4
faith or is it the obedience that consists in faith? Or is it one of several other
alternatives?
6
Much theologically, perhaps too much, has been made to ride on the
exegesis of this difficult phrase.
Calvin does not appear to be in any doubt about the meaning of this phrase.
He straightforwardly affirms the interpretation that the obedience is the obedience to the
gospel that consists in faith. Commenting on the verse in question he says:
That is, we have received a command to preach the gospel among all nations, and
this gospel they obey in faith. . . .
We must also notice here what faith is; the name of obedience is given to it, and for
this reason--because the Lord calls us by his gospel; we respond to his call by faith;
as on the other hand, the chief act of disobedience is unbelief . . . . Faith is properly
that by which we obey the gospel.
7
Faith is inseparable from obedience. Here Calvin's understanding of
Galatians 5:6 is sufficient to clarify Calvin's view. In his comments on this text Calvin
makes clear that faith is not to be separated from obedience in the sense of good works.
Good works always accompany and follow it. In the Institutes, as we shall see, he makes
clear that faith unites us to Christ and thus inevitably and inseparably bestows the moral
renewal that he variously describes as repentance, sanctification, and regeneration.
8
Galatians 5:6 is a key text for Calvin. He not only comments on it in his
commentary, but alludes to it in the discussion just mentioned in the Institutes.
9
In his
commentary on this text (in words that anticipate later Reformed confessional statements)
he affirms that saving faith is never alone, but always accompanied by good works.
Commenting on the phrase, "But faith which worketh by love," in Galatians 5:6 he
_______________________
6
C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans, The International Critical Commentary
(Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Limited), 1:66-67. Cranfield actually adopts, as we shall see, the same
interpretation of this phrase as Calvin: "the obedience which consists in faith."
7
Comm. Rom. 1:5.
8
Inst. 3:3:1-11.
9
Inst. 3:11:20.