Calvin's Commentary on Malachi
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Lecture One Hundred and Seventieth.
We saw yesterday what the object of Malachi was in
reminding the Jews that they were loved and chosen by
God; it was, that he might the more amplify their
ingratitude for having rendered such an unworthy reward
for so great a favour of God: as he had preferred them to
all other nations, he had justly bound them to perpetual
obedience; but they had shaken off the yoke, and having
despised God had given themselves up again to many
corruptions, as we have yesterday stated. But I reminded
you at the same time, that the Prophet refers not here to
those benefits with which God favours indiscriminately
all mankind, but brings forward the adoption by which he
had set apart the seed of Abraham as his peculiar people.
But that it may appear more fully how just this
expostulation was, let us first observe, that it is one
kind of obligation that God has created us men in his
image and after his likeness; for he might have created
us dogs and asses, and not men. Adam, we know, was taken
from the earth, as other animals were: then as to the
body there is no difference between men and other
creatures. When it is said that God breathed into man the
breath of life, we ought not to dream as the Manicheans
do, that man's soul is by traduction; for so they say,
affirming that man's soul is from the substance of the
Deity; but Moses on the contrary understands that man's
soul was created from nothing. We are born by generation,
and yet our origin is clay; and the chief thing in us,
the soul, is created from nothing. We hence see that we
differ from animals because God was pleased to create us
men. He therefore will justly charge us with ingratitude,
if we do not serve him; for it was for this end he
created us in his own image.
But there is here mentioned a special favour - that
the Lord took to himself the seed of Abraham, as it is
said in the song of Moses, that all nations are God's,
but that he had cast his line to set apart Israel for
himself. (Deut. 32: 9.) Though then the whole world was
under God's government, it was yet his will to choose one
family. If the cause be enquired, it is not to be found
in men; for all were created from the earth, and souls
were implanted in their bodies created from nothing.
Since it was so, we see that the difference arose from
the fountain of gratuitous favour - that God preferred
one race to the rest; and as we stated yesterday, Moses
often repeats this - that the Jews were not chosen
because they were more excellent than other nations, but
because God gratuitously loved their fathers. (Deut. 7:
7.) By love he means gratuitous favor.
Malachi then does not consider here that the Jews
had been chosen before other nations on the ground of
their own merit; for if he granted this, they might have
objected and said - "Why dost thou remind us that God has
favoured us more than other nations, since he deemed us
worthy, and rewarded our merit?" But the Prophet takes it
as admitted, according to what I have already said, that
the Jews were by nature like other nations, so that their
different condition did not proceed from themselves, or
from their own worthiness, but from the gratuitous love
of God.
A third step is also to be noticed here; for God
selected a part only from the very race of Abraham, as
Esau and Jacob were brothers, and Esau was first
according to the order of nature, for he was the
first-born; and yet God rejected him, and appointed the
favour of election to be in the posterity of Jacob. This
third step then was election.
These things ought to be carefully considered. Men
are peculiarly bound to God, because he might have
created them asses and dogs, and not men; but it has
pleased him to form them in his own image. The second
step is, that he chose the race of Abraham, when his
empire extended over all nations without exception: for
how was it that God chose to be the father and savior of
one people only, when the whole world was under his
authority? Here shines forth, as I have already said, his
gratuitous favour; and in addition to the testimonies of
Moses, it is often said in the Psalms that God loved the
fathers, that he did to them what he had not done to
other nations, that he made known his judgments to them.
(Psalm 147:19.) There are many passages in which God
commemorates his favor to the Jews, because it pleased
him to distinguish them from other nations, while yet the
condition of all by nature was wholly the same. Now the
third step which Malachi mentions ought to be carefully
noticed - that God not only promised to be a God to
Abraham and to his seed, but also made a difference
between the very sons of Abraham, so as to reject some
and to choose others; and it is on this point that Paul
dwells in the ninth chapter to the Romans; for he says,
that not all who are of Israel - that is, who derive
their origin from him - are true and legitimate
Israelites, but those who are called. For it was Paul's
object to refute the Jews, for they boasted that they
were a holy people, though they wilfully rejected Christ
and his gospel. For when the apostles proved that the
Redeemer promised had been sent, the proud answer in the
mouth of the Jews was this - "Are not we the Church of
God? but we do not acknowledge this Christ whom ye would
thrust upon us." As then the Jews, through this false
pretence, despised the favour of God, and sought to
trample Christ as it were under foot, Paul repels this
arrogance, and shows that they excelled not the nations,
except by virtue of a gratuitous adoption, and that this
adoption was to be so extended to the whole race of
Abraham as yet to be confined to a certain number.
In the same manner do the Papists act in the present
day. As they estimate faith by external tokens, they
haughtily object to us, and say that they are the Church;
as though a general promise were sufficient without the
Spirit, who is justly called the Spirit of adoption, by
whom God seals it within, even in our hearts.
Now Paul adds evidences of the fact, and brings
forward the instance of Jacob and Esau. Of the twin
brothers, one, he says, was chosen, and the other passed
by; and yet both were the sons of Abraham. It then
follows that there is a third step in election, as I have
already stated. Now from this third proceeds a fourth -
that God takes some of the sons of Jacob, whom he has
chosen before the foundation of the world, and others he
rejects; and of this fact Paul adduces a sure proof, or
assigns an evident reason: God preferred Jacob to his
brother, the first-born, but not on account of any merit:
if then the free mercy of God availed so much in the
election of Jacob, it follows that the same still
prevails with reoard to his posterity. If it be again
asked, whence comes it that some are faithful and others
are reprobate, the answer is, because it so pleases God.
Hence Paul ascends higher and says, that before they were
born, and had done neither good nor evil, it was said,
the elder shall serve the younger; and then he brings
forward this prophecy - "Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated."
If then we wisely consider the whole passage, we
shall find what I have stated - that from the third step
we may proceed to a fourth, and that is, that from the
sons of Jacob God chose whom he pleased and rejected
others; for when he chose Jacob, God was not bound to him
any more than he was before. The same promise was indeed
repeated to Jacob, which had been given to Abraham; but
from Abraham proceeded Ishmael, who was rejected, we
know, from God's Church; and the same was the case with
the other sons of Abraham. Isaac was alone chosen. But
Isaac, the father of Esau and Jacob, was not able at his
own pleasure to retain them both; but here the free and
hidden election of God appeared, so that Esau was
rejected, and Jacob remained as the legitimate heir to
the divine favour.
We now then more fully understand uhat the Prophet
means: he does not charge the Jews with having shaken off
every fear of that God, in whose image they had been
created; but he enhances their ingratitude, because they
gave no response to the free adoption of God, for they
had been chosen from all other nations, and not only
this, but they had been separated again from the very
race of Abraham, and this was their second election.
Another thing must also be added respecting their
gratuitous election; for the reproof of the Prophet would
not have been received, except God in his adoption had
regard only to his own favour; for if we grant that
either Jacob or Abraham had merited anything, what the
Prophet says, Was not Esau Jacob's brother? would not
have availed. An answer might have been readily given,
"He was indeed his brother, but his virtue being
meritorious set him before his brother." But the Prophet
here presses this point on the Jews - that having been
bound by so many benefits, they yet were become as it
were spurious; for they had degenerated from the favor
which God had conferred on them. We hence see that by
these words of the Prophet it is sufficiently proved -
that Abraham had been chosen by God in preference to all
other nations, Isaac in preference to his brother
Ishmael, and Jacob in preference to Esau.
And Scripture is full of proofs on the subject, and
experience also sufficiently demonstrates the truth.
Moses says, that it wss not by their own virtue that they
excelled other nations, for they were a rebellious and a
stiff-necked people. Though God then knew the perverse
character of that nation, it yet pleased him to make them
an example of his wonderful goodness. There is therefore
no reason for us to seek any other cause for adoption
except the will of God. And since the election of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was gratuitous, it follows that
each one is freely chosen whoml God separates from the
whole body; and thus we come to the fourth step; for what
is said here, that Jacob was chosen, ought not to be
confined to his person, but what he had in common with
his posterity. Jacob then was chosen - for what purpose?
that his children might be God's holy and peculiar
people. Now if we consider his whole offspring, we shall
find that all who descended from Jacob were not
legitimate Israelites, for the greatest part of them were
rejected. As then many who derived their origin from
Jacob, were not less reprobate than Esau, it follows that
God's free favor and gratuitous mercy prevails as to
individuals: and this is the subject which Paul discusses
in the ninth chapter to the Romans.
It seems hard to many, that God should choose some
and not all, and that he should regard no worthiness, but
of his own free will choose whom he pleases, and reject
others. But whence comes this objection, except that they
wish to restrain God and subject him to their own
judgment? But we must come to the principle to which I
have referred. If it seems unreasonable to them that one
of two should be chosen and the other rejected, how can
they defend the justice of God (if need there be of their
apology) with regard to an ass and man? for as I have
said, they both proceeded, both asses and men, from the
same lump as to their bodies. Every vigor and strength in
the ass has been created by the hidden power of God: and
as to the soul of man, though its essence is immortal, it
has yet been created from nothing. Now, then, let these
wise censors answer for God in this case, whom they think
to be exposed to many calumnies, when we say that men's
salvation depends on his will, so that he rejects some
and chooses others.
But as to general election, there is the same
difficulty to satisfy the judgment of men: for as we have
already said, there is no difference between men but what
arises from hidden election. They indeed imagine in this
case a foreknowledge as the mother of election: but the
notion is extremely foolish and puerile. They then say,
that some are elected by God and some are rejected,
because God, to whom nothing is hid, foresees what every
one will be. But I now ask, Whence is it that one is
virtuous, while another is vicious? If they say, from
free-will, doubtless creation is anterior to free-will:
this is one thing. Then we know that in Adam all men were
created alike; for how is it that we are all exposed to
eternal death, and that the vengeance of God extends over
us all, and at this day prevails through the whole world?
How is this, except that the condition of us all
originally is one and the same? It follows then, that if
Adam stood upright, all men would be alike in their
integrity. I do not now speak of special gifts: for there
would have been, I allow, a difference of endowments had
nature remained perfect; but as to eternal life the
condition of all would have been the same. Now after the
fall of Adam we are all lost. What can then be more
foolish and absurd than to imagine that there is some
virtue in man by which he excels others, since we are all
equally accursed in the person of Adam? For who hath made
thee to excel, saith Paul? He proves that there is no
excellency in man, except what proceeds from the bounty
of God only, and as I have stated, the reason is quite
manifest.
For either original sin does not belong to all men,
or God cannot foresee that this man will be just and that
man unjust. Why? All are naturally reprobate in Adam and
liable to eternal death, and the reason is evident, for
nothing is found in men but sin. The foreknowledge of God
then cannot be the cause of our election, for by looking
on the whole race of man, he finds them all under a curse
from the least to the greatest.
We see then how foolishly do they talk and prattle
who ascribe to mere and naked prescience what ought to be
ascribed to the good pleasure of God. That God made
himself known to the race of Abraham, that he designed to
deposit his law with the Israelites - all this was his
peculiar favour, and no other reason can be assigned for
it except gratuitous adoption. God then favoured the
children of Abraham with this privilege, because it so
pleased him: for if we say that they were worthy, and by
their virtue rendered themselves deserving, the Holy
Spirit does in the first place everywhere speak against
us, and in the second place experience and facts, for the
obstinacy of that people was extraordinary. But we ought
to be satisfied with the authority of Scripture, since
God makes known and illustrates his favour by this
instance - that he loved Abraham and his children, that
is, that he was favourable to the Jews through his own
goodness only, and this is what we shall hereafter see
still more clearly. Let this then remain as a fixed
principle - that the cause of our election is notlling
else but the mere favour of God. If we seek a cause apart
from God, when we enquire about our election, we shall
wander in a labyrinth.
That the same principle holds as to individuals, I
have already proved. It ought indeed to be sufficient for
us, that Paul passes from the person of Jacob to
individuals among his posterity. For he adduces as it wet
e an instance in the two brothers, in order to convince
us that no one is chosen on account of his own virtue,
but according to the good pleasure of God: nor was it
necessary to state these circumstances - that one was
chosen when the brothers were not yet born, and when they
had not done either good or evils that it was not through
works but through him who called, except he meant to
prove this, that it is in God's power to choose whom he
wills and to reject whom he wills. But as Augustine
reminds us, nothing can be imagined more absurd than that
notion, with which many are pleased, that God has
foreknown what men will be, for Paul excludes such
foreknowledge as the cause which he infers, that it was
not owing to works but to him who called, that God
preferred the one to the other, for neither of them,
while in their mother's womb, had done either good or
evil.
Paul brings also a confirmation from another
declaration of Moses, "I will pity whom I will pity, and
mercy will I show to whom I will be merciful. "By these
words God clearly declares that it was in his power to
reject whom he pleased of the seed of Jacob, and to
choose whom he pleased. What then he had before said
respecting one man, God now applies to the whole seed,
for he speaks not there of foreign nations, but of that
holy and chosen people. When God threatened with ruin all
the children of Abraham, Moses humbly deprecated this,
lest he should annul his own covenant: God answered him,
"I will pity whom I will pity," - what does this mean?
that there is no other cause why God retains some for
himself and rejects others, than his own will. The
repetition may seem superfluous and frigid, "I will pity
whom I will pity," but it is very emphatical; as though
he had said, "I might have chosen for myself another from
the world and not Abraham, but I have according to my own
good pleasure adopted him; and Ishmael might have been as
dear to me as Isaac, but it has been my will that the
blessing should rest on Isaac; when he also had begotten
two children, I repudiated the first born and choose
Jacob, and now from the posterity of Jacob I will choose
for myself whom I please, for there is to be found no
other cause but my will, 'I will then pity whom I will
pity, and mercy will I show to whom I will be merciful.'"
If then in this case men will contend with God, and would
know why he chooses this rather than that man, the answer
he gives is, that the cause is to be found in his mercy
alone, for he is bound to no one.
We now see how the folly of those vanishes away who
would have foreknowledge to be the cause of election; and
also that they who murmur against God, are sufficiently
refuted by this reason, that it is in his power either to
choose or to reject, inasmuch as he is under obligations
to none.
As to reprobation, the cause of it is sufficiently
manifest in the fall of Adam, for, as we have said, we
all fell with him. It must still be observed, that the
election of God is anterior to Adam's fall; and that
hence all we who are rescued from the common ruin have
been chosen in Christ before the creation of the world,
but that others justly perish though they had not been
lost in Adam; because God appointed Christ the head of
his Church, in order that we might be saved in him, not
all, but those who have been chosen.
And with regard to the proof, it is not necessary
here to bring together the mass of passages found in
scripture, for this would be endless. But there are,
however, some remarkable passages, by which it is
sufficiently evident that some are chosen from the whole
world as well as from the race of Abraham, according to
God's good pleasure only, and that others are rejected,
and that there is no other cause to be found but his
will; for our election is hid in the eternal and secret
counsel of God, and founded on Christ, and reprobation is
also hid in the judgment of God. Now if we wish to
penetrate into this mystery, we must know that it is a
great and unfathomable abyss: here all our ideas vanish
away. In the meantime, however, God does not lose his
liberty to choose and reject whom he pleases.
With regard to election, the ninth chapter to the
Romans ought to be sufficient, or rather the three
chapters, for Paul pursues the same argument to the end
of the eleventh chapter, and then exclaims that the
riches of God's wisdom and goodness are incomprehensible,
and that his judgments are untraceable. He speaks also of
the elect in the first chapter to the Ephesians; and the
sum of what he says is, that all the faithful had been
chosen in Christ before the creation of the world, and
through the good pleasure of God only, in order that he
might show in them the glory of his goodness.
By no refinements can they escape who attempt to
darken this truth; for Paul very clearly and briefly
declares that the whole world has not been chosen, but
the faithful, who are afterwards favored with the Spirit
of adoption: and thus sufficiently is that fancy refuted,
that the election of God ought to be connected with his
promises. I wonder that men of learning, endued with
judgment and versed in scripture, so frigidly pass over
the subject, and that they are not at least moved when
they see that they give to many the occasion of foolishly
going astray, and that some take hence the opportunity to
calumniate. We must, however, declare what this passage
requires - that those are very unwise who seek to subvert
or overthrow the eternal election of God by this
contrivance - that God addresses all men generally, "Come
unto me" - "I am your Father." Since God then offers his
grace to all by the external preaching of his word, they
will have it that all are elected: but Paul says, that we
are believers, because we have been elected. If then it
be asked, why some obstinately reject the grace of God,
and others embrace it in the spirit of meekness, Paul
assigns the reason, and it is this - because God
illuminates those who believe, inasmuch as he has chosen
them before the creation of the world. It then follows
that God so speaks generally, as that the efficacy of the
doctrine still depends on his secret good pleasure; for
whence is faith, but from his peculiar favor? and why
does he not communicate his grace to all? even because he
has not chosen all. We see that Paul thus proceeds step
b,y step, that he might teach us that faith emanates from
the fountain of free election; and he raises up election
into the highest eminence to show that it is not right to
enquire into its cause. Thus much about election.
As to reprobation, I know that many greatly dislike
this doctrine - that some are rejected, and that yet no
cause can be found in themselves why they thus remain
disapproved by God. But there is here need of docility
and of a meek spirit, to which Paul also exhorts us, when
he says, "O man, who art thou who answerest against God?"
(Rom. 9: 20.) For were it lawful to investigate the
cause, surely Paul, who had been taken up to the third
heaven, might have showed us the way; but he is here
silent and drives us away from the indulgence of a bold
and an over curious spirit. Since the Holy Spirit by the
mouth of Paul restrains the presumption of men, that they
may not dare to go beyond this step - that God hardens
whom he wills and rejects whom he wills, why do men leap
beyond this, except they wilfully seek to carry on war
with God? and yet they pretend modesty, and under this
pretext they seek to bury the doctrine of election; we
ought, they say, to speak soberly of mysteries. This last
sentence I allow fully; but what is our sobriety but our
docility? that is, when we embrace what God declares in
his word, and never allow ourselves to investigate more
than what he teaches us. But they would extinguish God's
word; nay, they dare openly to pronounce blasphemies
against God, and to find fault with the Spirit, who has
spoken by the prophets and the apostles.
We indeed see that there are many devils who preach
modesty, when their object is to suppress the light and
this chief doctrine, the main basis of our salvation; and
they extort wicked edicts from the ignorant and the
slumbering, as though it were in the power of men, by
babbling about things unknown, and by barbarously mixing
all things together, to thrust God as it were from his
celestial throne. This is horribly monstrous, and ought
to be detested by all; for it would be better that all
the empires of the world should be swallowed up in the
lowest depths, than that mortal creatures should raise
themselves up as it were into heaven, and attempt to
penetrate into the secret things of God. But, however,
when the whole world either assail this doctrine by
barking, or seek to subvert it by threats and terrors, or
when all in various ways manifest their rage, and when
they roll thunders who seem to themselves to be very
powerful, it behoves us to hold fast this doctrine, that
God alone is the author of our salvation, because he has
been pleased freely to elect us, and also that he
possesses power over all the human race, so that some,
according to his will, are elected and some are rejected,
and that he ever acts justly, and holds secret the cause
both of election and of reprobation. But it is no wonder
that we are so blind, for we are stupid by nature, nay,
blind altogether; and were we angels, it would be still
our duty reverently to regard the manifold wisdom of God,
which no human minds, no, not even angelic minds, can
fully comprehend. Other things we must defer.
PRAYER.
Grant, Almighty God, that as thou best been pleased to
adopt us as thy people for this end, that we may be
ingrafted as it were into the body of thy Son, and be
made conformable to our head, - O grant, that through our
whole life we may strive to seal in our hearts the faith
of our election, that we may be the more stimulated to
render thee true obedience, and that thy glory may also
be made known through us; and those whom thou hast chosen
together with us may we labour to bring together, that we
may unanimously celebrate thee as the Author of our
salvation, and so ascribe to thee the glory of thy
goodness, that having cast away and renounced all
confidence in our own virtue, we may be led to Christ
only as the fountain of thy election, in whom also is set
before us the certainty of our salvation through thy
gospel, until we shall at length be gathered into that
eternal glory which He has proctored for us by his own
blood. - Amen.
Calvin's Commentary on Malachi
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