John Calvin’s Integrated Covenant Theology (1):
The Nature of the Covenant
Rev. Angus Stewart
(Slightly modified from an article first published in
the Protestant Reformed Theological Journal)
While Calvin
is neither the originator of Reformed covenant theology nor the author
of the first book on the covenant—these honors falling to Zwingli and
Bullinger respectively—he is, as Peter Lillback states, "the
first … to integrate the covenant concept extensively into his
theological system."1 Calvin’s longest and most
detailed treatment of the covenant is found in book 2, chapters 10 and
11, of his Institutes, his greatest and most systematic work.2
The Unity of
the Covenant
It is
striking that Calvin’s first point, and that which he spends the whole
of chapter 10 proving, is the "similarity—or rather unity"
of the covenant of God, that it is one in all ages: "The covenant
made with all the patriarchs is so much like ours in substance and
reality that the two are actually one and the same. Yet they differ in
the mode of dispensation [or administration]" (2.10.2, p. 429).3
Saints in the Old and the New Testaments share "the same law,"
"the same doctrine," "the same inheritance," and the
"common salvation" by the grace of the "same
Mediator" (2.10.1, pp. 428, 429). Calvin avers, "It is very
important to make this point," adding later that the unity of the
covenant is also "very profitable for us" (2.10.1, pp. 428,
429).
Calvin names
the heretics he is opposing, giving them none too flattering titles:
"that wonderful rascal Servetus and certain madmen of the
Anabaptist sect" (2.10.1, p. 429). Their error was that the Jews
were partakers only of a "carnal covenant," as Calvin dubs it
(2.10.19, p. 446), consisting of "carnal prosperity and
happiness" (2.10.2, p. 429) for a "carnal folk" (2.10.15,
p. 441). They present "the Israelites as nothing but a herd of
swine … fattened by the Lord on this earth without any hope of
heavenly immortality" (2.10.1, p. 429). The Anabaptist doctrine
"that the Lord promised the Jews, or that they sought for
themselves, nothing but a full belly, delights of the flesh, flourishing
wealth, outward power, fruitfulness of offspring, and whatever the
natural man prizes," Calvin calls an "insane and dangerous
opinion" (2.10.23, p. 448; cf. 4.16.10, p. 1333).
Against the
"carnal covenant," Calvin asserts the "spiritual
covenant" (2.10.7, p. 434; 2.10.15, p. 441; etc.).4
Calvin’s doctrine of one, spiritual covenant rests upon "three
main points" upon which "we must take our stand." First,
Old Testament revelation proclaimed, and the elect Jews aspired to,
"the hope of immortality" and not merely earthly riches.
Second, the covenant was not of human merit but "solely" of
God’s "mercy." Third, believing Jews "had and knew
Christ as Mediator, through whom they were joined to God and were to
share in his promises" (2.10.2, pp. 429, 430).
Calvin
identifies the first of these three as "the chief point in this
controversy" (2.10.10, p. 436) requiring "closer
attention" (2.10.3, p. 430), and so he spends most of book 2,
chapter 10, treating it, especially in sections 3, 7-23. First, sections
7-9 argue that the fathers had everlasting life because (1) they had the
quickening Word, (2) they fellowshipped with the living God, and (3) God’s
goodness is stronger than death. Second, Calvin describes the lives of
the patriarchs in Genesis—Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
Joseph (2.10.10-14, pp. 436-441)—as so miserable that they were
thereby "taught by the Lord as to perceive that they had a better
life elsewhere; and disregarding the earthly life, to meditate upon the
heavenly" (2.10.10, p. 436).5 Here Calvin notes
Scripture’s description of the fathers as "strangers and
sojourners" (cf. Gen. 47:9) and quotes at length that famous
passage in Hebrews 11:9-10, 13-16 as "very beautifully"
proving his point (2.10.13, p. 440). Third, he shows that in the Psalms,
Isaiah, Job, Ezekiel, Daniel, etc. (2.10.15-22, pp. 441-448),
"eternal life and Christ’s kingdom are revealed in fullest
splendor" (2.10.15, p. 441). Calvin rightly believes that he has
"blazed a trail for the moderately discerning reader" to
understand the Old Testament Scriptures (2.10.20, p. 446).
Only sections
4-6 of book 2, chapter 10, are directly concerned with proving that God’s
covenant, even in old testament days, was by God’s mercy through
Christ. Calvin practically equates the one, everlasting gospel of grace
with the covenant by speaking of "the covenant of the gospel:"
… the
Old Testament was established upon the free mercy of God, and
confirmed by Christ’s intercession. For the gospel preaching, too,
declares nothing else than that sinners are justified apart from
their own merit by God’s fatherly kindness; and the whole of it is
summed up in Christ. Who, then, dares to separate the Jews from
Christ, since with them, we hear, was made the covenant of the
gospel, the sole foundation of which is Christ? Who dares to
estrange from the gift of free salvation those to whom the doctrine
of righteousness by faith was imparted? (2.10.4, p. 431).
Calvin then
quotes John 8:56 and Hebrews 13:8, before noting that Christ came in
fulfillment of the covenant promise (Luke 1:54-55, 72-73; 2.10.4, pp.
431-432).
Not only is
the gospel of God’s mercy in Christ essentially the same in both
testaments but also the old covenant "sacraments" (Israel’s
baptism at the Red Sea, the water from the Rock that followed them in
the wilderness, and the manna) were also "truly spiritual
sacraments" (2.10.6, p. 433). Thus "the apostle [in I
Corinthians 10:1-6, 11] makes the Israelites equal to us not only in the
grace of the covenant but also in the signification of the
sacraments" (2.10.5, p. 432).
It ought,
however, to be noted that Calvin proves the unity of God’s covenant in
book 2, chapter 10, of his Institutes, in order to establish the
unity of the Scriptures. Thus this chapter is entitled, "The
Similarity of the Old and New Testaments." Moreover, Calvin thereby
also demonstrates the unity of the covenant people of God in all ages,
for "all the saints whom Scripture mentions as being peculiarly
chosen of God from the beginning of the world have shared with us the
same blessing unto eternal salvation" (2.11.10, p. 459). All three—one
covenant, one Bible and one church—are basic and essential aspects of
covenant theology.
The Different
Administrations of the Covenant
In book 2,
chapter 11, of the Institutes, Calvin is not simply comparing the
Mosaic covenant with the new covenant. Rather he explains the
differences between God’s revelation of the covenant in the Old
Testament Scriptures and in the New Testament Scriptures. Before listing
and discussing the five differences which Calvin identifies, he
underscores the fact that none of them individually, nor all of them
together, "detract from [Scripture’s] established unity"
(2.11.1, pp. 449-450). Instead, the "additions,"
"appendages," "accessories" and "accidental
properties of the covenant" (2.11.5, p. 454) all "pertain to
the manner of dispensation [or administration] rather than to the
substance" of the covenant (2.11.1, p. 450). The Genevan Reformer’s
Christological concern is evident: "In this way there will be
nothing to hinder the promises of the Old and New Testament from
remaining the same, nor from having the same foundation of these very
promises, Christ!" (2.11.1, p. 450).
With this
reiterated and understood, Calvin turns to the five differences. First,
the Old Testament differs from the New in that it contains physical,
earthly and temporal benefits which foreshadowed and mirrored spiritual,
heavenly and eternal blessings (2.11.1-3, pp. 449-453). Second, the Old
Testament "in the absence of the reality … showed but an image
and shadow in place of the substance [whereas] the New Testament reveals
the very substance of truth as present" (2.11.4, p. 453).
The third and
fourth differences particularly pertain to the Mosaic covenant under
which the law was given. Here Calvin, following Jeremiah and Paul in
Jeremiah 31 and II Corinthians 3 respectively, "consider[s] nothing
in the law except what properly belongs to it" (2.11.7, p. 456). He
explains,
For
example: the law here and there contains promises of mercy; but
because they have been borrowed from elsewhere, they are not counted
part of the law when only the nature of the law is under discussion.
They ascribe to it only this function: to enjoin what is right, to
forbid what is wicked; to promise a reward to the keepers of
righteousness, and threaten transgressors with punishment; but at
the same time not to change or correct the depravity of heart that
by nature inheres in all men (2.11.7, pp. 456-457).
The third
difference is that while the Old Testament law is literal (considered as
in its own nature and engraved on stone), the New is spiritual, written
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (2.11.7-8, pp. 456-457). The fourth
difference, as Calvin notes, "arises out of the third"
(2.11.9, p. 458). The Old Testament, considered from the distinctive
idea of "law," is one of "bondage," whereas the New
Testament is one of "freedom" through the gospel (2.11.9-10,
pp. 458-460).
The fifth and
last of Calvin’s differences applies to the covenants with Abraham,
Moses and David, and not to those in Genesis 1-11: in the Old Testament
God’s covenant of grace was with one people, the Jews, but in the New
Testament, the church is catholic, embracing believing Jews and Gentiles
(2.11.11-12, pp. 460-462). In former days, God "lodged his
covenant, so to speak, in [Israel’s] bosom; he manifested the presence
of his majesty to them; he showered every privilege upon them" but
in the fullness of time elect Jews and Gentiles are "reconciled to
God and welded into one people" by the blood and Spirit of Christ
(2.11.11, pp. 460, 461).
For centuries
Reformed Christians have agreed with Calvin’s evaluation of this
chapter of his Institutes: "In these four or five points I
think that I have explained faithfully and well the whole difference
between the Old and the New Testaments as far as a simple statement of
doctrine demands" (2.11.13, p. 462). Over against the objections of
some as to why God should have ordered such variations in the
administration of His covenant, Calvin rightly affirms the freedom and
wisdom of God’s sovereign will (2.11.13-14, pp. 462-464).
Covenant
Hermeneutics
Calvin’s
treatment of the unity and the differences between the two testaments
leads him set forth what may be called a "covenant
hermeneutic." This, Calvin believes, provides us with the
"key" for understanding the Old Testament:
Nevertheless,
I shall warn my readers beforehand to remember to open up their way
with the key that I previously put into their hands [cf. 2.9.1-4,
pp. 423-427]. That is, whenever the prophets recount the believing
people’s blessedness, hardly the least trace of which is discerned
in the present life, let them take refuge in this distinction: the
better to commend God’s goodness, the prophets represented it for
the people under the lineaments, so to speak, of temporal benefits.
But they painted a portrait such as to lift the minds of the people
above the earth, above the elements of this world [cf. Gal. 4:3] and
the perishing age, and that would of necessity arouse them to ponder
the happiness of the spiritual life to come (2.10.20, p. 447).
Calvin speaks
of the Old Testament "lineaments" or "portraits"
which portray spiritual, heavenly and eternal blessings in various ways.
For example, in book 2, chapter 11, he speaks of "signs,"
"symbols," "figures," "images,"
"shadows," and even a "mirror." But the word he uses
most is "type" or "typify." Since God has
"imprinted" "analogy and congruity" between the type
and the antitype (2.11.3, p. 452), Old Testament exegesis must interpret
the types which are given by God (but not invented by the exegete)
typologically and not merely literally.
… the
prophets more often represent the blessedness of the age to come
through the type that they had received from the Lord. In this sense
we are to understand these sayings: "The godly will possess the
land" by inheritance [Prov. 2:21 p.], but "the wicked will
perish from the earth" [Job 18:17 p.; cf. Prov. 2:22 …]. In
many passages in Isaiah we read that Jerusalem will abound with all
kinds of riches, and Zion shall overflow with plenty of all things
[cf. Isa. 35:10; 52:1ff.; 60:4ff.; ch. 62]. We see that all these
things cannot properly apply to the land of our pilgrimage, or to
the earthly Jerusalem, but to the true homeland of believers, that
heavenly city wherein "the Lord has ordained blessing and life
forevermore" [Ps. 133:3] (2.11.2, p. 452).6
Calvin
repeatedly explains the need for ceremonies and types in Old Testament
days as being rooted in the "childhood" of the church when
"God confined them to rudimentary teaching commensurate with their
age" (2.11.13, pp. 462-463; cf. 2.11.5, pp. 454-455; 2.11.9, p.
459).
The
Progressive Revelation of the Covenant
Calvin’s
comparison between the Old Testament (usually taking it as a unit) and
the New Testament in book 2, chapters 10 and 11, of his Institutes
does not mean that he is ignorant of the various covenants within the
Hebrew Scriptures. In these very chapters, Calvin speaks of the orderly,
progressive revelation of the covenant of grace from post-fall Adam
(Gen. 3:15) to the coming of Jesus Christ. The attractive imagery in
this justly celebrated passage is that of increasing light.
The Lord
held to this orderly plan in administering the covenant of his
mercy: as the day of full revelation approached with the passing of
time, the more he increased each day the brightness of its
manifestation. Accordingly, at the beginning when the first promise
of salvation was given to Adam [Gen. 3:15] it glowed like a feeble
sparks. Then, as it was added to, the light grew in fullness,
breaking forth increasingly and shedding its radiance more widely.
At last—when all the clouds were dispersed—Christ, the Sun of
Righteousness, fully illumined the whole earth [Mal., Ch. 4]
(2.10.20, p. 446).7
Elsewhere,
Calvin identifies the covenants with Abraham, Moses and David:
He calls
them "the mercies of David," because this covenant,
which has now been solemnly confirmed, was made in the land "of
David." The Lord indeed entered into a covenant with Abraham (Gen.
15:5; 17:7), afterwards confirmed it by Moses (Ex.
2:24; 33:1), and finally ratified this very covenant in the hand
of David, that it might be eternal (II
Sam. 7:12). Whenever, therefore, the Jews thought of a Redeemer,
that is, of their salvation, they ought to have remembered
"David" as a mediator who represented Christ; for David
must not here be regarded as a private individual, but as bearing
this title and character (Comm. on Isa. 55:3).
Again, Calvin
is quick to add that the various manifestations of the covenant do not
make "void" the earlier covenants: "the covenant into
which God entered with the fathers was firm, sure, and eternal, and not
changeable or temporary" (Comm. on Isa. 55:3). In Christ, the one
and eternal covenant is "ratified," "confirmed" and
"proved:"
By
calling [David’s antitype] "a witness," [Isaiah] means
that the covenant into which he entered shall be ratified and
confirmed in Christ … for he clearly shows that this covenant
shall be proved in Christ, by whom the truth of God shall be made
manifest (Comm. on Isa. 55:4).
Similarly,
the covenant with Noah, including the promise not to destroy the world
with water, is a manifestation of God’s everlasting and universal
covenant:
Moreover,
there is no doubt that it … was not therefore a private covenant
confirmed with one family only, but one which is common to all
people, and which shall flourish in all ages to the end of the world
… Wherefore, relying on this promise, let us look forward to the
last day, in which the consuming fire shall purify heaven and earth
[II Peter 3] (Comm. on Gen. 9:8-9).
Thus Calvin
highlights the heavenly implications of the Noahic covenant:
For
although this be an earthly promise, yet God designs the faith of
his people to be exercised, in order that they may be assured that a
certain abode will, by his special goodness, be provided for them on
earth, until they shall be gathered together in heaven (Comm.
on Gen. 9:10-11).
Calvin even
observes that God "promises salvation to a thousand
generations," and so the covenant with Noah refutes "the
ignorance of the Anabaptists … who deny that the covenant of God is
common to infants" (Comm. on Gen. 9:10-11).
Calvin
scholars have found only one passage in which the Reformer speaks
explicitly of God’s covenant with pre-fall Adam. In the Institutes,
he writes of the "covenants" (plural) with Adam and with Noah
and their respective sacraments or signs:
One is
when [God] gave Adam and Eve the tree of life as a guarantee of
immortality, that they might assure themselves of it as long as they
should eat of its fruit [Gen. 2:9; 3:22]. Another, when he set the
rainbow for Noah and his descendants, as a token that he would not
destroy the earth with a flood [Gen. 9:13-16]. These, Adam and Noah
regarded as sacraments. Not that the tree provided them with an
immortality which it could not give to itself; nor that the rainbow
(which is but a reflection of the sun’s rays opposite) could be
effective in holding back the waters; but because they had a mark
engraved upon them by God’s Word, so that they were proofs and
seals of his covenants (4.14.18, p. 1294).8
Thus Calvin
refers once to a pre-fall covenant with Adam, whereas he develops
"the covenant of his mercy" (2.10.20, p. 446), manifested
progressively in the covenants with post-fall Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses
and David, and "ratified," "confirmed" and
"proved" in Christ (Comm. on Isa. 55:4).9
Endnotes
1Peter A. Lillback, The
Binding of God: Calvin’s Role in the Development of Covenant Theology
(Baker: Grand Rapids, 2001), p. 311.
2All citations of the
Institutes are from John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian
Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols.
(Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960). All citations of Calvin’s
commentaries are from the 22 volume Baker (repr. 1993) edition.
3Cf. Westminster
Confession 7:5-6; Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. & A.
33.
4Calvin often refers
to the "spiritual covenant" in his writings (e.g., 3.20.45, p.
910; Comm. on Gen. 17:8). For him, the "spiritual covenant" is
synonymous with Christ’s "spiritual kingdom" (cf. Comm. on
Isa. 60:2; Comm. on Isa. 65:10), and the "carnal covenant" is
synonymous with an "earthly kingdom" (cf. 2.10.23, p. 449).
5Note Calvin’s
striking summary of Abraham, "the father of all them that
believe" (Rom. 4:11): "In short, throughout life he was so
tossed and troubled that if anyone wished to paint a picture of a
calamitous life, he could find no model more appropriate than Abraham’s"
(2.10.11, p. 438). "As for Jacob," Calvin continues, "he
is a notable example of nothing but extreme unhappiness" (2.10.12,
p. 438). How different from the facile view of the Christian life
proclaimed by much of Pentecostalism!
6Here Calvin’s
hermeneutic opposes not only the Anabaptists and the dispensationalists
but also the "health and wealth gospel," Christian
Reconstructionism and postmillennialism.
7"Nothing
surpasses" this quotation from Calvin on the progressive revelation
of God’s covenant, according to John Murray ("Covenant
Theology" in Collected Writings of John Murray [Great
Britain: Banner, 1982], vol. 4, p. 224).
8"The term ‘sacrament’"
in this context, explains Calvin, "embraces generally all those
signs which God has ever enjoined upon men to render them more certain
and confident of the truth of his promises." In this broad
category, Calvin includes Gideon’s fleece and Hezekiah’s sundial
going back ten degrees. Thus Calvin is not referring to the tree of life
as if it were the equivalent of baptism or the Lord’s Supper (4.14.18,
pp. 1294, 1295).
9For a succinct
treatment of Calvin on God’s covenant with Adam before the fall, see
Angus Stewart, "The Covenant with Adam—A Brief Historical
Analysis."
