1536–1559

Calvin: Union with Christ, "Double Grace" and the Third Use of the Law

According to Calvin, Christ's death does not of itself make salvation effective for all: Christ and all his benefits are made available to the believer by the secret working of the Holy Spirit, whose chief work is faith. Faith unites the believer with Christ in a "mystical union," and this union yields a "double grace": justification and regeneration in the image of Christ; unlike Bucer, both effects flow from the union rather than one from the other (McGrath). Calvin defines justification as the acceptance by which God receives us into his favor as righteous – the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of Christ's righteousness, which clothes the sinner like a garment. Against Osiander he rejected a "mixture of substances," and he regarded works not as the ground but as the result and sign of justification. For Calvin the law is almost continuous with the gospel, and its "third use" – revealing God's will to believers – became typical of the Reformed tradition.