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[Calvin's] answer, in outline form, is that (a) God has destined that he will bring his children to possess eternal life by way of a certain order or pattern; (b) this pattern is found in the story of Christ himself (cf. Rom. 8:17): humiliation to exaltation, suffering to glory, obedience to eternal life; (c) this pattern, grounded as it is in the story of Christ himself, anchors our hope and expectation that eternal life will be the "end" of our course of obedience, not as a matter of meritorious causation but because God has determined to bring us to glory by way of that Christ-path; (d) for which reason "steps" in that path, including the good works in view in Romans, are "causes" of what follows inasmuch as this is how God has shaped our life in Christ; (e) the Spirit is the Agent of this work of "replicating" in us what is true of Christ; and (f) this pattern in the life of the Church is the content and form of our union with Christ by that Spirit. This is what union with Christ looks like at the level of Christian experience. The "prior grace" Calvin has in view is the reality of good works, and this is a "step" to what follows, ultimately eternal life. It's because Calvin is more than aware of distortions of this relationship along the lines of meritorious causation - and yet refuses to give up the language of real causation simply because it is distorted - that he uses the language of "as it were:" "he makes the prior grace, which is a step to that which follows, as it were the cause."