If the Son is truly divine, then the Spirit cannot be a lesser afterthought, a mere force, or an impersonal influence—and Calvin refuses to let the Bible be softened into that kind of half-truth. Today’s reading gathers Scripture’s testimony and the believer’s lived experience into a single confession: the Spirit was active before the world had form, sustains creation by divine power, grants new birth, distributes gifts with sovereign will, searches the depths of God, and is identified as God by the apostles themselves. Calvin then anchors the unity of the Triune name in baptism, insisting that the one name into which we are baptized must be the name of the one God, and therefore Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share one undivided essence. The result is reverent clarity: real distinction without division, mystery without confusion, worship without idolatry.

Readings: John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 13 (Sections 14–18)

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