Let the aim of believers in judging mortal life, then, be that while they understand it to be of itself nothing but misery, they may with greater eagerness and dispatch betake themselves wholly to meditate upon that eternal life to come.  

In a remarkable section in his Institutes devoted to “meditation on the future life” (3.9.1-6), John Calvin exhorts Christians to give up all undue attachments to the things of this world which pale in light of the next.  This section has been described as Calvin’s stress upon the Christian life in part as a pilgrimage anchored in our meditation on the future life.[1]

At the same time, the struggles associated with life in a fallen world also must be considered in light of the unshakable hope given by God to struggling believers through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and his ascension to the Father’s right hand (Institutes 3.25.1-12). 

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