Calvin: giving power to the Word

Monday, September 21, 2009
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
    —2 Corinthians 3:6-8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Wherever God’s Word may be preached, His precepts remain a letter and dead words so long as they are not received by men with a pure heart; only where they pierce to the soul do they become, so to speak, changed into Spirit. (paraphrase of Calvin’s Institutes, I.ix.3)
    ... John Calvin (1509-1564), quoted in The Letter to the Romans, Emil Brunner, Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1959, p. 23 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit, so that Your word may live within us.CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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