John Calvin Commentary Matthew 27:43

"He trusteth on God; let him deliver him now, if he desireth him: for he said, I am the Son of God." — Matthew 27:43 (ASV)

He trusted in God. This, as I said a little while ago, is a very sharp arrow of temptation that Satan holds in his hand when he pretends that God has forgotten us because He does not relieve us quickly and at the very moment.

Since God watches over the safety of His people, not only granting them timely aid but even anticipating their necessities (as Scripture everywhere teaches us), He appears not to love those whom He does not assist. Satan, therefore, attempts to drive us to despair with this logic: that it is in vain for us to feel assured of the love of God when we do not clearly perceive His aid.

And just as Satan suggests this kind of deception to our minds, he also employs his agents, who contend that God has sold and abandoned our salvation because He delays His assistance.

We ought, therefore, to reject as false the argument that God does not love those whom He appears for a time to forsake. Indeed, nothing is more unreasonable than to limit His love to any specific point in time. God has, indeed, promised that He will be our Deliverer; but if He sometimes overlooks our calamities, we ought patiently to endure the delay.

It is, therefore, contrary to the nature of faith that the word now should be insisted upon by those whom God is training by the cross and by adversity for obedience, and whom He urges to pray and to call on His name. For these experiences are, rather, the testimonies of His fatherly love, as the apostle tells us (Hebrews 12:6).

But there was this peculiarity in Christ: though He was the well-beloved Son (Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5), yet He was not delivered from death until He had endured the punishment that we deserved, because that was the price by which our salvation was purchased.²⁷³

Therefore, it follows again that the priests act maliciously when they infer that He is not the Son of God because He performs the office that was assigned to Him by the Father.

²⁷³ “Pource que c’estoit le prix de nostre salut et redemption;” — “because it was the price of our salvation and redemption.”;” — “because it was the price of our salvation and redemption.”