Sárospataki Füzetek 13. (2009)
2009 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK
I. John Hesselink need to remember with gratitude, we can then come to assessing its wretchedness accurately (Inst. III.9.3).13 14 15 “In other words, earthly life deserves nothing but contempt when balanced against the future life; but inasmuch as it is the school through which we must pass to attain the life beyond and in which we begin to taste the blessings of God, it reveals itself on the contrary as a ‘gift of divine mercy.’”1« Already it is apparent that despite the negative references to this life and its “infinite miseries,” Calvin also sees life in this world in the light of God’s grace and fatherly mercy. Hence he cannot be written off as an otherworldly pessimist who is representative of the worst side of the medieval outlook on life. In this chapter in the Institutes there are also passages that are very positive. For example, We begin in this life, through various benefits, to taste the sweetness13 of the divine generosity in order to whet our hope and desire to seek after the full revelation of this. When we are certain that the earthly life we live is a gift of God’s kindness, as we are beholden to him for it we ought to remember it and be thankful (Inst. III.9.3). C. The biblical basis for this perspective Although the language is extreme at times, for example when Calvin speaks of our bodies as “defective, corruptible, fleeting, wasting, rotting tabernacles,” he is actually quite Pauline. The apostle doesn’t use such graphic language, but he also speaks of “this body of death” (Romans 7:24). Calvin refers to many New Testament texts in this chapter in the Institutes, but ironically a key passage which could be ‘the’ text for the theme of meditating on the future life is never mentioned here, viz., Colossians 3:1: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”16 17 In Calvin’s commentary on this passage we find echoes of what we have found in the Institutes. “Paul here,” Calvin says, “exhorts the Colossians to meditation on the future life .... If we are members of Christ, we must ascend into heaven .... Now we seek those things which are above when in our minds we are truly sojourners in this world and are not bound to it.”1? 13 Here I am using the modernized version of the Beveridge translation by Tony Lane and Hilary Osborne (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), 172-3. 14 Francois Wendel, Calvin. Origins and Development of His Religious Thought (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 252. 15 Calvin frequently refers to the ‘sweetness’ (suavitas) of God’s goodness and grace. Another illustration of this is in an earlier section (III.9.2) where he speaks of the “pleasantness, grace and sweetness” of the present life. In section 6 of this chapter Calvin also speaks of the “sweetness of his [God’s] delights” in the heavenly life. 16 He does cite Colossians 3:1 and 2 in four other places in the Institutes: II.16.13; IV.17.36; III.6.3; and III.16.2. 17 Comm. Colossians 3:1. T. H. L. Parker translation. Calvin’s translation reads “set your- mind on” rather than “seek the things that are above.” He says this phrase
