'So great efficacy'': another reason to wish that a certain type of contemporary evangelical Anglican heeded Calvin
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him.
Deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love,
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
For some it might be surprising that the post-Communion prayer from the Church of Ireland BCP 2004 - shared with the CofE's Common Worship - for the 'Second Sunday of Easter' (i.e. Low Sunday) can bring us to think about the sacramental theology of Calvin. The issue came to mind when this prayer was said on Sunday past, as I am aware that for a certain strain of contemporary evangelicalism in the CofI this reference to Baptism is, to put it charitably, problematic. (We will leave aside, for the moment, the fact that the subscription required of all clergy in the CofI declares that "the doctrine of the Church of Ireland" as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer is "agreeable to the Word of God".)
I have previously described this form of contemporary evangelicalism in the CofI as 'neo-puritanism'. It is, however, nothing of the sort: the Puritans, after all, had a developed sacramental theology and reverenced Baptism and the Supper as the Lord's Covenant Ordinances. Likewise, we can make no comparisons with the noble traditions of Baxter, the Wesleys, or Charles Simeon: all these had rich sacramental teaching. Instead, we are talking about an expression of transatlantic 21st century non-denominational evangelicalism.
Against this strain of evangelicalism, with its rejection of reference to grace given in the Sacraments, we can turn to Calvin. It is very fitting that in his commentary on the Gospel reading for Low Sunday in the three year lectionary, John 20:19-31, Calvin firmly rebukes such an understanding:
let the reader observe, that with the visible and outward sign the word is also joined; for this is the source from which the sacraments derive their efficacy; not that the efficacy of the Holy Spirit is contained in the word which sounds in our ears, but because the effect of all those things which believers receive from the sacraments depends on the testimony of the word. Christ breathes on the Apostles: they receive not only the breathing, but also the Spirit. And why, but because Christ promises to them?
In like manner, in baptism we put on Christ, (Galatians 3:27,) we are washed by his blood, (Revelation 1:5,) our old man is crucified, (Romans 6:6,) in order that the righteousness of God may reign in us. In the Holy Supper we are spiritually fed with the flesh and blood of Christ. Whence do they derive so great efficacy but from the promise of Christ, who does and accomplishes by his Holy Spirit what he declares by his word?
To regard the phrase "and in baptism have made us one with him" as somehow problematic is, as Calvin demonstrates, to disregard the divine institution of the Sacrament, the word of Christ accompanying it, and the work of the Holy Spirit by means of it. Indeed, as Calvin makes clear, it is to disregard the teaching of Holy Scripture. (Which, by the way, brings us back to CofI clergy assenting that the doctrine of the BCP is "agreeable to the Word of God".)
In the CofI, it is not unusual to hear this strain of evangelicalism described by some ecclesial opponents as 'Calvinists'. Nothing could be further from the truth. Such evangelicals - very far removed from classical Reformed Anglicanism - are not in any meaningful way shaped by the teachings of Calvin, not least in their understanding of the Sacraments. Rather, we should wish that there were, for Calvin's sacramental teaching is infinitely richer than the thin gruel of transatlantic 21st century non-denominational evangelicalism.
(The picture is the depiction on the Monument de la Reformation of the first administration of Holy Baptism according to the Reformed rite in Geneva, by Pierre Viret, in 1534.)
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