Tony Lane Quote on Calvin’s Position on the Atonement

The advocates of limited atonement love to pose the dilemma: does the work of Christ merely make salvation “possible,” without making certain the “salvation” of anyone, or does it effectually “guarantee” the salvation of the elect, for whom alone Christ died? Calvin’s position is well summarized by the retort of Professor James Torrance: our salvation is made certain, not merely possible, by the combined work of Father, Son “and” Holy Spirit (i.e, not by the cross alone, taken in isolation).

Tony Lane, “The Quest for the Historical Calvin,” Evangelical Quarterly 55.2 (April 1983): 100.

Notice the Trinitarian nature of Calvin’s view, which brings up the requirement of “the secret energy” or “secret watering of the Spirit” to unite us to Christ in order that we may obtain the benefit of Christ’s work which was done for the human race:

1. The Holy Spirit as the bond that unites us to Christ

We must now examine this question. How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son—not for Christ’s own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race [Lat. humani generis; Fr. genre humain] remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us. For this reason, he is called “our Head” [Eph. 4:15], and “the first-born among many brethren” [Rom. 8:29]. We also, in turn, are said to be “engrafted into him” [Rom. 11:17], and to “put on Christ” [Gal. 3:27]; for, as I have said, all that he possesses is nothing to us until we grow into one body with him. It is true that we obtain this by faith. Yet since we see that not all indiscriminately embrace that communion with Christ which is offered through the gospel, reason itself teaches us to climb higher and to examine into the secret energy of the Spirit, by which we come to enjoy Christ and all his benefits.

Earlier I discussed the eternal deity and essence of the Spirit [I. xiii. 14–15]. Now let us be content with this particular point: that Christ so “came by water and blood” in order that the Spirit may witness concerning him [1 John 5:6–7], lest the salvation imparted through him escape us. For, as three witnesses in heaven are named—the Father, the Word, and the Spirit—so there are three on earth: the water, the blood, and the Spirit [1 John 5:7–8]. There is good reason for the repeated mention of the “testimony of the Spirit,” a testimony we feel engraved like a seal upon our hearts, with the result that it seals the cleansing and sacrifice of Christ. For this reason, also, Peter says that believers have been “chosen in the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ” [1 Peter 1:2 p.]. By these words he explains that, in order that the shedding of his sacred blood may not be nullified, our souls are cleansed by the secret watering of the Spirit. For the same reason, also, Paul, in speaking of cleansing and justification, says that we come to possess both, “in the name of … Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” [1 Cor. 6:11]. To sum up, the Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself. To this, also, pertains what we taught in the previous book concerning his anointing [II. xv. 2].

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 1:537; Institutes 3.1.1.

David Ponter commented:

In the 17th C, in the zeal to refute non-strict Limited atonement folk, the Reformed located a sort of certainty in the expiation itself. There is no scriptural warrant for it, but its now such a solid tradition that shaking it is very hard. The only reason that new idea was created was to refute others. The only reason it was created was to present a sort of modus tollens argument. Its a plain false-dilemma fallacy that needs to be discarded as a whole. Its not a simple either/or like that.

Comments taken from the Calvin and Calvinism list.

I also entered this quote at the bottom of my The Design of The Atonement: Dealing with a Popular False Dilemma post.

Bunyan wrote:

And verily, Sirs, it is necessary that you know these things distinctly-to wit, the grace of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the grace of the Holy Ghost; for it is not the grace of one, but of all these three, that saveth him that shall be saved indeed.

The Father’s grace saveth no man without the grace of the Son; neither doth the Father and the Son save any without the grace of the Spirit; for as the Father loves, the Son must die, and the Spirit must sanctify, or no soul must be saved.

Some think that the love of the Father, without the blood of the Son, will save them, but they are deceived; for “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb 9:22). Some think that the love of the Father and blood of the Son will do, without the holiness of the Spirit of God; but they are deceived also; for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”; and again, “without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Rom 8:9; Heb 12:14).

There is a third sort, that think the holiness of the Spirit is sufficient of itself; but they (if they had it) are deceived also; for it must be the grace of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the grace of the Spirit, jointly, that must save them.

But yet, as these three do put forth grace jointly and truly in the salvation of a sinner, so they put it forth, as I also have showed you before, after a diverse manner. The Father designs us for heaven, the Son redeems from sin and death, and the Spirit makes us meet for heaven; not by electing, that is the work of the Father; not by dying, that is the work of the Son; but by his revealing Christ, and applying Christ to our souls, by shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts, by sanctifying of our souls, and taking possession of us as an earnest of our possession of heaven.

John Bunyan, Saved by Grace (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2006), 347.