Calvin's Institutes 4.14.16. to 4.14.20.

INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
By
John Calvin

BOOK FOURTH.
OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH

CHAPTER 14.
OF THE SACRAMENTS.

4.14.16. - 4.14.17.

The point that Calvin is striving to make is that the sacraments are not efficacious in themselves. The point is that they point to Christ. "Christ is the matter, or, if you rather choose it, the substance of all the sacraments." What if someone partakes in a sacrament and is at the time an unbeliever? Calvin would not diminish the power of the sacrament simply because it is not believed. The fault is not in the sacrament. Quoting Augustine, he writes, "If you receive carnally, it ceases not to be spiritual, but it is not spiritual to you" Regarding sacraments, "they confer nothing, and avail nothing, if not received in faith, just as wine and oil, or any other liquor, however large the quantity which you pour out, will run away and perish unless there be an open vessel to receive it."

4.14.18.

Calvin's term of sacrament includes many visible means that God has used including the Tree of Life to the Noahic rainbow. " And shall the Lord not be able to stamp his creatures with his word, that things which were formerly bare elements may become sacraments? Examples of the second class were given when he showed light to Abraham in the smoking furnace (Gen. 15:17), when he covered the fleece with dew while the ground was dry; and, on the other hand, when the dew covered the ground while the fleece was untouched, to assure Gideon of victory (Judges 6:37); also, when he made the shadow go back ten degrees on the dial, to assure Hezekiah of his recovery (2 Kings 20:9; Isa. 38:7). These things, which were done to assist and establish their faith, were also sacraments."

4.14.19.- 4.14.20.

Admittedly there are more ordinary sacraments that God has chosen to employ in an immediate sense. And to these we can understand that the point of such things (baptism, the Lord's Table, etc.), they are sacraments or ceremonies "by which God is pleased to train his people, first, to excite, cherish, and strengthen faith within; and, secondly, to testify our religion to men." what is the key difference between the sacraments under the Old Covenant and the New? The sacraments of the Old Testament were shadows of a greater fulfillment, namely Christ. As Calvin says, "There is only this difference, that while the former shadowed forth a promised Christ while he was still expected, the latter bear testimony to him as already come and manifested."