Institutes of the Christian Religion

by John Calvin

and that hence, in order to be partakers with him, we must renounce the

For the Father has given all power to the Son, that by his hand he may govern, cherish, sustain us, keep us under his guardianship, and give assistance to us.

For as he unites the offices of King and Pastor towards believers, who voluntarily submit to him, so, on the other hand, we are told that he wields an iron sceptre to break and bruise all the rebellious like a potter's vessel,

Christ now bears the office of priest, not only that by the eternal law of reconciliation he may render the Father favourable and propitious to us,

In short, since our mind cannot lay hold of life through the mercy of God with sufficient eagerness, or receive it with becoming gratitude, unless previously impressed with fear of the Divine anger, and dismayed at the thought of eternal death, we are so instructed by divine truth,

For God, who is perfect righteousness, cannot love the iniquity which he sees in all.

All of us, therefore, have that within which deserves the hatred of God.

all of us have sin living within that deserves the hatred of God

But as the Lord wills not to destroy in us that which is his own, he still finds something in us which in kindness he can love.

God finds his image in us which is his own that he loves

For though it is by our own fault that we are sinners, we are still his creatures;

Thus, mere gratuitous love prompts him to receive...

Therefore, in order that all ground of offence may be removed, and he may completely reconcile us to himself, he, by means of the expiation set forth in the death of Christ, abolishes all the evil that is in us,

Accordingly, God the Father, by his love, prevents and anticipates our reconciliation in Christ.

For it was not after we were reconciled to him by the blood of his Son that he began to love us, but he loved us before the foundation of the world, that with his only begotten Son we too might be sons of God before we were any thing at all. Our

Therefore he had this love towards us even when, exercising enmity towards him, we were the workers of iniquity.

Accordingly in a manner wondrous and divine, he loved even when he hated us.

For he hated us when we were such as he had not made us, and yet because our iniquity had not destroyed his work in every respect, he knew in regard to each one of us, both to hate what we had made, and love what he had ...

it may be answered generally, that he accomplished this by the whole course of his obedience.

bear in minds that Christ could not duly propitiate God without renouncing his own feelings and subjecting himself entirely to his Father's will.

we are properly directed thither, the source of our life being placed in the death of Christ.

To satisfy our ransom, it was necessary to select a mode of death in which he might deliver us, both by giving himself up to condemnations and undertaking our expiation.

But when he is placed as a criminal at the bar, where witnesses are brought to give evidence against him,

we see him sustaining the character of an offender and evil-doer.

That he might bear the character of a sinner, not of a just or innocent person, inasmuch as he met death on account not of innocence, but of sin.

Our acquittal is in this that the guilt which made us liable to punishment was transferred to the head of the Son of God, (Isa

But that these things may take deep root and have their seat in our inmost hearts, we must never lose sight of sacrifice and ablution.

For, were not Christ a victim, we could have no sure conviction of his being "apolutrosis, antilutron, kai hilasterion", our substitute-ransom and propitiation.

most improbable; for it is evident that the expression was wrung from the anguish of his inmost soul.

But this we say, that he bore the weight of the divine anger, that, smitten and afflicted, he experienced all the signs of an angry and avenging God.

Jesus bore the weight of an angry avenging God

Nor does he dissent from this view in other passages, as when he says, "The cross, death, hell, are our life." And again, "The Son of God is in hell, but man is brought back to heaven."

Apollinaris pretended, that in Christ the eternal Spirit supplied the place of a soul, so that he was only half a man;

as if he could have expiated our sins in any other way than by obeying the Father.

And we know that his soul was troubled in order that ours, being free from trepidation, mi...

Our salvation may be thus divided between the death and the resurrection of Christ: by the former sin was abolished and death annihilated;

by the latter righteousness was restored and life revived, the power and efficacy of the former being still bestowed upon us by means of the latter.

Not that faith founded merely on his death is vacillating, but that the divine power by which he maintains our faith is most conspicuous in his resurrection.

Let us remember, therefore, that when death only is mentioned, everything peculiar to the resurrection is at the same time included,

Then, as we have already explained that the mortification of our flesh depends on communion with the cross, so we must also understand, that a corresponding benefit is derived from his resurrection.

The resurrection is naturally followed by the ascension into heaven.

and the ignominy of the cross, yet it was only by his ascension to heaven that his reign truly commenced.

Those, therefore, are in error, who suppose that his blessedness merely is indicated. We may observe, that there is nothing contrary to this doctrine in the testimony of Stephen, that he saw him standing, (Acts 7: 56), the subject here considered being not the position of his body, but the majesty of his empire, sitting meaning nothing more than presiding on the judgement-seat of heaven.

if we seek redemption, we shall find it in his passion; acquittal in his condemnation; remission of the curse in his cross; satisfaction in his sacrifice; purification in his blood;

There is great force in this word "propitiation"; for in a manner which cannot be expressed, God, at the very time when he loved us, was hostile to us until reconciled in Christ.

"He has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," (2Co

The meaning, therefore, is, that God, to whom we were hateful through sin, was appeased by the death of his Son,

and made propitious to us. And

This Book, which contains a full exposition of the Third Part of the Apostles' Creed, treats of the mode of procuring the grace of Christ, the benefits which we derive and the effects which follow from it, or of the operations of the Holy Spirit in regard to our salvation.

remember that Christ came provided with the Holy Spirit after a peculiar manner, namely, that he might separate us from the world, and unite us in the hope of an eternal inheritance.

Hence the Spirit is called the Spirit of sanctification, because he quickens and cherishes us, not merely by the general energy which is seen in the human race, as well as other animals, but because he is the seed and root of heavenly life in us. Accordingly,

That since God by his Law prescribes what we ought to do, failure in any one respect subjects us to the dreadful judgment of eternal death,

but altogether beyond our strength and ability, to fulfill the demands of the Law, if we look only to ourselves and consider what is due to our merits, no ground of hope remains, but we lie forsaken of God under eternal death.