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impress on us our frailty. ―He afflicts us either with disgrace or
poverty, or bereavement, or disease, or other calamities. Utterly
unequal to bearing these, in so far as they touch us, we soon
succumb to them.‖ 94 Humbled by the weight of such crosses, we
call on God and learn to stand only by his grace. Tribulation builds
trust and then character: patience, perseverance, hope, and so on.
These are the qualities of obedience. Thus, our cross is medicine
for our soul. Afflictions are often divine reminders of past
disobedience, and thus serve to reinforce present obedience.
Believers accept them in faith as the chastisements of a loving
Father who is correcting his children. Suffering persecution for the
sake of righteousness is a comfort and privilege, for in this we
honor God and reflect Christ. Our endurance and patience in the
context of real suffering is submissiveness. Spiritual joy and
thanks for what God accomplishes in us through suffering follow.
These are the responses of obedience.
At this point Calvin‘s treatment takes an interesting turn.
Self-denial and cross-bearing lead him to consider reflection on the
life to come.
When it comes to a comparison with the life to come, the
present life can not only
be safely neglected but, compared to the former, must be
utterly despised and loathed. For, if heaven is our homeland,
what else is the earth but our place of exile? If departure
from the world is entry into life, what else is the world but a
sepulcher? And what else is it for us to remain in life but to
be immersed in death? If to be freed from the body is to be
released into perfect freedom, what else is the body but a
prison? If to enjoy the presence of God is the summit of
happiness, is not to be without this, misery? 95
94 Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 703.
95 Ibid., p.716.