THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

Calvin's thought on Christ, his power, and the identity of his power with the
power of the Holy Spirit here perfectly accords with what he says of Christ and the
Spirit in his exposition of the article "sits at the Father's right hand" and in his
exposition of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Calvin's exposition of "he sits at the
Father's right hand" is found, of course, just lines above his exposition of "I believe in
the Holy Spirit," given their proximity in the Apostles' Creed. The statement that 'He
sits at the Father's right hand' means," says Calvin, "that he has been appointed and
declared King, Judge, and Lord over all, in order that by his power [virtus] he may
preserve and govern us . . . . Therefore, although lifted up into heaven, he has removed
his bodily presence from our sight; yet he does not refuse to be present with his
believers in help and might, and to show the manifest power [virtus] of his presence." 657
operatur. Per eam agit, sustinet, vegetat, vivificat omnia: per eam nos iustificat, sanctificat, expurgat, ad
sese vocat ac trahit, ut salutem consequamur. Itaque spiritus sanctus, dum in nobis ad hunc modum
habitat, is est qui nobis suo lumine illucet, quo discamus et plane agnoscamus, quam ingentem divinae
bonitatis opulentiam in Christo possideamus" (CO 5:340-341). Instruction et confession 1537: "Quand
nous sommes enseignez de croire au S. Esperit pareillement aussi il nous est commande dattendre de luy
ce qui luy est attribue en lEscripture. Car Christ oeuvre par la vertu de son Esperit tout ce qui est de bon
quelque part que ce soit: par elle il faict, soustient, entretient et vivifie toutes choses: par elle il nous
iustifie, sainctifie, purge, appelle et tire a soy affin que nous obtenions salut. Pourtant le S. Esperit, quand
en ceste maniere il habite en nous, est celluy qui nous esclaire de sa lumiere affin que nous apprenions et
pleinement cognoissions combien grandes richesses de la divine bonté nous possedons en Christ, qui
enflame noz cueurs du feu de ardente charite de Dieu et du prochain, et tous les iours de plus en plus
mortifie et consomme les vices de nostre concupiscence, tellement que sil y a en nous quelques bonnes
oeuvres ce sont les fruictz et les vertus de sa grace : et sans luy il ny a en nous que tenebres dentendement
et perversité de cueur" (CO 22:56-57).
657 Catechismus, sive Christianae religionis institutio 1538, as in Hesselink, Calvin's First
Catechism, 24. "Quod autem sedere ad pateris dexteram dicitur, significatur constitutum ac declaratum
regem, arbitrum ac dominum super omnia, quo nos sua virtute conservet ac moderetur: . . . . Itaque
quanquam in coelum sublatus, corporis sui praesentiam e conspectu nostro sustulit, non tamen auxilio ac
potential desinit adesse suis fidelibus} manifestamque praesentiae suae virtutem ostendere (Ephes. 4, 8
ss.); quod etiam pollicitus est" (CO 5:340). Obviously Calvin is expressing what in the Protestant
Scholasticism of the late 16th and 17th centuries becomes the so-called extra calvinisticum. Since that
label does not suit the mid-sixteenth century and therefore Calvin's doctrine itself, I am not using it nor
further expounding it in my dissertation. My interest is merely in Calvin's Trinitarian conception and
expression of the "economy" of the sacraments given his Trinitarian conception and expression of the
economy of God's "activity," creative and redemptive. However, to touch briefly on the extra
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