The Biblical Preaching of John Calvin Steven J
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The Biblical Preaching of John Calvin Steven J. Lawson egarded as arguably the most impor- history. Educated at the finest universities in Rtant and influential figure in Western Civi- France under the leading instructors of the day, lization over the past one thousand years,1 John this brilliant lawyer became the theological genius Calvin towers above the landscape of church of the Reformation, the man whom many believe history as the greatest Reformer of the sixteenth to be the greatest teacher of Christian doctrine century.2 A man of immense abilities and prolific since the apostle Paul. Apart from the biblical industry, this monumental pillar authors themselves, Calvin stands as the most Steven J. Lawson is the Senior of the Christian faith was many influential preacher of Scripture the world has Pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist things—a world-class theologian, witnessed. Church in Mobile, Alabama. a revered exegete, a renowned He has served as a pastor in teacher, a master commentator, a The Real and auThenTic calvin Arkansas and Alabama for the church statesman, and the most On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of past twenty-seven years, and his prodigious leader of the Protestant Calvin’s birth, in 1909, Emile Doumergue, a noted pulpit ministry takes him around the world. Dr. Lawson is president movement. But first and foremost, Calvin biographer, stood in the great Reformer’s of New Reformation, a ministry Calvin was a pastor, the faith- pulpit and said, “That is the Calvin who seems to designed to bring about biblical ful shepherd of two churches for me to be the real and authentic Calvin, the one reformation in the church today. almost thirty years, and amid his who explains all the others: Calvin the preacher He is the author of many books, including The Expository Genius of many pastoral duties, he was pri- of Geneva, moulding by his words the spirit of the John Calvin (Reformation Trust, marily a preacher of the Word. For Reformed of the sixteenth century.”3 Doumergue 2007). this magisterial Reformer, biblical added, “While he has come to be remembered as preaching was job number one. a theologian who recovered the doctrinal land- Born five hundred years ago on July 10, 1509, marks, which had been buried under the debris of in Noyon, France, Calvin, a second generation confused centuries, or as a powerful controversial- Reformer, gave himself to the exposition of the ist, whose name opponents have sought to fasten Word of God as perhaps no one ever has in church upon beliefs which they judged odious, the truth 18 SBJT 13.4 (2009): 18-34. is that Calvin saw himself, first of all, as a pastor in A Revival of Preaching the church of Christ and therefore as one whose First, Broadus states that this monumental chief duty must be to preach the Word.”4 This was movement was marked by a revival of preaching. the true Reformer of Geneva, Calvin the preacher. During the medieval centuries, the primacy of Church historian J. H. Merle d’Aubigné con- preaching had been all but lost. The pulpit was curs with this assessment, maintaining that Calvin relegated to secondary status with the mass and viewed the primacy of the pulpit to be “the heart of its ritualism assuming the central place. What few his ministry.”5 James Montgomery Boice likewise preachers did exist, Broadus notes, were “excep- asserts, tions to a rule.”9 For the previous millennium, from the fall of the Roman Empire (c. 500) to Calvin had no weapon but the Bible. From the Luther’s posting his 95 Theses (1517), preaching very first, his emphasis had been on Bible teach- was subordinate to the sacerdotal system of Rome. ing…. Calvin preached from the Bible every But the dawning of the Reformation changed that. day, and under the power of that preaching the The Protestant movement ushered in a new day city began to be transformed. As the people of that restored preaching to its prominent place Geneva acquired knowledge of God’s Word and in Reformed churches. Broadus notes that the were changed by it, the city became, as John Knox sixteenth century witnessed “a great outburst of called it later, a New Jerusalem from which the preaching, such as had not been seen since the gospel spread to the rest of Europe, England, and early Christian centuries.”10 Spearheading this the New World.6 outburst of preaching was the French born pastor who occupied the Geneva pulpit, John Calvin. If Calvin had been forced to relinquish all his The Reformation was so pulpit-driven that it ministries except one, he would have certainly actually changed the architecture of the churches. kept the pulpit. Boice notes that Calvin ordered The conTexT of calvin’s the altars, long the centers of the Latin mass, be PReaching removed from the churches and that a pulpit, “Any appraisal of Calvin’s preaching,” John with a Bible on it, be placed at the center of the Leith writes, “must begin with the context out building. This was not to be on one side of the of which and in which Calvin preached.”7 This room, but at the very center, where every line being so, it is necessary that we recognize Calvin’s of the architecture would carry the gaze of the preaching in light of the historical times in which worshiper to the Book which alone contains he lived, that time known as the Reformation. the way of salvation and outlines the principles Next to first century Christianity, Phillip Schaff upon which the church of the living God is to be writes that the Protestant movement of the six- governed.11 teenth century is “the greatest event in history … the chief propelling force in the history of modern With the Reformation, preaching was back in its civilization.”8 As it sought to bring the church back preeminent place and at the helm was Calvin. to the standards of Scripture, John Broadus (1827- 1895), distinguished Professor of Homiletics at A Revival of Biblical Preaching The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, notes Further, Broadus notes that the Reformation four distinguishing marks of the Reformation. witnessed a revival of biblical preaching. More than mere preaching was regained; it was a certain kind of preaching—expository preaching. Broadus 19 writes, counsel of God was heard again, and with this full disclosure came controversy. The inevitable result Instead of long and often fabulous stories about of preaching the entire Bible is always contro- saints and martyrs, and accounts of miracles, versy. Some four hundred years later, J. Gresham instead of passages from Aristotle and Seneca, Machen would write, “Every true revival is born in and fine-spun subtleties of the Schoolman, controversy, and leads to more controversy.”15 The these men preached the Bible. The question was Reformation was no different. not what the Pope said; and even the Fathers, At the forefront of this new movement, call- however highly esteemed, were not decisive ing for reform, was the provocative preaching of authorities— that honor rightly belonged to the John Calvin. As a naturally shy and introverted Bible alone. The preacher’s one great task was to man, Calvin never sought the spotlight, much less set forth the doctrinal and moral teachings of the controversy. Instead, he was a reclusive individual Word of God.12 who preferred the quiet seclusion of the scholar’s study. But Calvin was providentially thrust into In other words, sola Scriptura was restored to the the pulpit in Geneva where he preached the full pulpit. counsel of God. As a result, he found himself “When the Reformation swept over Europe embroiled in controversy throughout his minis- in the sixteenth century,” Boice adds, “there was try. But such disputation is always inevitable when an immediate elevation of the Word of God in the unadulterated Word of God is proclaimed. Protestant services.”13 The Bible, long a neglected Preaching all Scripture—tota Scriptura—always book in the public gathering of the church, was breeds a storm of unavoidable controversy, and suddenly restored to the Reformed pulpit, and Calvin stood in the eye of it. no one preached the Bible more than Calvin. The sheer volume of Calvin’s preaching is stagger- A Revival of Preaching the Doctrines ing. Upon his return to Geneva in 1541, Calvin of Grace preached twice on Sunday and then on Monday, Finally, Broadus notes that the Reformation Wednesday, and Friday. In 1542, he was asked to was marked by a revival of preaching the doctrines preach more often, which he accepted. In October of grace. He asserts, 1549, he increased his preaching duties to twice on Sunday, and every weekday, every other week. The doctrine of Divine sovereignty in human sal- Calvin brought ten new sermons every fourteen vation was freely proclaimed by all the Reform- days—an impressive number considering his vast ers. However far some Protestants may have gone commitments. at a later period in opposition to these views, yet Protestantism was born of the doctrines of grace, A Revival of Controversial Preaching and in the proclamation of these the Reformation Moreover, Broadus observes that the Reforma- preaching found its truest and highest power.16 tion was a revival of controversial preaching. To this point, he writes, “It must not be forgotten that Broadus unequivocally maintains that “the power religious controversy is inevitable where living of the gospel … reside[s] in the great truth of sal- faith, in definite truth, is dwelling side by side with vation by sovereign grace.”17 Suffice to say, Calvin ruinous error and practical evils.