Today's (okay, Wednesday's) readings from the Institutes deal with the doctrine of the knowledge of God. As Calvin argues, we must start here so that we can properly know ourselves.
But this knowledge cannot be simply intellectual assent, there is more to it--much more. Here Calvin expresses it in the negative:
True and proper knowledge of God has a singular result in the lives of those who have it: submission to him because of who he is and what he has done. In short:
This knowledge, however clearly it may be seen in nature, is sinfully suppressed because people do not want to know God. Knowing who God is and knowing his just nature, we wish that it weren't so:
We want the benefits of God, without the responsibilities that come with it. We want the good without paying for it--either in humble submission or in punishment for our defiance. As Calvin adds:
But this knowledge cannot be simply intellectual assent, there is more to it--much more. Here Calvin expresses it in the negative:
until men feel that they owe everything to God, that they are cherished by his paternal care, and that he is the author of all their blessings, so that nought is to be looked for away from him, they will never submit to him in voluntary obedience; nay, unless they place their entire happiness in him, they will never yield up their whole selves to him in truth and sincerity.
True and proper knowledge of God has a singular result in the lives of those who have it: submission to him because of who he is and what he has done. In short:
The effect of our knowledge rather ought to be, first, to teach us reverence and fear; and, secondly, to induce us, under its guidance and teaching, to ask every good thing from him, and, when it is received, ascribe it to him.
This knowledge, however clearly it may be seen in nature, is sinfully suppressed because people do not want to know God. Knowing who God is and knowing his just nature, we wish that it weren't so:
Those whose inclinations are at variance with the justice of God, knowing that his tribunal has been erected for the punishment of transgression, earnestly wish that that tribunal were overthrown.
We want the benefits of God, without the responsibilities that come with it. We want the good without paying for it--either in humble submission or in punishment for our defiance. As Calvin adds:
Let each of us, therefore, in contemplating his own nature, remember that there is one God who governs all natures, and, in governing, wishes us to have respect to himself, to make him the object of our faith, worship, and adoration. Nothing, indeed, can be more preposterous than to enjoy those noble endowments which bespeak the divine presence within us, and to neglect him who, of his own good pleasure, bestows them upon us.
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