A Little Book on the Christian Life

I was moved to teach on the doxology and the benedictions, first of all, because of what they mean to me in my own devotional life. I turned to them in my own private meditations for refocus, for worship, for self-examination, for building up a faith. And then, as a result of that, I've been looking for opportunities to teach them to our church, because I believe they aid the people of God in looking up and seeing the greatness of God in these succinct statements of blessing and or doxology that are memorable and meaningful.

We take them for granted, but they are there for our blessing and benefit. Singing and Praise by H.B. Charles, Jr. Visit liganeer.org slash teaching series to learn more today on Renewing Your Mind. We've all heard the phrase people say that some people are so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good.

Calvin would have said, Stop. It's only those who are the most heavenly minded who are the greatest earthly good. One of the classics of the Christian faith is a work that contains just five short chapters, but it's a work that Christians have turned to for centuries. It's appropriately titled A Little Book on the Christian Life. Dr. Burke Parsons served as one of the editors and translators for this book that we are pleased to publish and offer to you. Dr. Parsons is senior pastor of St. Andrew's Chapel and one of our teaching fellows here at Ligonier Ministries.

He joins me here in the studio along with our president and CEO, Chris Larson. Dr. Parsons, this is actually a book within a book. Would you talk about that and what prompted you to translate it? Certainly this booklet, this little book on the Christian life by Calvin was taken from Calvin's classic theological work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. And this was translated from the last version from the Latin of Calvin's institutes from book three, chapter six through ten. And so this was developed by Calvin over the course of five different editions, and this is from the last edition from the Latin.

And what prompted your interest in it? I first came across this work of Calvin's years ago and realized very quickly that it was one of the most helpful classic works on Christian living and the doctrine of sanctification. And especially with so much of the confusion that has surrounded Christian living and sanctification, I realized that this book was one of the most helpful and clear booklets that gives a summary of the Christian life in a very accessible and simple manner. So for years, I wanted to do a new translation to provide for Christians of this generation, both younger Christians and older Christians, mature Christians, a booklet that would really help them understand the basic biblical tenets of how we as Christians live the Christian life. Burke, when I hear your passion for getting this book to this generation, it gives me so much excitement because Calvin's heartbeat as a pastor comes through. He desires to lift up Jesus Christ.

And in our day and age where there's so much narcissistic social media around us, we can't almost help running into ourselves. And instead, Calvin takes us through the path of suffering and the shape of this life to be able to remind us to not have our thinking conform to the pattern that is in this world, worldly thinking, self-referential thinking, but instead encourages us towards self-forgetfulness and to lift up Jesus Christ and make sure that he is on display in our lives. It's the type of book that I want to make sure we're putting into as many hands as possible. In fact, just a couple months ago, we gave this book away on the radio. Just in the space of five days, we gave away 10,000 copies through this radio broadcast.

And so I'm eager to make sure that folks who are listening today have an opportunity to get this for themselves and also to get one for a friend. Yeah, Burke, I'd like to talk more about Calvin. You know, this is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, and much of the focus has been on Martin Luther. After all, it was in 1517 that he nailed his 95 theses to the castle church door at Wittenberg. But we cannot talk about the Reformation without talking about John Calvin, can we? Absolutely.

You're exactly right, Lee. I mean, in many ways, Calvin was the systematizer, the doctrinal systematizer in many ways. I mean, there were certainly theologians such as Luther and Langton and others at Wittenberg, but Calvin very carefully, very slowly over the course, again, of these five editions, these revisions of his institutes from really starting at the age of 26, 27, and through the rest of his life, he really carefully sought to put together the theology of the Christian faith.

And what we see in that theology, what we see in his institutes of the Christian religion is theology for all of life, theology for real life. And this booklet is that excerpt which Calvin wanted to be published separately, which is one of the best classic summaries of Christian living and how we live out our theology in all of life. You write in the preface that your aim was to produce a translation that Calvin himself would be pleased with, faithful to his meaning and his words.

That's a tall order. It really is, Lee. Dr. Aaron Denlinger and I spent maybe close to two years working on this translation from the Latin, of course, considering the French and looking at other English translations from time to time, but really trying to produce something, a translation here that was truly faithful to Calvin. We had to spend a lot of time discussing Calvin's theology.

We had to reference commentaries and other portions of the institutes to make sure that we're being faithful to the exact phrasing and wording that we think Calvin would have likely used. And so as we spent that time together, we really became sort of conversation partners with Calvin as if you were sitting right there in my study as this living theologian among us. I remember your excitement as you would come out of some of these translation sessions.

And just over that period of a couple of years, you would let me in on a little bit of what was happening. And it became very clear early on that we had something special here in the works. And the way that you and Aaron were carefully approaching this and trying to let Calvin stand on his own helped me to realize that at Ligonier and through Reformation Trust, we had something special to steward as a book and to see this get to another generation. So I'm just grateful for your care and precision and what you've tried to do with John Calvin's little book. Burt, if you will, there's a passage in chapter two that I think is so meaningful. And would you talk about how you wanted to translate this and edit it for our 21st century years? And I think that this passage really reflects Calvin's pastoral heart, doesn't it?

It really does. This is one of the more well-known quotations from John Calvin in general. And it appears in this booklet, as you mentioned, in chapter two.

And there's four more to this, but I'll just read an excerpt. Calvin writes, We are not our own. Therefore, neither our reason nor our will should dominate our plans and actions. We are not our own. Therefore, let us not make the gratification of our flesh our end. We are not our own. Therefore, as much as possible, let us forget ourselves and our own interests. Wow, that is really good. And then you go on to translate in the next paragraph that since we are not our own, we belong to God, that we are His, right?

That's right. Rather, we are God's, Calvin writes, we belong to God, that is, therefore, let us live and die to Him. We are God's. Therefore, let His wisdom and His will govern all our actions. We are God's. Therefore, let us in every way in all our lives run to Him as our only proper end. As we mentioned, this work is taken from just five chapters of Calvin's Institutes.

But why has this particular portion of the Institutes been the focus of so much attention over the centuries? Well, the reason Calvin's booklet here is unique and the reason why it has been so loved as a Christian classic among believers for centuries now is because it points us to Christ. And as Chris mentioned, it is rooted in our union with Christ. That was one of Calvin's most foundational tenets of his theology, that we are united to Jesus Christ. And so Calvin's theology of sanctification is birthed from that.

It flows from our union with Christ and as it points us to Christ. And so even through Calvin's writing, he makes it very clear that we're to die to self, we're to take up our cross and follow Christ, that we are to kill sin in the flesh. He talks so much about the trials and miseries and burdens of life, but he doesn't leave us there.

He doesn't leave us hanging. He says, let us not forget our future life. Let us live in this life with our eyes set upon the future, upon heaven, upon what awaits us. Let us fix our gaze upon the author and finisher of our faith. You know, we've all heard the phrase people say that some people are so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good.

Calvin would have said, stop. It's only those who are the most heavenly minded, who are the greatest earthly good. And as Christians, our hope is not derived from the things of this world. Our joy is not in this life. Ultimately, our joy, our hope is as we look to Christ, as we look to heaven, as we look to that day when there'll be no more tears and no more burdens, no more trials, no more miseries, no more diseases, and no more death. And I can't help but think what an encouragement that would be for someone who's going through a very difficult struggle in life, either physically or emotionally.

Absolutely. And Calvin himself faced many of those. He and his family. And he himself was a pastor. And a lot of people look at Calvin as just some ivory tower theologian that was an academic. Well, he was a theologian, but he was a real pastor among real people. And he got dirty and he got hurt and he walked with people through dark valleys. He struggled in life and he knew of his own sin, of his own weaknesses.

And that's what we see in this classic work. Calvin as a real man, as a sinful human being, resting in the grace of God, looking to Christ all by the power of the Holy Spirit. We look at him as the theologian, as you say, of the Reformation, but there is nothing cold, sterile, distant, or removed when you read this little book. So again, that heartbeat of the pastor comes through, down through the generations, right to us. Chris, I'm so glad you're part of this conversation, not only because of your role and leadership here at Ligonier, but you're a committed churchman. You take discipleship seriously and you've led men in discipleship groups before. How might a book like this be a good resource for that purpose?

Well, I can speak from personal experience. I've used an earlier edition of this book in discipleship groups with men and with even just one-on-one counseling with younger men and trying to get them familiar with Calvin, first of all. I would say just if you're listening today and you've never picked up Calvin, this is a great place just to reach, just to introduce yourself to John Calvin's thinking.

It's very accessible. You can sit down, jump right in, and you can finish the book in just 45 minutes or so. For me, it's difficult to read a paragraph without having to stop and pray. As I've led other men through this study looking at the book, it's evident that we need to pause and truly meditate on what the Lord is teaching us because it's so scriptural. The way Calvin fits in his thinking with what the Bible teaches, it drips Bible throughout it. It takes you to different passages as you go into different sections. It's not just that you can read it all at once. You certainly can, and I would actually encourage many people to do so. At the same time, you can just taste it and go in and look at different sections and then do the biblical study that flows from it.

It works so well both individually but also in a small group setting. Robert Calvin's pastoral heart in the passage that you read earlier, but he doesn't mince words. This is a passage that struck me, and it's the kind of wording that you're not going to find in many contemporary evangelical books. It's a warning, and he says, For those whom the Lord has chosen and condescended to welcome into fellowship with them should prepare themselves for a life that is hard, laborious, troubled, and full of many and various kinds of evil. It's beautiful, and Calvin understood that, that when Christ calls a man, as Bonhoeffer said, he bids him come and die, die to self, and that is a daily thing.

In the school of Christ, as Calvin often spoke of us as Christians, we are pupils in the school of Jesus Christ as his disciples, and it's not easy, but it is a life of peace and joy, true hope and grace. Calvin brings out the tension that exists in the Christian life, the tension that every believer feels, the war that every believer experiences, yet he also brings out the joy and the peace in the Christian life, and he explains it in a way that very few have ever done in really the history of Christendom. In one section, he says, In whatever trouble comes to us, we should always set our eyes on God's purpose to train us to think little of this present life and inspire us to think more about the future life, for God knows well what we are greatly inclined to love in this world by natural instinct.

Thus, he uses the best means to draw us back and to shake us from our slumber so that we don't become entirely stuck in the mire of our love for this world. And he talks a great deal about our love for this world and how we're not to love this world, we're not to be clinging to this world, rather we're to be clinging to Christ and to the cross of Christ. And then he says a little bit later on in the same chapter, he says, Contempt for this present life that believers should cultivate shouldn't produce hatred of this life or ingratitude toward God. This life, though bursting at the seams with every kind of misery, should still be considered one of God's blessings that shouldn't be dismissed. And so he talks about gratitude, gratefulness in this life, and that we as Christians are to be grateful people. Yes, we deal with sin and misery, not only the sins and miseries of others and the sins and miseries of the world, but our own sins and miseries, which are the worst form. And he says, yet we still are called by God to live lives of gratefulness, contentment, as we set our gaze upon Christ, as we set our gaze upon heaven.

Think about Dr. Sproul picking the name of this program, Renewing Your Mind. It comes right from Romans 12, too. And then the other impulse for Ligonier Ministries that we would proclaim, teach, and defend the holiness of God in all of its fullness. So right understanding of God's holiness also leads us to a holy living.

And in this day and age, least common denominator, Christianity seems to pass for what's acceptable. But the Lord calls us to something greater. He calls us to deny ourselves, as you say, to this battle that is in the Christian life. He calls us to holy living. And this book provides the shape of what that would look like directly from Scripture.

I totally agree, Chris. And that's one of the reasons why I'm so grateful that this book has been published at this particular time in church history for this new generation. Because there has never been, perhaps, greater confusion on this whole matter of Christian living and sanctification and holiness. Because it is a holiness that comes from God, and it's a holiness that we're called to pursue with all our passion and all our lives. Yet it's a holiness that we're called to pursue, fueled by the grace of God, fueled by the Holy Spirit working in us, and fueled by our fixing our gaze on Jesus Christ, who declared it is finished. That is the basis of our motivation for pursuing the holiness of Christ. And it's, again, as we were talking about earlier, Lee, it is a holiness that is flowing from, as a beautiful fountain, our union with Jesus Christ. There's another quote in the book that really struck me, and it's this, unless we are devoted, even addicted, to righteousness, we will faithfully abandon our Creator and disown Him as our Savior.

He doesn't pull any punches in this book. And it's like you said, Chris, earlier. It's why you feel like you need to bow your head in prayer after reading a line or two of this great work. Well, Burke, we certainly appreciate the work that you and Dr. Aaron Denlinger did in translating and editing this treasure.

But, Burke, let's let Calvin have the last word. He writes at the end, That is Dr. Burke Parsons reading from A Little Book on the Christian Life. Dr. Parsons and Ligonier president, Chris Larson, have helped us understand why this little book has been so important to Christians through the years. We're glad you've joined us today for Renewing Your Mind. I'm Lee Webb, and we would like for you and your family to have a copy of this classic work by John Calvin. It's lifted from Book Three of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. Dr. Parsons and Dr. Aaron Denlinger teamed up to translate and edit A Little Book on the Christian Life.

As the title implies, this is not a long book, just over 100 pages, but it's packed with biblical wisdom. Call us today with your donation of any amount, and we will send you this valuable resource. Our phone number is 800-435-4343.

You can also go online to make your request and give your gift at renewingyourmind.org. Before he went home to be with the Lord in 2017, I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. R.C. Sproul about this little book, and here's what he had to say. R.C.

Sproul, Jr. In and of itself, this is a classic and deserves to be a classic. It's called The Golden Book. And one of the things about it is that it just smashes to smithereens the false image that so many people have about the person John Calvin. I don't know of any theologian in history who's been more vilified by his critics than was John Calvin. When I used to teach in the seminary and have my students read Calvin's Institutes, I would make them start not at the beginning but by reading Calvin's section on prayer, which is one of the most majestic portions of his work that you would ever read.

And people would be immediately exposed to the tender heart and the warm spirit that the man exuded. And again, this Golden Book, as it's called, that lifts out of the few passages or few chapters of the Institutes, does the same thing. It reveals the warm heart, but not only the warm heart, but the brilliant mind and biblical insight that Calvin had. This little book is so edifying, not just for the benefit of improving Calvin's reputation, but for spiritual growth for Christians who immerse themselves in it. And again, we are so pleased to make this treasury of wisdom available to you. So request a little book on the Christian life when you call us with your donation of any amount. Our number again is 800-435-4343.

You can also make your request online at renewingyourmind.org. We will hear from Dr. Parsons again tomorrow as he delivers a message titled, Is Calvinism Good for the Church? Our Calvinism, if it is biblical Calvinism, will be a thorough, ever-deepening knowledge, understanding and love of the God whom we worship. And if your version of Calvinism doesn't do that, then your Calvinism is not the Bible's Calvinism, and it certainly friend, isn't good for the church. Our Calvinism is not to be a Calvinism that we wear on a t-shirt, on a bumper sticker. It's not a Calvinism we wear on our sleeves. It's not a badge that we put on and say, I've been to a Ligonier conference. See, I truly am a Calvinist. It's a gospel religion. I hope you'll make plans to join us for the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. God bless.