JOHN CALVIN

36
QUESTION 20
JEW: I ask you, how did he say, All power in heaven and earth has been given to me 22 ? For who
gave it to him? If he is the son of God and God, as you say, then there was no need to grant him
this power, for surely the whole world is his already.
CALVIN: I ask you, how are the people of Israel said to have been the sanctification of God,
when they were redeemed from Egypt, if the sanctity of God is not at all derived from men, nor
does it have a beginning or an end? Furthermore, I ask you, why is God—in whose hand is the
abundance of all things—said to receive gifts from conquered men, as if he could enrich himself
with the spoils of his enemies (Psalm 68:19)? I also ask you, how in Psalm 45:8 is the king said
to have been anointed by the oil of gladness beyond his fellows, the king who in that very place
is called Elohim, who sits on the eternal throne?
Surely, if Christ had not taken up in himself our poverty or our nakedness along with the
human person, that gift which is spoken of would be superfluous. Nor indeed does Christ claim
to have this authority by consideration of his own divinity: but he proclaims by what glory of
authority he will be adorned according to the conception of men, just as elsewhere he says,
Father glorify your son with the glory which he possessed with you before the world was
created (John 17:5). The following words are more than enough to refute this foul objection:
God sought to reveal clearly in the flesh the glory which was before hidden from the eyes of
men. Also, Paul most excellently explains it in the same way: because he emptied himself, a
name was given to him which is above every name, so that every knee would bend in his
presence (Philippians 2:7 ff.).
22 Matthew 28:18