November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

Calvin’s Integrated Covenant Theology (2)
The most biblical, clear, and comforting treatment of the nature
of the covenant in Calvin’s Institutes occurs, as one might
expect, in his most extended treatment of the covenant in book 2,
chapters 10 and 11. Within this section, Calvin makes his most
penetrating remarks on the essence of the covenant in his first
two arguments proving that God’s “spiritual covenant” is “common”
to the saints both before and after the coming of Jesus Christ
(2.10.7, p. 434).
In his first argument, Calvin extols the “life” and “energy” of
God’s “imperishable” Word, which “quickens the souls of all to
whom God grants participation in it.” Through the Word, God’s
people in every age are “join[ed]” and “bound” to Him by a “sacred
bond,” so that they possess a “real participation in God.”
Enlivened and “illumine[d]” by this Word, the saints “cleave” to
God and are “united more closely” to Him in the “blessing of
eternal life.” Thus we see Calvin explaining God’s “spiritual covenant”
as our being “join[ed],” “bound,” and “united” with Him,
so that we “cleave” to Him and enjoy a “real participation” in His
blessedness (2.10.7, p. 434).
In his second argument, Calvin considers “the very formula
of the covenant,” which, he observes, is the same in every age:
“For the Lord always covenanted with his servants thus: ‘I will
be your God, and you shall be my people’ [Lev. 26:12]” (2.10.8,
p. 434). 11 This covenant formula, Calvin notes, is frequently used
in the Old Testament as a summary of all of salvation: “The prophets
also commonly explained that life and salvation and the whole
of blessedness are embraced in these words.” He then quotes various
texts from the Psalms, Habakkuk, Isaiah, and Deuteronomy
as proof (2.10.8, pp. 434-435).
Calvin continues,
11. Higher critic Rolf Rendtorff has produced an interesting survey
of the use of the covenant formula in the Old Testament, identifying
three different forms of statements: (1) about God, that He is our God;
(2) about us, that we are His people; and (3) about God and us, that He
is our God and we are His people (Rolf Rendtorff, The Covenant Formula:
An Exegetical and Theological Investigation, trans. Margaret Kohl
[Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1998]).
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