Calvin’s Doctrine of the Sacrament

When dealing with Calvin on the Sacraments, it has sometimes been said that “what he gives with the one hand, he takes away with the other.” That is to say, some think that Calvin appears to walk a tightrope between the signum (the sign) and the res (what is signified). On account of this he has been accused of espousing a view of the sacraments which supports a virtus operativa position, viz that the sacraments, in and of themselves, have an operative power. they objectively and really convey grace to the recipient. This is contrary to both the Lutheran and Reformed positions, which state that faith must be present in the recipient if the sacraments are to function as a means of grace.  .

But does Calvin hold to such a view? Does he indeed argue that there is an objective conveying of grace regardless of the state of the recipient? Calvin certainly regarded the Sacraments as a means of grace; however, to go to Calvin in order to extract a single statement “proving” this, is to do injustice to him. Over the next few weeks, I will seek to summarize Calvin’s teaching on the Sacraments, as it is found in Institutes Book IV, XIV.

In the first place, you will notice that Calvin defines the nature of a sacrament in PARAGRAPH 1, “Of the Sacraments in General:”

Calvin argues that the sacraments are “akin to preaching the gospel” and provide us with “another help to our faith”.

He defines a sacrament as “an external sign by which the Lord seals on our consciences his promises of good-will toward us, in order to sustain the weakness of our faith.” Importantly he does not stop there but continues “and we in turn testify our piety towards him, both before himself, and before angels as well as men”.

Some observations:

If Calvin states that the sacraments “are akin to preaching the gospel” he seems to suggest that the sacraments are no more or less efficacious than the preaching of the Word itself? The Word is preached but there is no uniform response to it. There is however and objective and central activity taking place – God declaring His Word.

Second within his definition of a sacrament, he chooses to situate the appropriate response of the recipient. He states that “we in turn testify of our piety (faith) towards him”. Note he does not state that the sacrament effects piety, but rather piety towards God is a necessary component of the sacrament. (This is similar to his definition of the true church: people commonly misrepresent his position stating that the marks of the true church are preaching of the Word and the faithful administration of the sacraments. But for Calvin, the first mark of the true church is the “Word of God sincerely preached and heard” (IV:1.9). (In case you are wondering, Calvin does hold to the objective meaning of the sign, regardless of whether it is received by faith – we will see this later in IV:14.7. However, Calvin does not have this universal principle of the sacraments in mind here.) When writing concerning the sacraments, part of Calvin’s definition includes the response of faith to the grace of God. It seems to me this is an important starting point.