The Missing Link (Wild Card)

Wil Reinowski

I am a bit surprised that Lane’s guide to the Institutes glazes over Book 3 Chapter 15, and while it may be true that this does not contain information central to Calvin’s theology this chapter is worth some discussion.

 In section 2, Calvin notes that the word “merit” is not Biblically-based. Here, we have another of Calvin’s contradictions. Calvin does find that the term was used in ancient church writings, that God assigns some value to our works, but we should never see our works  as a type of Divine currency.

Section 3 is a discussion of grace. Calvin asserts that nothing that we do is meritorious enough to receive the gift of grace that God gives, and yet God bestows grace on us. Calvin says in the first sentence of this section, “Scripture shows what all our works deserve when it states that they cannot bear God’s gaze because they are full of uncleanness.” Humans cannot perfectly follow the law, but God bestows his good works on us anyway and calls them “ours.”

Wild Card 14-16: Calvin, Modern skepticism and Big-time Doubt

           I was particularly captivated by Lane Chapter 15 on Saving Faith, so most of my Wild Card discussion pertains to this section of the book. As I dove into reading this, I thought about the sixteenth-century reader who undoubtedly has ideas about faith and at least if atheism did exist, it was a rare and distant idea.  What struck me was how readily Calvin identified doubt but how much confidence he placed into faith and that God’s “promise of grace” can be a place where the “heart of man can rest.” (3.1.7)  He defined faith then as “a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed, to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy spirit.”  (3.1.7)  While Calvin continues to counter the other definitions or ideas regarding faith, he nevertheless is living in an age of faith where truth is still embodied in faith, even if theologians disagreed as to the nature of that faith. But, what about the modern age when truth, for many, is not necessarily defined by faith but perhaps by unbelief.  How does a modern reader understand Calvin in this context?  And how might we as pastors help the modern non-believer find truth in faith? 

            Calvin does treat those lacking belief briefly in his Institutes, but he looks at them as the non-believers and really keeps them out of his discussion other than to note that they are “no better than the devils” and even more “they stupidly listen to and understand things the knowledge of which makes even the devils shudder.” (3.1.10) While in the sixteenth-century it is perhaps easy to write them off, what about the wide-acceptance of unbelief as the cornerstone of truth?  In a way, it seems as if Calvin would have us write-off these people as hopeless and unnecessary for the church, yet as unbelief becomes the basis for truth in the modern world will the church die? (Stanley Hauerwas might have us think so)  In the sixteenth-century, this was such a small group of people that the theologians could write them off, but it was still an age of faith.  What about today when non-belief is an accepted societal truth? Or in other words, there is a visible atheist presence.   While I do believe that “faith will ultimately triumph over those difficulties which besiege and seem to imperil it,”  (3.2.18), I think it is harder to find faith to those not introduced to the church or to those confident in modern rationalism.  As Calvin notes our own “ignorance is an obstacle and a hindrance” to faith, and if people aren’t experiencing the “hope of the faithful, their ignorance will stifle them.”  So, Calvin can't account for those who today who live growing non-Christian reality, but certainly their "ignorance" is a disheartening commentary  on  the modern world.   (Perhaps this is our very urgent call friends).  

           This question arises from my discussion:  How do we as heirs of Calvin help the modern non-believer find truth in faith and not lose heart in their disbelief?   This is prompted by two experiences of my own in response to my own doubt.  1.  From a Methodist minister and college chaplain:  “You can pretend you believe and still enjoy the community of the church.  I actually don’t believe any of it myself.”  Or 2.  (Presbyterian minister) “If you doubt, then you aren’t saved by God, so don’t doubt.”

Christy Dempsey

15. Saving Faith

Sharon Rees

What is faith?

Calvin writes a beautiful Trinitarian definition of faith in the Institutes - "A firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit." (2.2.7) Father to Son to Holy Spirit to us. Calvin uses many images to describe how the Holy Spirit links us to faith. The Holy Spirit is like secret water that cleanses, a schoolteacher who brings Jesus' lessons to our minds, and an engraver with a seal for our hearts (2.1.1-2).

What is faith's object, and on what is faith based?

Just as the Holy Spirit and faith are inseparable, so, too, is the Word and faith. In Chapter 2, Section 6, Calvin explains that God gave us the Word in order to learn of God's will toward us. Calvin does not rein faith in so tightly as to be bound only to the Word, but without the Word, faith will surely fail. Calvin takes pains to emphasize that reading the Word must come from a conviction of its truth, and must go deeper than top-of-the-head knowledge that God exists.

Despite Calvin's propensity for describing the difficulties that face Christians, he has an incredibly light message regarding the way in which to seek God in faith through the Word. He advises against passages such as dashing babies against rocks, and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those verses should be unpacked at a later point in the faith journey. Instead, we should concentrate on God's grace, benevolence, and mercy in the Bible.  God wants us to find and dwell in Christ.