The heart of discipleship is that faithful teaching must be faithfully observed in the life of the Christian (Matthew 28:20). Our theology, Jesus taught in the Great Commission, must be lived out. So we must ask ourselves: What does the Christian life actually look like?
John Calvin’s answer to the question is deceptively minimal, but unexpectedly rich: The Christian life is marked by self-denial and bearing the cross in such a way that our joyful hope for the future life is evident and attractive.
On the Christian Life
Affiliate Link
Recently the small groups in our church went through Calvin’s classic little book On the Christian Life. This slim volume, with a new translation in a beautifully embossed hardcover, features five chapters from Calvin’s Institutes that he personally edited and published as a standalone work which has been in print ever since.
Calvin makes his argument for what the Christian life should look like across five chapters, each emphasizing an important foundational truth for evangelical discipleship.
1. The Christian’s life must be ordered by Scripture
God’s purpose in regenerating the believer is to create a “symmetry” between God and man.1 This symmetry begins in the heart and is worked out as we learn God’s standards and grow in our desire to live by them. Scripture calls us to this new life by teaching us to love righteousness and setting before us the standard for such righteousness.2
Scripture also presents Christ, our supreme example, and works on our hearts so that its teaching is not merely an intellectual endeavor but a way of life that “possesses the entire soul.”3
In other words, the fruit and evidence of a Christian’s regeneration is a commitment to order our lives according to God’s word.
2. The sum of the Christian’s life is self-denial
Calvin had to first lay the foundation of Scriptural authority so that he could now present the duty of the Christian: “to offer their bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him” (Romans 12:1). He calls this offering a “consecration,” by which we commit ourselves to “not think, speak, plan, or do anything except to his glory.”4
Thus, we are not our own. We must therefore deny ourselves in order to live and die for him (Romans 14:8).5 It is only through this sort of self-denial that we learn to depend on God, love others, and find contentment.
3. The highest—and most difficult—aspect of self-denial is suffering
Jesus tells us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). This is Calvin’s point, that following Christ is, at its core, self-denial. Specifically, that self-denial means taking up the cross and following Christ through suffering.
This is by far the most challenging chapter in the book. Calvin takes a deep dive into the necessity and value of suffering for the Christian walk, showing from the Bible that suffering exposes our need for Christ, opens to us the benefits of the cross, cures us of self-love, trains us in obedience, corrals our self-will, summons hidden virtues, tames our flesh, provides honor, teaches us to grieve honestly and deal truthfully with affliction, and sanctifies us for our good.
Each of those points is worked out in a paragraph or two, and our group discussions were very fruitful as we wrestled with the hard realities of suffering and the biblical lens Calvin was providing for how to view that suffering.
4. Self-denial and suffering teach us to meditate on the future life
Calvin sums it up best when he says, “But whatever sort of hardship troubles us, we must always focus on this goal: to grow accustomed to a contempt for the present life and in this way to be motivated to meditate on the future life.”6
In his grace, God frees us from loving the present world by causing us to suffer. This suffering keeps us from living “as if we were establishing immortality for ourselves on earth.”7 It is therefore a sanctifying kindness of God to keep us from being content with the world. Our dissatisfaction with the world should cause us to set our hope in the promises for the life to come.
5. All this, in turn, guides us in how to handle earthly goods, goals, and treasures
Our submission to Scripture, commitment to self-denial, willingness to suffer with joy, our dissatisfaction with the present world, and our longing for the future world all work together to provide the wisdom and worldview we need to put this life’s blessings to good use.
Because God does truly provide blessings in this life, we must receive these joyfully and use them with delight.8 And we can have all the more delight in God’s good gifts because we know that he has called us to a life of bearing the cross. At the same time, we must strive to avoid excess and indulgence, learning to be content, self-controlled, and restrained in our use of earthly treasures and pleasures.9
Study Guide
The book is ideal for small group study or individual discipleship. Because it captures thoughts from a bygone era, the language and phrasing can seem difficult at first. But the fresh translation, elegant typesetting, and short chapters make this a highly readable work for being nearly five hundred years old.
The content of the book is a mere 65 pages, with each chapter running between 10 and 18 pages. Yet there was enough discussion material that we were easily able to spend two weeks in each chapter.
I wrote the following study guide to keep our discussions focused on Calvin’s points, emphasizing the biblical roots and the practical applications of his arguments and encouragements. You can access the study guide below.
Notes
