Calvin presses us here with an uncomfortable truth: although God has planted a seed of religion in every human heart, almost no one allows it to grow into genuine piety. Instead of receiving God as He reveals Himself, people either sink into superstition or harden themselves in deliberate rebellion, fashioning a god of their own imagination and then worshiping that illusion. Calvin shows that false religion is not a harmless mistake but a culpable corruption—born of pride, curiosity, and a refusal to submit to God’s justice and providence. Even those who claim God is distant or indifferent are, in effect, denying Him, since a god without judgment, governance, or moral authority is no God at all. What results is a fear without reverence: a servile dread that produces rituals and excuses rather than obedience and love. Yet even here, the sense of God is never fully extinguished. It flickers in the conscience, erupts in moments of despair, and exposes the hypocrisy of those who mock God in comfort but cry out to Him in fear. Calvin leaves us with a sobering conclusion: true religion does not consist in zeal, ceremony, or fear-driven observance, but in a life ordered by reverent obedience to the God who cannot be reshaped by human will (Psalm 14:1; Romans 1:21–22; Galatians 4:8; 2 Timothy 2:13).

Readings:

John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 4 (Sections 1–4)

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