John Calvin Commentary Matthew 26:24

"The Son of man goeth, even as it is written of him: but woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had not been born." — Matthew 26:24 (ASV)

The Son of man indeed goeth. Here Christ addresses an offense, which might otherwise have greatly shaken pious minds. For what could be more unreasonable than that the Son of God should be infamously betrayed by a disciple, and abandoned to the rage of enemies, in order to be dragged to an ignominious death? But Christ declares that all this takes place only by the will of God. He proves this decree by the testimony of Scripture, because God previously revealed, by the mouth of His prophet, what He had determined.

We now perceive what is intended by the words of Christ. It was that the disciples, knowing that what was done was regulated by the providence of God, might not imagine that His life or death was determined by chance.

But the usefulness of this doctrine extends much farther. For we are never fully confirmed in the result of the death of Christ until we are convinced that He was not accidentally dragged by men to the cross, but that the sacrifice had been appointed by an eternal decree of God for expiating the sins of the world.

For from where do we obtain reconciliation, but because Christ has appeased the Father by His obedience? Therefore, let us always place before our minds the providence of God, which Judas himself, and all wicked men—though it is contrary to their wish, and though they have another end in view—are compelled to obey. Let us always hold this to be a fixed principle: that Christ suffered because it pleased God to have such an expiation.

And yet Christ does not affirm that Judas was freed from blame on the ground that he did nothing but what God had appointed. For though God, by His righteous judgment, appointed the death of His Son as the price of our redemption, yet Judas, in betraying Christ, brought righteous condemnation upon himself because he was full of treachery and avarice.

In short, God’s determination that the world should be redeemed does not at all interfere with Judas being a wicked traitor. Hence we perceive that even though people can do nothing but what God has appointed, this still does not free them from condemnation when they are led by a wicked desire to sin.

For though God directs them by an unseen bridle to an end unknown to them, nothing is farther from their intention than to obey His decrees. Those two principles, no doubt, appear to human reason to be inconsistent with each other: that God regulates the affairs of men by His providence in such a manner that nothing is done but by His will and command, and yet He condemns the reprobate, by whom He has carried into execution what He intended.

But we see how Christ, in this passage, reconciles both by pronouncing a curse on Judas, even though what Judas contrived against God had been appointed by God. This is not to say that Judas’s act of betraying ought strictly to be called the work of God, but rather that God turned the treachery of Judas to accomplish His own purpose.

I am aware of the manner in which some commentators attempt to avoid this rock. They acknowledge that what had been written was accomplished through the agency of Judas, because God testified by predictions what He foreknew.

By way of softening the doctrine, which appears to them to be somewhat harsh, they substitute the foreknowledge of God in place of the decree, as if God merely beheld future events from a distance and did not arrange them according to His pleasure.

But the Spirit settles this question very differently. For He assigns as the reason why Christ was delivered up, not only that it was so written, but also that it was so determined.

For where Matthew and Mark quote Scripture, Luke leads us directly to the heavenly decree, saying, according to what was determined. Also, in the Acts of the Apostles, Luke shows that Christ was delivered not only by the foreknowledge, but likewise by the fixed purpose of God (Acts 2:25); and a little afterwards, that Herod and Pilate, with other wicked men, did those things which had been foreordained by the hand and purpose of God (Acts 4:27–28).

Hence it is evident that it is merely an ignorant subterfuge employed by those who resort to bare foreknowledge.

It had been good for that man. By this expression we are taught what dreadful vengeance awaits the wicked, for whom it would have been better that they had never been born. And yet this life, though transitory and full of innumerable distresses, is an invaluable gift of God.

Again, we also infer from it how detestable their wickedness is, which not only extinguishes the precious gifts of God and turns them to their destruction, but makes it to have been better for them that they had never tasted the goodness of God. But this phrase is worthy of observation: it would have been good for that man if he had never been born.

For though the condition of Judas was wretched, yet to have created him was good in God, who, appointing the reprobate to the day of destruction, also illustrates His own glory in this way, as Solomon tells us:

The Lord hath made all things for himself; yea,
even the wicked for the day of evil (Proverbs 16:4).

The secret government of God, which governs even the schemes and works of men, is thus vindicated from all blame and suspicion, as I recently noted.