John Calvin Commentary Malachi 1:2-6

"I have loved you, saith Jehovah. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob`s brother, saith Jehovah: yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and [gave] his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places; thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall call them The border of wickedness, and The people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, Jehovah be magnified beyond the border of Israel. A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?" — Malachi 1:2-6 (ASV)

I am compelled by the context to read all these verses, for the sense cannot be otherwise completed. God expostulates here with a perverse and ungrateful people because they doubly deprived Him of His right: He was neither loved nor feared, though He had a just claim to the name and honor of a master as well as that of a father.

Since the Jews paid Him no reverence, He complains that He was defrauded of His right as a father. And as they had no fear for Him, He condemns them for not acknowledging Him as their Lord and Master by submitting to His authority. But before He comes to this, He shows that He was both their Lord and Father, and He declares that He was especially their Father because He loved them.

So now we understand the Prophet’s intention, for God designed to show here how debased the Jews were, as they acknowledged Him neither as their Father nor as their Lord; they neither reverenced Him as their Lord, nor regarded Him as their Father. But He brings forward, as I have already said, His benefits, by which He proves that He deserved the honor due to a father and to a master.

Hence He says, I loved you. God might indeed have made an appeal to the Jews on another ground, for even if He had not manifested His love to them, they were still bound to submit to His authority. He is not speaking here of God’s love generally, such as He shows to the whole human race. Instead, He condemns the Jews because, having been freely adopted by God as His holy and special people, they still forgot this honor, despised the Giver, and regarded what He taught them as nothing.

When therefore God says that He loved the Jews, we see that His object was to convict them of ingratitude for having despised the unique favor bestowed on them alone, rather than to press the authority which He possesses over all mankind generally. God then might have addressed them this way: “I have created you and have been a kind Father to you; by My favor the sun shines on you daily, and the earth produces its fruit. In a word, I hold you bound to Me by innumerable benefits.”

God might have spoken to them like this, but as I have said, His object was to bring forward the gratuitous adoption with which He had favored the seed of Abraham. For it was an even more intolerable impiety that they had despised so incomparable a favor, since God had preferred them to all other nations, not on the ground of merit or any worthiness, but because it pleased Him to do so. This then is the reason why the Prophet begins by saying that the Jews had been loved by God: for they had made the worst return for this gratuitous favor when they despised His doctrine. This is the first point.

Furthermore, there is no doubt that He indirectly condemns their ingratitude when He says, In what have you loved us? The words indeed may be explained this way: “If you say, or if you ask, ‘In what have I loved you?’ Even in this: I preferred your father Jacob to Esau, even though they were twin brothers.” But we shall see in other places that the Jews by evasions malignantly obscured God’s favor, and that this wickedness is condemned in similar words. Hence the Prophet, seeing that he had to do with debased men, who would not easily yield to God nor acknowledge His kindness by a free and sincere confession, introduces them here as speaking thus clamorously, “Indeed! When have You loved us? In what way? The tokens of Your love do not appear.” He answers in God’s name, Esau was Jacob’s brother; and yet I loved Jacob, and Esau I hated.

We now see what I have just referred to: that the Jews are reminded of God’s gratuitous covenant, that they might cease to excuse their wickedness in having misused this unique favor. He does not then upbraid them here because they had been, like other men, created by God, because God caused His sun to shine on them, or because they were supplied with food from the earth. Rather, He says that they had been preferred to other people, not on account of their own merit, but because it had pleased God to choose their father Jacob.

He might have cited Abraham here as an example. But since Jacob and Esau descended from Abraham, with whom God had made the covenant, His favor was the more remarkable because, although Abraham alone had been chosen by God and other nations were passed by, yet from the very family which the Lord had adopted, one was chosen while the other was rejected.

When comparing Esau and Jacob, we must remember that they were brothers. But there are other circumstances to be noted, which, though not expressed here by the Prophet, are still well known. For all the Jews knew that Esau was the first-born, and that Jacob had therefore obtained the right of primogeniture contrary to the order of nature. Since this was commonly known, the Prophet was content to use only this one sentence: Esau was Jacob’s brother.

But he says that Jacob was chosen by God, and that his brother, the first-born, was rejected. If the reason is asked, it is not to be found in their descent, for they were twin brothers; and they had not yet emerged from the womb when the Lord by an oracle testified that Jacob would be the greater. Hence we see that the origin of all the excellence that belonged to the descendants of Abraham is here ascribed to the gratuitous love of God, according to what Moses often said: “Not because you excelled other nations, or were more in number, has God honored you with so many benefits; but because he loved your fathers.”

The Jews then had always been reminded that they were not to seek for the cause of their adoption anywhere but in the gratuitous favor of God; He had been pleased to choose them—this was the source of their salvation. We now understand the Prophet’s design when he says that Esau was Jacob’s brother, and yet was not loved by God.

We must at the same time bear in mind what I have already said: that this unique favor of God towards the children of Jacob is referred to in order to make them ashamed of their ingratitude, since God had set His love on such unworthy objects. For if they had been deserving, they might have boasted that a reward was given to them; but as the Lord had gratuitously and of His own good pleasure conferred this benefit on them, their impiety was even less excusable. This baseness then is what our Prophet now reprobates.

Then follows a proof of hatred towards Esau: the Lord made his mountain a desolation, and his inheritance a desert where serpents dwelt. Esau, we know, when driven away by his own shame, or by his father’s displeasure, came to Mount Seir; and the whole region where his descendants dwelt was rough and enclosed by many mountains.

But if anyone were to object and say that this was no remarkable sign of hatred, as it might on the other hand be said that the love of God towards Jacob was not much shown because he dwelt in the land of Canaan (since the Chaldeans inhabited a country more pleasant and more fruitful, and the Egyptians also were very wealthy), to this the answer is that the land of Canaan was a symbol of God’s love, not only on account of its fruitfulness, but because the Lord had consecrated it to Himself and to His chosen people.

So Jerusalem was not superior to other cities of the land—either to Samaria or Bethlehem, or other towns—on account of its situation, for it stood, as is well known, in a hilly country, and it had only the spring of Siloam, from which flowed a small stream; and the view was not so beautiful, nor its fertility great. At the same time, it excelled in other things, for God had chosen it as His sanctuary; and the same must be said of the whole land.

Since then the land of Canaan was, as it were, a pledge of an eternal inheritance to the children of Abraham, the Scripture on this account greatly extols it and speaks of it in magnificent terms. If Mount Seir was very wealthy and filled with everything delightful, it must still have been a sad exile to the Idumeans, because it was a sign of their reprobation. For Esau, when he left his father’s house, went there; and he became, as it were, an alien, having deprived himself of the heavenly inheritance, as he had sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. This is the reason why God declares here that Esau was sent away, as it were, to the mountains, and deprived of the Holy Land which God had destined for His chosen people.

But the Prophet also adds another thing: that God’s hatred was manifested when the descendants of Esau became extinct. For though the Assyrians and Chaldeans had raged no less cruelly against the Jews than against the Edomites, yet the outcome was very different. After seventy years the Jews returned to their own country, as Jeremiah had promised; yet Idumea was not to be restored, but the signs of God’s dreadful wrath had always appeared there in its sad desolations.

Since then there had been no restoration for Idumea, the Prophet shows that by this fact the love of God towards Jacob and His hatred towards Esau had been proved. For it had not been through human contrivance that the Jews were given liberty and allowed to build the temple, but because God had chosen them in the person of Jacob and destined them to be a special and holy people to Himself.

But as to the Edomites, it then became all the more evident that they had been rejected in the person of Esau, since, once laid waste, they saw that they were doomed to perpetual destruction. This then is the meaning of the Prophet’s words when he says that the possession of Esau had been given to serpents.

For, as I have already said, though for a time the condition of Judea and Idumea had not been dissimilar, yet when Jerusalem began to rise and be repaired, God then clearly showed that that land had not been given in vain to His chosen people. But when the neighboring country was not restored—while the descendants of Esau might, with less suspicion, have repaired their houses—it therefore became sufficiently evident that the curse of God was upon them.

And to the same purpose he adds, If Edom says, We have been diminished, but we will return and build houses; but if they build, I will pull down, says God. He confirms what I have stated: that the descendants of Edom had no hope of restoration, for however much courage they might gather and diligently labor in rebuilding their cities, they were still not to succeed, for God would pull down all their buildings.

This difference then was like a vivid illustration by which the Jews might see the love of God towards Jacob and His hatred towards Esau. For since both people were overthrown by the same enemy, why was it that liberty was given to the Jews and no permission was given to the Idumeans to return to their own country?

There was, as has been said, greater ill-will towards the Jews, and yet the Chaldeans dealt with them more kindly. It then follows that all this was due to the wonderful purpose of God, and that hence it also appeared that the adoption, which seemed to have been abolished when the Jews were driven into exile, was not in vain.

Thus then says Jehovah of hosts, They will build—that is, though they may build—I will overthrow; and it will be said to them, Border of ungodliness, and a people with whom Jehovah is angry forever. By ‘the border of ungodliness’ he means an accursed border, as if he had said, “It will openly appear that you are reprobate, so that the whole world can form a judgment by the event itself.”

By adding, A people with whom Jehovah is angry, or displeased, he again confirms what I have said of love and hatred. God might indeed have been equally angry with the Jews as with the Edomites; but when God became reconciled with the Jews, while He continued inexorable towards the descendants of Esau, the difference between the two people was therefore quite clear.

Also to be noted are the words עד-עולם, od-oulam, forever. For God seemed for a time to have rejected the Jews, and the Prophets adopt the same word זעם, som, angry, when they deplore the condition of the people, who found in various ways that God was angry with them. But the wrath of God towards the Jews was only for a time, for He did not wholly forget His covenant. However, He became angry with the Edomites forever, because their father had been rejected.

And we know that this difference between the elect and the reprobate is always pointed out: that when God visits sins in general, He always moderates His wrath towards His elect and sets limits to His severity, according to what He says: “If his descendants do not keep my covenant, but profane my law, I will chastise them with the rod of man; but my mercy I will not take away from him” (Psalms 89:31–33; 2 Samuel 7:14). But with regard to the reprobate, God’s vengeance always pursues them, is always suspended over their heads, and always fixed, as it were, in their bones and marrow. For this reason our Prophet says that God would be angry with the descendants of Esau.

He adds, Your eyes will see. The Jews had already begun in part to witness this spectacle, but the Prophet speaks here of what was to continue. See then your eyes will see; that is, “As it has already appeared of what benefit gratuitous election has been to you, by which I have chosen you as My people, and as you have also seen on the other hand how it has been with your relations the Edomites, because they had been rejected in the person of their father Esau, so also this same difference will always be evident to you in their descendants: see then your eyes will see.”

And you will say, Let Jehovah be magnified over the border of Israel. That is, “The event itself will extort this confession: that I greatly enhance My goodness towards you.” For though signs of God’s grace shone forth everywhere, and the earth, as the Psalmist says, is full of His goodness (Psalms 104:24), yet there was in Judea something special. Thus our Prophet does not say in vain that there would always be reasons for the Jews to celebrate God’s praises on account of His bounty to them more than to the rest of the world.

And the Prophet no doubt indirectly reproves here the wickedness of the people, as if he had said: “You indeed, as far as you can, bury God’s benefits, or at least diminish them. But facts themselves must draw from you this confession: that God deals bountifully with the border of Israel, that He exercises His favor there more remarkably than among any of the nations.”

After briefly referring to those benefits which ought to have filled the Jews with shame, he comes at last to the subject he had in view. For his main object, as I have already stated, was to show that it was God’s complaint that He was deprived of His own right in a double sense: for the Jews did not reverence Him as their Father, nor fear Him as their Lord.

He might indeed have called Himself Lord and Father by the right of creation, but He preferred, as I have already explained, to appeal to their adoption. For it was a remarkable favor when the Lord chose some out of all the human race; and we cannot say that the cause of this was to be found in men. Those whom He designs to choose, He binds to Himself by a holier bond. But if they disappoint Him, their treachery is wholly inexcusable.

As we now understand the Prophet’s meaning and the object of this expostulation, it remains for us to learn how to apply what is taught to ourselves. We are not indeed descended from Abraham or from Jacob according to the flesh; but as God has engraved on us certain marks of His adoption, by which He has distinguished us from other nations, while we were still no better, we therefore see that we are justly exposed to the same reproof as the Jews if we do not respond to the calling of God.

I wished thus briefly to touch on this point, so that we may know that this doctrine is no less useful to us today than it was to the Jews. For though the adoption is not exactly the same, as it then belonged to one seed and to one family, yet we are not superior to others through our own worthiness, but because God has gratuitously chosen us as a people for Himself.

Since this has been the case, we are His; for He has redeemed us by the blood of His own Son, and by making us partakers, through the gospel, of a favor so ineffably great, He has made us His sons and His servants. Unless then we love and reverence Him as our Father, and unless we fear Him as our Lord, there is found in us today an ingratitude no less base than in that ancient people.

But as I wished now only to refer to the main point, I shall speak tomorrow, as the passage requires, on the subject of election. However, it was necessary first briefly to show the Prophet’s design, as I have done, and then to treat particular points in more detail, as the case may require.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You have not only designed to give us a common life in this world but have also separated us from other heathen nations, and illuminated us by the Sun of Righteousness, Your only begotten Son, in order to lead us into the inheritance of eternal salvation—O grant that, having been rescued from the darkness of death, we may always attend to that heavenly light by which You guide and invite us to Yourself. May we so walk as children of light as never to wander from the course of our holy calling, but to advance in it continually, until we at last reach the goal which You have set before us. So, having put off all the filth of the flesh, may we be transformed into that ineffable glory, of which we now have the image in Your only-begotten Son. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We saw yesterday what Malachi’s object was in reminding the Jews that they were loved and chosen by God. It was so that he might more fully magnify their ingratitude for having given such an unworthy reward for so great a favor from God. As He had preferred them to all other nations, He had justly bound them to perpetual obedience; but they had shaken off the yoke and, having despised God, had given themselves up again to many corruptions, as we stated yesterday. But I reminded you at the same time that the Prophet does not refer here to those benefits with which God favors all mankind indiscriminately, but brings forward the adoption by which He had set apart the seed of Abraham as His special people.

But that it may appear more fully how just this expostulation was, let us first observe that it is one kind of obligation that God has created us men in His image and after His likeness; for He might have created us dogs and asses, and not men. Adam, we know, was taken from the earth, as other animals were; so, as to the body, there is no difference between men and other creatures.

When it is said that God breathed into man the breath of life, we ought not to dream as the Manicheans do, that man’s soul is by traduction (for so they say, affirming that man’s soul is from the substance of the Deity); but Moses, on the contrary, understands that man’s soul was created from nothing.

We are born by generation, and yet our origin is clay; and the chief thing in us, the soul, is created from nothing. We therefore see that we differ from animals because it pleased God to create us men. He therefore will justly charge us with ingratitude if we do not serve Him, for He created us in His own image for this end.

But a special favor is mentioned here: that the Lord took to Himself the seed of Abraham, as it is said in the song of Moses, that all nations are God’s, but that He had cast His line to set apart Israel for Himself (Deuteronomy 32:9). Though the whole world then was under God’s government, it was still His will to choose one family. If one inquires into the cause, it is not to be found in men; for all were created from the earth, and souls, created from nothing, were implanted in their bodies.

Since this was so, we see that the difference arose from the fountain of gratuitous favor—that God preferred one race to the rest. And as we stated yesterday, Moses often repeats this: that the Jews were not chosen because they were more excellent than other nations, but because God gratuitously loved their fathers (Deuteronomy 7:7). By love, he means gratuitous favor.

Malachi then does not consider here that the Jews had been chosen before other nations on the ground of their own merit. For if he granted this, they might have objected and said, “Why do you remind us that God has favored us more than other nations, since He deemed us worthy and rewarded our merit?” But the Prophet takes it as admitted, according to what I have already said, that the Jews were by nature like other nations, so that their different condition did not proceed from themselves, or from their own worthiness, but from the gratuitous love of God.

A third step is also to be noticed here: for God selected only a part from the very race of Abraham, as Esau and Jacob were brothers, and Esau was first according to the order of nature, for he was the first-born. And yet God rejected him and appointed the favor of election to be in the descendants of Jacob. This third step then was election.

These things ought to be carefully considered. Men are specially bound to God, because He might have created them asses and dogs, and not men; but it has pleased Him to form them in His own image. The second step is that He chose the race of Abraham, when His empire extended over all nations without exception. For how was it that God chose to be the Father and Savior of one people only, when the whole world was under His authority?

Here shines forth, as I have already said, His gratuitous favor. And in addition to the testimonies of Moses, it is often said in the Psalms that God loved the fathers, that He did to them what He had not done to other nations, that He made known His judgments to them (Psalms 147:19).

There are many passages in which God commemorates His favor to the Jews, because it pleased Him to distinguish them from other nations, while yet the condition of all by nature was wholly the same. Now the third step which Malachi mentions ought to be carefully noticed: that God not only promised to be a God to Abraham and to His seed, but also made a difference between the very sons of Abraham, so as to reject some and to choose others. And it is on this point that Paul dwells in Romans chapter 9 (Romans 9:1–33), for he says that not all who are of Israel—that is, who derive their origin from him—are true and legitimate Israelites, but those who are called.

For it was Paul’s object to refute the Jews, because they boasted that they were a holy people, though they willfully rejected Christ and His gospel. For when the apostles proved that the promised Redeemer had been sent, the proud answer in the mouth of the Jews was this: “Are we not the Church of God? But we do not acknowledge this Christ whom you would thrust upon us.”

Since then the Jews, through this false pretense, despised the favor of God and sought to trample Christ, as it were, under foot, Paul repels this arrogance and shows that they did not excel the nations, except by virtue of a gratuitous adoption, and that this adoption was to be so extended to the whole race of Abraham while still being confined to a certain number.

In the same manner do the Papists act today. As they estimate faith by external signs, they haughtily object to us and say that they are the Church, as if a general promise were sufficient without the Spirit, who is justly called the Spirit of adoption, by whom God seals it within, even in our hearts.

Now Paul adds evidence of the fact and brings forward the instance of Jacob and Esau. Of the twin brothers, he says, one was chosen, and the other passed by; and yet both were the sons of Abraham. It then follows that there is a third step in election, as I have already stated.

Now from this third proceeds a fourth: that God takes some of the sons of Jacob, whom He has chosen before the foundation of the world, and others He rejects. And of this fact Paul adduces a sure proof, or assigns an evident reason: God preferred Jacob to his brother, the first-born, but not on account of any merit. If then the free mercy of God availed so much in the election of Jacob, it follows that the same still prevails with regard to his descendants.

If it is asked again, why is it that some are faithful and others are reprobate, the answer is, because it pleases God. Hence Paul ascends higher and says that before they were born, and had done neither good nor evil, it was said, the elder will serve the younger; and then he brings forward this prophecy: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.

If then we wisely consider the whole passage, we will find what I have stated: that from the third step we may proceed to a fourth, which is that from the sons of Jacob God chose whomever He pleased and rejected others. For when He chose Jacob, God was not bound to him any more than He was before. The same promise was indeed repeated to Jacob which had been given to Abraham.

But from Abraham proceeded Ishmael, who, we know, was rejected from God’s Church; and the same was the case with the other sons of Abraham. Isaac alone was chosen. But Isaac, the father of Esau and Jacob, was not able at his own pleasure to retain them both. Instead, the free and hidden election of God appeared here, so that Esau was rejected, and Jacob remained as the legitimate heir to the Divine favor.

So now we more fully understand what the Prophet means: he does not charge the Jews with having shaken off every fear of that God in whose image they had been created; but he heightens their ingratitude because they gave no response to the free adoption of God, for they had been chosen from all other nations. And not only this, but they had been separated again from the very race of Abraham, and this was their second election.

Another thing must also be added respecting their gratuitous election. The Prophet’s reproof would not have been received unless God, in His adoption, had regard only to His own favor. For if we grant that either Jacob or Abraham had merited anything, what the Prophet says, Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? would not have been effective. An answer might have been readily given: “He was indeed his brother, but his meritorious virtue set him before his brother.”

But the Prophet here presses this point on the Jews: that though bound by so many benefits, they still had become, as it were, illegitimate, for they had degenerated from the favor which God had conferred on them. We therefore see that by these words of the Prophet it is sufficiently proved that Abraham had been chosen by God in preference to all other nations, Isaac in preference to his brother Ishmael, and Jacob in preference to Esau.

And Scripture is full of proofs on the subject, and experience also sufficiently demonstrates the truth. Moses says that it was not by their own virtue that they excelled other nations, for they were a rebellious and a stiff-necked people. Though God knew then the perverse character of that nation, it still pleased Him to make them an example of His wonderful goodness.

There is therefore no reason for us to seek any other cause for adoption except the will of God. And since the election of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was gratuitous, it follows that each one whom God separates from the whole body is freely chosen. And thus we come to the fourth step; for what is said here, that Jacob was chosen, ought not to be confined to his person, but to what he had in common with his descendants.

Jacob then was chosen—for what purpose? That his children might be God’s holy and special people. Now if we consider his whole offspring, we will find that all who descended from Jacob were not legitimate Israelites, for the greatest part of them were rejected. As then many who derived their origin from Jacob were no less reprobate than Esau, it follows that God’s free favor and gratuitous mercy prevail as to individuals: and this is the subject which Paul discusses in Romans chapter 9.

It seems hard to many that God should choose some and not all, and that He should regard no worthiness, but of His own free will choose whomever He pleases, and reject others. But from where does this objection come, except that they wish to restrain God and subject Him to their own judgment?

But we must come to the principle to which I have referred. If it seems unreasonable to them that one of two should be chosen and the other rejected, how can they defend the justice of God (if their apology is needed) with regard to an ass and a man? For as I have said, both asses and men proceeded from the same lump as to their bodies. All vigor and strength in the ass has been created by the hidden power of God.

And as to the soul of man, though its essence is immortal, it has still been created from nothing. Now, then, let these wise censors answer for God in this case—God whom they think is exposed to many slanders when we say that men’s salvation depends on His will, so that He rejects some and chooses others.

But as to general election, there is the same difficulty in satisfying the judgment of men: for as we have already said, there is no difference between men but what arises from hidden election. They indeed imagine in this case a foreknowledge as the mother of election, but the notion is extremely foolish and childish.

They then say that some are elected by God and some are rejected because God, to whom nothing is hidden, foresees what everyone will be. But I now ask, why is it that one is virtuous, while another is vicious? If they say, from free will, doubtless creation is prior to free will: this is one thing.

Then we know that in Adam all men were created alike. For how is it that we are all exposed to eternal death, and that the vengeance of God extends over us all, and today prevails through the whole world? How is this, except that the condition of us all originally is one and the same?

It follows then, that if Adam had stood upright, all men would be alike in their integrity. I do not now speak of special gifts, for there would have been, I allow, a difference of endowments had nature remained perfect; but as to eternal life, the condition of all would have been the same. Now after the fall of Adam, we are all lost.

What then can be more foolish and absurd than to imagine that there is some virtue in man by which he excels others, since we are all equally accursed in the person of Adam? For who has made you to excel? says Paul. He proves that there is no excellence in man, except what proceeds from the bounty of God only; and as I have stated, the reason is quite clear.

For either original sin does not belong to all men, or God cannot foresee that this man will be just and that man unjust. Why? All are naturally reprobate in Adam and liable to eternal death, and the reason is evident, for nothing is found in men but sin. The foreknowledge of God then cannot be the cause of our election, for by looking on the whole race of man, He finds them all under a curse, from the least to the greatest.

We see then how foolishly they talk and prattle who ascribe to mere and naked prescience what ought to be ascribed to the good pleasure of God. That God made Himself known to the race of Abraham, that He designed to deposit His law with the Israelites—all this was His unique favor, and no other reason can be assigned for it except gratuitous adoption.

God then favored the children of Abraham with this privilege because it so pleased Him. For if we say that they were worthy, and by their virtue made themselves deserving, the Holy Spirit, in the first place, everywhere speaks against us; and in the second place, so do experience and facts, for the obstinacy of that people was extraordinary.

But we ought to be satisfied with the authority of Scripture, since God makes known and illustrates His favor by this instance: that He loved Abraham and his children—that is, He was favorable to the Jews through His own goodness only, and this is what we will see later still more clearly. Let this then remain as a fixed principle: that the cause of our election is nothing else but the mere favor of God. If we seek a cause apart from God when we inquire about our election, we will wander in a labyrinth.

That the same principle holds for individuals, I have already proved. It ought indeed to be sufficient for us that Paul passes from the person of Jacob to individuals among his descendants. For he adduces, as it were, an instance in the two brothers, in order to convince us that no one is chosen on account of his own virtue, but according to the good pleasure of God. Nor was it necessary to state these circumstances—that one was chosen when the brothers were not yet born, and when they had not done either good or evil, that it was not through works but through Him who called—unless he meant to prove this: that it is in God’s power to choose whomever He wills and to reject whomever He wills.

But as Augustine reminds us, nothing can be imagined more absurd than that notion, with which many are pleased, that God has foreknown what men will be. For Paul excludes such foreknowledge as the cause when he infers that it was not due to works but to Him who called that God preferred the one to the other, for neither of them, while in their mother’s womb, had done either good or evil.

Paul also brings a confirmation from another declaration of Moses: “I will pity whom I will pity, and mercy I will show to whom I will be merciful.” By these words God clearly declares that it was in His power to reject whomever He pleased of the seed of Jacob, and to choose whomever He pleased.

What then He had before said respecting one man, God now applies to the whole seed, for He does not speak there of foreign nations, but of that holy and chosen people. When God threatened all the children of Abraham with ruin, Moses humbly deprecated this, lest He should annul His own covenant. God answered him, “I will pity whom I will pity.” What does this mean? That there is no other cause why God retains some for Himself and rejects others than His own will.

The repetition may seem superfluous and frigid, “I will pity whom I will pity,” but it is very emphatic, as if God had said: “I might have chosen for Myself another from the world and not Abraham, but I have, according to My own good pleasure, adopted him. Ishmael might have been as dear to Me as Isaac, but it has been My will that the blessing should rest on Isaac. When he also had begotten two children, I repudiated the first-born and chose Jacob. And now from the descendants of Jacob I will choose for Myself whomever I please, for no other cause is to be found but My will: ‘I will then pity whom I will pity, and mercy I will show to whom I will be merciful.’”

If then, in this case, men will contend with God and want to know why He chooses this man rather than that one, the answer He gives is that the cause is to be found in His mercy alone, for He is bound to no one.

We now see how the folly of those vanishes who would have foreknowledge be the cause of election; and also that those who murmur against God are sufficiently refuted by this reason: that it is in His power either to choose or to reject, since He is under no obligations to anyone.

As to reprobation, the cause of it is sufficiently manifest in the fall of Adam, for, as we have said, we all fell with him. It must still be observed that the election of God is prior to Adam’s fall; and that therefore all of us who are rescued from the common ruin have been chosen in Christ before the creation of the world. But others justly perish, though they had not been lost in Adam, because God appointed Christ the head of His Church, so that we might be saved in Him—not all, but those who have been chosen.

And with regard to the proof, it is not necessary here to bring together the multitude of passages found in Scripture, for this would be endless. There are, however, some remarkable passages by which it is sufficiently evident that some are chosen from the whole world, as well as from the race of Abraham, according to God’s good pleasure only, and that others are rejected, and that no other cause is to be found but His will.

For our election is hidden in the eternal and secret counsel of God and founded on Christ; and reprobation is also hidden in the judgment of God. Now if we wish to penetrate this mystery, we must know that it is a great and unfathomable abyss: here all our ideas vanish. In the meantime, however, God does not lose His liberty to choose and reject whomever He pleases.

With regard to election, Romans chapter 9 (Romans 9:1) ought to be sufficient, or rather the three chapters (for Paul pursues the same argument to the end of Romans 11), and then exclaims that the riches of God’s wisdom and goodness are incomprehensible, and that His judgments are untraceable. He also speaks of the elect in Ephesians chapter 1 (Ephesians 1:1); and the sum of what he says is that all the faithful had been chosen in Christ before the creation of the world, and through the good pleasure of God only, so that He might show in them the glory of His goodness.

By no refinements can they escape who attempt to obscure this truth; for Paul very clearly and briefly declares that the whole world has not been chosen, but the faithful, who are afterwards favored with the Spirit of adoption. And thus that fancy is sufficiently refuted: that the election of God ought to be connected with His promises.

I wonder that men of learning, endowed with judgment and versed in Scripture, so coldly pass over the subject, and that they are not at least moved when they see that they give many the occasion to go foolishly astray, and that some therefore take the opportunity to slander.

We must, however, declare what this passage requires: that those are very unwise who seek to subvert or overthrow the eternal election of God by this contrivance—that God addresses all men generally, “Come to me”—“I am your Father.” Since God then offers His grace to all by the external preaching of His word, they will have it that all are elected. But Paul says that we are believers because we have been elected.

If then it is asked why some obstinately reject the grace of God, and others embrace it in a spirit of meekness, Paul assigns the reason, and it is this: because God illuminates those who believe, since He has chosen them before the creation of the world. It then follows that God speaks generally in such a way that the efficacy of the doctrine still depends on His secret good pleasure.

For from where does faith come, but from His unique favor? And why does He not communicate His grace to all? Simply because He has not chosen all. We see that Paul thus proceeds step by step, that he might teach us that faith emanates from the fountain of free election; and he raises election to the highest eminence to show that it is not right to inquire into its cause. So much for election.

As to reprobation, I know that many greatly dislike this doctrine—that some are rejected, and yet no cause can be found in themselves why they thus remain disapproved by God. But there is here need of docility and of a meek spirit, to which Paul also exhorts us when he says:

O man, who are you who answers against God? (Romans 9:20).

For if it were lawful to investigate the cause, surely Paul, who had been taken up to the third heaven, might have shown us the way. But he is silent here and drives us away from indulging a bold and overly curious spirit. Since the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of Paul, restrains human presumption, so that people may not dare to go beyond this step—that God hardens whomever He wills and rejects whomever He wills—why do men leap beyond this, unless they willfully seek to carry on war with God?

And yet they pretend modesty, and under this pretext they seek to bury the doctrine of election. We ought, they say, to speak soberly of mysteries. This last sentence I fully allow. But what is our sobriety but our docility? That is, when we embrace what God declares in His word and never allow ourselves to investigate more than what He teaches us.

But they would extinguish God’s word; indeed, they dare openly to pronounce blasphemies against God and to find fault with the Spirit, who has spoken by the prophets and the apostles.

We indeed see that there are many devils who preach modesty, when their object is to suppress the light and this main doctrine, the chief basis of our salvation. And they extort wicked edicts from the ignorant and the slumbering, as if it were in the power of men, by babbling about things unknown and by barbarously mixing all things together, to thrust God, as it were, from His heavenly throne.

This is horribly monstrous and ought to be detested by all; for it would be better that all the empires of the world should be swallowed up in the lowest depths than that mortal creatures should raise themselves up, as it were, into heaven and attempt to penetrate into the secret things of God.

But, however, when the whole world either assails this doctrine by barking, or seeks to subvert it by threats and terrors, or when all in various ways manifest their rage, and when those who seem to themselves to be very powerful roll thunders, it behooves us to hold fast to this doctrine: that God alone is the author of our salvation, because He has been pleased freely to elect us.

Also, that He possesses power over all the human race, so that some, according to His will, are elected and some are rejected; and that He always acts justly and keeps secret the cause both of election and of reprobation.

But it is no wonder that we are so blind, for we are stupid by nature, indeed, blind altogether. And if we were angels, it would still be our duty reverently to regard the manifold wisdom of God, which no human minds, no, not even angelic minds, can fully comprehend. Other matters must be deferred.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You have been pleased to adopt us as Your people for this end, that we may be grafted in, as it were, into the body of Your Son, and be made conformed to our Head—O grant, that through our whole life we may strive to seal in our hearts the faith of our election, that we may be the more stimulated to render You true obedience, and that Your glory may also be made known through us. And those whom You have chosen together with us, may we labor to bring together, that we may unanimously celebrate You as the Author of our salvation, and so ascribe to You the glory of Your goodness, that having cast away and renounced all confidence in our own virtue, we may be led to Christ only as the fountain of Your election, in whom also is set before us the certainty of our salvation through Your gospel, until we will at last be gathered into that eternal glory which He has procured for us by His own blood. Amen.