Daily Devotional
October 16
Thine Is My Heart: Devotional Readings from the Writings of John Calvin
by John Calvin (compiled by John H. Kromminga)Reproduced from the OPC website.
Bible Text:
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. —Acts 1:5
Devotional:
That is frivolous which some gather out of this place, namely that the baptism of John and the baptism of Christ were different. For he does not dispute concerning baptism in this place, but only makes a comparison between the person of John and the person of Christ.
When John says that he baptized with water only, he does not reason of what sort his baptism was; but what he himself was, lest he should claim that to himself which was proper to Christ. As also the ministers in these days ought not to speak otherwise of themselves; but they must acknowledge Christ to be the author of all those things which they prefigure in the outward baptism, and leave nothing to themselves except only the outward administration.
For when these titles are attributed to baptism, namely that it is the washing of regeneration, a washing away of sins, the fellowship of death, and burying with Christ, and a grafting into the body of Christ, it is not declared what man, being the minister of the outward sign, does; but rather what Christ does, who alone gives force and efficacy to these signs. We must always hold fast this distinction, lest, while we adorn man too much, we rob Christ. —Commentaries
John Calvin was the premier theologian of the Reformation, but also a pious and godly Christian pastor who endeavored throughout his life to point men and women to Christ. We are grateful to Reformation Heritage Books for permission to use John Calvin's Thine Is My Heart as our daily devotional for 2013 on the OPC Web site. You can currently obtain a printed copy of that book from Reformation Heritage Books.
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