Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > Institutes of the Christian Religion (text only) Revised edition by J. Calvin,H. Beveridge > Status Update

(7) From just a cursory reading of the New Testament one will easily find that the Word which became flesh is God the Creator and sustainer of all things. John 1:1 simply calls Him God and simultaneously sets Him alongside God as an equal. Likewise, in Hebrews 1:2 the Apostle tells us "that the worlds were created by the Son, and that He sustains all things by His mighty word." Jesus Himself affirms in John 5:17 that even in human flesh, He continues on the work the Father gave Him to do in creation.

(8) "Here an outcry is made by certain men, who, while they dare not openly deny His Divinity, secretly rob Him of His eternity." They will argue that the Word did not exist before the Father opened His mouth to speak, and thus the Father's first act of creation was to being the Word into existence. First, Scripture testifies directly against this, such as when the Son speaks of the glory He shared with the Father "before the world was" (John 17:5), or when the apostle John just simply states that "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). Second, logically, how can the Son truly share in the essence of the Deity to be called God, but lack the necessary attribute of eternality?

Here we must also contend with the Jews who ever protest that the oneness of God precludes the Son sharing the divinity, but (9) their own Scriptures (Ps 45) testify otherwise. Isaiah 9:6 clearly says of the Messiah Immanuel, "His name shall be called mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Jeremiah goes even further by giving Him the divine Name, "This is the name whereby He shall be called, Yahweh our righteousness" (23:6).

(10) And "what cavils will enable [the Jews] to evade the numerous passages in which Yahweh is said to have appeared in the form of an angel? This angel claims for Himself the name of the eternal God," and orders sacrifices to be offered to Him. To escape these, the impious Servetus has blasphemously claimed that "God was never manifested to Abraham and the patriarchs, but that an angel was worshiped in His stead." See to what absurd lengths one must go to get around the deity of the Messenger of Yahweh!

When we arrive at (11) the New Testament witness, the evidence for the divinity of the Son is both clear and overwhelming. Time and again the apostles quote passages concerning Yahweh (e.g., Isa 6:4; 8:14; 45:23; Ps 68:19), which they immediately apply to Christ (Jn 12:41; Rom 9:33; Phil 2:10; Eph 4:8). Then there are the passages where the apostles pointedly call Jesus God (Jn 1:1, 14; 20:28; 2 Cor 5:10; 1 Tim 3:16; Phil 2:6; etc. etc.).

Furthermore, (12) what shall we say about the works ascribed to Christ? "When He said of Himself, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," the Jews, though most dull in regard to His other sayings, perceived that He was laying claim to divine power, and as John relates, they sought the more to kill Him for making Himself equal with God." Yahweh proclaimed by the prophets that He was the only One Who could forgive sins (Isa 43:25), and yet, we find Jesus doing exactly this (Matt 9:6). God alone can penetrate and interrogate the secret thoughts of the heart, and yet Christ also had this power. "Therefore, we infer that Christ is God."

(13) "It is not surprising that Christ appealed to His miracles in order to subdue the unbelief of the Jews." When Jesus walked on water, when He calmed the storm, when He raised the dead by a simple command, when He multiplied the loaves, when He cast out demons with a word, when He healed the sick, the lame, and the deaf and granted His disciples authority to do the same, in all these He was bearing testimony about Himself.

Calvin turns now to (14) proving the divinity of the Holy Spirit. "It is by no means an obscure testimony which Moses bears in the history of the creation when he says that the Spirit of God wad expanded over the abyss or shapeless matter, for it shows that even before the beauty existed the Spirit was at work cherishing the confused mass." Neither can any cavils can explain away Isaiah 48:16.

The properties ascribed to Him are equally divine. He cannot be circumscribed by limits (Ps 139:7), He gives life to all things (Jn 6:63), He regenerates Whom He wills (Jn 3:8), He knows the mind of God (1 Cor 2:11), He bestows the gifts on the Body (1 Cor 12:11), and it is He Who sanctifies us (1 Pet 1:2).

(15) Scripture calls the Holy Spirit God. To be the Temple of God is to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16). To lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God (Acts 5:3-4). Words spoken by God are ascribed to the Holy Spirit.

My thoughts: Necessary as this section is in the history of the Christian faith, it is not much of a battleground among confessing Christians today (in my experience, at least), which I must confess lends the subject to a slight tedium in the paraphrase. Nevertheless, the doctrine here is rich with relevant application, of which I will content myself with just one point:

Unless Jesus and the Holy Spirit are expressly declared to be God, coequal and of one substance with the Father, the god worshiped is not the Christian God. Therefore, Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and even Oneness Pentecostals do not worship the same God. Therefore, no religious unity of any kind is possible. We simply cannot worship demons alongside the One True Triune God.

Churches should regularly recite the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed corporately during the Lord's Day service. Many are reluctant to do so simply because they don't understand the creeds' purpose. They are not summaries of all important or necessary Christian doctrine (much less the gospel), but rather they are deliberate Trinitarian confessions structured as they are as the Father and His works, the Son and His works, and the Holy Spirit and His works. They work to point the church toward which God has their allegiance. (For this reason, they should be introduced with the minister saying, "In Whom do you trust?" Rather than, "What do you believe?")

Although Servetus is mentioned here just briefly in passing, Calvin goes much harder at him and his theology later on, so I'll touch that infamous historical bag of snakes at a more opportune time. For now, I'm just going to wave at the thorny subject as I pass by.