John Calvin Commentary Matthew 21:32

"For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not; but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye saw it, did not even repent yourselves afterward, that ye might believe him." — Matthew 21:32 (ASV)

For John came. As John was a faithful servant of God, whatever he taught, Christ ascribes to God Himself. It might have been more fully expressed this way: God came pointing out the way of righteousness by the mouth of John; but as John spoke in the name of God, and not as a private individual, he is most properly named instead of God. Now this passage gives no small authority to the preaching of the word, since those persons who despised the pious and holy warnings of a teacher whom He had sent are said to have been disobedient and rebellious against God.

There are some who give a more ingenious exposition of the word righteousness, and I allow them to enjoy their own opinion; but, for my own part, I think that it means nothing more than that John’s doctrine was pure and right, as if Christ had said, that they had no good reason for rejecting him. When he says that the publicans believed, he does not mean that they merely assented in words, but that they sincerely embraced what they had heard. From this we infer that faith does not consist solely in a person’s giving assent to true doctrine. Instead, it embraces something greater and loftier: the hearer, renouncing himself, devotes his life wholly to God. By saying that they were not moved even by such an example, he further emphasizes their malice, for it was an evidence of the lowest depravity not even to follow the harlots and the publicans.³⁶

³⁶ “Car c’a este un signe de gens du tout depravez et desesperez, de ne suyvre point, à tout le moins quand les peugers et les paillardes leur monstrent le chemin;” — “For it was a mark of people altogether depraved and desperate, not to follow, at the very least, when the publicans and the harlots point out to them the road.”;” — “For it was a mark of people altogether depraved and desperate, not to follow, at the very least, when the publicans and the harlots point out to them the road.”