Calvin on Christian Life, Meditation on the Future Life
The third step (c) of the Christian life, following upon self-denial and bearing the cross, has to do with meditation on the future life. This might not seem so attractive to those for whom this life is good. Perhaps it made more sense when life was hard and suffering was widespread. And Calvin certainly counseled against ingratitude for this life. And yet, perhaps when we are honest with ourselves we admit that we are only passing through this world and that our home and our citizenship are really in a life and a world beyond this one.
“If heaven is our homeland, what else is the earth but our place of exile?” (John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. from the 1559 Latin ed. by Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols., in Library of Christian Classics, ed. John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Book III, Chapter 9, Section 4).
“In a word: if believers’ eyes are turned to the power of the resurrection, in their hearts the cross of Christ will at last triumph over the devil, flesh, sin, and wicked men.” (III.9.6)
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