John Calvin was born just five hundred years ago, on July 10th 1509. Few men have lived such fruitful lives as he did. He was a man raised up by God to do a mighty work on earth. He deserves our deep respect and our heartfelt affection as we recall how much we owe to him under the sovereign grace of God.

John Knox, our eminent Scottish Reformer, had the highest regard for Calvin, whom he knew personally. Knox said of Geneva, the city where Calvin preached, that it was ‘the most perfect school of Christ which has been since the days of the Apostles on earth’. The Reformed Church in Scotland owes an immense debt to the influence of John Calvin. It is a debt which in this anniversary year should be gratefully remembered in our land.

Calvin’s Conversion⤒🔗

Calvin was a Frenchman, born not far from Paris. In early life he was a Roman Catholic. He was sent to Paris to study for the priesthood. Here his exceptional intellectual gifts were recognised. For a time he turned his attention to law, and was such a brilliant scholar that he often lectured to the class in the absence of the professor. His conversion to Christ and his turning from Catholicism came about in the year 1532, when he was in his early twenties. He was influenced by evangelical friends who had come under gospel teaching emanating from Luther’s disciples in Germany. Eager to know the truth, Calvin began to search the Scriptures and to read the early Church Fathers. His conversion was not gradual but rapid. He said: ‘Like a flash of light, I realised in what an abyss of errors, in what chaos I was’. God, he wrote later, was pleased by a ‘sudden conversion’ to subdue him and make him willing ‘to know the truth’.

From now on Calvin’s greatest study was of the Bible. His vision was to have a pure church based on the Bible as the Word of God.

Calvin’s life was full of activity. In 1534 he met with a few friends for the first time to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in a biblical way. They met, for safety, in a cave at Poitiers – known today as ‘Calvin’s Cave’. In 1536, at the age of twenty-seven, he published in Latin the first edition of his famous Institutes.

Calvin’s Institutes←⤒🔗

This wonderful book may fairly be called probably the greatest book ever written, with the exception of the Bible. Over the years of his life Calvin enlarged the Institutes, which is a textbook of Bible doctrine. This first edition of 1536 contained just six chapters:

1. God’s Law;

2. Faith;

3. Prayer;

4. the Biblical Sacraments;

5. the so-called Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church;

6. Church Government.

As time went on Calvin enlarged the Institutes till at its final edition of 1559 it had eighty chapters. It is the finest summary of Christian teaching ever written and deserves to be carefully studied by us all today. It is full of life and power. It is in no way ‘dry’ or ‘academic’.

Calvin at Geneva←⤒🔗

Calvin’s life’s work was done at the Swiss city of Geneva. God’s plan is clearly seen in the way this came about. After some years of fleeing from persecution he arrived at Geneva on August 5th 1536. He intended to leave next day. But William Farel, a fiery evangelical preacher, had heard that Calvin was passing through the city and he went to the house where he was lodging. Farel threatened Calvin with the curse of God if he should prefer a quiet life of study to the work of the Lord. Calvin wrote later that Farel’s words ‘terrified and shook’ him.

In this dramatic way God made known to Calvin’s conscience that he must stay at Geneva. This he did, faithfully and courageously preaching the Word of God and reforming the state of society. It was to this ‘model’ church and state, in which the principles and doctrines of Scripture were most thoroughly promoted and practised, that John Knox was to come some years later.

Calvin’s Sufferings and Labours←⤒🔗

It was not, and never is, an easy task for a preacher to curb the passion and control the evil desires of fallen men and women. Calvin’s life was at times in danger. Some gave the name of ‘Calvin’ to their dog to show their hatred of him! Again and again the great Reformer had to stand up for truth and for righteousness against opponents who arrived at Geneva to weaken his godly influence.

It should be noted that the reform of the people was done mainly through preaching. Every second week he preached daily in plain language. Being asthmatic he spoke slowly. His hearers sometimes made notes of what he said. It is from such notes that we today have several volumes of Calvin’s Sermons.

The church services at Geneva, besides having excellent biblical sermons, also included Psalm-singing. Calvin himself composed some of these ‘spiritual songs’, or Metrical Psalms, as we now call them.

Calvin also laid stress on the importance of having a Catechism so that basic Christian truths could be learnt at the start of life. From these things it is clear that we today owe a great debt to Calvin’s influence.

Calvin’s Personal Life←⤒🔗

It would be unfair to think of John Calvin as having been a severe or unkind man. It is certainly true that he was intolerant of false doctrine and irreligious behaviour. But it was a sense of his duty to God and to men’s souls that made him resolute in such matters. As a Christian he was deeply humble, sincere, pure and conscientious. His motto was ‘I offer my heart to Thee, O God’. In Latin: Cor meum tibi do. Calvin loved his wife, Idelette de Bures, whom he married in 1540. By her he had three children. His marriage however was to be overshadowed with sadness. His children all died in infancy. His wife died after only nine years of married life with him.

In health, too, Calvin was deeply acquainted with pain. He was, as one writer put it, ‘a walking hospital’. Theodore Beza, a close friend and associate of Calvin, could say of him: ‘We have in this man a most beautiful example of a truly Christian life and death’.

Calvin’s Death←⤒🔗

The best tribute to this great Reformer’s zeal for God is the voluminous number of his books, just about all of which are in print today and are read all over the world.

He wrote numerous letters and promoted the gospel by them far and wide. For example, he wrote letters to Cranmer in England, inspired Knox, our Scottish Reformer, guided the believers of Moravian background, helped the Polish brethren, assisted the cause of Christ in Hungary and strengthened the hands of the many French evangelicals who suffered persecution for their faith. Calvin even promoted a mission to Brazil in 1555 – though it was not successful.

Calvin mounted for the last time the pulpit of his church (called St Peter’s) in Geneva on February 6th 1564. But he was troubled with difficulty in breathing. He could hardly complete his sermon. When forced to take to bed he was still endeavouring to complete unfinished work or else dictating letters. He said that he wished to be busy in God’s work until his ‘last sigh’. Those who heard him speak in these last days of his life were so moved that they could scarcely keep back their tears.

Towards the end of May 1564 he was reduced to the last flicker of life here on earth. At the end he was in constant prayer, especially using the words of Psalm 39: ‘I opened not my mouth because thou didst it’. When he died Geneva was heartbroken. The city deeply lamented the passing of an eminent servant of the Lord.

In remembering John Calvin we do not think only of the man. What is most important to realise is that he was a precious, gifted servant of God, raised up by Christ to be a blessing to His church in after ages.

May God help us all to learn from the life and labours of this faithful Reformer! And may God see fit to raise up others like him in this world so that Christ’s church may be revived – and the glorious truths of the gospel spread far and wide, to the glory and praise of God!