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Some impressive quotations from Muller's Christ and the Decree (p. 36):
This is Calvin (Inst 2.12.1):
In discerning Christ's merit, we do not consider the beginning of merit to be in him, but we go back to God's ordinance as the first cause. For God solely of his own good pleasure appointed him mediator to obtain salvation for us.
And this from Muller:
In this crucial link between his Christology and the larger soteriological exposition Calvin does not rest on his own exegesis for authority. The central points in the argument are given not in his own words but in those of Augustine.... Augustine says that not only predestination but grace is manifested most clearly in the man Jesus. Christ is elect through grace and "through no preceding merits of works or of faith." The humanity of Christ is the highest example of the resounding sola gratia of divine election. For this reason the active obedience of Christ is for the sake of man's salvation, rather than for the sake of Jesus' worthiness. Christ's merits are certainly not intended to make his human nature worthy of exaltation to the right hand of the Father!
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 at 05:52 PM
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