John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 30

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come. He again confirms what we have seen elsewhere: that God never afflicts His Church so severely that He is not ready to return to mercy. Indeed, by their punishments, however cruel in appearance, the afflicted—who were destroying themselves as if their hearts were set on it—are invited to repentance, so that they may obtain pardon. Therefore, although cause for despair is everywhere surrounding them from the burning wrath of God, still He urges them to take heart and be of good hope.

Still, we must bear in mind what I have already shown from the words of Moses: that reconciliation is not offered to all indiscriminately, but this blessing exists by special privilege in the Church alone. We also gather this from the special promise: ²⁷⁸ I will visit their iniquities with the rod; nevertheless I will not take away my loving-kindness from them.

However, it must also be added that this is not common to all who profess to be members of the Church, but only belongs ²⁷⁹ to the residue of the seed, and those whom Paul calls the remnant of grace (Romans 11:5). For it is no more profitable for hypocrites, though they are mixed with believers, to be struck with the scourges of God unto salvation, than it is for strangers. Therefore, this promise is only addressed to a certain number, because it was always necessary that some people should remain as a residue, so that God’s covenant should stand firm and sure.

Still, Moses not only urges the Israelites to profit from God's corrections, but also to reflect on His blessings by which they might be led to serve Him with pleasure. For this comparison was of considerable use in illustrating the judgments of God. ²⁸⁰ If the punishments alone had occupied their minds, their knowledge would have been only partial or more obscure. In contrast, when on the one hand they considered that they had not served God in vain, and on the other, that in forsaking Him they had fallen from the height of blessedness into the deepest misery, it was easy for them to infer that whatever misfortunes they suffered were the fruit and reward of their ungodliness.

Nor is it to be doubted that, under the Law, God so adapted Himself to a tender and ignorant people that the course of His blessings and curses was perfectly clear, so that it was plainly shown that they neither threw away their labor in keeping the Law, nor violated it with impunity. He often declares by the Prophets that, as long as His children were obedient, He on His part would be their Father, so that from this it might be more clearly perceived that the deterioration of their circumstances arose from His just indignation.

Indeed, under this pretext, the wicked formerly endeavored to defend their superstitions. For instance, when trying to refute Jeremiah, they proudly boasted that it was well with them when they “burnt incense unto the frame of heaven;” ²⁸¹ but such flagrant depravity is admirably rebuked by the Prophet, who shows that God had most clearly avenged such pollutions by the destruction of their city and the fall of the Temple (Jeremiah 44:17, 22). Therefore, the distinction of which Moses now speaks could not escape them, unless they willfully shut out the light.

Moreover, because it rarely happens that men are wise in prosperity, he advises the Israelites to return to their senses, at least when severely afflicted. For He addresses the exiles, who, disinherited by God, had no hope left, and promises them that if, when banished to distant lands, they at length repented, God would be propitiated towards them. For “to ²⁸² bring back to their heart” is equivalent to considering what previously had been despised through contempt, neglect, or stupidity, and buried, as it were, in voluntary oblivion.

Still, lest they should presume on God’s kindness and seek pardon only in a perfunctory manner, serious conversion is required, the results of which should appear in their life, since newness of life accompanies (genuine ²⁸³) repentance. Nor does Moses speak only of the outward correction of life, but demands sincere desires to obey, for we have seen elsewhere ²⁸⁴ that “all the heart” means with integrity of heart.

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart. This promise far surpasses all the others and properly refers to the new Covenant, for Jeremiah interprets it this way, introducing God speaking as follows:

Behold, the days come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, which covenant they brake, but I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts (Jeremiah 31:31–33).

Moses now declares the same thing in different words: that, lest the Israelites, according to their usual instability, should fall back from time to time into new rebellions, a divine remedy was needed, that is, that God should renew and mold their hearts. In short, he reminds them that this would be the chief advantage of their reconciliation: that God should endow them with the Spirit of regeneration.

There is a metaphor in this word circumcise; for Moses alludes to the legal sign of consecration, by which they were initiated into the service of God. The expression, therefore, is equivalent to his saying, God will create you spiritually to be new men, so that, cleansed from the filth of the flesh and the world, and separated from the unclean nations, you should serve Him in purity.

Meanwhile, he shows that whatever God offers us in the Sacraments depends on the secret operation of His Spirit. Circumcision was then the Sacrament of repentance and renewal, as Baptism is now to us; but the letter, as Paul calls it (Romans 2:27), was useless in itself, just as now many are baptized to no profit. So far, then, is God from resigning the grace of His Spirit to the Sacraments, that all their efficacy and utility is lodged in the Spirit alone.

Although Moses seems to make a division of the matter between men and God, so as to ascribe to them the beginning of repentance, and to make Him the author of perseverance (only,²⁸⁵) nevertheless this difficulty is easily solved; for according to the ordinary manner of Scripture, when he exhorts them to repentance, he is not teaching them that it is a gift of the Spirit, but simply reminding them of their duty. Meanwhile, the defenders of free will foolishly conclude that more is not required of men than they are able to perform, for in other places they are taught to ask of God whatever He enjoins.

Thus, in this passage, Moses treats of the means of propitiating God, namely, by returning to the right way with a sincere heart. But, after he has testified that God will be gracious to them, he adds that there is need of a better remedy, so that, being once restored by Him, they may be perpetual recipients of His grace.

Still, it is not his intention to restrict the circumcision of the heart to the subsequent course of their lives, as if it depended on their own will and choice to circumcise themselves before God should work in them. And surely it is not at all more easy to rise when you have fallen than to stand upright after God has set you up.

I confess that perseverance is an excellent grace; but how shall the sinner, who is enslaved to Satan, free himself from those chains, unless God shall deliver him? Therefore, what Moses lays down as to the gift of perseverance applies no less to the commencement of conversion. But he only wishes to teach us that, although God should pardon our sins, that blessing would be but transient unless He should keep us in subjection to His Law. And, in fact, He regenerates by His Spirit unto righteousness all those whose sins He pardons.

And you shall return and obey the voice of the Lord.²⁸⁶ The connecting word that Moses uses here is equivalent to an inferential particle; for he argues from their certainty of obtaining pardon that they should not hesitate to return to God—indeed, that they should rather set about it with a cheerful and ready mind, and then that they should steadfastly continue in the course of obedience. But when he now requires of the people the perseverance that he had just before declared is given by God alone, we may at once infer that they act foolishly who estimate human strength by the commands of God. Meanwhile, let us bear in mind this main point: that true conversion is proved by the consistent tenor of life, because we are redeemed, as Zechariah testifies, for this purpose: that we should serve God, our Deliverer, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life (Luke 1:74, 75).

For this commandment, which I command you. This declaration is like the preceding one and serves the same purpose. In it, Moses commends the Law for its ease, because God does not propose obscure riddles to us that would keep our minds in suspense or torment us with difficulties. Instead, God plainly teaches whatever is necessary, according to the people's understanding and, consequently, their ignorance.

Therefore, in Isaiah 45:19, He rebukes the Jews for having strayed in darkness through their own depravity and folly, because He had not spoken to them in secret, nor said in vain²⁷⁵ to the seed of Jacob, Seek me. But Moses here invites them to learn, because they had an easy and clear method of instruction set before their eyes and would not labor in vain.

For we know that it is very often made an excuse for idleness if great effort without much profit is required for deep and difficult studies. Moses, therefore, declares that the Law is not hard to understand, so as to demand excessive effort in its study. Instead, God speaks distinctly and explicitly in it, and nothing is required of them but diligent application. Moreover, he thus takes away from them every pretext for ignorance, since, with so much light, they cannot err, except by willfully blinding themselves or shutting their eyes.

From this, we also gather how impious are the baseless claims of the Papists that Scripture is obscured by thick darkness, and how wicked is their preventing the people from approaching it, as if it were some labyrinth. Surely, they thus necessarily accuse the Holy Spirit of falsehood, who so abundantly asserts its clarity (claritatem), or else they malign Scripture itself with their blasphemous taunts.

But if the ancient people were left without excuse unless they kept to the right way when they had the Law as their teacher and guide, our dullness must be worthy of double and triple condemnation if we do not make progress in the Gospel, in which God has opened all the treasures of His wisdom, as far as is sufficient for salvation.

The Sophists²⁷⁶ improperly and ignorantly distort this passage to prove the freedom of the will. (They allege²⁷⁷) that Moses here declares the commands of the Law not to be beyond our ability. What? Does he state that keeping them is within our power? Surely the words convey nothing of the sort, nor can this sense be derived from them if his intention is properly considered.

For he merely encourages the Jews and commands them to be diligent disciples of the Law, because they will easily understand whatever is commanded by God in it. But the power to perform is a very different thing from understanding.

Besides, Paul, with very good reason, applies this passage to the Gospel (Romans 10:8), because it would profit nothing to comprehend the doctrine itself in the mind unless reverence and a serious disposition to obey were added as well. But he takes it for granted that to have a good will is so far from being in our own power that we are not even capable of thinking rightly.

Therefore, it follows that what is stated here falls to the ground as frivolous and pointless if it is applied simply to the Law. Paul also considers another thing, namely, that because the Law requires perfect righteousness, it cannot be received by any mortal with benefit. For however much anyone may strive to obey God, he will still be far from perfection.

Therefore, it is necessary to come to the Gospel, in which that rigorous requirement is relaxed because, through the intervention of pardon, the will to obey is pleasing to God instead of perfect obedience. For Paul insists on the latter verse, The word is near in the mouth, and in the heart, that the people may do it.

Now, it is clear that men’s hearts are strongly and obstinately opposed to the Law, and that the Law itself contains only a dead and deadly letter. How then could the doctrine of the letter have a place in the heart? But if God, by the Spirit of regeneration, corrects the depravity of the heart and softens its hardness, this is not a property of the Law, but of the Gospel.

Again, because in the children of God, even after they are regenerated, remnants of carnal desires always remain, no mortal will be found who can fulfill the Law. But in the Gospel, God receives with fatherly indulgence what is not absolutely perfect.

The word of God, therefore, does not begin to penetrate the heart and produce its proper fruit on the lips until Christ shines upon us with His Spirit and gracious pardon. Therefore, Paul most truly concludes that this is the word of faith which is preached in the Gospel, both because the Law does not effectively lead people to God and because keeping it is impossible on account of its extreme rigor.

But this is the special blessing of the new covenant: that the Law is written on people’s hearts and engraved on their inward parts, while that severe requirement is relaxed, so that the sins with which believers still struggle are no obstacle to their partial and imperfect obedience being acceptable to God.