I am edified every time I read Book IV Chapter 15 in Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. It is the first of two chapters in the Institutes in which Calvin expounds the doctrine of baptism. It is a chapter that could have corrected many misunderstandings I had of the sacrament in my youth and early ministry. It continues to instruct, enlighten, and encourage me as I seek to grow in understanding, consistency, and biblical fidelity with regard to the rite.
Calvin was a prolific author, preacher, and commentator, so no single chapter, in the Institutes or anywhere else in Calvin’s body of work, can be thought to be the sum of his perspective and teaching on any given topic. But his treatise on baptism in Institutes IV.15 is exceedingly helpful in grasping the logic, unity, and theology of baptism he sees in Scripture.
As I reread the chapter this week in preparation for preaching on baptism this Lord’s Day, I was struck, yet again, by a sense of my own inadequacy in handling this (and every other) Christian doctrine. I am tempted simply to read the relevant Scripture references, then Calvin’s comments, and then close with prayer. I have no ambition to add to what Calvin already said so well, and I find very little room for its improvement.
Nevertheless, God called me to be a preacher and not merely a reader, so I will not be substituting Calvin’s words for my own exposition. But in commending the chapter to you, let me highlight several portions that are particularly insightful, helpful, and sweet to the soul of those who trust in the Christ whose Name was placed upon them in baptism.
(All of the following quotations are from Beveridge’s translation of the Institutes that is in the public domain. My apologies to all who prefer Battles. This one is easier to copy and paste.)
Baptism is the initiatory sign by which we are admitted to the fellowship of the Church, that being ingrafted into Christ we may be accounted children of God. (15.1)
We ought to consider that at whatever time we are baptised, we are washed and purified once for the whole of life. Wherefore, as often as we fall, we must recall the remembrance of our baptism, and thus fortify our minds, so as to feel certain and secure of the remission of sins. For though, when once administered, it seems to have passed, it is not abolished by subsequent sins. For the purity of Christ was therein offered to us, always is in force, and is not destroyed by any stain: it wipes and washes away all our defilements. (15.3)
Christ by baptism has made us partakers of his death, ingrafting us into it. (15.5)
For in this way also he promises us in baptism, and shows by a given sign that we are led by his might, and delivered from the captivity of Egypt, that is, from the bondage of sin, that our Pharaoh is drowned; in other words, the devil, although he ceases not to try and harass us…. The cloud was a symbol of purification (Num. 9:18). For as the Lord then covered them by an opposite cloud, and kept them cool, that they might not faint or pine away under the burning rays of the sun; so in baptism we perceive that we are covered and protected by the blood of Christ, lest the wrath of God, which is truly an intolerable flame, should lie upon us. (15.9)
Believers become assured by baptism, that this condemnation is entirely withdrawn from them, since (as has been said) the Lord by this sign promises that a full and entire remission has been made, both of the guilt which was imputed to us, and the penalty incurred by the guilt. They also apprehend righteousness, but such righteousness as the people of God can obtain in this life—viz. by imputation only, God, in his mercy, regarding them as righteous and innocent. (15.10)
Baptism, indeed, tells us that our Pharaoh is drowned and sin mortified; not so, however, as no longer to exist, or give no trouble, but only so as not to have dominion. For as long as we live shut up in this prison of the body, the remains of sin dwell in us, but if we faithfully hold the promise which God has given us in baptism, they will neither rule nor reign. (15.11)
We ought to hold that we are baptised for the mortification of our flesh, which is begun in baptism, is prosecuted every day, and will be finished when we depart from this life to go to the Lord. (15.11)
Hence he teaches that those whom the Lord has once admitted into favour, and ingrafted into communion with Christ, and received into the fellowship of the Church by baptism, are freed from guilt and condemnation while they persevere in the faith of Christ, though they may be beset by sin and thus bear sin about with them. (15.12)
Baptism serves as our confession before men, inasmuch as it is a mark by which we openly declare that we wish to be ranked among the people of God, by which we testify that we concur with all Christians in the worship of one God, and in one religion; by which, in short, we publicly assert our faith, so that not only do our hearts breathe, but our tongues also, and all the members of our body, in every way they can, proclaim the praise of God. (15.13)
For inasmuch as it is appointed to elevate, nourish, and confirm our faith, we are to receive it as from the hand of its author, being firmly persuaded that it is himself who speaks to us by means of the sign; that it is himself who washes and purifies us, and effaces the remembrance of our faults; that it is himself who makes us the partakers of his death, destroys the kingdom of Satan, subdues the power of concupiscence, nay, makes us one with himself, that being clothed with him we may be accounted the children of God. (15.14)
But from this sacrament, as from all others, we gain nothing, unless in so far as we receive in faith. (15.15)
God in baptism promises the remission of sins, and will undoubtedly perform what he has promised to all believers. That promise was offered to us in baptism, let us therefore embrace it in faith. In regard to us, indeed, it was long buried on account of unbelief; now, therefore, let us with faith receive it. Wherefore, when the Lord invites the Jewish people to repentance, he gives no injunction concerning another circumcision, though (as we have said) they were circumcised by a wicked and sacrilegious hand, and had long lived in the same impiety. All he urges is conversion of heart. For how much soever the covenant might have been violated by them, the symbol of the covenant always remained, according to the appointment of the Lord, firm and inviolable. Solely, therefore, on the condition of repentance, were they restored to the covenant which God had once made with them in circumcision, though this which they had received at the hand of a covenant-breaking priest, they had themselves as much as in them lay polluted and extinguished. (15.17)
Our children, before they are born, God declares that he adopts for his own when he promises that he will be a God to us, and to our seed after us. In this promise their salvation is included. None will dare to offer such an insult to God as to deny that he is able to give effect to his promise. (15.20)
Hence it follows, that the children of believers are not baptised, in order that though formerly aliens from the Church, they may then, for the first time, become children of God, but rather are received into the Church by a formal sign, because, in virtue of the promise, they previously belonged to the body of Christ. (15.22)
There are two places in the chapter where I take issue with Calvin’s analysis, and I freely admit my dissent may be due to my own ignorance rather than the author’s error. Nevertheless, Calvin was an uninspired man, even if very inspiring, and so is subject to biblical critique and correction the same as any exegete or expositor today. I remain unconvinced by his handling of Acts 19:1-7 and continue to believe these disciples were baptized (a second time) with water. It seems to me Calvin’s historical context may have prevented him from admitting this due to the debates surrounding re-baptism of those who had first received the sacrament from Rome. I also am unpersuaded by his comment in IV.15.19 that “the term baptize means to immerse, and that this was the form used by the primitive church.” The word certainly can mean that and does in certain passages from antiquity. Immersion was practiced by some in the ancient church, not all, but whatever the earliest mode may have been is not ultimately authoritative for the Church’s practice today. Calvin is not arguing that immersion is essential to the proper administration of baptism as most Baptists do. But his comment is based upon a failure to distinguish between the meaning of a term and the semantic range of a word. Immersion is certainly encompassed in the latter with regard to the various Greek words related to baptism. Whether it is properly identified as the former depends entirely on the context in which it appears. --JME
