experiences as conversion and regeneration are described by him in Christological terms, viz., as a dying and rising with Christ, as steps in the reproduction of the life of Christ in us. And within the limits of the life of Christ in which all grace is thus concentrated, a still greater concentration is effected by Paul’s viewing everything from the standpoint of the living, glorified Christ, who sums up and carries in Himself all the saving energies and gifts acquired during His life in the flesh, so that the whole work of salvation has an eternally fixed personal center of unity in the exalted Lord. In this soteriological reduction of everything to terms of Christ, as well as in the reduction of everything to terms of God in the broader theological sense, we feel how perfectly the head and heart of Paul interacted and responded to each other. The recognition of the supremacy of both in his thought was but the highest form of homage and devotion which his love prompted him to lay at the feet of his Savior and his God.

~Geerhardus Vos~


Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation – The Theology of Paul (Phillipsburg, NJ; P&R Publishing, 1980), 360.

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Charles Spurgeon – Jesus Himself Rejoices Over You

25 Mar

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[10] Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” [11] And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying. – Acts 9:10-11 ESV

The shepherd of our souls rejoices in the vision of his sheep securely folded, he triumphs in spirit when he brings a wanderer home. I conceive that when he spoke these words to Ananias, one of the smiles of Paradise must have shone from his eyes. “Behold,” I have won the heart of my enemy, I have saved my persecutor, even now he is bending the knee at my footstool, “behold, he prayeth.” Jesus himself led the song, rejoicing over the new convert with singing. Jesus Christ was glad, and rejoiced more over that lost sheep than over ninety and nine that went not astray. And angels rejoiced too.

~Charles Spurgeon~




Spurgeon’s Sermons (Spokane, Washington; Olive Tree Bible Software; 2010) eBook. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 16; Titled: Paul’s First Prayer; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 25th, 1855.

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Charles Spurgeon – Prayers Are Heard in Heaven

21 Mar

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Prayers are noticed in heaven. Oh! I know what is the case with many of you. You think, “If I turn to God, if I seek him, surely I am so inconsiderable a being, so guilty and vile, that it cannot be imagined he would take any notice of me.” My friends, harbor no such heathenish ideas. Our God is no god who sits in one perpetual dream; nor doth he clothe himself in such thick darkness that he cannot see; he is not like Baal who heareth not. True, he may not regard battles; he cares not for the pomp and pageantry of kings; he listens not to the swell of martial music; he regards not the triumph and the pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big with sorrow, wherever there is an eye suffused with tears, wherever there is a lip quivering with agony, wherever there is a deep groan, or a penitential sigh, the ear of Jehovah is wide open; he marks it down in the registry of his memory; he puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of his book of remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last there shall be a precious fragrance springing up therefrom. Oh! Poor sinner, of the blackest and vilest character, thy prayers are heard, and even now God hath said of thee, “Behold, he prayeth.” Where was it– in a barn? Where was it– in the closet? Was it at thy bedside this morning, or in this hall? Art thou now glancing thine eye to heaven? Speak, poor heart; did I hear thy lips just now mutter out, “God have mercy upon me, a sinner?” I tell thee, sinner, there is one thing which doth outstrip the telegraph. You know we can now send a message and receive an answer in a few moments; but I read of something in the Bible more swift than the electric fluid. “Before they call I will answer, and while they are speaking I will hear.” So, then, poor sinner, thou art noticed; yea, thou art heard by him that sitteth on the throne.

~Charles Spurgeon~




Spurgeon’s Sermons (Spokane, Washington; Olive Tree Bible Software; 2010) eBook. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 16; Titled: Paul’s First Prayer; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 25th, 1855.

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John Calvin – Engraven on Human Hearts

18 Mar

From this, my present contention is brought out with greater certainty, that a sense of divinity is by nature engraven on human hearts. For necessity forces from the reprobate themselves a confession of it. In tranquil times they wittily joke about God, indeed are facetious and garrulous in belittling his power. If any occasion for despair presses upon them, it goads them to seek him and impels their perfunctory prayers. From this it is clear that they have not been utterly ignorant of God, but that what should have come forth sooner was held back by stubbornness.

~John Calvin~






The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press; 1974) Vol. 1.4.4. p. 51

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Herman Bavinck – All Things Are From, Through, and To Him

15 Mar

Mystery is the lifeblood of dogmatics. To be sure, the term “mystery” (μυστεριον) in Scripture does not mean an abstract supernatural truth in the Roman Catholic sense. Yet Scripture is equally far removed from the idea that believers can grasp the revealed mysteries in a scientific sense. In truth, the knowledge that God has revealed of himself in nature and Scripture far surpasses human imagination and understanding. In that sense it is all mystery with which the science of dogmatics is concerned, for it does not deal with finite creatures, but from beginning to end looks past all creatures and focuses on the eternal and infinite One himself. From the very start of it labors, it faces the incomprehensible One. From him it derives its inception, for from him are all things. But also in the remaining loci, when it turns its attention to creatures, it views them only in relation to God as they exist from him and through him and for him [Rom. 11:36]. So then, the knowledge of God is the only dogma, the exclusive content, of the entire field of dogmatics. All the doctrines treated in dogmatics–whether they concern the universe, humanity, Christ, and so forth–are but the explication of the one central dogma of the knowledge of God. All things are considered in light of God, subsumed under him, traced back to him as the starting point. Dogmatics is always called upon to ponder and describe God and God alone, whose glory is in creation and re-creation, in nature and grace, in the world and in the church. It is the knowledge of him alone that dogmatics must put on display.

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 2: God and Creation (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2004) p. 29.

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Charles Spurgeon – A Prayer for When You Read Your Bible

12 Mar

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May God, in his infinite mercy, when you read your Bibles, pour into your souls the illuminating rays of the Sun of Righteousness, by the agency of the ever- adorable Spirit; then you will read to your profit and to your soul’s salvation.

~Charles Spurgeon~




Spurgeon’s Sermons (Spokane, Washington; Olive Tree Bible Software; 2010) eBook. Vol. 1, Sermon No. 15; Titled: The Bible; Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 18th, 1855.

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Wolfgang Musculus – Like the Waters of a Gushing Fountain

11 Mar

[4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved – Eph. 2:4-5

The riches of God that Paul refers to when he says that God is rich in mercy are wonderful and divine. In this world a rich person uses his wealth for his own good and comfort. Even if he gives some of it away to help others, he uses most of it for his own benefit. In contrast, the kind of wealth in which God is rich in mercy is not intended for his benefit but for ours. Mercy cannot benefit him in any way because he is not miserable, unhappy or in trouble and therefore does not need it. All the wealth that makes him rich in mercy is used up outside himself and flows into us rather like the waters of a gushing fountain. Such riches reflect the divine nature, whose attribute is always to have mercy and to pardon. In the world nobody gets rich by showing pity, giving, contributing and donating, but only by obtaining things. That is what the riches of this world are like. Let us therefore leave them to the children of this world and let ourselves be rich in mercy, following the example of our Father in heaven.

~Wolfgang Musculus~




Reformation Commentary on Scripture: Galatians, Ephesians (Downers Grove, IL; IVP Academic; 2012) p. 281-282.

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