(Vespers) Calvin's Institutes - II.1

Note: Calvin now begins to discuss topics of the Christian faith under the heading of “The Knowledge of God the Redeemer.”  “Book Two begins with the story of treachery – man’s rebellion against God and its wretched aftermath.” –J. Mark Beach

1. Chapter 1 – By the Fall and Revolt of Adam the Whole Human Race Was Delivered to the Curse, and Degenerated from Its Original Condition. The Doctrine of Original Sin.
   1. True Knowledge of Self Destroys Self-Assurance
      1. Knowledge of ourselves involves 2 aspects:  (1) what we were given at creation and how generously God continues His favor toward us, and (2) to call to mind our miserable condition after Adam’s fall; the awareness of which should truly humble us and overwhelm us with shame
      2.  “It is of importance to know that we were endued with reason and intelligence, in order that we might cultivate a holy and honorable life, and regard a blessed immortality as our destined aim. At the same time, it is impossible to think of our primeval dignity without being immediately reminded of the sad spectacle of our ignominy [humiliation/shame/disgrace] and corruption, ever since we fell from our original in the person of our first parent.”
      3. “Here, then, is what God’s truth requires us to seek in examining ourselves: it requires the kind of knowledge that will strip us of all confidence in our own ability, deprive us of all occasion for boasting, and lead us to submission.”
      4.  “While revealed truth concurs with the general consent of mankind in teaching that the second part of wisdom consists in self-knowledge, they differ greatly as to the method by which this knowledge is to be acquired. In the judgment of the flesh man deems his self-knowledge complete, when, with overweening confidence in his own intelligence and integrity, he takes courage, and spurs himself on to virtuous deeds, and when, declaring war upon vice, he uses his utmost endeavor to attain to the honorable and the fair. But he who tries himself by the standard of divine justice, finds nothing to inspire him with confidence; and hence, the more thorough his self-examination, the greater his despondency. Abandoning all dependence on himself, he feels that he is utterly incapable of duly regulating his conduct.”
      5.  “Under divine scrutiny we find nothing about which to boast.” –J. Mark Beach
   2. Adam’s Fall & Its Consequences
      1. A Monstrous Revolt
         1. “The prohibition to touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a trial of obedience, that Adam, by observing it, might prove his willing submission to the command of God.”
         2. Adam deserted God’s Word and authority when he ignored God’s command regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
         3.  “Assuredly, when the word of God is despised, all reverence for Him is gone. His majesty cannot be duly honored among us, nor his worship maintained in its integrity, unless we hang as it were upon his lips.”
      2. The Spread of Adam’s Sin to His Posterity
         1. “As Adam’s spiritual life would have consisted in remaining united and bound to his Maker, so estrangement from him was the death of his soul. Nor is it strange that he who perverted the whole order of nature in heaven and earth deteriorated his race by his revolt.”
         2. Romans 8:20-22 –  “ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”
         3. Romans 5:12 – “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”
         4. “This is the hereditary corruption to which early Christian writers gave the name of Original Sin, meaning by the term the depravation of a nature formerly good and pure.”
         5. “All of us, therefore, descending from an impure seed, come into the world tainted with the contagion of sin.”
         6. Psalm 51:5 – “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
         7. “We thus see that the impurity of parents is transmitted to their children, so that all, without exception, are originally depraved.”
      3. Original Sin
         1. “Thus, from a corrupt root corrupt branches proceeding, transmit their corruption to the saplings which spring from them.”
         2. Definition: “Original sin, then, may be defined [as] a hereditary corruption and depravity of our nature, extending to all the parts of the soul, which first makes us obnoxious to the wrath of God, and then produces in us works which in Scripture are termed works of the flesh.”
         3. No part of us is exempt from sin. The whole human nature is affected by original sin.  This is what “Total Depravity” means. It’s not that we’re as bad as we possibly can be. It’s that no part of our nature is exempt from the corruption of original sin.
         4. Eph. 4:17-18 – “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.”
         5. “The whole man, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is so deluged, as it were, that no part remains exempt from sin, and, therefore, everything which proceeds from him is imputed as sin.”
         6. “Our nature is not only destitute and empty of good, but so fertile and fruitful of every evil that it cannot be idle.”
         7. “The blame of our ruin rests with our own carnality, not with God, its only cause being our degeneracy from our original condition.”
         8. “Since man, by the kindness of God, was made upright, but by his own infatuation fell away unto vanity, his destruction is obviously attributable only to himself” –Calvin quoting Athanasius