Calvin's Daily Devotional

Daily Devotional

December 10

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:
Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; —I Timothy 1:1

Devotional:
"God our Savior and Jesus Christ our hope." True it is that this word Savior is often ascribed to the Son of God, because it is he who has fulfilled and perfected whatever was requisite to our salvation.

He shed his blood, to the end that we should be washed and made clean from our filth and loathsomeness; he abolished the curse that was upon us; he delivered us and set us at liberty from the slavery of death; he utterly put sin to flight. We see then that we must seek our salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ and that with good reason he is called our Savior.

But still it is not without good cause that Paul gives God the Father this title; and why? Let us see whence Jesus Christ came to us. He was sent us from God his Father, for so the Scripture witnesses; God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, delivering him to death for us (John 3: 16, I John 4:9).

Therefore, whenever we see our salvation in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must come to the very head and fountain from which he came to us, that is to say, from this love which God had for mankind.


This is the reason why Saint Paul calls God our Savior; teaching us by this word that as often as we think on the profit which Jesus Christ has brought us, and we have gotten by him, we should lift up our hearts and know that God, taking pity on the lost flock of Adam, made provision for it, and therefore gave this remedy; namely, our Savior Jesus Christ, who came to draw us out of the bottomless pit of death in which we were. —Sermons

---

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.