Sinclair B. Ferguson is the pastor of St. George’s Tron Church in Glasgow, Scotland. Before he returned to Scotland he was profes­sor of systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. His students well remember how he would begin his course on the Holy Spirit. He would say,

The goal of theology is the worship of God. The posture of theology is on one’s knees. The mode of theology is repentance.

That is a good set of guidelines to remember because so many of those who have discovered the beauty of Reformed theology are anything but beautiful them­selves. People sometimes speak of “TRs,” meaning those who are “Truly Reformed”. But what this term brings to mind usually is not very nice (some peo­ple have the same instinctive response to the term “Calvinist”). The “Truly Reformed” are considered narrow in their thinking, parochial in their outlook, and uncharitable in their attitude toward those who disagree. They have a bad reputation, and sadly, perhaps some of it is deserved.

This ought not to be. In fact, it cannot be, provided that Calvinism is rightly understood. The doctrines of grace help to preserve all that is right and good in the Christian life: humility, holiness, and thankfulness, with a passion for prayer and evangelism. The true Calvinist ought to be the most outstanding Christian — not nar­row and unkind, but grounded in God’s grace and therefore generous of spirit.

Here we consider what the doctrines of grace mean for personal growth in godliness, seeking to answer the ques­tion, what should a true Calvinist be like?

Calvinism has implications for the whole person, but we begin with the mind because that is where the Scripture begins:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be trans­formed by the renewing of your mind. Rom. 12:2a

While Calvinism is much more than a mindset, it nevertheless begins with a mind that is enlightened by the truth of the gospel.

What is most on the Calvinist’s mind is the glory of God. B. B. Warfield once claimed that “Evangelicalism stands or falls with Calvinism” (or, the gospel of grace stands or falls with the doctrines of grace). What Warfield himself meant by Calvinism is “that sight of the majesty of God that pervades all of life and all of experience.” He said:

The Calvinist is the man who has seen God, and who, having seen God in His glory, is filled on the one hand with a sense of his own unworthi­ness to stand in God’s sight as a creature, and much more as a sinner, and on the other hand, with adoring wonder that nevertheless this God is a God who receives sinners. He who believes in God without reserve and is determined that God shall be God to him in all his think­ing, feeling and willing — in the entire compass of his life’s activities, intellectual, moral and spiritual.

If the true Calvinist is a sinner who has received God’s grace and seeks to live for God’s glory, then the prophet Isaiah is the perfect example of one.

Isaiah 6:1 reads:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.’

This vision — in which God revealed His glory, majesty, holiness and grace ­ changed Isaiah’s entire life and ministry. The prophet was taken up into heaven, where everything conveys a sense of God’s transcendence.

What is perhaps most significant is what God is doing. God is seated on His kingly throne, reigning from the place of supreme royal authority over heaven and earth. As a further demonstration of His divine authority, the throne itself is exalted — it is high and lifted up. What Isaiah saw, therefore, was a vision of God’s sovereignty.

The way that God “makes a Calvinist” is by bringing a person into this throne room, there to bow before His supreme majesty. As it was once said of the typical Puritan, “His God is his centre”. God is the centre, ruling in sovereign might.

The true Calvinist has seen this, and thus keeps God at the centre of every­thing he does. God is the centre of his worship, for in true worship attention is drawn away from earthly things and reverently fixed upon God and His glory. God is also the center of the true Calvinist’s thinking.

His goal is to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5b), and to that end his reasoning begins and ends with God. His vision of sovereign majesty shapes his entire mindset, filling his mind with thoughts of God and His glory, and in this way the God of grace becomes the centre of his whole life.

What the American Puritan John Winthrop experienced after his conver­sion is the testimony of every true Calvinist:

I was now grown familiar with the Lord Jesus Christ ... If I went abroad, he was with me, when I returned, he came home with me. I talked with him upon the way, he lay down with me, and usually I did awake with him: and so sweet was his love to me, as I desired nothing but him in heaven and earth.