Rend your heart, not your garments - 18 October 2010 |
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Here are the questions for session 35 of the Emmanuel Evangelical Church Guided Reading Course.
Calvin, Institutes, III.iii-iv (pp. 592-669)
Calvin on King Ahab: “It meant little for him to rend his garments while his heart remained obstinate and swollen with malice” (Calvin, Institutes, III.iii.25).
“Since [Christ] alone is the Lamb of God, he also is the sole offering for sins, the sole expiation, the sole satisfaction … Taking upon himself the penalty we owe, he has wiped out our guilt before God’s judgment.” (Calvin, Institutes, III.iv.26)
1. What is significant about the order in which Calvin discusses faith, repentance and forgiveness / justification? (III.iii.1)
2. How does Calvin define repentance? (III.iii.5, cf. sections 6-8)
3. “Before the mind of the sinner inclines to repentance, it must be aroused by thinking upon divine judgment” (III.iii.7). Do you agree? Why or why not?
4. “Both things [i.e. mortification and vivification] happen to us by participation in Christ” (III.iii.9). What does Calvin mean by this? Do you find this surprising?
5. “I interpret repentance as regeneration, whose sole end is to restore in us the image of God that had been disfigured and all but obliterated through Adam’s transgression” (III.iii.7). What does Calvin mean by this? Do you find this surprising?
6. What “difference of opinion” exists between Calvin and Augustine, according to III.iii.10? Who is correct?
7. “Sin ceases only to reign; it does not cease to dwell in them” (III.iii.11). What does this mean?
8. What does Calvin think of the “outward exercises” of “squalor, groaning, and tears” and so on that he mentions in III.iii.16? (See also section 17)
9. What does Calvin understand by “the unpardonable sin”? What is Augustine’s view? (III.iii.22) What do you think?
10. To whom, in Calvin’s view, does Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26-29 refer? (III.iii.23)
11. Is your repentance sincere? (III.iii.25)
12. How does Calvin summarise “the Scholastic Sophists’” doctrine of repentance? What faults does Calvin find with its origin and content? (III.iv.1)
13. What pastoral problems arise from this mistaken doctrine? (III.iv.2)
14. What is the decisive difference between Calvin’s doctrine of repentance and that which he opposes here? (III.iv.3)
15. How does Calvin oppose the Scholastic doctrine of auricular confession? (III.iv.4-8)
16. What kind of confession does Scripture require? Why? (III.iv.9)
17. Under what circumstances should we confess our sins to another person? (III.iv.10-13) Does any of this surprise you? Are you comfortable with it?
18. How are God’s penal judgments to be distinguished from his corrective chastisements? (III.iv.31-34)
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Guided Reading Course, Minister's Blog