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Hope is nothing else than the expectation of those things
which faith has believed
to have been truly promised by God. Thus, faith believes
God to be true, hope awaits the time when his truth shall be
manifested; faith believes that he is our Father, hope
anticipates that he will ever show himself to be a Father
toward us; faith believes that eternal life has been given to us,
hope anticipates that it will some time be revealed; faith is
the foundation upon which hope rests, hope nourishes and
sustains faith. 88
Having explored faith in a long, sometimes discursive and
repetitive chapter, Calvin devotes the next chapter of book three to
regeneration. The Spirit who is the author of the faith, Calvin has
just explained, is also the Spirit who renews the heart and produces
repentance. The repentant life crucifies the flesh and puts on
Christ. Calvin contrasts the biblical doctrine of repentance with the
scholastic sacrament of penance in chapter four and with the
selling of indulgences and with the doctrine of purgatory in chapter
five. These two chapters demonstrate how thoroughly Calvin
contrasted what he considered the biblical teachings on the Spirit,
faith, and regeneration, with the Roman practices and teachings of
his day.
Chapters six through ten deal with obedience. They are a
unit on sanctification. They are Calvin‘s teaching on the Christian
life, and are often referred to as ―The Golden Book on the Christian
Life.‖ They have frequently been printed separately, in a number
of languages, as a brief manual or guide for how the believer
should live. Together they are some forty pages long, only slightly
longer than half of his entire chapter three on faith. Yet they are
chapters laden with spiritual insight and wisdom on our life in
Christ. Together they weave a tapestry of all dimensions of
Christian living. They give coherence and completeness to our
88 Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p.590.