John Calvin: If You Keep My commandments, You will abide in My Love...

John Calvin unpacks the intersection between our obedience to Christ’s commands and God’s love for us in Christ:

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my

Father's commandments and abide in his love. - John 15:10

For these two things are continually united, that faith which perceives the undeserved love of Christ toward us, and a good conscience and newness of life. And, indeed, Christ does not reconcile believers to the Father, that they may indulge in wickedness without reserve, and without punishment; but that, governing them by his Spirit, he may keep them under the authority and dominion of his Father. Hence it follows, that the love of Christ is rejected by those who do not prove, by true obedience, that they are his disciples.    

If any one object that, in that case, the security of our salvation depends on ourselves, I reply, it is wrong to give such a meaning to Christ's words; for the obedience which believers render to him is not the cause why he continues his love toward us, but is rather the effect of his love. For whence comes it that they answer to their calling, but because they are led by the Spirit of adoption of free grace?    

But again, it may be thought that the condition imposed on us is too difficult, that we should keep the commandments of Christ, which contain the absolute perfection of righteousness, -- a perfection which   far exceeds our capacity, -- for hence it follows, that the love of Christ will be useless, if we be not endued with angelical purity. The answer is easy; for when Christ speaks of the desire of living a good and holy life, he does not exclude what is the chief article in his doctrine, namely, that which alludes to righteousness being freely imputed, in consequence of which, through a free pardon, our duties are acceptable to God, which in themselves deserved to be rejected as imperfect and unholy. Believers, therefore, are reckoned as keeping the commandments of Christ when they apply their earnest attention to them, though they be far distant from the object at which they aim; for they are delivered from that rigorous sentence of the law,    

“Cursed be he that hath not confirmed all the words of this law to do them.”   (Deuteronomy 27:26)

John Calvin’s Commentary on the Gospel of John

Here are some related posts:

Christ's Active Obedience: The End of the Law Unto Righteousness To Everyone That Believes - https://theworldsruined.blogspot.com/2014/10/christs-active-obedience-end-of-law.html

Obedience Envy? - https://theworldsruined.blogspot.com/2014/09/obedience-envy.html

 Gratitude and Obedience: https://theworldsruined.blogspot.com/2019/07/gratitude-and-obedience.html

Musings on Gratitude and Obedience - https://theworldsruined.blogspot.com/2014/12/musings-on-gratitude-and-obedience.html

Justification to Life - https://theworldsruined.blogspot.com/2015/07/justification-to-life-no-part-of-works.html

Salvation Possessed By Faith — Expressed In Obedience - https://theworldsruined.blogspot.com/2016/04/salvation-possessed-by-faith-expressed.html

Forsaken? More Thoughts on Abhorring and Loving The Sinner - Part 5

OPC Ruling Elder A.M. (Mac) Laurie, January 26, 2018 via email:

"Your post regarding the meaning of abhor, as distinguished from hate, especially from hate's common understanding and usage has raised a new thought in my mind regarding the dissimilarity between the two words. Hating does not necessarily involve action, whereas action (the shrinking back from, the recoiling from) is a part of abhorring. If Jesus had abhorred the Virgin's womb he would have shrunk back from the experience of "being born of a woman." But he did the opposite of shrinking back. He willingly, as a necessary part of the foreordained plan of salvation, entered into it. Entering into vs Shrinking back from!

"Your argument that God can - and does, Praise Him - both abhor and love the sinner unclothed with Christ's righteousness is quite persuasive. I recall a scene that remains very vivid after thirty or so years: Walking back to my hotel one Sunday morning after attending worship in Bangkok, Thailand I was approached by one of the many, many prostitutes of that city (we will name her Forsaken). Nothing subtle about her approach, she immediately offered herself to me. But this one was not youthful and alluring, as those advertised by the brothels; she looked old, in contradiction to her 35 or so years, and tired, so very tired, and ill, most probably infectious.

"My response? The temptation to sin that would have inevitably risen in my heart, had the offer been made by one of her not-yet-used up and castaway sisters in the trade, was not there. I shrank back from her, not from her behavior or her appearance but from her as a human being. I abhorred her. But at the same time, because of the grace God had given me, I loved her. I am sorry to say that there have been few times when I have had, in its depth and wonder, the compassion of Jesus, but that was one of those times."

Mac Laurie has served as a ruling elder in the OPC for fifty-plus years

Union with Christ - context...

John 16:27 - For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

To fit the doctrine of our union with Christ into the order of salvation presents a bit of a challenge, to say the least. Phrases such as in Christ, in Him, in the Beloved, Christ in you - all pointing to union - take on different textures of meaning when considered in the context of passages in which they're located. It's in that light that I find helpful the following section from John Calvin's commentary on John. He interrelates concepts such as God's fatherly love for the elect before creation, God's love in Christ for us while yet enemies, God's effectual call, the faith which embraces Christ, and our union with God through Christ. As I understand it, these are various threads of God's identification with his people - those he chose in the Beloved and redeemed in Christ - all pointing to different shades of God's union with his people.

These words remind us that the only bond of our union with God is, to be united to Christ; and we are united to him by a faith which is not feigned, but which [union] springs from sincere affection, which he describes by the name of love; for no man believes purely in Christ who does not cordially embrace him, and, therefore, by this word he has well expressed the power and nature of faith. But if it is only when we have loved Christ that God begins to love us, it follows that the commencement of salvation is from ourselves, because we have anticipated the grace of God. Numerous passages of Scripture, on the other hand, are opposed to this statement. The promise of God is, I will cause them to love me; and John says, Not that we first loved Him, [105] (1 John 4:10.) It would be superfluous to collect many passages; for nothing is more certain than this doctrine, that the Lord calleth those things which are not, (Romans 4:17) raises the dead, (Luke 7:22,) unites himself to those who were strangers to him, (Ephesians 2:12,) makes hearts of flesh out of hearts of stone,   (Ezekiel 36:26,) manifests himself to those who do not seek him, (Isaiah 65:1; Romans 10:20.) I reply, God loves men in a secret way, before they are called, if they are among the elect; for he loves his own before they are created; but, as they are not yet reconciled, they are justly accounted enemies of God, as Paul speaks,     

• When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, (Romans 5:10.)    

On this ground it is said that we are loved by God, when we love Christ; because we have the pledge of the fatherly love of Him from whom we formerly recoiled as our offended Judge.