God shines brilliantly.

We press on in our Calvin studies. We are in Book 1, chapter 10 of his Institutes. Here is the summary.

1. Calvin’s project here is to unfold how Scripture represents God to man.

2. The first and foundational truth the Scriptures teach is that, "God, the Maker of heaven and earth, governs the universe founded by him" (Pg. 97).

3. God is revealed to us in the Bible in various images because no man can see God and live to tell about it. These images manifest the awesome attributes of God so that we may experience and know God. He shows himself as he is toward us: so that this recognition of him consists more in living experience than in vain and high-flown speculation” (Pg. 97).

4. God’s names such as Jehovah and Elohim give us a summery description of the full orbed attributes of God. Jehovah designates God’s eternality and self-existence. Elohim describes the power and might of God. He shines with powerful brilliance, kindness. goodness. mercy, justice, judgment and truth.

5. Calvin tells us that there are three attributes necessary for us to know. They are “mercy, on which alone the salvation of us all rests; judgment, which is daily exercised against wrongdoers, and in even greater severity awaits them to their everlasting ruin; and justice, whereby believers are preserved, and are most tenderly nourished” (Pg.98).

6. The revelation of God in nature and Scripture has the same goal. They invite us to fear God and trust God, which results in the creature giving glory to God.

7. Also, nature and Scripture already tell us that God is one. Therefore, the worship of other gods instead of the one true God is idolatry.

Scripture and the Spirit of God

Here are some thoughts and a summary of chapter 8 & 9 of Calvin’s Institutes. I begin with quoting from The Westminster Confession of Faith. It follows Calvin when it says,

“The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man, or Church; but wholly upon God (who is truth itself) the author thereof: and therefore it is to be received, because it as the Word of God. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture, and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole, (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God; yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts” (WCF 1:4-5).

God must reveal himself through his revelation. Does that mean the Scriptures are not God’s Word? No. The Scriptures are God’s written revelation intent to reveal God’s incarnate revelation in his Son Jesus. However, to receive Scripture and Jesus as God’s true Word and hope requires faith and this faith is a sovereign gift of God through the Spirit.

Here is the summary for chapter 8

1. The witness of the Holy Spirit is the great Testifier to the authority of Scripture. God speaks in Scripture by the Holy Spirit.

2. The Scriptures are full of wonderful power. But this power is not fathered by the common agreement of the church or by external proofs or by other helps. It is made powerful, effectual by the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

3. "The testimony of the Spirit is more excellent than all reason. For as God alone is a fit witness of Himself in His Word, so also the Word will not find acceptance in men's hearts before it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit." (p.79) Is 59:21; 1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 1:22.

A thought about Pietism & Scripture. Pietism has always been with the church in one form or other. It is mystical Christianity which deposits truth and religion in general in feeling, and personal relationship. To them Scripture is not the final authority, God speaking to them is. There is a sense in which this is true. The Spirit must open human eyes to see Scripture as God’s authority. However, the question is, “what is God’s speech?” Is it experience, reason, or Scripture? It is Scripture. God speaks to us in the church through preaching, but that preaching action has its foundation in Scripture and Scripture has its foundation in the Spirit. Is there an experience in this? Is there some kind of reason involved? Yes. God speaks and teaches us today, in a worship service, in a bible study, and in the sacrament together with the Word. This makes us feel and become wiser! But in this activity is the Spirit using Scripture. The foundation is Christ and Scripture, not our feeling or reason.

4. Many within the church practically destroy the authority of Scripture, by running away from it and running to some so called manifestation of the Spirit. They imagine that there is another way of reaching God, other than the Spirit using Scripture. They "despise all reading and laugh at the simplicity of those who, as they express it, still follow the dead and killing letter" (Pg, 93).

5. "The Spirit, promised to us, does not have the task of inventing new and unheard-of revelations, or of forging a new kind of doctrine, to lead us away from the received doctrine of the gospel, but of sealing our minds with the very doctrine which is commanded by the gospel" (Pg, 94).

6. If new revelations are possible, then the God of Scripture might differ from the god of your revelation. But the unchanging God has given us his Word by His Spirit. “He is the Author of the Scriptures: He cannot vary and differ from Himself. Hence He must ever remain just as He once revealed Himself there. This is no affront to Him, unless perchance we consider it honourable for Him to decline or degenerate from Himself" (Pg, 94).

To this I would add the revelation of Jesus Christ. Scripture’s subject is God’s Son. The triune God will not change from what he revealed of himself in his glory. Scripture will not downgrade God, because it is the story of himself. And this story, the history of God (that is the account of his will and work in our world, or “his story”), is creation and redemption in Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. Scripture testifies to his unchanging work. Scripture itself did not make God, his Son, or his Spirit to happen! Scripture “happened” because the triune God was at work.

7. One thing cannot be separated; it is the Word and Spirit. They belong together. The Spirit's image is recognized in the Word, namely truth.

8. Calvin says, "God did not bring forth His Word among men for the sake of a momentary display, intending at the coming of His Spirit to abolish it. Rather, he sent down the same Spirit by whose power He had given the Word” (Pg. 95).

God is our authority and he gave us the bible…

My study of Calvin’s Institutes continues with chapter 7. The main feature here is the Holy Spirit’s witness to the authority of Scripture in the church and Christian’s life. The Bible will not be authoritative to anyone until “we are persuaded beyond doubt that God is its author. Thus the highest proof of Scripture derives in general from the fact that God in person speaks in it. The prophets and apostles do not boast either of their keenness or of anything that obtains credit fro them as they speak; nor do they dwell upon rational proofs. Rather, they bring forward God’s holy name, that by it the whole world may be brought into obedience to him” (Pg, 78).

I have summarized this chapter under these 7 points.

1. The words of Holy Scripture are authoritative because it is God speaking and commanding. "For it pleased the Lord to hallow His truth to everlasting remembrance in the Scriptures alone [Jn 5:39]." (p.74)

2. It is wrong to practice and believe that "Scripture has only so much weight as is conceded to it by the consent of the church." (p.75) Our faith will be subject to error and superstitions if the authority of the Bible is "dependent solely upon the good pleasure of men." (p.75). God’s Word is our authority because God is its author (WCF I:IV).

3. Does this mean the church gives adds no voice to Scriptures authority. Not all. There is a symbiosis, a living together, a connectionalism which occurs between Scripture and the church in regards to Scriptures authority.

4. Luther in his Lectures on the Psalms said, "The Scripture is the womb from which are born the divine truth and the church" (Pg, 76). The church did not give birth to Scripture, as a matter of fact the inspired words from God given to the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church.

5. Augustine believed that the authority of Scripture does not depend upon the definition or decree of men; or that a man's faith is founded upon the authority of the church. However, along side this he maintained that the truth that the church gives it's seal of approval to the Word. There is the "consensus of the church." This carries weight.


6. But the witness of the Holy Spirit is the great Testifier to the authority of Scripture. God speaks in Scripture by the Holy Spirit. "The testimony of the Spirit is more excellent than all reason. For as God alone is a fit witness of Himself in His Word, so also the Word will not find acceptance in men's hearts before it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit" (p.79). [See Is 59:21; 1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 1:22]

What comes first? The order of revelation.

I was unable to blog last week, but I’m back on track.

My last post on John Calvin’s Institutes covered chapter 5. Before I go on to chapter 6 I would like to give a few comments on the subject and order of revelation.

Due to Calvin’s theology of man’s fall, the revelation of God in nature “burns in vain.” Here is Calvin, “It is therefore in vain that so many burning lamps shine for us in the workmanship of the universe to show forth the glory of its Author. Although they bathe us wholly in their radiance, yet they can of themselves in no way lead us into the right path. Surely, they strike some sparks, but before their fuller light shines forth these are smothered. For this reason, the apostle, in that very passage where he calls the worlds the images of things invisible, adds that through faith we understand that they have been fashioned by God’s word [Heb 11:3]” (Pg, 68).

Notice, only through faith can man see creation’s light. God, in other words, has to open our eyes. “We have not the eyes to see unless they be illumined by the inner revelation of God through faith” (P.68). Notice in the same paragraph that though nature “burns in vain;" nevertheless nature’s revelation does leave man without excuse.

Contrast Calvin here to the 18th century Enlightenment passion for reasonable religion, and you wish that guys like John Locke, H.S. Reimarus, or Joseph Butler, would have read Calvin, or if they did, realize there is more to man’s knowing than reason. Obviously, Calvin believed man cannot know God from reason alone; after all nature's "spark" are smothered by us. Obviously, he like Jean Jacques Rousseau and others like him in the counter-enlightenment movement of later time held that faith is an element of human knowledge. Faith does seek understanding.

But the question is which faith, and who’s faith? Is it faith in any divine being or power? Is that faith a work of man or a gift? Obviously, we, like Calvin are driven to the question of revelation. Which faith? It must be revealed. Who’s faith? If man can’t gain faith through nature, including reason, then it must be given by grace. No matter how you look at it, God’s revelation of himself is the cornerstone and fulcrum to man knowing God.

The leads to a further question, which revelation must come first, God’s revelation in Scripture or God’s revelation in the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. As I said in my last blog, Barth put the Incarnate Word first, and then the Scriptures. Calvin reversed the order. Barth, like Calvin said it cannot be nature because “it must be Christ that we must hear.” But both said this for somewhat different reasons. Calvin said man’s sin blinds him to natural theology. Barth it could be said maintained natural theology blinds men to Jesus. To look to nature is to look to man in his sin, and for Barth this was Nazism.

What will help in this question of the order of revelation? Here are some of my thoughts. God’s chosen means of revealing himself directly to man is not nature, but Jesus. God wants people to look at his Son and see nature (including man) through his eyes. He is the reason for the covenants, the promises, and even the Scriptures. After all only through faith in God as Creator and Redeemer are we renewed can we see nature in it’s proper light; hence Calvin’s call to faith in Jesus.

The Spirit is involved of course, and this is where the Scripture comes in. Calvin, known as the theologian of the Holy Spirit, clearly explains that the Spirit uses the Scripture to reveal Christ. Perhaps this, as well as the 16th century question of authority in the church, is why Calvin put the revelation of Scripture before the revelation of the Incarnate Word. But it is not long begfore Calvin fully focuses on God's revelation in Jesus Christ. Books 2,3, and 4 of his Institutes are actually an exercise in the proper use of Scripture, namely to give the knowledge of Jesus Christ the revelation of God. To Calvin Scripture is not God, but a finger that points to him. To Calvin Jesus is God, and the Spirit’s task through the Scriptures, as well as through preaching, church sacraments, and prayer is to bring us to God. God brings us to God. He comes to us in the Word Christ, in the Word of Scripture, which points to Christ, in the sacraments, preaching, prayer, and church where Christ is present and takes us by the shoulders, and turns us around to look at his Son. This is incidentally, why worship was so important to Calvin.

To conclude, we cannot know God in nature without his grace. We cannot know God unless he reveals himself to us. He has done this in Jesus Christ and the Scriptures. The church needs both! It’s true that the starting point is the revelation of Scripture, but its goal and glory is Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, it is equally true that the starting point is Jesus Christ. He became man and in him, we saw the revelation of the Father full of grace and truth. Scripture would be empty if the church did not start with Christ. Therefore, the staring point is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and he is the goal and glory of the Scriptures.