Matthew 10:28-29
‘Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul! But rather fear Him Who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell! (There are) two sparrows!… One of them shall not fall on the ground, without (the will of) your Father!’ Matthew 10:28-29.
Calvin comments: “When the Apostles saw the Gospel so greatly despised, and recollected the small number of believers — they might be apt to throw away hope even for the future. Christ now meets this doubt — by declaring that the Gospel would be widely spread; would at length rise superior to all the hindrances which might arise from men; and would become generally known….
“To excite His Disciples to despise death, Christ employs the…argument that this frail and perishing life ought to be little regarded by men who have been created for a heavenly immortality…. The ‘fear’ of God is extinguished by the dread of men…when we have abandoned…eternal life. We (then) reserve nothing more for ourselves than to be ‘like the beasts that perish’ (Psalm 49:12)!
“God alone has the power of bestowing eternal life, or of inflicting eternal death…. Christ ought therefore to be explained in this manner: ‘Acknowledge that you have received immortal souls, which are subject to the disposal of God alone!’… In order to instruct us to bear with composure the loss of the bodily life, He bids us contemplate both eternal life and eternal death….
“There is hardly anything of less value than ‘sparrows’!… And yet God has His eye upon them to protect them…. Would He Who is careful about the ‘sparrows’ — disregard the life of men?…. ‘You are of more value!’
“This is true in general of all men. For the ‘sparrows’ were created for their advantage. But this discourse relates peculiarly to the sons of God who possess a far higher right than what they derive from creation!”
Calvin also says in his Institutes III:25:7 & I:16:5: “The saying of our Saviour…is worthy of observation. ‘Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him Who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell!’ (Matthew 10:28). Here, there would be no ground for fear — were not the body which we now have, liable to punishment…. Christ says without reservation, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the will of His Father (Matthew 10:29). Surely, if the flight of birds is regulated by the counsel of God — we must acknowledge…that while He ‘dwells on high,’ He ‘humbles Himself to behold things that are in Heaven and on the Earth!’ (Psalm 113:5-6).”
Calvin further says in his Psychopannychia: “When Christ exhorts…to fear Him Who…is able to cast the soul into the fire…(Matthew 10:28) — does He not intimate that the soul survives death?… It is God alone who has power over the soul, and can send it into Hellfire!”
Fear Him then, Who can destroy both soul and body in Hell!
