Calvin describes the scriptures as “another and better help”
to us in obtaining knowledge of God. The people who have access to the
scriptures are those “He regarded as worthy of this privilege those whom he pleased
to gather more closely and intimately to Himself”. Scripture is the spectacles for those who
have weaker vision for through scripture human beings can see God “distinctly”.
This assertion has been one of Calvin’s most discussed similes.
Why? Is scripture like spectacles for you? Does it aid your
vision of God? Calvin goes on to describe the two types of knowledge of God
that can be obtained from the scriptures – the first being that of knowing the
God who founded and governs the universe and the second that god is found in “the
person of the mediator as the redeemer”.
Calvin explains that there are many testimonies about this in the Old
and New Testaments but concludes that God “the Artificer of the universe is
made manifest in scripture”. The Oxford
Dictionary defines Artificer as “craftsman, skilled mechanic in the army or navy.” God’s skill revealing Himself in creation and
in Christ is clear to Calvin. Is this
clear to you/ what could be awry in your view?
