John Calvin Commentary Ezekiel 16:61

"Then shalt thou remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder [sisters] and thy younger; and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant." — Ezekiel 16:61 (ASV)

As God, then, shows that He would not be merciful to the Jews for any other reason than because He was mindful of His covenant, so now, in return, He informs us what He requires from them: namely, that they should begin to acknowledge how basely they had renounced their pledged faithfulness, how unworthily they had despised His law, and how impiously obstinate they had been against all His prophets, deriding their threats and being unresponsive to evident punishments.

But this passage is noteworthy, since we gather that no one is capable of obtaining God’s mercy except those who are dissatisfied with themselves and, being ashamed and confounded, turn to His mercy. In short, we see that God’s grace does not benefit the obstinate at all: it is offered to all in common, but no one receives it except those who condemn themselves and remember their crimes, so that they may be forgotten before God.

Therefore, if we wish our sins to be buried before God, we must remember them ourselves. If we wish our iniquities to be blotted out before God and the angels, we must disgrace ourselves; that is, we must blush and be ashamed of our baseness whenever we transgress and provoke God’s wrath.

Thus, we see here that the entire content of the Gospel is briefly summed up, for the Gospel contains nothing else but repentance and faith, as is well known. Concerning faith, Ezekiel has proclaimed that God, mindful of His covenant, will become reconciled to the lost; but he now adds an exhortation that they should acknowledge their faults. We know that the shame of which the Prophet speaks is the fruit or part of repentance, as is evident from Paul’s description of repentance in the seventh chapter of his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 7:9–11). But we will have more to say on this subject, so I will now proceed quickly, because what I have taught until now cannot be fully understood until we come to the end of the verse.

He says, when you shall receive thy sisters, as well the elder as the younger; for He does not speak here of Sodom and Samaria alone, but of all nations, because all the nations may properly be called sisters, as all the world was corrupt. Therefore, since they were all alike in their vices, their union was like that of kinship.

For this reason He says that when the Jews return to favor, they will then have a great multitude with them, who shall receive their own sisters; that is, they will collect from all sides an immense multitude, so that all will be assembled in obedience to God and will be partakers of the same covenant.

If anyone objects that this has never been fulfilled, the answer is ready: the prophets speak of the calling of the Gentiles in two ways. They sometimes proclaim it so as to declare that the Jews and Israelites are the leaders of all the others, so as to confer upon them the favor and patronage of God.

In that day seven men shall lay hold of the skirt of a single Jew, and shall say, Lead us to your God (Zechariah 8:23). And this was the legitimate order: that the Jews, as first-born, should join others in alliance to themselves and thus unite all into one body and one Church. But because the Jews were cut off through their ingratitude, the prophets mention another calling: that the Gentiles should succeed to the place of the ungrateful people, as Paul says that the natural branches were cut off, and that we, who belonged to an unfruitful tree, were grafted in (Romans 11:16–19).

The Prophet adds this first reason: that the Jews should receive their sisters, both elder and younger, since they would collect God’s Church from all nations; and this has been partly fulfilled. For from where did the Gospel come, except from this fountain? As it had been foretold, A law shall go out from Zion, and God’s word from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2).

Again, in the 110th Psalm (Psalms 110:1), Thy scepter shall go forth from Zion; that is, the kingdom of Christ will be propagated throughout the whole world. Therefore, because salvation flowed from the Jews, and the Gospel emanated from there, what is here promised was partly fulfilled: namely, that other people were received by the Jews.

He now adds, I will give them to thee for daughters: for if the Jews had not, by their ingratitude, rejected the honor of which God had considered them worthy, they would have always been the first-born in the Church. Then the Gentiles would have been, as it were, under a mother, since they were “the primitive Church” (according to the language of that time), and thus they would have obtained the status of mother among all nations.

Therefore, God here deservedly pronounces that he would give them all nations for daughters, to be added to the Jews, when the Gentiles were grafted into the same body of the Church by faith in the Gospel. But He adds, not from thy covenant. Some refer this to ceremonies, since, when the Gentiles were adopted, they still remained free from the ceremonies of the law; but that interpretation is unconvincing.

Others compare this passage with Jeremiah: I will establish a new covenant with you, not such as I established with your fathers, which they rendered void; but this is the covenant which I will make with you (Jeremiah 31:31–33). Since, then, it is said here, the covenant shall not be according to the covenant of the people, this is said truthfully, because it will be a New Covenant.

But such interpreters are partly right, though not entirely so, for a contrast must be understood between the people’s covenant and God’s covenant. God had said just before, “I will be mindful of my covenant”; He now says, “not of yours.” Thus, He reconciles what seemed to be opposites: namely, that He would be mindful of His own covenant, even though it had been dissipated, broken, and abolished by the people.

He shows that it was secure on God’s side, so to speak, but void on the people’s side. I will be reconciled, then, but not through thy covenant; for there was now no covenant, as Hosea says: Not my people, not beloved (Hosea 1:9). Not all the descendants of Abraham were God’s people, nor were all their daughters beloved. But although the covenant was made void through the people’s treachery, yet God overcame their faithlessness, and so He again established His own covenant with them.

And when He says, I will establish a covenant, we may explain it as, “I will set it up again,” or “restore it anew.” For we have said that the New Covenant is distinguished from the Old in that it was founded upon it. For what is proposed to us in Christ, if not what God had promised in the Law? And therefore Christ is called the end of the Law, and elsewhere its spirit; for if the Law is separated from Christ, it is like a dead letter; Christ alone gives it life.

Therefore, since God today shows us nothing in His only-begotten Son but what He had formerly promised in the Law, it follows that His covenant is set up again, and so perpetually established; and yet this is not man’s doing. Why? For men had so revolted from the faith that God was released from obligation; indeed, the covenant itself had no force and lost its effect through their treachery. For it is easy to identify the points in which the New and Old Covenants are alike, and those in which they differ. They have this similarity: that God to this day confirms to us what He had formerly promised to Abraham, and in no other sense could Abraham be called the Father of the Faithful.

Therefore, since Abraham is at this time the father of all the faithful, it follows that our salvation is to be found only in that covenant which God established with Abraham; but afterwards the same covenant was ratified through Moses. A difference must now be briefly noted from a passage in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:32): namely, because the ancient covenant was nullified through the fault of man, there was need of a better remedy, which is there shown to be twofold: namely, that God would bury men’s sins and inscribe His law on their hearts. That also was done in Abraham’s time.

Abraham believed God; faith was always the gift of the Holy Spirit; therefore God inscribed His covenant in Abraham’s heart (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3; Ephesians 2:8). He inscribed His law on the heart of Moses and on the hearts of the rest of the faithful. This is true, but at first that inner grace was more obscure under the Law, and then it was an additional benefit.

Therefore, it could not be ascribed to the Law that God regenerated His own elect, because the Spirit of regeneration was from Christ, and therefore from the Gospel and the New Covenant. Yet we must remember what I have said: that the faithful under the ancient covenant were also gifted and endowed with a spirit of regeneration.

Regarding the remission of sins, it was still more obscure, for cattle were sacrificed, which could not acquire salvation for sinful people, nor blot out their sins.

Therefore, if the Law is regarded in itself, the promise in the New Covenant will not be found in it: I will not remember thy sins. Yet to this day God is merciful to us, because He promised to Abraham that all nations should be blessed in his seed (Jeremiah 31:34; Genesis 12:3; Genesis 18:18).

We see then that the difference Jeremiah points out was indeed true; and yet the New Covenant so flowed from the Old that it was almost the same in substance, while distinguished in form.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, since Your only-begotten Son has appeared for us, who filled up all the measure of Your grace, that we may not be ungrateful in despising so priceless a gift; but may we embrace with true and sincere faith what You offer us: namely, the mercy which we always need, and also the Spirit of regeneration; that we may so devote ourselves to You through a whole life of obedience, that at last we may arrive at that glory which today shines upon us as in a mirror, until its fullness appears in heaven, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.