True wisdom begins where self-confidence ends. In this reading, John Calvin explains that the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves are inseparably bound together: human misery drives us to seek God, and the holiness of God exposes the poverty of our supposed wisdom and virtue. As long as we measure ourselves by earthly standards, we remain satisfied with our righteousness; but when we are confronted with the majesty of God, our strength is revealed as weakness and our clarity as blindness (Isaiah 24:23). Genuine self-knowledge, Calvin argues, is born only when we stand before God Himself, as Abraham, Elijah, and the prophets did, rightly humbled by His presence (Job 42:5–6).

John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 1

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