8. 칼빈주의 신학-참된 계시의 신학 및 칼빈의 삼위일체론

[남인도_윤]

3. Calvin's Theology of True Revelation

The true wisdom that Calvin speaks of in his “Institutes of the Christian Religion” consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves.

And these two knowledge are inseparable from each other.

The correct teaching order for this is to discuss first the knowledge of God and then the knowledge of oneself.

The knowledge he speaks of is far from the general knowledge we understand.

Calvin says that higher knowledge presupposes faith.

He says that since noble knowledge is not an object of human sensory perception, but transcends the senses, one must transcend oneself in order to reach faith.

The knowledge of God is not merely to feel that there is a God, but to understand what is fit for God's glory and what help is available to us.

Christian faith and testimony presuppose knowing God.

This knowledge is possible because God has revealed Himself through Christ.

This knowledge refers not only to the knowledge of God, but also to the knowledge of God's will.

Salvation is not obtained by accepting what the church prescribes as true, but by explicit recognition through the reconciliation of Christ that God is our Father and that Christ is our righteousness, holiness and life.

Who is the God who has revealed Himself to man, who reveals Himself, and who will reveal Himself?

⑴ What is revelation?

'Revelation' in the New Testament has almost the same meaning as 'to reveal what has hitherto been hidden'.

ἀποκαλύπτειν means 'to discover', meaning 'to reveal a mask or skin', φανερουν means correct propagation to reveal the truth, and τνωρἰζειν means 'to convey to humans what cannot be reached by human power'.

Revelation is something that reveals itself to us as something different from our world, different from what we experience in time and space.

This new, transcendent signifies God Himself.

The subject of revelation is God, and the content of revelation is the grace of God shown in Jesus Christ. (Rom 1:17, 3:20, Luke 3:32, Eph 3:4, 1 Tim 3:16)

This God is called a mystery in the Bible, and it means the God who appears in Jesus Christ.

In orthodox theology, revelation is divided into general revelation, natural revelation, special revelation, and supernatural revelation.

Supernatural revelation is the act of God to teach mankind to salvation through the Word of God.

God reveals himself and reveals his will to concepts for teaching.

Special revelation or supernatural revelation refers to the revelation of Jesus Christ recorded in the Bible, and natural revelation or general revelation refers to God's revelation through nature created by God.

Calvin makes it clear that the revelation of God in creation would be the basis of natural theology "if Adam had remained perfect" but that natural theology is impossible because of man's fall and sin.

4. Calvin's Trinitarianism

Most believers are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

However, in everyday life believers follow monotheism.

Monotheism is that there is only one God, numerically.

Judaism says that there is only one God, Jehovah God, and that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not gods.

Also in Islam, God is only Allah, Jesus is only one of the great prophets, and the Holy Spirit is not God, but a cosmic force or energy.

In other words, Judaism and Islam follow monotheism.

However, our Christianity believes in the triune God.

The reason is because the Bible testifies that the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is the true God.

Then, among the Reformers who started Protestantism, what kind of views does Calvin have on the doctrine of the Trinity?

The structure of Calvin's theology can be said to be trinitarian in a word.

In other words, the subject of his theology is the triune God.

Theology is the knowledge of God, and the only subject of theology is God.

And that God is the one and only triune God.

1. Theology: the knowledge of the triune God

In the expression‎ of knowing God, Calvin defines faith.

He says that faith should pay attention to one God, not to follow stories about miscellaneous things here and there.

He often quotes John 17:3 when explaining his faith.

In other words, knowing one God is impossible apart from Christ, the one sent by God.

Faith consists of the knowledge of knowing God and Christ.

God sent His only begotten Son, Christ, to reveal Himself in Christ.

So Christ is the image of the glory of God.

We must find God the Father, who cannot be seen, only through the Son, Jesus, who can be seen.

After all mankind has fallen in Adam, the knowledge of God cannot be obtained without a mediator.

And we find Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Calvin explains faith through the ministry of the triune God like this.

He writes, “Faith is the firm and certain knowledge of God’s mercy toward us, based on truth freely given in Christ, in which the work of both the Father and the Son has been revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” said.

In other words, the right knowledge about the triune God, or faith, can be said to be theology.

2. Our God is the triune God.

God has revealed that God is the Trinitarianism.

Calvin said that if he did not hold onto this triune God, he would miss the true God.

And then he goes on to talk about the “persons” of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Then he focuses on the 'Trinity'.

In the Trinity theory, the tradition of the Western Church starts from the nature (unity) of God, and the tradition of the Eastern Church starts from the Trinity.

If you think about it in that respect, you can say that Calvin stands in the tradition of the Eastern Church.

Calvin has a flexible attitude toward the term Trinity.

He emphasizes that the word 'person' comes from the Bible, but there is no word 'all'.

He takes an inclusive stance that the words 'person' and 'all' do not matter as long as there is no disagreement in the belief that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, that the Father is not the Son and that the Holy Spirit is not the Son, and that they are distinguished by non-shared attributes.

After Calvin declared freedom in terminology, he defined the person of the triune God.

“Person is a substance (subsistentia) in the essence of God, distinguished under reciprocity as an incommensurable attribute (proprietas incommunicabilis).”

'Person' is usually explained as a relationship, but Calvin very intentionally defines 'person' with the word 'substance'.

Of course, the distinction is made in relationality.

However, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct, but it means that they are real distinctions.

‘Essence’ refers to the distinction ‘person’ the unity within the unity.

Calvin agrees with Tertullian (160-220) that the experience and knowledge is in God without breaking the unity of essence.

3. The divinity of God the Son and the Holy Spirit

Calvin presents the data of the Bible and, following the tradition of the church, testifies to the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit in the way that they are “equal” to God the Father.

He first said that the Word incarnated in Christ is God.

The Word was from the beginning with God the Father and is the Creator of all things.

It is blasphemy to claim that the Word only began to exist when God opened His mouth to create, which changes the nature of God.

The glory that Jesus had with God the Father before the foundation of the world (John 17:5) proves that the Son was already with the Father before eternity.

Also, the fact that Yahweh, the essential name that expresses the essence of God in the Old Testament, is translated as “Lord” and used for Christ in the New Testament testifies to the divinity of Christ.

And in that Jesus forgives sins, it is proof that he has the authority that belongs only to the Creator.

The fact that this authority was held by Christ indicates that he possessed divinity.

The Bible explains that Jesus is the object of faith and the one who receives the prayers of the saints.

Through faith and prayer, we experience the saving power common to the Father and the Son.

And since all the gifts given by God the Father are given to God's people through the intercession of the Son Jesus, the Son Jesus is also the owner of these gifts.

Similar evidence is given in Scripture for the Holy Spirit.

What is attributed to the Holy Spirit is not an attribute of the creature.

The Holy Spirit sustains all things, makes them grow, and supplies them with life.

The Holy Spirit is the master of regeneration and immortality.

Through the Holy Spirit we have fellowship with God.

He is the Lord of justification, sanctification, power, and all good things.

Therefore, the Holy Spirit is in person real in God.

4. The unity and trinity of God

After Calvin testifies of the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit, he proves that God is one.

He expounded the command to baptize in Ephesians 4:5 and Matthew 28:19.

“We begin our life of faith through baptism and join the church.

To be baptized in the name of the triune God is to testify that there are three persons in the essence of God, and that God is known by the three persons.

You cannot be baptized without faith in the Triune yet One God.

Since the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit has been testified, the distinction between the Son and the Holy Spirit must now be emphasized.”

He emphasizes that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not empty titles but 'real distinctions (Vera Distinctio), and distinctions are never divisions.

Christ said that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, distinguishing the Father from the Holy Spirit, and distinguishing himself from the Holy Spirit by saying that they are “another” Comforter.

Calvin explains the distinction of persons as it is expressed in Scripture.

“To the Father is the beginning of the work and the source of all things, to the Son the wisdom, counsel, and administration of all things, and to the Holy Spirit the power and effect of the work.

God's wisdom and power are forever indivisible.

Of course, there is no precedence in eternity, but it is not meaningless to establish the order of the Father first, then the Son, and finally the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.”

After making that comment, Calvin points out an important factor.

The persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct, but all of the divinity is understood as the non-shared attributes characteristic of each 'person'.

The Father is entirely in the Son, and the Son is entirely in the Father (John 14:10).

Each persons is inseparable from the other due to the distinction of essence.

Distinction only indicates reciprocity, not the essence.

Calvin therefore tries to correct any confusion that may arise.

If you call on the Son without reference to the Father, he is the cause of himself.

However, if we focus on the relationship between the Son and the Father, the Father can be said to be the cause of the Son.

However, in relation to themselves, the Father and the Son are the same God.

When we confess that we believe in one God, in the name of this God we understand one essence, and at the same time grasp the triune God within that essence.

Therefore, when God is mentioned without specific reference, it can be said that God refers not only to the Father, but also to the Son and the Holy Spirit.

But there are times when the title God in general is applied specifically to the Father.

In this way the unity of the essence of God is maintained, and the just order is maintained without any damage to the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

A return to the oneness of the Divine is always inevitable with each persons.

Relationships are always a matter of person, not essence.

5. Misunderstanding and refutation of the distinction between God's unity and persons

Calvin presents two tactics of Satan to destroy faith.

One is to undermine the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the other is to ignore the distinction between persons.

Arius's somatic subordination undermines the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and Sabellius's modalistic monotheism ignores the distinction between persons.

Reminding people that Christ is Yahweh, Calvin says that divinity is common to the Father and the Son.

If the Father is not God, he cannot be the Father, and if the Son is not God, he cannot be the Son.

Therefore, divinity itself exists in the Son and the Father, and because Christ, the Son, is God, He is God who exists independently of the person.

But since Christ is the Son, he can be said to be from God the Father.

The essence of Christ, together with the Father, can be said to be the source of divinity.

Thus, God the Father can be said to be the source of divinity in order, rather than the bestower of essence.

It is necessary to consider the fact that Christ always worked as a mediator between God and man.

“The Father is greater than I” (John 16:7) is not a statement that Christ is inferior to the Father, but rather a reference to the ministry of gathering believers into fellowship with the Father in heavenly glory. there is.

Jesus sometimes spoke of His divinity under the name “Father.”

All these remarks of Jesus must be understood in terms of salvation history.

After faithfully explaining all of the doctrine of the Trinity, Calvin concludes the theory of the Trinity by mentioning that the Trinity should not be discussed out of curiosity and speculative pursuit, but that the church should be built up.

This practical knowledge is more certain and solid than any idle speculation.

6. Trinitarian Structure of Calvin's Theology

Calvin's 'Institutes of Christian Relogion' was composed according to the Apostles' Creed.

From the first edition of Institutes of Christian Relogion(1536), he explained the Apostles' Creed by dividing it into the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Church.

He took the form of confessing the Triune God in his ministry as the framework of the Apostles' Creed in Institutes of Christian Relogion.

And he revealed that the doctrine of justification by faith in Institutes of Christian Relogion is not new, but only corresponds to a new understanding of the old faith.

In this way, it can be said that the entire aspect of Institutes of Christian Relogion  is based on the theory of the Trinity following the structure of the Apostles' Creed.

7. Calvin, the theologian of Trinitarianism

Calvin did not take the common western tradition, that is, from the viewpoint of the ‘one’ of God’s nature, to the ‘three’ of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

He first arranges the divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit according to the evidence of the Bible.

He testifies to the unity of the Trinity by examining the works of the Triune God revealed in the Bible.

He also broke away from the tradition of making many unbiblical apologetics about the Trinity.

That is why, while introducing the triune God, he emphasized soteriological and practical knowledge, not curiosity or speculation.

Calvin resolutely rejected the view of the Father as the 'Giver of the Divine' in Gentile's way.

That the Father is the 'source of divinity' is possible only in terms of person, not essence of divinity.

The name God in the Bible refers to the Father as well as the Son and the Holy Spirit.

However, since there is a certain in person order among the persons and the Father is the Source and Cause, the name God is often applied especially to the Father.

Following the tradition of the ancient church, Calvin said that the Father could be the name of one person and at the same time was written as the name representing the whole divinity.

But the Father is not the source of divinity.

In this way Calvin preserves the unity of essence without the slightest plunder of the Son and the Spirit.

The divinity of the Son and the Father is achieved through participation in the common divinity, and the person (substantial) of the Father is never the source.

To say that the Father is the 'absolute' source is the Arian heresy.

Calvin distinguishes between substance (subsistentia) and essence (essentia).

Reality is being in relation, and essence is being as itself.

Since reality is a being in relation to other persons, it cannot be a simple discriminative relationship, and exists as 'reality'.

  In other words, the reality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is not just a name, but actually exists.

Calvin sees the Father as the focus of divinity, but he does not see the person of the Father as the unity of divinity.

This is because the fullness of the Godhead is not concentrated only in the Father, but is applicable to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as well as to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Divinity is common to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Nevertheless, to speak of the divinity of the Father is not a matter of essence, but only a matter of order. Essence cannot be divided.

We came to know that Calvin's doctrine of the Trinity is very biblical and is difficult to find in church history without losing its balance.

Since the knowledge of knowing God is faith and piety, and faith and piety are theology, he pursued practical knowledge, not curiosity or speculation.

The owner of the Bible and preaching is the triune God.

While revealing that faith is directed toward the triune God, we must understand the intention of God's revelation of himself as the triune God in the Bible and introduce the triune God well through sermons.