The ability of the Word to transform human life is the basis of its authority and its glory. It is this Word of life – the divine Wisdom – which brings us into fellowship with God and restores the bond of love between believers and God, and between believers one with another.

In the previous post in this series, we briefly considered how Calvin’s appreciation of wisdom theology is particularly present in his comments on the Johannine literature. In Calvin’s commentary of 1 John, we discover one of the marks of the wisdom theology, namely, its appreciation of the transcendent nature of God’s Word. For Calvin, The Word “which believers we have heard and believed” is the same Word who is from the beginning the divine Wisdom. We find this very clearly in the following comment by Calvin:

“Moreover, the term Word may be explained in two ways, either of Christ, or of the doctrine of the Gospel, for even by this is salvation brought to us. But as its substance is Christ, and as it contains no other thing than that he, who had been always with the Father, was at length manifested to men, the first view appears to me the more simple and genuine. Moreover, it appears more fully from the Gospel that the wisdom which dwells in God is called the Word.”

The Word of God is a transcendent reality. In fact, it is the fundamental transcendent reality of our salvation. We also notice from Calvin’s commentary that the Word of God has the capacity to enliven. Wisdom, as it is understood in Scripture, is far removed from the sort of abstract intellectualism that many associate with an education in philosophy, the humanities, and the sciences. Wisdom is a way of life, but more than that, it is a power and “sacred vitality”. This, too, is a mark of wisdom theology. When the text speaks of the “Word of life”, Calvin interprets this to mean the “vivifying Word.” This vivifying “Word of life” was with the Father, according to the text. Calvin comments:

“This is true, not only from the time when the world was formed, but also from eternity, for He was always God, the fountain of life; and the power and the faculty of vivifying was possessed by His eternal wisdom.”

As Calvin understood, the eternal Wisdom is a creative, redemptive, and sanctifying wisdom; therefore, this Wisdom is a fountain of life. This divine Wisdom is a redemptive, transforming power. The ability of the Word to transform human life is the basis of its authority and its glory. It is this Word of life – the divine Wisdom – which brings us into fellowship with God and restores the bond of love between believers and God, and between believers one with another.

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