Reflection 8 - Calvin's Institutes

Reflection 8 – Calvin’s Institutes Book I Chapter 13.7-13

In chapter 13 Calvin is arguing for the essence of God being infinite and the person of God being triune. And in sections 7 – 13 in this chapter he is discussing the “eternal deity of the Son”. John Calvin is interested in the reader being convinced of the eternal deity of the Son of God as he is revealed in the Word as the Word, and this eternal deity is confirmed not only by his own testimony in himself, his works and miracles, but by the testimonies of the prophets and apostles as the Word of God has been given us through them as instruments of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the Word of God who is the eternal God. “Unchangeable, the Word abides everlastingly one and the same with God, and is God himself.” Therefore all the world is made through and upheld by the Son of God, and he and the Father have been working from the beginning up until every moment that we measure by time going forward. The Father and the Son are God of different persons, but the same God in essence. Therefore to belittle Jesus Christ in our thoughts, prayers and words so that we feel comfortable with him is to make a God of our own image and liking. The Word of God shared with the Father an eternal glory before the foundations of the earth or ever before they said, “Let there be light”. Therefore there is no beginning of the Son, he is the eternal Word of God who is all glorious to be worshiped and adored in exaltation and praise.

Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God whose deity shines forth in the prophets. John Calvin points us beyond the arguments of the Jews against the deity of Christ found in the prophets by opening up our eyes to see Jesus Christ revealed in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Of Isaiah 9:6 he says, “But to what purpose would so many titles be heaped up in this place to God the Father, since the intention of the prophet is to adorn Christ with clear marks to build up our faith in him?” He also argues from Jeremiah 23:5-6 that Jesus Christ, the branch of David, will be called Jehovah our Righteousness, and says, “we infer that the only Son is the eternal God who elsewhere declares that he will not give his glory to another [Isa.42:8].” The thousands of prophecies of the Christ in the Old Testament not only point the way of man’s salvation in the Son of God, but that the Son of God is truly God and is to be worshiped as God.

Therefore if you believe in God believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for those who believe in him will have eternal life. The church must preach, teach, encourage, exhort from no other foundation but Christ. As Calvin says, “Who has dared talk of him as a mere creature, when the knowledge of him is our only reason for glorying?” The Son of God is the eternal God and to know and abide in him is to be “quickened, illumined, preserved, justified, and sanctified” in him. He is revealed in his Word from the beginning to the end and he is the Word from all eternity. Is he worshiped, praised, adored, thanked, trusted and obeyed in your life by faith as the eternal Son of God?