John Calvin and the Reformation vs. Edwards and Dispositional Soteriology

For Calvin, faith justifies because it receives Christ’s righteousness—never because of any virtue within it.

The Reformed confessions (Articles XI–XIII in 39 Articles, Heidelberg 60, WCF 11 & 14.2) echo this: justification is forensic, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

As Calvin wrote, “Justified by faith is he who, excluded from the righteousness of works, grasps the righteousness of Christ through faith, and clothed in it, appears in God’s sight not as a sinner but as a righteous man” (Inst. 3.11.2).

For Calvin, faith justifies because it receives Christ’s righteousness—never because of any virtue within it.

The Westminster Confession 14.2 defines the principal acts of saving faith as “accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.”

These verbs describe faith’s receptive posture, not its emotional quality. They signify trust’s movement outward toward Christ, not inward toward one’s affections. Faith justifies because it receives, accepts, and rests in Christ’s righteousness—not because it feels or loves rightly.

Faith justifies because it receives, accepts, and rests in Christ’s righteousness—not because it feels or loves rightly.

Jonathan Edwards’s dispositional soteriology made love part of faith’s essence—collapsing justification into sanctification and reviving fīdēs cāritāte formāta (“faith formed by love”).

It moves from a purely receptive faith to a rewardable habit in the believer—turning the instrument of justification into a virtue that merits approval.

As George Hunsinger observes (see Dispositional Soteriology: Jonathan Edwards on Justification by Faith Alone), this introduces a twofold ground of righteousness—Christ plus the believer’s holy affections—instead of Christ and His righteousness alone as the sole ground of justification.

It moves from a purely receptive faith to a rewardable habit in the believer—turning the instrument of justification into a virtue that merits approval.

Modern adaptations of this view repeat the same confusion—treating faith as a moral quality to be cultivated rather than an empty hand that receives Christ and His righteousness alone.

Calvin’s gospel gives the dūplex beneficium: two distinct yet inseparable benefits—justification and sanctification—received in union with Christ. As Calvin explains,

“Christ was given to us by God’s generosity, to be grasped and possessed by us in faith. By partaking of him, we principally receive a double grace: namely, that being reconciled to God through Christ’s blamelessness, we may have in heaven instead of a Judge a gracious Father; and secondly, that sanctified by Christ’s Spirit we may cultivate blamelessness and purity of life.”
—Inst. 3.11.1.

This is the heart of the Reformation: the free righteousness of Christ received by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—grounding the believer’s assurance and restoring peace with God.