"Does Faith Include Obedience in Calvin's Theology?"

Introduction: The Centrality of Sola Fidei and the Question of Obedience

0:00 In so many different ways in the last lecture or two, I have focused your attention or alluded to the importance of Sola Fidei in Kelvin and his doctrine, the centrality of his doctrine of justification, Sola Fidei, and his Ordo Salutis. And so in this lecture, I'm going to focus attention again on it, but I want you to know that I understand there may be some repetition, but I also think there's also a lot of justification for the focused attention on Sola Fidei in Kelvin.

0:42 By way of introduction, Kelvin, of course, frequently and explicitly affirmed justification Sola Fidei, but when he said that, the great question then and now is, what did he mean? What did he mean by faith, by Fidei? There is a contemporary tendency to identify faith and obedience in his countered righteous in Christ. John Piper actually begins, in fact, by pointing to the danger of the conflation of faith and obedience by some.

1:14 Or in other words, to define faith as including obedience. There's also a contemporary tendency to separate faith and obedience. Both of those can be found. I hope to share this with you.

1:26 I hope to show that both tendencies are wrong, and we are going to ask the question this way. Does justifying faith include evangelical obedience in the theology of John Kelvin? I've asked the question that way in order to be able to give a balanced answer to what is a very, in some respects, difficult question. Or to put it differently, for Kelvin, is evangelical obedience included in justifying faith?

Calvin's Response to Roman Catholicism: Affirmative and Negative Answers

1:57 Kelvin could not avoid this issue in articulating the doctrine of Sola Fidei. He and his Roman Catholic adversaries specifically argued that it was simply impossible to separate justifying faith and the obedience flowing from love and born of the gospel of Christ. And this is what is meant by evangelical obedience when I use that terminology. I mean obedience to the gospel leading to the moral renewal of the sinner.

2:24 For the Roman Catholics of his day to speak of being justified by faith alone, was meaningless. Faith always includes love for God and the obedience to God that flows from it.

2:37 Kelvin responded to his Roman Catholic opponents both affirmatively and negatively. His answer depended on how the question was understood. If the question meant, does justifying faith have the character of evangelical obedience? Or, does it produce evangelical obedience?

2:58 Then Kelvin answered, of course. It does, yes. If, however, Kelvin took the question to mean something different, that is to say, if he took the question to mean, why does faith justify? Or, does faith justify as evangelical obedience?

3:18 Or, does faith justify in its character as evangelical obedience? Does faith justify because it is obedience?

3:28 Then Kelvin answered this question with an emphatic negative. Kelvin's answer has considerable contemporary significance. Both those who separate faith and obedience and those who fail to distinguish them have deviated from the theological balance of Kelvin and the Reformation tradition. Justifying faith and evangelical obedience must, according to Kelvin, be neither separated nor identified.

The Affirmative Answer: Faith and Evangelical Obedience are Inseparable

3:54 So, for today, for Kelvin, involves a crucial distinction between justifying faith and evangelical obedience, but not a separation. My emphasis is that Kelvin distinguished justifying faith and evangelical obedience, but we will begin by showing that he also saw them as inseparable. So, the affirmative answer first. Faith and evangelical obedience in Kelvin are inseparable in two senses.

4:23 Faith is evangelical obedience and also produces it. Faith is obedience. Kelvin's understanding of the obedience of faith in Romans 1.5, shows that for Kelvin, faith is obedience.

4:38 Is it the obedience that springs from or results from faith, or is it the obedience that consists in faith? You know that the phrase of faith, the genitive, can be taken either as a genitive of result or what we might call the genitive of substance. Is it the obedience that springs from faith, or is it the obedience that consists in faith? What is Romans 1.5 and Paul talking about?

5:04 Calvin is not in doubt about its meaning. He affirms that it is the obedience that consists in faith. We must also notice here what faith is. The name of obedience is given to it for this reason, because the Lord calls us by his gospel.

5:18 We respond to his call by faith. Faith is properly that by which we obey the gospel. So, faith is obedience to the gospel. Faith is also inseparable from obedience.

5:30 Here, Kelvin's understanding of Galatians 5.6 is sufficient to clarify. By the way, Galatians 5.6 is quoted in the Institutes as well as expounded by Kelvin and is often cited by his enemies as well.

5:48 In his comments, Kelvin makes clear that faith is not to be separated from obedience in the sense of good works. Good works always accompany and follow it. Galatians 5.6 is a key text for Kelvin.

6:02 He not only comments on it in his commentary, but alludes to it in the discussion just mentioned in the Institutes. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision means anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which works by love. On but faith working through love, he remarks, when they attempt to refute our doctrine that we are justified by faith alone, they take this line of argument. If the faith which justifies us be that which worketh by love, then faith alone does not justify.

6:34 Why?

6:36 By answer, they do not comprehend their own silly talk. Still less do they comprehend our statements. It is not our doctrine that the faith which justifies us alone.

6:47 We maintain that it is invariably accompanied by good works, only we contend that faith alone is sufficient for justification. We refuse to admit that faith can be separated from the spirit of regeneration. But when the question comes to be in what manner we are justified, we then say, and set aside all works.

7:10 Calvin makes clear in many passages that faith is not contrary to nor the opposite of obedience. For Calvin, from one viewpoint, faith is in itself obedience. From another, faith is the source of obedience and inseparable from it. Calvin's comments on Galatians 5-6 are formative for later reformed treatments of sola fidei.

7:36 Westminster affirms a language almost identical to Calvin, which is that faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness is the alone instrument of justification. Excuse me a second.

7:50 Yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love. Could have been, and obviously was, informed by Calvin's comments on Galatians 5-6. Three, the implications of the affirmative answer. Does saving faith include evangelical obedience for Calvin?

8:10 The answer, from one perspective, is surely that it does. Saving faith is obedience to the gospel, thus in the strictest sense, it includes evangelical obedience. It also includes evangelical obedience in the sense of always resulting in it and being accompanied by it. Calvin would have objected in the strongest terms possible to contemporary easy-believism and its assertion that one can have faith and not live in basic obedience to Christ.

The Negative Answer: Faith Does Not Justify as Obedience

8:39 But the negative answer is where the balance, which is an emphasis of Calvin's thought, comes. Introduction. Faith is not simply equated with obedience in Calvin, without further ado. There is another side to the matter for Calvin.

8:56 The questions justifying faith include evangelical obedience can be understood in a different way. Does faith justify as obedience? Or are we justified by faith because faith is obedience and the beginning of new obedience? Calvin said no to such questions.

9:21 Though faith is obedience for Calvin, faith does not justify as obedience. Does that seem a fine distinction? But in that statement, it's Calvin's whole distinction and difference from Roman Catholicism. This may seem an insignificant distinction, but on it rests the whole defense of Sola Fidei against Roman Catholic polemic.

9:44 An illustration, may clarify Calvin's meaning. Faith is like a fancy oval mirror. Such a mirror has more than one characteristic. It is oval.

9:57 It is also reflective. But the quality that makes this oval mirror a mirror is not that it is oval. Lots of things are oval, but they're not mirrors. What makes it a mirror, what makes it what it is, is that it is reflective.

10:15 Not that it is oval. It is called a mirror. Not an oval. This illustrates Calvin's view.

10:23 Faith is obedience, but it is not this that makes it faith. It is rather the fact that it rests on Christ. That is its distinctive nature in the matter of justification. Though saving faith justifies obedience for Calvin, here an unqualifiedly negative answer is required to this question.

10:44 This negative answer will be argued from three facets of Calvin's theology. The definition of justification, justifying faith, the distinction between justifying faith and evangelical obedience, the dichotomy between law and grace.

Calvin's Definition of Justifying Faith: Passive and Receiving

10:57 First, the definition of justifying faith in Calvin.

11:01 Its context. Calvin begins Book 3 of the Institutes by stressing that it is the Holy Spirit that produces faith. Calvin asks why all do not embrace the grace of the gospel and insists that we climb higher and examine into the secret energy of the Spirit. And he says, Faith is the law, the principle work of the Holy Spirit.

11:24 The fact that the Spirit is the source of faith sets the stage for its definition of faith by emphasizing that faith is the gift of the Father through the Son in the Spirit's power. It is true that by faith we unite ourselves to Christ. Yet for Calvin it is also true that Christ unites us to Himself by the Spirit who creates faith.

11:45 It's clarity. Calvin states his carefully crafted definition of faith in Book 3, Paragraph 7. You've seen it. Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it 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.

12:05 There is nothing about obedience in this definition. That's a simple statement. It's a profound one. The central word in this definition of faith is not obedience. It's knowledge.

12:17 Faith is not doing something. It is knowing something. This means that faith is passive. This knowledge is not the result of striving. It is the result

12:28 of a divine activity. The freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit. The content of this knowledge also serves to underscore the passive character of faith. It is knowledge of God's benevolence toward us.

12:45 It's clarity.

12:47 Calvin's formal definition of faith seems to imply the will is inactive in faith. Calvin elsewhere, however, describes faith as involving a movement of the will. But even these descriptions make clear that in an important sense, faith is passive. Calvin says that we will be saved if, indeed, with firm faith, we embrace it's active.

13:09 It's an embracing. Embrace this mercy and rest in it. That's, again, something we do with steadfast hope. This, then, is true knowledge of Christ.

13:17 If we receive him as he is offered by the Father, namely clothed with the gospel, we see embracing, resting, receiving, these are activities of the human soul. So faith is not, in every sense, passive. Faith is not a kind of obedience by which we save ourselves, but it is resting on and embracing Christ to save us. Calvin gives an alternative description of faith in comments on Galatians 5-6 and the Institutes. Also, they

13:48 poignantly strive after the foolish subtlety that we are justified by faith alone, which acts through love, so that righteousness depends on love. Indeed, we confess with Paul that no other faith justifies but faith working through love. Galatians 5-6. But it does not take its power to justify from that working of love.

14:11 Indeed, it justifies in no other way, but that it leads us into fellowship with the righteousness of Christ. So it's not by working with love that faith justifies, but by leading us into fellowship with Christ. John 6-29 was the subjection of comment by Calvin. Important comment. This is the work of God

14:31 that you believe. Here's what Calvin says about this text. It is idle sophistry under the pretext of this passage to maintain that we are justified by works. Well, see, faith is the work of God, so we're justified by works. Whoa!

14:50 If faith justifies because it is likewise called a work.

14:55 Now, faith brings nothing to God, but on the contrary, places man before God as empty and poor, that he may be filled with Christ and with his grace. It is therefore, if we may be allowed the expression, a passive work to which no reward can be paid, and it bestows on man no other righteousness than that which he receives from Christ. So it's a work, all right, Calvin says, a passive work, the kind of passive work that can't be rewarded. The only thing it does, if you want to call it doing something, is rest on Christ.

15:29 It's a passive work. Passive work epitomizes Calvin's view of faith, and I think probably epitomizes it as well as any other brief phrase. Faith is a work, a human activity, but it is passive, presenting man before God as empty and poor, that he may be filled with Christ.

15:52 So, my way of conclusion with regard to the definition of justifying faith. Calvin says nothing about faith as obedience, it is classic descriptions of justifying faith. The fact that faith is obedience is not the important, peculiar, or justifying power of faith. It justifies only in that it leads us into fellowship with the righteousness of Christ. For Calvin,

16:14 saving faith is not justified as obedience. In this sense of the question, does saving faith itself include evangelical obedience in the theology of John Calvin? The answer is no.

Distinction Between Justifying Faith and Evangelical Obedience

16:28 The distinction between justifying faith and evangelical obedience. The relationship between justifying faith and evangelical obedience in Calvin's writings also points to a negative answer to the question raised in this essay. Calvin describes evangelical obedience or the moral renewal of one's life in Book 3 of the Institutes as repentance, sanctification, or regeneration.

16:52 So, is faith equivalent to those three things? Well, you know the answer to that by now, don't you? Of course not! Absolutely not!

17:02 Faith is the origin and therefore is distinguished from repentance, regeneration, and sanctification. He maintains that faith in Christ proceeds and is the means of this evangelical obedience. This can be seen by recalling the structure of Calvin's understanding of salvation. You've seen that chart before.

17:24 Sanctification is the result of union with Christ, which is itself the result of faith in Christ, and therefore sanctification, repentance, and regeneration, the equivalent terminology for Calvin, renewal of lifestyle, and faith are two completely different things that occupy two completely different places in Calvin's Ordo Salutis.

17:46 This diagram makes clear, then, the distinction Calvin made between justifying faith and evangelical obedience.

17:54 And I think I've said all of this. Calvin says faith is unto union with Christ, while sanctification is the result of union with Christ. This distinguishes justifying faith and evangelical obedience.

18:09 And Calvin says, even though we have taught in part how faith possesses Christ and how through it we enjoy His benefits, this would still remain obscure if we did not add an explanation of the effects we feel. With good reason, the sum of the gospel is held to consist in repentance and forgiveness of sins. Any discussion of faith that omitted these topics would be barren and mutilated and well nigh useless. Now both repentance and forgiveness of sins, that is, newness of life and free reconciliation, are conferred on us by Christ and both are obtained by us through faith.

18:41 The distinction couldn't be clearer. Now it ought to be a fact beyond controversy that repentance not only constantly follows faith, but is born of faith for since pardon and forgiveness are offered through the preaching of the gospel in order that the sinner freed from the tyranny of Satan, the yoke of sin, and the miserable bondage of vices may cross over into the kingdom of God, surely no one can embrace the grace of the gospel without betaking himself from the errors of his past life into the right way and applying his whole effort to the practice of repentance. What Calvin calls variously repentance, sanctification, or regeneration is evangelical obedience. Calvin sees an inseparable connection between this evangelical obedience and justifying

19:24 faith. Faith in Christ creates union with Christ, which has for one of its benefits evangelical obedience. The connection is clear and the distinction could not be plainer.

The Dichotomy Between Law and Grace

19:36 To be precise, it is not as obedience that faith justifies. Justifying proceeds and enables evangelical obedience. Three, the dichotomy between law and grace. A third consideration which points to the fact that faith does not justify its obedience is the contrast between law and grace to be found in Calvin.

19:59 Faith is response to gracious promise. Calvin asserts that faith is founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ. That's clear from its definition, remember. Freely given promise in Christ is founded upon that revealed to our minds and sealed to our hearts.

20:15 This statement alludes to an important distinction Paul makes and it should read Calvin makes between the law and the gospel.

20:25 Calvin begins his treatment of faith in book three of the instance by contrasting law and grace. Secondly, it's not only hard but above our strength and beyond our abilities to fulfill the law to the letter. Thus if we look to ourselves only and ponder what condition we deserve, no trace of good hope will remain. But cast away by God, we shall lie under eternal death. Thirdly,

20:46 it has been explained that there is but one means of liberation that can rescue us from such miserable calamity, the appearance of Christ the Redeemer through whose hand the Heavenly Father, pitying us out of his infinite goodness and mercy, will to help us if indeed with firm faith we embrace this mercy and rest in it with steadfast hope. In his treatment of justification, this dichotomy is crucial. Calvin contrasts the promises of the law and the promises of the gospel. Now to be sure, the law itself has its own promises, therefore in the promises of the gospel there must be something distinct and different, unless we would admit that the comparison is inept.

21:32 What sort of difference will this be other than the gospel promises are free and dependent solely upon God's mercy while the promises of the law depend upon the condition of works? Thus the unique, peculiar, and justifying quality or property of faith is not obedience to law.

21:49 Faith may be obedience, but it is obedience to the gospel and to grace as distinguished from the law. Conclusion. Faith is obedience, but it is not as obedience that it justifies, but as resting on the grace of Christ. W. Stanford

Conclusion and Contemporary Significance

22:11 Reed says, In his own day and ever since, those opposed to his doctrine have cited the terms of Galatians 5-6, faith working by love, as showing that love plays a part in justification. While Calvin is prepared to recognize that faith does work by love, he also insists that it does not take its power to justify from that working of love. Indeed, it justifies by no other means than by leading us into fellowship with the righteousness of Christ, and then that faith is reckoned as righteousness solely where righteousness is given through a grace not owed. In his commentary on Galatians, he ends his exposition of this verse by pointing out that when he is

22:55 speaking of justification, he sets aside all works. There are troubling tendencies today among theologians in the Reformation tradition to identify faith and obedience, to speak of being justified by faith working, to erase the contrast between law and grace, and to define justifying faith in terms of faithfulness. These tendencies are contrary to the classic view of sola fidei enunciated by Luther and Calvin. Sola fidei, if it is to be defined meaningfully and fairly, must be defined in terms of its classic historical statement by Luther and Calvin.

23:35 It is questionable whether moderate evangelicals who speak in the ways described above may fairly affirm what Luther and Calvin meant, and therefore what the classic definition of sola fidei meant.

23:54 All right. Well, I'm glad for your sakes that didn't take quite as long as I expected.

24:06 Questions? Ben?

24:14 Calvin say on James 2.24 that you're not...

24:20 I'm quite sure you can read what he says yourself by checking out his commentary on James. He would have said, and I think this is the classic explanation of the relationship of James 2 and Romans 3 and 4, that James is using the term faith and the term justification in ways that were different than Paul was using them in Romans 3 and 4. Because he's using the terms differently and means different things by them, there is therefore no contradiction between James' understanding of justification and Paul's understanding of justification, because they're frankly talking about two completely different

25:04 things. Well, that's a good question. I think he probably did struggle with James 2 and how to explain it. I'm not certain, though, that Luther would have stuck by that description all his life or would have pressed it so strongly as to evict or eject James from the canon of Scripture.

25:30 Okay? In fact, the Lutherans did not do that, actually. Well, Luther, Blake is saying Luther was given to hyperbole in that way. That's true.

25:41 And I think you might find other statements where he might have said other things as well about James. All right. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Appreciate it.