Calvin's Institutes: March 4
John Calvin's Institutes in a Year by Christopher Michael Patton
Episode notes
A law that commands what we cannot perform and promises what we cannot secure—why would God speak that way? In this episode, we continue through John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 7, Sections 6–10, where he confronts the claim that divine commands prove human ability. Calvin argues that the precepts of Scripture do not measure our strength; they expose our weakness. The Law was not lowered to fit our capacity but raised above us to reveal our dependence. When Paul says the Law was added because of transgressions and that through the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Galatians 3:19; Romans 3:20), he is not describing a ladder we can climb but a mirror that humbles us. Even love—the fulfillment of the Law (1 Timothy 1:5)—must be planted in the heart by God (1 Thessalonians 3:12). Calvin then unfolds three cla ...