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law in the context of his treatment of the work of Christ. Our
righteousness as believers is the righteousness of Christ, who kept
the law perfectly. We are made beneficiaries and participants in
Christ‘s obedience by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit,
who works faith in our hearts. Joined to Christ by faith, we are
made participants in Christ‘s righteousness. The life of obedience
is the life of faith in Christ—self-denial, cross-bearing, meditation
on the future life, and properly receiving and using God‘s gifts of
the present life.
Taffin’s View of Faith and Obedience
Jean Taffin spent time in Geneva within three years of the
time Calvin completed his 1559 edition. How long he stayed or the
extent of his interaction as a relatively new, young believer with
Calvin himself is not known. Did he attend Calvin‘s lectures on
books of the Bible? Did he hear him preach for an extended
period? Did the two men converse personally on theological
matters? We do not know. We know that Taffin knew Calvin
personally and that he later corresponded with him. It is almost
certain, although undocumented, that he read some of Calvin‘s
publications. That French was the primary language of both men
makes Taffin‘s reliance on and respect for Calvin even more
certain. That he invited Calvin to the Low Countries to mediate
theologically and ecclesiastically in the early 1560s demonstrates
Taffin‘s high regard for the Genevan reformer.
We might expect, therefore, theological evidence of the
relationship. Did it appear with regard to the concepts of faith and
obedience?
Remarkably and understandably, Taffin‘s The Marks of
God‘s Children begins with a consideration of the blessedness of
the life to come. The opening chapter is, as Calvin would call it in
book three, chapter nine, ―meditation on the future life.‖ The
incomparable blessedness of the life to come is disclosed by the
Holy Spirit, ―who searches the depths of God, grants us some