Humans are weak, failing, and temporal. The word is strong, abiding, eternal.
Whatever lasting impact John Calvin has had on the church of Jesus Christ, and on the whole world for that matter, is owing to his commitment to understanding and explaining the word of God.
Strive for relevance in your day, and you’ll may make a difference for a few years. Anchor yourself in what is eternal and you may influence the world for another five centuries.
So writes Kevin DeYoung in a blog post on July 10, John Calvin’s birthday, that I was just able to read. DeYoung is the senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, where Michigan State University is located (and where I was born!). He is also the author of “Why We’re Not Emergent, by two guys who should be” (co-authored with Ted Kluck) and “Just Do Something, a liberating approach to finding God’s will.”
Deyoung’s post was helpful, refreshing and convicting. In the context of reflecting on the legacy of John Calvin, he challenges people to consider the permanence, or lackthereof, of their pursuits.
This is the paradox of permanence. The only way our lives will ever touch that which is eternal is to admit that our lives are hopelessly temporal.
DeYoung elucidates well this truth that God has been driving home to me: I am a created being and He is the Creator. I will wither away and die, while He has always been and will always be. And He is a personal God, who took on human flesh, died for sinful men and gives us roles in His kingdom. That should define how we live!
I commend DeYong’s post to you. Here is a final excerpt:
No one will care about your GPA and SAT scores in ten years. If you win a state championship, you’ll be forgotten the next year you don’t. Your beauty will get wrinkles and trim figure plump. Write a great book and it will gather dust in a library some day. Have a big famous church, it won’t last forever. Be an important person in your field, you still be unknown to over 6 billion people in the world. Build an amazing house, it will crumble some day, if it doesn’t go into foreclosure first. All of our achievements and successes are destined to be like dead grass and faded flowers.
But…the word of our God stands forever. The word about Babylon in Isaiah 40 stood firm. and so will his word in our generation. All God’s declarations about himself and his people are true. All his promises will come to pass. Our only confidence is in the word of God. John Calvin was a man, an imperfect, sinful man, but a man that God used enormously because he put his confidence in the word of God.