John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 6:20

"When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Jehovah our God hath commanded you?" — Deuteronomy 6:20 (ASV)

And when thy son asketh thee. The sole point Moses urges in these verses is that the people should testify their gratitude by obeying the Law, and that the same religion,²³² which he commands the fathers to teach, should descend to their posterity.

The sum is that there was good reason why all the precepts of the Law should be observed, since it was by them that God desired His people, after their deliverance, to show forth their sense of His loving-kindness.

Again, therefore, in this passage, he commends the Law by reminding them of their redemption, so that the people might more willingly and earnestly reverence it. Its authority has stronger claims upon them because it was not imposed before God had laid them under obligation to Himself. It would have been too base and absurd for them to refuse God as their Lawgiver when they knew that by Him they had been purchased for Himself.

Next, He reminds them that for the same purpose they had been constituted the heirs of the land of Canaan, so that they should honor God as the author of this special favor. Thus, he concludes that they are bound by a twofold tie, for God had devoted them to Himself not only once but had also confirmed His dominion over them by their continued possession of the land.

But there is nothing inconsistent in his saying that the land was promised by oath to their fathers before the Law was given. For although God bestowed this gift gratuitously, He justly claimed the testimony of their gratitude. Just as nowadays, although He invites us to the hope of an eternal inheritance of His own free bounty, yet the end of our calling is that we, on our part, should celebrate His glory all our life long.

When in verse 24 he uses the words “to fear the Lord our God,” he briefly defines the sum of the Law. For it would not suffice for us to perform whatever is commanded there unless our obedience had reference to the fear and worship of God. Integrity and uprightness, indeed, delight God; but no one will say that people’s lives are duly ordered if, while they exercise equity toward one another, they defraud God of His right. But it is well known that legitimate honor and worship are comprehended under the name of fear.

Soon afterward, he commends the Law on account of its profitableness; for God provided for their own good in delivering to them the rule of a just and pious life. In these words, he intimates that they would be doubly ungrateful if they rejected what God intended for their own advantage.

For this expression, “for our good,” is equivalent to saying that God not only had respect and care for His own rights in enacting the Law but at the same time regarded what would be useful to them. This he states more clearly in the next verse, where he says that “this shall be their righteousness if they observe” the Law; in other words, that the rule of a righteous life which would please God was prescribed to them, than which nothing better could be desired.

But it will be shown elsewhere at greater length how the keeping of the Law is in itself righteousness, and yet that no one is justified by the Law. For the fact that the Law brings only wrath and condemnation does not arise from any defect or faultiness in its doctrine but must be imputed to our own guilt, as we are far removed, indeed, aliens from the righteousness²³³ which it contains.

²³² Addition in Fr., “qu’il a apprinse de Dieu;” which they have learnt of God.“qu’il a apprinse de Dieu;” which they have learnt of God.

²³³ La doctrine. — Fr.