Calvin and the Activity of God
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
Psalm 104:13-15
As I continue to think about gratitude and our existence as created, dependent beings, allow me an aside to develop another idea from Calvin related to God and creation. Specifically, I’ll focus today on Calvin’s account of God’s activity in upholding and sustaining the creation.
In Genesis 1:1-2:3, we learn that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing, fashioning it and filling it across six days. Unfortunately, for many Christians, their doctrine of creation—perhaps unintentionally—stops here. As we focus on questions of how and when or who and what from Genesis 1:1-2:3, we tend to think of creation as merely a historical event or a lesson about God.
Significantly, Calvin refuses to limit God’s activity in the creation to the inaugural week. In his commentary on John 5:17, Calvin writes: “Therefore, the creation of the world was complete in six days, but God’s rule is perpetual and he works continually in upholding and preserving its order, as Paul teaches that in him we live and move and are [Acts 17:28]” (CNTC 4:124). Here, Calvin adds a dynamic account of God’s activity within the daily affairs of his creatures to his historical account of God’s work across the first six days. For Calvin, creation and providence are inseparably joined.
In Calvin’s thought, the creation subsists and remains productive by God’s present command. In his commentary on Psalm 104:29, Calvin captures his account of the continuous activity of God in creation: “He [the Psalmist] again declares, that the world is daily renewed, because God sends forth his Spirit. In the propagation of living creatures, we doubtless see continually a new creation of the world” (CTS 11:168). Moreover, Calvin argues in Institutes I.16.1 that the creative work of God includes all he does as “he sustains, nourishes, and cares for, everything he has made, even to the least sparrow.” Calvin detests any account of God that depicts him as a “momentary Creator” who made all things and then stepped back from his works (Institutes I.16.1). He labels such theology as “cold and barren” (Institutes I.16.1). To confess God as Creator, for Calvin, is to confess him also as Governor and Preserver.
Unfortunately, it is easy for modern Christians, including myself, to lose this point. Surrounded by abundance, we tend to take our daily provisions within the creation for granted. And, occupied by our own cares and concerns, we tend not to slow down enough to consider the miracle unfolding around us as God sustains all things through his Son, Jesus (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3). Sadly, the proliferation of blessings numbs us to the grace present in it all. And, in growing numb, we struggle to give thanks, failing to receive God’s daily gifts in creation as intended.
Given our dullness, it seems important to emphasize that to be a creationist is not simply to confess truths from Scripture about Genesis 1:1-2:3. No, according to Calvin, to be a creationist involves more than this. To be a creationist is to pray for daily bread (Matt. 6:11), acknowledging that God alone supplies our provisions and nourishes our bodies (Ps. 104:14-15). To be a creationist is to receive this bread with thanksgiving, recognizing that it is made holy by the word of God and prayer (1 Tim. 4:4). It is to recognize our dependence upon God to open his hand and provide for all our needs (Ps. 104:27-28; 145:16). Moreover, to be a creationist is to confess that we live and move and have our being in God (Acts 17:28). Yes, to be a creationist is to be a dependent creature; who, in response to all the benefits lavished on us, trusts, invokes, praises, and loves God (Institutes I.14.22).
In sum, our doctrine of creation involves a confession of faith about the events recorded in Genesis 1:1-2:3; however, a mature doctrine of creation also presses into further areas. It confesses the ongoing activity of God to uphold and sustain all things, generating within us an existential awareness of our frailty and dependence as creatures and God’s abounding benevolence that surrounds us. And, from this awareness, our doctrine of creation reaches its goal, directing us daily—moment by moment—to the love and fear of God.