(Vespers) Calvin's Institutes - II.6-7

Chapter 6 – Fallen Man Ought to Seek Redemption in Christ

1. Christ is the answer. “The whole human race having been undone in the person of Adam, the excellence and dignity of our origin, is so far from availing us, that it rather turns to our greater disgrace, until God, appear as a Redeemer in the person of his only begotten Son.”
2. God has sent Christ to salvage His fallen creation.
3. John 17:3 – “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
4. Only through Christ is it possible to know God as Redeemer and only as we know God as Redeemer, can we know Him as Father.
5. “All humanity is estranged from God and lies under curse. Meanwhile, in seeking redemption or peace on its own terms, the human heart invents its own gods. All pagan religions have emerged in this way; and that is also why they are false.” –J. Mark Beach
6. John 15:6 – “If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”
7. The way of salvation has always been in Christ, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
8. “God never showed himself propitious to his ancient people, nor gave them any hope of grace without a Mediator. I say nothing of the sacrifices of the Law, by which believers were plainly and openly taught that salvation was not to be found anywhere but in the expiation which Christ alone completed. All I maintain is, that the prosperous and happy state of the Church was always founded in the person of Christ.”
9. “Apart from Christ the saving knowledge of God does not stand. From the beginning of the world he had consequently been set before all the elect that they should look unto him and put their trust in him.”
10. Galatians 3:16 – “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.”
11. 1 Samuel 2:35 – “And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.”
12. Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
13. Luke 24:27 – “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
14. “The first step in piety is, to acknowledge that God is a Father, to defend, govern, and cherish us, until he brings us to the eternal inheritance of his kingdom; there is no saving knowledge of God without Christ, and from the beginning of the world Christ was held forth to all the elect as the object of their faith and confidence.”

Chapter 7 – The Law Was Given, Not to Restrain the Folk of the Old Covenant under Itself, but to Foster Hope of Salvation in Christ Until His Coming

1. “The Law was not superadded about four hundred years after the death of Abraham in order that it might lead the chosen people away from Christ, but, on the contrary, to keep them in suspense until his advent; to inflame their desire, and confirm their expectation, that they might not become dispirited by the long delay. By the Law, I understand not only the Ten Commandments, which contain a complete rule of life, but the whole system of religion delivered by the hand of Moses.”
2. Calvin argues that the Law does not cancel the gracious covenant God made with Abraham.
3. The ceremonial law points to Christ who is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise.
4. “The law was never given to provide a way of salvation apart from Christ, as if the law could lead us to righteousness. The law arouses guilt in us so that we look outside ourselves for pardon. Seeing ourselves guilty before God’s tribunal humbles us so that we are ready to seek His pardon. Since the law teaches perfect righteousness, we can only obtain righteousness before God if we observe the law perfectly. The law, however, displays its ‘feebleness’ in that it cannot actually make us righteous or even obedience. Hence, the law shows us our cure and failure; its threatening judgments loom over us, announcing certain damnation. But it cannot save us.”  --J. Mark Beach
5. The Three Uses of the Moral Law
   1. Schoolmaster to lead us to Christ [WCF puts this as 2nd use]
      1. Galatians 3:24 – “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”
      2. “For Christ not yet having been made familiarly known to the Jews, they were like children whose weakness could not bear a full knowledge of heavenly things.”
      3. Included in the OT is the fact that one sacrifice was going to fulfill the ceremonial sacrifices
      4. Isaiah 53:5 – “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
      5. Daniel 9:26-27: “And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. 27 And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
      6. Romans 10:4 – “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes”
   2. Restrain Evil [WCF puts this as 1st use]
      1. “The second office of the Law is, by means of its fearful denunciations and the consequent dread of punishment, to curb those who, unless forced, have no regard for rectitude [morality] and justice. Such persons are curbed, not because their mind is inwardly moved and affected, but because, as if a bridle were laid upon them, they refrain their hands from external acts, and internally check the depravity which would otherwise petulantly burst forth.”
      2. “This forced and extorted righteousness is necessary for the good of society, its peace being secured by a provision but for which all things would be thrown into tumult and confusion.”
      3. 1 Timothy 1:8-10 – “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,”
   3. Guide for Christian Living
      1. “The law is the best instrument for enabling the righteous daily to learn with greater truth and certainty what that will of the Lord is which they aspire to follow, and to confirm them in this knowledge; just as a servant who desires with all his soul to approve himself to his master, must still observe, and be careful to ascertain his master’s dispositions, that he may comport himself in accommodation to them.”
      2. “By frequently meditating upon it, the servant of God will be excited to obedience, and confirmed in it, and so drawn away from the slippery paths of sin. In this way must the saints press onward, since, however great the alacrity [eagerness] with which, under the Spirit, they hasten toward righteousness, they are retarded by the sluggishness of the flesh, and make less progress than they ought. The Law acts like a whip to the flesh, urging it on as men do a lazy sluggish ass. Even in the case of a spiritual man, inasmuch as he is still burdened with the weight of the flesh, the Law is a constant stimulus, pricking him forward when he would indulge in sloth.”