Calvin and Bullinger on the Covenant

I have just come across a helpful article by Peter Optiz on Calvin and Scripture and cite a section of it here. Opitz’ article is to be found in Herman J. Selderhuis (ed.), The Calvin Handbook (Eerdmans, 2009), pp235-244. The original article is in German and has been ably translated into English by Rebecca A. Giselbrecht who is on the staff of the Institute for Swiss Reformation History in Zurich.

“Calvin’s understanding of the ‘covenant’ is essential to his doctrine of Scripture. Especially during his Strasbourg period, Calvin appears to have grappled intensely with the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. A fruit of this study is found in a comprehensive chapter of the Institutes of 1539, in which he explains the close connection of both Testaments as a dynamic unity with internal differences (CO 1, 225-244). Martin Bucer surely had direct influence on this, and with him the entire circle of the upper-German reformers with their humanistic backgrounds, who in turn had been influences by Zwingli and Bullinger – a fact less heeded by researchers. Bucer, who had already defended the unity of the two Testaments in his commentary on the gospel, enjoyed lively exchanges not only with his colleagues the Hebraists Capito and Hedio from Strasbourg, but also with Heinrich Bullinger. With the encouragement of Zwingli, Bullinger had already argued the one covenant as the scopus of Scripture and received Bucer’s total approval for his defense of it in his De Testamento from 1534. Ever since the 1539 version of the Institutes, Calvin widely expounded Bullinger’s argument for the doctrine of one covenant – not, however, without setting an independent accent that seems to demonstrate the lasting influence of Melanchthon, especially his Loci from 1535. In the Institutes of 1559, the doctrine of one covenant is finally completely integrated into his soteriology; and at the same time, this interpretation of the covenant became the connecting link in Calvin’s theology; particularly between his Christology and his exegesis. Institutes II was thus entitled ‘The Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, First Disclosed to the Fathers under the Law, and Then to Us in the Gospel.’ In Calvin’s first Institutes from 1536 the placement of this doctrine of the law was similar to its placement in Luther’s Small Catechism. From 1539 on, there is a remarkable change. The title of Institutes II.7 reads: ‘The Law Was Given, Not to Restrain the Folk of the Old Covenant Under Itself, But to Foster Hope of Salvation in Christ Until His Coming.’ Thereby the law is expressly defined in alignment with an Old Testament Torah understanding: ‘I understand by the word ‘law’ not only the Ten Commandments, which set forth a godly and righteous rule of living, but the form of religion (formam religionis) handed down by God through Moses’ (Inst. II.7.1). However, because this law depends on God’s electing grace, Christ is already present, even though in Moses’ writing this was ‘not yet expressed in clear words.’ Accordingly, ‘apart from the mediator, God never showed favor toward the ancient people, nor ever gave hope of grace to them.’ For ‘the blessed and happy state of the church always had its foundation in the person of Christ’ (Inst. II.6.2). Therefore the relationship between the Old and New Testaments means: ‘The covenant made with all the patriarchs is so much like ours in substance and reality that the two are actually the one and the same. Yet they differ in the mode of dispensation’ (Inst. II.10.2).”

Bullinger viewing the Saints of the Old Testament as Looking unto Christ

The following citation from The Decades 3.viii illustrates that Bullinger’s understanding of the Old Testament is not so much Christocentric but, rather, as looking unto Christ. This quote shows Bullinger’s emphasis on the unity of the old and new testaments, on the unity of the covenant and on the same faith in both the OT and the NT. Salvation, both in the OT and the NT, is by faith through grace. There is no synergism.

“And out of that which I have hitherto said we may also learn, that the ancient saints, which lived under the old testament, did not seek for righteousness and salvation in the works of the law, but in him who is the perfectness and end of the law, even Jesus Christ; and therefore that they used the law and the ceremonies as a guide and schoolmistress to lead them by the hand to Christ their Saviour. For so often as they heard that the law required perfect righteousness at their hands, they did by faith through grace understand, that in the law Christ was set forth to be the most absolute righteousness, to whom all men ought to fly for the obtaining of righteousness. So often as they met together in the holy congregation, to behold the holy ceremonies which God hath ordained, they did not look upon the bare figures only, nor think that they did please God, and were purged from their sins, by that external kind of worship; but they did cast the eyes of their minds and of faith upon the Messiah to come, who was prefigured in all the ceremonies and ordinances of the law.” (Parker Edition p242)

Illud quoque discimus ex praedisputatis veteres sanctos, qui sub veteri testamento vixerunt homines, salutem et iustitiam quaesivisse non in operibus legis, sed in eo, qui est perfectio et finis legis, nempe in Christo, ergo lege edt caeremoniis usos esse tanquam manuductione et paedagogia ad Christum. Nam quoties audierunt perfectam a se legis iustitiam requiri, fide donate ex gratia intellexerunt Christum perfectissimam iustitiam proponi, ad quem pro iustitia consequenda omnes confugere debeant homines. Quoties in loco sacro convenerunt ad contemplanda sacra illa divinitus instituta, non nudas inspexerunt figuras neque putaverunt se propter cultum illum placere deo purgarique a peccatis, sed oculos animi et fidei intenderunt in ipsum futurm Messiam, qui in omnibus caeremoniis et legalibus praefigurabatur. (Peter Opitz, Sermonum Decades, p387)

Aus dem zuvor Erörterten lernen wir auch, dass die einstigen Gläubigen, die Menschen, die unter dem Alten Testament gelebt haben, das Heil und die Gerechtigkeit nicht in den Werken des Gestzes gesucht haben, sondern in dem, der di Vollkomenheit und die Vollendung des Gesetzes ist, nämlich in Christus, dass sie also das Gesetz und die Zeremonien als Hinführung und als Vorschule zu Christus gebrauchten. Denn sooft sie hörten, dass von ihnen vollkommene Gerechtigkeit nach dem Gesetz verlangt wurde, verstanden sie durch den Glauben, der ihnen aus Gnade geschenkt worden ist, dass ihnen Christus als die vollkommene Gerechtigkeit vor Augen gestellt wurde, zu dem alle Menschen hineilen sollen, um Gerechtigkeit zu erlangen. (Heinrich Bullinger Schriften, TVZ 2006, p78)