What does it mean to speak of the Father as Holy? The only reference in all of Scripture to “the Holy Father” is in John 17:11. Because of the singularity of this – a statement that is made once in the world of literature – it is profoundly challenging to learn what Jesus means when he addresses God as “Holy Father”?

This may be the most infrequently employed expression as prayer as addressed to God. We are endangered by exploring what it means that Jesus addresses God as “Holy Father” and then to prayer, “May your name by hallowed.”

The Gospel of John divided fairly neatly into two halves. There comes a point in the twelfth chapter where Jesus withdraws from the world and does no more signs. The Book of the Signs (1-12). The Book of Glory (13-21). He begins to bring his disciples into the mystery of who he is.

The Trinity is the least speculative doctrine in the Bible and at the end of the day is the most practical. If the language had not been abused elsewhere, we could write over John 13 – 17, “The Sacred Heart of Christ.”

It begins with a physical descent in John 13: “He riseth from supper.” It ends with the most remarkable ascent as he comes to his father and prays that he may be able to glorify his father’s name and his father may be able to glorify him, and that his disciples (John 17:24) will be able to behold his glory.

Here is the link to us – when he rises in the early morning of his resurrection he charges one: “Go and tell my brothers that I am ascending to my father.” In his resurrection he is beginning to gather from all the ends of the earth children into the worldwide family of God, to come and say far more frequently than we want to do: “O Holy Father.”

What does it mean for the Lord of Glory to come to the father and say, “Holy Father.”

There are two dimensions: from all eternity within the Trinity there has been this response of the eternal son to his eternal father. For something to be an attribute of God it must have been an action before all worlds. It must have been in the most intense and dynamic forum expressed in the fellowship. The wrath of God cannot be an attribute of God. God expresses wrath, but the wrath of God has no place in the Holy Trinity for the expression of the wrath of God. What he says here opens the heart of the Son from all eternity. The meaning of holiness cannot be separation. It becomes separation to creation and to the sinner, but within the blessed fellowship of the Holy Trinity cannot mean separation.

It may mean purity. It may mean the infinite intensity of God’s expression of all that he is in the unity of his fatherly being with reference to His Son.
We go to Isaiah 6 and we Isaiah responding to the expression of divine holiness.

The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father. Jesus gives expression in his incarnation to the relationship He has with the Father. He longs that we may be there to see him where he is (v. 24).

Two Insights in Jesus Relationship With His Father

John 5: “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what He sees His Father doing.”

John 10:17 – “For this reason the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again.”

1. If when we pray “Our Holy Father,” then that means that Church which he purchased with his own blood is the Holy Family. Some of our churches are good at family. Some of our churches are good at holiness, but too few of our churches are good at being the Holy Family.
2. Since he is the Holy Father, he has set his heart on making all of his children like his holy Son.

The Cost to the Son: “Holy Father, smite the Shepherd.” He smote the Shepherd in order that the sheep might be gained.

Calvin has taught as a main point of his theology a point that Paul makes in 1 Timothy 1:3-5.

Whereas the teaching of the false prophets leads only to mere speculation, here is what is always the goal of the charge that God has given to me in my teaching: I want to see the truth issue forth in love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Paul’s aim in his teaching is the practical fruits of godliness working out from the inmost being and in every aspect of life. Not interested in just filling people’s heads up with ideas. He’s interested in the truth being worked deep down into our hearts and bones so that from the very deepest parts of who we are their issues forth love: love for God, love for neighbor, love for the gospel.

The goal is that the truth be radically life transforming. That’s Paul’s vision. That’s Calvin’s vision.

The Importance of the Idea of Piety in the Life of John Calvin

Piety from the Latin Pietas, is almost untranslatable in one word in English, was for Calvin a shorthand for the whole understanding of the practice of the Christian life.

What does Calvin mean by piety? An experiential love of God as Father and a fear and reverence of God as Lord. He used lots of words in conjunction with piety:

1. Religia or Religion: the word did not connote for Calvin what it connotes for us as being contrary to the gospel. For Calvin, religion was faith joined with the fear of God. Reverence joined with the love of God which the knowledge of God’s benefits induces.

a. It has two parts. One part is honor and obedience to God as Father. On the other hand, he fears or reverences God as Lord.

b. The knowledge of God itself is the beginning of this kind of piety. This knowledge arrests us and shows us what we are – sinners deserving God’s wrath – and shows us what God is and displays the mercy of God in the Gospel and impresses that truth on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

2. This piety produces charatis – love. The Romans thought that piety could be used to describe the kind of love that children had toward their parents. They applied this to the relationship between the citizen and the state, as well. The Romans often called early Christian impious and atheist because their loyalty was directed not at the leader of Rome but at the One living and true God.

3. Piety is a term which comes out of the Greek translation of the OT. In the NT it typically manifests itself in the word “godliness.”

The Roots (Origins) of and Reflection on the Idea of Piety in the Life of John Calvin

Calvin knew the literature on piety from the Classical authors, but it is the influence of the word of God that led to his conversion.

Romans 13:13-14 and Augustine’s Conversion. Augustine read those words, which led him to a pastor named Ambrose.

We do not know what verses may have influenced Calvin’s conversion, but it may be (according to Ford Lewis Battles) Romans 1:18-25. The central themes of Calvin’s piety are honoring God and being thankful to him (Romans 1:21). Calvin was convicted by his own lack of honoring God and being thankful and God used this to bring him to faith, and this is interwoven into his own account of his conversion, and in the introduction to his French translation of the NT.

We see this not only in his conversion, but in the work of God in him over a lifetime. He was not on his way to Geneva to work for God. He wanted to enter a contemplative life as a scholar. But William Farrel challenged him with the wrath of God: God will punish you for seeking your own interests rather than His. Calvin relinquished himself to the Lord, giving up his own desires.

After three years Calvin is so hated that he is driven from Geneva and he ends up in Strasbourg, thinking he will take up the contemplative life, but ends up being a pastor.

Three years later he receives a letter from Farrel saying that the citizens of Geneva want him back. He says, “I would have rather died than go back to Geneva. But I am not my own. I belong to God. Therefore, I will live for him and die for him. I will return to Geneva.”

John Calvin’s Teaching on Piety from The Institutes

Chapter 3, verse 6 of The Institutes: The object of the work that God is doing in us to sanctify us, to conform us to Christ, is to manifest in the life of believers a harmony and a an agreement between God’s righteousness and their obedience, and thus to confirm the adoption they have received as sons.

Calvin’s teaching on the Christian Life is rooted in two grand realities: what God made us in the Garden to be, and what he has made us in our union with Christ. By God’s spirit He is working in us so that more and more we look like our heavenly Father, and this in turn confirms our adoption as sons.

For Calvin this piety maniftests itself in the life of the believer in coming more and more into agreement with God’s righteousness.

Two aspects of these grand realities:

1. That love of righteousness to which we are otherwise not at all inclined by nature may be instilled and established in our hearts. Christian freedom is not being able to choose to sin if you want to so that the grace of God can be magnified. True Christian freedom is found when you want to do what you ought to do. God’s standards have not somehow disappeared on the other side of God’s grace. Only grace can work this inclination in us because it is not in us by nature.
    
2. That a rule is set forth that does not let us wander about in our zeal for righteousness. Think of a train with no tracks, all of that power, but no way to go.

What is the motivation for living the Christian life. Most of us talk about grace as a motive for living the Christian life, but it is interesting that that is not how Calvin talks about living the Christian life. Two things motive the Christian life:

1. God’s holiness. “From what foundation may righteousness better arise than from the Scripture warning that we must be made holy because our God is holy.” When we hear mention of our union with God let us remember that holiness must be its bond not because we come into communion with him by virtue of our holiness, rather we ought first to cleave to him so that infused with his holiness we may follow wherever he calls.” We come to God not by our holiness, but by his.
    
2. God’s benefits to us in salvation.

“To wake us more effectively that God the Father as he has reconciled himself through Christ has stamped in us the image which he would have us conform. The scripture finds occasion for exhortation in all the benefits of God that it lists for us.”

God revealed himself to us as father to us, we would prove ourselves ungrateful to him as we did not show ourselves to be his sons.

Christ cleansed us with the washing of his blood, it would be unfitting for us to foul ourselves with new pollutions. Ever since Christ engrafted us into his body, we must take care not to disfigure ourselves.

Christ has ascended and we will follow him.

The Holy Spirit is making us to be the Temple of God.

Our souls and bodies are destined for heavenly incorruption.

“God is working in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure” Phil 2

This is a matter of the heart, not the tongue.

This Christian life is not characterized by perfection. It is characterized by growth. If it were not for that doctrine of progression in the Christian life, I would personally dispair. Because of this is as good as I am ever going to get, I’d rather end it all. I’m tired of hurting the people I love. There is going to be a day when I will no longer sin against God and the ones I love.

Four Parts to Calvin’s Teaching on the Christian Life: From The Institutes Book Three, Chapters 6-10

1.  Self-Denial: The living of the Christian life begins with the denial of self. The Christian life is in large measure, because it is the living out of our union with Christ, it is going the way of our Savior. By taking up our cross and denying ourselves. It is not only that objectively that the Lord Jesus has saved us and received us to himself, but so too what jesus has done is an example and model and a prefiguring of the course we will walk on the way to glory.

2.  Cross-Bearing:

a. God calls us to pass our whole lives under a continuous cross
b. It is in our extremity that we experience God’s provision for us when we bear the cross
c. Bearing the cross teaches us to grow in patience and obedience
d. Restrains our flesh with the remedy of his cross
e. It corrects our sins.

3.  Meditation on the Future life so that we are animated by a vital hope so that we can live now for God’s glory, not that we escape.

4.  The Christian’s Use of the Present Life, for industry, not indolence.

Dr. Albert Mohler is President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY and host of The Albert Mohler Program heard weeknights on AM 1500 at 7:00 pm.

The theme of the conference is the holiness of God. And who are we to even think of such a thing?

Two words summarize the totality of who Calvin was: preacher and teacher.

On this 500th anniversary of the birth of Calvin we are reminded that God vindicates his own. The legacy we celebrate is represented by a half millennium of influence.

The Scope of Calvin’s Preaching

Calvin preached 40,000 sermons. 

For most of the years Calvin was in Geneva he preached twice each Sunday, without regard to his own health, without manuscript or notes, relentless in his preaching ministry. He truly demonstrates what it is to preach in season and out of season.

Because of a very unintelligent librarian in Geneva we only have 1500 extant sermons of Calvin.

Calvin preached before he was converted to the Reformation faith (that is, while still a Catholic priest). 

The reformation Calvin led was manifested in the people and the church through his preaching.

Under the threat of the curse of God, Calvin responded to the call to be professor of Sacred Scripture in Geneva. 

Calvin published his first commentary in 1539 in Strausborg on the book of Romans.

Calvin understood that the church was marked by four distinct offices: preachers, teachers, elder, deacons.

The task of the teacher was to prepare those who would have the sacred task of preaching the word of God. He had hopes for an academy in Geneva.

The preacher was the key agent, but the preacher needed to be taught.

Calvin was involved in the direct teaching of ministers. The Institutes of the Christian Religion were written by Calvin primarily for the training of those who would preach and teach the word of God. Here Calvin displays theology in his quintessence. A model of exegeis, a model of how to make clear that this is the faith once for all delivered to the saints. 

Calvin’s Institutes are a systematic theology.

Calvin’s Institutes are an apologetic theology.

Calvin’s Institutes are polemical theology.

Calvin’s Institutes are a devotional theology.

Calvin’s Institutes are a practical theology.

Teachers, Calvin understood, would suffer, would have to give themselves selflessly to this task. In all the world there is only one thing greater than teaching, and that is the office of preacher.

Preaching was the central passion of his life.

The central doctrine was the authority of the word of God. God speaks to his people, through his word, through preachers.

God speaks to His creatures as an act of his mercy, as an act of his grace, through his word. God was always aware that God has spoken. Through the scriptures we see what we otherwise would not see because of our depravity.

Preaching was not a human invention.

Why would God speak through human instruments rather than thundering from heaven? “If God had thundered to his, his voice would drive us away. If we were to hear his voice we would be destroyed.”

God’s voice resounds in the voice of his preachers whom he has equipped and charged and called, such that God’s people hear God’s voice through the preacher. This is not a profession, it’s a calling. It’s not a job, it’s an office.

The preacher is to preach all that the Bible contains. Calvin’s mode of preaching was verse by verse, so as not to selectively decide what to preach, but so that God will decide what his people need.

The preacher is to preach nothing that the Bible does not contain. The preacher is not to be clever or aspire to be original or to convey his own ideas to the people – “no matter from what brain they have sprung.” Leave your ideas. Preach the word of God.

Three senses in which preaching is the word of God:

1. Because it is the exposition of the word of God.
2. Because the preacher is sent and commissioned by God as his ambassador and given the authority to speak and preach in His name. Calvin believed in the necessity of the call of God. The preacher who is preaching without a call is not preaching the word of God even if he preaches true doctrine.
3. Because it is revelation.

The Holy Spirit applies the word. As the human agent preaches there is an internal testimony.

Preaching is central to worship.

The preacher must be a scholar in order to accomplish the task of preaching.

The one who would preach must be a student of the scripture with a confident knowlege of the word with authority. 

The preacher preaches with authority because the Bible is the word of God, but also because God has established the office of preacher. The authority is not the preachers, but that of the office in which he is incumbent.

This led to humility in Calvin. The preacher never knows enough. Always a student, always a learner. “Let us continue scholars still.”

Preaching is the primary means of grace.

Calvin’s understanding of preaching was deeply pastoral. These days counseling has replaced preaching. This is a scandal. God counsels his people through the preaching of his word. The Holy Spirit is the counselor alone who can apply the word where it is needed.

The Role of the Congregation in Preaching

Anything but passive; actively receptive. They are test everything said by the preacher by the word of God.

Calvin agreed and disagreed with three groups:

1. The Enthusiasts – right in that they preached a necessity of the Holy Spirit but wrong in suggesting that there is no need for preachers.
2. The Church of Rome – agreed that the people need guides, disagreed that they couldn’t read it for themselves.
3. The Fanatics – agreed that the people should read the Bible for themselves, but disagreed with them when they said the people did not need the guidance of preachers and teachers.

Hallmarks of Calvin’s Preaching:

1. The Centrality of Preaching
2. Systematic Exposition
3. The Simplicity of Calvin’s Rhetoric
4. Practical Application

To attempt to characterize Calvin’s preaching is to defy the imagination. John Calvin believed that preaching is a means that God uses to speak to his people.

The ministry of the word of God necessarily brings adversity, suffering, and enemies. Any preacher truly called will face adversity, because preaching IS adversity.

Calvin’s major concern was that he was not the one who was being opposed, but God. Insofar as he was a preacher of the word of God, he himself was not the issue.

Looking to the example of John Calvin is to realize that everyone of us is an amateur.

He was a master student and a master student.

There is a dramatic need in our day for reform, for preachers who will preach the word in season and out.

We need to contrast John Calvin with today’s evangelical confusion about preaching. Calvin would not understand preaching to “people’s needs,” or topical preaching, confessional preaching (the preacher sharing his story). One thing you will never find in Calvin’s preaching is Calvin.

Calvin’s challenge is to understand that we are not in an epistemological swamp. “Here’s your epistemology: God speaks, you listen, and the Holy Spirit works within the believer to conform you to the image of Christ.”

We need congregations who know how to listen to a sermon, who demand exposition, with open Bibles.

We need teachers, seminaries who will raise up true preachers of the word of God and resist the temptation to preach another gospel.

What is at stake in preaching? Preaching saves! Preaching is about life and death.