Institutes 8

Blog 18: 1.11.7 - 1.11.12

Posted by Phil Ryken

 

This section of the Institutes includes one of the most helpful comments that Calvin ever made about the Christian life.  "Man's nature," he said, "is a perpetual factory of idols."

In context, Calvin is referring to idols in their most technical sense as physical objects used as a substitute for the worship of God.  But the principle behind his statement has a much wider application.  Calvin teaches us to see the human heart as a locus for the manufacture of other gods. 
We are always busy making ourselves new things to worship.  Some of these idols may well be physical representations of the deity, such as the Canaanite gods that the Israelites were tempted to worship, or that many Hindus and Buddhists worship today.  Then again, some of our idols may be pleasures of the body (like sex), or objects in the world around us (like money), or attitudes of the heart (like the power to control other people).  In any case, the problem is that we are idol producers; we carry the means for the production of false worship in our own souls.

Calvin's theology of idolatry is polemical as well as pastoral.  In addition to exposing the idols of every human heart, he also attacks what he sees as the idolatry of the Roman Catholic Church.  Although Catholic theologians tried to draw a distinction between the honor or the service that they offered to various images and the worship they offered to God, Calvin argued that this was a distinction without a difference.  To serve is to worship, and to honor God in any way through any image is to deface his deity.

Institutes 7

Blog 17: 1.11.2 - 1.11.6

Posted by Phil Ryken

 

The Institutes is a positive presentation of Christian faith and doctrine.  But it is also something more: a polemical response to the Roman Catholic Church, in which Calvin defends the theology and practice of the Reformation. 

Here we find the Geneva Reformer arguing against the idolatrous practice of using images for God in public worship.  To be more specific, Calvin is objecting to the crucifixes, icons, and other visible representations of the divine being that became common in the Medieval Church. (Wow, did you read that? Calvin was apposed to Crucifixes. That's pretty harsh!)

Calvin's main argument against the use of such images is that they are unworthy of the majesty of God.  God is an invisible, omnipotent, and infinite being.  To represent him in any physical form, therefore, is to reduce him.  This is the problem with idolatry: it sullies the dignity of God by making him out to be something less than he is.  Every idol, says Calvin, is an absurd and unworthy fiction.
While Calvin acknowledges that God has given us some visible signs of his invisible glory, he also points out that these visible signs--like the clouds and smoke on Mount Sinai, for example--always point in some way to God's mystery and inaccessibility. 

The Roman Catholic Church often defended the use of images in worship as a practical necessity for people who are illiterate ("images are the books of the uneducated").  Calvin responded by arguing that whatever people learn from images is false, and also by pointing to the example of the biblical prophets, who never viewed idols as anything except a distraction from the Word.  God has not given us an image of himself to see and worship; he has spoken to us with a voice to hear, believe, and obey.

Institutes 6

Blog 16: 1.9.3 - 1.11.1

Posted by Phil Ryken

It is characteristic of Calvin's theology in general and of his Institutes in particular to give strong affirmation to the person and work of the Holy Spirit.  

Generally speaking, Calvin does not do this by treating the Third Person of the Trinity as a separate topic of doctrine, but by highlighting the Spirit's work in connection to every other subject that he addresses.  

Calvin makes such a connection here, in his teaching about the Word of God.  Because of their strong emphasis on the unique and indispensable authority of Scripture, the Reformers were sometimes accused of placing too much emphasis on the Bible, and thus of failing to heed Paul's warning that "the letter kills," whereas "the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:6).  

Yet Calvin rightly understood that the best way to let the Spirit do his life-giving work is to teach more Scripture, not less.  Remember that the Spirit gave us the Word to begin with, and that he is present in power whenever the Word is truly and faithfully preached.  The way to experience the Spirit's work, therefore, is not through some experience apart from Scripture, but by hearing his voice in the reading and preaching of the Spirit's very own Word.     

Also characteristic of Calvin's theology--from the very first sentence of the Institutes--is instruction in the knowledge of God, not a matter of theological speculation, but as a living experience.  

Beginning in chapter 10, Calvin moves beyond general revelation (what God has revealed of his character in creation) to special revelation (what God has revealed about himself through his Word).  He does this so that we can know God "as he is toward us"--our Creator and Redeemer. 

Institutes 5

Blog 15: 1.8.10 - 1.9.2

Posted by Paul Helm

Calvin skilfully weaves themes together like strands of thread.  Faith  appears in connection with the self-authentication of Scripture, then disappears from view, returning in Book III. Word and Spirit come together, and then come together again. This style is partly due to his care to safeguard his teaching against misunderstanding. He qualifies what he says, and then qualifies the qualification.
At this point he can see a danger - that his emphasis on the Holy Spirit might be misunderstood as favouring the 'left wing' of the Reformation. The Anabaptists and Libertines, with their emphasis on the Spirit as against the Word, misused Paul's teaching on the Spirit and the letter. So the final Chapter of his treatment of Scripture, on the character of divine revelation, is designed to head off this misunderstanding. Does Calvin's appeal to the Spirit mean that he also is among the Libertines? No,  certainly not. The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit is not fanatical nor 'frenzied'. Why not? Because it's a case of Word and Spirit, not Spirit against Word.

The Spirit not only illumines and authenticates the Word, his authenticating is also tested by the Word. In his theological thought Calvin is quite fond of the idea of two things being linked by a 'bond' - the knowledge of God and of ourselves, for example, and justification and sanctification. Here it is Word and Spirit.  'For by a kind of mutual bond the Lord has joined together the certainty of his Word and of his Spirit so that the perfect religion of the Word may abide in our minds when the Spirit, who causes us to contemplate God's face, shines'. (1.9.3)

Institutes 4

Blog 14: 1.8.2 - 1.8.9

Posted by Paul Helm

We noted earlier the distinction Calvin draws between certainty and opinion. The Holy Spirit brings about the certain conviction that Scripture is the Word of God, whereas the testimony of the church can only help us to form the opinion that it is God's Word.  It is therefore somewhat surprising to find that in Chapter Eight he devotes two or three times more space to the place of reason in establishing biblical authority than he does in Chapter Seven to the self-authenticating character of Scripture. Why is this?

His procedure certainly shows that he has some confidence in the use of reason, despite the fallenness of our natures. This also underlines the fact that Calvin is not a 'fide-ist'. If a label is needed, he's an 'evidential-ist'. In 1. 7 the evidence that Scripture is the Word of God is made convincing by the Holy Spirit's powerful illumination of the text of  Holy Scripture and arousing faith in the truth of its promises of mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. In 1. 8 the authority of Scripture is vindicated at the level of opinion by the powers of human reasoning dwelling not so much on the distinctive evangelical content of Scripture as on its more 'formal' properties - its antiquity, the presence of miracles, fulfilled prophecy, the coherence of its teaching, and so on. Neither strategy is fide-ist.  First the internal evidence, and then in chapter 8 the external evidence, are highlighted.

But what is the use of such evidence, acquired by reason, if the Internal testimony of the Holy Spirit is already at work granting certainty? Part of the answer, at least, is that Calvin sees a role for reason in 'negative apologetics', ensuring that Scripture is 'vindicated against the wiles of its disparagers'.

Institutes 3

Blog 13: 1.7.3 - 1.8.1

Posted by Paul Helm

The Christian church is subordinate to the Word of God.  (Sorry Papists!) She does not grant the Bible its authority. Divine authority exercised through Scripture comes before the church, it is not established by the church.

Calvin here begins to develop a contrast between the certainty conveyed by the Holy Spirit and 'mere opinion', a discussion which continues at least to the end of Chapter 9. Certainty comes by the operation of the Spirit on our minds as we attend to Scripture. The Spirit  begins to clear our ignorance and unbelief, making it apparent 'that the teaching of Scripture is from heaven'. (1.7.4). The Spirit graciously compels this response in those hearts in which he works. How? By illuminating the content of Scripture, its saving message, its heavenly doctrine.  The matter of Scripture is intrinsic to the manner of its reception. So whoever remains ignorant of Scripture cannot expect to have its divine authority conveyed to his soul. Hence the urgent need for Bible translation and for faithful preaching and teaching The certainty that the Spirit conveys that here the living God is speaking is stronger than mere opinion, which is as high as the authority of the church, or of human argument, can reach.

This is Calvin's famous and distinctive teaching on the self-authentication of Scripture. By the Spirit, Scripture bears testimony to itself. The doctrine is here stated briefly, forcefully and eloquently. 'By this power we are drawn and inflamed, knowingly and willingly, to obey him, yet also more vitally and more effectively than by mere human willing of knowing!' What Calvin says here is not to be missed, for it is foundational for the entire theological project that is to follow.

Institutes 2

Blog 12: 1.6.2 - 1.7.2

Posted by Paul Helm

What is the knowledge of God that Scripture makes sense of? Calvin insists that, before it is the knowledge of God the redeemer, Scripture gives us the true knowledge of God our Creator and sustainer. First nature, then grace. The place of Scripture in giving us the knowledge of the God of nature leads him to begin to think of the authority of Scripture and how that authority is recognized. Reliance on Scripture is for Calvin the paradigmatic and controlling act of faith.  Faith in the Word of God is, in a nutshell, faith in the promises of God. In at least two places (1.6.1 and 1. 7. 3) he notes that to separate the recognition of Scripture's authority from the life of faith is artificial and unnatural, and he clues us in to the long discussion of faith that will occur in Book 3. This Word of God originated with the patriarchs. It conveyed to them the knowledge of the one true God, kept them from idolatry, from forgetfulness and error, and prompted in them the hope of redemption. (Ps. 19.1-2)

Now written down and preserved, handed down to us in the form of sixty-six books, the Word of God to the patriarchs, prophets and apostles may do the same for us as it did for them. Scripture is the written Word of the living God. Faith does not make Scripture God's Word, nor is it a leap of faith, a leap into the dark.  Faith, God-given faith, recognizes the evidence conveyed by the pages, of the written Word, that it is breathed by Almighty God. Calvin insists that this recognition is personal and immediate, though not necessarily all-at-once.  It does not and cannot come via the say-so of the church or of any other intermediate authority, but by the Spirit. Word and Spirit together, one great cry of the Reformation.