98. Calvin on Prayer

Prayer is an unmerited privilege and a glorious gift that God gives to His people. In today’s journey back through the archives, Dr. Stephen Nichols outlines John Calvin’s view on prayer as it appears in the Institutes of the Christian Religion.

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"Words fail to explain how necessary prayer is and in how many ways the exercise of prayer is profitable. It is therefore by the benefit of prayer that we reach those riches which are laid up for us with the heavenly father." These are the words of John Calvin on the necessity of prayer, and they come to us from his Institutes. In Calvin's Institutes, he gets at theology through the structure of four books. The first book is on the knowledge of God, the Creator, and the second book is on the knowledge of God, the redeemer in Christ. When he gets to the third book, Calvin turns his attention to the way in which we receive the grace of Christ and what benefits come to us from it. The very beginnings of book three, Calvin talks about the Holy Spirit. So if book one is about God and book two is about Christ, well, book three is about the Holy Spirit in the Christian life.

Book four, then, is about the church and life in the Spirit in the community of the church. But back in book three, as Calvin's talking about the Christian life, he does so in 25 chapters, and chapter 20 is on prayer. And he begins his discussion of prayer by talking about the necessity of prayer. We need prayer because this is how God's benefits reach us. Of course, Calvin raises the question, “why pray? If God is sovereign and he's over all things, isn't prayer superfluous?” Well, Calvin responds to that by saying, “First of all, prayer has to do with us. Prayer changes us, and that discipline of prayer is such a crucial piece, a discipline of the Christian life. And also, it's our duty. God commands us to pray.” And so that's enough for Calvin.

Well, after dealing with the necessity of prayer and after raising the question, “why should we pray?”, Calvin turns to talk about what he calls “the Rules for Praying Right,” and there are five of them. The first rule is reverence. Doesn't this remind us of the words of the Lord's prayer, “Hallowed be thy name”? This is how we frame prayer, as it were. This is how we come into prayer, recognizing who God is, being in reverence of him, and in light of him, recognizing who we are.

That, in fact, takes us to the second rule of prayer, and that is that we pray out of insufficiency. It's very simple. We ask because we need. Prayer is a constant reminder of our utter dependence on God, a reminder of our insufficiency, and also a reminder of God's all sufficiency for us.

The third rule is that we come pleading mercy. We don't deserve anything. This is the posture that Calvin wants us to take. We don't deserve anything before God. It is his sheer good pleasure and mercy that he extends to us these blessings and benefits and these good things and answers our prayer.

Calvin's fourth rule for praying right is that we pray with confident hope. We should be encouraged that God answers prayer. If we are living in tune with the spirit and reading his word and praying in accordance with scripture, then we can be encouraged that God hears our prayers and that God will answer our prayers.

The fifth rule is that we pray in Jesus' name. Jesus is our intercessor, our mediator. He's not only our high priest who sat down, having completed his work of redemption, he is our high priest who stands up and ever intercedes for us before the Father's throne. In fact, this is what Calvin says about praying in the name of Jesus and recognizing Jesus as our intercessor. He says this, “For as soon as God's dread majesty comes to mind, we cannot but tremble and be driven far away by the recognition of our own unworthiness until Christ comes forward as intermediary to change the throne of dreadful glory into the throne of grace.” And so as the biblical author tells us, “we boldly approach the throne of grace.”

This is Calvin on the necessity of prayer and the five rules of praying right. I'm Steve Nichols. Thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes In Church History.