Although true Calvinism begins in the mind, it does not end there. This point needs to be emphasised, because although people who identify themselves as Calvinists are usu­ally strong-minded, they are not always large-hearted. Thus it is especially impor­tant to understand that Calvinism is not a set of doctrines but a whole way of life. God has revealed the doctrines of grace not simply for the instruction of our minds but ultimately for the transforma­tion of our lives.

Here again the prophet Isaiah is the perfect example (Isa. 6:1-8). When he saw the Lord high and lifted up, his own self-righteousness was utterly destroyed and he received true righteousness as a gift of God’s grace. Humanly speaking, he was a righteous man even before he entered God’s throne room. As a prophet, he had dedicated his life to God’s service. Yet something was missing. There were depths of his own depravity that he had yet to confront, and thus he still needed a shattering experience of having God’s grace applied to his guilt. To put it anachronistically, although Isaiah was a dedicated Christian, he had not yet become a thorough Calvinist.

Many terrifying thoughts must have run through Isaiah’s mind when he saw God on his holy throne. Frankly, he thought he was a dead man, for he knew that it was impossible for anyone to see God and live (see Ex. 33:20). “Woe to me!” he said, “For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isa. 6:5, emphasis added).

Isaiah also remembered what had hap­pened to King Uzziah, who had died earlier that same year. Uzziah had been one of Judah’s more successful monarchs. He was a good king, a man who “sought God” and “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Chron. 26:4-5). However, Uzziah became proud of his accomplish­ments, and in his pride he entered the Holy Place to burin incense on God’s altar. This was strictly forbidden, so the priests tried to bar the king’s entrance. While they argued back and forth, Uzziah was struck with leprosy. This made him cere­monially unclean, and he was thus forced to leave the temple and never return. The king lived in seclusion until his dying day. This was the consequence of his unlawful entrance into God’s holy sanctuary (2 Chron. 26:16-23).

With all of this somewhere in the back of his mind, Isaiah was terrified by his vision of God’s majesty, and understand­ably so. He cried, “Woe to me! ... I am ruined!” The word “woe” is significant. In the previous chapter, Isaiah had pro­nounced six woes against the people of Jerusalem, condemning them for every­thing from drunkenness to unethical real estate development. However, according to the conventions of Hebrew literature (in which things ordinarily come in sev­ens), one would expect one more woe. By pronouncing only six woes, Isaiah seemed to have left things hanging.

Then the prophet saw the sovereign Lord, seated in majesty, and his woe was made complete. “Woe is me!” he cried, pronouncing the seventh and final woe. Isaiah knew that he was finished. There was no way that he would ever survive this encounter, let alone join the angels in praising God’s holiness. All he could do was say, “I am ruined.” In other words, “It’s over. I am undone. I am devastated and dismantled. I’m all in pieces. I cease to exist.”

What so completely overwhelmed Isaiah was a clear view of his own deprav­ity. This is what always happens when we see God on His throne: by seeing Him as He really is, we see ourselves as we really are. The more we see of God’s glory, the more we recognise our need for His grace.

What is particularly striking in Isaiah’s case is the specific sin that he confessed: foul language. He discovered that he was a sinner in the one area of life where he was most committed to doing God’s will. Isaiah was a prophet, and as a prophet it was his job to speak God’s Word. In the course of his work, he often had occasion to pronounce judgment against the sins of others. Yet he had not fully understood the depth of his own depravity, and it was not until he saw God’s glory that he realised that he himself was a foul­mouthed sinner.

Furthermore, Isaiah recognised that he lived “among a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5). In other words, he had a height­ened sensitivity to the depravity of his entire generation. This is the very oppo­site of the kind of worldliness that now plagues the evangelical church. Rather than going with the crowd, and bowing to the pressure of public opinion, Isaiah realised that his contemporaries were in violation of God’s holiness.

This realisation was necessary for him to fulfill his calling as a prophet. However, it also had the danger of tempting him to become proud of his own spiritual accom­plishments. What preserved him was his unforgettable encounter with God’s tran­scendent glory, which produced a forth­right confession of his own personal sin. Subsequently, when Isaiah confronted the sins of others, he did so in a spirit of hum­ble contrition.

A penitent spirit is one of the hall­marks of Calvinism. The true Calvinist is the man or woman who wakes up in the morning saying, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). This daily confes­sion brings with it a healthy mistrust of one’s own capacity for godliness and a corresponding dependence on God for his grace. It also enables a Christian to promote God’s holiness with all humility and gentleness.