In order not to give way under this perturbation and be driven from their ground, let them,

however, know that the apostles in their day experienced the same things

that are now happening to us. There were unlearned and unstable men

who, to their own destruction, distorted things that had been divinely

written by Paul, as Peter says [2 Peter 3:16]. They were despisers of

God who, when they heard that sin abounded that grace might more

abound, immediately concluded: We shall remain in sin, that grace may

abound” [cf. Romans 6:1]. When they heard that believers were not

under the law, straightway they chirped: “We shall sin because we are not

under the law, but under grace” [cf. Romans 6:15]. There were people

who accused Paul of being a persuader to evil. Many false apostles were

intruding themselves to destroy the churches that he had built [1

Corinthians 1:10 ff.; <2 Corinthians 2:3 ff.; Galatians 1:6 ff.].

“Some preached the gospel out of envy and strife” [Philippians 1:15

p.], “not sincerely,” even maliciously, “thinking thereby to lay further

weight upon his bonds” [Philippians 1:17 p.]. Elsewhere the gospel

made little headway. “They all sought their own interests, not those of

Jesus Christ” [Philippians 2:21]. Others returned to themselves, as

“dogs... to their vomit, and swine... to their wallowing in the mire” [2

Peter 2:22 p.]. Many degraded the freedom of the Spirit to the license of

the flesh [2 Peter 2:18-19]. Many brethren crept in by whom the

godly were exposed to dangers [2 Corinthians 11:3 ff.]. Among these

very brethren various contentions broke out [Acts, chs. 6; 11: 15]. What

were the apostles to do here? Ought they not to have dissembled for a

time, or, rather, laid aside that gospel and deserted it because they saw that

it was the seedbed of so many quarrels, the source of so many dangers, the

occasion of so many scandals? Yet in tribulations of this sort they were

helped by the thought that Christ is “a rock of offense, a stone of

stumbling” [Romans 9:33; cf. 1 Peter 2:8; Isaiah 8:14], “set

for the fall and rising of many… and for a sign that is spoken against”

[<420234>Luke 2:34]. Armed with this assurance, they boldly advanced

through all the dangers of tumults and offenses. It is fitting that we too be

sustained by the same consideration, inasmuch as Paul testifies to this

eternal character of the gospel, that “it may be a fragrance of death unto

death” [2 Corinthians 2:15] for those who perish; yet for us it was

destined to this use: “to be a fragrance from life to life” [2 Corinthians

2:16], “and the power of God unto the salvation of believers”

[Romans 1:16]. cThis very thing we should certainly experience, if by

our ungratefulness we did not corrupt this singular blessing of God and

pervert to our ruin what ought for us to have been a unique assurance of

salvation. [From his Epistle Dedicatory to the King of France in the Institutes of Christian Religion]