# Calvin's Institutes of The Sacraments



## Jonathan95 (May 10, 2020)

Hello! I have been rereading Book Fourth, Chapter 14, Section 13 repeatedly tonight and I am having trouble grasping the takeaways from this section. I'm not sure why, maybe I've been reading for too long tonight and my brain is melting haha. The section heading tells me he is refuting the belief that some hold that the Sacraments are mere signs. I can't seem to find where that's actually happening in the section. Can someone help to paraphrase and/or point out some good points made in this passage. I really appreciate this if any are able to assist me. Thank you! 

*Section 13.*_ Some regard the sacraments as mere signs. This view refuted._

There is nothing in the argument which some found on the very term sacrament. This term, they say, while it has many significations in approved authors, has only one which is applicable to signs, namely, when it is used for the formal oath which the soldier gives to his commander on entering the service. For as by that military oath recruits bind themselves to be faithful to their commander, and make a profession of military service: so by our signs we acknowledge Christ to be our commander, and declare that we serve under his standard. They add similitudes, in order to make the matter more clear. As the toga distinguished the Romans from the Greeks, who wore the gallium; and as the different orders of Romans were distinguished from each other by their peculiar insignia; e.g., the senatorial from the equestrian by purple, and crescent shoes, and the equestrian from the plebeian by a ring, so we wear our symbols to distinguish us from the profane. But it is sufficiently clear from what has been said above, that the ancients, in giving the name of sacraments to signs, had not at all attended to the use of the term by Latin writers, but had, for the sake of convenience, given it this new signification, as a means of simply expressing sacred signs. But were we to argue more subtilely, we might say that they seem to have given the term this signification in a manner analogous to that in which they employ the term faith in the sense in which it is now used. For while faith is truth in performing promises, they have used it for the certainty or firm persuasion which is had of the truth. In this way, while a sacrament is the act of the soldier when he vows obedience to his commander, they made it the act by which the commander admits soldiers to the ranks. For in the sacraments the Lord promises that he will be our God, and we that we will be his people. But we omit such subtleties, since I think I have shown by arguments abundantly plain, that all which ancient writers intended was to intimate, that sacraments are the signs of sacred and spiritual things. The similitudes which are drawn from external objects, (*4.15.1*) we indeed admit; but we approve not, that that which is a secondary thing in sacraments is by them made the first, and indeed the only thing. The first thing is, that they may contribute to our faith in God; the secondary, that they may attest our confession before men. These similitudes are applicable to the secondary reason. Let it therefore remain a fixed point, that mysteries would be frigid, (as has been seen), were they not helps to our faith, and adjuncts annexed to doctrine for the same end and purpose.


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## Ben Zartman (May 11, 2020)

I think he's saying that they're not just signs which indicate to others that we confess Christ; they are signs which show to us ourselves the love of God. Does not the Supper preach Christ to your soul every time you partake? Do not the waters show Christ's death and resurrection every time someone is baptized? (...buried with Christ, raised to walk in newness of life...).
The ordinances are not for others: we "show Christ's death till He comes" not to the world, but to our own selves in the gathered church. That is how they aid and strengthen our faith.


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## RamistThomist (May 11, 2020)

They are also seals. 

the offer in the sacrament is objective, but can only be received by faith. The sign and seal of a sacrament must be distinguished but can never be separated. It is a seal of the promise that believers who truly partake of it partake of the body and blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the bond of the mystical union between the believer and Christ. We are united to Christ in baptism and grow in this union in participation in the Lord's Supper.

...in like manner the flesh of Christ is like a rich and inexhaustible fountain that pours into us the life springing from the Godhead into itself” (ICR 4.17.9).

If the Lord's Supper (for instance) is just a sign, then all we need to do is think about it. In fact, we don't even need to take it to do that.


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## Jonathan95 (May 11, 2020)

BayouHuguenot said:


> They are also seals.
> 
> the offer in the sacrament is objective, but can only be received by faith. The sign and seal of a sacrament must be distinguished but can never be separated. It is a seal of the promise that believers who truly partake of it partake of the body and blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the bond of the mystical union between the believer and Christ. We are united to Christ in baptism and grow in this union in participation in the Lord's Supper.
> 
> ...



I see, yes this mini section I was reading is Calvin arguing against those who think too little of the sacraments. 

Then this is why he brings up the similitudes of what Romans and Greeks wear? That there are some who believe that the Sacraments only fulfil a similar purpose? That it only sets us apart from others and is a sign to what we are but it doesn't go further beyond that?


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## Jonathan95 (May 11, 2020)

Ben Zartman said:


> I think he's saying that they're not just signs which indicate to others that we confess Christ; they are signs which show to us ourselves the love of God. Does not the Supper preach Christ to your soul every time you partake? Do not the waters show Christ's death and resurrection every time someone is baptized? (...buried with Christ, raised to walk in newness of life...).
> The ordinances are not for others: we "show Christ's death till He comes" not to the world, but to our own selves in the gathered church. That is how they aid and strengthen our faith.



Yes I see that for sure.



Jonathan95 said:


> *we indeed admit; but we approve not, that that which is a secondary thing in sacraments is by them made the first, and indeed the only thing. The first thing is, that they may contribute to our faith in God; the secondary, that they may attest our confession before men. These similitudes are applicable to the secondary reason*.



So while it is true that the signs are a type of confession of faith, they primarily are God's way of condescending to us. They are seals of the promise that should bolster our faith. He was saying essentially the same thing in previous sections.


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