My regular readers have probably noticed that my posts come in themes (you might want to call them “topics”). The most recent theme has been John Calvin.

Here’s a secret: most of my themes pertain to whatever I am studying at the moment. I have been writing a paper about Calvin for a Church History course.

As I was reading through Calvin’s reply to Sadoleto, a Catholic bishop who had written a letter to the city of Geneva asking them to return to Catholicism, I discovered one of the most forceful presentations of the Gospel message that I have ever read:

First, we bid a man begin by examining himself, and this not in a superficial and perfunctory manner, but to cite his conscience before the tribunal of God, and when sufficiently convinced of his iniquity, to reflect on the strictness of the sentence pronounced upon all sinners. Thus confounded and amazed at his misery, he is prostrated and humbled before God; and, casting away all self-confidence, groans as if given up to final perdition. Then we show that the only haven of safety is the mercy of God, as manifested in Christ, in whom every part of our salvation is complete. As all mankind are, in the sign of God, lost sinners, we hold that Christ is their only righteousness, since, by His obedience, He has wiped off all our transgressions; by His sacrifice, appeased the divine anger; by His blood, washed away our sins; by His cross, borne our curse; and by His death, made satisfaction for us. We maintain that in this way man is reconciled in Christ to God the Father, by no merit of his own, by no value of works, but by gratuitous mercy. When we embrace Christ by faith, and come, as it were, into communion with Him, this we term, after the manner of Scripture, the righteousness of faith.

The entire letter, along with Sadoleto’s original, can be found in the book A Reformation Debateedited by John C. Olin.

Related posts:

1. What is the Atonement?
2. The Work of the Holy Spirit
3. Listen to Calvin’s Institutes for Free