“We cannot cleanse ourselves; God must work in us with power. That is why the Holy Spirit is fire. We must go back into the oven when God chooses to make us new.”

– John Calvin

Book Description

Translated from the French of 1562 by Robert White

Of the many sermons which Calvin preached on the Synoptic Gospels, only the first sixty-five were recorded and published, under the title Sermons on the Harmony or Concordance of the Three Evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke (1562). Eighteen of these sermons appear here, for the first time in English translation. They focus on the events of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee: his baptism, his testing by Satan, the calling of his first disciples, his teaching and his works of healing.

In consecutive sermons the preacher traces the drama of Jesus’ confrontation with the forces of darkness and unbelief, which make him a prophet without honour in his own country. For the time being, his identity as Messiah remains hidden. Already, however, he is filled with the Spirit of God who empowers and directs him; already Satan must contend with one stronger than he; already the poor have good news preached to them; already God’s kingdom is present in Jesus’ gracious words and mighty works.

These sermons, the last Calvin was to preach on a New Testament text, reveal the Reformer at his best: a lucid interpreter of Scripture, an engaging preacher, and a pastor passionate to present every soul in his care mature in Christ.

The post In the Power of the Spirit appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Also available, Sermons on Job, Volume 1 (eBook only) and Sermons on Job, Volume 2 (eBook only)

Endorsement

‘Dr Rob Roy McGregor’s translations of Calvin’s sermons have been received with great enthusiasm and gratitude.’ — DEREK THOMAS

Book Description

THE name of John Calvin (1509-64) is justly renowned in a number of contexts. The Reformation’s greatest systematic theologian, he was also a Christian strategist and transformer of society, as his enormous correspondence and his influence in Geneva bear witness. A prolific scholar, well-versed in the Latin of the academics, he also worked hard at communicating to ordinary men and women in his native French language.

Above all, Calvin was a pastor. Indeed, it has been said of him that he became a theologian in order to be a better pastor. Nowhere is that more clearly seen than in his sermons.

In 1549, the Campagnie des Étrangers, refugees who thought highly of his ministry, employed a professional scribe, Denis Raguenier, to record and translate Calvin’s sermons.

Thanks to the foresight of these sixteenth-century Christians we can still read the 159 sermons Calvin preached on the Book of Job on week-days in 1554-5. They abound in faithful and lively exposition, and remain one of the finest examples of evangelical preaching – faithful to the biblical text and thoughtfully applied to the individual and society.

In 1993 the Banner of Truth Trust reprinted a facsimile edition of Arthur Golding’s 1574 translation of Calvin’s sermons on Job. At that time the publisher expressed the hope that ‘Perhaps one day the massive work of retranslating Calvin from the original French into modern English will be done.’ That day has now well and truly come! Several new translations of Calvin’s sermons have recently been published (on Ephesians, Galatians, 2 Samuel 1-13, Acts 1-7, Gen. 1-20, The Beatitudes, Luke 1-2, etc.), and a new translation of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (1541 ed.) has also recently been added to this impressive list of volumes. Now, thanks to Dr Rob Roy McGregor, all of Calvin’s 159 sermons on Job have been translated into modern, colourful, and vigorous English.

This third volume covers Calvin’s expositions of Job chapters 31-42.

About the Translator

Dr Rob Roy McGregor is a graduate of Erskine College and Columbia Theological Seminary, and was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1958 by Second Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Dr McGregor taught English, French, German, and Latin at Boys High School and Hanna High School in Anderson before earning the MA degree in French from the University of South Carolina and the PhD in Romance Languages from the University of Georgia. He is Professor Emeritus of French and Latin at Clemson University, with publications on Jehan Froissart, Albert Camus, Voltaire, Charles Baudelaire, and Jean Genet.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

The post Sermons on Job Volume 3 (eBook) appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Book Description

The name of John Calvin (1509-64) is justly renowned in a number of contexts. The Reformation’s greatest systematic theologian, he was also a Christian strategist and transformer of society, as his enormous correspondence and his influence in Geneva bear witness. A prolific scholar, well-versed in the Latin of the academics, he also worked hard at communicating to ordinary men and women in his native French language.

Above all, Calvin was a pastor. Indeed, it has been said of him that he became a theologian in order to be a better pastor. Nowhere is that more clearly seen than in his sermons.

In 1549, the Compagnie des Étrangers, refugees who thought highly of his ministry, employed a professional scribe, Denis Raguenier, to record and translate Calvin’s sermons.

Thanks to the foresight of these sixteenth-century Christians we can still read the 159 sermons Calvin preached on the Book of Job on week-days in 1554-5. They abound in faithful and lively exposition, and remain one of the finest examples of evangelical preaching – faithful to the biblical text and thoughtfully applied to the individual and society.

In 1993 the Banner of Truth Trust reprinted a facsimile edition of Arthur Golding’s 1574 translation of Calvin’s sermons on Job. At that time the publisher expressed the hope that ‘Perhaps one day the massive work of retranslating Calvin from the original french into modern English will be done.’ That day has now well and truly come! Several new translations of Calvin’s sermons have recently been published (on Ephesians, Galatians, 2 Samuel 1-13, Acts 1-7, Gen. 1-20, The Beatitudes, Luke 1-2, etc.) and a new translation of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (1541 ed.) has also recently been added to this impressive list of volumes. Now, thanks to Dr Rob Roy McGregor, all of Calvin’s 159 sermons on Job have been translated into modern, colourful, and vigorous English.

The post Sermons on Job appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Book Description

Translated from the French by Robert White

When Calvin says that he would not have spoken of election had Scripture not led the way, we need not doubt his word. If he defends the doctrine with vigour, it is because it runs as an unbroken thread through both Old and New Testaments. Like the doctrines of providence, atonement and the new birth, it is a doctrine of sovereign grace.

Calvin did not invent election: it is a doctrine which belongs to the universal church. Its importance for him lies in the fact that it anchors the work of redemption, not in our feeble powers of will, but in God’s inexplicable love for sinners, and it traces that work to a determination freely made in heaven before the world began.

The present volume offers a variety of sources, newly translated from the French, which throw fresh light on Calvin’s doctrine of election. In place of his more formal works such as the Institutes from which the doctrine is usually derived, texts have been selected which were intended for oral delivery to a largely non-specialist audience. The tensions inherent in the doctrine, such as God’s mercy versus his justice, are honestly acknowledged and answered. Throughout, appeal is made not to philosophical speculation but to God’s revealed word. To depart from Scripture, the Reformer holds, is to enter a labyrinth from which there is no way out.

There is no hint of bookishness in the texts presented here. This is theology for Everyman – clear, comprehensive and rich in practical application. And it leads, as all good theology should, to the praise of God’s glory.

The post The Doctrine of Election appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

To call the arrest, trial, scourging and crucifixion of Jesus Christ a miscarriage of justice is true as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. Christ’s death on the cross was not an accident but, as his resurrection attests, was accomplished according to the sovereign, loving will of God, by which sinners can be reconciled to the One who made them, and can pass by grace from death to life.

In this memorable set of sermons which date from 1557 to 1558, Calvin, chief pastor of the Genevan church, offers a sensitive reading of Matthew’s account of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. The preacher’s focus, however, is not so much on the events themselves as on their significance, on what he calls the fruit and efficacy of Christ’s redemptive work. What, in practical terms, is the import of the Easter message for the life of faith? Calvin’s answer has vital implications not only for what we believe but for the way we live, serve, worship and pray.

Newly translated from the French of 1558 by Robert White.

‘If we seek for salvation, the name of Jesus alone teaches us that it is in him. … If we desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we will find them in his anointing. If we are looking for strength, we have it in his lordship…If we ask for redemption, his passion provides it. In his condemnation we have our absolution. If we want pardon for sin’s curse, that gift lies in his cross. Atonement we have in his sacrifice and cleansing in his blood. Our reconciliation was effected by his descent into hell; the mortification of our flesh lies in his burial, and newness of life in his resurrection, through which we also have the hope of immortality.’ –JOHN CALVIN

Reviews

Book review by Aaron Lee.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

The post Crucified and Risen appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

• Sermons on 1 Timothy
• Sermons on 2 Timothy
• Sermons on Titus

Want to learn more about each title in this set? Click on the related items below to read in depth about each title, however, remember to add the ‘Calvin’s Sermons Set’ to your cart if you want to receive the set.

The post Calvin’s Sermons Set appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Preaching is the lifeblood of the Christian church. In every age God has used the proclamation of his word to bring men and women to repentance and faith in Christ, and to help them grow in grace.

Throughout his long ministry in Geneva (1536–38, 1541–64), Calvin was a tireless preacher. He spoke of course to a specific congregation and at a particular point in time. Even so his sermons have travelled well across both time and space. God’s word is not bound by history or geography, and Calvin’s French has a robust plainness and directness which allows it to cross barriers of language and culture with relative ease.

Of the 101 sermons which the Reformer preached in 1554–55 on the Pastoral Letters, thirty, on Paul’s second letter to Timothy, are presented here. They have been newly translated from the original French. They offer a clear, forthright exposition of the biblical text, but also challenge the reader to live out the truths taught, since to be profitable God’s word must transform the way we think, feel and act. In Calvin’s hands the sermon is an instrument of real and lasting change.

This volume completes the translation into modern English of Calvin’s Sermons on the Pastoral Letters of the apostle Paul. The companion volumes of Calvin’s Sermons on First Timothy (2018) and Calvin’s Sermons on Titus (2015) are also available from the Trust.

What the Pastoral Epistles meant to Calvin may be seen from the unusually frank comment which he makes when introducing his sermon series on Second Timothy:

‘If we read this letter carefully, we will see that God’s Spirit there reveals himself with such power and majesty that we cannot avoid feeling thrilled. For my part, I know that this letter has done me as much good as any book of Scripture. Every day there is something of value in it. I do not doubt that those who closely study it will feel the same. If we want the kind of testimony to God’s truth which will pierce our hearts, we can do no better than tarry here.’

Reviews

• Review by Jimmy Reagan

Table of Contents Expand ↓

	Introduction	ix
	Calvin’s Outline of Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy	xvii
	Sermon One: Loved by God (2 Tim. 1:1-2)	1
	Sermon Two: Remembered in Prayer (2 Tim. 1:3-5)	15
	Sermon Three: Fanning the Flame (2 Tim. 1:6-8)	33
	Sermon Four: Called and Saved (2 Tim. 1:8-9)	47
	Sermon Five: Why Election Matters (2 Tim. 1:9-10)	61
	Sermon Six: Guarding the Gospel (2 Tim. 1:13-14)	77
	Sermon Seven: Steadfast, Come What May (2 Tim. 1:15-18)	91
	Sermon Eight: God’s Strong Arm (2 Tim. 2:1-3)	107
	Sermon Nine: Present Toil, Future Fruit (2 Tim. 2:4-7)	123
	Sermon Ten: Risen in Glory (2 Tim. 2:8-9)	137
	Sermon Eleven: God Ever Faithful (2 Tim. 2:10-13)	153
	Sermon Twelve: Rightly Handling the Truth (2 Tim. 2:14-15)	169
	Sermon Thirteen: How to Combat Error (2 Tim. 2:16-18)	185
	Sermon Fourteen: A Sure Foundation (2 Tim. 2:19)	199
	Sermon Fifteen: Fit for God’s Use (2 Tim. 2:20-21)	213
	Sermon Sixteen: Striving for Maturity (2 Tim. 2:22)	227
	Sermon Seventeen: The Lord’s Servant (2 Tim. 2:23-25)	241
	Sermon Eighteen: In and Out of Satan’s Snare (2 Tim. 2:25-26)	253
	Sermon Nineteen: Hard Times Ahead (2 Tim. 3:1-5)	267
	Sermon Twenty: Always Learning, Never Knowing (2 Tim. 3:6-7)	279
	Sermon Twenty-One: God Vindicates His Own (2 Tim. 3:8-9)	295
	Sermon Twenty-Two: Forewarned and Forearmed (2 Tim. 3:10-13)	311
	Sermon Twenty-Three: God’s Word Makes Us Wise (2 Tim. 3:14-15)	327
	Sermon Twenty-Four: The Uses of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17)	341
	Sermon Twenty-Five: Pressing Home God’s Word (2 Tim. 4:1-2)	355
	Sermon Twenty-Six: Deceivers and Deceived (2 Tim. 4:2-4)	371
	Sermon Twenty-Seven: Taking Leave of Life (2 Tim. 4:5-6)	387
	Sermon Twenty-Eight: The Victor’s Crown (2 Tim. 4:7-8)	401
	Sermon Twenty-Nine: Hands Across the Sea (2 Tim. 4:8-13)	417
	Sermon Thirty: Who Is on the Lord’s Side? (2 Tim. 4:14-22)	433
	Prayers Before and After the Sermon	449
	Index of Scripture References	453
	Index of Subjects	459

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‘This is one of my favourite books. My copy is highlighted, underlined, and falling apart from constant use. Students of Calvin, as well as pastors and serious Christians, will enjoy these letters. I’m thrilled that Banner of Truth has reissued this classic.’ — KEVIN DEYOUNG (from the introduction)

Book Description

Few great Christian leaders have suffered quite so much misunderstanding as John Calvin. He is often dismissed as a theologian without humanity. In fact the very reverse is much nearer the truth, as these letters amply demonstrate. He was a man of deep and lasting affection, passionately concerned for the cause of Christ in the world—a man who burned himself out for the gospel.

Calvin wrote to kings and princes, Reformers and friends, nobility and common people alike. The Letters of John Calvin reveal a man of deep pastoral concern, consistent and exemplary evangelistic zeal, with a humble sense of the final authority of God and his word. This selection contains a number of letters written in connection with the establishment of the Reformation in England; a cross-section of Calvin’s correspondence with his closest friends, especially William Farel, and also Luther and Melanchthon. There are also letters of pastoral counsel and encouragement, and perhaps most moving of all, Calvin’s exhortations to five young men imprisoned in Lyons, France, awaiting the day of their certain martyrdom.

This selection of seventy letters is taken from the collection edited by Jules Bonnet, first published in 1855–7, with an introductory biographical sketch.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

The post Letters of John Calvin appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Calvin’s expository sermons to the great congregation of St Peter’s, Geneva, taken down in shorthand and then published across Europe, were among the most sought-after volumes of the sixteenth century. In the late 1570s, translated from the French, these bulky volumes flowed through London’s bookshops and none was more popular than the ‘One hundred Sermons on the Epistles of St Paul to Timothy and Titus’ which appeared for the first time in 1579. The public demand was understandable. First, Calvin ‘opened the Scriptures’, not in these volumes for students only, but for the whole church. Second, the sermons were preaching in the full New Testament sense of the term, that is, proclamation and persuasion, with power and conviction.

These sermons are new translated from the French of 1561 by Robert White.

Robert White formerly taught in the department of French Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, and has a specialist interest in the Reformation in French-speaking areas of Europe. He is the translator of Calvin’s Sermons on the Beatitudes, Songs of the Nativity, Faith Unfeigned, A Guide to Christian Living, and The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1541 edition), which are also published by the Trust.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

The post Sermons on 1 Timothy appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Also available, Sermons on Job, Volume 1 (eBook only) and Sermons on Job, Volume 3 (eBook only)

Endorsement

‘Dr Rob Roy McGregor’s translations of Calvin’s sermons have been received with great enthusiasm and gratitude.’ — DEREK THOMAS

Book Description

THE name of John Calvin (1509-64) is justly renowned in a number of contexts. The Reformation’s greatest systematic theologian, he was also a Christian strategist and transformer of society, as his enormous correspondence and his influence in Geneva bear witness. A prolific scholar, well-versed in the Latin of the academics, he also worked hard at communicating to ordinary men and women in his native French language.

Above all, Calvin was a pastor. Indeed, it has been said of him that he became a theologian in order to be a better pastor. Nowhere is that more clearly seen than in his sermons.

In 1549, the Campagnie des Étrangers, refugees who thought highly of his ministry, employed a professional scribe, Denis Raguenier, to record and translate Calvin’s sermons.

Thanks to the foresight of these sixteenth-century Christians we can still read the 159 sermons Calvin preached on the Book of Job on week-days in 1554-5. They abound in faithful and lively exposition, and remain one of the finest examples of evangelical preaching – faithful to the biblical text and thoughtfully applied to the individual and society.

In 1993 the Banner of Truth Trust reprinted a facsimile edition of Arthur Golding’s 1574 translation of Calvin’s sermons on Job. At that time the publisher expressed the hope that ‘Perhaps one day the massive work of retranslating Calvin from the original French into modern English will be done.’ That day has now well and truly come! Several new translations of Calvin’s sermons have recently been published (on Ephesians, Galatians, 2 Samuel 1-13, Acts 1-7, Gen. 1-20, The Beatitudes, Luke 1-2, etc.), and a new translation of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (1541 ed.) has also recently been added to this impressive list of volumes. Now, thanks to Dr Rob Roy McGregor, all of Calvin’s 159 sermons on Job have been translated into modern, colourful, and vigorous English.

This second volume covers Calvin’s expositions of Job chapters 15-30.

About the Translator

Dr Rob Roy McGregor is a graduate of Erskine College and Columbia Theological Seminary, and was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1958 by Second Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Dr McGregor taught English, French, German, and Latin at Boys High School and Hanna High School in Anderson before earning the MA degree in French from the University of South Carolina and the PhD in Romance Languages from the University of Georgia. He is Professor Emeritus of French and Latin at Clemson University, with publications on Jehan Froissart, Albert Camus, Voltaire, Charles Baudelaire, and Jean Genet.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

The post Sermons on Job Volume 2 (eBook) appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Book Description

Calvin’s expository sermons to the great congregation of St Peter’s, Geneva, taken down in shorthand and then published across Europe, were among the most sought-after volumes of the sixteenth century. In the late 1570s, translated from the French, these bulky volumes flowed through London’s bookshops and none was more popular than the ‘One hundred Sermons on the Epistles of St Paul to Timothy and Titus’ which appeared for the first time in 1579. The public demand was understandable. First, Calvin ‘opened the Scriptures’, not in these volumes for students only, but for the whole church. Second, the sermons were preaching in the full New Testament sense of the term, that is, proclamation and persuasion, with power and conviction.

For the first time in more than 450 years, Calvin’s Sermons on Titus have been translated afresh into English. These sermons are not merely an updating of the language of Laurence Thomson’s 1579 English translation (which, along with Calvin’s Sermons on 1 and 2 Timothy, was previously reprinted in facsimile by the Trust in 1983). Robert White’s new translation goes back to Calvin’s original French, and the result is a fine modern English translation that will make the reader feel something of the excitement of those Elizabethan Christians who so prized their own contemporary English version of Calvin’s sermons on this pastoral epistle.

While the seventeen sermons in this volume were preached by Calvin between August and mid- October, 1555 during the course of his regular pulpit ministry in Geneva, they are far from being mere historical curiosities. Along with concern for irreproachable leadership, faithful teaching and the spiritual well-being of the church’s members, the apostle’s letter to Titus sounds a strongly ethical and evangelistic note in its emphasis on upright living, by which God is honoured and outsiders are drawn to the faith as they witness the power and grace of the gospel.

Accordingly, in these sermons Calvin consistently stresses the centrality of God’s revealed word in the collective life of the church, and the necessity for each believer to conform in holiness and uprightness to God’s standard of purity. A wholesome life is, through the Spirit’s gracious work, both the consequence and the accompaniment of wholesome teaching. Inconsistency of conduct is not, however, easy to avoid, and the world will rightly condemn Christians who say one thing and do another. Transformation into Christ’s likeness is the work of a lifetime. Enrolled in God’s school, believers are urged to profit each day, growing not only in knowledge but also in love, and not for their own sake only but for that of their neighbour, to whom they are bound by ties of humanity and brotherhood. In this way the church is strengthened, its witness is confirmed and tangible proof is given that it is what it claims to be the community of God’s redeemed on earth. The sermons on Titus reveal the heart of Calvin the pastor, the shepherd of God’s flock, whose members are nourished by the word of truth, made one with Christ by the Spirit’s regenerating power, adopted into God’s family and promised a heavenly inheritance which cannot fail.

Robert White formerly taught in the department of French Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia, and has a specialist interest in the Reformation in French-speaking areas of Europe. He is the translator of Calvin’s Sermons on the Beatitudes, Songs of the Nativity, Faith Unfeigned, A Guide to Christian Living, and The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1541 edition), which are also published by the Trust.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

Reviews

• Review by J. Reagan
• Review by Gervase Charmley

The post Sermons on Titus appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Also available, Sermons on Job, Volume 2 (eBook only) and Sermons on Job, Volume 3

Endorsement

‘Dr Rob Roy McGregor’s translations of Calvin’s sermons have been received with great enthusiasm and gratitude.’ — DEREK THOMAS

Book Description

THE name of John Calvin (1509-64) is justly renowned in a number of contexts. The Reformation’s greatest systematic theologian, he was also a Christian strategist and transformer of society, as his enormous correspondence and his influence in Geneva bear witness. A prolific scholar, well-versed in the Latin of the academics, he also worked hard at communicating to ordinary men and women in his native French language.

Above all, Calvin was a pastor. Indeed, it has been said of him that he became a theologian in order to be a better pastor. Nowhere is that more clearly seen than in his sermons.

In 1549, the Campagnie des Étrangers, refugees who thought highly of his ministry, employed a professional scribe, Denis Raguenier, to record and translate Calvin’s sermons.

Thanks to the foresight of these sixteenth-century Christians we can still read the 159 sermons Calvin preached on the Book of Job on week-days in 1554-5. They abound in faithful and lively exposition, and remain one of the finest examples of evangelical preaching – faithful to the biblical text and thoughtfully applied to the individual and society.

In 1993 the Banner of Truth Trust reprinted a facsimile edition of Arthur Golding’s 1574 translation of Calvin’s sermons on Job. At that time the publisher expressed the hope that ‘Perhaps one day the massive work of retranslating Calvin from the original French into modern English will be done.’ That day has now well and truly come! Several new translations of Calvin’s sermons have recently been published (on Ephesians, Galatians, 2 Samuel 1-13, Acts 1-7, Gen. 1-20, The Beatitudes, Luke 1-2, etc.), and a new translation of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (1541 ed.) has also recently been added to this impressive list of volumes. Now, thanks to Dr Rob Roy McGregor, all of Calvin’s 159 sermons on Job have been translated into modern, colourful, and vigorous English.

This first volume covers Calvin’s expositions of Job chapters 1-14.

About the Translator

Dr Rob Roy McGregor is a graduate of Erskine College and Columbia Theological Seminary, and was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1958 by Second Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Dr McGregor taught English, French, German, and Latin at Boys High School and Hanna High School in Anderson before earning the MA degree in French from the University of South Carolina and the PhD in Romance Languages from the University of Georgia. He is Professor Emeritus of French and Latin at Clemson University, with publications on Jehan Froissart, Albert Camus, Voltaire, Charles Baudelaire, and Jean Genet.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

The post Sermons on Job Volume 1 (eBook) appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘Any who wish to encounter Calvin’s systematic theology at its most pastoral, freest from controversial preoccupations, and mediated through superlative translation, should devour this rendering of the Reformer’s own French version of the second edition of his Institutes.’ — J. I. PACKER

Book Description

The Institutes of the Christian Religion are Calvin’s single most important work, and one of the key texts to emerge from the Reformation of the sixteenth century. The book accompanied the Reformer throughout his life, growing in size from what was essentially an expanded catechism in 1536 to a full-scale work of biblical theology in 1559/1560.

Among the intermediate editions of the Institutes, none deserves to be better known than the first French edition of 1541. Avoiding the technical details and much of the polemics of the final work, the Institutes of 1541 offer a clear and comprehensive account of the work of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in creation, revelation and redemption, in the life of the individual Christian and in the worship and witness of the church.

Not doctrine only but its practical use is Calvin’s abiding concern. The author of the Institutes invites us both to know and to live the truth, and thus allow God’s Spirit to transform us.

The present translation is newly made from the French edition of 1541 by Robert White. It has been designed and annotated with the needs of a wide readership in mind.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

Reviews

• Review by Paul Helm
• Review by Barry Shucksmith
• Review by Stephen Westcott
• Review by Martin Williams

From the Translator

• • Robert White: You Should Know Calvin’s Institutes

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This scarce volume is another important addition to the Trust’s series of quality facsimile reprints. Sermons on Job will be treasured by preachers, students, scholars, and believers throughout the English-speaking world. — JOEL BEEKE

For those who are lovers of Calvin and familiar with the other volumes of his sermons, those on Job need no recommendation. They bear the same characteristic marks of care, thoroughness, reverence, warmth and extended application. — DAVID CAMPBELL

Book Description

The name of John Calvin (1509-1564) is justly renowned in a number of contexts. The Reforma­tion’s greatest systematic theologian, he was also a Christian strategist and transformer of society, as his enormous correspondence and his influence in Geneva bear witness. A prolific scholar, well-versed in the Latin of the academics, he also worked hard at communicating to ordinary men and women in his native French language.

Above all, Calvin was a pastor. Indeed, it has been said of him that he became a theologian in order to be a better pastor. Nowhere is that more clearly seen than in his sermons.

In 1549, the Campagnie des Etrangers, refugees who thought highly of his ministry, employed a professional scribe, Denis Raguenier, to record and translate Calvin’s sermons.

Thanks to the foresight of these sixteenth-century Christians we can still read the 159 sermons Calvin preached on the Book of Job on week-days in 1554-5. They abound in faithful and lively exposition, and remain one of the finest examples of evangelical preaching – faithful to the biblical text and thoughtfully applied to the individual and society.

This quality facsimile edition, which will be prized by students, scholars and Christians in general, is a reproduction of Arthur Golding’s translation of the Job sermons first published in 1574.

Perhaps one day the massive work of retransla­ting Calvin from the original French into modern English will be done, but until then this Elizabethan text provides us with a rare volume, treasured by all who have ever possessed it. The English has the force and colour of the age of Shakespeare and ten minutes reading aloud is generally enough to whet the interest for more.

The post Sermons on Job appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘In his masterful translation Dr. McGregor has quite wonderfully brought the preacher back to life and allowed us the privilege of being able, with a little imagination, to take our places in St. Peter’s Church on those cold autumn and winter days with the Reformer himself in the pulpit.’ — J.R. DE WITT

Book Description

Preaching as Calvin undertook to do it extends far beyond the confines of a carefully written manuscript. It is not bound by the niceties of style, sentence structure, and the like. it is marked by an immeasurably greater degree of intensity, by an obvious determination to instruct and persuade, by an astounding capacity to confront hearers both with the truth of divine revelation and with the implications of that truth for faith and obedience. There are distinct advantages, therefore, in having before us these sermons on Genesis precisely as they were delivered. They let us see and hear a man aflame with love for the lord and his Word, a preacher who spent himself utterly in the work of summoning his people to repentance, faith and holiness. The feature that has struck me most powerfully is the sermons’ immediacy. As I have read them, it has quite often seemed to me almost as though I were sitting with the congregation in Geneva and listening to Calvin himself as he opened up the passage, and then carefully, deliberately, and sometimes with painful specificity applied its teaching to those who heard him. In his masterful translation Dr. McGregor has quite wonderfully brought the preacher back to life and allowed us the privilege of being able, with a little imagination, to take our places in St. Peter’s Church on those cold autumn and winter days with the Reformer himself in the pulpit.

Table of Contents Expand ↓

Reviews

• Review by John Brentnall
• Review by Wilfred Weale
• Review by Greg Goswell (page 16)
• Review by Brian Garrard

The post Sermons on Genesis appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Long unavailable the republication of Calvin’s Tracts and Letters will delight all who have come to delight in the writings of the sixteenth-century reformer of Geneva.

3 Vols of Tracts

Three volumes of Tracts comprise some of Calvin’s most important writings. Volume 1 begins with the Life of Calvin written by his close friend and colleague, Theodore Beza. An outline of Calvin’s life and work by an eye-witness and intimate friend, it will never be entirely superseded by any other biography. There follows several miscellaneous Tracts relating to the reformation, which all have a strong bearing on the leading points at issue between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Among them is the famous exchange with Cardinal Sadaleto and The Necessity of Reforming the Church.

The Tracts contained in the second volume discuss subjects which are of the highest importance in themselves. They range widely over a very extensive field, presenting us both with general summaries of the Truth, in its most elementary form (Calvin’s Catechism, etc.), and also with learned and profound treatments of more difficult points, particularly the nature of our Saviour’s Presence in the Supper.

The four Tracts that comprise the third volume, were selected partly on account of their own intrinsic value, and partly on account of the additional interest which recent controversies have given to some of the subjects considered in them. They contain lucid discussions on all the leading points in the controversy with Rome, furnish wholesome advice in answer to a question which once was, and will probably again become, of great practical importance (The True Method of Reforming the Church and Healing Her Divisions); and refute the wild dogma which a kind of infidel fanaticism had devised, asserting, that in the interval between death and the final judgment the soul remains in a state of sleep or unconscious existence.

All the Tracts sustain the reputation of their distinguished author; and, considering their controversial nature, do not often display the virulent spirit and intemperate language for which modern critics all too often condemn Calvin.

4 Vols of Letters

The man who regularly lectured to theological students, preached on average five times a week and authored enough material to fill forty-eight enormous volumes could scarcely be expected to show enthusiasm for correspondence. Yet in the Complete Works of John Calvin there are to be found no less than eleven volumes of his correspondence!

Calvin wrote to kings and princes, reformers and friends, nobility and common people alike. His letters discuss affairs of State, but also the most mundane problems of everyday life, and through them all is revealed a man of deep pastoral concern, consistent and exemplary evangelistic zeal, with a humble sense of the final authority of God and his word.

The four volumes of letters in this edition range from 1528 to the year of the reformer’s death in 1564, and are of enormous historical interest. But their permanent significance lies in the reminder they provide of a great work of God, and the example they set of compassionate Christian care, and a deep concern for the advance of the gospel wherever it is proclaimed. Calvin’s personal ambition undergirds each letter: ‘It is enough that I live and die for Christ who is to his followers a gain both in life and in death.’

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Review

• Review by Gervase Charmley

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This book is a little gem!…It would be hard to find a clearer summary of the faith in so short a compass, and perhaps impossible to find one so warm…Well worth the read! , EVANGELICALS NOW

Book Description

‘John Calvin knew that if the biblical truths rediscovered at the Reformation were to spread throughout the world, they would have to be presented in a form which ordinary people could understand. So, during the winter of 1536-1537, the 29 year old Calvin wrote, in French, his Brief Outline of the Christian Faith…This is Calvin’s striking but concise attempt to define the Christian faith for ordinary people!…Here you have the very core of Protestant belief and feel the warmth of its ardent love for God and men.’– From the preface by Stuart Olyott

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How to answer the question ‘Is your conscience at peace?’ A reading of any or all of these forty-four extant sermons on Acts by John Calvin will help the reader determine whether his conscience is at peace or simply asleep!

Calvin’s vigorous presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in its full extent shows the sixteenth-century expositor understood the ramifications of New Testament theology, just as did his mentor, the apostle Paul, who, after presenting his reasoned understanding of the meaning of Christ’s work, immediately follows it with the ‘therefore’ of consequence. Calvin mixes biblical teaching and its demands on the believer’s life together so closely that the theology and its effects cannot be easily separated. Divine judgment and mercy underlie this ‘effects theology’, and it is the sense of judgment versus the promises of and the conditions for forgiveness and acceptance that informs the reader’s conscience whether he is indeed forgiven and at peace, a member of the body of Christ.

On the other hand, the reader of the sleeping conscience, by comparison and self-examination, will be incited to awaken to a new or renewed relationship with the pressing demands of Christian ‘effects theology’. Calvin pulls no punches. If belief does not end in an increasingly Christlike character, it is as good as no belief, no theology. The reader is either at peace or asleep.

‘One wonders, after perusing any sequence of Calvin’s sermons, whether Calvin would be welcomed in many Protestant, even Presbyterian, pulpits today. Calvin is hailed for his biblical theology, but largely ignored with respect to his insistence upon the transformed-life, life-long self-abnegation demanded of genuine Christian discipleship. The motive behind his insistence arises from his acute awareness that God, after expressing his fatherly love and gracious acceptance of the wayward, remains the uncompromising judge of all humankind, Christian or not. That awareness of judgment should, Calvin says, “make our hair stand on end” and drive us to repentance, without which there is no forgiveness.’

‘It is hoped that the reader of these sermons will seek not just to confirm the sermons’ agreement with Calvinistic theology, but particularly to experience Calvin’s sincere and profound personal response to the loving and merciful God whose Son is on the threshold of judging with finality the whole world with mercy and justice.’

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Review

• Review by Hugh Cartwright
• Review by Josh Gelatt
• Review by Ian Gibbs

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‘This book is a little gem!…It would be hard to find a clearer summary of the faith in so short a compass, and perhaps impossible to find one so warm…Well worth the read!’ — EVANGELICALS NOW

Book Description

‘John Calvin knew that if the biblical truths rediscovered at the Reformation were to spread throughout the world, they would have to be presented in a form that ordinary people could understand. So, during the winter of 1536-37, the 29-year old Calvin wrote, in French, his Brief Outline of the Christian Faith. This is Calvin’s striking but concise attempt to define the Christian Faith for ordinary people! Here you have the very core of Protestant belief and feel the warmth of its ardent love for God and men.’ — From the preface by Stuart Olyott

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Reviews

• Review by ‘Peculiar Pilgrim’

The post Truth For All Time appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

All four Gospels bear witness to the supernatural person and work of Jesus Christ, but only the first and third testify explicitly to his supernatural conception and birth. The accounts given in Matthew and Luke are clearly independent of each other, but both unambiguously affirm that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, through the direct action of the Holy Spirit and without the intervention of a human father.

Luke’s Gospel is notable for its distinctive songs, strikingly reminiscent of the Psalms. Chief among these are Mary’s song, the Magnificat, Zechariah’s song, the Benedictus, the Angels’ song, the Gloria in excelsis, and Simeon’s song, the Nunc dimittis. Together, they have nourished the prayer and mediation of countless Christians, and enriched the church’s worship. They are full of prophetic hope, eager expectation, and joyful thanksgiving. God’s great redemptive work is moving to is climax with the birth of the Saviour, Jesus, Son of the Most High. Luke’s ‘gospel of the incarnation’ was good news to all who, like the representatives of the old Israel, looked for Messiah’s first advent; it is good news to all who, today, look for his second.

Preached in Geneva between October 1559 and March 1560, Calvin’s sermons on the nativity story are the fruit of almost twenty-five years of gospel ministry. Here we see Calvin the faithful pastor-expounding the text and applying it with passion and vigour to his congregation by means of persuasion, exhortation, admonition and rebuke. Robert White’s excellent translation transports the reader back to St. Peter’s Cathedral, Geneva, where Calvin can be heard- or overheard- preaching on issues of perennial importance to all Christian men and women.

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Calvin’s Ephesian Sermons, preached on Sundays at Geneva in 1558-59, when he was 49 years of age, were first printed in French in 1562, then in English in 1577. They have long been one of the rarest of all the Reformer’s works and merited the comment of C.H. Spurgeon, a century ago, ‘…The sermons are priceless.’

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Review

• Review by Brian Garrard

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‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good. — C.H. SPURGEON

Book Description

His great gifts as an interpreter are clearly evident here in his treatment of the oft-neglected Minor Prophets. In these volumes he opens up their rich contents to our hearts and minds: here is God’s Word concerning false religion, spiritual adultery, injustice, judgment, the remnant, the restoration and sovereign love.

The post The Minor Prophets appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

In his Introduction Dr. Wilbur Smith writes: ‘In a day like this in which we are living, when the governments of the world are breaking up, in a day when a vast part of the earth is controlled by a merciless dictatorship, when multitudes of Christians have already known persecution, and many more will before this age ends, there is hardly any book in the Old Testament we could read with more profit than the book of Daniel and scarcely a commentary on any portion of the Old Testament quite so profitable as Calvin’s two volumes on Daniel.

I suppose nothing on the prayer of Daniel, occupying most of the ninth chapter of his prophecy, has ever been written so rich and deep and comprehensive as the 17,000 words which Calvin devotes to the sixteen verses of this marvellous outpouring of the heart of the ancient prophet.’

This volume has been reprinted from the Calvin Translation Society two volume edition of 1852-53, edited by Thomas Myers.

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Because Calvin was a sound exegete, little of what he wrote is dated. Although his treatment of the early chapters is thorough, it is not disproportionate, and the later narratives concerning Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph are not passed over hastily. Indeed, Calvin excels in bringing out the principles of God’s dealings with men, as individuals and in covenant, and in showing faithfully yet tenderly the human weakness and sin all too evident in Genesis.

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‘I confess that at the outset I was put off by the fear of being thought rash and arrogant if I should attempt such an undertaking after so many excellent works.’

So wrote John Calvin (1509-1564) in the dedicatory letter of his commentary on Romans, his first printed exposition. The initial hesitation overcome, Calvin went on to produce a commentary series covering much of Scripture, one which is, in words of William Cunningham, ‘not only superior to any that preceded it, but it has continued ever since, and continues to this day, to be regarded by all competent judges, as a work of highest value.’ C.H. Spurgeon concurred: ‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good.’

These estimations still hold true and, even in this age of multiplying commentaries, those of John Calvin stand out as models of honesty, good sense, and evangelical warmth.

Here, in this extensive exposition of Jeremiah, we encounter Calvin’s great gifts as an exegete and theologian. But we also see how his experience as a pastor and preacher equipped him to produce this outstanding exposition of ‘the weeping prophet.’

The post Jeremiah appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘I confess that at the outset I was put off by the fear of being thought rash and arrogant if I should attempt such an undertaking after so many excellent works.’

So wrote John Calvin (1509-1564) in the dedicatory letter of his commentary on Romans, his first printed exposition. The initial hesitation overcome, Calvin went on to produce a commentary series covering much of Scripture, one which is, in words of William Cunningham, ‘not only superior to any that preceded it, but it has continued ever since, and continues to this day, to be regarded by all competent judges, as a work of highest value.’ C.H. Spurgeon concurred: ‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good.’

These estimations still hold true and, even in this age of multiplying commentaries, those of John Calvin stand out as models of honesty, good sense, and evangelical warmth.

Here, in this extensive exposition of Jeremiah, we encounter Calvin’s great gifts as an exegete and theologian. But we also see how his experience as a pastor and preacher equipped him to produce this outstanding exposition of ‘the weeping prophet.’

The post Jeremiah appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘I confess that at the outset I was put off by the fear of being thought rash and arrogant if I should attempt such an undertaking after so many excellent works.’

So wrote John Calvin (1509-1564) in the dedicatory letter of his commentary on Romans, his first printed exposition. The initial hesitation overcome, Calvin went on to produce a commentary series covering much of Scripture, one which is, in words of William Cunningham, ‘not only superior to any that preceded it, but it has continued ever since, and continues to this day, to be regarded by all competent judges, as a work of highest value.’ C.H. Spurgeon concurred: ‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good.’

These estimations still hold true and, even in this age of multiplying commentaries, those of John Calvin stand out as models of honesty, good sense, and evangelical warmth.

Here, in this extensive exposition of Jeremiah, we encounter Calvin’s great gifts as an exegete and theologian. But we also see how his experience as a pastor and preacher equipped him to produce this outstanding exposition of ‘the weeping prophet.’

The post Jeremiah appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘I confess that at the outset I was put off by the fear of being thought rash and arrogant if I should attempt such an undertaking after so many excellent works.’

So wrote John Calvin (1509-1564) in the dedicatory letter of his commentary on Romans, his first printed exposition. The initial hesitation overcome, Calvin went on to produce a commentary series covering much of Scripture, one which is, in words of William Cunningham, ‘not only superior to any that preceded it, but it has continued ever since, and continues to this day, to be regarded by all competent judges, as a work of highest value.’ C.H. Spurgeon concurred: ‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good.’

These estimations still hold true and, even in this age of multiplying commentaries, those of John Calvin stand out as models of honesty, good sense, and evangelical warmth.

Here, in this extensive exposition of Jeremiah, we encounter Calvin’s great gifts as an exegete and theologian. But we also see how his experience as a pastor and preacher equipped him to produce this outstanding exposition of ‘the weeping prophet.’

The post Jeremiah appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘I confess that at the outset I was put off by the fear of being thought rash and arrogant if I should attempt such an undertaking after so many excellent works.’

So wrote John Calvin (1509-1564) in the dedicatory letter of his commentary on Romans, his first printed exposition. The initial hesitation overcome, Calvin went on to produce a commentary series covering much of Scripture, one which is, in words of William Cunningham, ‘not only superior to any that preceded it, but it has continued ever since, and continues to this day, to be regarded by all competent judges, as a work of highest value.’ C.H. Spurgeon concurred: ‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good.’

These estimations still hold true and, even in this age of multiplying commentaries, those of John Calvin stand out as models of honesty, good sense, and evangelical warmth.

Here, in this extensive exposition of Jeremiah, we encounter Calvin’s great gifts as an exegete and theologian. But we also see how his experience as a pastor and preacher equipped him to produce this outstanding exposition of ‘the weeping prophet.’

The post Jeremiah & Lamentations appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘I confess that at the outset I was put off by the fear of being thought rash and arrogant if I should attempt such an undertaking after so many excellent works.’

So wrote John Calvin (1509-1564) in the dedicatory letter of his commentary on Romans, his first printed exposition. The initial hesitation overcome, Calvin went on to produce a commentary series covering much of Scripture, one which is, in words of William Cunningham, ‘not only superior to any that preceded it, but it has continued ever since, and continues to this day, to be regarded by all competent judges, as a work of highest value.’ C.H. Spurgeon concurred: ‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good.’

These estimations still hold true and, even in this age of multiplying commentaries, those of John Calvin stand out as models of honesty, good sense, and evangelical warmth.

Here, in this extensive exposition of Jeremiah, we encounter Calvin’s great gifts as an exegete and theologian. But we also see how his experience as a pastor and preacher equipped him to produce this outstanding exposition of ‘the weeping prophet.’

The post Jeremiah & Lamentations appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good. — C.H. SPURGEON

Book Description

His great gifts as an interpreter are clearly evident here in his treatment of the oft-neglected Minor Prophets. In these volumes he opens up their rich contents to our hearts and minds: here is God’s Word concerning false religion, spiritual adultery, injustice, judgment, the remnant, the restoration and sovereign love.

The post The Minor Prophets appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Among the many activities which claimed Calvin’s attention during his long ministry in Geneva, preaching was the most public and perhaps the most influential. Public because, for many years, twice on Sundays and daily in alternate weeks, the Reformer stood before a congregation of townsfolk, refugees and visitors to teach, warn, appeal, counsel, admonish, and encourage. Influential because, vital as the Institutes, commentaries and treatises were to the defence and propagation of Christian doctrine, it was the Word preached and applied from the pulpit which above all fashioned Geneva’s evangelical culture and made it the nerve-centre of Reformed Protestantism.

This volume presents readers with a short series of sermons on the Beatitudes, translated for the first time into English by Robert White. They comprise Calvin’s exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, Mark 3:13-19 and Luke 6:12-26. Five sermons were preached on the Beatitudes in the course of an extended treatment of the Synoptic Gospels. Begun in July 1559, this series had still not been completed by February 1564, when ill health forced the Reformer’s retirement from the pulpit. His absence was to be permanent: he died three months later, in May 1564. The late date of these sermons, therefore, marks them out as a definitive example of the Reformer’s mature pulpit style. They represent his very last effort to elucidate a New Testament text in the context of regular public worship. Translated into a modern idiom, this book will transport the reader back into sixteenth-century Geneva, where he can hear the Reformer preach on issues of perennial Christian concern.

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‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good. , C.H. SPURGEON

Book Description

His great gifts as an interpreter are clearly evident here in his treatment of the oft-neglected Minor Prophets. In these volumes he opens up their rich contents to our hearts and minds: here is God’s Word concerning false religion, spiritual adultery, injustice, judgment, the remnant, the restoration and sovereign love.

The post The Minor Prophets appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good. — C.H. SPURGEON

Book Description

His great gifts as an interpreter are clearly evident here in his treatment of the oft-neglected Minor Prophets. In these volumes he opens up their rich contents to our hearts and minds: here is God’s Word concerning false religion, spiritual adultery, injustice, judgment, the remnant, the restoration and sovereign love.

The post The Minor Prophets appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

‘Everything that Calvin wrote by way of exposition is priceless. His expositions are more equal in excellence than those of other men; other men rise and fall, but he is almost uniformly good. — C.H. SPURGEON

Book Description

His great gifts as an interpreter are clearly evident here in his treatment of the oft-neglected Minor Prophets. In these volumes he opens up their rich contents to our hearts and minds: here is God’s Word concerning false religion, spiritual adultery, injustice, judgment, the remnant, the restoration and sovereign love.

The post The Minor Prophets appeared first on Banner of Truth UK.

Faith Unfeigned comprises four sermons preached by Calvin in 1549 and reworked by him for publication in 1552. They deal with a very practical problem: How to confess Christ and maintain the integrity of one’s faith in a hostile environment where believers face not only ostracism but persecution and even death.

Calvin’s advice is firmly based on the scriptural premise that we belong, body and soul, to God our loving Father and to Christ our faithful Redeemer. The four sermons combine sound theology with strong pastoral concern. To them a small number of related Reformation texts has been added.

Time has not diminished the importance of the issues which Calvin raises. His four sermons are, in a sense, as contemporary now as when first preached. The pressure to conform to non- or sub-Christian religions and cultures is something no Christian can escape. Persecution in many places is as painful a problem for pastors and people as it has ever been. In our weakness we are all adept, as Calvin frequently observes, at inventing excuses which fool no one but ourselves. To ponder the preacher’s words is to be reminded of the cost of discipleship, and of the need for a much larger vision of God’s saving grace and of the goal to which we are being led.

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Extract

• Click here to read the translator’s ‘Introduction’.

REVIEW

• Review by Brian Garrard

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No chapter better corresponds to the author’s original intention than that entitled ‘On the Christian Life’. It offered a clear, balanced set of directions and encouragements to all who desired to live according to the gospel. Strong in its theological affirmation of God’s righteousness and providential care, of the reconciliation won for us by Christ and of the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification, it was equally strong in its pastoral concern for believers who were beset by their own weakness and sin, who daily endured trial and temptation and who nevertheless, united to Christ by faith, shared in his life and tasted his power. The Christian life, as Calvin describes it, is lived simultaneously in the shadow of the cross and in the bright light of the resurrection. That the writer himself knew something of the cost of discipleship is clear from a consideration of his own experience. The distress of exile, the burden of poverty, the hurt of slander and misrepresentation, the threat of physical harm, were all things he knew at first hand. Farel, Calvin’s colleague, rightly calls him ‘my good, true brother, who is a partner in the cross of Jesus, . . . a man active and upright in the work of the gospel.’ The author who speaks in the Institutes about the pressures of Christian living is no armchair moralist, nor is he an unyielding Stoic for whom overt displays of emotion are a grave weakness. For Calvin tears as well as joy have a valid and necessary place: to be devoid of feeling is to be no better than a stone or block of wood. The essential thing is that, in good times and in bad, we continue to trust God who through grace has adopted us as his children, who quickens and comforts us by his Spirit, and who bids us persevere in well-doing until our life’s end.

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While John Calvin is chiefly remembered today as a great theologian, it should not be forgotten that he was essentially a pastor. Indeed, it has been said of him that he became a theologian in order to be a better pastor. His preaching gives some of the clearest evidence for this. Still in his early twenties when he began to preach, he continued to do so for the rest of his life- on average five times a week during his long years of ministry in Geneva. From 1549, thanks to the Company of Strangers, who employed Denis Raguenier as a scribe, Calvin’s sermons were preserved and their riches remain available to us. Now, thanks to the devoted labours of Professor Douglas Kelly of Reformed Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi, the Sermons on 2 Samuel 1-13 are made available in English for the first time.

Important as these sermons are for students of Calvin, they are of inestimable value for those who, like Calvin, are pastors, preachers or are simply ordinary Christian believers like those to whom they were first preached. Calvin’s masterly handling of the historical narrative of this wonderful book of Scripture combines with his deep insight into human character to produce a volume which will be treasured.

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Kathy Childress, the translator from the original French of this book says, ‘Calvin exposes human nature with profound insight…he brings this world into sharp focus and enables us to see its frivolity. However, he does not leave us to wallow in despair, but points us to the Saviour…No sinner, having read these sermons, could mistake the remedy…The Lord Jesus Christ is the focal point…There is judgement here, enough to make the sinner quake with fear, but then there is also mercy to warm the heart and lift the fainting spirit’.

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In his masterful translation Dr. McGregor has quite wonderfully brought the preacher back to life and allowed us the privilege of being able, with a little imagination, to take our places in St. Peter’s Church on those cold autumn and winter days with the Reformer himself in the pulpit. –J.R. DE WITT

Book Description

Preaching as Calvin undertook to do it extends far beyond the confines of a carefully written manuscript. It is not bound by the niceties of style, sentence structure, and the like. it is marked by an immeasurably greater degree of intensity, by an obvious determination to instruct and persuade, by an astounding capacity to confront hearers both with the truth of divine revelation and with the implications of that truth for faith and obedience. There are distinct advantages, therefore, in having before us these sermons on Genesis precisely as they were delivered. They let us see and hear a man aflame with love for the lord and his Word, a preacher who spent himself utterly in the work of summoning his people to repentance, faith and holiness. The feature that has struck me most powerfully is the sermons’ immediacy. As I have read them, it has quite often seemed to me almost as though I were sitting with the congregation in Geneva and listening to Calvin himself as he opened up the passage, and then carefully, deliberately, and sometimes with painful specificity applied its teaching to those who heard him. In his masterful translation Dr. McGregor has quite wonderfully brought the preacher back to life and allowed us the privilege of being able, with a little imagination, to take our places in St. Peter’s Church on those cold autumn and winter days with the Reformer himself in the pulpit.

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Review

• Review by Wilfred Weale

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John Calvin was a practical and pastoral theologian. Like the Apostle Paul he worked tirelessly ‘for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness’ (Titus 1:1). For him knowledge of the truth was for living, and living was for the glory of God. All of Calvin’s preaching, teaching, and writing was directed to this one great end, to serve the church of Jesus Christ so that all ‘may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory’ (2 Tim. 2:10).

This book is an abridgement of Calvin’s commentary on the Psalms, reducing it to about one quarter of its original size. It is the result of a labour of love undertaken by one who has for some years used Calvin on the Psalms in his devotional reading of Scripture, and who has grown to appreciate Calvin’s method of exposition, his faithfulness to the biblical text, and his practical application of the truth to daily living.

But why abridge Calvin? The sad fact is that few teachers and preachers of the gospel today ever use any of Calvin’s commentaries. Some busy pastors and ministers balk at the sheer scale of Calvin’s five-volume commentary on the Psalms, (which forms part of a much larger twenty-two-volume set). Others tend to shy away from Calvin’s writings, mistakenly thinking that such are the preserve of academics and theologians, and not of the whole church. Alas, nothing could be further from the truth!

This abridgement has been made with such people in mind. It is not intended to deprive readers of the full benefit of Calvin’s unabridged text, but to edify those who otherwise might remain strangers to Calvin’s practical and pastoral wisdom. Indeed, in the view of the publisher the editor’s noble aims have been fully met, that in this single volume ‘something of the unsurpassed excellence of Calvin’s instruction will have been preserved and made available to a wider public than would ever have made use of the original massive and magisterial work.’

Here, then, is a treasure chest containing a choice selection of the wonderful riches to be found in Calvin’s commentary on the Psalms.

Reviews

• Review by Ben Ramsbottom
• Review by T C Robinson
• Review by A W MacColl

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