Cap. 5 Mem. 2 Rat. 1: Merit needs contact — faith joins us to Christ
Ratio 1. Although we grant that the death of Christ, considered as a meritorious cause, is most sufficient to expiate the sins of all human beings and to restore them into the state of grace with God, yet it cannot actually constitute anyone justified and reconciled unless it is somehow joined, fitted, and united to the one who is supposed to be justified and reconciled by it.
For as the philosophers often say — that every action requires some contact — this also holds true for this supernatural action, which cannot occur without some supernatural contact. By faith we touch Christ, and through faith we are joined to him and as it were fitted to him. For Christ dwells in us through faith (Ephesians 3:17).
Without faith, then, or before faith, we have no actual conjunction with Christ; and therefore from the merit of his death there is no remission of sins, no justification, no reconciliation with God the Father.
Most learned Calvin observed this on Romans 8:4: Christ communicates his own righteousness to none except those whom he joins to himself by the bond of his Spirit. Whatever therefore lies hidden in God’s eternal decree concerning those who are to be justified, reconciled to him, and likewise all the elect who are to be saved; whatever sufficiency or efficacy there is in the precious blood of Christ for redeeming human beings and reconciling them to God — still it does not customarily pass into the effect of actual reconciliation unless it is first joined to human beings through faith, because a meritorious cause no less than a natural one must be joined to that into which it flows and into which it pours its saving power.
Latin
Rat. 1. Quamvis concedamus mortem Christi in ratione causae meritoriae esse sufficientissimam ad expianda peccata omnium hominum, eosque in statum gratiae cum Deo restituendos, tamen non potest actu constituere justificatum et reconciliatum, nisi aliquo modo conjungatur, coaptetur, et uniatur illi, qui per eam justificandus et reconciliandus supponitur. Nam quod Philosophi dicere solent, Omnis actio est per aliquem contactum, id etiam valet in hac supernaturali actione, quae non fit absque contactu aliquo supernaturali. Fide autem tangimus Christum, et per fidem eidem conjungimur et quasi coaptamur. Habitat enim Christus in nobis per fidem. Absque fide igitur, sive ante fidem, nulla nobis actualis conjunctio cum Christo, ac proinde ex merito mortis ejus nulla remissio peccatorum, nulla justificatio, nulla cum Deo Patre reconciliatio. Doctissimus Calvinus hoc observavit in Rom. viii. 4. Suam justitiam nullis communicat Christus, nisi quos Spiritus sui vinculo sibi conjungit. Quicquid igitur latet in aeterno Dei decreto de justificandis, et sibi reconciliandis, eademque salvandis omnibus electis, quicquid in pretioso Christi sanguine sufficientiae, aut efficaciae sit ad homines redimendos, et Deo reconciliandos, tamen in effectum actualis reconciliationis minime exire solet, nisi per fidem prius hominibus conjungatur, quia tam meritoria quam naturalis causa conjungi illi debet in quod influit et virtutem suam salutiferam transfundit.