A Rock of Offence

The following excerpt is from John Calvin’s sermon A Rock of Offence, which is featured in Behold My Servant: Sermons on Isaiah 52:13–53:12, translated from the French by Robert White.

Who will believe what we preach? And to whom will the arm of the
Lord be revealed? 2 He will grow up before him like a young shoot,
and like a root in dry ground. He has neither form nor comeliness,
and we saw that there was no excellence in him that we might desire
him. 3 He was despised and rejected among men, a man of sorrows,
familiar with infirmity, so that men in their scorn will hide their
faces from him, and none will esteem him. 4 Truly he bore our weaknesses
and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken by God,
and afflicted (Isa. 53:1-4).

WE began by pointing out that although the gospel was to be preached throughout the world, it would not be well received by most people. The prophet made this point clear, so that God’s children should not be alarmed when they saw the unbelief of those into whose ears the message of salvation had been drummed, and who nevertheless were unwilling to accept it. It is strange indeed that God should call men to him and should try to win them in the kindest and most gracious way possible, but that they should turn away from him and deliberately refuse to come to the salvation which is set before them. It seems impossible, yet this is what experience shows us. As a result, the prophet proclaims that when God with trumpet sound seeks to make his gospel known, it is only a small number who believe.

Isaiah now explains the reason: God is revealing his power, with the aim of giving faith to those who, left to their natural understanding, would remain in unbelief. Why is it that we see so many who reject the gospel? Why are so many weary of it, or so offended that they would rather be like those who despise God than draw near to him? Why is this, I ask, if not because we imagine that faith lies in the power of each of us? Isaiah, on the contrary, declares that although God commands that his word be proclaimed to all—that is, to both good and bad—nevertheless he is secretly active in his elect, causing them as it were to feel his arm and power.¹See the preceding sermon, p. 14, note 4.

Observe, then, that when the gospel is preached it will be like a meaningless sound until our Lord reveals that he is the one speaking. He does not grant this gift to everyone. So God’s power is hidden from the reprobate; it is a privilege given to few people, to those he has elected and adopted in order to bring them to eternal life—to those who have his assurance that the gospel is the message of salvation, and that it is the sure truth to which they must hold. That, in brief, is what the prophet Isaiah seeks to convey in this verse.

For our part we must be armed and equipped to meet the obstacle which the devil sets before us. For when we see so many people resisting the gospel—yes, the very greatest, and those highly regarded by men—we are almost led to think that this cannot be God’s word. Why do we think that? Our faith is shaken because we depend too much on men. Let us overcome, then, everything which is of the world, and let us recognize that when God speaks, we must submit to him. Even if no one keeps us company, even if everyone is our enemy, let us nevertheless receive with purity of faith whatever God declares. And to avoid being overly surprised that people should be so wilful as to war against their God, against the one who created them and who shows himself to them as their Redeemer, understand that this is not given to all, and that faith is a particular gift which God keeps as a treasure for those he has chosen.

Although we know that our duty is to cleave to God, we should realize that faith is not something which of our own accord we give to ourselves: God enlightens us and by his Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see. In doing so he reveals to us his power; that is, he produces so lively an impression in our hearts that we know that the gospel comes not from men, but from him. That, in sum, is what we have to remember about this text. So we should boldly defy the unbelief and obstinacy of those who rebel against God, and we should walk where he calls us, accepting all the benefits he offers us, lest we be guilty of the ingratitude which the prophet here denounces and condemns in all who will not obey the gospel message.

That said, Isaiah shows that people do not deign to believe in Jesus Christ, since they see him as one who is marred. Our Lord Jesus, we know, is called ‘a stumbling stone’ and ‘a rock of offence’ (Rom. 9:32; 1 Pet. 2:8), because men strike hard against him. Yet he was given to us by God his Father for a quite different purpose: that we should be grounded in his grace, and that he should be the rock sustaining all of us. There is no one else who can give us solidity and support, only he. We ourselves are in a state of flux; hell yawns wide to swallow us up; we must rely for support on our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why he is said in the twenty-eighth chapter of Isaiah to have been set as a precious cornerstone on which God’s temple would be built, a firm rock upholding the whole edifice (Isa. 28:16). The prophet also adds that in the kingdom of Judah and in the house of Israel he would be a rock of offence (Isa. 8:14).

In this passage our Lord Jesus is described as a small shoot, a root springing from dry ground, that is, from barren soil. He will be despised; no one will deign to look upon him; all will turn their faces from him; he will be an object of hate. That is why so few people will believe the gospel, for we always want to look good in our own eyes; we always want to shine. God, however, in seeking to redeem us, worked along very different lines. As Paul says, the world had no use for God’s wisdom which revealed him as Creator, so that simply by looking at the heavens and the earth we might come to him (Rom. 1:19-20). God therefore changed his way of doing things: he employed a certain kind of folly in order to instruct us (1 Cor. 1:21). As I said earlier, we must all be taught by God’s marvellous wisdom, which is manifest, high and low, to everyone in the world. Our minds, however, grew heavy and dull, which is why God employed folly of a sort by sending his only Son and by subjecting him to every kind of infirmity. The result was that, being born in a stable but rejected by the world, he remained a poor artisan throughout his life. Finally, we learn that everyone rose up against him, and with such fury that they loathed him, considering him to be the enemy of all; in the end they crucified him. This form of death was cursed by God (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:3). He was not only marred by men’s blows, by their spitting and by the crown of thorns; he suffered the curse of being hung between two thieves, as if he were the most hated man that ever lived or was ever known to men. This was a frightful form of death, because it fell under the law’s curse.

In these ways, then, he was marred, and it was offensive in men’s eyes. Isaiah therefore insists that people will not believe the gospel because they cannot conceive that it is reasonable. They can on no account accept that God’s Son, the Lord of glory, should have been the object of such abuse and shame. They cannot assent to God’s eternal counsel which he purposed from eternity. Such is the prophet’s meaning here.

Nevertheless, it is said that he will grow up before him. If, at the outset, he is insignificant, God will cause him to grow; he will appear as a small shoot springing from dry ground. Even so he will increase and will flower in all his glory, for God will see to it. At this point the prophet reverts to the theme of our sin, in order to dispel the offence which we feel, thanks to our perverse disposition. When we see our Lord Jesus Christ thus marred, we might refuse to come to him. To avoid this, the prophet discloses the reason for it all. In truth, once we have acknowledged our sins and, at the same time, comprehended the fact of God’s wrath, we will come to Jesus Christ, and our wish to be helped by him will make us all the keener to accept his death and passion. We will recognize that this is the necessary remedy for the evil within us. This, then, is the method which Isaiah employs here.

In comparing our Lord Jesus Christ to a young shoot and to a root in dry and barren ground, Isaiah’s aim is to show that there will be small beginnings which no one will notice, which everyone in fact will laugh at and deride. Already in his eleventh chapter the prophet had compared our Lord to a small shoot, saying that it would come from the stem of Jesse, David’s father (Isa. 11:1). Since at that time the royal house had been thrown down and had lost all greatness, the prophet declares that it will be as in former times. Jesse was a country man; the sons he had were oxherds and shepherds in the fields. His house was therefore obscure and of no repute. It was like the trunk of a tree which had been felled: people would trample upon it; it would be of no consequence.

Jesus Christ was thus, so to speak, a small shoot, but one which would grow so as to give shade to the whole world. Here again the prophet makes it clear that our Lord Jesus Christ was bound to be despised in the beginning. If this had not been said, we might have rightly taken offence on seeing that our Lord’s coming was held in such contempt by men. Scripture, after all, had said that there would always be some who would sit on David’s throne, and that their rule would prosper as long as there was sun and moon (2 Sam. 7:12-13; 1 Chron. 17:11-14; Psa. 89:35- 37). Yet here the royal house has been practically annihilated and swept away. Who could imagine that the promise would be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ? There was no sign that things would be restored. So when it is said that David’s house would fall and that sovereignty, sceptre and crown would be no more, and that men would feel almost ashamed to see such ruin and desolation—when all this is proclaimed by the prophets, here we have a promising way forward: our Lord Jesus Christ!

Featured Photo (visible when article shared on social media) by Renzo D’souza on Unsplash