Book 3 - Chapter 2 (Parts 1-4)
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FAITH: ITS DEFINITION SET FORTH, AND ITS PROPERTIES EXPLAINED
Part 1
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In this chapter Calvin begins to more clearly define faith. As we shall see, this matters to Calvin because faith in Jesus Christ is what saves.
Summary: Calvin begins by pointing out that restoring a right relationship to God is only possible through Christ. This is so because no one can live a perfect enough life to “earn” their way into God’s heart. It is only through “…the appearance of Christ the Redeemer, through whose hand the Heavenly Father…out of his infinite goodness and mercy, willed to help us...” that we will be able once again to live intimately with God. What we are called on to do then is to, “…embrace this mercy and rest in it with steadfast hope,” which is something that can only be done through faith (pg. 543). Thus it is important for us “…to examine what this faith ought to be like, through which those adopted by God as his children come to possess the Heavenly Kingdom…” (pg. 543). Faith, for Calvin, is more than a generic belief in God. It has to have as its object Jesus Christ. This is so because, “For God would have remained hidden far off if Christ’s splendor had not beamed upon us” (pg. 544). This means that it is in Christ that we see God fully, or as Calvin puts it, Christ expressed “…the true image of God” (pg. 544). In a sense faith needs to know both its destination (God) and its way to it (Christ). And this knowledge is a personal knowledge, not one simply transmitted by the church. “We do not obtain salvation either because we are prepared to embrace as true whatever the church has prescribed, or because we turn over to it the task of inquiring and knowing. (pg. 545). Instead salvation is obtained by our own personal recognition of “…the divine goodness upon which our righteousness rests” (meaning what Christ has accomplished for us) (pg. 545). While faith must be based on the knowledge of Christ, Calvin admits that no one can have perfect knowledge and perfect faith. Even so he insists that we should not stop trying to learn, but “…go forward and, quietly and humbly, to still strive further” (pg. 546). Calvin even admits that “…the best teachers should be ready to learn” (546). This willingness to strive further is what allows “…the seed of hidden faith-which had been dead, as it were…(to) burst through with renewed vigor” (pg. 547). This knowledge of Jesus comes to us, Calvin argues, from “God’s Word” which is another way of saying the New Testament, or the gospel. Though the Old Testament teaches people about God, it is only through the gospel that people see Jesus for who he is and thus see the fullness of God. Calvin reiterates here that it is through the Word of God, the gospel, and not through church traditions that our faith is fully formed. Even so, knowledge alone is inadequate for the completion of our faith. The knowledge of Jesus as savior must also be made effective within us; it must be made to come alive in us by the Spirit if it is to be of any real use. Calvin writes, “Therefore our mind must be otherwise illuminated and our heart strengthened, that the Word of God may obtain full faith among us. Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise of Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (pg. 551). Reflections: Presbyterians have always believed in all members having Biblical knowledge. For this reason, we championed public education and founded Presbyterian colleges and Universities. We understood that faith without a Biblical foundation could easily lead people not only to wrong belief, but wrong action. This is also why our preaching is Biblically focused, so that all of us can grow in knowledge and through that knowledge, in faith. Questions:
Part 2
In this chapter Calvin begins to more clearly define faith. As we shall see, this matters to Calvin because faith in Jesus Christ is what saves.
Summary: In the last lesson, on the first part of Chapter 2, Calvin makes it clear that faith has content (knowledge of Jesu Christ), which we receive through the New Testament (Gospel), which is made alive in us through the Holy Spirit. In the second part of this chapter he continues to expand on his understanding of faith in several different ways. First, Calvin reminds his readers that true faith is more than a mental assent to the reality of God and the work of Jesus. Faith, even while having content, is also a matter of the heart. He quotes the Apostle Paul, “With the heart a person believes unto righteousness” (pg. 552), meaning that faith is more than agreeing to a set of beliefs and doctrines. It “…is more of the heart than of the brain” (pg. 552). Second, Calvin believes that all faith is dependent on God. It is a gift of God. This gift of faith, according to Calvin, can be given for a moment or for a lifetime. For many people this is one of the more disturbing parts of Calvin’s doctrine of “election”; meaning that God elects some to have forever faith, some to have temporary faith, and some to have no faith at all. This is Calvin’s way of explaining why some people believe for a lifetime, others believe for a short time and still others never believe at all. At the same time Calvin warns believers that they should be careful to remember that their faith is a gift and so they ought to remain humble “…lest the confidence of the flesh creep in and replace the assurance of faith” (pg. 555). Third, Calvin speaks of faith as knowledge. Even so he makes clear that the kind of knowledge he refers to is not the “comprehension of the sort that is commonly concerned with those things which fall under human sense perception” (pg. 559). Instead faith allows us to comprehend “the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (pg. 559). What this means for Calvin is that faith as acknowledged by us is focused on the assurance of God’s love for us, rather than on information about God. “From this we conclude that the knowledge of faith consists in assurance rather than in comprehension” (pg. 560). Fourth, Calvin writes that faith implies certainty. “For faith is not concerned with a doubtful and changeable opinion, so it is not content with an obscure and confused conception; but requires full and fixed certainty, such as men will have from things experienced and proved…surely, as often as God commends his word to us…he has no other intention than to uproot…doubts from our hearts” (pg. 560-561). Our part in this certainty is that we are to “embrace” the promises of God’s mercy and love toward us. This embrace according to Calvin is what gives us peace. Fifth, faith will always win out over doubt. Faith, because it is a gift made real in us by the Spirit, will, even when it is plagued by doubt, never leave us. “For even if we are distracted by various thoughts (doubts), we are not on that account completely divorced from faith…for the end of the conflict is always this: that faith ultimately triumphs over those difficulties which besiege and seem to imperil it” (pg. 564). Sixth, faith is a work in progress. “When even the least drop of faith is instilled in our minds, we begin to contemplate God’s face, peaceful and calm and gracious toward us…then the more we advance…the nearer and thus surer sight of him we obtain” (pg. 565). Reflections: People define faith in many ways. I have listened to people say that the only true faith is that which is felt, that which has content, that which leads to action and among many other things. In some ways, they were all right. But they were all wrong when they declared that their experience of faith was the only one. Faith, as Calvin explains, is a relationship with God in Jesus Christ that takes hold of every part of our lives; mind, heart, will and spirit. Questions:
Part 3
In this chapter Calvin begins to more clearly define faith. As we shall see, this matters to Calvin because faith in Jesus Christ is what saves.
Summary: In the last two lessons on Chapter 2, Calvin makes it clear that faith has content (knowledge of Jesus Christ), which we receive through the New Testament (Gospel), which is made alive in us through the Holy Spirit and that there are different aspects of faith. In this lesson we continue our examination of faith. Calvin begins with an eloquent description of the struggle of faith. “…the Godly heart feels in itself a division because it is partly imbued with sweetness from its recognition of the divine goodness; partly grieves in bitterness from the awareness of its calamity (God’s judgment); partly rests upon the promises of the gospel; partly trembles at the evidence of its iniquity (sin); partly rejoices at the expectation of life, partly shudders at death” (pg. 564). Calvin clearly understands that as human beings we are not capable of perfect faith. We will always have doubts. Even so, he tells us that “…faith ultimately triumphs over those difficulties which besiege and seem to imperil it” (pg. 564). And that “…the godly mind, however strange the ways in which it is vexed and troubled, finally surmounts all difficulties, and never allows itself to be deprived of assurance of divine mercy” (pg. 566). The most doubt can do, Calvin says, is to harass and wound, but cannot penetrate deep inside because faith is our shield. The discussion of faith continues with Calvin’s examination of what it means to “fear the Lord.” Just as with election (God only chooses some to have faith), the concept of fearing God is one that seems, to many of us, to be a relic of the past. In other words, how can we understand ourselves loved by God and at the same time fearful of God. Calvin offers several insights. First, fear is not meant to deprive us of the “full assurance of God’s mercy” (pg. 568). Second, fear is also reverence. The reverence we experience “whenever we come into the presence of God’s majesty…” (pg. 569). Third, fear is meant to makes us cautious in our moral choices, because there are consequences for inappropriate behavior. At this point, Calvin offers us several reasons why our faith, even mingled with fear and reverence, will not fail us. First, it will not fail us because we have been made one with Christ. “For we await salvation from him not because he appears to us afar off, but because he makes us, engrafted into his body, participants not only in all his benefits but also in himself…Christ is not outside of us but dwells within us” (pg. 570). Second, it will not fail us because it is based on a promise of God. “Nevertheless, faith properly begins with the promise (of God’s mercy), rests in it, and ends in it. For in God, faith seeks life; a life not found in the commandments or…penalties, but in the promise of mercy, and only in a freely given promise” (pg. 575). Third, faith will not fail because we can find God’s grace laid out for us in scripture. Fourth, faith will not fail us because it is based on “…the testimony of God’s love for us (meaning in what Jesus has done)” (pg. 579). Finally, faith will not fail because it is a gift of the Spirit. In fact, faith is “a manifestation of God’s power” (pg. 583). As Calvin ends this section on the perseverance of faith, he takes on those who see our salvation as being questionable even when faith is present (pg. 587). He does so by quoting the Apostle Paul from Romans 8. “I am surely convinced that neither angels, nor powers, nor principalities, nor death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come…will separate us from the love by which the Lord embraces us in Christ.” And “For there he (Paul) is discussing those benefits which come to all believers in common from faith…” (pg. 587). Thus we all ought to live with the joy of knowing God’s love for us never ends. Reflections: One of my great memories of childhood was watching the very first spacewalk, and then building a model of that event. It was an amazing thing to watch as a human being, attached only by an umbilical cord, hovered out in space. That image is one that always comes to mind when I think of this part of Calvin’s work; that the Spirit is our umbilical cord that keeps us attached to God even when we drift off. It is our assurance that God will never let us go. Questions:
Part 4
In the last three lessons, all on Chapter 2, Calvin makes it clear that faith has content (knowledge of Jesus Christ), which we receive through the New Testament (Gospel), which is made alive in us through the Holy Spirit, that there are different aspects of faith and that God will not allow our faith to fail. In this lesson, we continue our examination of faith, by looking at the relationship between faith, hope and love. In this chapter Calvin begins to more clearly define faith. As we shall see, this matters to Calvin because faith in Jesus Christ is what saves.
Summary: Calvin wants to make clear that faith is the foundation for both hope and love. He uses Hebrews 11 to defend this view “Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the indication of things not appearing” (pg. 588). Thus for Calvin, it is faith that is the foundation for everything; it is the “substance” of all that God has done for us. This is so because, “…the things pertaining to our salvation are too high to be perceived by our senses, or seen by our eyes, or handled by our hands; and that…we do not possess these things in any other way…” than through faith (pg. 588). Thus faith allows us to see the content of God’s work for which we hope and becomes the foundation of the love for which we yearn. Faith offers us then, “…a sure possession of those things which God has promised us” (pg. 588). Even so, Calvin wants us to see that faith needs hope as surely as hope is dependent upon faith. “Accordingly, in brief, hope is nothing else than the expectation of those things which faith has believed to have been truly promised by God (grace, salvation, etc.). Thus, faith believes God to be true, hope awaits the time when his truth shall be manifested; faith believes that he is our Father, hope anticipates that he will ever show himself to be a Father toward us; faith believes that eternal life has been given to us, hope anticipates that it will sometime be revealed; faith is the foundation upon which hope rests, hope nourishes and sustains faith” (pg. 590). He will go on to say that hope strengthens, refreshes and sustains faith that it might not fail. In terms of love, Calvin believes that it is faith that allows us to experience God’s love just as faith gives birth to hope. He writes, “…for it is faith alone that first engenders love in us” (pg. 589). This love is created by faith because we believe that we are loved by God such that we are forgiven, empowered to do good, and are given eternal life, all as free gifts. We are not given them because we have merited them by being good people. But we are given them because God freely loves us and so we are drawn into loving God in return. Calvin spends so much time writing about faith because it was critical to his argument that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works. The medieval Roman Catholic Church argued that salvation came only through “merit” earned by good works; mainly meaning participation in the sacraments and/or the purchasing of indulgences (sort of get out of purgatory for a fee cards). Thus, if people were to take hold of Calvin’s belief in the power of faith they needed to know what faith was and how faith operated. Reflections: I am not sure how many weddings I have done in my ministry career, but at most of them I read the great passage on love, in 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul writes, “Now faith, hope, love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.” It is this love, this love that God has for us that allows our faith to grow and respond to God’s love. In a sense this is all of God. it is God who creates faith, who gives us hope and who showers us with love. They are all gifts for us to enjoy. Questions:
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