John Calvin: Keeping the law perfectly is impossible

The following helps to demonstrate, in the words of Brian Schwertley, that "Both Calvin and Luther believed that personal obedience has nothing to do with our justification":

With regard to the Ten Commandments we ought likewise to heed Paul’s warning: “Christ is the end of the law unto salvation to every believer” [Rom. 10:4p.]. Another: Christ is the Spirit [II Cor. 3:17] who quickens the letter that of itself is death-dealing [II Cor. 3:6]. By the former statement he means that righteousness is taught in vain by the commandments until Christ confers it by free imputation and by the Spirit of regeneration. For this reason, Paul justly calls Christ the fulfillment or end of the law. For it would be of no value to know what God demands of us if Christ did not succor those laboring and oppressed under its intolerable yoke and burden. Elsewhere he teaches that ‘the law was put forward because of transgressions’ [Gal. 3:19]; that is, in order to humble men, having convinced them of their own condemnation…..At this point the feebleness of the law shows itself. Because observance of the law is found in none of us, we are excluded from the promises of life, and fall back into the mere curse. I am telling not only what happens but what must happen. For since the teaching of the law is far above human capacity, a man may indeed view from afar above human capacity, a man may indeed view from afar the proffered promises, yet he cannot derive any benefit from them. Therefore this thing alone remains: that from the goodness of the promises he should the better judge his own misery, while with the hope of salvation cut off he thinks himself threatened with certain death…We have said that the observance of the law is impossible. (John T. McNeill, ed. Ford Lewis Battles, trans. of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion [Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960], 1:351-353; quoted by Brian Schwertley in his refutation of the Auburn Avenue theology)

John Calvin: Our faith takes hold upon Christ for justification and sanctification

John Calvin explains that we obtain justification and sanctification by our faith that lays hold upon Christ:

Christ was given to us by God’s generosity, to be grasped and possessed by us in faith. By partaking of him, we principally receive a double grace: namely, that being reconciled to God through Christ’s blamelessness, we may have in heaven instead of a Judge a gracious Father; and secondly, that sanctified by Christ’s spirit we may cultivate blamelessness and purity of life. Of regeneration, indeed, the second of these gifts, I have said what seemed sufficient. (John Calvin, Institutes, III:11:1)

... to be justified means something different from being made new creatures. (John Calvin, Institutes, III:11:6)

... the grace of justification is not separated from regeneration, although they are things distinct. But because it is very well known by experience that the traces of sin always remain in the righteous, their justification must be very different from reformation into newness of life [cf. Romans 6:4]. (John Calvin, Institutes, III:11:11)

John Calvin: Justification by faith is the main hinge on which religion turns

John Calvin explains the importance of the doctrine of justification:

And we must so discuss them [the doctrines of justification by faith] as to bear in mind that this is the main hinge on which religion turns, so that we devote the greater attention and care to it. (John Calvin, Institutes, 3:11:1)

A.W. Pink: Arminianism and Dispensationalism deviate from the Reformed understanding of faith and justification

A.W. Pink highlights an important deviation within Arminian theology in grounding justification within faith itself, rather than the faith that believes unto Christ and His righteousness:

What is the relation of faith to justification? The Arminian answer to the question, refined somewhat by the Plymouth Brethren, is, that the act of believing is imputed to us for righteousness. One error leads to another. Mr. Darby denied that Gentiles were ever under the law, hence he denied also that Christ obeyed the law in His people’s stead, and therefore as Christ’s vicarious obedience is not reckoned to their account, he had to seek elsewhere for their righteousness. This he claimed to find in the Christian’s own faith, insisting that their act of believing is imputed to them "for righteousness." To give his theory respectability, he clothed it in the language of several expressions found in Romans 4, though he knew quite well that the Greek afforded no foundation whatever for that which he built upon it.

In Romans 4 we read "his faith is counted for righteousness" (v. 5), "faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness" (v. 9), "it was imputed to him for righteousness" (v. 22). Now in each of these verses the Greek preposition is "eis" which never means "in the stead of," but always signifies "towards, in order to, with a view to": it has the uniform force of "unto." Its exact meaning and force is unequivocally plain in Romans 10:10, "with the heart man believeth unto ["eis"] righteousness": that is, the believing heart reaches out toward and lays hold of Christ Himself. "This passage (Rom. 10:10) may help us to understand what justification by faith is, for it shows that righteousness there comes to us when we embrace God’s goodness offered to us in the Gospel. We are then, for this reason, made just: because we believe that God is propitious to us through Christ" (J. Calvin). (A.W. Pink, Justification, ch. 8)

John Calvin: We take hold upon Christ and are clothed in His righteousness by faith

John Calvin explains that justification is the legal declaration of God that we are righteous in Christ, as we take hold upon Him and are clothed in His righteousness by faith, not by works:

Now he is justified who is reckoned in the condition not of a sinner, but of a righteous man; and for that reason, he stands firm before God’s judgment seat while all sinners fall. … justified by faith is he who, excluded from the righteousness of works, grasps the righteousness of Christ through faith, and clothed in it, appears in God’s sight not as a sinner but as a righteous man. (John Calvin, Institutes, III:11:2)

For faith totters if it pays attention to work, since no one, even of the most holy, will find there anything on which to rely. (John Calvin, Institutes, III:11:11)

Farewell, then, to the dream of those who think up a righteousness flowing together of faith and works. (John Calvin, Institutes, III:11:13)

John Calvin: Faith does not justify but insofar as it receives and rests solely upon Christ

John Calvin explains that God alone justifies and that faith is a vessel that comes empty to receive and rest upon Christ and His righteousness alone:

I willingly concede Osiander's objection that faith of itself does not possess the power of justifying, but only in so far as it receives Christ. For if faith justified of itself or through some intrinsic power, so to speak, as it is always weak and imperfect it would effect this only in part; thus the righteousness that conferred a fragment of salvation upon us would be defective. Now we imagine no such thing, but we say that, properly speaking, God alone justifies; then we transfer this same function to Christ because he was given to us for righteousness. We compare faith to a kind of vessel; for unless we come empty and with the mouth of our soul open to seek Christ's grace, we are not capable of receiving Christ. From this it is to be inferred that, in teaching that before his righteousness is received Christ is received in faith, we do not take the power of justifying away from Christ. (John Calvin, Institutes, III:11:7)

John Calvin: Christ's obedience alone is reckoned to us as righteousness

John Calvin on Christ's righteousness imputed to us:

To declare that by him alone we are accounted righteous, what else is this but to lodge our righteousness in Christ's obedience, because the obedience of Christ is reckoned to us as if it were our own? (Calvin, Institutes, III:11:23)