"Lord, remember me": Calvin's commentary on Luke 23:42

As all of us know, Facebook has its issues. But in so many ways, it is a vehicle for blessing. This afternoon, I came across Dr Calvin Beisner’s rendition, via a photograph, of the 19th century translation of Calvin’s comments on the Latin version of Luke 23:42, “Domine, memento mei.” What a gem! It is a good reminder (no pun intended) of why Calvin’s commentaries have been so treasured down through the centuries.

It also struck me that here Calvin lays down a key foundational element of Christian piety, namely this in these words: the repentant robber’s “assurance of pardon” came to him “in the death of Christ, which … he beholds [as] a sacrifice of sweet savour, efficacious for expiating the sins of the world.”

Lately, I have been reading some of John Mark Comer’s works and listening to his sermons. And what I have heard and read there (and by no means, have I read a ton of his corpus) is quite different from what Calvin says here. Comer refuses to make the substitutionary death of Christ fundamental to his theology. For Comer, the gospel call is “practise the way of Jesus” and you shall be saved. For Calvin, the good news of the gospel is this: put your faith in the Lamb of God’s death for the sins of the world, and you shall be saved. This robber had no time to practise the way of Jesus! But that look of faith saved him. As Calvin rightly says: “I know not that, since the creation of the world, there ever was a more remarkable and striking example of faith.”

Here follows the 19th-century translation of the entirety of Calvin’s commentary on Luke 23:42. I have compared it with the original Latin second edition of Robert Estienne that can be found at Post-Reformation Digital Library: John Calvin, Harmonia ex tribus Euangelistis composita, Matthaeo, Marco, & Luca, 2nd ed. [Geneva:] Robert Estienne, 1560), 424-425. Notice that as Calvin draws his comments to a close, he emphasizes that this man’s faith is designed to teach us “mortification of the flesh, and patience, and elevation of faith, and steadiness of hope, and ardour of piety” and that if we wish to follow Christ wholly (surely the burden of John Mark Comer), we need to pay heed to this man’s faith and how he was saved.

“Lord, remember me” [Luke 23:42]. I know not that, since the creation of the world, there ever was a more remarkable and striking example of faith; and so much the greater admiration is due to the grace of the Holy Spirit, of which it affords so magnificent a display. A robber, who not only had not been educated in the school of Christ, but, by giving himself up to execrable murders, had endeavoured to extinguish all sense of what was right, suddenly rises higher than all the apostles and the other disciples whom the Lord himself had taken so much pains to instruct; and not only so, but he adores Christ as a King while on the gallows, celebrates his kingdom in the midst of shocking and worse than revolting abasement, and declares him, when dying, to be the Author of life [vitae authorem]. Even though he had formerly possessed right faith, and heard many things about the office of Christ, and had even been confirmed in it by his miracles, still that knowledge might have been overpowered by the thick darkness of so disgraceful a death. But that a person, ignorant and uneducated, and whose mind was altogether corrupted, should all at once, on receiving his earliest instructions, perceive salvation and heavenly glory in the accursed cross, was truly astonishing. For what marks or ornaments of royalty did he see in Christ, so as to raise his mind to his kingdom? And, certainly, this was, as it were, from the depth of hell to rise above the heavens. To the flesh it must have appeared to be fabulous and absurd, to ascribe to one who was rejected and despised, whom the world could not endure, an earthly kingdom more exalted than all the empires of the world. Hence, we infer how acute must have been the eyes of his mind, by which he beheld life in death, exaltation in ruin, glory in shame, victory in destruction, a kingdom in bondage.

Now if a robber, by his faith, elevated Christ while hanging on the cross, and, as it were, overwhelmed with cursing to a heavenly throne, woe to our sloth if we do not behold him with reverence while sitting at the right hand of God; if we do not fix our hope of life on his resurrection; if our aim is not towards heaven where he has entered. Again, if we consider, on the other hand, the condition in which he was, when he implored the compassion of Christ, our admiration of his faith will be still heightened. With a mangled body, and almost dead, he is looking for the last stroke of the executioner, and yet he relies on the grace of Christ alone. First, whence came his assurance of pardon, but because in the death of Christ, which all others look upon as detestable, he beholds a sacrifice of sweet savour, efficacious for expiating the sins of the world. And when he courageously disregards his tortures, and is even so forgetful of himself, that he is carried away to the hope and desire of the hidden life, this goes far beyond the human faculties. From this teacher, therefore, whom the Lord has appointed over us to humble the pride of the flesh, let us not be ashamed to learn the mortification of the flesh, and patience, and elevation of faith, and steadiness of hope, and ardour of piety [pietatis ardorem]; for the more eagerly any man follows him, so much the more nearly will he approach to Christ.

John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1846), 3:311‒312.