December 16 Daily Devotional

Bible Text:

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. —I Timothy 1:12, 13

Devotional:

Hereby both great and small are reminded of their duty. If we would exalt the grace of God, as is fitting, we have to confess what we are, and what would become of us if God did not help us. This is hard to do, seeing men seek nothing so much as to make themselves seem like something. Although they confess that they believe completely in God, yet they gladly obscure this knowledge, and will never come to a plain, free, and simple confession unless they are constrained to it.

This is especially the case when it concerns revealing our shame, and rebuking ourselves, that our sins may be manifest, and so humbling ourselves that we are utterly condemned unless the Lord of his infinite mercy draws us out of condemnation.

Whenever men must be thus humbled, they will not come to it, but will draw back as far as they possibly can, and use all sorts of hiding places, so that if they cannot wholly justify themselves, at least they may seek some closets to lurk in, that their shame and filthiness may not be known. So much the more we have to note this passage of Saint Paul. For he does not make a general confession, as hypocrites do, which says, "I am a man, I am a sinner." But he sets down in plain terms what he was; I was, says he, a persecutor of the Church of God; I was a blasphemer of his truth.

He did not seek to cover himself with the name of the weakness of a man, but leaves to every man the confession of his own faults, and for his own part confesses his own. —Sermons

John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.

Dr. Joel Beeke, who is editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books, has this to say:

"Calvin shows us the piety of a Reformed theologian who speaks from the heart. Having tasted the goodness and grace of God in Jesus Christ, he pursued piety by seeking to know and do God’s will every day. He communed with Christ, practicing repentance, self-denial, and cross-bearing. Moreover, his theology worked itself out in heart-felt, Christ-honoring piety. The selections of this devotional bear this out, and hopefully will be used by God to direct pious hearts in our own day."

These devotional readings from John Calvin were compiled by John H. Kromminga. Be sure to read his "Introduction" to John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart.