In Honor of John Calvin's Birthday, July 10th 1509

As today (July 10th) is John Calvin's birthday, I thought it would be appropriate to blog this wonderful quotation from the great Reformer regarding God's incredible sovereignty and astounding power.

This is a fairly representative portion of his magnum opus, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, underscoring Calvin's extremely high view of God:

Although our mind cannot conceive of God, without rendering some worship to him, it will not, however, be sufficient simply to hold that he is the only being whom all ought to worship and adore, unless we are also persuaded that he is the fountain of all goodness, and that we must seek everything in him, and in none but him. 

My meaning is: we must be persuaded not only that as he once formed the world, so he sustains it by his boundless power, governs it by his wisdom, preserves it by his goodness, in particular, rules the human race with justice and Judgment, bears with them in mercy, shields them by his protection; but also that not a particle of light, or wisdom, or justice, or power, or rectitude, or genuine truth, will anywhere be found, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause... (Institutes 1:2:1).

-Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, Florida.