John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volume 2, page 1011.
The True Church with Which as Mother of All The Godly We Must Keep Unity.
"As explained in the previous book, it is by the faith in the gospel that Christ becomes ours and we are made partakers of the salvation and eternal blessedness brought by him. Since, however, in our ignorance and sloth (to which I add fickleness of disposition) we need outward helps to beget and increase faith within us, and advance it to its goal, God has also added these aids that he may provide for our weakness. And in order that the preaching of the gospel might flourish, he deposited this treasure in the church. He instituted 'pastors and teachers' [Eph. 4:11] through whose lips he might teach his own; he furnished them with authority; finally, he omitted nothing that might make for holy agreement of faith and for right order. First of all, he instituted sacraments, which we who have experienced them feel to be highly useful aids to foster and strengthen faith. Shut up as we are in the prison house of our flesh, we have not yet attained angelic rank. God, therefore in his wonderful providence accommodating himself to our capacity, has prescribed a way for us, though still far off, to draw near to him."
"Accordingly, our plan of instruction now requires us to discuss the church, its government, orders, and power; then the sacraments; and lastly, the civil order. At the same time we are to call back godly readers from those corruptions by which Satan, in the papacy, has polluted everything God had appointed for our salvation.
"I shall start, then, with the church, into whose bosom God is pleased to gather his sons, not only that they may be nourished by her help and ministry as long as they are infants and children, but also that they may be guided by her motherly care until they mature and at last reach the goal of faith. 'For what God has joined together, it is not lawful to put asunder' [Mark 10:9 p.], so that, for those to whom he is the Father the church may also be Mother. And this was so not only under the law but also after Christ's coming, as Paul testifies when he teaches that we are the children of the new and heavenly Jerusalem [Gal. 4:26]…"
pg. 1013, 1014
"But the purpose is for us to know that, even though the devil moves every stone to destroy Christ's grace, and though God's enemies also rage with the same fury, it cannot be extinguished; nor can Christ's blood be made barren, nay, even some good may come of it. We must thus consider both God's secret election and his inner call. For he alone 'knows who are his' [II Tim. 2:19], and, as Paul says, encloses them under his seal [Eph. 1:13], except that they bear his insignia by which they may be distinguished from the reprobate. But because a small and contemptible number are hidden in a huge multitude and a few grains of wheat are covered by a pile of chaff, we must leave to God alone the knowledge of his church, whose foundation is his secret election. It is not sufficient, indeed, for us to comprehend in mind and thought the multitude of the elect, unless we consider the unity of the church as that into which we are convinced we have been truly engrafted. For no hope of future inheritance remains to us unless we have been united with all other members under Christ, our Head."
"The church is called 'catholic,' or 'universal,' because there could not be two or three churches unless Christ be torn asunder [cf. I Cor. 1:13]-which cannot happen! But all the elect are so united in Christ [cf. Eph. 1:22-23] that as they are dependent on one Head, they also grow together into one body, being joined and knit together [cf. Eph. 4:16] as are the limbs of a body [Rom. 12:5; I Cor. 10:17; 12:12, 27]. They are made truly one since they live together in one faith, hope, and love, and in the same Spirit of God. For they have been called not only into the same inheritance of eternal life but also to participate in one God and Christ. [Eph. 5:30]. Although the melancholy desolation which confronts us on every side may cry that no remnant of the church is left, let us know that Christ's death is fruitful, and that God miraculously keeps his church as in hiding places. So it was said to Elijah, 'I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee before Baal.' [I Kings 19:19p]"
NIV Study Bible Archaeological Supplement
SODOM and GOMORRAH
"Most authorities regard the ruins of these cities-if indeed any ruins were left-as submerged under the circled, shallow waters of the Dead Sea, south of the Lisan Peninsula. All local traditions preserved by the natives of the country favor this area. Josephus says that the Dead Sea extended from Jericho as far as Zoar (B. J., IV. Viii.4); and the Christian historian, Eusebius, of the fourth century, confirms that statement and adds that a Roman garrison was there. Also the mosaic map found in a Greek church of Medeba, dated from the fifth or sixth century, places Zoar at the southeast corner of the sea.
"In 1924 a joint expedition of the Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary and the American Schools of Oriental Research, led by Drs. Albright and Kyle, explored the territory at the south end of the Dead Sea to determine the sites of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Zoar. They found the ruins of a Zoar of the Byzantine and Arabic periods, but believed that the site of the earlier Zoar had been submerged by the continual rising of the Dead Sea.
"Jebel Usdum (Mount Sodom), a mountain of crystalline salt, 5 miles long and 300 feet high, along the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea, is so named from the belief that Sodom stood near it.
"Of the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, Dr. George Adam Smith says, 'Here was laid the scene of the most terrible judgment on human sin. The glare of Sodom and Gomorrah is flung down, the whole length of scriptural history. It is the popular and standard judgment of sin. The story is told in Genesis; it is applied in Deuteronomy, by Amos, by Isaiah, by Jeremiah, by Ezekiel and Zephaniah, and in Lamentations. Our Lord employs it more than once as the figure of the judgment he threatens upon cities where the word is preached in vain, and we feel the flame scorch our own cheeks (Mt 10:15; 11:24; Lk 10:12; 17:29). Paul, Peter, Jude make mention of it. In Revelation the city of sin is spiritually called Sodom. Though the glare of this catastrophe burns still, the ruins it left have disappeared.'"
Systematic Theology, L. Berkhof, p. 448f
The Federal Union of Christ With Those Whom The Father Has Given Him…
"In the counsel of peace Christ voluntarily took upon Himself to be the Head and Surety of the elect, destined to constitute the new humanity, and as such to establish their righteousness before God by paying the penalty for their sin and by rendering perfect obedience to the law and thus securing their title to everlasting life. In that eternal covenant the sin of His people was imputed to Christ, and His righteousness was imputed to them. This imputation of the righteousness of Christ to His people in the counsel of redemption is sometimes represented as a justification from eternity. It is certainly the eternal basis of our justification by faith, and is the ground on which we receive all spiritual blessings and the gift of life eternal. And this being so, it is basic to the whole of soteriology, and even to the first stages in the application of the work of redemption, such as regeneration and internal calling.
"In the case of the first Adam there was not only a federal, but also a natural and organic union between him and his descendants. There was the tie of a common life between him and all his progeny, and this made it possible that the blessings of the covenant of works, if these had eventuated, could have been passed on to the whole organism of mankind in an organic way. A somewhat similar situation obtained in the case of the last Adam as the representative Head of the covenant of redemption. Like the first Adam, He did not represent a conglomeration of disjointed individuals, but a body of men and women who were to derive their life from Him, to be united by spiritual ties, and this to form a spiritual organism. Ideally this body, which is the Church, was already formed in the covenant of redemption, and formed in union with Christ, and this union made it possible that all the blessings merited by Christ could be passed on to those whom He represented in an organic way. They were conceived of as a glorious body, a new humanity, sharing the life of Jesus Christ. It was in virtue of that union, as it was realized in the course of history, that Chrsit could say: "Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me," Heb. 2:13.
"In virtue of the legal or representative union established in the covenant of redemption Christ became incarnate as the substitute for His people, to merit all the blessings of salvation for them. Since His children were sharers in flesh and blood, 'He also in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,' Heb. 2:14,15. He could merit salvation for them just because He already stood in relation to them as their Surety and Mediator, their Head and Substitute. The whole Church was included in Him as her Head. In an objective sense she was crucified with Christ, she died with Him, she arose in Him from the dead, and was made to sit with Him in the heavenly places. All the blessings of saving grace lie ready for the Church in Christ; man can add nothing to them; and they now only await their subjective application by the operation of the Holy Spirit, which is also merited by Christ and is sure of progressive realization in the course of history."
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