Knowing God: Christ the Redeemer and Fallen Humanity

Genesis 3:17-19, Romans 3:21-31, 5:12-20, John 3:16-21

Calvin returns to the theme of self-knowledge, but asserts that it is tainted by our fallen nature.  Because of deluded self-knowledge, we are unable to know God but by his redemptive revelation in Christ.  In Christ we do not just come to know about God, we come to know God.  How intimately well do we know Christ?

But self-knowledge consists in this, first, When reflecting on what God gave us at our creation, and still continues graciously to give, we perceive how great the excellence of our nature would have been had its integrity remained, and, at the same time, remember that we have nothing of our own, but depend entirely on God, from whom we hold at pleasure whatever he has seen it meet to bestow; secondly, When viewing our miserable condition since Adam’s fall, all confidence and boasting are overthrown, we blush for shame, and feel truly humble. (2.i.1)

Calvin is concerned about what he calls "deluded self-admiration":

There is nothing more acceptable to the human mind than flattery, and, accordingly, when told that its endowments are of a high order, it is apt to be excessively credulous. Hence it is not strange that the greater part of mankind have erred so egregiously in this matter. Owing to the innate self-love by which all are blinded, we most willingly persuade ourselves that we do not possess a single quality which is deserving of hatred; and hence, independent of any countenance from without, general credit is given to the very foolish idea, that man is perfectly sufficient of himself for all the purposes of a good and happy life. (2.i.2)

But he is also aware of the danger of the debilitating nature of honest self-knowledge without the knowledge of God's grace:

…he who scrutinizes and examines himself according to the standard of divine judgment finds nothing to lift his heart to self-confidence, and the more deeply he examines himself, the more dejected he becomes until, utterly deprived of all such assurance, he leaves nothing to himself with which to direct his life aright. (2.i.3)

Hence, in considering the knowledge which man ought to have of himself, it seems proper to divide it thus, first, to consider the end for which he was created, and the qualities—by no means contemptible qualities—with which he was endued, thus urging him to meditate on divine worship and the future life; and, secondly, to consider his faculties, or rather want of faculties—a want which, when perceived, will annihilate all his confidence, and cover him with confusion. The tendency of the former view is to teach him what his duty is, of the latter, to make him aware how far he is able to perform it. (2.i.3)

  • How do the twin tendencies of deluded self-admiration and dejection and deprivation play themselves out in our culture?
  • What are to proper purposes of true self-knowledge?
  • How does this true self-knowledge drive us towards Christ?
  • In what ways does John 3:16-21 summarize the human condition and God's response to it?

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