Faith and Doubt -- A Word from John Calvin

With John Calvin turning 500 this year it's worth considering his voice from time to time. This evening as I was considering what I could put up on the blog, I picked up Alister McGrath's Christian Theology Reader, (Blackwell, 1995), and opened to a page with an excerpt from Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion concerning the nature of faith.

Note what he has to say:

Now we shall have a right definition of faith if we say that it is a steady and certain knowledge of the divine benevolence towards us (divinae erga nos benevolentia firmam certamque cognitionem), which is founded upon the truth of the gracious promise of God in Christ, and is both revealed to our minds and sealed in our hearts (revelatur mentibus nostris et cordibus obsignatur) by the Holy Spirit . . .

When we stress that faith ought to be certain and secure, we do not have in mind a certainty without doubt, or a security with any anxiety. Rather, we affirm that believers have a perpetual struggle with their own lack of faith, and are far from possessing a peaceful conscience, never interrupted by any disturbance. On the other hand, we want to deny that they may fall out of, or depart from, their confidence (fiducia) in the divine mercy, no matter how much they may be troubled. (McGrath, p. 15)

Doubt and anxiety are part of the life of the believer -- but that need not and does not remove us from the grace of God. Our hope lies not our own steadfastness, but in God's.