Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)
CHAPTER XVII.
THE HARMONY BETWEEN THE PROMISES OF THE LAW AND THOSE OF THE GOSPEL.
Let us now pursue the other arguments with which Satan by
his satellites attempts to destroy or to weaken justification by
faith. I think we have already gained this point with these
calumniators—that they can no longer accuse us of being enemies
to good works. For we reject the notion of justification
by works, not that no good works may be done, or that those
which are performed may be denied to be good, but that we
may neither confide in them, nor glory in them, nor ascribe
salvation to them. For this is our trust, this is our glory, and
the only anchor of our salvation, That Christ the Son of God is
ours, and that we are likewise, in him, sons of God and heirs
of the celestial kingdom; being called, not for our worthiness,
but by the Divine goodness, to the hope of eternal felicity.
But since they assail us besides, as we have observed, with
other weapons, let us also proceed to the repulsion of them.
In the first place, they return to the legal promises which the
Lord gave to the observers of his law, and inquire whether we
suppose them to be entirely vain, or of any validity. As it
would be harsh and ridiculous to say they are vain, they take
it for granted that they have some efficacy. Hence they
argue, that we are not justified by faith alone. For thus saith
the Lord, “Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to
these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord thy
God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he
sware unto thy fathers; and he will love thee, and bless thee,
and multiply thee.”[125]
Again: “If ye thoroughly amend
your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment
between a man and his neighbour; if ye oppress not,
neither walk after other gods; then will I cause you to dwell
in this place,” &c.[126]
I am not willing to recite a thousand passages
of the same kind, which, not being different in sense, will
be elucidated by an explanation of these. The sum of all is
declared by Moses, who says that in the law are proposed “a
blessing and a curse, life and death.”[127]
Now, they argue,
either that this blessing becomes inefficacious and nugatory, or
that justification is not by faith alone. We have already
shown, how, if we adhere to the law, being destitute of every
blessing, we are obnoxious to the curse which is denounced on
all transgressors. For the Lord promises nothing, except to
the perfect observers of his law, of which description not one
can be found. The consequence then is, that all mankind are
proved by the law to be obnoxious to the curse and wrath of
God; in order to be saved from which, they need deliverance
from the power of the law, and emancipation from its servitude;
not a carnal liberty, which would seduce us from obedience
to the law, invite to all kinds of licentiousness, break
down the barriers of inordinate desire, and give the reins to
every lawless passion; but a spiritual liberty, which will console
and elevate a distressed and dejected conscience, showing
it to be delivered from the curse and condemnation under
which it was held by the law. This liberation from subjection
to the law, and manumission, (if I may use the term,) we
attain, when we apprehend by faith the mercy of God in
Christ, by which we are assured of the remission of sins, by
the sense of which the law penetrated us with compunction
and remorse.
II. For this reason all the promises of the law would be
ineffectual and vain, unless we were assisted by the goodness
of God in the gospel. For the condition of a perfect obedience
to the law, on which they depend, and in consequence
of which alone they are to be fulfilled, will never be performed.
Now, the Lord affords this assistance, not by leaving a part of
righteousness in our works, and supplying part from his mercy,
but by appointing Christ alone for the completion of righteousness.
For the apostle, having said that he and other Jews,
“knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
believed in Christ,” adds as a reason, not that they might be
assisted to obtain a complete righteousness by faith in Christ,
but “that they might be justified by the faith of Christ, and
not by the works of the law.”[128]
If the faithful pass from the
law to faith, to find righteousness in the latter, which they
perceive to be wanting in the former, they certainly renounce
the righteousness of the law. Therefore let whosoever will
now amplify the rewards which are said to await the observer
of the law; only let him remark, that our depravity prevents
us from receiving any benefit from them, till we have obtained
by faith another righteousness. Thus David, after having
mentioned the reward which the Lord has prepared for his
servants, immediately proceeds to the acknowledgment of sins,
by which it is annulled. In the nineteenth psalm, likewise, he
magnificently celebrates the benefits of the law; but immediately
exclaims, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse
thou me from secret faults.”[129]
This passage perfectly accords
with that before referred to, where, after having said,
“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as
keep his covenant and his testimonies,” he adds, “For thy
name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.”[130]
So we ought also to acknowledge, that the Divine favour is
offered to us in the law, if we could purchase it by our works;
but that no merit of ours can ever obtain it.
III. What, then, it will be said, were those promises given, to
vanish away without producing any effect? I have already
declared that this is not my opinion. I assert, indeed, that
they have no efficacy with respect to us as long as they are
referred to the merit of works; wherefore, considered in themselves,
they are in some sense abolished. Thus that grand
promise, “Keep my statutes and judgments; which if a man
do, he shall live in them;”[131]
the apostle maintains to be of
no value to us, if we rest upon it, and that it will be no more
beneficial to us than if it had never been given; because it is
inapplicable to the holiest of God’s servants, who are all far
from fulfilling the law, and are encompassed with a multitude of
transgressions.[132]
But when these are superseded by the evangelical
promises, which proclaim the gratuitous remission of
sins, the consequence is, that not only our persons, but also our
works, are accepted by God; and not accepted only, but followed
by those blessings, which were due by the covenant
to the observance of the law. I grant, therefore, that the
works of believers are rewarded by those things which the
Lord has promised in his law to the followers of righteousness
and holiness; but in this retribution it is always necessary to
consider the cause, which conciliates such favour to those
works. Now, this we perceive to be threefold: The first is,
That God, averting his eyes from the actions of his servants,
which are invariably more deserving of censure than of praise,
receives and embraces them in Christ, and by the intervention
of faith alone reconciles them to himself without the assistance
of works. The second is, That in his paternal benignity and
indulgence, he overlooks the intrinsic worth of these works,
and exalts them to such honour, that he esteems them of some
degree of value. The third cause is, That he pardons these
works as he receives them, not imputing the imperfection with
which they are all so defiled, that they might otherwise be
accounted rather sins than virtues. Hence it appears how
great has been the delusion of the sophists, who thought that
they had dexterously avoided all absurdities by saying that
works are sufficient to merit salvation, not on account of their
own intrinsic goodness, but by reason of the covenant, because
the Lord in his mercy has estimated them so highly. But at
the same time, they had not observed how far the works,
which they styled meritorious, fell short of the condition of the
promise; unless they were preceded by justification founded
on faith alone, and by remission of sins, by which even good
works require to be purified from blemishes. Therefore, of the
three causes of the Divine goodness, in consequence of which
the works of believers are accepted, they only noticed one,
and suppressed two others, and those the principal.
