Blogging The Institutes

Having talked about the knowledge of "earthly matters" which reason can attain by God's common grace (2.2.13-16), Calvin argues that spiritual insight--knowledge about "heavenly matters"--consists in three things: knowing God; knowing his fatherly favor in our behalf; and knowing how to frame our...

Grace restores what it did not take away; the restoration, therefore, of the graces of love to God and neighbour, zeal for holiness and righteousness, implies the loss of them by original sin. These supernatural gifts were lost in the fall. But our natural endowments were also compromised, so that...

Calvin's debt to Augustine is nowhere seen as in the discussion on free will. Of all the theologians who have gone before him, he finds Augustine's statements on the will to be biblical and pastorally significant. Augustine's doctrine of man in sin turns upon the pervasive nature of the captivity...

What is free will? Some theologians, according to Calvin, have come too close to philosophers who credit the will with too much. There is a perennial temptation to try to make theology agree with the prevailing philosophy, and Calvin accuses some of the Church Fathers of going too far in that...

The 'total' in Total Depravity means that 'the whole man is overwhelmed - as by a deluge - from head to foot, so that no part is immune from sin and all that proceeds from him is to be imputed to sin' (2.1.9). The sin that is ours from the beginning of our existence invades and pervades every...

Calvin self-consciously draws on Augustine as he explores the meaning and effects of sin. Estrangement from his Maker, he says, was the death of Adam's soul (2.1.5). But what Adam lost when he sinned were gifts which had been granted to the whole race: 'when he was infected with sin, contagion...

Calvin proceeds from "The Knowledge of God the Creator" (Book One) to "The Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ..." (Book Two). Calvin begins Book Two with a meditation on self-knowledge (2.1.1-3). Why begin an exposition of "the Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ" in this way? Calvin has...

Calvin takes up two further objections to the biblical doctrine of providence. First, "if nothing happens apart from God's will," does it not follow that "there are in him two contrary wills because by his secret plan he decrees what he has openly forbidden by his law"? (1.18.3). It is true that...

In this section, Calvin responds to an objection to and clears a misconception about the biblical doctrine of providence. Calvin responds to those who say "that the plan of God does not stand firm and sure, but is subject to change in response to the disposition of things below" (1.17.12). They...

For Calvin, the biblical doctrine of providence is not a matter for idle speculation. On the contrary, "ignorance of providence is the ultimate of all miseries; the highest blessedness lies in the knowledge of it" (1.17.11). In this section, Calvin develops three practical observations concerning...