Institutes 3.3.2 — REGENERATION BY FAITH. OF REPENTANCE.

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**REGENERATION BY FAITH. OF REPENTANCE.**

Christ and John, it is said, in their discourses first exhort the people to repentance, and then add, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand ( Mt. 3:2 ; 4:17). Such too, is the message which the Apostles received and such the course which Paul followed, as is narrated by Luke ( Acts 20:21 ). But clinging superstitiously to the juxtaposition of the syllables, they attend not to the coherence of meaning in the words. For when our Lord and John begin their preaching thus “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” ( Mt. 3:2 ), do they not deduce repentance as a consequence of the offer of grace and promise of salvation? The force of the words, therefore, is the same as if it were said, As the kingdom of heaven is at hand, for that reason repent. For Matthew, after relating that John so preached, says that therein was fulfilled the prophecy concerning the voice of one crying in the desert, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God,” ( Isaiah 40:3 ). But in the Prophet that voice is ordered to commence with consolation and glad tidings. Still, when we attribute the origin of repentance to faith, we do not dream of some period of time in which faith is to give birth to it: we only wish to show that a man cannot seriously engage in repentance unless he know that he is of God. But no man is truly persuaded that he is of God until he have embraced his offered favor. These things will be more clearly explained as we proceed. Some are perhaps misled by this, that not a few are subdued by terror of conscience, or disposed to obedience before they have been imbued with a knowledge, nay, before they have had any taste of the divine favor (see Calvin in Acts 20:21 ). This is that initial fear Latin, “Initialis timor,” which is thus paraphrased by the French: “Et c’est une erainte comme on la voit aux petits enfans, qui ne sont point gouvernés par arison;”—And it is a fear such as we see in little children, who are not governed by reason.

Source

• source-manifest/institutes — Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, tr. Beveridge 1845 (PD)
• evidence_grade: D_doctrinal_textbook