Chestertonian Calvinism (What is “Reformed” Anyway? Part 2)

INTRODUCTION

Pastor Wilson has used this phrase “Chestertonian Calvinism” for a number of years to describe the flavor of Calvinism we are aiming for. It’s a riff on something C.S. Lewis once said about the Puritans: “On many questions, and specially in their view of the marriage bed, the Puritans were the indulgent party; if we may without disrespect so use the name of a great Roman Catholic, a great writer, and a great man, they were much more Chestertonian than their adversaries.”

In other words, far from the morose and harsh caricatures, the legacy of John Calvin is joy and gladness, astonishment and relief, and the early accusations were that, if anything, they were too celebratory when it came to the gifts of bed and board.

So as we go over the basics of what has come to be called “Calvinism,” we want to do so in an obedient and humble way, which is to say: the right kind of humility before these high doctrines ought to result in a robustly earthy joy.

The Text: “Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee… Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things” (Dt. 28:45-47).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

These verses come in the midst of a fierce litany of promised curses ranging from their cities to their fields to their bodies, weather, plagues, war, insanity, pestilence, and famine (Dt. 28:15-44), concluding with horrific descriptions of sieges, disease, homelessness, and slavery (Dt. 28:48-68). And here at the center of these terrible warnings is the explanation: a joyless disobedience. The curses will be God’s sign to the world of their sin (Dt. 28:46). And the central sin would be a failure to serve God with gladness of heart, with hearts overflowing (Dt. 28:47).

WHAT IS CALVINISM?

John Calvin lived from 1509-1564, spending most of his life and ministry in Geneva, Switzerland after being converted through the influence of Martin Luther’s preaching and teaching spreading to France. Calvin’s most famous work is his Institutes of the Christian Religion which is a lengthy commentary on the Apostles’ Creed. Calvin’s system of doctrine included Bible teaching on worship, sacraments, church government, civil government, family life, as well as salvation and prayer. But in popular parlance, people sometimes refer to the “Five Points of Calvinism,” which were actually the result of the Synod of Dort in the Netherlands from 1618-1619. Calvin certainly taught what the Synod concluded, but his teaching was much broader.

The primary concern of the Synod was to settle a controversy began by the teaching of Jacob Arminius (1560-1609), theology professor at Leiden University. After Arminius’s death, 43 of his followers presented Articles of Remonstrance to the States General of the Netherlands in 1610, seeking government protection for their teachings that 1) election is based on foreseen faith, 2) the universality of Christ’s atonement, 3) the free will and partial depravity of man, 4) the resistibility of grace, and 5) the possibility of a lapse from grace. The Canons of Dort are the confession that resulted, answering each of those five points with the Bible’s teaching on the 1) Total depravity and inability of man to choose God, 2) the Unconditional election of God’s grace, 3) the Limited or definite atonement of Christ’s work, 4) the Irresistible or efficacious grace of God, and 5) the Perseverance or preservation of the saints (hence the shorthand “TULIP” acronym). And the central thing is that at every step of salvation, God gets all the glory.

CHESTERTONIAN JOY

G.K. Chesterton himself either misunderstood Calvin or had the misfortune to only interact with the worst sorts of Calvinists, and therefore took routine potshots at the name in his writings. But there is a strong case to be made that he was actually far more Calvinist than he realized, and at the very least Calvin and his descendants were far more “Chestertonian” than he knew.

What do we mean? First, Chesterton’s conversion was coming to an almost giddy, childlike joy in God and how He ruled His world: “A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality… they always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough… It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening ‘Do it again’ to the moon… In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician… I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller.”

Calvinism simply affirms the same point and that the Magician, the Great Story-Teller has reached down into their sorry, sinful lives and made them alive by His sheer grace. Perhaps the word that best describes what a true Calvinist ought to feel is astonishment – that begins with the sheer grace of eternal life and overflows: “In whom [Christ] also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will…” (Eph. 1:11). “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:28, 32)

APPLICATIONS

Bacon & Beer: Yes, God chose you from before the foundation of the world, and He chose you so that you would rejoice before Him for the abundance of all things: this includes forgiveness, adoption, and Scripture, but also bacon, beer, and the marriage bed in this life, and infinite joy in the world to come. “In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). True biblical Calvinism results in deep gratitude for all of God’s gifts.

This is our Father’s world: All the nations belong to Christ. He made them. He purchased them with His blood. He governs all things for our good and His glory. We are more than safe; we are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37). Far from turning this world into a grim, faceless, grinding machine, the sovereignty of God turns the world into the greatest adventure story, and we get to be bit parts. True biblical Calvinism delights in serving the King in every area of life.