Calvin did not treat the authority of Scripture simply as a sparring point with Sadoleto. The Bible was at the heart of the life and experience of the Christian community. Calvin had personally wrestled with the question of authority. He was long attached to the authority of the church and only in his conversion accepted the authority of the Scriptures in all religious matters.

For Calvin, a faithful pastor could only nourish and develop the people of God with the Word. Calvin asked those who would call themselves pastors and teachers to examine themselves on this point: “I will only exhort these men to turn for once to themselves, and consider with what faithfulness they feed the Christian people, who cannot have any other food than the Word of their God.”¹⁸ Calvin lived his life as a pastor who sought to nourish and guide both himself and his flock with the Scriptures.

Calvin did not dismiss Sadoleto’s concern for the authority of the church in a cavalier or individualistic fashion. He made clear that he loved the unity and harmony of the church. But that church must honor the Word of God above itself. “May ours be the humility which, beginning with the lowest, and paying respect to each in his degree, yields the highest honor and respect to the Church, in subordination, however, to Christ, the Church’s head. May ours be the obedience which, while it disposes us to listen to our elders and superiors, tests all obedience by the Word of God. Last, may ours be the Church whose supreme care it is humbly and religiously to venerate the Word of God, and submit to its authority.”¹⁹ In this same vein, he presents a prayer: “My conscience told me how strong the zeal was with which I burned for the unity of your Church, provided your truth were made the bond of harmony.”²⁰ The Word must be the power of life and peace within the church. True unity and peace are in the truth of the Scriptures.

Calvin acknowledged that asserting the authority of the Word was not a simple solution to all problems. The Word itself was sometimes misunderstood. But whatever the problem or difficulty, the Word was a better and clearer and safer guide than some supposed inerrancy in the church. He has the Christian in his “Reply” pray: “. . . the only thing I asked was that all controversies should be decided by your Word.”²¹

For Calvin the Holy Spirit taught the truth of justification through the Scriptures in the church. Calvin’s great concerns for justification, the Word of God, and the church were united and energized by his belief in the Holy Spirit. For this reason he reacted sharply to Sadoleto’s improper appeal to the Spirit as a guide for the church apart from the Word. “The Spirit was promised not to reveal a new doctrine, but to impress the truth of the gospel on our minds. . . . And you, Sadoleto, by stumbling on the very threshold [of theology], have paid the penalty of that offense which you offered to the Holy Spirit when you separated him from the Word. . . .The Spirit goes before the Church, to enlighten her in understanding the Word, while the Word itself is like the Lydian stone [a touchstone], by which she tests all doctrines.”²² Only the Spirit could open the eyes of Christians, including leaders of the church, to the truth of God’s Word.