Bullinger was a leading Swiss Reformer, successor to Huldrych Zwingli as the chief pastor and Antistes in Zürich, and one of the most prolific and influential theological writers of the 16th-century Reformation. We have already seen where John Calvin and Theodore Beza believed that sinners were born again or regenerated by faith and yet were the great leaders of Calvinism at the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. In a separate post (here) I wrote several years ago I showed that Martin Luther, though not a Calvinist, yet a denier of "free will" and a predestinarian, also believed that sinners were born again by faith. In his Preface to the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, Luther wrote (emphasis mine):
"Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God (cf. John 1). It kills the old Adam, makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active powerful thing is faith!" (As cited here)
And, in his commentary on Galatians Luther wrote:
"Paul as a true apostle of faith always has the word "faith" on the tip of his tongue. By faith, says he, we are the children of God. The Law cannot beget children of God. It cannot regenerate us. It can only remind us of the old birth by which we were born into the kingdom of the devil. The best the Law can do for us is to prepare us for a new birth through faith in Christ Jesus. Faith in Christ regenerates us into the children of God. St. John bears witness to this in his Gospel: 'As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (John 1:12.).'"
Bullinger, as we will see, agrees with Calvin, Luther, and Beza, writing these words (emphasis mine), taken from his sermons, which are available to read (here):
"But we briefly and truly affirm that by true faith, a man lives, is happy, attains to the chief goodness, is conjoined to the chief goodness, and is also justified: so that God dwells in us, and we in him; and by faith we are both happy and blessed. What, I ask you, could have been spoken more excellently, worthily, or divinely, touching true faith? For see that faith quickens us, makes us happy, and joins us to the chief goodness, so that He 1 in us, and we in him, may live; and faith also fully justifies us."
Spiritual life comes to dead sinners by faith. As a result of faith God dwells in a believer and a believer enters "into Christ." This is denied, however, by those later Calvinists who said that regeneration, being "in Christ," having spiritual life, precedes faith.
Bullinger wrote further:
"Faith quickens or makes alive. For "the just lives by faith." 3 Paul very often in his writings alleges this out of the prophets. The same Paul also says, "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2.20 Faith joins us to the eternal and chief goodness, and so it makes us enjoy the chief goodness, so that God may dwell in us and we in God. For the Lord Jesus himself says in the gospel, "He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, so also I live by the Father, and he that eats me shall live by me." Joh 6.56-57" (pg. 56 FIFTH SERMON: ONLY ONE TRUE FAITH)
Again, very clear denial of the regeneration before faith view. As long as a sinner is detached or unjoined from Christ, who is life, he remains dead. So the apostle John taught, saying "whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life." (I John 5:12) Christ must be "received" by faith, he must be "partaken" of by faith, as Jesus said, "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink his blood you have no life in you." (John 6: 53) As the first Reformers of the Calvinist tradition taught, Christ is eaten by faith and is when sinners become "partakers of Christ." (Heb. 3:14) So Christ taught that it is by believing in him that they enter into him, are "in him." (See my post on that here)
Bullinger wrote further:
"The very same God also wills that we obtain and have life in us, and that we have it no other way than by faith. For the apostle Paul taught that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. Eph 3.17 Moreover, the Lord himself also witnesses, and says, "He that eats me shall live by me." Joh 6.57 But you know, dearly beloved, that to eat Christ is to believe in him. And therefore, we knit up this place with these words of St. Peter: "All the prophets bear witness to this Christ, that whoever believes in him shall receive forgiveness of sins through his name." Act 10.43" (pg. 61 1-6. SIXTH SERMON: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH)
That is the historic Calvinist position. Later Calvinists altered these views and began to teach that spiritual life and resurrection are first given to sinners to make them believe. They thought that they were improving the views of Calvin, Beza, Luther, etc., "refining" Calvinism, as if it were a science like physics, that is constantly being refined. I rather think that the new testament writers, following Christ, warned of how the original pure doctrine of the church would be corrupted, not refined as time went on.
Bullinger wrote further, confirming what I just showed from scripture:
"Faith alone — by which we believe in Christ, who was lifted up for the remission of our sins, and in whom alone our life and sure salvation assuredly consists — is the only thing that quickens us, who are already dying by the envenomed sting of Satan, which is sin...By faith we are made partakers of Christ."
"For by faith, Christ dwells and lives in us...Only those who believe and trust in him, are made partakers of this redemption. For whoever receives Christ Jesus by true faith, through the preaching of the gospel, are thereby justified; that is, they are acquitted from their sins, sanctified, and made heirs of eternal life." (pg. 511 4-1. THE FIRST SERMON: OF THE GOSPEL.)
When Paul said "whatever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. 14: 23) he intimates that "all is by faith." Yet, this is denied by Calvinists who say that regeneration and obtaining spiritual life precedes faith. Bullinger, like Calvin, Beza, and others in their time, taught that justification, regeneration, quickening, forgiveness or remission of sins, sanctification, were all "by faith."
William Perkins (1558–1602) was a towering influence in the English Reformed movement and similar movements in the European Continent and New England. Dr. Joel Beeke, expert on Perkins and the Puritans, wrote the following on his web page (See here) citing Perkins who wrote (emphasis mine):
Q. But how mayest thou be made partaker of Christ and his benefits?
A. A man of a contrite and humble spirit, by faith alone apprehending and applying Christ with all his merits unto himself, is justified before God and sanctified….
Q. How doth God bring men truly to believe in Christ?
A. First, he prepareth their hearts, that they might be capable of faith, and then he worketh faith in them.
Q. How doth God prepare men’s hearts?
A. By bruising them, as if one would break a hard stone to powder; and this is done by humbling them (Ezek. 11:19; Hos. 6:1–2).
Q. How doth God humble a man?
A. By working in him a sight of his sins, and a sorrow for them.”4
In "A GOLDEN CHAIN or, The Description of Theology Containing the order of the causes of Salvation and Damnation, according to God’s Word," originally published in 1592 (you can read here), Perkins wrote the following about union with Christ (emphasis mine):
"The bond of this union. This union is made by the Spirit of God applying Christ to us; and on our parts, it is, by faith, receiving Christ Jesus offered to us. And for this cause, it is termed a spiritual union...An actual living member of Christ is every one elected, who being grafted into Christ by faith and the Spirit, feels and displays the power of Christ in him."
"God executes this effectual calling by certain means. The first means is the saving hearing of the word of God, which is when that word is preached outwardly to someone who is both dead in his sins, and does not so much as dream of his salvation. Eze 16.6, When I passed by you, I saw you polluted in your own blood, and I said to you, when you were in your blood, you shall live. Isa 55.1, Ho, every one that thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no silver, come, buy and eat; come I say, and buy wine and milk without silver, and without money. Joh 1.12, As many as received Him, to them he gave this privilege, that they should become the sons of God; namely, to those who believed in His name."
"It is first of all, the Law showing a man his sin, and the punishment for it, which is eternal death. Afterward, the Gospel, showing salvation by Christ Jesus, to those who believe."
"Christ is received when each individual person particularly applies to himself, Christ with His merits, by an inward persuasion of the heart."
This was also the teaching of the first Particular Baptists of the early 17th century. John Spilsbury (1593-1668) taught this same thing when he wrote the following in his personal confession of faith (which I wrote about in this post here):
"I believe that God of his grace, in his own time, effectually calls such as shall be saved to the knowledge of the truth, who is said, of his own will to beget us by the word of truth: in which work of grace, nature is as passive, as a child in the parents begetting of it; and so God by His Spirit works faith in the hearts of all such to believe in Christ, and his righteousness, only for justification. And thus they are made righteous before God in Christ, and so conformable to the will of God the Father through the Son; and also made holy through the work of regeneration, and the holy Spirit of grace dwelling in them; yet all such have still, as long as they live here in the flesh, remaining in them, an old man, that original corruption, the flesh that wars against the spirit, which hinders them in their obedience both to God and to man, and many times draws them to that which is evil, and contrary to their intentions; yet all of them shall through Christ overcome, and safely be brought to glory at last."
The word "thus" shows that he believed, as John Calvin, that both justification and regeneration follow union with Christ by faith. The views of Calvin, Beza, Bullinger, Perkins, and Spilsbury were also the views of Augustine (354-430) who wrote (emphasis mine):
"'But,' saith He, 'there are some among you that believe not.' He said not There are some among you that understand not; but He told the cause why they understand not 'There are some among you that believe not,' and therefore they understand not, because they believe not. For the prophet has said, 'If ye believe not, ye shall not understand.'(2) We are united by faith, quickened by understanding. Let us first adhere to Him through faith, that there may be that which may be quickened by understanding. For he who adheres not resists; he that resists believes not. And how can he that resists be quickened?" (Philip Schaff, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Series 1, Volume 7, St. Augustine, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospel of John, "Tractate XXVI, Chapter VI. 60-72," 288; as cited here)
Notice that quickening follows faith. Spiritual life is received by faith. This is denied, however, by the Hyper Calvinists and those who say that regeneration or spiritual life precedes faith.
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