– 9 Min Read
Though I would love to do a decent introduction for John Calvin, one of the greats, this essay is not about Calvin, it is about William Perkins. I do want to go on the record though, and say that John Calvin is right about this whole thing. All realities, all truths, all blessings, and all “orders” are because of our union with Christ, and all of it is simultaneously true for the Christian.
Concerning the issue that an ordo salutis would contradict Calvin’s teachings, we must then turn to see what Calvin actually writes. Let’s first look at his Institutes of the Christian Religion;
“The order of justification which it sets before us is this: first, God of his mere gratuitous goodness is pleased to embrace the sinner, in whom he sees nothing that can move him to mercy but wretchedness, because he sees him altogether naked and destitute of good works. He, therefore, seeks the cause of kindness in himself, that thus he may affect the sinner by a sense of his goodness, and induce him, in distrust of his own works, to cast himself entirely upon his mercy for salvation. This is the meaning of faith by which the sinner comes into the possession of salvation, when, according to the doctrine of the Gospel, he perceives that he is reconciled by God; when, by the intercession of Christ, he obtains the pardon of his sins, and is justified; and, though renewed by the Spirit of God, considers that, sured up for him in Christ. When these things are weighed separately, they will clearly explain our view, though they may be arranged in a better order than that in which they are here presented. But it is of little consequence, provided they are so connected with each other as to give us a full exposition and solid confirmation of the whole subject.”
– John Calvin [1]
It is as if Calvin thinks there should be an order but is completely convinced that all these spiritual blessings are because of the embrace of Christ to the sinner through union. This union he will go on to discuss is seen in Romans chapter 6.
“Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection”
– Romans 6:3-5
In John Calvin’s mind, there are only two realities; union and separation. We are either separated from God because we are separated from Christ, or we are united to God because we are united to Christ. That is it, and he is not wrong. Isaiah 59:1-2 stuck with Calvin. For it appears to reveal to him what is at the root of both of those realities. We are either united to God or we are separated from God.
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
– Isaiah 59:1-2
When he meditates over Isaiah 59 he explains this idea;
“We are here told that sin is a separation between God and man; that his countenance is turned away from the sinner; and that it cannot be otherwise, since, to have any intercourse with sin is repugnant to his righteousness. Hence that apostle shows that man is at enmity with God until he is restored to favor by Christ (Rom 5:8-10). When the Lord, therefore, admits him to union, [God] is said to justify [the sinner], because He can neither receive [the sinner] into favor, nor unite [the sinner] to Himself, without changing [the sinner’s] condition from that of a sinner into that of a righteous man. We add that this is done by remission of sins. For if those whom the Lord has reconciled to himself are estimated by works, they will still prove to be in reality sinners, while they ought to be pure and free from sin. It is evident, therefore, that the only way in which those whom God embraces are made righteous, is by having their pollutions wiped away by the remission of sins, so that this justification may be termed in one word the remission of sins.”
– John Calvin [2]
What Calvin is pointing out, is that all benefits and blessings for the sinner to receive including justification, reconciliation, sanctification… you name it, are only found and received in Christ. He says that the Lord admits the sinner to union with Christ, which is the only way the Father can be united to the sinner. This reconciliation can only happen through the Son. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)
Calvin says that in order to reconcile the sinner to God, God must cleanse the sinner of his sins, which is done at the sinners union with Christ. In Calvin’s understanding, imputation is the means of the remission of sins and therefore has to happen when we partake of Christ. For if we are united to Him then we receive all His benefits, His righteousness being one of them. Calvin continues this entire methodology of salvation by means of union in the next section;
“Hence also, it is proved, that it is entirely by the intervention of Christ’s righteousness that we obtain justification before God. This is the equivalent to saying that man is not just in himself, but that the righteousness of Christ is communicated to him by imputation, while he is strictly deserving of punishment. Thus vanishes the absurd dogma, that man is justified by faith, inasmuch as it brings him under influence of the Spirit of God by whom he is rendered righteous. This is so repugnant to the above doctrine that it never can be reconciled with it. There can be no doubt that he who is taught to seek righteousness out of himself does not previously possess it in himself. This is most clearly declared by the apostle, when he says, that he who knew no sin was made an expiatory victim for sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:21). You see that our righteousness is not in ourselves, but in Christ; that the only way in which we become possessed of it is by being made partakers with Christ, since with him we possess all riches.”
– John Calvin [3]
Calvin reminds us that the common dogma that a sinner is justified by faith, is wrong. This may confuse some, but what Calvin is saying is that the faith of a man cannot justify him or unite him to God. This faith that we indeed read about in the scriptures is an alien faith just as our righteousness is alien; it comes to us as a gift from God which is received in Christ.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God”
– Ephesians 2:8
That is why Calvin says that if faith comes before grace, then this faith is the instrument that brings the sinner “under influence of the Spirit of God by whom he is rendered righteous.” Faith is not the instrument but the material. For it is under the influence and power of the Spirit of God that brings about our unification with Christ which is when we receive the gift of faith. Grace is the instrument that can only come by means of imputation, according to Calvin. Imputation and union are seen as hand in hand. For when we are united in Christ, we receive His righteousness. If we have been imputed Christ’s righteousness, then we may have “righteous” faith.
For we know, and so does Calvin, that no sinner can have faith. His last line places a bow on this idea, “You see that our righteousness is not in ourselves, but in Christ; that the only way in which we become possessed of it is by being made partakers with Christ, since with him we possess all riches.” (emphasis added). Michael Horton notes that this is an essential view in Reformed soteriology;
“In Christian (including evangelical) piety generally, there seems often to be a disconnect between what happened to Christ and what happens to us. Or to put it in more technical terms, the historia salutis (Christ’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and second advent) and the ordo salutis (our election, redemption, justification, sanctification, and glorification). Jesus-history is seen as an essential prerequisite for one’s personal salvation here and now, but it is our activity (conversion, repentance, faith, new obedience) that is seen often as salvific. Instead, Reformed soteriology emphasizes our insertion here and now through faith into Jesus-history, so we are baptized into his death and resurrection, and that we participate in the new creation that has dawned in him.”
– Michael Horton [4]
According to Berkhof however, this teaching of Calvin and the Reformed tradition is a “defect” in Reformed Theology, and has since been fixed;
“Calvin was the first to group the various parts of the order of salvation in a systematic way, but even his representation, says Kuyper, is rather subjective, since it formally stresses the human activity rather than the divine. Later Reformed theologians corrected this defect. The following representations of the order of salvation reflect the fundamental conceptions of the way of salvation that characterize the various Churches since the Reformation.”
– Louis Berkhof [5]
But do Calvin’s teachings and William Perkins’s ordo salutis have to be at odds? I do not think so, for we notice something of great beauty in Perkins’s Ocular Catechism.
Read Next: William Perkins and The ‘Ordo Salutis’ Part 4: The “Christ-Spine”
Works Cited
[1-3] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, (Peabody, MA, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021) 487, 490, 491.
[4] Michael Horton, Justification, (vol. 2, Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 2018. 2 vols) 462-463.
[5] Louis Berkof, Systematic Theology, (East Peoria, IL, Banner of Truth, 2021) 428.