I'm going through John Calvin's Institutes right now, so I will be posting (hopefully regularly) summaries and thoughts about each of the chapters as I read them.
Chapter 1:
Our knowledge of God and of ourselves are naturally intertwined. Every man conscious of his own unhappiness knows something of God through his awareness of his own state. We can't truly know ourselves without knowing the infinite perfection of God. Likewise, we can't even begin to grasp who God is without knowing our own depravity.
This knowledge of our own sinfulness can be terrifying, and rightly so. Even Abraham feared for his life when in the presence of God. Seeing the utter perfection of our Creator reveals to us how completely fallen we are, causing us to fear the judgment of which we are so deserving. Only when God is near, revealing Himself to us, can we truly understand how infinitely small we are when contrasted with Him and how great our trespasses truly are.
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