The Reformation, The Regulative Principle, And The Modern Church: Examining John Calvin’s Dedication To Purity In Worship (Part 2)

by on August 6, 2025 | Comment

Calvin And His Concern For The Pure Worship Of God

When I first read Calvin’s Institutes, the clarity with which he described the absolute transcendence and holiness of God struck me, especially as I considered how often my younger, more charismatic self was willing and eager to dismiss concerns about my preferences in worship, even if the concerns came from Scripture itself. I realized how much I still have to fight the desire to let my own preferences supersede what God has said in his Word.

Last time, we defined the Regulative Principle and how purity in worship would have been deeply important to John Calvin. In this article, we will see how Calvin used the transcendence of God to establish why it is necessary to ensure worship is conducted properly.

The Preeminence of God and the Lowliness of Humanity

In the first book of Institutes of the Christian Religion, “The Knowledge of God the Creator,” Calvin deals with the utter transcendence of God and the implications of his transcendent holiness for how he is to be worshipped. Calvin “forcefully [asserts] God’s transcendence . . . and omnipotence” via the principles finitum non est capax infiniti (the finite cannot contain the infinite) and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory), respectively, in order to “defend” God’s glory from improper worship.1

The argument for a very particular and discriminating attitude when it comes to worshipping God is rooted in God’s preeminence in relation to ourselves and all other created things. Man’s very existence, according to Calvin, is naught but “subsistence” in God; he finds himself in great “poverty” that magnifies the “infinitude of benefits” found in only the Creator.2 Humanity is wholly, utterly dependent on God, the only one in whom “the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness” resides, compared to the “infirmity” and “depravity” that characterizes men.3 All men know within themselves that there is a God, for he has “implanted in all men a certain understanding of His divine majesty,” and they know also what is the proper response to the knowledge of the Creator God.4

Man should not only assent to God’s existence but also realize that there is no true understanding of God without worshipping him and making him the sole object of religion. The triune God far eclipses men, who are fallen, fail to acknowledge him, and ultimately suppress the truth of God’s existence because of their unrighteousness. Yet if one dares to begin an attempt to comprehend the glory and perfection of God, using him as the standard by which to measure one’s own righteousness, the inevitable conclusion is that God is incomprehensibly above men in all ways. Only then, in light of this conclusion, can a man have true knowledge of God as perfect and transcendent and of himself as a broken sinner. Only then can he trust in Christ to restore the severed relationship between God and himself. Only then can he fulfill the end which “all men are born and live to,” which is to know God.5 And God can only truly be known through the God-man, Jesus Christ.

The Christian Must Value Pure Worship

The Christian has come to understand his great sin and utter failure to measure up to the “straightedge to which we must be shaped,”6 and so has put his faith in Christ to be his righteousness and Redeemer from his many sins. He has true knowledge of God and of himself, and, as a result, contemplates with “fear and reverence” the one true God as he has revealed himself in the Scriptures.7 Part of possessing the true knowledge of God is to mortify sin, worship and adore him, and seek to live an upright life, not out of fear of hell—which is no threat for the believer—but from love and reverence of the Father, “shudder[ing] at offending him.”8 Because God has shown us mercy, out of gratitude, the Christian ought to present his body as “a living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1), not walking after the world’s ways, but after the Spirit, doing good works to “show that we are thankful to God for his benefits” (Heidelberg Catechism 86), the foremost of which is salvation through Jesus Christ. This indeed is the attitude and disposition of the one who is in Christ, and therefore, “pure and real religion” is found in him, which, as previously established by Calvin, includes fear and reverence toward God, as well as “legitimate worship as it is prescribed by the law.”9 This is a crucial statement concerning the manner in which God is worshipped, and it clearly establishes Calvin’s belief that the law of God should dictate our worship of him.

Those who fear the one true God should be appalled by the idea of offending him. That precept applied to worship means that Christians ought to scrupulously consider their adherence to God’s commands when they approach him in worship, which, in Calvin’s words, is only legitimate when it aligns with the prescriptions of his law. With this statement alone, it is not difficult to conceptualize how the Regulative Principle as expressed in the Belgic Confession and Westminster Confession fits easily into the view of worship that Calvin indicates in his writing.

The Necessity of the Regulative Principle

Calvin was clearly concerned with the purity of the church, especially when seeking to combat the unscriptural traditions that Rome had conceived and long infused in Christendom. Accordingly, when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V called the Diet of Speyer in 1544, Calvin advocated for the toleration of Protestants in the Holy Roman Empire. Martin Bucer requested that he write a defense of the Protestants and the necessity of the Reformation to be presented to the Diet.10 This resulted in Calvin’s The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1544), which was read at the Diet and addressed to Charles V, who was not interested in tolerating the Protestants but rather was looking for Lutheran support for the war he wished to wage on France at that time.11 Calvin’s commitment to pure worship and the church’s reformation takes center stage in this treatise. The worship of God is to be treated with the utmost regard and sincerity, “neither in a frigid or careless manner.”12 Since God requires worship in “a spiritual manner,” men are urged to “all the spiritual sacrifices which he recommends,”13 found in the written revelation of his will, which we should “[conform] to . . . as a universal rule”14 and take great care to not “rashly or boldly . . . go beyond.”15

Having great reverence for God and a high standard for the means by which we render him worship, the church must, as much as she can, adhere strongly and immovably to the commands of God pertaining to said worship. There is little question Calvin believed deeply that the church should look upon the Word of God as the only “rule of faith and religion . . . according to the command of our Lord,”16 as confessed in the Geneva Confession (of which Calvin was at least the partial author of), and therefore ought to pattern her worship after it.17 Calvin’s conviction on this matter is harmonized perfectly with the confessional definitions described in the previous installment. As such, it can be said that he would have embraced the Regulative Principle’s unwavering dedication to worshipping God only as he mandates and orders in the Scriptures.18 Or perhaps it is better to say it the other way around—the Reformed confessions embraced Calvin’s view. His theology developed this principle clearly and, in Geneva, it was faithfully put it into practice. In this way, he would be accepted by the Reformed churches who claim the Regulative Principle, yet the question that remains is not whether or not these churches would approve of Calvin, but whether or not Calvin would approve of them. We will answer that question later on.

Conclusion

The way Calvin acknowledged the reverence due to God should serve as a model for us. Because worship—and pure worship at that—is due to him, as those who belong to him, we should be consumed with worshipping him purely. Gratitude is the driving factor of our obedience to God, and that very same gratitude should drive us to value purity in our worship of God. We are completely dependent on him for all things, including instruction on how we are to worship him. Calvin was adamant that worship is only legitimate when conducted according to God’s own command, thus demonstrating a need for the Regulative Principle. In the next installment, we will tackle the most difficult aspect of the Regulative Principle: not only must worship consist only of what God has commanded it must unapologetically exclude and restrict from worship every element that is not commanded.

Notes

  1. Carlos M. N. Eire, War Against the Idols: The Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 197.
  2. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, The Library of Christian Classics, vol. 20 (Philadelphia, PA,: The Westminster Press, 1960) 35–36.
  3. Calvin, Institutes, 36.
  4. Calvin, Institutes, 39.
  5. Calvin, Institutes, 46.
  6. Calvin, Institutes, 41.
  7. Calvin, Institutes, 41.
  8. Calvin, Institutes, 43.
  9. Calvin, Institutes, 43.
  10. W. Robert Godfrey, forward to The Necessity of Reforming the Church by John Calvin, translated by Casey Carmichael (Sanford, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2020), xv.
  11. Godfrey, forward to Necessity, xvii.
  12. John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, trans. Henry Beveridge (London: Edinburgh Printing Company, 1743), 43.
  13. Calvin, Necessity, 44.
  14. Calvin, Institutes, 49.
  15. Calvin, Institutes, 42.
  16. John Calvin, Geneva Confession in Calvin: Theological Treatises, trans. J. K. S. Reid, (Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press, 1954), 26.
  17. Alasdair I.C. Heron, “Calvin and the Confessions of the Reformation,” HTS Teologiese Studies 70, no. 4 (April 2014).
  18. Westminster Divines, Westminster Confession of Faith in ESV Bible with Creeds and Confessions, 1061.

©Juliette Colunga. All Rights Reserved.

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    Post authored by:

  • Juliette Colunga
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    Juliette is a graduate of The Master’s University (BS, Biological Sciences) and a member of a church belonging to the URCNA. Despite her not being raised Reformed and a background in the sciences, she has grown a deep appreciation for the historic Reformed confessions and is pursuing a MA in Historical Theology at Westminster Seminary California.

    More by Juliette Colunga ›

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