John Calvin Commentary Romans 9:32

"Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling;" — Romans 9:32 (ASV)

Not by faith, but as it were by works. While false zeal often seems to find a plausible excuse, Paul shows that those who attempt to attain salvation by trusting in their own works are deservedly rejected. For they, as far as they can, abolish faith, without which no salvation can be expected.

Therefore, if they were to gain their object, such success would mean the annihilation of true righteousness. You further see how faith and the merits of works are contrasted as things entirely contrary to each other. Since trust in works is the chief hindrance that closes our way to obtaining righteousness, it is necessary for us to renounce it completely so that we may depend on God’s goodness alone.

This example of the Jews should indeed justly terrify all those who strive to obtain the kingdom of God by works. Nor does Paul mean by “the works of the law” merely ceremonial observances, as has been shown before. Rather, he refers to the merits of those works to which faith is opposed—faith, which looks (as I may say) with both eyes on the mercy of God alone, without casting a single glance at any worthiness of its own.

For they have stumbled at the stone. Paul confirms the preceding sentence with a strong reason. Indeed, there is nothing more inconsistent than for those who strive to destroy righteousness to obtain it. Christ has been given to us for righteousness; whoever obtrudes on God the righteousness of works attempts to rob Christ of His own office. And thus it appears that whenever people, under the empty pretense of being zealous for righteousness, put confidence in their works, they, in their furious madness, carry on war with God Himself.

It is not difficult to understand how those who trust in their works stumble at Christ. For unless we acknowledge ourselves to be sinners, void and destitute of any righteousness of our own, we obscure the dignity of Christ, which consists in this: that He is to us all light, life, resurrection, righteousness, and healing.

But how is He all these things, unless He illuminates the blind, restores the lost, gives life to the dead, raises up those who are reduced to nothing, cleanses those who are full of filth, and cures and heals those infected with diseases? Indeed, when we claim any righteousness for ourselves, we effectively contend with the power of Christ. For His office is no less to beat down all the pride of the flesh than to relieve and comfort those who labor and are weary under their burden.

The quotation is rightly made, for in that passage God declares that He would be to the people of Judah and of Israel a rock of offense, at which they should stumble and fall. Since Christ is that God who spoke by the Prophets, it is no wonder that this also should be fulfilled in Him.

And by calling Christ the stone of stumbling, Paul reminds us that it is no wonder if those who through their willful stubbornness stumbled at this rock of offense made no progress in the way of righteousness, especially when God had shown them the way so plainly. However, we must observe that this stumbling does not properly belong to Christ viewed in Himself. On the contrary, it is something that happens through the wickedness of human beings, as what immediately follows will show.