John Calvin Commentary Micah 7:18

"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in lovingkindness." — Micah 7:18 (ASV)

The Prophet here exclaims that God ought to be glorified especially for this: that He is merciful to His people. When he says, Who is God like you? he does not mean that there are other gods, for this, strictly speaking, is an improper comparison. But he shows that the true and only God may be distinguished from all idols by this characteristic: that He graciously forgives the sins of His people and bears with their infirmities.

It is indeed certain that all nations entertained the opinion that their gods were ready to pardon; hence their sacrifices and also their various kinds of expiations. Nor has there been any nation so barbarous as not to acknowledge themselves guilty in some measure before God. Hence all the Gentiles were accustomed to appeal to the mercy of their gods, yet they had no firm conviction. For though they grasped this first principle—that the gods would be propitious to sinners if they humbly sought pardon—yet they prayed, we know, with no sure confidence, for they had no certain promise.

Therefore, we see that what the Prophet means is this: that the God of Israel could be proved to be the true God from this fact—that having once received into favor the children of Abraham, He continued to show the same favor and kept His covenant inviolably, though their sins had been a thousand times a hindrance.

That God then, in His goodness, surmounted all the wickedness of the people and stood firm in His covenant, which had been so often violated by the vices of the people—this fact can be presented as evidence that He is the true God. For what can be found of this kind among idols?

Let us suppose that there is in them something divine, that they were gods and endowed with some power. Yet, with regard to the gods of the Gentiles, it could not be known that any one of them was propitious to his own people. Since, then, this can apply only to the God of Israel, it follows that in this instance His divinity shines conspicuously, and His sovereignty is therefore sufficiently proved.

We also learn that all the gods of the pagans are vain; indeed, that in the religion of the pagans there is nothing but delusions, for no nation can with confidence flee to its god to obtain pardon when it has sinned. This is the sum of the whole. I will now come to the words of the Prophet.

Who is a God like you, taking away iniquity, and passing by wickedness? By these two forms of expression, he presents the singular favor of God in freely reconciling Himself to sinners.

To take away sins is to blot them out. Although the verb נשא, nusha, often means to raise on high, it also means to take, or to take away.

To pass by wickedness is to connive at it, as if he said, “God overlooks the wickedness of His people, as if it escaped His view.” For when God requires an account of our life, our sins immediately appear before His eyes. But when God does not call our sins before His judgment, but overlooks them, He is then said to pass by them.

This passage teaches us, as I have already reminded you, that the glory of God principally shines in this: that He is reconcilable and that He forgives our sins. God indeed manifests His glory both by His power and His wisdom, and by all the judgments which He daily executes. His glory, at the same time, shines forth chiefly in this: that He is propitious to sinners and allows Himself to be pacified. Indeed, He not only allows miserable sinners to be reconciled to Him, but He also, of His own will, invites and anticipates them.

Therefore, it is evident that He is the true God. So that religion may have firm roots in our hearts, this must be the first thing in our faith: that God will always be reconciled to us. For unless we are fully persuaded of His mercy, no true religion will ever flourish in us, whatever pretensions we may make.

For what is said in Psalm 130 is always true: With you is propitiation, that you may be feared. (Psalms 130:4). Therefore, the fear of God, and the true worship of Him, depend on a perception of His goodness and favor.

For we cannot worship God from the heart, and there will be, as I have already said, no genuine religion in us, unless this persuasion is really and deeply seated in our hearts: that He is always ready to forgive whenever we flee to Him.

From this it also appears what sort of religion is that of the Papacy. For under the Papacy, being perplexed and doubtful, they always hesitate and never dare to believe that God will be propitious to them.

Though they have some ideas, I know not what, of His grace, yet it is a vain presumption and rashness, as they think, when anyone is fully persuaded of God’s mercy. They therefore keep consciences in suspense; indeed, they leave them doubtful and trembling, when there is no certainty respecting God’s favor.

It therefore follows that their whole worship is fictitious. In a word, the whole of religion is entirely subverted when a firm and unhesitating confidence in His goodness is taken away—indeed, that confidence by which men are enabled to come to Him without doubting and to receive, whenever they sin and confess their guilt and transgressions, the mercy that is offered to them.

But this confidence is not what rises spontaneously in us. Indeed, even when we entertain a notion that God is merciful, it is only a mere delusion, for we cannot be fully convinced respecting God’s favor unless He anticipates us by His word and testifies that He will be propitious to us whenever we flee to Him.

Therefore, I said at the beginning that the Prophet here exhibits the difference between the God of Israel and all the idols of the Gentiles, and that is because He had promised to be propitious to His people.

It was not in vain that sacrifices were offered by the chosen people, for there was a promise added which could not disappoint them. But the Gentiles always remained doubtful with regard to their sacrifices; though they performed all their expiations, there was still no certainty. The case was different with the chosen people.

Therefore, what the Prophet says here respecting the remission of sins depends on the testimony which God Himself has given.

We must now notice the clause which immediately follows, to the remnant of His heritage. Here again he drives away hypocrites from their vain confidence, for he says that God will be merciful only to a remnant of His people. At the same time, he takes away a cause of offense which might have grievously disquieted the weak on seeing the wrath of God raging among the whole people—that God would spare neither the common nor the chief men.

When, therefore, the fire of God’s vengeance flamed terribly, above and below, this objection might have greatly disturbed weak minds: “How is this? God does indeed declare that He is propitious to sinners, and yet His severity prevails among us. How can this be?”

The Prophet meets this objection and says God is propitious to the remnant of His heritage. This means that though God would execute terrible vengeance on the greater part, there would yet always remain some seed on whom His mercy would shine. He calls them the remnant of His heritage because, as was stated yesterday, there was no reason why God forgave the few, except that He had chosen the posterity of Abraham.

He also adds, He will not retain His wrath perpetually. By this second consolation he wished to relieve the faithful, for though God chastises them for a time, He yet does not forget His mercy. We may say that the Prophet here mentions two exceptions. He had spoken of God’s mercy; but as this mercy is not indiscriminate or common to all, he restricts what he teaches to the remnant.

Now follows another exception: that however much the wrath of God would apparently rage against His elect people themselves, there would yet be some moderation, so that they would remain safe, and their calamities would not be fatal to them. Therefore, he says, God does not retain wrath. For though, for a moment, He may be angry with His people, He will yet soon, as it were, repent, show Himself gracious to them, and testify that He is already reconciled to them. This is not because God changes, but because the faithful are made to feel His wrath for a short time; afterwards a taste of His mercy exhilarates them, and thus they feel in their souls that God has, in a manner, changed.

For when dread possesses their minds, they imagine God to be terrible. But when they embrace the promises of His grace, they call on Him and begin to entertain hope of pardon; then God appears to them kind, gentle, and reconcilable—indeed, and altogether ready to show mercy. This is the reason why the Prophet says that God does not retain His wrath.

Then follows the cause: for He loves mercy. Here the Prophet more clearly shows that the remission of sins is gratuitous and that it has no foundation but in the nature of God Himself. There is, then, no reason, since Scripture declares God to be reconcilable, why anyone should seek the cause in himself, or even the means by which God reconciles Himself to us, for He Himself is the cause.

Since God, then, by nature loves mercy, it is for this reason that He is so ready to forgive sinners. Whoever, then, imagines that God is to be propitiated by expiations or any satisfactions subverts the doctrine of the Prophet; it is the same as building without a foundation.

For the only prop or support that can raise us up to God, when we desire to be reconciled to Him, is this: that He loves mercy. This is the reason why God so much commends His mercy, why He says that He is merciful to a thousand generations, slow to wrath, and ready to pardon.

For though the unbelieving harden themselves against God, yet when they feel His wrath, there is nothing so difficult for them as to believe that God can be pacified. Therefore, this reason, which is not in vain added by the Prophet, ought to be especially noticed.

Let us now see to whom God is merciful. For as Satan could not have obliterated from the hearts of men a conviction of God’s mercy, he has yet confined mercy to the unbelieving, as though God should forgive sinners only once, when they are admitted into the Church. Thus the Pelagians formerly thought that God grants reconciliation to none but to aliens; for whoever has once been received into the Church cannot, as they imagined, stand before God otherwise than by being perfect.

And this figment led Novatus and his disciples to create disturbances in the Church. To this day, there are not only deluded men, but devils, who, by the same figment, or rather delirious notions, deceive themselves and others. They hold that the highest perfection ought to exist in the faithful, and they also slander our doctrine, as though we were still continuing in the Alphabet or in the first rudiments, because we daily preach free remission of sins.

But the Prophet declares expressly that God not only forgives the unbelieving when they sin, but also His heritage and His elect. Let us, then, know that as long as we are in the world, pardon is prepared for us, since we would otherwise fall every moment from the hope of salvation if this remedy were not provided for us.

For those men must be more than mad who arrogate to themselves perfection, or who think that they have arrived at such a high degree of attainment that they can satisfy God by their works.