John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 30:11

"For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off." — Deuteronomy 30:11 (ASV)

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.

²⁷⁵ In In A. V., it will be remembered, the words, “in vain,” are connected with “Seek ye me.” “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.” it will be remembered, the words, “in vain,” are connected with “Seek ye me.” “I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain.”

²⁷⁶ Les Theologiens de la Papaute. — Fr..

²⁷⁷ Added from the French.