And such were some of you
Not all, but some of them; and of these everyone was not guilty
of all these crimes; but some had been guilty of one, and others
of another; so that they had been all committed by one or another
of them. The Corinthians were a people very much given to
uncleanness and luxury, without measure {i}, which was the ruin
of their state: and among these wicked people God had some chosen
vessels of salvation; who are put in mind of their former state,
partly for their present humiliation, when they considered what
they once were, no better than others, but children of wrath,
even as others; and partly to observe to them, and the more to
illustrate and magnify the grace of God in their conversion,
pardon, justification, and salvation; as also to point out to
them the obligations that lay upon them to live otherwise now
than they formerly did.
But ye are washed;
which is not to be understood of external washing, of corporeal
ablution, or of their being baptized in water; so they might be,
and yet not be cleansed from their filthiness, either by original
or actual transgressions; nor of the washing of regeneration,
which more properly comes under the next head; but of their being
washed from their sins by the blood of Christ, through the
application of it to them, for the remission of them; which
supposes them to have been polluted, as they were originally,
being conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity; naturally, for
who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? and internally, in
heart, mind, and conscience; also universally, both as to
persons, and as to the powers and faculties of their souls, and
members of their bodies; and that they could not wash and cleanse
themselves by any ceremonial purifications, moral duties, or
evangelical performances; but that this was a blessing of grace
they enjoyed through the blood of Christ, by which they were
washed from their sins, both in the sight of God, his justice
being satisfied for them, they were all pardoned and done away,
so as to be seen no more, and they appeared unblamable and
irreprovable in his sight; and also in their own apprehensions,
for being convinced of their pollution, and being directed to
Christ for cleansing, the Spirit of God took his blood, and
sprinkled it on their consciences, to the appeasement of them,
the removal of sin from thence, and a non-remembrance of it.
But ye are sanctified;
which designs not their sanctification by God the Father, which
is no other than the eternal separation of them from himself, or
his everlasting choice of them to eternal happiness; nor the
sanctification of them, or the expiation of their sins by the
blood of Christ, this is meant in the former clause; nor their
sanctification in Christ, or the imputation of his holiness with
his obedience and death for their justification, which is
intended in the following one; but the sanctification of the
Spirit, which lies in a principle of spiritual life infused into
the soul, in a spiritual light in the understanding, in a flexion
of the will to the will of God, both in grace and providence, in
a settlement of the affections on divine objects, and in an
implantation of every grace; which is a gradual work, as yet not
perfect, but will be fulfilled in all in whom it is begun.
But ye are justified;
not by the works of the law, but by the righteousness of Christ.
Justified they were from all eternity, as soon as Christ became a
surety for them; and so they were when he rose from the dead, who
were justified as their head and surety, and they in him; but
here it is to be understood of their being justified in the court
of conscience, under the witnessings of the Spirit of God; who
having convinced them of the insufficiency of their own
righteousness, and having brought near the righteousness of
Christ unto them, and wrought faith in them to lay hold on it,
pronounced them justified persons in their own consciences;
whence followed joy, peace, and comfort.
In the name of the Lord Jesus;
which may refer, as the following clause, to all that is said
before: by "the name of the Lord Jesus" may be meant he himself;
and the sense be, that they were washed by his blood, sanctified
by his Spirit, and justified by his righteousness; or it may
intend the merit and efficacy of Christ's blood, sacrifice, and
righteousness; as that their sins were pardoned, and they
cleansed from them through the merit of the blood of Christ shed
for the remission of their sins; and that they were regenerated
and sanctified through the efficacy of Christ's resurrection from
the dead; and were instilled by the grace of God, through the
redemption that is in Christ: or else the name of Christ may
design his Gospel, through which they received the knowledge of
God's way of pardoning sinners, and justifying them, and the
Spirit of God, as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification:
and by the Spirit of our God;
who sprinkled the blood of Christ upon them, to the cleansing of
them; who sanctified their hearts, and revealed the righteousness
of Christ unto them for their justification, and pronounced the
sentence of it upon them. It is to be observed, that all the
three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, are here mentioned, as
being jointly concerned in those acts of grace.