Journal: Puritan Reformed Journal
Volume: PRJ 01:2 (Jul 2009)
Article: Calvin On The Promises Of God
Author: Pieter DeVries

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Calvin On The Promises Of God

Pieter DeVries

On May 27, 1564, the Reformer Calvin died. He has been of great importance for the church. His Institutes, Bible commentaries, sermons, and letters bear witness to his deep insight in the Scripture. Among the Reformers, Luther is always mentioned as of prime importance, and rightly so. Others were either directly dependent on him or influenced by him in a profound way. This also applies to Calvin, although he never met Luther personally. Luther’s writings, among others, brought him to understand that God justifies us and adopts us as His children out of mere grace, for Christ’s sake alone. In Thesis 26 of Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation we read: “The law says: ‘Do this,’ but therewith the law is not fulfilled. Grace says: ‘Believe in Him,’ and everything is fulfilled already.” The fundamental biblical truth of justification by faith alone united all the Reformers. Calvin has been called Luther’s best pupil and correctly so. But much more than Luther, Calvin was a systematic thinker. Above all, Calvin wanted to be a pupil of the Holy Scripture. Just like Luther and the other Reformers, the promises of God constituted to Calvin a central theme of theology. This article reviews Calvin’s view concerning God’s promises under a few main headings.

Christ Comes To Us In The Garment Of His Promises

Calvin starts his Institutes with the relationship between the knowledge of God and the knowledge of oneself. Only in the light of the spotless holiness of God can man obtain true self-knowledge. If we were to raise ourselves to the judgment seat of God, all those things that seemed agreeable to us before would be manifested as the greatest iniquity. True self-knowledge is to know how excellent our nature would have been if we had not deserted God. Next we have to consider the woeful situation after Adam’s fall in order that we should humble

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ourselves before God. Anyone who considers himself according to the standard of God gets gradually more dejected; the confidence that we will be saved through our own works disappears. God’s promises declare to us that salvation is simply and solely in Christ. No promise is ever offered us except in Christ.

The preaching of the gospel implies that sinners are justified through the fatherly lovingkindness of God, without their own merits. God’s goodness is manifested in Christ. His promises show us that the help of His grace lies wholly beyond our power; they overthrow our ability to obtain righteousness by ourselves. The blessings that are promised in Christ do not consist of outward advantages, but in forgiveness of sins and eternal life. By means of the promises, we ar...