CALVIN S INSTITUTES. Lesson 4

Transcription

1 CALVIN S INSTITUTES Lesson 4

2 THE NATURE OF GOD (I.11-13) As spiritual (and thus no idols allowed) As Trinity

3 SETTING THE STAGE We ve seen already Calvin is roughly following the Apostles Creed And so now working on God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth Our knowledge of God intertwines with our knowledge of ourselves God is revealed in nature and in our human nature But sin blinds us to it To see God clearly we need the spectacles of Scripture Scripture to be branded on our hearts, not flitting in our heads From Scripture we learn some of the nature of God

4 CALVIN S APPROACH TO GOD God is so great, we dare not speculate about him beyond what Scripture shows Let us use great caution that neither our thoughts nor our speech go beyond the limits to which the Word of God itself extends. Thus, God lisps to us so we can grasp something Personal salvation is secondary to a zeal for the glory of God Thus we proclaim God himself, not so much just our personal feelings This dramatically contrasts with popular ideas today

5 GOD IS INFINITE, SO NO IDOLS The infiniteness of God can be seen as the foundation of Calvin s theology He is spiritual and holy Blinded by sin, though people may apprehend that there is something bigger than us, we form idols In stressing this, Calvin is reacting to the excess of Catholicism in making images, venerating relics, etc.

6 A SUMMARY The whole essence of God is spiritual, in which are comprehended Father, Son, and Spirit. Thus, we imagine nothing earthly or carnal of him. We are sensual by nature, and want a God who appeals to our senses And thus more like ourselves Yet, as the children s catechism says, God is a spirit and doesn t have a body.

7 REFUTING THOSE WHO USE IMAGES God s glory is corrupted by an impious falsehood whenever any form is attached to him Thus recall Moses s reaction when he found Israel worshipping the golden calf And recall they claimed the calf was Yahweh! Ironically, this happened even as Moses received the commandment, You shall not make for yourself any graven image. (Ex. 20:4) So even the icons of Eastern Orthodox Christians are idolatrous And the relics of the Catholics can be also All who seek visible forms of God depart from him.

8 AGAINST IDOLS The ancient church turned over teaching to images, seen by Calvin as replacing preaching in instructing believers Because man s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols. This is because Man s mind, full as it is of pride and boldness, dares to imagine a god according to its own capacity. Or since the Enlightenment, man imagines he can figure everything out with no need for a god pride growing even greater

9 CALVIN REJECTS THE CATHOLIC DISTINCTION dulia The respectful service of a slave Thus can be offered to Mary (hyperdulia), the Saints, and icons/relics Calvin sees this as allowing divine honor to be transferred safely to angels and the dead And the honor given by Catholics to saints really doesn t differ from that to God latria The worship due a deity Calvin sees this distinction blurred in the Bible, thus it takes away from God s glory And God s glory is not to be shared

10 SUMMING CALVIN ON IDOLS Premise: God is purely spiritual Thus no representations should be made of the spiritual Reformed camp has disagreed on this regarding images of Jesus While Calvin allows things visible to be depicted in art, do we know what Jesus really looked like? Reveals the inclination of our hearts to worship but avoid the spiritual Today, the issue may be worshipping ourselves Or idolizing celebrities What things might we wrongly idolize in our lives?

11 CALVIN LEAVES ROOM FOR ART Sculpture and painting are gifts of God. Only those things are to e sculptured or painted which the eyes are capable of seeing.

12 CALVIN ON THE TRINITY

13 CALVIN ON THE TRINITY 1. Terms to be used in the discussion 2. The full Divinity of the Son and Spirit 3. The Oneness and Threeness of the Trinity

14 1. TERMS TO BE USED Images cannot represent the essence of God as infinite and spiritual His infinity ought to make us afraid to try to measure him by our senses. Calvin discourages lists of attributes (in contrast to many other theologies) God lisps to us of his nature, thus anthropomorphism in the Bible A form of divine baby talk God s ESSENCE is simple and undivided Yet how to explain the three Persons?

15 KEY TERMS ousia A general substance or essence God has one ousia So Council of Nicea (325) confirmed Jesus is homo ousias of the same substance as the Father They have the same essence This later clarified regarding the Spirit hypostasis Underlying state or substance; literally beneath standing or beneath substance Applied to Christ in Hebrews 1:3 ( exact imprint of his [Father s] nature ) Christ seen as homo ousias: fully human and fully God God himself is one ousias, but three hypostases

16 EXTRABIBLICAL TERMS Calvin defends as necessary the use of the terms Trinity and Persons even though they are not found directly in the Bible What prevents us from explaining in clearer words those matters in Scripture which perplex and hinder our understanding, yet which conscientiously and faithfully serve the truth of Scripture itself, and are made use of sparingly and modestly and on due occasion? Such terms are especially helpful to rout the enemies of pure and wholesome doctrine Yet, today, we shy away from theological terms for the sake of unity which becomes a unity of convenience and not truth

17 CALVIN S USE Person is a subsistence in God s essence which, while related to the others is distinguished by an incommunicable quality A subsistence is different from essence So, one essence in God, three subsistences (hypostases) Moreover, Calvin s contribution to theology was to clarify the autotheos of all three Persons Self-existence or aseity belongs to each of the Persons, further clarifying homo ousias

18 2. THE ETERNAL DEITY OF SON AND SPIRIT Long history in the Church of misunderstanding the nature of Christ Arius was early champion of idea that the Son was the firstborn of all creation but still a creature That is, there was a time when he was not Servetus in Calvin s day distorted the Trinity Jehovah s Witnesses today continue that tradition Thus key phrase in Nicene creed: begotten, not made to show this a position of relationship, not creation Stresses John 1:1 that Word was in the beginning

19 THE DEITY OF THE SON If the Son is not eternal, then there was a change in God, nullifying James 1:17 But maybe best proof is the NT applying the covenant divine Name to Jesus Exodus 3:14: I am who I am (Yahweh) Implies self-existence no need for anything outside Himself Septuagint (3 rd C. BC Greek translation of Hebrew OT) translates JHVH as kyrios, roughly sovereign master 2 Cor 12: 8-9: But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Lord replaces Jehovah, and Christ is Lord so you have Divinity

20 THE DEITY OF THE SON Old Testament appearances of the angel of the Lord appear to be the Word Theophanies E.g., Genesis 32:30, Jacob says he had seen God face to face New Testament confirms Jesus as God Attributing OT prophecies about God to Jesus Not to mention very explicit statements 1 Timothy 3:16: God was manifested in the flesh 1 John 5:20: And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. By Jesus s works And his being, not receiving, salvation

21 DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Involved in creation (Genesis 1:2) Isaiah noted the Spirit sending him (Isaiah 48:16) In short, upon him, as upon the Son, are conferred functions that especially belong to divinity. So, he resides hypostatically in God. Spirit dwells in us as God: 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19 Lying to Spirit was lying to God: Acts 5:3-4 And of course, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin

22 3. THREENESS AND ONENESS Cites Gregory on Nazianzus I cannot think on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; nor can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one. Summarizing what we covered earlier When we profess to believe in one God, under the name of God is understood a single, simple essence, in which we comprehend three persons, or hypostases. And care in even thinking on this How can the mind by its own leading come to search out God s essence when it cannot even get to its own?

23 DEFENDING THE TRINITY Whereas he defended the divinity of Christ against Arius who subordinated the Son to the Father by making him a creature Sabellius a 3 rd century writer who saw God as single Person in three modes, erring in the other direction Calvin goes into some detail defending against these heresies Today, when we are a bit careless with our theology, we need to monitor our own understanding of the Trinity lest we stray Then again, for some, we ve never thought very deeply about it any way!

24 SUBORDINATION Though shared essence, and each Person is autotheos, there is a subordination among the persons Called the economy of the Trinity E.g., we might say a pastor has an important role over a flock, but not that he is in some sense superior or worth more Or more directly, a husband and wife have an economy with different roles per Scripture, but that in no way devalues either party So, then, God as Trinity has differing economy for the three Persons while having one essence. The proceeding language of Nicea stems from this

25 THE PERSONALNESS OF GOD As three Persons, God is intrinsically personal and relational Indeed, cannot be seen apart from the fellowship of the Trinity Gives cause for us to reflect as God s Church Though different gifts, we, too, are to be relational and of one essence Divisions, strife, etc., harm us as a body

26 OUR RESPONSE What idols are we struggling with in the idol factory of our hearts? What misconceptions of the Trinity do we hold, and how might we change them? How are we impacted by our lack of concern for doctrine? What do I need to change in my life to promote the unity of the church?

27 Holy, Holy, Holy SINGING IS A FORM OF PRAYER

28 IN OUR NEXT EPISODE Of God and Man Book 1, chapters 14-15