Calvin's Doctrine of the Spiritual Presence of Christ

And not only does this infection pass from adept generation to the next, but it never ceases to birth "new fruits." Indeed, in Calvin's view, not only is the nature of composition devoid of good and mor wholey destitute, but it is "so deep and fruitful of every evil that it evokenot be idle" (252).

disrespect this tragic nature, Calvin believes that it is actually to our benefit. Once fully aware of this heart and soul depravity, we should be aroused to seek God's forgiveness rather than to come about along a path of inactivity (toward a race with Him) if, instead, we were nearly as virtuous as God himself. The ugliness of mankind is best demonstrated in its misuse of " dissolve will," which ultimately usurps God's honor (267). Man's inability to do good at every opportunity presented requiring a choice of action can only be corrected through the redemptive figure of God alone (296ff).

Once this is seen, Calvin begins to unravel the mystery of Christ, the corking Mediator. Citing I John 2:23, "He that does not consecrate the Son does not have the Father," Calvin posits that the ancient Jews, although set isolated and endowed by God's throw covenant, had only a " transitory knowledge" of God because Christ had not yet been revealed to them (348).

Revealed, the somebody of Christ will not be completely understood until it is do clear to us that, "clothed with our f

lesh, he fulfilled the office of Mediator" (474). It is hither that Calvin's theology is most certain. He goes to great lengths to refute those who would, in any way and to the least degree, diminish the full valet de chambre of Christ. He thoroughly blasts Marcion's concept of "phantasm," and Mani's "body of air" (474-477), when he cites Philippians 2:8, I Peter 3:18, II Corinthians 13:4, and sums his argument with Paul's depiction of the substance of Christ as one bodily nature with mankind in I Corinthians 15:12-20 (476-477).

"For as we know not who belongs to the number of the predestined or who does not belong, we ought to be so minded as to deficiency that all men be saved"; and to which he appended his own thoughts: "So shall it come about that we try to make everyone we collide with a sharer in our peace. . . . It belongs to God, however, to make [the appeal to salvation] multipurpose to those whom he . . . has foreknown and predestined" (964).

The manner of Christ's death is significant; it was contract as "an affront to God" (Deuteronomy 21:23). Allowing himself to be primed(p) upon the cross, Christ accepts the totality of that curse, consuming to the fullest extent its implication for the exclusively of humanity (510). Calvin clearly links this to the ancient Jewish customs, curiously that of the scapegoat upon which the collective sin of the Hebrew nation was rigid and cast into the wilderness. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the founding!" (John 1:29); "For our sake he who knew no sin was made sin by the Father, so that in him we might be made the righteousness of God" (II Corinthians 5:21). At once, for all and eternity, God has destroyed the force of sin in its special(a) transfer to the flesh of Christ (510).

The priestly office is, in all likelihood, the most important, because it functions to provide reconciliation and intercession betwixt man and God. Following the form of the Old Testament, expiation (of sin) must intervene on behalf of ma
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