John Calvin on the Fourth Gospel

Thanks to Andreas Kostenberger (A Theology of John's Gospel and Letters, 5) I found this quote from Calvin about John's Gospel:

"And since they [the four Gospels]

had the same object, to show Christ,

the first three exhibit His body,

if I may be permitted to put it like that,

but John shows His soul."

Calvin on the Lord's Supper

I'm preparing to preach on 1 Cor 10.14-22 tomorrow so I thought I'd re-read over Calvin's Shorter Treatise on the Lord's Supper. On the bread and the wine Calvin states:

"We begin now to enter on the question so much debated, both anciently and at the present time—how we are to understand the words in which the bread is called the body of Christ, and the wine his blood. This may be disposed of without much difficulty, if we carefully observe the principle which I lately laid down, viz., that all the benefit which we should seek in the Supper is annihilated if Jesus Christ be not there given to us as the substance and foundation of all. That being fixed, we will confess, without doubt, that to deny that a true communication of Jesus Christ is presented to us in the Supper, is to render this holy sacrament frivolous and useless—an execrable blasphemy unfit to be listened to."

In sum, no real presence = no real benefit!

Calvin on Romans

In the May 2009 issue of Australian Presbyterian, my good friend Joe Mock has an article on "Roman Adventure: Paul's Epistle Provides a Passageway to Profound Treasure" (p. 12) which presents an overview of the influence of Romans on John Calvin. A good short read!

Calvin on Gospel

Tullian Tchividjian reprints a beautiful portion of John Calvin's preface to Pierre Robert Olivétan’s French translation of the New Testament (1534).

Without the gospel

everything is useless and vain;

without the gospel

we are not Christians;

without the gospel

all riches is poverty,
all wisdom folly before God;
strength is weakness,
and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made

children of God,
brothers of Jesus Christ,
fellow townsmen with the saints,
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom

the poor are made rich,
the weak strong,
the fools wise,
the sinner justified,
the desolate comforted,
the doubting sure,
and slaves free.

Read the rest at Between Two Worlds.

Calvin and Theosis

Sadly, I could not make the Calvin 500 Conference in Geneva this month gone by. But in looking at the photos of the event it looks as if a great time were had by all, and it was great to see PCA and PCUSA guys there in such intimate fellowship drawn together by their common love for John Calvin (who knows were such friendship could lead too). One of the papers I would have like to have heard was that given by Bruce McCormack on, "Union with Christ in Calvin's Theology: Grounds for a Divinisation Theory?" In sum, McCormack rejects the notion that Calvin's idea of union with Christ can be seriously integrated with the Eastern Orthodox notion of theosis. McCormack recognizes that there is one passage in Calvin that might support this perspective: "the flesh of Christ is like a rich and inexhaustible fountain that pours into us the life springing forth from the Godhead into itself. Now who does not see that communion with Christ’s flesh and blood is necessary for all who aspire to heavenly life?" (ICR 4.17.9). The problem that McCormack notes is that Calvin's christology will not actually allow God's essential life to be communicated to believers. McCormack states that Calvin "has dispensed completely with that which made divinisation theories possible, viz., the idea of an inter-penetration of the natures. This move only serves to underscore what we saw earlier: the believer participates only in the human nature of Christ. And since there can be no inter-penetration of the natures in Christ, participation in the human nature of Christ cannot result in a participation in the divine nature. The end result is that one simply cannot find the ontological ground needed for a divinisation theory in Calvin’s Christology. If there is no inter-penetration of the natures, there can be no divinisation".

Under the heading Residual Questions, McCormack also deals with Calvin's alleged link of justification and sanctification through "communion". He writes:

"Dennis Tamburello thinks himself to find evidence of a “twofold communion” with Christ in Calvin’s writings—one of which corresponds to justification and one to sanctification. His primary sources for this claim are Calvin’s commentary on Gal.2:20 (published in 1548) and a letter written to Peter Martyr Vermigli (in 1555). In the first, he says, “Christ lives in us in two ways. The One consists in his governing us by his Spirit and directing all our actions. The other is what he grants to us by participation in his righteousness, that, since we can do nothing of ourselves, we are accepted in him by God. The first relates to regeneration, the second to the free acceptance of righteousness.” It is surely not without significance that this work was published before the onset of the Osiandrian controversy and, therefore, before Calvin had given his doctrine of justification its final form. Be that as it may, it is conceptually odd to treat justification as a form of communion if one understands justification along the lines of the imputation of an alien righteousness. One could say that it is still necessary for faith to be awakened in the individual who would receive the promise of imputed righteousness—and that, therefore, union with Christ must logically precede justification. All of that would make sense, though it would be strange to describe it in terms of a twofold communion."

I think that pretty much makes sense, though I think Calvin's duplex gratia provides a better explanation for the link of justification and sanctification through union with Christ than what Tamburello's notion of "communion" does.

I should note that the essay will published in Tributes to John Calvin, ed. David W. Hall (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2009).

Lane Tipton and Calvin, Union with Christ, & Justification

There is a great little clip by Lane Tipton of WTS-Philly on Calvin and Justification. Tipton asserts that some modern exponents have over emphasized the forensic aspect of justification at the expense of the rest of the benefits of Christ. In fact, Tipton seems to make the scandalous inference that justification is based on union (gasp!). Do watch it!

Difference Between Luther(anism) and Calvin on Justification

Calvin and Luther undoubtedly shared a perspective of a forensic act of justification based on an alien righteousness imputed to believers. Yet while some try to pass off Luther and Calvin as essentially twins on the subject, some differences do remain. These differences are competently exposited by Mark Garcia in his book Life in Christ: Union with Christ and Twofold Grace in Calvin's Theology. Garcia writes:

"Unlike his Lutheran counterparts, Calvin did not ground good works in imputation or justification but in union with Christ. In contradistinction with Melanchthon, for example, Calvin argued a positive, soteric value of good works as the ordinary prerequisite for receiving eternal life. It appears that basic differences exist in their respective understandings of justifying faith: at the heart of the inseparability in Calvin's unio Christi-duplex gratia formulation is a justifying faith defined not only passively, as resting on Christ alone, but actively, as an obedient faith that, resting on Christ alone, perseveres in the pursuit of holiness" (p. 260).

Gracia goes on to note that many in the Reformed tradition (e.g. Charles Hodge) have given sway to the Lutheran view rather than following Calvin when they assert that sanctification is the logically corollary of justification. Garcia states: "Within Calvin's soteriological model, to make sanctification follow justification as an effect is to concede the theological possibility that one may be truly justified but not yet sanctified, with the result that the legal fiction charge, to which Calvin was always sensitive, would be validated" (p. 264). I think on Calvin's model that there is no split nano-second of delay between justification and sanctification as both occur in Christ.

Calvin and His Time

W. Robert Godfrey has a good article at CT about Calvin and His Time.

Billings on Calvin and Participation

I'm currently reading through J. Todd Billings on Calvin, Participation, and the Gift and I enjoyed this quote about participation and imputation in Calvin:

"As Calvin later states it, imputation and regeneration constitute a double grace (duplex gratia) and are inseparable. On the one hand, in contrasting his view with thinkers who make human merit a ground for justification, Calvin can say that 'in us there is nothing'. But this is after saying - through a participation in Christ - believers have wisdom, purity, power, life and all that Christ has. the moment of reception is inseparable from the moment of empowerment by which believers are enabled to 'grow into a holy temple'. The wondrous exchange in imputation draws believers into a transforming union with Christ, even as transformation of believers does not provide the ground of this union."

Today with Calvin

Today's Calvin reading is ICR 3.1.1-4. Excellent stuff, Calvin really is the theologian of the Holy Spirit.

"We must now examine this question. How do we receive those benefits, which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son-not for Christ's own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us. For this reason, he is called "our Head" [Eph. 4:15], and "the first-born among many brethren" [Rom. 8:29]. We also, in turn, are said to be "engrafted into him" [Rom. 11:17], and to "put on Christ" [Gal. 3:27]; for, as I have said, all that he possesses is nothing to us until we grow into one body with him. It is true that we obtain this by faith. Yet since we see that not all indiscriminately embrace that communion with Christ, which is offered through the gospel, reason itself teaches us to climb higher and to examine into the secret energy of the Spirit, by which we come to enjoy Christ and all his benefits."