Calvin's Theology and Its Reception

Disputes, Developments, and New Possibilities

J. Todd Billings, I. John Hesselink

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781611642001
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

J. Todd Billings and I. John Hesselink have compiled an essential collection of essays for the study of John Calvin's theology. Leading Calvin scholars examine the early and late reception-history of Calvin's fundamental teachings, including reflections on the contemporary possibilities and limitations in developing Calvin's thought.

Contributors include Timothy Hessel-Robinson, Michael S. Horton, Mark Husbands, David Little, Suzanne McDonald, Jeannine E. Olson, Sue A. Rozeboom, and Carl R. Trueman.

SECTION 1
CALVIN’S THEOLOGY
OF SCRIPTURE
AND REVELATION,
AND ITS RECEPTION

Chapter 1

The Revelation of God in Creation and Scripture

Calvin’s Theology and Its Early Reception

I. JOHN HESSELINK

In this chapter, I first discuss Calvin’s understanding of revelation, broadly conceived. Then I turn to its early reception, examining the Reformed confessions of the latter half of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition, I examine the reception of Calvin’s thought on the revelation of God in creation and Scripture in John Owen and Thomas Watson as seventeenth-century Puritan theologians and Francis Turretin as a prominent Reformed Orthodox theologian.

PART I—CALVIN ON THE REVELATION OF GOD IN CREATION AND SCRIPTURE

Introduction
I. God’s Revelation in Creation

When the topic of revelation is discussed, the normal approach is to turn immediately to the Bible since this is “our only rule of faith and practice.”¹ In the case of Calvin, however, this is to ignore the special place he gives to God’s revelation in creation. No other reformer exulted in the beauties and wonders of the creation as much as Calvin.² Peter Wyatt may overstate the case, but he expresses an important truth when he says, “If Spinoza has been called ‘the God-intoxicated philosopher,’ then Calvin surely must be “the creationintoxicated theologian.”³

For Luther, by way of contrast, “God preserves his holiness and inviolability in creation by veiling himself as the hidden God.”⁴ Luther is so afraid of a theology of glory⁵ that he believes “the knowledge of God from his works and knowledge of God from his sufferings are opposed to each other.”⁶ Calvin simply does not think in these terms.⁷ As we shall see shortly, for Calvin the creation is an evident manifestation of God’s glory, particularly to believers. For unbelievers, however, this general revelation only results in idolatry and renders them inexcusable. Calvin argues in this way not only in the Institutes and in his commentary on Romans 1:18–23, but also in his exposition of the second part of Psalm 19 where David declares in verse 7 that “the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” Calvin comments: “While the heavens bear witness to God, their testimony does not lead men so far that they thereby learn well true godliness.” It only serves to render them inexcusable. The problem is that by nature we are so “dull and stupid” that “the signatures and proofs of Deity which are to be found in the theatre of the world” are not sufficient to move us to acknowledge and revere God. “Without the aid of the Word” and the “special grace,” which God gives to those whom he “calls to salvation,” we are blind even though “we are surrounded by so clear a light.”⁸

Calvin wrote these lines toward the end of his career (1557). The argument that the knowledge of God in creation only leaves the natural man without excuse was already taken up in the second (1539) edition of the Institutes. In book 1, chapters 3 and 4, Calvin states that there is “an awareness of divinity” (Divinitatis sensum) and “a seed of religion” (semen religionis) in all human beings.⁹ Following the Apostle Paul’s line of reasoning in Romans 1:18–25, Calvin concludes that although this vague knowledge of God cannot be effaced, it leads to idolatry and leaves them without excuse.¹⁰

When Calvin comes to God’s revelation in creation in chapter 5, the result is much the same. Here too he extols the majesty and beauty of the created order. “Wherever you cast your eyes,” he exclaims, “there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of God’s glory.” Alluding to Hebrews 11:3, he adds that “this skillful ordering of the universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible.”¹¹ Even “the most untutored and ignorant persons see more than enough of God’s workmanship in his creation to lead them to break forth in admiration of the Artificer [Creator].”¹²

However, despite this “dazzling theater” of God’s glory,¹³ “scarcely one man in a hundred is a true spectator of it!”¹⁴ Even worse, “Although the Lord represents both himself and his everlasting Kingdom in the mirror of his works with very great clarity, such is our stupidity that we grow increasingly dull toward so clear testimonies and they flow away without profiting us.”¹⁵

This is why we need God’s special revelation in Scripture if we are to read the creation aright, not to mention God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. Here Calvin uses his famous image of spectacles. For it is only “with the aid of the spectacles” of Scripture that our “confused knowledge of God” is cleared away.¹⁶ The reformer makes the same point in the preface (Argumentum) to his Genesis commentary. The world is “a mirror in which we ought to behold God,” but our eyes are not “sufficiently clear-sighted to discern what the fabric of heaven and earth represents, or that the knowledge to be hence attained is sufficient for salvation.” The net effect is that we are rendered inexcusable. But with “Scripture as our guide and teacher, God not only makes plain those things which otherwise escape our notice, but almost compels us to behold them, as if he had assisted our dull sight with spectacles.”¹⁷

Not only that, but in order to understand aright and appreciate God’s revelation in the creation, we must begin with Christ as revealed in the Gospels. This whole matter is summarized eloquently in another passage in the preface to his Genesis commentary. After citing 1 Corinthians 1:21, he writes,

For the apostle thus intimates that God is sought in vain under the guidance of visible things; and that nothing remains for us but to betake ourselves immediately to Christ; and that we must not therefore begin with the elements of this world but with the Gospel, which sets Christ alone before us with his cross….¹⁸ Nothing shall we find, I say, above or below, which can raise us up to God until Christ shall have instructed us in his own school.¹⁹

Does this mean that the revelation in creation is of no value except to point to our ingratitude and render us inexcusable? That is only true of the unregenerate and those who are blind in their sin. For the believer who views the created order with the eyes of Scripture, the creation is another source of revelation; for in considering the heavens and the earth—and God’s handiwork in the creation of humanity—“we may seek confirmation in the true knowledge of God.”²⁰

Note in the following passage—again from the Genesis Argumentum—how the revelation in Jesus Christ is not antithetical to that in creation but is another aspect of it

For Christ is that image in which God makes visible to us not only his heart (pectus) but also his hands and feet. I call his heart that secret love by which he lovingly embraces us in Christ; by his hands and feet I understand those works of his which are displayed before our eyes.²¹

For in the world “we have a clear image of God.”²² As we read in Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God…,” Calvin comments

In the whole architecture of his world God has given us clear evidence (luculentum testimonium) of his eternal wisdom, goodness, and power, and though he is invisible in himself he shows himself to us in some measure [quodammodo] in his works. The world is rightly called the mirror of divinity….²³

As David Steinmetz concludes his essay on “Calvin and the Natural Knowledge of God,” for Calvin, “In spite of the human fall into sin the created order continues to function as a theater of God’s glory.”²⁴

Thus, it is quite apparent that God’s revelation in creation is a significant second source of revelation. “The majesty of God is in itself incomprehensible to us, but he makes himself known by his works and by his Word” (emphasis mine).²⁵ In and of itself the revelation through God’s works does not lead to a saving knowledge of God in Christ, but it complements that special revelation and adds an element not to be found in the written Word. The beauty of creation should be a constant source of wonder and praise on the part of God’s children.²⁶ But the Word—or one might add, faith—is essential to that praise and wonder. “We must come,” Calvin says elsewhere, “to the Word, where God is truly and vividly described to us from his works, while these very works are appraised not by our depraved judgment but by the rule of eternal truth.”²⁷

II. The Inspiration of Scripture

Calvin’s discussion of the inspiration of Scripture does not come until he deals with the church in book 4, chapter 8, of the Institutes. The discussion occurs in several places where Calvin is engaged in a polemic against certain errors of the Roman Catholic Church. It is in this context that Calvin comes the closest to a formal doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture.

Calvin, like all the reformers, had a high view of Scripture, and, like them, believed the Scriptures to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.²⁸ Hence to the Reformation slogan, sola scriptura, might well be added ex spiritu sancto. The authority of Scripture as well cannot be divorced from its inspiration. In both cases the Holy Spirit plays a crucial role.

Almost every discussion of Calvin’s view of the inspiration of Scripture eventually comes to the question as to whether he believed in the verbal inspiration of Scripture. There is considerable evidence that indicates that Calvin does believe in verbal inspiration. For example, he frequently speaks of God having dictated his...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Section 1: Calvin’s Theology of Scripture and Revelation, and Its Reception
• 1. The Revelation of God in Creation and Scripture: Calvin’s Theology and Its Early Reception
• 2. Calvin on the Revelation of God in Creation and Scripture: Modern Reception and Contemporary Possibilities
• Section 2: Calvin’s Theology of Union with Christ and Its Reception
• 3. Union with Christ and the Double Grace: Calvin’s Theology and Its Early Reception
• 4. Calvin’s Theology of Union with Christ and the Double Grace: Modern Reception and Contemporary Possibilities
• Section 3: Calvin’s Theology of Election and Its Reception
• 5. Election: Calvin’s Theology and Its Early Reception
• 6. Calvin’s Theology of Election: Modern Reception and Contemporary Possibilities
• Section 4: Calvin’s Theology of the Lord’s Supper and Its Reception
• 7. Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper: Calvin’s Theology and Its Early Reception
• 8. Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper: Modern Reception and Contemporary Possibilities
• Section 5: Calvin’s Theology of Church and Society, and Its Reception
• 9. Church and Society: Calvin’s Theology and Its Early Reception
• 10. Calvin’s Theology of Church and Society: Modern Reception and Contemporary Possibilities
• List of Contributors
• Index
• footnotes