In today’s reading we continue through Institutes of the Christian Religion with John Calvin as he reflects on the relationship between God’s eternal decree, the incarnation of Christ, and the redemption of humanity. Calvin argues that Scripture connects the incarnation of Christ directly with the work of redemption, and therefore warns Christians against speculating beyond what God has revealed. Curiosity that seeks answers Scripture does not provide, he says, often leads the mind away from Christ rather than toward Him.

Calvin then turns to critique the views of the sixteenth-century theologian Andreas Osiander. Osiander argued that humanity was originally created according to the pattern of the future incarnate Christ, and therefore that Christ would have become man even if Adam had never fallen. Calvin rejects this reasoning, i ...