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

Mediator and Head, so that each one of us might receive from Him his own
portion, but also because the same Spirit is common to the Father and the Son,
who have one essence, and the same eternal deity. Because, however, we have
no communication with God except by Christ, the apostle wisely descends from
the Father, who seems to be at a greater distance, to Christ. 677
Given the flow of his text, in his 1556 edition Calvin implies a further "descent,"
namely, to that of the Spirit, by whom "He [Christ] dwells in us," by whom
"quickening" "power" accrues to believers to "absorb [their] immortality." 678 Already in
the 1540 edition he speaks of the Spirit in just this way, but again, without the explicitly
Trinitarian setup. However, the exposition of this text, from 1540 on, concludes with an
allusion to his elsewhere expressions of the Trinitarian economy: "Paul takes
confirmation" on this point "from the efficient cause, in the following manner: 'If Christ
was raised by the power of the Spirit of God, and if the Spirit retains eternal power, He
will also exert that power in us,' because, as Paul puts it, the Spirit "dwells in you." 679
Even though the explicitly Trinitarian setup to the exposition about Christ's
indwelling through the Spirit is not inserted until the 1556 edition of the commentary,
Calvin's commentary taken as a whole provides that Trinitarian soteriological context.
677 The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Romans and to the Thessalonians, trans. R.
MacKenzie, CNTC 8:164-65. "Iam vero hic observent lectores j promiscue spiritum nunc Dei patris, nunc
Christi vocari: non modo quia in Christum, quatenus mediator noster est et caput, effusa est tota illius
plenitudo, ut inde sua in quemque nostrum portio deflueret: sed quoniam idem spiritus patris et filii
communis est, quorum una est essentia, et eadem aeterna deitas. Quia tamen nulla nolis nisi per Christum
communicatio est cum Deo, prudenter apostolus a patre, qui longius abesse videtur, ad Christum
descendit" (CO 49:145).
678 The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Romans and to the Thessalonians, trans. R.
MacKenzie, CNTC 8:164-65. "Respondet ergo, vim vivificandi in spiritu Christi inesse, quae ad
mortalitatem nostram absorbendam valeat" (CO 49:145).
679 The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Romans and to the Thessalonians, trans. R.
MacKenzie, CNTC 8:164-65. "Confirmatio est proximae sententiae sumpta a causa efficiente, in hunc
modum: si potentia spiritus Dei Christus excitatus est, ac spiritus aeternam retinet potentiam: eandem in
nobis quoque exseret" (CO 49: 145-56).
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