Baptism: Calvin

Views on Baptism and Regeneration

Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion Commentary on John 3:5
"Chrysostom, with whom the greater part of expounders agree, makes the word Water refer to baptism. The meaning would then be, that by baptism we enter into the kingdom of God, because in baptism we are regenerated by the Spirit of God. Hence arose the belief of the absolute necessity of baptism. . . "

Here, while testifying the truth of the Fathers' views, he writes in error when he attributes to them the "belief of the absolute necessity of baptism" as though it would be so easy to alter the apostles' teachings without the Church's outraged protest. Calvin goes on to reject the view held by all earlier Fathers (including Augustine) and to reinterpret "water" to mean merely an outward sign of what the Spirit had already performed. However, as shown by the quotes below from his Institutes, Book IV, this view was an earlier position of Calvin's.

Bk 3, Ch 3, Sec 9
"by repentance I understand regeneration, the only purpose of which is to form in us anew the image of God, which was sullied, and all but effaced by the sin of Adam."

Calvin repeatedly confirms this equating of regeneration with repentance throughout the Institutes. This is not always so clear, though, when he is teaching about baptism. His describing regeneration as being "of the Spirit," "by the Spirit," "spiritual," and gradually improving, highlights his divergence from the Fathers' identification of its occurance once at baptism. Nor did they ever describe it as a process of spiritual improvement over time that was to be completed in the resurrection.

Bk 3, Ch 3, Sec 11
"When it is said that God PURIFIES his Church, so as to be 'holy and without blemish' (Eph. 5: 26, 27), He promises this cleansing by means of baptism, and performs it in his elect, I understand that reference is made to the guilt rather than to the matter of sin. In regenerating his people, God indeed accomplishes this much for them; he destroys the dominion of sin, by supplying the agency of the Spirit, which enables them to come off victorious"

Bk 3, Ch 3, Sec 13
"Therefore the law of sin [Rom 7]...is forgiven in baptism, [but] not ended."

Bk 3, Ch 4, Sec 6
"who did he baptize, but those who confessed that they were sinners? Baptism is a symbol of the forgiveness of sins; and who could be admitted to receive the symbol but sinners, acknowledging themselves as such? They therefore confessed their sins that they might be baptized."

This appears to agree with the Evangelical view that sins are NOT forgiven in baptism. But, see the quotes below for Bk 4, Ch 15, Sec 1 and Bk 4, Ch 15, Sec 17.

Bk 3, Ch 4, Sec 38
"The flesh of Christ," says he, "is the true and only sacrifice for sins - not only for those which are ALL WASHED AWAY IN BAPTISM, but [also for those committed afterward]"

Bk 3, Ch 6, Sec 3
"since Christ PURIFIED us by the LAVER of his blood, and communicated this PURIFICATION by BAPTISM, it would ill become us to be defiled with new pollution. Ever since he ingrafted us INTO HIS BODY..."

Bk 4, Ch 1, Sec 7
"who profess to worship one God and Christ, who BY BAPTISM are INITIATED INTO THE FAITH;"

Bk 4, Ch 1, Sec 23
[Some Anabaptists teach that,] "if a man sin after BAPTISM, [he has] nothing except the certain judgement of God. In short, to the sinner who has lapsed after RECEIVING GRACE they give no hope of PARDON, because they admit no other FORGIVENESS OF SINS save that BY WHICH we are FIRST REGENERATED."

Bk 4, Ch 3, Sec 3
"He did not address [Paul] with his own voice, but sent him to a man from whom he may both obtain the doctrine of salvation and the SANCTIFICATION OF BAPTISM," [Acts 9:6-20; 22:11-16.)

Bk 4, Ch 15, Sec 1
"Baptism is the INITIATORY SIGN which ADMITS US to the fellowship of the Church, that being INGRAFTED INTO CHRIST we may be accounted children of God."

"it is His will that all who have believed BE BAPTIZED FOR the REMISSION OF SINS. Hence those who have thought that baptism is nothing else than the badge and mark [or symbol] by which we profess our religion before men, in the same way as soldiers attest their profession by bearing the insignia of their commander, have NOT attended to what was THE PRINCIPAL THING in baptism; and this is, that we are to receive it in connection with THE PROMISE: "He that believes AND IS BAPTISED SHALL BE SAVED," (Mark 16:16.)

Calvin here accuses Evangelicals of "not attending the principal thing in baptism."

Bk 4, Ch 15, Sec 3
"at whatever time we are BAPTIZED, we are WASHED AND PURIFIED once for the whole of life."

If our SINS are forgiven at the moment we first believe, then of what do we need to be "washed and purified"???

Bk 4, Ch 15, Sec 4
"...FORGIVENESS, which at our first REGENERATION we receive BY BAPTISM ALONE,"

"...we are WASHED FROM OUR SINS by the blood of Christ. And what is the SIGN and evidence of that WASHING if it be not BAPTISM? Therefore...FORGIVENESS has reference to BAPTISM."

Bk 4, Ch 15, Sec 5
[On Rom 6:3-4], "Christ by BAPTISM has made us PARTAKERS of his death, by grafting us into it."

Calvin says or implies nothing about this "grafting" being a symbol!

Bk 4, Ch 15, Sec 17
"God IN BAPTISM has PROMISED the REMISSION OF SINS...That promise was offered to us IN BAPTISM, let us therefore embrace it in faith. Concerning us, the promise was indeed for a long time buried because of our unbelief [in God's promise of the remission of sins by baptism]. Now, therefore, let us with faith receive it."

Calvin here testifies that, at one time he did NOT believe that remission of sins was accomplished in baptism. This is the same unbelieving view held by Evangelicals today. But Calvin goes on to say, that as long as he did not believe, then the promise AND his baptism was useless. He finishes, though, by saying that he repented of this unbelief (which today's Evangelicals refuse to do) and came to believe what the Scripture says.

Bk 4, Ch 16, Sec 25
[Jn 3:5] "so to be born again of water, and of the Spirit, is nothing else than to receive that power of the Spirit, which has the same effect on the soul that water has on the body."

This is Calvin's only reference to Jesus' words to Nicodemus. It is noteworthy that it contradicts and denys ALL of the AnteNicene Father's (even Augustine's) interpretations of "water" as a reference to baptism.

Bk 4, Ch 16, Sec 2
[What are] "the nature and efficacy of baptism, as evinced by the promises therein given? Scripture shows, first...cleansing from sin which we obtain by the blood of Christ; and, secondly, the mortification of the flesh, which consists in participation in his death, by which believers are regenerated to newness of life, and [thirdly,] to the fellowship of Christ. [These summarize] all that the scriptures teach concerning baptism, with this addition, that it is also a symbol to testify our religion to men.

Even Calvin testifies that baptism being a symbol or a witness, is an addition to what the Scriptures teach .

Though these quotes are not all that Calvin had to say about baptism, they certainly do represent his overall viewpoint. What is most important is that, even though Calvin did teach that baptism was a symbol, he was also careful to point out that the Bible taught it was far more than just a symbol. Of course, it is possible to select ONLY those words of Calvin that confirm the Evangelical view in order to prove that Calvin and they believe the same thing about baptism. But from the quotes above, it is clear that this distorts both history and Calvin and is nothing short of dishonest.

Top

Previous Home Next

This page and WebSite authored and maintained wholly by Light Creations.

This page last updated 3-Mar-1998.