I never thought I would laugh out loud whilst reading The Institutes, but I did recently when reading Book II, Chapter 5, Section 5. Calvin is expounding on free will and the nature of the warning/exhortations issued in the Scripture.
Calvin addresses the longstanding question of “How can God hold man responsible if he is unable to obey?” First, he says,
Why are they urged with exhortations when they cannot hasten any faster than the Spirit impels them? and why are they chastised, if at any time they go astray, seeing that this is caused by the necessary infirmity of the flesh? “O, man! who art thou that replies against God?”
Yes, that is how Paul addressed the question in Romans 9. Then, Calvin says this, which did cause me to laugh out loud:
If, in order to prepare us for the grace which enables us to obey exhortation, God sees meet to employ exhortation, what is there in such an arrangement for you to carp and scoff at?
Yeah, stop carping and scoffing at it, OK?
I’m going to try telling my boss (my wife) to stop “carping and scoffing” at me. I’ll let you know how that goes… :-)