Calvin: Institutes Chapters 3.11.5. to 3.11.8.

INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

By
John Calvin

BOOK THIRD.
THE MODE OF OBTAINING THE GRACE OF CHRIST. THE
BENEFITS IT CONFERS, AND THE
EFFECTS RESULTING FROM IT.

CHAPTER 11. OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. BOTH THE NAME AND THE REALITY DEFINED.

3.11.5.

In this section Calvin refutes one called Osiander (The Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander (1498-1565) is largely forgotten now (he is best remembered, in fact, for being the author of the anonymous preface to Copernicus' De Revolutionibus Orbium Caelestium.) But he is also immortalised in the Institutes. Calvin was upset by his confusions over justification), who proffered a position called: essential righteousness. In this false notion “he had formed some idea akin to that of the Manichees, desiring to transfuse the divine essence into men.” Rather than resting in the Scriptural reality that we are counted (imputed) righteous on account of Christ, Osiander “maintains that we are substantially righteous in God by an infused essence as well as quality.” Thus we have the essential distinction between impartation and imputation. This is the great divide between Protestantism and Catholicism.

3.11.6.

Calvin continues to deconstruct Osiander's notion of justification. It appears that his false idea is premised on the basis that justification is primarily union with Christ but is not actual in our case. Presumably this "impartation" has to be worked out. But Calvin rightly notes that "justification and sanctification, which we perceive to be united together in him, are inseparable. Whomsoever, therefore, God receives into his favor, he presents with the Spirit of adoption, whose agency forms them anew into his image." It is one work in distinct manners.

We must not confuse justification and sanctification; but we must not separate them. We know this "because those whom God freely regards as righteous, he in fact renews to the cultivation of righteousness."

For Osiander, Christ's righteousness is literally the believer's, it becomes one of his properties. 'Christ's essence is mixed with our own", as Calvin puts it, and there are a number of reasons why this is unacceptable. As regards justification, it is a double error. Not only is it a confusion over how Christ's righteousness becomes the believer's, but it shows misunderstanding about the nature of the believer's union with Christ, which is a bond established by the Spirit, not a merging as envisaged by Osiander.

3.11.7

Calvin then engages in the debate in regard to the relationship between faith and justification. "Faith, which is only the instrument for receiving justification, is ignorantly confounded with Christ, who is the material cause, as well as the author and minister of this great blessing."

For Calvin justification and sanctification are distinct but inseparable. But both become ours through the Spirit, as we are united to Christ. In merging Christ with the believer Osiander also confounds justification and sanctification: a serious blunder. However, there is one point of agreement - faith itself does not justify, it is for Calvin (merely) 'a kind of vessel', the 'instrumental cause' of justification.

3.11.8.

Osiander seems to take a foolish position about justification assuming somehow that it was not Christ righteousness that saves but God's. "We, indeed, do not divide Christ, but hold that he who, reconciling us to God in his flesh, bestowed righteousness upon us, is the eternal Word of God; and that he could not perform the office of Mediator, nor acquire righteousness for us, if he were not the eternal God."

Calvin goes on to rightly say, "Hence I infer, first, that Christ was made righteousness when he assumed the form of a servant; secondly, that he justified us by his obedience to the Father; and, accordingly that he does not perform this for us in respect of his divine nature, but according to the nature of the dispensation laid upon him."

Question to Consider

1. What is the basis our justification that does not work with the divine nature alone?