We are at Book 2, chapter 17 in our ongoing summary of Calvin’s Institutes. It’s the last chapter of Book 2, and what a great ending it is. The topic is the merit of Christ and how he properly merited our salvation as our Mediator.
A few weeks ago I purchased T.F. Torrance’s, The Mediation of Christ. In it he recaptures the doctrine which was largely forgotten in 19th and 20th century theology. Torrance clearly shows that Athanasius, Calvin, and Barth asserted that only Christ and Christ alone is the bridge and way to God. Torrance also connects the mediatorship of Jesus to the Trinity. A great work to read along with Calvin.
1. God in his wisdom and purpose elected Jesus Christ to be our Mediator to gain salvation and new creation for his people. Calvin wrote, "In discussing Christ's merit, we do not consider the beginning of merit to be in him, but we go back to God's ordinance, the first cause. For God solely of his own good pleasure appointed him Mediator to obtain salvation for us" (Pg., 529).
2. Again. "Both God's free favor and Christ's obedience, each in its degree, are fitly opposed to our works. Apart from God's good pleasure Christ could not merit anything; but did so because he had been appointed to appease God's wrath with His sacrifice, and to blot out our transgressions with His obedience" (Pg., 529). Scripture testifies to the work of Christ in these passages. [Eph 4-5; 1 Jn 4:10; 2 Cor 5:21 etc.]
3. At this juncture Calvin asks how could God choose us in Christ and love us to such a degree that he ordains Jesus to be our Mediator. To put the question another way, “How could God love us in eternity past?”
Calvin said the answer was found in God’s purpose of reconciliation by the Person and work of Jesus. God contemplated the world as fallen; then according to his good pleasure he predestinated some of those sinners to salvation; then he decreed to redeem the elect by the atoning work of Christ; then in time, God decreed to apply Christ's redemptive work to the elect.
4. Through this Christ's grace is joined to God's love. In this work of Jesus, satisfaction, substitution and redemption were accomplished on the sinner's behalf, by Christ's work. God loved us so he gave Jesus Christ for our salvation. Jesus worked on our behalf as our Mediator to join us, or bring us to that love.
5. To explain this joining a little more we should remember Christ's work was also propitiatory. "If he paid the penalty owed by us, if he appeased God by his obedience - in short, if as a righteous man he suffered for unrighteous men - then he acquired salvation for us by his righteousness, which is tantamount to deserving it" (Pg., 530).
6. Christ's work was substitutionary. "Christ became a curse for us" [Gal 3:13]. "It was superfluous, even absurd, for Christ to be burdened with a curse, unless it was to acquire righteousness for others by paying what they owed" (Pg., 532). [Is 53:5, 8; 1 Pet 2:24]
7. Christ's work was redemptive. In our stead, Jesus paid what we could not nor would not pay. "God has given the price of redemption in the death of Christ [Rom 3:24]; then he bids us take refuge in Christ's blood, that having acquired righteousness we may stand secure before God's judgment [Rom 3:25]" (Pg., 532). [1 Pet 1:18-19; 1 Cor 6:20; 1 Tim 2:5-6; Col 1:14; 1 Jn 2:12; Eh 5:2; Gal 4:4-5]
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