Reflection 14- Calvin's Institutes: Original Sin

Classic works of literature are sometimes like classic rock, they have shaping influence upon culture. Calvin’s Institutes should be considered a classic work of literature because of its truth, beauty, and the shaping influence it has had on not only the church but cultures around the world. Classic rock, from the sixties and seventies, (contrary to pop culture, eighties rock is not classic) has also had its influence upon many cultures despite its lacking of truth and beauty. However, there are arguably movements in those works that can be described as beautiful, and lyrics that articulate truth. Yet we would hardly place Chaucer alongside Mick Jager. But in reading Calvin on the doctrine of original sin my thoughts wandered to The Who and there popular song, “Who Are You”.

What does John Calvin on original sin and The Who playing “Who Are You” have in common? Roger Daltrey is the lead singer in all the recordings and most performances The Who did of this song but Pete Townshend wrote the lyrics. Pete Townshend, an excellent guitarist and pretty good song writer, penned some truthful words in this song that relate well to John Calvin’s view of original sin. I have no desire to defend Pete Townshend’s idolatry and false worship but I do appreciate the truth in these words as he reflects upon who man is,

My heart is like a broken cup
I only feel right on my knees
I spit out like a sewer hole
Yet still receive your [God] kiss.

John Calvin and Pete Townshend both recommend that man have a correct view of God and himself. But this is where we have to change buses. Pete Townshend followed the self proclaimed “perfect master” Beher Baba, who considered himself the Avatar, god in the flesh. Down this mystic road of many stops his view of “God” is false and therefore his view of man is also, but there is a stop or two by God’s common grace that he gets it right. But John Calvin took a different route following the only true and living God of the Bible who revealed himself in the only true incarnate Son of God. Therefore he can offer to us a view of God and man that is accurate through the Scriptures. But John Calvin like Pete Townshend does see our lives as broken, spewing out the filth of sin from our corrupt natures and so the only correct posture of man’s life is humility before God who is gracious both in common and special grace toward filthy sinners.

John Calvin believes that God’s truth requires us to examine ourselves to find “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.” Man has a deluded self admiration until like Pete Townshend he finds himself kicked awake by a policeman in a Soho doorway and told to go home and sleep. Through common grace his experience tells him that he is a broken cup that can’t hold water and a sewer hole spewing out the filth of his heart. And then he goes home and watches “The Pursuit of Happiness” or Joel Osteen and his pride is tickled by the alluring talk and he finds out he’s not so bad after all and that he can become a better person even while living in a homeless shelter. Instead of hiking through Europe listening to The Who to find the truth about self Calvin suggests these two considerations. “First, he should consider for what purpose he was created and endowed with no mean gifts. By this knowledge he should arouse himself to meditation upon divine worship and the future life. Secondly, he should weigh his own abilities, or rather lack of abilities. When he perceives this lack, he should lie prostrate in extreme confusion, so to speak, reduced to nought. The first consideration tends to make him recognize the nature of his duty; the second, the extent of his ability to carry it out.” It may appear that John Calvin would lead a person to fatalism and despair, but this is actually the way to life. When man rightly examines himself in light of God’s glory in Scripture and sees it confirmed in experience that he is a sinner separated from the majestic God then he rightly falls upon his knees and cries for mercy from him who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and full of lovingkindness, yet who will not clear the guilty. For until man sees his “nature is not only destitute and empty of good, but so fertile and fruitful of every evil that it cannot be idle” , he will not cry out to God for mercy and grace. We are sewer holes spewing forth filth and therefore children of wrath , but it is Jesus Christ who became a sewer hole for us in order to suffer the wrath we deserved that we might receive the kiss of his grace and mercy for life. The only place we should feel comfortable is on our knees crying for mercy.