John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 33:24

"And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." — Isaiah 33:24 (ASV)

And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. The Prophet again returns to the Church, for the destruction he threatened against the Assyrians also tended to the consolation of the godly, since the safety of the Church could not be maintained unless the Lord granted His protection against so many adversaries who attack and harass her on every side. Accordingly, having briefly remarked that all the reprobate who annoy the children of God shall be defeated, he appropriately develops his subject by affirming that God will leave nothing undone that could promote the salvation of the godly. He says, therefore, that the citizens of the Church shall be freed from every hardship, because through the favor of God they shall enjoy prosperity.

The people that dwell in it have been freed from iniquity. This latter clause of the verse explains the former, for it shows that there is nothing to prevent the blessings of God from being largely enjoyed by us when our sins have been pardoned. Hence, also, we conclude that all the miseries that weigh upon us spring from no other source than from our sins. On any other ground, the reason he assigns might appear to be far-fetched and inappropriate; but we must hold this principle: that all the evils God inflicts upon us are so many signs of His anger.

Hence it follows that, when guilt has been removed, nothing remains but that God will regard us with the affection of a father and will graciously give us all that we need. If, therefore, we desire to be delivered from afflictions, we should observe this order: to seek first to be reconciled to God, for the removal of the cause would be quickly followed by the removal of the effect.

But since our desires are ill-regulated, and because, being anxious only to avoid punishments, we ignore the root of our distresses, we need not wonder that we obtain no relief from them.

Those persons, therefore, are mistaken who indulge in their vices and yet wish to be exempt from every kind of affliction. If they do not suffer adversity, they will still not cease to be miserable and cannot enjoy peace of mind as long as they are pursued by the consciousness of their crimes. Consequently, true happiness consists in this: that we have obtained pardon from God and sincerely believe that all the blessings we receive from His hand are the results of His fatherly kindness.

Let us also learn that there is no other way in which we can please God, or obtain the honor of being counted as His children, than when He ceases to impute our sins to us. Therefore, it is only the reconciliation we obtain by free grace that pacifies God toward us and opens the way to the enjoyment of His goodness.

That there is no visible evidence of that exemption from afflictions does not lessen the truth of the promise, because believers are abundantly satisfied with this comfort in their afflictions: that even when they are chastened by the hand of God, they are still His beloved children. Insofar as they have been renewed by His Spirit, they begin to taste the blessing that was in full perfection before the fall of Adam; but because they are burdened by many sins, they constantly need to be cleansed.

Nevertheless, through compassion on their weakness, God lessens their punishment and, if not by removing it altogether, yet by abating and soothing their grief, shows that He promotes their happiness. Therefore, it is not without good reason that the Prophet declares the Church to be exempt from ordinary calamities, insofar as they proceed from the curse of God.

Hence, also, we see clearly how childish is the distinction of the Papists that the removal of guilt is of no avail, as if we had to satisfy the judgment of God. But the prophets teach far otherwise, as may be easily learned from various passages. If there were nothing more than this single passage, could anything be plainer than that sicknesses come to an end because iniquity has been pardoned?

The meaning is undoubtedly the same as if he had said that punishment ceases because sin has been pardoned. Indeed, though God has been pacified toward them, He sometimes inflicts punishment on believers. The object is that by fatherly chastisement He may instruct them more fully for the future, and not that He may take vengeance on them, as if He were only half reconciled.

But Papists think that their punishments are in the nature of satisfactions, and that by paying them the sinner in some measure redeems himself and removes his guilt, which is absolutely inconsistent with a free pardon. Thus, their abominable inventions, both about satisfactions and about the fire of purgatory, fall to the ground.

It is also worth noting that only the citizens of the Church enjoy this privilege, for outside the body of Christ and the fellowship of the godly, there can be no hope of reconciliation with God. Hence, in the Creed we profess to believe in “The Catholic Church and the forgiveness of sins.”

For God does not include among the objects of His love any but those whom He counts among the members of His only-begotten Son, and, in like manner, does not extend the free imputation of righteousness to any who do not belong to His body.

Hence it follows that those outside who separate themselves from the Church have nothing left for them but to rot amidst their curse. Hence, also, a departure from the Church is an open renunciation of eternal salvation.