HKB
2 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: equity, mercy, and pardon · sin, guilt, and repentance · separation from uncleanness · reconciliation with god · predestination · merit of christ · justification by mercy · justice as a virtue · fate, destiny, and necessity · atonement
Usually: argument (2) · exhortation (2) · crisis of belief (1) · injustice endured (1) · censure (1) · skepticism (1)
“There is no room for merit; because it is impossible to find in man any excellence which can merit the favour of God; nay, as Augustine most truly observes, “The brightest illustration of predestination and grace is the Saviour himself, the man Christ Jesus, who has acquired this character in his human nature, without any previous merit either of works or of faith.” Jean Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Vol. 1 of 2) · insight
“For if one be dead for all, that then are all dead, and that he died for all, because that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves: but unto him which died for them and rose again.” William Tyndale, The first New Testament printed in English · insight
Paul urges the Corinthians to be reconciled to God through Christ’s atonement, urges them to receive grace without wasting it, lists virtues amid suffering, and commands separation from uncleanness.
how the lord is to be feared, we fare fair with men. For we are known well enough unto God. I trust also that we are known in your consciences. We praise not ourselves again unto you, but give you an occasion to rejoice of us, that ye may have somewhat against them, which rejoice in the face, and not in the heart. For if we be too fervent, to God are we to fervent: if we keep measure, for your cause keep we measure.…
Calvin argues that the term “merit” for Christ does not obscure God’s grace, because Christ’s merit depends on God’s predestination and serves God’s mercy by intervening in human justification.
God And Salvation For Us. We must devote an additional Chapter to the solution of this question. For there are some men, more subtle than orthodox, who, though they confess that Christ obtained salvation for us, yet cannot bear the word *merit*, by which they suppose the grace of God is obscured. So they maintain that Christ is only the instrument or minister, not, as he is called by Peter, the Author, or Leader, an…