Calvin's Institutes 4.16.25. to 4.16.30.

INSTITUTES
OF
THE CHRISTIAN
RELIGION
By
John Calvin

BOOK FOURTH.
OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH

CHAPTER 16.
PÆDOBAPTISM. ITS ACCORDANCE WITH THE INSTITUTION OF CHRIST, AND THE NATURE OF THE SIGN.

4.16.25. - 4.16.26.

Calvin continues his defense of infant baptism. His laborious and passionate defense of this sacrament is wearisome but we continue to engage with him. Some, apparently, claim that John 3:5 affords believer's baptism the connection with regeneration. As a baptist I would not draw that conclusion and neither does Calvin. Calvin's take on this passage is to equate it with Matthew 3:11 and say that just as the Spirit is equated with fire in the one, he is equated with water in the other. The water in John 3 does not refer to baptism. I would suggest that the water may even refer to the Word of God. To hold to baptismal regeneration makes baptism the cause of salvation. Calvin is right to oppose that view. Clearly John 5:24 makes it clear that nothing like baptism is the necessary cause of salvation (24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.) Now Calvin is not demeaning baptism for it would form part of the covenantal obligations in his view. He is simply not making it necessary to eternal life.

4.16.27. 4.16.28.

Some will argue with Calvin from Mark 16:16, that reads: "16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned." There, they would suggest is the order: belief and then baptism. You say what Calvin? "There is no ground, therefore, for contending that the law and rule of baptism is to be sought from these ... passages. as containing the first institution . . . The command here given by Christ relates principally to the preaching of the gospel: to it baptism is added as a kind of appendage."

4.16.29. - 4.16.30.

Some argue with Calvin and say that it is wrong to baptize babies because they cannot be admitted to the Communion Table. He answers: "In the early Church indeed, the Lord's Supper was frequently given to infants, as appears from Cyprian and Augustine (August. ad Bonif. Lib. 1); but the practice justly became obsolete. For if we attend to the peculiar nature of baptism, it is a kind of entrance, and as it were initiation into the Church, by which we are ranked among the people of God, a sign of our spiritual regeneration, by which we are again born to be children of God; whereas, on the contrary, the Supper is intended for those of riper years, who, having passed the tender period of infancy, are fit to bear solid food." The call to examine oneself is proof according to Calvin that Communion is for the mature.

Note: Calvin's passionate support of infant baptism is hinged on covenantal theology, itself a system of interpretation. For a godly exegete as Calvin it is sad that he works the texts to support the system. For a good review of paedobaptism from a baptistic position click HERE. We all read Scripture through the lens of our presuppositions. My lens is New Covenant Theology. Study to show thyself approved ...!