“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ.” (Philippians 1:27)
John Calvin’s Description of the Gospel-Centred Life
[Part 3 of 3]
For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in his battle against us, and the sting of death to pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn to our profit.
If we are able to boast with the apostle, saying,
O hell, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?
It is because by the Spirit of Christ promised to the elect, we live no longer, but Christ lives in us;
And we are by the same Spirit seated among those who are in heaven, so that for us the world is no more, even while our conversation is in it;
But we are content in all things, whether country, place, condition, clothing, meat, and all such things.
And we are
comforted in tribulation,
joyful in sorrow,
glorying under vituperation,
abounding in poverty,
warmed in our nakedness,
patient amongst evils,
living in death.
This is what we should in short seek in the whole of Scripture: truly to know Jesus Christ, and the infinite riches that are comprised in him and are offered to us by him from God the Father.
– from John Calvin’s preface to Pierre Robert Olivétan’s
French translation of the New Testament (1534)