Reforming Students

Yesterday I received in the mail a copy of John Piper’s newest book release, John Calvin and His Passion for the Majesty of God. It’s a short, wonderful read on the God-centered life and ministry of John Calvin, appropriately published in 2009 on Calvin’s 500th anniversary.

I was most intrigued by Dr. Piper’s closing comments in the appendix of the book: “Calvin’s Barbaric World: The Case of Michael Servetus.” Piper explains that many have simply written off Calvin because of his involvement in the execution of Servetus as a heretic. Servetus was burned at the stake on October 27, 1553 because of an unorthodox view of the trinity. As Piper points out, “Calvin never held office in Geneva but exerted all his influence as a pastor. Yet, in this execution, his hands are as stained with Servetus’s blood as David’s were with Uriah’s” (56-57). Yet, Piper draws together the reality of Calvin as a pastor — the only one willing to spend countless hours with Servetus, begging him to recant prior to his execution. Piper closes with this (58-59):

So the times were harsh and immoral and barbaric and had a contaminating effect on everyone, just as we are all contaminated today by the evils of our time. Their blind spots and evils may be different from ours. And it may be that the very things they saw clearly are the things we are blind to. It would be foolhardy to say that we would have never done what they did under their circumstances, and thus draw the conclusion that they have nothing to teach us. In fact, what we probably need to say is that some of our evils are such that we are blind to them, just as they were blind to many of theirs, and the virtues they manifested in those times are the very ones that we probably need in ours. There was in the life and ministry of John Calvin a grand God-centeredness, Bible-allegiance, and iron consistency. Under the banner of God’s mercy to miserable sinners, we would do well to listen and learn.

Amen.