Calvin's Sermons on Job: Derek Thomas

Stephen J. Nichols (SN): Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. In this episode, we are continuing our conversation with my favorite Welshman, Dr. Derek W.H. Thomas. We had him on his deserted island, and usually I get to ask guests which book of theirs that they've written would they like to leave behind on the island for the next visitor. And so, that is how we are going to start off our conversation this week with Dr. Thomas.

Derek W.H. Thomas (DT): I think I would leave behind How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home. It is an exposition of Romans 8, the best chapter in the Bible. And if I'm going to leave it behind, I think it would be a wonderful evangelistic Reformed tract for the island's next visitors to read.

SN: That would be great. That's very kind of you to leave that one. You've also written a book on John Calvin's sermons on Job. And this book goes back to your doctoral dissertation work. Could we spend a few moments to talk about this book? Why Calvin, and why these sermons on Job in particular? What drew you to this work of Calvin's?

DT: When I left seminary, Iain Murray of the Banner of Truth Trust said to me, "Make one theologian your hobby." This is the best piece of advice I think I've ever had in my life. And when I left seminary, it was John Owen, but then it became Calvin. I realized as I was reading Owen that I didn't really understand his predecessor from the previous century, Calvin. And I really did need to go back and read Calvin some more. And then one day, I came upon the facsimile edition of the Job sermons, the 159 sermons on Job that Calvin preached. I was plowing my way through these sermons when one day I had coffee with a dear friend, who said, "You should do a Ph.D. on Calvin's sermons on Job." That was the start of it.

Calvin preached these sermons over a fourteen-month period from 1554 to 1555. They were weekday sermons, not Sunday sermons. He preached according to lectio continua, meaning he would preach continually through the book, taking five to seven verses or so at a time, and picking up each sermon where the last one left off. You can read at the end of each sermon, "We have to stop here," and the next one will begin, "As we were considering yesterday."

In the very opening sermon, I think, in only the second paragraph or so, Calvin says, "It is a most blessed thing to be subject to the sovereignty of God." And he lays out the theme for the next 158 sermons: Life, with all of its trials and difficulties and incomprehensibilities, can only be lived blessedly as you submit yourself to God's sovereign rule. Nothing happens without God willing it to happen. He wills it to happen before it happens and He wills it to happen in the way that it happens.

These sermons are timeless; they are more about God than they are about Job or his suffering. Calvin's main concern throughout his sermons is that God is incomprehensible, that there is a hidden part of God and there is a revealed part of God. God in His essence is incomprehensible—and who are you to try to understand Him?

Trials that happen to us—and in Job's case, to an innocent man—help us learn the overall lesson that submission to the sovereignty of God is the only way to bring peace and fulfillment and wholeness into our lives.

SN: Truly wise words. Thank you Dr. Thomas. Thank you for pointing us to Job—to Calvin's sermons. And I will also point folks to your wonderful book Calvin's Teaching on Job: Proclaiming the Incomprehensible God. Thanks for joining us.

DT: Thank you.