The
Holy Spirit and Faith
Note
C’s fullest definition of faith:
“A
firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence towards us,
founded
upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ,
both
revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts
through
the Holy Spirit.” 3.2.7.
While
the foregoing may appear abstract, faith (which is the “putting on”
of Christ or the bond that unites us with Christ) bespeaks utmost
personal intimacy:
“We
ought not to separate Christ from ourselves or ourselves from him.
Rather we ought to
hold fast bravely with both hands to that fellowship by which he has
bound himself to
us.”
3.2.24.
Faith
is never a human achievement, but it is always a human event, a human
affirmation, a human act. Faith
is a gift (from God) that must always be humanly exercised.
As the bond by which we are bound to Christ faith is that
“fellowship” to which we must hold
fast bravely with both hands.
I
A:
Book
III is the climax (in my opinion) of the Institutes;
books I and II are for the sake of book III, “The Way in which We
Receive the Grace of Christ: What Benefits Come to Us from It, and What
Effects Follow.”
The
place of faith in C’s theology cannot be overemphasised: apart from
our “putting on” Christ in faith we don’t “benefit” from him.
All he has done for us
is “in vain” unless it is also done in
us through faith.
B:
The
discussion of justification (always related to faith in the Reformers)
lands us in some of the most impassioned writing of the Reformation.
(Justification and the eucharist were the occasion of greater
controversy than anything else. Concerning
sanctification, for instance, there was little controversy.) Unlike us
modern degenerates who see theology as little more than pointless
head-games, the 16th century recognised Truth
to be at issue, and with Truth
(i.e., reality as opposed to error, delusion or falsehood), truths
as well.
What
is the relation between Truth
and truths?
II
Holy
Spirit
(i)
In
C the HS is always conjoined to the Word, for “there is a permanent
relation between faith and the Word.”
3.2.6.
(ii)
Faith
is the principal work of the
HS. 3.1.4.
Faith is the proper and
entire work of the HS.
4.14.8.
We
cannot quicken faith in ourselves or predispose ourselves for it in any
way. “There is not in us
any commencement of faith or any preparation of it.”
Comm. John 6:45
(iii)
Faith
is always determined by its author
and its object
(the Word.) The Word is
Jesus Christ, but not this figure alone.
The Word is Jesus Christ together with the apostolic recognition
of the truth concerning him. I.e.,
the Christ we are to receive is always and only “as he is offered by
the Father: namely, clothed with his gospel.” 3.2.6.
(Word
as subject or author) Only
Jesus Christ can direct faith to Christ; i.e., the Word alone creates
access to the Word. While
Jesus Christ is the “goal” of our faith, the gospel (ultimately, JC
as attested by the apostles in the power of the Spirit) must “go
before us.” 3.2.6.
The gospel alone admits (and invites) people to the gospel.
“Hence we infer that faith is not in one’s power, but is
divinely conferred.” Comm.
1 Cor. 2:14
(iv)
Mercy
is that aspect of the Word which quickens faith.
In fact, so thoroughly does mercy determine the Word that Calvin
doesn’t hesitate to say that the Word is
mercy. (We seek God after we know ourselves to be the beneficiary of God’s mercy
[salvation]. 3.2.7.)
While God addresses many words to us, the
Word (of mercy) gathers them up and melds them into that which subserves
the one, determinative word of mercy; i.e., everything that God says and
visits upon us is ultimately an expression of his mercy – even as
penultimately it may be anything else at all: rebuke, warning, anger,
denunciation, testing, encouragement, gentleness, severity, etc.
See Comm. Psalms 40:10;
25:10; 86:5; 103:8; 145:9;
Rom.
10:8. In Inst. 3.2.29 C
maintains that mercy is the “proper” goal of faith.
The Latin text reads, fidei
in proprium scopum. Proprium means “characteristic”, “essential”,
“exclusive”, all of which are stronger than Battles’ “proper.”
Mercy is that in God upon which we can “rest.”
Comm. Hebrews 11:7
(v)
Faith,
while not reducible to understanding doctrinal assertions (notitia,
if found alone, is what C calls “empty notions flitting in the
brain”) is none the less knowledge.
Faith is a singular kind of knowing,
not an alternative to knowing or a vagueness that falls short of
knowing.
(vi)
Faith
entails assurance. “Where
there is no assurance of faith there is no faith.”
Comm. Rom. 8:16 “As
assurance of this nature is a thing that is above the capacity of the
human mind, it is the part of the Holy Spirit to confirm within what God
promises in his Word.” Comm.
2 Cor. 1:22
Note:
Since faith is the entire
work of the HS, then the HS imparts assurance only by imparting faith in
Christ, which faith brings assurance with it.
“The Spirit of God gives us such testimony that when he is our
guide and teacher our spirit
is made sure of the adoption of God; for our mind,
of itself, without the preceding testimony of the Spirit, could not
convey to us this assurance.” Comm.
Rom.
8:16
(vii)
Faith
is always to be distinguished from "implicit faith" and
"unformed faith." "Implicit
faith" is lending assent to what the church (of
Rome
) teaches without understanding any of it.
Something of the gospel
has to be understood or faith is indistinguishable from superstition.
Calvin opposes any notion that the church can "do our
thinking and believing for us."
At the same time he admits that there is a legitimate
"implicit faith": even as we embrace Christ truly, we never
know him exhaustively. At
every stage of our discipleship our understanding and experience of
Christ now, however profound (and Calvin's point is that it's never very
profound) is "implicit" compared to the vastly
"more" that is to be rendered explicit.
Unformed
faith, says Calvin, is no faith at all.
Roman Catholic thought maintained that faith is formed by love.
If faith is formed by love then faith requires supplementation
(and our supplementation at
that!) in order to be faith. Faith
that requires supplementation is not faith.
Calvin prefers to say that faith is active in love.
Yet Calvin is aware of how little love is frequently found active
in faith. Vide his Comm. John 13:17: "Since…there are many who are cold
and slow in the duties of love…it shows us how far we still are from
the light of faith."
(viii)
Calvin's
notion of faith does not support the Weber/Tawney thesis at all.
Faith is aware that "God will never fail", even as
"faith does not certainly promise itself either length of years or
honour or riches in this life, since the Lord willed that none of these
things be appointed for us." 3.2.28
