Christ the mediator of the law : Calvin's Christological understanding of the law as the rule of living and life-giving / Byung-Ho Moon ; foreword by David F. Wright.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [261]-290) and indexes.

Calvin's attitude towards the law -- The intellectual origins of Calvin's concept of the law -- The formation and development of Calvin's Christological understanding of the law -- Calvin's concept of Christus mediator legis : its theological foundation and scope -- Christ's mediation of the law in the Old Testament : a pivotal approach to Calvin and Judaism -- Christ the Mediator as the interpreter and fulfilment of the law in Calvin's exegesis of the Gospels -- Lex dei regula vivendi et vivificandi : Calvin's dynamic understanding of the office and use of the law -- The coherence between Christology and soteriology in Calvin's theology of the law.

"This book is based on this argument: while Lutherans, sustaining their confessional principle lex semper accusat, tend to separate the theological use of the law from its normative use, and while covenantal theologians, although paying primary attention to the normative character of the law. regard its peculiar role as merely a preliminary element to establish the mutuality and the conditionality of the covenant, Calvin understands the nature of the law as the rule for living (regula vivendi) and, from this point of view, deals with the whole office of the law, whether theological or normative, as the rule of life-giving (regula vivificandi). A fruit of Moon's exposition is an enlarged picture of the mediatorial service of Jesus Christ. In Jesus' gospel ministry his teaching of and about the law becomes, in Calvin's reading, the revelation of the original import of the law and the righteousness which fulfills it. 'In regenerating us Christ vivifies, gives life to (vivificat) the law,' as Calvin puts it in his commentary on 2 Corinthians 3:17. This book provides food for thought for Christian circles which seem intent on reviving a simplistic dichotomy between law and gospel, or even between Old Testament and New."--Foreword and pref.