persons, and that God is not thereby divided?—Just so.
Nor will I insist on the doctrine of the Trinity. Let us make only this remark: up to this point, Calvin has made no attempt to say what God is. No sooner is he forced to do so than he immediately speaks of the trinitarian God. Hence he does not give any general doctrine of God. Later on, in the seventeenth century, theologians begin with a general theory of the divine essence (independence, wisdom, etc.). But for Calvin, none of the qualities of God can be named outside the framework of the trinitarian God. You perhaps remember that in the years 1536–38 Calvin was attacked as an antitrinitarian by M. Caroli, who besides was crazy.… Calvin was not antitrinitarian, yet we cannot be satisfied with his declarations on the Trinity in his Catechism and in the Institutes. We cannot, as Calvin does, portion out the qualities of God upon three persons: God the Father as the origin, the Son as wisdom, and the Holy Spirit as God’s virtue. The persons in the Trinity are more than qualities in the Godhead. Calvin was suspected of adhering to the movement which confuses the three persons. Frankly, on this whole subject, I refer you to the first volume of my Dogmatics.
Questions 21–29
The divisions of our text are clear enough and we shall follow them. There are six points: 1. What does God the Father mean (Question 22). 2. The question of God’s Almightiness (Questions 23–24). 3. The creation of the world as God’s work (Question 25). 4. Creation comprising heaven and earth (Question 26). 5. The notion of the Lordship of God over creation (Question 27). 5. The power of the opposition, of the devil, of evil, in the world, in its relation to the Lordship of God in this same world (Questions 28–29).
QUESTIONS 21–22. Repeat the first part.—I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
Why do you call him Father?—Primarily with regard to Christ, who is his eternal wisdom, begotten of him before all time, and who, being sent into the world, was declared his Son. From this, however, we infer that, since God is the Father of Jesus Christ, he is also our Father.
The term “to call” is not unequivocal. Is Calvin thinking that perhaps God is not Father in himself, but simply is so called? This kind of thing, it seems, is what Osterwald thinks: “Why do we give God the title of Father?” (Mark the choice of words: Father is here a title, a label pasted on God.) Because he is the Maker and Master of all things … Particularly we call him Father because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Christians.• Here it is quite clear: God is not Father in himself, but somehow the term Father qualifies him better than any other. This is nominalism, that is, an attitude of man that allows him to dispose of God. From human experience we know what a father is and we apply this title to God. On the contrary, the Bible, Calvin and the confessions of the Reformation speak of God in the manner of realism. If we call God Father, it is because he is Father in reality. And the relation between God’s Fatherhood and fatherhood among men reverses itself: we do not call God Father because we know what that is; on the contrary, because we know God’s Fatherhood we afterwards understand what human fatherhood truly is. The divine truth precedes and grounds the human truth. “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named” (Ephes. 3:14–15).
God is Father in respect to Jesus Christ. He is Father in himself, and Jesus Christ is his eternal Son. God expresses and represents himself adequately. Between God and the Word he speaks there is no difference; whereas there is a difference between me and what I say. This Jesus Christ who is the everlasting Word, who is the eternally begotten of God, has been manifested to the world. He is God like his Father, and he is man like us, with us, amidst us, man among men. Even as God is Father with regard to Jesus Christ, so are we men also in relation to Jesus Christ. In sum, God is Father because he has a Son and we can be his children because this Son stands for us before him. We are not then being presumptuous when we call God our Father, neither religiously audacious, nor enthusiastic, nor sentimental. We are simply being reverent. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it even more clearly (Question 26): “What believest thou when thou sayest, ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth’?—That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who … made heaven and earth … is for the sake of his Son, my God and my Father.” Not because he is almighty is God my Father. Because he is Father in himself. As Father he is almighty and as Father he is maker of all things. It is very important to remember this in religious education and in preaching so as not to awaken the idea that God is only a father derivatively and, so to speak, improperly.
QUESTIONS 23–24. In what sense do you accord him the attribute almighty?—That not only he has might he does not exercise; but that he has all things under his power and hand; so that he governs the world by his providence, constitutes all things by his will, and rules all creatures as seems to him good. Then you do not suppose God’s power to be inactive, but think it to be such that his hand is always engaged in working, so that nothing is done but through him and by his decree?—That is so.
Note first of all that the almightiness is mentioned only after the Fatherhood of God. That is to say, his almightiness is no abstract idea such as we often imagine when we say God “can do everything.” We fall then into ridiculous riddles: can God lie? etc. These absurdities originate in a false beginning. God’s almightiness should only be considered in the exercise of the almightiness, such as it is revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
In Jesus Christ, God is hidden and reveals himself. That is his almightiness. He is holy, and his holiness should not allow the creature to exist before him. He kills and makes us alive at the same time, he is merciful and he punishes. His very revelation of himself does not yield him into the hands of men: he remains free.
In Jesus Christ, God, out of the mercifulness of his heart, comes down from eternity, before the world is created. He bears all sins, all miseries and even death. He wills to suffer in his Son, and bearing in him all our sins, he wills to glorify himself. Victorious through the Cross, that is his almightiness.
In Jesus Christ, God, who is free, loves his creature; he who is above comes down below without ceasing to remain sovereign. Again, that is his almightiness.
In Jesus Christ, finally, God, who is the judge, the norm of man, judges us and at the same time pardons us. Again, that is his almightiness.
You see: the almightiness of God is not an abstract notion, not a power omnipotent in itself, a mad and profligate notion. But it is an action, an existence, a concrete manifestation of almightiness.
“All creatures are in his hand.” Again this is not an idea, but an event. The expression “the hands of God” is no anthropomorphism. God disposes of men, governs and leads them. Even as he is the real Father, he also is he who has the real hands. We must beware of the idealistic spiritualism which makes us say: God is too much of a spirit to have hands. No, he has hands, the real hands (and not paws like ours …).
Finally, the almightiness of God is really almighty. We do not have to fear that there may be other kingdoms beside the kingdom of God: kingdom of the devil, kingdom of passions, evil, my bad behavior, my bad thoughts. Surely all these things exist, but not otherwise than subjected to God.
Thus is God continually at work: no off-seasons for God. He does not need to dream and sleep as we do, nor to take refuge in a world of fiction and fantasy. He is always he who allows and commands, and, in the words of the Heidelberg Catechism (26): “… I have no doubt (that) … he is able to do it, being almighty God, and willing, being our faithful Father.” He will take care of us and will even change evil into good, not that evil as such becomes good, but by reason of God’s