Institutes Book 1, Chapter 2: What it is to Know God, and to What Purpose the Knowledge of Him Tends.

Section 1: Piety is Requisite for the Knowledge of God.

Knowledge of God, Calvin states, is not simply that we know that there is a God, but includes "what befits us and is proper to his glory, in fine, what is to our advantage to know him." It requires an attitude or orientation of piety to truly know God: "Indeed we shall not say that, properly speaking, God is known where there is no religion or piety."

True knowledge of God, in our fallen state, is mediated only through Christ Jesus as we are reconciled to God in him. "It is one thing to feel that God as our Maker supports us by his power, governs us by his providence, nourishes us by his goodness, and attends us with all sorts of blessings--and another thing to embrace the grace of reconciliation offered to us in Christ."

This last quote reminds me of the so-called New Age 'spirituality' of our modern age, in which people see God as the sustainer of all things, a good 'force' in which all things exist (just read some Paulo Coehlo), but does not have anything to say about our human condition, and definitely does not take Christ seriously as he presents himself, but sees him as a way of example to live before this beneficent God-force.

Section 2: Knowledge of God Involves Trust and Reverence.

The question to ask is not 'what is God?' but 'what sort God is, and what is consistent with his nature?' "Our knowledge should serve first to teach us fear and reverence; secondly with it as our guide and teacher, we should learn to seek every good from him, and having received it, to credit it to his account." We, having been created by God and continually sustained by him, owe to him our very lives. Thus "it now assuredly follows that your life is wickedly corrupt unless it be disposed to his service, seeing that his will ought for us to be the law by which we live." God is the fountain of all good, and but for our sinful depraved state, we would cleave to him and trust in him always.

Calvin gives a beautiful picture of the pious mind and how it relates to God. It is a moving passage, and I am tempted to quote him at length, but I will summarize it as Calvin does: "Here indeed is pure and real religion: faith so joined with an earnest fear of God that this fear also embraces willing reverence, and carries with it such legitimate worship as is prescribed in the law." Pure and real religion exists in a pious mind relating to God not as one dreams up for himself or herself but "is content to hold him to be as he manifests himself; furthermore, the mind always exercises the utmost diligence and care not to wander astray, or rashly and boldly to go beyond his will."

Calvin ends this chapter with a cutting remark about worship and the pious mind: "all men have a vague general veneration for God, but very few really reverence him; and wherever there is great ostentation in ceremonies, sincerity of heart is rare indeed."

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In addition to the Institutes, I am reading (although not as devotional literature) The Calvinistic Concept of Culture by Henry R. Van Til, and studying the letter of 1 Peter in preparation for a speech I will present at the CYA Retreat next weekend. This also brings to mind some of the readings from Cornelis Van Til in terms of apologetics. Cornelis Van Til speaks of the importance of worldview (although not in those terms, if I remember rightly), saying that the worldview of those who belong to Christ, who are regenerate is totally different than the worldview of those who are not regenerate. Kind of like Augustine's separation of the City of God and the City of Men.

Here Calvin says that a pious mind will seek out God as he truly is, not inventing him for himself. A pious mind is needed to know God, a mind that submits to God, trusts in him, and worships him as commanded. A pious mind that sees its need for a Saviour. In short, a pious mind is one that sees its fallenness, looks to Christ Jesus for reconciliation, and in this alone knows God.

There are two things here that are relevant to our contemporary situation. First, the absolute necessity of Christ Jesus. Because of our fallen state, because we have been alienated from God by our own actions in Adam and Eve, we need to be reconciled to him if we are to know him truly. So we need to know God through the mediation and reconciliation of Christ. Matthew 11:27 reads "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." To know God truly, to know him as he is, to know him in love and mercy rather than wrath requires that our minds be opened and made pious by Christ Jesus. We cannot do it on our own.

Second, I see the necessity of submitting myself to Christ Jesus, and trusting in all things in God. It is very easy, as a sinful man, to forget that God, as my Creator, has hold of every single part and aspect of my life. I so often trust in my own abilities, or look to do things myself that God's ownership, while not forgotten, is easily paid lip-service. I am exhorted to live with more trust and reverence in all things so that I may rightly know this God to whom I owe all things.