2
These tendencies raise important questions about the evangelical doctrine of
"faith alone" or sola fide. Since the doctrine of sola fide was pioneered by Martin Luther
and systematized by John Calvin, it is certainly important to ask how such tendencies
reflect or fail to reflect the doctrine of "faith alone" as it was understood by these
Reformation luminaries. Calvin, of course, frequently and explicitly affirmed
justification sola fide.
4
In this paper only the views of John Calvin will be examined and
primarily with reference to the contemporary tendency to identify faith and obedience. In
the language of the title of this paper, we will ask, Does justifying faith include
evangelical obedience in John Calvin's theology? To put this same question in other
words, we will ask, Is evangelical obedience included in justifying faith?
Calvin could not avoid this issue in articulating the doctrine of sola fide. It
becomes clear at a number of points in his writing that his Roman Catholic adversaries
specifically argued that it was simply impossible to separate justifying faith and the
obedience flowing from love and born of the gospel of Christ. (This is what is meant by
evangelical obedience in this essay--the obedience to the gospel leading to the moral
renewal of the sinner.) Thus, to speak of being justified by faith alone is meaningless
because such faith always includes love for God and the obedience to God that flows
from it.
5
It is the thesis of this essay that Calvin responded to his Roman Catholic
opponents and to the question put in the title of this essay both affirmatively and
_______________________
4
W. Stanford Reid, "Justification by Faith according to John Calvin," Westminster Theological
Journal 42, no. 2 (Spring, 1980): 290-307. Reid concludes this article with the assertion, "In this teaching
Calvin saw eye to eye with Martin Luther, and those who would make a distinction between them, would
seem to be misrepresenting one or both of the reformers" (307). Within this article Reid notes how
frequently Calvin affirmed sola fide (296) and cites especially 3:17:7, 8, 10) of the Institutes. Calvin also
frequently affirms sola fide in his commentaries. Cf. Comm. Rom. 1:16, 17; 3:21, 28; 4:6-8; Gal. 2:16; 5:6;
Heb. 11:1-7.
5
Inst. 3:11:20; Comm. Rom. 3:27, 28. {Footnote citations written as Inst. are from Calvin,
John. Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, ed. John T. McNeill. (London : S.C.M.
Press, 1961). Footnote citations written as Comm. are from Calvin's Commentaries, 22 vol. (Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981).