{"id":292,"date":"2013-01-30T17:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T22:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/54.225.232.228\/us\/product\/a-guide-to-christian-living\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T06:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T11:28:07","slug":"a-guide-to-christian-living","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/banneroftruth.org\/us\/store\/christian-living\/a-guide-to-christian-living\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide to Christian Living"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book Description<\/h2>\n

John Calvin’s book, A Guide to Christian Living<\/em>, is an imitation leather volume embossed with Calvin’s insignia. When Calvin first began writing his Institutes of the Christian Religion,<\/em> he had in mind a short handbook or manual which would set out the essentials of the Christian faith. Although the persecution of Protestants in France led him in time to accentuate the apologetic nature of the book, the Institutes,<\/em> as first published in 1536, remained a work of Christian instruction, intended, as Calvin says, for those who were \u2018touched with some zeal for religion,\u2019 and principally for those among his French compatriots who \u2018were hungering and thirsting for Christ,\u2019 and who \u2018might be shaped to true godliness.\u2019<\/p>\n

No chapter better corresponds to the author\u2019s original intention than that entitled \u2018On the Christian Life.\u2019 It offers a clear and balanced set of directions and encouragements to all who desired to live according to the gospel. Strong in its theological affirmation of God\u2019s righteousness and providential care, of the reconciliation won for us by Christ and of the Holy Spirit\u2019s work of sanctification, it was equally strong in its pastoral concern for believers who were beset by their own weakness and sin, who daily endured trial and temptation and who nevertheless, united to Christ by faith, shared in his life and tasted his power.\u00a0The Christian life, as Calvin describes it, is lived simultaneously in the shadow of the cross and in the bright light of the resurrection. That the writer himself knew something of the cost of discipleship is clear from a consideration of his own experience. The distress of exile, the burden of poverty, the hurt of slander and misrepresentation, the threat of physical harm, were all things he knew at first hand. Farel, Calvin\u2019s colleague, rightly calls him \u2018my good, true brother, who is a partner in the cross of Jesus, . . . a man active and upright in the work of the gospel.\u2019 The author who speaks in the Institutes<\/em> about the pressures of Christian living is no armchair moralist, nor is he an unyielding Stoic for whom overt displays of emotion are a grave weakness. For Calvin tears as well as joy have a valid and necessary place: to be devoid of feeling is to be no better than a stone or block of wood. The essential thing is that, in good times and in bad, we continue to trust God who through grace has adopted us as his children, who quickens and comforts us by his Spirit, and who bids us persevere in well-doing until our life\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Interview with the Translator<\/h2>\n

Read Robert White\u2019s reflections on years of Calvin translation, along with his assessment of the work that remains to be done here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A clear, balanced set of directions and encouragements to all who desire to live according to the gospel. Translated by Robert White. 128pp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":223957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[19573,1249,5610,20913,19963],"product_tag":[20018,20019,5944,19403,6364,19962],"class_list":{"0":"post-292","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-books-for-teens","7":"product_cat-christian-living","8":"product_cat-ebooks","9":"product_cat-graduation-special-2026","10":"product_cat-mini-title","11":"product_tag-advent-flyer-2025-banner-gifts","12":"product_tag-advent-flyer-2025-pocket-gift-editions","13":"product_tag-advent-special","14":"product_tag-calvins-gift-editions","15":"product_tag-ebooks","16":"product_tag-mini-title","17":"pa_binding-ebook","18":"pa_binding-gift-edition-ebook","19":"pa_binding-soft-cover-gift-edition","20":"pa_class-bh","21":"pa_era-16th-century","22":"pa_format-book","23":"pa_isbn-2295","24":"pa_original-pub-date-2296","25":"pa_page-count-2297","26":"pa_recent-pub-date-nov-1-2009","27":"pa_recent-pub-date-year-6161","28":"pa_scripture-new-testament","29":"pa_series-gift-editions-1","30":"pa_short-isbn-2300","31":"pa_theauthor-calvin-john","32":"pa_topic-spiritual-growth","34":"first","35":"instock","36":"sale","37":"taxable","38":"shipping-taxable","39":"purchasable","40":"product-type-variable","41":"has-default-attributes"},"bundled_by":[],"bundle_stock_status":"instock","bundle_stock_quantity":500,"bundle_virtual":false,"bundle_layout":"","bundle_add_to_cart_form_location":"","bundle_editable_in_cart":false,"bundle_sold_individually_context":"","bundle_item_grouping":"","bundle_min_size":"","bundle_max_size":"","bundle_price":[],"bundled_items":[],"bundle_sell_ids":[],"yoast_head":"\nA 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