Review: The Expository Genius of John Calvin

Steven Lawson, pastor of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama, calls John Calvin an expository genius. The inside cover of the book reads "John Calvin was many things: a leader of the Protestant Reformation, a theologian, a teacher, a Bible commentator, and more. But above all, Dr. Steven J. Lawson argues, Calvin was a preacher, and it was to that role he gave himself most fully during his twenty-five years as a pastor in Geneva, Switzerland."

Not only was he a preacher, Calvin was an expositor. Lawson takes us through Calvin's sermon process from preparation to delivery and seeks to "...raise the bar for a new generation of expositors" in our day. Through these brief chapters we are taken through 32 distinctives that marked Calvin's preaching.

The book is dedicated to John MacArthur, who Lawson calls, "the John Calvin of our day" and it closes with a prayer from Charles H. Spurgeon that says "We want again Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitefields..."
What stands out and encourages me is that Calvin was an expository preacher and God used His Word mightily through Calvin. He was unwavering in his commitment to sequential, expository preaching and preached faithfully through books of the Bible. Calvin's style was lectio continua, "continuous expositions." Lawson says this methodical approach guaranteed that he would give the full counsel of God to his people. It is said that Calvin preached through Genesis, Deuteronomy, Job, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, the Major and Minor Prophets, the Gospels, Acts, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews.
My favorite and "A famous example of this verse-by-verse preaching is seen in his return to Geneva after banishment three years earlier. In September 1541, Calvin reentered the pulpit and resumed his exposition exactly where he had stopped three years earlier---on the next verse!"

Perhaps the most helpful practice of Calvin in my own preaching is how he would end his sermon. After having an hour to give God's people His Word, he would then hand them back to God and commit them to His sovereign mercy in a closing prayer.

This book is an easy read and a must for any man who desires to be a faithful expositor of God's Word. It was interesting, fast paced, and enjoyable, leaving the preacher (the likely reader) with a reminder of his high calling to "Preach the Word!"

Encouraging you to take up and read,
Josh