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On one side, we must look at God; and, on the other, at man. God declares, that he owes us nothing; so that salvation is not a reward or recompense, but unmixed grace. The next question is, in what way do men receive that salvation which is offered to them by the hand of God? The answer is, by faith; and hence he concludes that nothing connected with it is our own. If, on the part of God, it is grace alone, and if we bring nothing but faith, which strips us of all commendation, it follows that salvation does not come from us.

Calvin says 'if we bring nothing but the faith' and that 'we must look at God and at man'

Calvin is saying in this commentary that faith is from man, not from God.

You might not like what he is saying, but he is saying it.

That ok, you can ignore it like you ignore his comments on 2Pet.3:9 and Spurgeons comments on 1Tim.2:4.

Calvin: "The next question is, in what way do men receive that salvation which is offered to them by the hand of God? The answer is, by faith; and hence he concludes that nothing connected with it is our own."

We receive salvation by His grace through the free gift of faith in Jesus Christ, from God alone. That's what the words say. Just like the words of Paul.

We don't "bring our faith" in order to believe. We bring our faith to every moment in our lives because we believe according to God's gift of grace.

On the surface, it's semantics.

In truth, it is the very reason for the Reformation -- it divides those who believe in salvation by the grace of God alone from those who believe in salvation by men's good and inbred righteousness, ability, works, tithing, piety, connections, professions, intelligence, luck.

But none are righteous. We are all fallen and dead in sin, unable to rebirth ourselves. "Nothing connected with it is our own." Like Lazarus' second life, only God can breathe righteousness back into the dead corpse of the fallen sinner.