Calvin's Institutes: April 7

John Calvin's Institutes in a Year · Apr 7, 2026 · 10m

Calvin takes you straight into the deepest part of the atonement—the place most people instinctively avoid. Christ did not merely die; He entered into the full weight of what death actually is under the curse of God. His suffering was not physical alone, but spiritual, bearing the terror, abandonment, and judgment that belong to sinners, yet without sin. Calvin refuses to soften this: Christ’s cry of being forsaken was not rhetorical, but the real anguish of one standing in our place, facing divine justice . And yet, even there, faith was not lost—He still calls God “My God.” That tension is…