Blogging The Institutes

Among the list of things I missed by not growing up Catholic would be the discussion of venial and mortal sins. Alas, all lost on me. But one thing I do remember hearing while growing up is that sin is sin, that the heart is desperately wicked, and that, well, sinners sin a lot. Calvin puts it this...

Now comes the payoff. Calvin offers a quick summary (3.4.24). This medieval Roman Catholic practice of confession is nothing but a "tyrannous law," adding that it is "one promulgated in contempt of God" (3.4.24). Against it Calvin simply puts the "freely given remission of sins," as taught plainly...

June 2 3.4.16-20 (1.641-647) Throughout this chapter, Calvin keeps bumping into the "power of the keys" in the medieval practice of forgiveness and, as we're moving into in these chapters, satisfaction for sin.Hios fundamental point is that the keys are connected to the Holy Spirit (3.4.20)...

Nothing to do with Calvin, just a note to say it's great to pick up where Sean left off. Back in Seminary we used to finish each other's sentences in class discussions. It's good to see we're still at it. Now to Calvin. Despite there being those who got public confession quite wrong, as was just...

The second part of repentance for medieval theologians was confession. Calvin starts by dismantling the Roman practice of "auricular confession," that is, the practice of annual confession of one's sins to his or her priest. Calvin demonstrates that the support for such practice is slender at best...

After discussing what the biblical doctrine of repentance is, Calvin moves to show how medieval theologians failed to understand repentance correctly. He structures the section around the medieval division of repentance into three parts: contrition (3.4.1-3), confession (3.4.4-24), and satisfaction...

Repentance is "a singular gift of God," Calvin notes (3.3.21). Such makes the problem of apostasy, sham repentance, and continued hypocrisy explainable. Those who wander away from the faith, who despise the Gospel, and resist the truth until their deaths were those who never received the gift of...

3.3.19-20 Calvin returns to the points with which he opened the chapter: how do repentance and forgiveness of sins relate? And how does repentance connect with faith? Behind these questions is his main point--against the claims of his Catholic opponents, justification and sanctification always come...

Having unpacked the nature of repentance as a lifelong process of mortification of the flesh and vivification of the spirit, Calvin makes a distinction that would be important to his sixteenth-century world: one between the inward disposition and external actions of repentance. Such a distinction...

Thomas Boston called regeneration 'begun recovery'; in it, God deals with sin but does not eradicate it completely. In believers, 'sin ceases only to reign; it does not also cease to dwell in them' (3.3.11). One of the reasons for this is to humble us before the grace of God, which has freed us...