Sermon 37, Job 9:29-35
Today’s sermon was largely about how things are actually worse regarding our standing with God than we can know. Calvin preaches on two righteousnesses, 1) the righteousness associated with fulfilling the law, I.e. being a very good person all the time, and 2) God’s own righteousness, “…in…[God’s] majesty there is a righteousness we do not understand.” How bad is our standing? Well, even if we can match criterion 1), which is impossible, we have no chance of matching criterion 2). So, it’s beyond hopeless. Hence, God’s grace is even more generous and undeserved than we will ever know or can conceive. The failure to meet criterion 1) Calvin calls the “ordinary lesson from holy scripture”. The failure to meet criterion 2) takes more reflection, I guess.
There are a few preaching notes that I want to record for today.
One is that I am picking up on a phrase or grouping of words that Calvin returns to often. These are righteousness, goodness, power, and wisdom. (RGPW). I think Calvin has these attributes top of mind when doing any task.
Second is the repeated use of the word “confusion” or “confused state” as a descriptor of our lives on earth. I like this very much.