- I can't find much to make fun of in this section
- I can't find a whole lot to disagree with in this section
And what fun is that? But, it seems wrong to read a Christian theology book and skip all the Jesus stuff, doesn't it?
First, a general observation. Some theological works are almost beautiful in the way they puzzle out some of the tricky questions of belief and orthodoxy. I think of Karl Barth, especially. Others, however, are more inclined to skip all the crap and say it like it is. Calvin is definitely among the latter. Calvin does not even attempt to use the intricate, nuanced craftmanship of his predecessors or those who came after him. Some theologians just prefer to see their pen as a sledgehammer, I guess.
Calvin the Ghostbuster
As usual, Calvin rails against heretics and heresies throughout this section. He starts by blasting the Manichaens and Marcionites. I'll refer to them generally as Gnostics, even though the Marcionites were not technically Gnostic.
Gnosticism had big problems with Christ's humanity. They tended to glorify the 'spirit' as the ultimate reality. The spirit is where God dwells and acts. The spirit is where we should direct our lives and goals. We should all be trying to get rid of this nasty flesh stuff that just gets in the way. So, portraying Jesus as fully spirit and fully human (with all the nasty fleshy stuff) was reprehensible to Christian Gnostics. Some of them saw Christ as some sort of fairy that only appeared human. Others, thought of Jesus as a ghost - someone that seemed corporeal but was actually a spirit.
Calvin couldn't stand any of that crap. He pounds away at the gnostic notions with the weight of scripture and logic in an effective refutation. Amidst his logic is his old refrain that Jesus had to be human, to be a redeemer, which was his primary purpose.
Jesus: Blood donor
But, Calvin reminds us, don't get the timeline mixed up. God the Son's existence was eternal in time past. He did not suddenly start existing when he emerged from the womb. He did not begin to exist when he was conceived by the Holy Ghost.
It is vital to distinguish that the one Christ has two natures. The divine and the human remained distinct from one another. He was one person with two natures. Calvin plays amateur anthropologist again and obsesses for a bit on a subject where he is clearly in error: the constitution of humans. Not only did Christ have two natures, we all do. However, his natures interacted differently than ours.
Things got weird here. Calvin writes about how different aspects of each of the natures are offered to one another so that he might act as mediator. So, when it was time for the human to do extraordinary things, the human part borrowed power from the divine. When it was time for God to die, the divine part borrowed some blood. Because, how could you die with out bleeding all over the place?
Obviously, Calvin was trying to counter the Gnostic argument that God could not be sullied by human nastiness (like blood), but come on. This gets a little ridiculous.
Calvin blasts away for a while at Servetus, but I won't even bother going over that.
Prophetic, Regal and Sacerdotal
I actually really enjoyed chapter 15. The Mediator maintains a threefold office: prophet, priest, and king.
As a prophet, he has not only fulfilled all past prophecy, but he has also ended all future prophecy. For Calvin, prophecy was always Christocentric, so now that he is the anointed messiah, why do we need prophecy anymore? Calvin doesn't explicitly say it, but the end of prophecy now creates a dynamic where the logos is the one source of special revelation. Very cool.
As a priest, Christ cares for the church and is a living sacrifice for their continual struggles with their own depravity.
As a King, Jesus acts as head of the church. His role is a preserver and equipper of the Church. Calvin says that eternity is not here yet, but King Jesus gives us everything we need to enjoy the blessings of eternity. There is no reason to wait for the Kingdom (future sense), when the King sits upon the throne right now. Yes! Exactly.
So, props to Calvin. He nailed the threefold office and showed the wacko Gnostics how to do real theology.
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