John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 1:16

"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;" — Isaiah 1:16 (ASV)

Wash you, make you clean. He exhorts the Jews to repentance and points out the true way to it, provided that they wish to have their obedience approved by God. Hence we conclude that nothing can please God unless it proceeds from a pure conscience, for God does not, like men, judge our works according to their outward appearance.

It frequently happens that some particular action, though performed by a very wicked man, obtains applause among men; but in the sight of God, who beholds the heart, a depraved conscience pollutes every virtue. And this is what is taught by Haggai, presenting an illustration drawn from the ancient ceremonies, that everything which an unclean person has touched is polluted; from which he concludes that nothing clean proceeds from the wicked.

Our Prophet has already declared that they offer sacrifices to God in vain, pray in vain, and call on His name in vain, if integrity of heart does not sanctify the outward worship. For this reason, so that the Jews may no longer labor in vain, he demands that cleanness; and he begins with a general reformation, lest, after having discharged one part of their duty, they should imagine that this would be a veil to conceal them from the eyes of God.

This is how we should always deal with men who are estranged from God. We must not confine our attention to one or a few sores of a diseased body, but if we aim at a true and thorough cure, we must call on them to begin anew and must thoroughly remove the contagion, so that those who were formerly hateful and abominable in the sight of God may begin to please God. By the metaphor washing, he unquestionably exhorts them to remove inward pollution, but shortly afterwards he will also add the fruits of actions.

When he bids them wash, he does not mean that men repent by their own exercise of free will, but he shows that there is no other remedy but this: that they are to appear pure in the sight of God. Now, we know that the sacred writers attribute to men what is worked in them by the Spirit of God, whom Ezekiel calls clean water, because to Him belongs the work of repentance (Ezekiel 36:25).

Put away the evil of your doings. The Prophet now comes to describe the fruits of repentance; for not only does he explain without a metaphor what it is to wash and to be cleansed, but he also enjoins them to exhibit in their whole life, and in every action, the evidence of their being renewed. Yet he confirms the former statement: that the pollution of the people is before the eyes of God, that it stains and debases all their actions, and thus makes it impossible that they can be pleasing in His sight. And he particularly mentions the eyes of God, so that when they used a veil to prevent themselves from seeing, they would not vainly imagine that God shared their blindness.

Cease to do evil. He still proceeds to reprove their manner of life. This passage is commonly interpreted as if by doing ill the Prophet meant loving what is evil; but it ought strictly to be understood as denoting those crimes by which a neighbor is injured. So, in the exhortation, Learn to do well, which occurs in the next verse, the expression to your neighbor should be supplied, for he speaks of the injuries and acts of kindness which we perform toward our neighbors.

Now, since repentance has its seal in the heart of man, he describes it by those outward appearances through which it is, in some measure, brought before the eyes of men. There is no one who does not wish to be considered a good man, but the true character of every person is manifested by his actions. He therefore calls them to perform those outward actions by which they may give evidence of their repentance.

He groups under two headings the fruits of repentance: ceasing to do evil and doing well.

First, we must cease to commit every act of injustice, for we must not imitate those spendthrifts who wish to be thought bountiful but fraudulently take from one person what they bestow on another.

Again, we must not resemble those idle people who think they have done enough if they have kept themselves from doing harm and from invading the property of their neighbors, but are not careful to perform acts of kindness.

He intended, therefore, to include both, for under these two headings the keeping of the second table of the law is included.