One Young Consistent Lawyer

The following article is a review of the book, "The Expository Genius of John Calvin" by Stephen Lawson.

I sometimes meander my thoughts along the lines of why things are the way they are. For example, what puts the buzz in coffee, or the vibrancy in shotgun blasts, or better yet what is the bang in a NOS system in a rice rocket? These thoughts can be summarized by one question, what in essence gives things their power? Because we know that some things are more effective than others. But why?

So what makes one preacher better than another? Obviously William Farrell knew something of this sort, when he gripped Calvin by the terror of God with his witch crooked finger one winter night in Geneva. The young author of The Institutes was only passing through yet this night, solidified a young John Calvin to come up from the gave of the study and herald the shattering truth of Christ to the common people in the crisp, cold Genevan air. To labor like Christ in laying down his life for the sheep of the reformation who were wandering, bruised, beaten, desperate for truth in a spiritual famine. This famine was ended like Joseph opening up grain stores in Egypt when Calvin took the pulpit, not only for that generation so far removed, but for ever preceding one that would join in the crystal clear, God centered, Christ exalting exposition of Gods word through the man John Calvin. So then what put the buzz, vibrancy, or bang in the life of John Calvin and his preaching? Or why is Calvin better than, lets say, Joel Olsteen? This is the question that Steve Lawson takes up in his book, The Expository Genius of John Calvin. Why John and not Joel.

What is the book about? well, lets let him tell us because, I simply cant say it any better, “the aim of this book is to raise the bar for a new generation of expositors. The method is to see what a commitment to biblical preaching looks like by examining the work of a man who was sold out to this sacred duty” (p xiv).

To be about the book. Line by line. Verse by verse.

So this book sets sail with 32 distinctives of Calvin's preaching. These came from the man whom the German reformer Philip Melanchthon labeled as simply, “’the theologian,” which was, as Lawson says, “an indication of the respect Calvin was accorded for his abilities as an interpreter of Scripture” (p 3). Here we see that the new world of the reformation was looking to this man as the theological leader, a mind so rigorously disciplined through scholastic training to attack the text, and bring forth the truth. And how can this effect us? How does the past break into our present? Let us continue with a personal thought.

This book was exceedingly exciting to read because of the viscous content therein. Not because it was a new experience to add to my globtrotting, or an intellectual heroin from which I could selfishly enjoy, or even just to read it as a slight social commentary for future discussion at the coffee shop. It was exciting because it was a swift kick in the rear, to stand up, be strong, be biblical, and to do it for the long haul. This message is desperately needed in for young men in our time whose high octane emotion will only be corralled by the consistency of Gods word. We are truly saplings in he world of redwoods when we consider the men of the past on whose shoulders we so truly ride upon. Yes even America is still profiting from the thoughts of John Calvin, the Frenchman, and we need to pay our thanks.

This book, as a whole, inspires me not to be a man of my culture, not to be a man of history, not to be a man dedicated to my work or my family foremost, but simply to be a man of the book, a man dedicated in season and out of season to the text. For as Thabiti Anyabwile said to R.C. Sproul before his preaching, “Bring the book” so Calvin brought the book through his entire ministry at Geneva.

The book is not long, but it makes up for it in intensity, if I might just share a few quotes to inspire you to read it:

“The church is always looking for better methods in order to reach the world. But God is looking for better men who will devote themselves to His biblically mandated method for advancing His kingdom, namely, preaching—and not just any kind of preaching, but
expository preaching” (p 18,19).

“Calvin rises to expound the biblical text. Hearts are astounded; souls are arrested. Under the conviction and challenge of his expository preaching, the Huguenots (who were slaughtered by the thousands in France by the Catholics in the 16th century) are galvanized in their faith” (p 23).

“This former Roman Catholic bastion is now a fortress of biblical truth. It has become a house of Reformed worship—a place where the exposition of Scripture is preeminent” (p 22).

Lawsons writing is incredible, so fluid and free, clear, concise, bringing out all of the greatness of our God and his work of grace in this man.. It is as if we were walking into the cathedral in Geneva, smelling the cold stone and hard pews, but warmed by the stupendous preaching we are translated to this world by Steve Lawson, and then brought to the realities of our own with a strength to change it and the convictions like that of structural steel organized and engineered, will not bend in submission to the worlds demands.

Let us then as men and women of the book be galvanized in our faith, able to withstand any rust of sin this world can bring, through any season.