Good Works and John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Book III, Chapters 14.19-21, 18

Overview of the Institutes Book 1: Knowledge of God the Creator Book 2: Knowledge of God the Redeemer Book 3: Ways in which we receive the grace of Christ: What benefits come to us from it, and what effects follow (includes: faith, regeneration, repentance, justification,, Christian freedom, etc.) Book 4: External means or aids by which God invites us into the society of Christ and holds us therein

The : Application of Christ’s Work Book III, the way in which we receive the grace of Christ, what benefits come to us from it, and what effects follow. He begins with the Spirit as the one who binds us to Christ.

Centrality of Justification Calvin must battle Roman Catholicism, we still have this same battle with good works and faith alone…Calvin calls it the “main hinge on which religion turns” it is to the Reformers’ credit that they did not get hung up on indulgences, purgatory, or the corruptions in the Catholic . Those are minor compared with the topic, which is, how a person is saved.

There is a significant treatment of justification in the Institutes. It covers nine chapters. There is more space given to justification by faith in the first three books than any other topic, except for the doctrine of the Christian life.

Justification and Good Works Justification frees us from the necessity of obeying the Law for salvation. It does not free us from the necessity of obeying the Law, but it does free us from the necessity of obeying the Law for salvation. We cannot do that anyway, so it is our only hope. , regeneration, or newness of life, enables us to obey the Law as justified people.

When we talk about justification and sanctification, we should not separate them, but at the same time it is essential not to confuse them.

Our works as a basis for God’s approval Osiander, a Lutheran (whom Luther would have rejected) claimed that a person could not be justified merely because God declared him justified, without some kind of change happening in that person. Osiander said that God cannot regard as just those who are unjust. He said it is both improper and impossible for God to simply declare a sinner

1 justified. He said that something must happen in a sinner to enable God to speak of that sinner as justified.

Calvin follows Luther in his rebuttal emphasizing the importance of the imputation of Christ’s or “alien righteousness”.

We fail to realize how worthless (even offensive) our best works truly are From section 19: Works as fruits of the call “For if they begin to judge it [God’s goodness] by good works, nothing will be more uncertain or more feeble; for indeed, if works be judged of themselves, by their imperfection they will no less declare God’s wrath than by their incomplete purity they testify to his benevolence.” 786

20. Works are God’s gift and cannot become the foundation of self-confidence for believers Augustine says, “I do not say to the Lord, ‘Despise not the works of my hands.’ [Ps. 138:8; cf. Ps. 137:8, Vg.] ‘I have sought the Lord with my hands and am not deceived.’ [Ps. 77:2; cf. Ps. 76:3, Vg.] But I do not commend the works of my hands, for I fear lest, when Thou lookest upon them, thou mayest find more sins then merits. This only I say, this I ask, this I desire: despise not the works of thy hands; see in me thy work, not mine. For if thou seest mine, thou wilt condemn it. If thou seest thine own, thou wilt crown it. For whatever good works are mine are from thee.” 786-7

Righteousness and unrighteousness are not comparable with each other by the same rule. “…it is apparent that righteousness does not come about from one or a few works but from an unwavering and unwearying observance of the divine will. But very different is the rule for judging unrighteousness. For a fornicator or thief is by one offense guilty of death because he has offended against God’s majesty.” 833

“you would be a foolish reasoned if you concluded, on the contrary, that man can be reconciled to God by a single good work when by his many sins he deserves God’s wrath.” 833

Wages of sin death; grace of the Lord, eternal life Rom 6:23 “Why does he not contrast righteousness with sin, as he contrasts life with death? Why does he not make righteousness the cause of life, as he does sin that of death?...But the apostle intended by this comparison to express what was true: namely, that death is owing to men’s deserts but life rests solely upon God’s mercy.” 787-8

Sense in which good works are sometimes spoken of as a reason for divine benefits “the efficient cause of our salvation consists in God the Father’s love; the material cause in God the Son’s obedience; the instrumental cause in the Spirit’s illumination,

2 that is, faith; the final cause, in the glory of God’s great generosity. These do not prevent the Lord from embracing works as inferior causes.” 787

Chapter 18, Works Righteousness is wrongly inferred from reward (Passages referring to reward do not make works the cause of salvation, 1-4) 1. What does ‘recompense according to works’ mean? • Matthew 16:27 “…he will repay each person according to what he has done.” • 2 Corinthians 5:10 “everyone will receive the things done in his body…whether…good or bad” • Romans 2:10 “Glory and honor…to the doer of good; hardship and tribulation upon every evildoer’s soul” • John 5:29 “They who have done good shall come forth into the resurrection of life; they who have done ill, into the resurrection of judgment.

“it is by these stages of his mercy that the Lord completes our salvation when ‘he calls those chosen to himself; those called he justifies; those justified he glorifies. That is to say, he receives his own into life by his mercy alone. Yet, since he leads them into possession of it through the race of good works in order to fulfill his own work in them according to the order that he has laid down, it is no wonder if they are said to be crowned according to their own works, by which they are doubtless prepared to receive the crown of immortality.” 821

Reward as ‘inheritance’ “the Kingdom of Heaven is not servants’ wages but sons’ inheritance [Eph. 1:18], which only they who have been adopted as sons by the Lord shall enjoy.” 822

“by expressly terming it an ‘inheritance’ he is showing that it comes to us from another source…We see how, as it were, in prescribed terms, they carefully warn us not to credit everlasting blessedness to works but to our adoption by God.” 822

Example of Abraham: “Here, surely, we have shown without ambiguity that the Lord rewards the works of believers with the same benefits as he had given them before they contemplated any works, as he does not yet have any reason to benefit them except his own mercy.” 823

“He will that we be trained through good works to meditate upon the presentation or fruition, so to speak, of those things which he has promised, and to hasten through them to seek the blessed hope held out to us in heaven.” 823

On treasures in heaven “after they have learned that this life will soon vanish like a dream, they transfer the things they want truly to enjoy to a place where they will have life unceasing.” 827

“We ought, then, to imitate what people do who determine to migrate to another place, where they have chosen a lasting abode. They send before them all their

3 resources and do not grieve over lacking them for a time, for they deem themselves the happier the more goods they have where they will be for a long time.” 827

How shall we transmit them? Surely, by providing for the needs of the poor; whatever is paid out to them, the Lord reckons as given to himself.

Matthew 19:17 Jesus answers the lawyer who asks him what is needed for salvation, ‘If you would enter into life, keep the commandments’ [Matt. 19:17].

“he is rightly sent back to the law wherein there is a perfect mirror of righteousness.” 831

“Only, therefore, when they distinguish how great is the difference between their life and divine righteousness that consists in accepting the law are they made aware that, in order to recover salvation, their refuge is in Christ.” 831

“…in order that he may learn he is a sinner, subject to the dreadful judgment of eternal death, so elsewhere he comforts with the promise of grace without any mention of the law others who have already been humbled by this sort of knowledge: “Come to me all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you…you will find rest for your souls” [Matt. 11:28-29]

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