home :: site contents :: contact     




The Holy Bible (with Commentary)
The Psalms (for singing)

Scottish Gaelic Turkish

Foreign Languages
Law and Grace
Short Articles

Doctrinal Articles
Stories of Faithful Christians
Famous Letters
Sermons

Summary of Bible Teaching

The Christian’s Great Interest
Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

Pilgrim’s Progress

Christian Clothing

Other Online Books

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments on Acts 2:26, "For this my heart rejoiced" 

 

John Calvin (1509-1564)  

 

One of the leading lights of the Reformation in Europe, John Calvin was born in Noyon, Picardy in France. What Martin Luther had begun by God’s mighty power, John Calvin carried on, teaching the doctrine and application of justification by faith alone in the Christ revealed in Scripture alone; and endeavouring to apply Scriptural teaching to every area of life. Pressed by a friend named William Farel to stay in Geneva to preach (that city being a haven for persecuted Christians), Calvin at length complied, and the Genevan Church became a centre of the Protestant Reformation. The Scottish Reformer John Knox spoke of the Church in Geneva as “the most perfect school of Christ since the days of the apostles”.

 

 

For in this my heart rejoiced. Joy of the soul, gladness of the tongue, and quietness of all the whole body, do ensue upon sure hope and confidence; for unless men be quite past feeling,1 they must needs be careful and sorrowful, and so, consequently, miserably tormented, so long as they feel themselves destitute of the help of God. But that sure trust which we repose in God doth not only deliver us from carefulness,2 but doth also replenish our hearts with wonderful joy (and gladness.) That is the joy which Christ promised to his disciples should be full in them, and which he testified could not be taken from them, (John xvi. 22; xvii. 13.) He expresseth the greatness of the joy when he saith, That it cannot be kept in, but that it will break forth into the gladness of the tongue.3   doth signify, indeed, glory, but it is taken in that place, as in many others, for the tongue. And so the Grecians have truly translated the same. The rest of the flesh doth signify the quietness of the whole man, which we have through the protection of God. Neither is this any let, because the faithful are continually out of quiet and tremble; for as in the midst of sorrows they do nevertheless rejoice; so there are no troubles so great that can break them of their rest. If any man object, that the peace of the faithful doth consist in the spirit, and that it is not in the flesh: I answer, that the faithful do rest in body; not that they are free from troubles, but because they believe that God careth for them wholly, and that not only their soul shall be safe through his protection, but their body also.

   

Note:

1 Stupeant,” be stupid or stunned.                                             2 "Anxietate, “ anxiety.

3 "Quin erumpat in linguć exultationem," but will burst forth into the language of exultation.

 

Reference

“Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles,” by John Calvin. Translated by Christopher Fetherstone, 1585. Edited by Henry Beveridge, Esq. Originally printed for the Calvin Translation Society, Edinburgh, Scotland. Reprinted 2003 by Baker Books (USA). p. 105.