Genesis 1:26-28a, 31, 3:1-7, 6:5
Who is the father of the Presbyterian faith? I hope the reformer, John Calvin came to mind. Five hundred and six years ago this month, John Calvin was born. In honor of his birthday, a desire to do a summer sermon series and the opportunity to better understand our tradition, we will explore his thought and theology. We have informational displays to enhance this study and help us immerse ourselves in Calvin. Much of John Calvin’s thought had been condensed into a five point acronym summarized by the word TULIP. Not the beautiful flowers that declare spring, but five defining thoughts that express Calvin’s theology.
John Calvin was born in 1509 in France. He studied to become a lawyer, and basically taught himself the theology of the great theologians like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Following in the footsteps of Zwingli and Luther, other reformers, Calvin advanced the reformation of the Catholic Church and his theological thought has greatly shaped our church and our beliefs. Now there were many reasons for the reformation, or the Protest against the Catholic Church which we will explore throughout the series, but suffice it to say that the unmitigated power of the pope and the corruption of the church were at the top of the list and many leaders in many countries were crying out for reform. Yet most of them never thought they were creating a new church, rather just reforming the old one.
On a more personal note, I first heard of John Calvin, while in my confirmation class which met in Calvin Lounge in the basement of the church. I had worshiped in Calvin Lounge when we started a contemporary service, I had planned a backpacking trip in that room, and we had even had a lock-in there. But it wasn’t until the pastor explained who John Calvin was, as the Father of the Presbyterian Church, did I start to appreciate John Calvin. He was the one who started decently and in order, he created a form of government that utilized elders and not just clergy, he systemically outlined the reformed thought through his work, The Institutes, which he first wrote while in his twenties.
So for the next five weeks we will be looking at the doctrine of Calvin as laid out in the acronym Tulip. Now being both a lawyer and a magnificent theologian, some of these words seem daunting, stay with me and we can work through them. Tulip stands for Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints.
Today we are looking at total depravity – you ask what does that mean? Simply put, it means you and I are sinners. Now you might be thinking well I know that already, and we do. What Calvin was getting at with total depravity is the understanding that the entire human being- body and soul, intellect and will is corrupt. This is not some partial problem, or a small piece of the puzzle. First and foremost we are depraved, corrupt, sinful. This means that this corruption of nature affects the whole soul. It consists in the loss of original righteousness, an aversion from all spiritual good from God, and an inclination to all evil. This makes us spiritually dead and entirely unable to do anything good in the sight of God.
Calvin starts with God’s perfect creation and how Adam and Eve were made good, made in the image of God, made in the creator’s perfection. Then as we know some fruit was eaten, but better yet choices were made, that turned humans from God and we have been sinning ever since. That is why we read God’s conclusion about humanity just a few generations after the fall and just before Noah saves a remnant in the ark, when Scripture decrees, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in all the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” That is total depravity. Scripture is filled with these realizations about our sinful nature, like the Romans passage we read. “There is not one who is righteous, no not even one; there is no one who has understanding, there is not one who seeks God.” (3:9). That is a scathing review of humanity. It does not only appear once, this the third time it is in scripture, for it is quoting the psalms where it is said twice.
Charles Hodge an early American theologian wrote, “In no one respect has that experience been more uniform, than in the conviction of their depravity in the sight of an infinitely Holy God.”
These are not the only times depravity is mentioned in scripture. The patriarch Job, represented as the best man of his generation, placed his hand upon his mouth, and his mouth in the dust before God, and declared that he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes (Job 42:6).
David’s Penitential Psalms are filled not only with the confessions of sin, but also with the avowals of his deep depravity in the sight of God. Isaiah cried out, Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. (Isa. 6:5).
Paul speaks of himself as the chief of sinners. He complains that he was carnal and sold under sin. He groans under the burden of an evil nature, saying, “O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rms. 7:24).
This week a clergy colleague shared a story about how upset one of her parishioners was with changing the words of Amazing Grace. We just sang it so it is fresh in your mind. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” Our wretchedness is exactly what Total Depravity is about. In order for us to be saved, we need to be lost, without merit, sinful, in other words a wretch. Today people want to change the words and sing “saved a soul like me,” getting rid of anything sinful about themselves. That simply begs the question, what then is Christ saving you from? What is the purpose of God’s amazing grace?
We are wretched and we are sinful. This corruption came from humanity’s fall from grace and we need Christ’s grace for us to return. The conclusion of the fall, our falling from our righteousness and into the world of sin; is that sin is inherited by the next generation, because now it is in our nature. Now I don’t think I am stretching the thought to say, total depravity and the fall are the underside of infant baptism, for if we come into the world sinful, then being baptized into Christ ASAP became a moral imperative. Of course this was not an original thought for Calvin, for theology of the fall had been around for a long time specifically Augustine. Calvin was responding to Peligius a fifth century heretic, who believed the fall only brought death, not inherent corruption.
Several years ago Cooper and I were talking about his memory card for his video game. That is the thing that saves your progress in a game so every time you start playing you do not have to go back to the beginning. Then one day Cooper put in his memory card into the system and it said file has been corrupted; you would have to reformat the disk. Well that would mean he would lose all of his data. He was heartbroken- a lot of time and effort was stored on that disc. I asked him what that corruption meant to him- he said it was like a virus taking over your body tearing you apart from the inside out. I sat there in awe. God had given me an example of corruption. For when we get right down to it isn’t that what our relationship with Christ is – Christ is wiping away all the corrupt parts of us and reformatting us into new life. Jesus takes away our sin and welcomes us into a new way of being. Now Calvin would say that in a slightly different way. Starting with total depravity he wrote, “In this ruin of mankind no one now experiences God either as Father or as Author of salvation or favorable in any way, until Christ the Mediator comes forward to reconcile him to us.” Institutes 40, J. Calvin.
You might be sitting there thinking what a depressing theological thought, and not a very good first impression for Calvin- this total depravity. The good news of this belief is that when we accept our true sinful nature then we can see the amazingly wonderful gift that is ours from Christ. Because if we only see ourselves as sinning a little, but mostly good, which is the basic argument of the heretic Pelagius who said we could lead a life without sin and just follow God’s teaching and Jesus’ example; then Christ’s grace is just a little thing, something inconsequential. If we see ourselves as totally depraved, and inherently corrupt, then our gratitude and dependence upon Christ becomes the cornerstone of our faith. The rest of our understanding about God, justice, our need for Christ and the hope we have in our faith grows out of this inherent dilemma. Whether or not you agree with Calvin on Total Depravity, I would challenge you to ponder how you see sin in your life and what effect Christ has on that. Yet I caution you not to walk away from this sermon thinking well if I am so depraved, I might as well go out and sin more. Paul of course addresses this in Romans 6 asking, “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?” He responds with a resounding, “By no means!” Do consider how sin, your faith and your actions shape the way you live your life. Because you and I sin constantly, it is in our nature. We try not to sin, but we do. We like to believe we don’t sin too much, but it is frequent. God’s response is so much better. For no matter how sinful we are, if we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then we receive a reprieve from total depravity and that reprieve is Total Forgiveness. AKA Amazing Grace. Amen
