John Calvin Commentary Luke 1:6

"And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." — Luke 1:6 (ASV)

And they were both righteous before God. He bestows on them a noble testimony: not only that among people they lived holy and upright lives, but also that they were righteous before God. This righteousness Luke defines briefly by saying that they walked in all the commandments of God.

Both aspects should be carefully observed. For although praise is bestowed on Zacharias and Elisabeth to show us that the lamp, whose light preceded the Son of God, was taken not from an obscure house but from an illustrious sanctuary, their example also presents to us the rule of a devout and righteous life.

Therefore, in ordering our lives (Psalms 37:23), our first concern should be to be approved by God. We know that He primarily requires a sincere heart and a pure conscience. Whoever neglects uprightness of heart and regulates his outward life only by obedience to the law neglects this order.

For it should be remembered that the heart, and not the outward mask of works, is primarily regarded by God, to whom we are commanded to look. Obedience occupies the second rank; that is, no one must devise for themselves, according to their own pleasure, a new form of righteousness unsupported by the Word of God, but we must allow ourselves to be governed by divine authority.

Nor should we neglect this definition: that they are righteous who regulate their life by the commandments of the law. This implies that, in God’s sight, all acts of worship are counterfeit, and the course of human life false and unsettled, to the extent that they depart from His law.

Commandments and ordinances differ in this way. The latter term relates strictly to exercises of piety and divine worship; the former is more general, extending both to the worship of God and to the duties of charity. For the Hebrew word הקים, which signifies statutes or decrees, is rendered by the Greek translator as δικαιώματα, ordinances; and in Scripture הקים usually denotes those services which the people were accustomed to perform in the worship of God and in the profession of their faith. Now, although hypocrites are very careful and exact in that respect, they do not at all resemble Zacharias and Elisabeth. For sincere worshippers of God, like these two, do not cling to naked and empty ceremonies but, eagerly focused on the truth, observe them in a spiritual manner. Unholy and hypocritical persons, though they expend diligent effort on outward ceremonies, are still far from observing them as enjoined by the Lord and, consequently, only waste their labor. In short, under these two words Luke embraces the whole law.

But if Zacharias and Elisabeth were blameless in keeping the law, they would have had no need of Christ's grace; for complete observance of the law brings life, and where there is no transgression of it, no guilt remains. I reply that these magnificent commendations bestowed on God's servants must be understood with some qualification.

For we should consider how God deals with them. He deals with them according to the covenant He has made with them, the first clause of which is free reconciliation and daily pardon, by which He forgives their sins. They are accounted righteous and blameless because their whole life testifies that they are devoted to righteousness and that the fear of God dwells in them, as they set a holy example.

But since their pious endeavors fall very far short of perfection, they cannot please God without obtaining pardon. The righteousness commended in them depends on God's gracious forbearance, as He does not count their remaining unrighteousness against them. In this way, we must explain any expressions in Scripture applied to human righteousness, so as not to overturn the forgiveness of sins, on which this righteousness rests like a house on its foundation.

Those who explain this to mean that Zacharias and Elisabeth were righteous by faith—simply because they freely obtained God's favor through the Mediator—distort and misapply Luke's words. With respect to the subject itself, they state a part of the truth, but not the whole. I do acknowledge that the righteousness ascribed to them should be regarded as obtained not by the merit of works but by the grace of Christ; and yet, because the Lord has not imputed their sins to them, He has been pleased to bestow on their holy, though imperfect, life the designation of righteousness.

The folly of the Papists is easily refuted. They contrast the righteousness of faith with this righteousness ascribed to Zacharias. However, the latter certainly springs from the former and therefore must be subject, inferior, and (to use a common expression) subordinate to it, so that there is no conflict between them. The false interpretation, too, which they give to a single word is pitiful.

Ordinances, they tell us, are called commandments of the law, and therefore, they claim, these justify us. It is as if we asserted that true righteousness is not set forth in the law, or complained that its instruction is at fault for not justifying us, rather than acknowledging that the law is weak through our flesh (Romans 8:3). In God's commandments, as we have countless times acknowledged, life is contained (Leviticus 18:5; Matthew 19:17), but this will be of no avail to people, who by nature were altogether opposed to the law, and, now that they are regenerated by God's Spirit, are still very far from observing it perfectly.