John Calvin on the cross of Christ: 6 quotes from the great Reformer

John Calvin (1509-1564) was one of the greatest figures of the Reformation. All too often his teaching has been associated with controversy over his views on predestination, and he's been adopted by highly conservative 'neo-Calvinists' for his theology of the absolute sovereignty of God. But much of his writing wasn't sharp-edged controversy at all, but deeply insightful commentary on Gospel truths.

                               John Calvin, in a painting attributed to Hans Holbein the younger.

Here are six statements Calvin made about the Cross of Christ.

1. It behoves the godly mind to climb still higher, to the height to which Christ calls his disciples: that each must bear his own cross. For whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.

2. To patiently bear the cross is not to be utterly stupefied and to be deprived of all feeling of pain... we have nothing to do with this iron philosophy [Stoicism] which our Lord and Master has condemned not only by his word, but also by his example.

3. Although the preaching of the cross does not agree with our human inclination, if we desire to return to God our Author and Maker, from whom we have been estranged, in order that he may again begin to be our Father, we ought nevertheless to embrace it humbly.
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4. If believers' eyes are turned to the power of the resurrection, in their hearts the cross of Christ will at last triumph over the devil, flesh, sin and wicked men.

5. Unless Christ had been crucified according to God's will, whence would we have redemption?

6. Lest in the unmeasured abundance of our riches we go wild; lest, puffed up with honours, we become proud; lest, swollen with other good things – either of the soul or of the body, or of fortune – we grow haughty, the Lord himself, according as he sees it expedient, confronts us and subjects and restrains our unrestrained flesh with the remedy of the cross.