Welcome to Marscast, the official podcast of Mid-America Reform Seminary, where faculty and friends explore the depths of faith, unpack biblical truth, and engage with the critical issues of our time. In this episode, Dr. J. Mark Beach joins us to look at John Calvin's insights on the essence of the Christian life from his seminal work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Drawing from Book 3, Chapters 6-10, Dr. Beach centers on Calvin's thoughts on self-denial, where he'll challenge us to move beyond nominal Christianity to a genuine faith. Calvin's teachings remind us that the Christian life is not about perfection, but about continuous surrender, loving righteousness, and conforming ourselves to Christ's image. Join Dr. Beach now as he explores what it means to truly deny ourselves and live not for our own interests, but for the glory of God. As we continue our journey through the Christian life, that is, we arrive at our journey to the Christian life in Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, that's been our journey. We've been working through Calvin's Institutes, a book that everyone should read. Many will never get around to it. Many view it as perhaps a bit too formidable, too lengthy. Maybe Calvin's writing, some of his sentences seem a little too complex. In fact, Calvin is a great rhetorician. He can make phrases that sing. And his thought, of course, is most to be admired and studied. So we're in Book 3 of Calvin's Institutes. And with chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, he takes up matters of the Christian life. This part of the Institutes is often regarded as the most loved and read parts of Calvin's Institutes. In fact, years ago, Baker put out a little extract of these chapters entitled The Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life, and many people perhaps have had that. It's a rather simplified translation of those chapters, and it's a much-loved study on self-denial and cross-bearing and other aspects of Christian living. More recently, Crossway Books has put out a new translation of this portion of Calvin's Institutes entitled On the Christian Life, and Randy Blacketer is the translator for that section. Either of those books are commended to you, but of course if you can find your way to read Calvin's Institutes as such yourself, please do so. So these talks are just summary statements, and so in this section, as I said, he's taking on the Christian life, and Calvin bids us to Christian living, and he's going to do this before he gets to the topic of justification by faith alone. That might seem a little peculiar. Wouldn't it be better first to treat justification, and that I'm righteous with Christ's righteousness, and that I'm accepted and loved of God, and that my salvation's holy in Him, and thus being saved now proceed secondly to sanctification and walking in the Spirit, the Christian life." Well, Calvin reverses this order of teaching. It might seem a bit perplexing, but there's a method to his madness. And just to anticipate, part of that will be to show, even if we put our best sanctified foot forward, our best Christian intentions, our most prayerful life, even if we show ourselves repenting and walking in faith and seeking to obey God and to live for His glory, All of that does nothing, adds up to zero, for making us right with God. And so he's going to treat the Christian life prior to justification, and as part of the topic of regeneration, that is renewal through Christ's work on the cross for us and his obedience for us, And so that's how he's going to proceed. He's going to talk about the Christian life, that it involves self-denial, that it involves taking up a cross, that it involves meditation on the future life, something perhaps many Christians today only do when they're dying, and that's not what he means. Upon death, death is beckoning now. meditate upon the Christian life and the future life for the Christian. No, that's part of piety now. And then in chapter 10 of this group of chapters we are considering, he will expound on the present life and the proper use of the present life and living a Christian life in it. So in chapter 6, we arrive at his meditations and exhortations and exposition of the Christian life. And he says to live a Christian life, there's two aspects you must ever keep in mind. First, that our hearts are filled with a love of righteousness, so that's part of Christian living. And two, that we're guided by a rule for righteousness. To live a Christian life, you have to love righteousness. What is right? What is good? What is holy? But then you need to be guided by a rule so you can define what that is. And for Calvin, the call to holiness isn't optional. It constitutes our first motivation to walk in conformity to our salvation in Christ. In fact, holiness is the bond of our union with God. Imagine you're united with God, but you're unholy, you think unholy, live unholy, desire the unholy, Well, no. That's no bond at all. And so Calvin tells us, quoting Calvin here, we've been delivered out of the wickedness and pollution of the world in which we once wallowed with the purpose that we might dwell in the new Jerusalem. How unfitting that God's sanctuary should be turned into a barn crammed with filth. So there's his metaphor. We have been brought to the heavenly city, but if we're going to live ungodly, unholy lives, it's like cramming that sanctuary as a barn with filth. We should understand that Christ serves as our supreme example. Some people resist Christ as an example today. Calvin did not. Scripture shows that God the Father, as he has reconciled us to himself in his Christ, has in him stamped for us the likeness to which he would have us conform. So what should we look like as Christians? We should look like Christ, love like Christ, offer ourselves in service like Christ, not as Messiah, but as those who belong to Messiah. We're called to conform to his pattern, and our life is to express his. Now, this stands against a nominal sort of Christian living, which is not to be confused with an imperfect Christian living. Nominal means name only. It means tongue service. It means your brain acknowledges the Christian faith, but your heart doesn't live it. according to Calvin. This is nominal Christian living, going through the motions, maybe even going to worship regularly. But never has the gospel or the Lord Jesus captured your heart. You're not truly surrendered to Him. You don't truly love Him. You don't really walk with Him. You don't desire Him. You don't even really desire the future life. You just want your best life now with abundance and fullness and basically an indulgence of self. Calvin opposes this. He says true Christian living is not fake. To be sure, we're all weak, our progress is feeble, we creep along, maybe you've noticed your own puny capacity, to use Calvin's phrase, But you shouldn't despair. So an imperfect Christian life is still a genuine Christian life. And there is still some headway. The Heidelberg Catechism reflects Calvin's teaching when it talks about that we begin to live according to all, not just some, of God's commandments. and that even though we make little progress or baby steps of obedience, well, it's steps nonetheless. There is some headway. So he bids us not to despair of the slightness of our progress, but to press onward, forward. And march, because we're saved by grace, accepted by Christ, and he's done all for us. We belong to him. Now with that kind of setting the stage, Calvin proceeds in chapter 7 to talk about the sum of the Christian life. And he starts with this by talking about the denial of ourselves, obviously echoing Jesus' words, a man must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow. So that's going to be the basic theme by which Calvin describes the Christian life. But he actually begins with Romans 12, 1 and 2, that we are to be living sacrifices of praise unto the Lord. and to offer ourselves in service to the Lord. And when we take that seriously, that we belong to the Lord, 1 Corinthians 6.19 and Romans 12.1 and 2, that has consequences. So again, the Heidelberg Catechism will echo Calvin here when he writes, we're not our own. Let not our reason nor our will, therefore, sway our plans and deeds. We're not our own. Let us, therefore, not set it as our goal to seek what's expedient for us according to the flesh. We're not our own. And so, insofar as we can, let us, therefore, forget ourselves and all that is ours. Converse to that, we are God's, so, therefore, live for Him and die for Him. We belong to God. Let his wisdom and his will rule our actions. We belong to God, so let all parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal. Well, that's quite a goal. Well, Calvin says there's two steps we must take to do that. First, he takes up the word service, which is a big word for him because it comprises both obedience to his word against our own cardinal desires, and it means a mind that has surrendered to do the Spirit's bidding. So reason submits to the Spirit, And then our lives become Christ's life in us. So that's necessary. And then step two is that we pursue not the things limited to the temporal life, the life here and now, the physical life, the material life. but that the things which are of the Lord's will and will serve to advance his glory, these are the things we pursue. We must become, he says, almost forgetful of ourselves. So denying ourselves, forget yourself, leave off self-concern. I find this all very practical. In fact, these sections of Calvin's Institutes you could read these chapters as part of meditations for self-examination for the Lord's Supper, because it's very humbling to see, as he reminds us of what true self-denial is, how much we don't do it, how much denial of self is hard work, how much we're still self-consumed, how much we don't give consideration to our neighbor and how we might offer ourselves for their benefit. and also for the Lord's glory, offering ourselves to him. So as he talks about this denial of self, you leave off self-concern and you devote yourself and your ability zealously to God and his commandments. And this is what Christ himself calls us to and exhibited. So Calvin, for Calvin, he calls self-interest a pestilence, leading to destruction. In fact, we must deny ourselves, as Christ enjoins, for self-denial leaves no place at all for pride. If you're denying yourself, there's no place for arrogance, for ostentation and showing off, for being greedy and having your desires fulfilled, for practicing lasciviousness or opulence. All kinds of self-love spawns just other evils in us. Denying ourselves is saying, these must not reign in my heart. I must fight the good fight of faith against these things. And so as he brings to further exposition what this self-denial looks like, he takes us to Titus 2, verses 11 through 14, which sculpts an image of self-denial in us. So maybe we can just conclude this section with those words from Titus 2. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Next time, we'll look more at what it is to deny ourselves. In our next episode, we'll continue looking at Calvin's teachings, specifically examining what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Dr. Beach will look at how self-denial isn't about punishment, but about liberation, leaving behind our self-centered desires and aligning our lives with the purposes of God. And as we approach Christmas Day, may we reflect on the ultimate example of self-denial, Christ himself, who gave himself for us, that we might be purified and become a people zealous for good works. From the faculty, staff, and students of Mid-America Reform Seminary, we wish you and yours a blessed and merry Christmas. I'm Jared Luchawar. This has been an episode of Marscast. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next time.