A CALVINIST EVALUATES JOHN CALVIN'S COMMENTS
on
2 Peter 3:9, 1 Timothy 2:4 & John 3:16

by
Charles J. Arnett
Pastor of Union Baptist Church
Englewood Ohio
December 17, 1996


INTRODUCTION:
Last year some of us went to Lima to Art Alexander's Church. The occasion was a report on an earlier debate between a Primitive Baptist and another Baptist. During the report the speaker made the claim that the Primitive was not a true Calvinist. Also, during the report the speaker scoffed the idea of offering the gospel to the reprobate. Afterward I borrowed Art's copy of Calvin's commentary on John 3:16 and read it to the speaker. He quickly said he disagreed with Calvin on that point of soteriology.
Now when I use the term Calvinist I am using it as it is quite often used today as referring to John Calvin's Systematic Soteriology. We are fully aware that Calvin did not systematize his soteriology in the manner it is systematized today. That was more or less done at the council of Dort.
We also want to point out that a person may have general agreement with Calvin's systematic soteriology without agreeing with him on his biblical exegesis. I am looking at these verses not so much for Calvin's exegesis but for one aspect of his soteriology. Now there may be some points at which a person may not dot their I or cross their T the same as Calvin, but to call oneself a Calvinist one should be in agreement in such an important point as the gospel invitation. I truly think a person could be called a hyper Calvinist on this point just as a person may be called a modified Calvinist on the subject of particular redemption.
We have heard lately that some are trying to say that Calvin was a modified or four point Calvinist. If he was then I am a hyper Calvinist.
Spurgeon called Calvin a prince among expositors. But in his Commenting and Commentaries, page 4, after extolling the virtues of Calvin as a commentator said, "In his expositions he is not always what moderns would call Calvinistic. ..." On page 5 Spurgeon claims, that next to the Scrip-ture, Arminius exhort his students to read Calvin. On page 30 Spurgeon related that a person said, "John Calvin was not half a Calvinist." Spurgeon said the remark was "correct as to his expositions, for in them, as we have seen, he always gave his Lord's mind and not his own."
Now, I want to make it clear that I hold to particular redemption and do not think it prudent to spend any time trying to prove that. That is not the purpose of this Paper. My purpose is to see what can correctly be called Calvinism in relation to the gospel invitation. First I want to look at 1 John 2:2. The reason for this is to show that Calvin was fully aware of exegetical technics that is being used today by some to make Scripture conform to their systematic theology.

CALVIN ON 1 JOHN 2:2:

Look below at Calvin's notes on this passage. There are three things I want to point out in Calvin's comments on this verse. He calls it absurd to use this verse a reason to offer salvation to the reprobate and even to Satan. [I never knew anyone did.]
Secondly, he does give credence to what is called the sufficiency and efficiency view. However, he makes it clear that isn't the application for this text.
Thirdly, he interprets the word all (It seems as if Calvin is using the word all for the word whole,) as all who would believe in various parts of the world. Concurring with those today who say the world is all men without distinction.
I think this should be sufficient to keep us from jumping to the conclusion that Calvin was a modified Calvinist.

Calvin's comments used in the paper:

CALVIN ON 2 PETER 3:9:

Here again we want to point out a couple of things. First, in the second paragraph, it seems clear that Calvin interprets this passage as God's wondrous love toward the human race, not the elect in particular. He goes so far as to say that God desires all men to be saved. It is clear from Calvin's comments on I John 2:2 that Calvin could make it clear when he meant all the elect. Calvin seems to mean all men.
Second, in the third paragraph he makes it clear that He is speaking of all men without exception. He points out that the secret decree of God is not here in view. Predestination is not the operative word in this passage. This is the heart of the God revealed in the gospel. I like that last phrase. God holding out His hand to all alike but only grasps the elect.

CALVIN ON 1 TIMOTHY 2:4

In the first two paragraphs, Calvin makes a strong argument for doing God's work in God's way. I particularly like the first sentence in the second paragraph. How should we preach the gospel? Now in the third paragraph, Calvin gets to the heart of the matter. Calvin claims that Paul is showing that God "has at heart the salvation of all men." Calvin justifies that conclusion based on reasoning with God.
Notice toward the middle of the third paragraph that Calvin is certain that God invites all men are invited to a hope of eternal life. See the second sentence in the fourth paragraph for con-firmation of that interpretation of Calvin.
Now the forth paragraph gives us some insight into thinking that Calvin could look at all men without exception and still not look at them individually. However, he makes it clear that he doesn't let this type reasoning determine the meaning of the passage.
In the fifth paragraph, first sentence, Calvin is clear that he believes that God wills that we offers the gospel to all without exception. Then he interprets this passage as all without distinction.

CALVIN ON JOHN 3:16

Now we pass on to the more extended passage. In the first paragraph, Calvin is excellent on the love of God being the first cause and source of our salvation. One could easily see why Arminius would recommend Calvin to his students. But we want to consider Calvin as respecting the gospel invitation.
Notice the fifth paragraph. Here Calvin mentions general terms. Calvin says that the general term is used to "invite indiscriminately all to share in life ...." Calvin also points out that the word world is a general term. Now Calvin must mean that the general does include the particular because of the last sentence. Calvin claims that God invites all without exception to the faith of Christ. It would seem fair for a sinner to say they are included in the world so they are invited to receive Christ.

I propose that John Calvin believed:
1) In the revealed will of God we see a genuine desire of God for every man's salvation.
2) God sincerely invites all men, without exception, to come to Christ.
3) That in some of the texts that the Armenians use Calvin also used to show the promiscuous offer of the gospel.
4) Calvin clearly distinguished between general and particular verses.
5) Calvin did not define his biblical theology by his systematic theology.
6) Calvin did hold to particular redemption.

I think that defines the Calvinist position on the gospel invitation.
I JOHN 2:2

And not for ours only. He put this in for amplification, that believers might be convinced that the expiation made by Christ extends to all who by faith embrace the Gospel. But here the question may be asked as to how the sins of the whole world have been expiated. I pass over the dreams of the fanatics, who make this a reason to extend salvation to all the reprobate and even to Satan himself. Such a monstrous idea is not worth refuting. Those who want to avoid this absurdity have said that Christ suffered sufficiently for the whole world but effectively only for the elect. This solution has commonly prevailed in the schools. Although I allow the truth of this, I deny that it fits this passage. For John's purpose was only to make this blessing common to the whole Church. Therefore, under the word 'all' he does not include the reprobate, but refers to all who would believe and those who were scattered through various regions of the earth. For, as is meet, the grace of Christ is really made clear when it is declared to be the only salvation of the world.

II PETER 3:9

The Lord is not slack. He checks haste that is overmuch and an-reasonable by this other line of argument, that God puts off His advent so as to call the whole human race to repentance. Our minds are always itching, and there often creeps in the doubt why He does not come more quickly. But when we hear that, when He delays, God is having regard for our salvation, and delays because He is concerned for us, there is no ground for further questioning His tardiness. He is said to be slack who allows opportunity to slip by his laziness, but there is nothing like this in God, who knows best how to accommodate the pattern of time to our salvation. We must think in the same way about the duration of the whole world as of any single human life. God sustains men by prolonging each man's time for him to repent. Likewise He refrains from bringing forward the end of the world, so as to give everyone time for repentance. This is a very useful admonition, so that we may learn to use time properly, otherwise we shall justly pay the penalty of our laziness.
Not wishing that any should perish. This is His wondrous love towards the human race, that He desires all men to be saved, and is prepared to bring even the perishing to safety. We must notice the order, that God is prepared to receive all men into repentance, so that none may perish. These words indicate the means of obtaining salvation, and whoever of us seeks salvation must learn to follow in this way.
It could be asked here, if God does not want any to perish, why do so many in fact perish? My reply is that no mention is made here of the secret decree of God by which the wicked are doomed to their own ruin, but only of His loving-kindness as it is made known to us in the Gospel. There God stretches out His hand to all alike, but He only grasps those (in such a way as to lead to Himself) whom He has chosen before the foundation of the world.
Since the verb boo'-lom-ahee is often taken as middle in Greek, what I have put in parenthesis in this passage will be equally apt, in that God desires all who had formerly been wandering and scattered to come together to repentance.

I TIMOTHY 2:4

For this is good and acceptable. Having shown that the command he has given is expedient, he now appeals to the stronger argument that it is pleasing to God; for when we learn that this is God's will, that should be the best of all reasons for doing it. By 'good' he means what is right and lawful, and, since the will of God is the rule by which we must regulate all our duties, he proves that it is right because it is acceptable to God.
This passage deserves close attention, for from it we may derive the general principle that the only genuine rule for right and proper action is to look to God's good pleasure and to undertake only what He approves. And this is also the rule of godly prayer, that we should make God our Leader, so that all our prayers are regulated by His will and command. If this rule had held sway, the prayers of the Papists today would not be so full of corruptions. For how can they prove that they have God's authority to rely on the intercessions of dead saints, or themselves to make intercessions for the dead? In short, in all their way of praying, what can they point to that is pleasing to God?
There now follows as confirmation of this last argument the fact that God willeth that all men should be saved. For what could be more reasonable than that all our prayers should be conformed to this decree of God? In conclusion, he is showing that God has at heart the salvation of all men, for He calls all men to acknowledge His truth. This is an argument from an observed fact back to its cause. For if 'the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for every one that believeth' (Rom. 1.16) it is certain that all those to whom the Gospel is preached are invited to a hope of eternal life. In short, since calling is proof of secret election, so God admits into possession of salvation those to whom He gives a share in His Gospel, for the Gospel reveals to us God's righteousness which guarantees an entrance into life.
From this the childish illusion of those who think that this passage contradicts predestination becomes apparent. They argue, 'If God wills all men without distinction to be saved, then it is not true that by His eternal counsel some have been predestinated to salvation and others to perdition.' There might be some grounds for holding this if in this passage Paul were concerned with individuals, although even then there would still be a good answer. For although it is true that we must not try to decide what is God's will by prying into His secret counsel, when He has made it plain to us by external signs, yet that does not mean that God has not determined secretly with Himself what He wishes to do with every single man.
But I pass from that point which is not relevant to the present context, for the apostle's meaning here is simply that no nation of the earth and no rank of society is excluded from salvation, since God wills to offer the Gospel to all without exception. Since the preaching of the Gospel brings life, he rightly concludes that God regards all men as being equally worthy to share in salvation. But he is speaking of classes and not of individuals and his only concern is to include princes and foreign nations in this number. God's will that they also should share the teaching of the Gospel is clear from the passages already quoted and from others like them. Not for nothing was it said 'Now, kings, understand' (Ps. 2.10) and again in the same psalm, 'I will give thee the Gentiles for an inheritance and the ends of the earth for a possession' (Ps. 2.8). Paul's intention was to show that we should consider not what kind of men princes are, but rather what God willed them to be. There is a duty of love to care a great deal for the salvation of all those to whom God extends His call and to testify to this by godly prayers.
It is in the same connection that He calls God our Saviour, for from what source do we obtain salvation but from God's undeserved kindness? The same God, who has already brought us into His salvation, may at some time extend the same grace to them also. He who has already drawn us to Himself may add them also to us. He takes it for granted that God will do so among all ranks and all nations, for so it has been foretold by the prophets.

ST. JOHN 3:16

For God so loved. Christ shows the first cause and as it were source of our salvation. And this He does that no doubt may be left. For there is no calm haven where our minds can rest until we come to God's free love. The whole substance of our salvation is not to be sought anywhere else than in Christ, and so we must see by what means Christ flows to us and why He was offered as our Saviour. Both points are clearly told us here-that faith in Christ quickens all and that Christ brought life because the heavenly Father does not wish the human race that He loves to perish. And this sequence should be carefully noticed. For such is the ungodly ambition innate to our nature that when we think of the origin of our salvation devilish imaginations about our own merits at once creep into our minds. Accordingly, we imagine that God is favourable to us because He has reckoned us worthy of His regard. But Scripture everywhere extols His pure and simple mercy which abolishes all merits.
And Christ's words mean nothing different when He says the cause lies in the love of God. For if we want to go any higher the Spirit prevents us with Paul's declaration that this love was founded on 'the good pleasure of his will' (Eph. 1.5). And it is plain that Christ spoke like this to divert men's eyes from themselves to the mercy of God alone. Nor does He state that God was moved to save us by seeing in us something deserving of such a blessing. He ascribes the glory for our salvation entirely to His love. And this becomes still clearer from the context, for He adds that the Son was given to men that they should not perish. It follows that until Christ vouchsafes to help the lost, all are appointed to eternal destruction. Paul also demonstrates this from the time sequence, for we were loved even when we were enemies through sin (Rom.5.8, 10). And indeed, where sin reigns we shall find nothing but the wrath of God and the death it bears with it. Therefore it is mercy alone that reconciles us to God and at the same time restores us to life.
This way of speaking, however, may seem to conflict with many testimonies of Scripture, which place the first foundation of the divine love towards us in Christ and say that outside Him we are detested by God. But we should remember, as I have already said, that the secret love in which our heavenly Father embraced us to Himself is, since it flows from His eternal good pleasure, precedent to all other causes; but the grace which He wants to be testified to us and by which we are stirred to the hope of salvation, begins with the reconciliation provided through Christ. For since He necessarily hates sin, how shall we be convinced that He loves us until those sins for which He is justly angry with us have been expiated? Thus before we can have any feeling of His fatherly kindness, the blood of Christ must intercede to reconcile God to us. But because we first hear that God gave His Son to die for us because He loved us, it is at once added that it is Christ alone to whom, properly speaking, faith ought to look.
He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish. The true looking of faith, I say, is placing Christ before one's eyes and beholding in Him the heart of God poured out in love. Our firm and substantial support is to rest on the death of Christ as its only pledge. The word only begotten is emphasized, to praise the fervour of the divine love towards us. For men are not easily convinced that God loves them; and so, to remove all doubt, He has expressly stated that we are so very dear to God that for our sakes He did not spare even His only begotten Son. God has most abundantly declared His love toward us and therefore whoever is still doubtful and unsatisfied by this testimony does Christ a serious injury, as if He had been some ordinary man who had died accidentally. We should rather consider that God's love for His only begotten Son is a measure of how precious our salvation was to Him, that He willed that the death of the Only Begotten Himself should be its price. Again, Christ possesses this name by right, inasmuch as He is by nature the only Son of God. But He shares this honour with us by adoption when we are engrafted into His body.
That whosoever believeth on him should not perish. The outstanding thing about faith is that it delivers us from eternal destruction. For He especially wanted to say that although we seem to have been born for death sure deliverance is offered to us by the faith of Christ so that we must not fear the death which otherwise threatens us. And He has used a general term, both to invite indiscriminately all to share in life and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers. Such is also the significance of the term 'world' which He had used before. For although there is nothing in the world deserving of God's favour, He nevertheless shows He is favourable to the whole world when He calls all without exception to the faith of Christ, which is indeed all entry into life.
Moreover, let us remember that although life is promised generally to all who believe in Christ, faith is not common to all. Christ is open to all and displayed to all, but God opens the eyes only of the elect that they may seek Him by faith. The wonderful effect of faith is shown here too. By it we receive Christ as He is given to us by the Father-the one who has freed us from the condemnation of eternal death and made us heirs of eternal life by expiating our sins through the sacrifice of His death, so that nothing shall prevent God acknowledging us as His children. Therefore, since faith embraces Christ with the efficacy of His death and the fruit of His resurrection there is nothing surprising in our also obtaining by it the life of Christ.
But it is not yet clear enough why and how faith bestows life on us. Whether it is because Christ regenerates us by His Spirit, so that the righteousness of God may live and flourish in us; or because, cleansed by His blood, we are accounted righteous before God by a free pardon. It is indeed certain that these two aspects are always joined together. But since we are concerned now with assurance of salvation, the central idea is that we live because God freely loves us by not imputing our sins to us. This is why sacrifice is expressly mentioned, by which the curse and death are destroyed as well as sins. I have already explained the trend of these two clauses: they teach us that in Christ we recover the life which we lack in ourselves; for in this wretched state of man-kind redemption precedes salvation.

Italics are scripture quotes. Bold are my emphasis. cja

back Back to Sermons