John Calvin Commentary Acts 27:30

"And as the sailors were seeking to flee out of the ship, and had lowered the boat into the sea, under color as though they would lay out anchors from the foreship," — Acts 27:30 (ASV)

And as the mariners sought. The grace of the Holy Spirit appears in Paul, even in this point also, in that he wisely admonished that the mariners should not be allowed to flee. For why does not the centurion, or some other of the company, rather detect their fraud, except that Paul might be the instrument of their deliverance, even to the end?

But it is remarkable that he says that the rest could not be saved unless the mariners remained in the ship, as if it were in their power to nullify God’s promise. I answer that Paul does not dispute, in this place, precisely about the power of God, that he might separate it from His will and from means. And surely God does not, therefore, commend His power to the faithful so that they might give themselves to sluggishness and carelessness, despising means, or rashly cast themselves away when there is a sure way to escape.

God promised Hezekiah that the city would be delivered (Isaiah 37:6, 37:35). If he had opened the gates to the enemy, would not Isaiah have immediately cried, You destroy both yourself and the city? And yet for all this, it does not follow that God’s hand is tied to means or helps; but when God appoints this or that means to bring anything to pass, He holds all men’s senses, so that they may not go beyond the bounds which He has appointed.