Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)
V. But the proof will be still clearer, if the grace of God be
directly opposed to the natural condition of man. The Scripture
invariably proclaims, that God finds nothing in men which
can incite him to bless them, but that he prevents them by his
gratuitous goodness. For what can a dead man do to recover
life? But when God illuminates us with the knowledge of
himself, he is said to raise us from death, and to make us new
creatures.[9]
For under this character we find the Divine
goodness towards us frequently celebrated, especially by the
apostle. “God,” says he, “who is rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ,” &c.[10]
In another
place, when, under the type of Abraham, he treats of the general
calling of believers, he says, It is “God, who quickeneth the
dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they
were.”[11]
If we are nothing, what can we do? Wherefore
God forcibly represses this presumption, in the Book of Job, in
the following words: “Who hath prevented me, that I should
repay him? Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is
mine.”[12]
Paul, explaining this passage, concludes from it,
that we ought not to suppose we bring any thing to the Lord
but ignominious indigence and emptiness.[13]
Wherefore, in
the passage cited above, in order to prove that we attain to the
hope of salvation, not by works, but solely by the grace of God,
he alleges, that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them.”[14]
As though he would say, Who
of us can boast that he has influenced God by his righteousness,
since our first power to do well proceeds from regeneration?
For, according to the constitution of our nature,
oil might be extracted from a stone sooner than we could
perform a good work. It is wonderful, indeed, that man,
condemned to such ignominy, dares to pretend to have any
thing left. Let us confess, therefore, with that eminent servant
of the Lord, that “God hath saved us, and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace;”[15]
and that “the kindness and love
of God our Saviour towards man appeared,” because “not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he saved us; that being justified by his grace, we
should be made heirs of eternal life.”[16]
By this confession
we divest man of all righteousness, even to the smallest particle,
till through mere mercy he has been regenerated to the hope of
eternal life; for if a righteousness of works contributed any
thing to our justification, we are not truly said to be “justified
by grace.” The apostle, when he asserted justification to be
by grace, had certainly not forgotten his argument in another
place, that “if it be of works, then it is no more grace.”[17]
And what else does our Lord intend, when he declares, “I am
not come to call the righteous, but sinners?”[18]
If sinners
only are admitted, why do we seek to enter by a counterfeit
righteousness?
VI. The same thought frequently recurs to me, that I am in
danger of injuring the mercy of God, by labouring with so
much anxiety in the defence of this doctrine, as though it were
doubtful or obscure. But such being our malignity, that, unless
it be most powerfully subdued, it never allows to God that
which belongs to him, I am constrained to dwell a little longer
upon it. But as the Scripture is sufficiently perspicuous on
this subject, I shall use its language in preference to my own.
Isaiah, after having described the universal ruin of mankind,
properly subjoins the method of recovery. “The Lord saw it,
and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw
that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor:
therefore his own arm brought salvation unto him; and his
righteousness it sustained him.”[19]
Where are our righteousnesses,
if it be true, as the prophet says, that no one assists the
Lord in procuring his salvation? So another prophet introduces
the Lord speaking of the reconciliation of sinners to himself, saying,
“I will betroth thee unto me for ever, in righteousness, and
in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will
have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy.”[20]
If this
covenant, which is evidently our first union with God, depend
on his mercy, there remains no foundation for our righteousness.
And I should really wish to be informed by those, who pretend
that man advances to meet God with some righteousness of
works, whether there be any righteousness at all, but that which
is accepted by God. If it be madness to entertain such a thought,
what that is acceptable to God can proceed from his enemies,
who, with all their actions, are the objects of his complete
abhorrence? And that we are all the inveterate and avowed
enemies of our God, till we are justified and received into his
friendship, is an undeniable truth.[21]
If justification be the
principle from which love originates, what righteousnesses of
works can precede it? To destroy that pestilent arrogance,
therefore, John carefully apprizes us that “we did not first love
him.”[22]
And the Lord had by his prophet long before taught
the same truth: “I will love them freely,” saith he, “for mine
anger is turned away.”[23]
If his love was spontaneously inclined
towards us, it certainly is not excited by works. But the
ignorant mass of mankind have only this notion of it—that no
man has merited that Christ should effect our redemption;
but that towards obtaining the possession of redemption, we
derive some assistance from our own works. But however we
may have been redeemed by Christ, yet till we are introduced
into communion with him by the calling of the Father, we are
both heirs of darkness and death, and enemies to God. For
Paul teaches, that we are not purified and washed from our
pollutions by the blood of Christ, till the Spirit effects that
purification within us.[24]
This is the same that Peter intends,
when he declares that the “sanctification of the Spirit” is
effectual “unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ.”[25]
If we are sprinkled by the Spirit with the blood
of Christ for purification, we must not imagine that before this
ablution we are in any other state than that of sinners destitute
of Christ. We may be certain, therefore, that the commencement
of our salvation is, as it were, a resurrection from
death to life; because, when “on the behalf of Christ it is
given to us to believe on him,”[26]
we then begin to experience
a transition from death to life.
