And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Ver. 9. And think not to say within yourselves] Hypocrites are never without their holes of refuge, out of which they must be ferreted. There are infinite turnings and windings in the heart of man, studious of deceiving itself by some paralogism (παραλογιζομενοι εαυτους, Jam 1:22). Therefore the apostle so often premiseth, "Be not deceived," when he reckons up reprobates, 1 Corinthians 6:9; Ephesians 5:6,8 .
We have Abraham to our father] What of that? so had Ishmael, an outcast, -Esau, a castaway, &c. External privileges profit not where nothing better can be pleaded. Nabal, the fool, was of the line of faithful Caleb, Qui implevit post me, " followed me fully," saith God, Numbers 14:24. Virtue is not, as lands, inheritable. Why should these men brag they had Abraham to their father, when they might have observed that God had raised up of this stone a son to Caleb?
God is able] His power Isaiah 1:1,31. Absolute, whereby he can do more than he doth. 2. Actual, whereby he doth that only which he willeth. Some things he can do, but will not, as here, and Matthew 26:53; Romans 9:18. Some things he neither will nor can, as to lie, to die, to deny himself, 2 Timothy 2:13; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18, for these things contradict his essence, and imply impotence. But whatsoever he willeth, without impediment he effecteth, Isaiah 46:10; Psalms 115:3 .
Of these stones to raise up children to Abraham] This he could do, though he will not. And yet he doth as much as this, when he takes the stone out of the heart; when of carnal he makes us a people created again, Psalms 102:18; when out of a hollow person (one as empty and void of heart as the hollow of a tree is of substance) is fetched out a heart of oak, and of a wild asscolt born, is made a man: see both these similitudes, Job 11:12. It was a strange change that Satan mentioned and motioned to our Saviour of turning stones into bread. But nothing so strange as turning stony hearts into hearts of flesh. This is a work of God's almighty power, the same that he put forth in raising Christ from the dead,Ephesians 1:19; (where the apostle, the better to set forth the matter, useth a six-fold gradation in the original), and in creating the world, Psa 51:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17. The prophet Isaiah tells us, "that he plants the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, that he may say to Zion, Thou art my people," Isaiah 51:16. And although man's heart be an emptiness, as in the creation, as herbs in winter, or as a breathless clod of earth, yet that hinders not, saith the prophet.