Calvin on the Continuity of the Covenant

***Semper Fidelis*** · #1 (**permalink**) 12-29-2008, 01:44 PM

Given some of the confusion manifest in other threads on this subject, I thought I'd share some observations from Calvin on the relationship of the OT Saints to Christ:

Book II, Chapter 10

Quote:

1. From what has been said above, it must now be clear, that all whom,
from the beginning of the world, God adopted as his peculiar people,
were taken into covenant with him on the same conditions, and under the
same bond of doctrine, as ourselves; but as it is of no small
importance to establish this point, I will here add it by way of
appendix, and show, since the Fathers were partakers with us in the
same inheritance, and hoped for a common salvation through the grace of
the same Mediator, how far their condition in this respect was
different from our own. For although the passages which we have
collected from the Law and the Prophets for the purpose of proof, make
it plain that there never was any other rule of piety and religion
among the people of God; yet as many things are written on the subject
of the difference between the Old and New Testaments in a manner which
may perplex ordinary readers, it will be proper here to devote a
special place to the better and more exact discussion of this subject.
This discussion, which would have been most useful at any rate, has
been rendered necessary by that monstrous miscreant, Servetus, and some
madmen of the sect of the Anabaptists, who think of the people of
Israel just as they would do of some herd of swine, absurdly imagining
that the Lord gorged them with temporal blessings here, and gave them
no hope of a blessed immortality. [226] Let us guard pious minds
against this pestilential error, while we at the same time remove all
the difficulties which are wont to start up when mention is made of the
difference between the Old and the New Testaments. By the way also, let
us consider what resemblance and what difference there is between the
covenant which the Lord made with the Israelites before the advent of
Christ, and that which he has made with us now that Christ is
manifested.

2. It is possible, indeed, to explain both in one word. The covenant
made with all the fathers is so far from differing from ours in reality
and substance, that it is altogether one and the same: still the
administration differs. But because this brief summary is insufficient
to give any one a full understanding of the subject, our explanation to
be useful must extend to greater length. It were superfluous, however,
in showing the similarity, or rather identity, of the two
dispensations, again to treat of the particulars which have already
been discussed, as it were unseasonable to introduce those which are
still to be considered elsewhere. What we propose to insist upon here
may be reduced to three heads:--First, That temporal opulence and
felicity was not the goal to which the Jews were invited to aspire, but
that they were admitted to the hope of immortality, and that assurance
of this adoption was given by immediate communications, by the Law and
by the Prophets. Secondly, That the covenant by which they were
reconciled to the Lord was founded on no merits of their own, but
solely on the mercy of God, who called them; and, thirdly, That they
both had and knew Christ the Mediator, by whom they were united to God,
and made capable of receiving his promises. The second of these, as it
is not yet perhaps sufficiently understood, will be fully considered in
its own place (Book 3 chap. 15-18). For we will prove by many clear
passages in the Prophets, that all which the Lord has ever given or
promised to his people is of mere goodness and indulgence. The third
also has, in various places, been not obscurely demonstrated. Even the
first has not been left unnoticed.

3. As the first is most pertinent to the present subject, and is most
controverted, we shall enter more fully into the consideration of it,
taking care, at the same time, where any of the others requires
explanations to supply it by the way, or afterwards add it in its
proper place. The Apostle, indeed, removes all doubt when he says that
the Gospel which God gave concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, "he had
promised aforetime by his prophets in the holy Scriptures," (Rom. 1:2).
And again, that "the righteousness of God without the law is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets," (Rom. 3:21).
For the Gospel does not confine the hearts of men to the enjoyment of
the present life, but raises them to the hope of immortality; does not
fix them down to earthly delights, but announcing that there is a
treasure laid up in heaven, carries the heart thither also. For in
another place he thus explains, "After that ye believed [the Gospel,]
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest
of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession,"
(Eph. 1:13, 14). Again, "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,
and of the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is
laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the
truth of the Gospel," (Col. 1:4). Again, "Whereunto he called you by
our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ," (2
Thess. 2:14). Whence also it is called the word of salvation and the
power of God, with salvation to every one that believes, and the
kingdom of heaven. [227] But if the doctrine of the Gospel is
spiritual, and gives access to the possession of incorruptible life,
let us not suppose that those to whom it was promised and declared
altogether neglected the care of the soul, and lived stupidly like
cattle in the enjoyment of bodily pleasures. Let no one here quibble
and say, that the promises concerning the Gospel, which are contained
in the Law and the Prophets, were designed for a new people. [228] For
Paul, shortly after making that statement concerning the Gospel
promised in the Law, adds, that "whatsoever things the law saith, it
saith to those who are under the law." I admit, indeed, he is there
treating of a different subject, but when he said that every thing
contained in the Law was directed to the Jews, he was not so oblivious
as not to remember what he had said a few verses before of the Gospel
promised in the Law. Most clearly, therefore, does the Apostle
demonstrate that the Old Testament had special reference to the future
life, when he says that the promises of the Gospel were comprehended
under it.

4. In the same way we infer that the Old Testament was both established
by the free mercy of God and confirmed by the intercession of Christ.
For the preaching of the Gospel declares nothing more than that
sinners, without any merit of their own, are justified by the paternal
indulgence of God. It is wholly summed up in Christ. Who, then, will
presume to represent the Jews as destitute of Christ, when we know that
they were parties to the Gospel covenant, which has its only foundation
in Christ? Who will presume to make them aliens to the benefit of
gratuitous salvation, when we know that they were instructed in the
doctrine of justification by faith? And not to dwell on a point which
is clear, we have the remarkable saying of our Lord, "Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad," (John
8:56). What Christ here declares of Abraham, an apostle shows to be
applicable to all believers, when he says that Jesus Christ is the
"same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," (Heb. 13:8). For he is not
there speaking merely of the eternal divinity of Christ, but of his
power, of which believers had always full proof. Hence both the blessed
Virgin [229] and Zachariah, in their hymns, say that the salvation
revealed in Christ was a fulfilment of the mercy promised "to our
fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever," (Luke 1:55, 72). If, by
manifesting Christ, the Lord fulfilled his ancient oath, it cannot be
denied that the subject of that oath [230] must ever have been Christ
and eternal life.

5. Nay, the Apostle makes the Israelites our equals, not only in the
grace of the covenant, but also in the signification of the Sacraments.
For employing the example of those punishments, which the Scripture
states to have been of old inflicted on the Jews, in order to deter the
Corinthians from falling into similar wickedness, he begins with
premising that they have no ground to claim for themselves any
privilege which can exempt them from the divine vengeance which
overtook the Jews, since the Lord not only visited them with the same
mercies, but also distinguished his grace among them by the same
symbols: as if he had said, If you think you are out of danger, because
the Baptism which you received, and the Supper of which you daily
partake, have excellent promises, and if, in the meantime, despising
the goodness of God, you indulge in licentiousness, know that the Jews,
on whom the Lord inflicted his severest judgments, possessed similar
symbols. They were baptised in passing through the sea, and in the
cloud which protected them from the burning heat of the sun. It is
said, that this passage was a carnal baptism, corresponding in some
degree to our spiritual baptism. But if so, there would be a want of
conclusiveness in the argument of the Apostle, whose object is to
prevent Christians from imagining that they excelled the Jews in the
matter of baptism. Besides, the cavil cannot apply to what immediately
follows--viz. that they did "all eat the same spiritual meat; and did
all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual
Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ," (1 Cor. 10:3, 4).

6. To take off the force of this passage of Paul, an objection is
founded on the words of our Saviour, "Your fathers did eat manna in the
wilderness, and are dead." "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live
for ever," (John 6:49, 51). There is no difficulty in reconciling the
two passages. The Lord, as he was addressing hearers who only desired
to be filled with earthly food, while they cared not for the true food
of the soul, in some degree adapts his speech to their capacity, and,
in particular, to meet their carnal view, draws a comparison between
manna and his own body. They called upon him to prove his authority by
performing some miracle, such as Moses performed in the wilderness when
he obtained manna from heaven. In this manna they saw nothing but a
relief of the bodily hunger from which the people were then suffering;
they did not penetrate to the sublimer mystery to which Paul refers.
Christ, therefore, to demonstrate that the blessing which they ought to
expect from him was more excellent than the lauded one which Moses had
bestowed upon their fathers, draws this comparison: If, in your
opinion, it was a great and memorable miracle when the Lord, by Moses,
supplied his people with heavenly food that they might be supported for
a season, and not perish in the wilderness from famine; from this infer
how much more excellent is the food which bestows immortality. We see
why our Lord omitted to mention what was of principal virtue in the
manna, and mentioned only its meanest use. Since the Jews had, as it
were by way of upbraiding, cast up Moses to him as one who had relieved
the necessity of the people by means of manna, he answers, that he was
the minister of a much larger grace, one compared with which the bodily
nourishment of the people, on which they set so high a value, ought to
be held worthless. Paul, again, knowing that the Lords when he rained
manna from heaven, had not merely supplied their bodies with food, but
had also dispensed it as containing a spiritual mystery to typify the
spiritual quickening which is obtained in Christ, does not overlook
that quality which was most deserving of consideration. Wherefore it is
surely and clearly proved, that the same promises of celestial and
eternal life, which the Lord now gives to us, were not only
communicated to the Jews, but also sealed by truly spiritual
sacraments. This subject is copiously discussed by Augustine in his
work against Faustus the Manichee.

7. But if my readers would rather have passages quoted from the Law and
the Prophets, from which they may see, as we have already done from
Christ and the Apostles, that the spiritual covenant was common also to
the Fathers, I will yield to the wish, and the more willingly, because
opponents will thus be more surely convinced, that henceforth there
will be no room for evasion. And I will begin with a proof which,
though I know it will seem futile and almost ridiculous to supercilious
Anabaptists, will have very great weight with the docile and
sober-minded. I take it for granted that the word of God has such an
inherent efficacy, that it quickens the souls of all whom he is pleased
to favour with the communication of it. Peter's statement has ever been
true, that it is an incorruptible seed, "which liveth and abideth for
ever," (1 Peter 1:23), as he infers from the words of Isaiah (Is.
40:6). Now when God, in ancient times, bound the Jews to him by this
sacred bond, there cannot be a doubt that he separated them unto the
hope of eternal life. When I say that they embraced the word which
brought them nearer to God, I refer not to that general method of
communication which is diffused through heaven and earth, and all the
creatures of the world, and which, though it quickens all things, each
according to its nature, rescues none from the bondage of corruption. I
refer to that special mode of communication by which the minds of the
pious are both enlightened in the knowledge of God, and, in a manner,
linked to him. Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, and the other patriarchs,
having been united to God by this illumination of the word, I say there
cannot be the least doubt that entrance was given them into the
immortal kingdom of God. They had that solid participation in God which
cannot exist without the blessing of everlasting life.

8. If the point still seems somewhat involved, let us pass to the form
of the covenant, which will not only satisfy calm thinkers, but
sufficiently establish the ignorance of gainsayers. The covenant which
God always made with his servants was this, "I will walk among you, and
will be your God, and ye shall be my people," (Lev. 26:12). These
words, even as the prophets are wont to expound them, comprehend life
and salvation, and the whole sum of blessedness. For David repeatedly
declares, and with good reason, "Happy is that people whose God is the
Lord." "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people
whom he has chosen for his own inheritance," (Psalm 144:15; 33:12); and
this not merely in respect of earthly happiness, but because he rescues
from death, constantly preserves, and, with eternal mercy, visits those
whom he has adopted for his people. As is said in other prophets, "Art
not thou from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not
die." "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our
king; he will save us" "Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto
thee, O people saved by the Lord?" (Hab. 1:12; Isaiah 33:22; Deut.
33:29). But not to labour superfluously, the prophets are constantly
reminding us that no good thing and, consequently, no assurance of
salvation, is wanting, provided the Lord is our God. And justly. For if
his face, the moment it hath shone upon us, is a perfect pledge of
salvation, how can he manifest himself to any one as his God, without
opening to him the treasures of salvation? The terms on which God makes
himself ours is to dwell in the midst of us, as he declared by Moses
(Lev. 26:11). But such presence cannot be enjoyed without life being,
at the same time, possessed along with it. And though nothing more had
been expressed, they had a sufficiently clear promise of spiritual life
in these words, "I am your God," (Exod. 6:7). For he declared that he
would be a God not to their bodies only, but specially to their souls.
Souls, however, if not united to God by righteousness, remain estranged
from him in death. On the other hand, that union, wherever it exists,
will bring perpetual salvation with it.

Re4mdant · #2 (**permalink**) 12-29-2008, 04:15 PM

Thanks for sharing, I think I will have to make it a special topic of interest, I find ever since I began here I have become more aware of all the stuff I do not know enough about.

Christusregnat · #3 (**permalink**) 01-02-2009, 09:58 AM

If I had ten "Thank yous", you'd have them all.

Thanks Rich,

Adam

rrfranks · #4 (**permalink**) 01-02-2009, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Marsh

Thanks for sharing, I think I will have to make it a special topic of interest, I find ever since I began here I have become more aware of all the stuff I do not know enough about.

Amen! I too am becoming more aware of my weaknesses. That is why I am thankful for the Puritan Board and such posts as this!