Sam Storms on Calvin and the Joy of the Last Resurrection | DG 2009
I urge you, do not miss this message from Sam Storms.
Download it, listen to it twice, and mediate deeply.
The Final Act in the Theater of God: Calvin on the Joy of the Last Resurrection
Text: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
The list of Calvin’s afflictions read like a medical journal. Headaches. Fevers. Gout. Colic. Hemorrhoids. Arthritis. Acute chronic inflammation of the kidneys. Gall stones. Violent fits of coughing that ruptured blood vessels in his lungs.
If you find such medical details as unappetizing as I do, rejoice with me in that I could not type but half the list as Sam spoke.
Living with one foot raised
Calvin: “Afflictions should serve as medicine to purge us, to remove what is superfluous…We ought to learn from our physical afflictions, in whatever form they may come, to live every day with one foot raised, ready for our departure into the presence of God.”
4 Ways Calvin Lived with One Foot Raised
1. Living as sojourner on earth (Hebrews 11:13)
We must embrace our identity as sojourners in this world, and thus not bound to it. We should live as if we have no fixed residence except in heaven. When we are driven from place to place…remember, we have no certain abode here on earth.
Prepare ourselves for our last end.
Calvin was not negligent of basic responsibilities on earth, but Calvin lived as a sojourner because he was driven by a desire to see God. He considered being banished from his home country as training to live as a stranger on earth.
2. See profitability of hardship
Calvin, on the profitability of hardship, wrote, “It is profitable for us who are prone to sloth and have become too comfortable in this world to be tossed here and there so that we may turn our eyes to heaven.”
3. Vision of Jesus Christ, He who makes heaven heavenly
Jesus Christ is the aim and goal. Only our Savior makes heaven worthwhile.
We see Jesus now only as a man shut up in the dark sees glorious light through small chinks. We long for the full vision of Christ’s glory.
Calvin (a key quote): “If God contains the fullness of all good things in Himself like an inexhaustible fountain, nothing beyond him is to be sought by those who strike after the highest good and all the elements of happiness.”
4. Meditation on Heaven
Life-changing meditation. A yearning for the day of redemption for our bodies. We ought to aspire to heaven with undivided affection. The excellencies of heaven consist of an imperishable inheritance, undefiled and unfading.
Everything earthly we live for is decaying and dying. But the inheritance in heaven will ever remain vibrant and refreshed.
Calvin: “Everything now is subject to the ravages of heaven. All creation is breaking down, losing its luster.” Not even Botox can slow down the process. Glorious paintings losing brilliance, sculptures wear down.
In heaven, nothing fades. What a hope found in the presence of Christ! Heaven effects and empowers us now. The certainty of the future impinges upon our circumstances at present.
4 Ways Meditating on the Glories of Heaven Effects Us Now:
1. Empowers the believer to endure unjust suffering
A remedy is at hand, writes Calvin, “For as soon as we raise our eyes to heaven, then we behold vast grounds of joy that dispel sadness.”
We are to be groaning and patient waiting, burdened with a sense of our present misery. “Notwithstanding, they are to wait patiently for their future deliverance. By an elevation of their minds to overcome all their present miseries, not considering what they are now but what they will be.
“Accordingly, he alone has fully profited in the gospel who has accustomed himself to continual meditation upon the blessed resurrection.”
2. Strengthens the soul to overcome worldliness and the snares of this world
“How do we avoid entangling ourselves in the business of the world? We make it our business to mediate on the glories of heaven.”
If meditation on heaven were the prevailing influence of our hearts, the world would have no success in detaining us.
“When is it that flesh indulges itself, except when no thought is given in the near coming of Christ?”
3. Enables us to respond properly to the death of others and coming of our own
I didn’t get the quotes that go with this section, so I’ll use this as a teaser to hurry you to download the message and listen. These quotes were the best of the night.
Sorry I could only type fast enough to get the first half of each quote.
“It is monstrous for Christians to be gripped by the fear of death.”
“No one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await death.”
4. Setting our hearts on heaven enables us to respond well to the loss of possessions and property.
There is a better, abiding possession awaiting us. It is not that the loss of property doesn’t grieve us. It is that the loss does not deprive us of joy as we look higher to heaven, a gaze that allays whatever grief we had.
Carnal feelings never prevail over us with grief because we have a possession no one can plunder.
Wherever there is a lively perception of heavenly things, the world will never be relished.
Let us diligently work our jobs, study in school, devote ourselves to our spouse in marriage, but do it all living with one foot raised.
Guest writer Daniel C. Wilson is covering the Desiring God National Conference.
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4 Comments to Sam Storms on Calvin and the Joy of the Last Resurrection | DG 2009
Reminds me about what Peter said to his readers with regards to suffering: “And to this you were called.”
Demian FarnworthSeptember 26, 2009
This must of been a fantastic session.
Yes. I may very well download this one.
October 31, 2009
[...] Sam Storms: 4 ways meditating on heaven will change your life [Highly recommend this [...]
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September 26, 2009