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Binding of God, The: Calvin's Role in the Development of Covenant Theology (Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought)

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Much more than an analysis of Calvin on Covenant, this is a really helpful discussion of the historical development of Covenant Theology in general. Exposing various past misconceptions of Covenant Theology's roots, and carefully documenting its distinct progression through various reformers, Lillback in this work skillfully paints his picture with primary source material.

He details how the concept of covenant in the Reformed tradition is much more than a section in a confession or a chapter in a systematic theology, but is an integrating principle or presupposition which functions as a paradigm, regulating and informing not only every area of theology, but our entire relation to God in history and eternity.

This work will be very useful also for the careful gathering and exposition of numerous quotes from Calvin and others, detailing what distinguishes Reformed theology from Lutheranism, on such things as the relation between law and gospel, the relation between Justification and Sanctification, and the role of the Law in the life of the believer.

There is so much more here of value which could be mentioned, I'll just mention one other: the relation of the covenant to the sacraments, namely how one's view of either the mutuality or one-sidedness of the covenant impacts whether the covenant meal (Eucharist) is seen as mutual or merely testamentary.

The bibliography here is extensive; the index quite adequate; there are several helpful summary tables and charts; footnotes are (thankfully) at the bottom of the page.

This work is Peter Lillback's Dissertation at Westminster Theological Seminary (PA), completed in 1985. After he turned it in, they set a page limit of 400 pages on dissertations, his being almost twice that (double spaced).

If you are interested in Covenant Theology, the development of Reformation and Post-Reformation thought, Calvin, or simply how you are to understand the relation between faith and obedience, you must purchase this book.

Professor Lillback counters many deliberate modern misconceptions surrounding the origins of Reformed covenantal theology, above all substantiating through historical sources why the inaccurate claim of Perry Miller and Charles Ryrie that Calvin had nothing to say or add to the covenantal debates that surrounded him, have no real grounds. When you look at the Institutes, it's hard to imagine.

In the Middle Ages, the Continental feudal system of lord and serf (constructed on a similar understanding as the ancient Near-East suzerain-vassal treaty), as did the soldier's oath of allegiance sworn to his military commander, provided a cultural frame of reference for common covenant usage and its terminology, all of which came to be included under one classical Latin term - the 'testamentum'. It was fully binding. The merging of the two concepts - cultural and religious - was inevitable as 'in time the sacraments themselves began to be conceived of as oaths of allegiance' (p 31) to the Vicar of Christ - the pope. Under it the pope, ordained to power by God, enjoyed absolute papal supremacy and allegiance, and the abuse of ecclesiastical authority remained uncontested for fear of sanction, or much worse, accusations of religious heresy. In this historical context, on pain of death, Luther's stand in bold lines was larger than life. But Luther permitted covenant theology 'to fall under the table.'

Covenant theology began with the German-Swiss Reformed. Ulrich Zwingli of Zurich was not alone in considering the covenant years before the arrival of the struggle with the Anabaptists. In Basel, Oecolampadius' views too predated the conflict. In the earliest stage of its shaping, writes Lillback, 'Oecolampadius assumes covenant unity, since this is true for the circumcised and the baptised. Thus he joins the unity of the covenant with the sacraments.' p 84 Zwingli saw the independent Anabaptists, who in their scheming acted autonomously from Scripture, as a threat to comprehensive reform. In conclusion, in a public disputation called by the council of Zurich in 1525, Zwingli and Bucer won the day. Zwingli then, insisted on unity between the two covenants and for the first time in Reformed antiquity, appealed to the Abrahamic covenant for the legitimation of infant baptism, as it is still in force today.

After the death of Zwingli, Calvin developed close relationships with his successor, Heinrich Bullinger of Zurich, and Martin Bucer of Strassburg. Two years before Calvin's first edition of the Institutes, and a year or two before Luther lectured on Genesis, almost a decade after the Anabaptist controversy erupted in the cantons of Zurich, Strassburg, and Basel, Heinrich Bullinger published De Testamento in 1534, the first Reformed defense of covenant theology. Justification was the first blessing of the covenant, per Genesis 15, but covenant obligations, blessings and sanctions remain, per Genesis 17. The Rhinelander saw a strong element of promise in the sacrament signs of Genesis 17, much of which was to be fulfilled with the first coming of Christ. Lillback summarizes in part Bullinger's contribution: 'When the Savior came, the covenant itself was realized. God's duty in the covenant is fulfilled in the 'Immanuel' or God-with-us. The duty to obey the God of the covenant is seen in all of Christ's teaching. The apostles also fit this pattern as is seen in Paul's constant citations of the OT, where he continually sees Christ.' p 111

Luther was no friend of Anabaptism, but his Commentary on Galatians (1535) unwittingly did much to revive its cause. Luther's Law vs. grace dichotomy was largely the result of his Reformational emphasis being placed on the ordo salutis, by which he applied the two covenants of Galatians as two stages: one to the old man, and one to the new man. In contrast, the magisterial Reformers of the 16th century took the two covenants in Galatians and applied them as two successive, yet interconnected stages in redemptive history, its unifying thought being that hereby God binds Himself to the redeemed people in all ages through one eternal covenant. Luther's severe comments show that he concluded that they were guilty of confusing Law with Gospel. Bullinger saw the charges of Rome or anyone else against the covenant as an attack upon the Gospel, the oldest of all religions (Gal 3:8). 'There were tremendous tensions between Zurich and Wittenberg reformations.' p 113

Martin Bucer took the time to write the Lutheran community with the signing of the Augsburg Confession (1530), restating a constant objection from all quarters to Luther's 'dashing the teeth out of the law' that it led to licentiousness. 'But all of the sacraments, whether circumcision or baptism, point not only to the forgiveness of sins by justification, but also of the necessity of the obedience of faith.' p 119 Lillback offers historical evidence to refute Baker and Trinterud and to carefully conclude that all the Reformers held to a mutual agreement, rather than a monolateral promise as Luther insisted. 'The gracious work of the Holy Spirit was inseparable from the free gift of righteousness in the Son none the less.' p 124 Bucer saw the gift of the Holy Spirit as the principal promise of the new covenant, written by God upon the heart, and with it the enabling grace to perform what was commanded in Scripture. 'For Luther, it was 'faith alone'; for the Reformed it was 'faith working by love.' p 125 Hence, Oecolampadius insisted that new covenant salvation is accomplished through the giving of the 'new law' or 'the law of the Spirit'. The Reformed response came in the form of the First Helvetic Confession (1536).

Lillback then summons the intentional testimonies of the eminent Reformer, John Calvin. Calvin responded with the Genevan Confession of Faith (1536). Calvin's apologetic disassociation from the radical Anabaptists is also a warning to Lutheran theology. Calvin unfalteringly insists: 'In asserting a difference between the covenants, with what barbarous boldness do they dissipate and corrupt Scripture! And not in one passage only - but so as to leave nothing safe or untouched! For they depict the Jews to us as so carnal that they are more like beasts than men. A covenant with them would not go beyond the temporal life, and the promises given them would rest in present and physical benefits. If this doctrine should obtain, what would remain save that the Jewish nation was satiated for a time with God's benefits, only to perish in eternal destruction?' Institutes 4.16.10 The strength of Calvin's argument for the continuity of the old and new covenant was that, in anticipation of criticism, it allowed for discontinuity. The French Reformer also upheld apostolic analogies to a tee. Calvin significantly improved on Luther's cessationist view of the Law in his own Commentary on Galatians (1547) where he employed a two-fold use of the law in his masterful hold on the great themes of sin and grace. Harmonized with the other Reformers, Calvin taught that faith alone justifies, but faith is not alone: 'For when this topic is rightly understood, it will better appear how man is justified by faith alone, and simple pardon: nevertheless, actual holiness of life, so to speak, is not separated from free imputation of righteousness.' Institutes 3.3.1 Moreover Calvin, following Augustine, used the term 'new covenant' in two distinct senses (p 158).

The prospect of modern critics to separate the magisterial Reformers is undone with the finding that Calvin and Bullinger's works on the covenant agree. Based on the plurality of his comments, assessments and profitable treatments, it can no longer be denied that Calvin's mature federal understanding in his works 'possesses a logical consistency tied directly to his exposition of Scripture.' p 161