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according to God‘s his gracious order and to properly order his
appetites to accord with the knowledge of God. In this manner the
sovereignty of God leads to the liberty of man.
Nonetheless, as important as trust and obedience are, from a
Reformed perspective they do not represent ends in themselves but
nurture the more important virtue of gratitude. For Calvin, trust
and obedience were the vestibule that must be passed through to
reach the sanctuary of adoration. Only in gratitude does man
properly finds his rightful place before a holy God. Perfected in
proper worship, man comes to true knowledge of himself and God.
In worship God draws man to himself and he comes to enter into
the life of God. Here and here alone does man fully glorify God
and realize the true image of God in Calvin‘s estimation.
Such a life is possible only through God‘s continual presence
and action and man‘s active response. In worship, God confronts
man in majesty and splendor. Man‘s proper response can only be in
adoration and contemplation of God‘s majesty. Here man‘s in his
natural capacity combined with this humble worship reflect the
image of God. Apart from such an active response of trust,
obedience, gratitude and love, man loses the image of God and
slouches into a carnal being led here and there by his tyrannical
appetites. Thus the drama of divine or carnal existence hinges on
the choice of man to embrace or rebuff God. Adam‘s rejection of
God‘s Word was the great tragedy of human existence, yet in its
own paradoxical way, set the stage for Jesus Christ and the triumph
of God.
The Fall
We throw heaven and earth into confusion by our sins. For
were we in right order as to our obedience to God, doubtless
all the elements would be conformable and we should thus
observe in the world an angelic harmony… 175
Reformed faith‘s insistence upon the continuing insidious
and ubiquitous nature of sin has proved one of its most
175 Comm. On Jer. 5:25.