7 September 2015 A.D. Painful Lesson in Humility: Calvin on Gen. 17.1-17
7 September 2015
A.D. Painful Lesson in Humility: Calvin on
Gen. 17.1-17
Denlinger, Aaron. “Painful Lesson in
Humility: Calvin on Gen. 17.1-27.” Reformation21.
7 Sept 2015. http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2015/09/painful-lessons-in-humility-ca.php.
Accessed 7 Sept 2015.
Painful Lessons in Humility: Calvin on
Gen. 17.1-27
Scripture's
account of God's command to Abraham to "circumcise the flesh of [his]
foreskin" (Gen. 17.11; KJV) affords
Calvin ample opportunity to reflect on the reality and nature of sacramental
signs. Thus he is keen, in his comments on this and surrounding verses, to
emphasize the close relationship of sacramental signs to God's covenant word of
promise (and so the need to articulate that word of promise when administering
said signs). He is equally keen to highlight the critical role that such signs,
being "sculpture[s] and image[s] of that grace of God which the word more
fully illustrates," play in sustaining human faith. He is likewise keen to
insist that God's promises are themselves, apart from those signs,
"effectual to... salvation," and so to discourage his readers from
"restrict[ing] God's own effectual working [of the spiritual realities
that sacraments signify] to those signs." And closely following from the
last point, he is keen to censure any person who holds God's sacramental signs
in contempt, and so -- "feigning himself to be contented with the bare
promise" -- violates God's covenant "by an impious severance of the
sign and the word" (i.e., by a failure to observe the sacrament).
Yet
Calvin does not fail, in the midst of such sacramentologizing, to note the
remarkable character of what God actually commands Abraham to do in Gen.
17.11. God's bidding of Abraham to "circumcise the flesh of
[his] foreskin" is particularly noteworthy, in Calvin's estimation, given
the unprecedented nature (to Calvin's knowledge) of such a surgical procedure
in the ancient world, not to mention the primitive nature (again to Calvin's
knowledge) of ancient medicine if measured in terms of proper surgical tools,
adherence to principles of hygiene, possibilities for anesthesia, and so on.
"Very
strange and unaccountable would this command at first sight appear," the
Reformer reckons. Calvin further speculates about what Abraham's thought
process might have been regarding this "strange and unaccountable...
command": "this might [have] come into his mind, '...if, by this
symbol, [God] would consecrate me to himself as a servant, why has he put me
off to extreme old age? What does this mean, that I cannot be saved unless I,
with one foot almost in the grave, thus mutilate myself?'" Reservations
about circumcising himself (and his household) might, Calvin reflects, have
likewise stemmed from the prospect of "acute pain" associated with
the act, some "danger of [the loss of] life," and the almost certain
consequence of being made the "laughing-stock" of his immediate
world.
Such
consideration of Abraham's sentiments toward the act he was bid to perform
ultimately serves to highlight the remarkable character of Abraham's faith and
obedience. "He must, of necessity, have been entirely devoted to
God," Calvin reasons, "since he did not hesitate to inflict upon
himself [that] wound." Abraham likewise "circumcised the whole of his
family as he had been commanded," testimony both to Abraham's obedience
and to the respect and trust he had previously earned from his servants, who
"meekly receive[d] the [same] wound, which was both troublesome and the
occasion of shame to carnal sense." Abraham's promptness in obeying God
also deserves note: "he does not defer the work to another day, but
immediately obeys the Divine mandate."
All
in all, one gets the impression that Calvin considers Abraham's willingness to
trust and obey God in this command almost as extraordinary as his subsequent
willingness to trust and obey God when ordered to sacrifice Isaac upon the
altar some years later.
But
Calvin is equally keen to discern some motive on God's part for issuing such a
strange command, beyond (of course) the appropriateness of the ritual commanded
to represent the peculiar promise of God's covenant. And, naturally, Calvin
succeeds in this, ultimately arguing that God's command served its own peculiar
role in humbling Abraham.
On
this score again the sign corresponds to God's word of promise, which itself
elicits humility by reminding Abraham (and every true believer) that ultimate
blessing lies outside any person's grasp and is freely offered to those (and
only those) who understand and feel their inability to seize such blessing by
some effort or merit of their own. God's command to Abraham to circumcise
himself and his household humbles the patriarch in two distinct ways. Abraham
is humbled, first of all, by the sheer and simple "shame" associated
with the act he is ordered to perform. "It was necessary," Calvin
comments, "for Abraham to become a fool , in order to prove himself
obedient to God."
But
Abraham is humbled even more profoundly by God's further instructions, having
just identified circumcision as "a sign of the covenant between you and
me," to circumcise both his sons and his slaves without any apparent
distinction between the two. By these further instructions "the pride...
of the flesh is cast down; because God, without respect of persons, gathers
together both freemen and slaves."
Calvin's
logic runs something like this: by administering the sign of the covenant to
his slaves, Abraham was -- at God's express bidding -- extending God's twofold
promise of redemption through the Seed and inheritance of a (heavenly) land to
persons who, at least according to their earthly station, never expected (nor
were expected) to inherit much. Abraham was, in other words, reminded that God
shows no partiality (Rom. 2.11) in the distribution
of his grace and gifts, no matter man's natural proclivity to privilege sons
over slaves in the bequeathing of material blessings. The truth so clearly
expressed in Gal. 3.28-29, then, that in
Christ "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is neither male nor female," but all are equally "heirs
according to promise" was foreshadowed at the earliest expression of God's
promise, when Abraham extended the sign of said promise to all (both slave and
free) within his household.
Calvin's
teaching on this point yields several practical considerations. For one, it
reminds us that God seldom -- or rather, never -- shares our biases, whether
such be founded on social, economic, racial, or other differences. For another,
it reminds us that humility is indispensable to securing a share in God's
promise of eternal fellowship with himself. Indeed, God's promise itself
induces humility (inasmuch as faith entails humble recognition of one's need).
But even in our day, the signs that God has attached to his promise can do
their part to hasten the debasing of our pride. Few things, after all, are as
un-cool (by the standards of the world) as having water applied to oneself in
the Triune name, or regularly breaking bread and sharing a cup in remembrance
of Christ with fellow members of Christ's church.
- See more at: http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2015/09/painful-lessons-in-humility-ca.php#sthash.RWBz0GLO.dpuf
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