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

true communication of his body and blood," a communication "content with the bond of
his Spirit." 660 As spoken of in Chapter 2 above, Christ's and the Spirit's are a
"coordinated agency," by which God accomplishes "all that is good," soteriologically or
sacramentally. As Mark A. Garcia puts it, this is a "sine qua non of Calvin's thought: in
their functional or economic identity, Christ must not be separated from his Spirit." 661
Calvin's first catechism then—first published in French and then in Latin,
though likely prepared in Latin, perhaps as early as late 1536—demonstrates that
Calvin's emphasis on the Spirit in his discussion of the Lord's Supper is an extension, if
you will, of his understanding of the Spirit with respect to God Triune. The "economy"
of God's good will toward us, in creation and in salvation, is precisely that which is
attested in the sacrament, and so the Spirit, who effects that economy, is spoken of
prominently there. As demonstrated in Chapter 2, already by 1540, Calvin adopts and
expresses a more clearly, strongly instrumental view of the sacrament, such that the
sacrament is not only a testament to the true communication of Christ's body and blood
by the power of the Holy Spirit, but also an occasion—the sacramental occasion—when
that true communication truly transpires, by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the
bond of believers' union with Christ. Calvin's language does not change, but its referents
shift. So in the 1539 Institutio Calvin writes: "But if it is true that a visible sign is given
signes sont le pain et le vin, soubz lesquelz le Seigneur nous presente la vraye communication de son
corps et de song sang, mais spirituelle: laquelle contente du lien de son esprit ne requiert point une
presence enclose ou de la chair soubz le pain ou du sang soubz le vin. Car combine que Christ esleve au
ciel a laisse l'habitation de la terre en laquelle nous sommes encores pellerins, toutesfois nulle distance ne
pault dissouldre sa vertu quil ne repaisse de soy mesmes les siens" (CO 22:69).
Catechism, 35.
660 Catechismus, sive Christianae religionis institutio 1538, as in Hesselink, Calvin's First
661 Garcia, Life in Christ, 172; see also 175, 176, and 194. See also Ganoczy, "Observations," 98.
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