They have corrupted themselves
This and what follows may seem to be the characters of the
enemies of Christ, who lightly esteemed and rejected him, set in
a contrast with him; who were not only corrupt by nature, as all
men are, but were men of corrupt minds in their tenets and
principles; who corrupted the word of God by their traditions, in
the times of Christ; and were men of corrupt practices
themselves, and corrupters of others:
their spot [is] not [the spot] of his children;
of the children of the divine Person before described; Christ the
rock has "children" given him by his Father, in whose adoption he
has a concern, and by whose Spirit they are regenerated: these
have their "spots"; by which are meant sins, and by those men are
stained and polluted; so called in allusion to the spots of
animals, as leopards; or to spots in faces and garments, through
dirt and the like: by nature they are as others, and while in an
unregenerate estate, and indeed after conversion; though they are
washed from their sins by the blood of Christ, and are justified
by his righteousness, and so without spot, yet in themselves they
are not without spots or sins, as their confessions and
complaints, and all experience testify: but the spots or sins of
wicked men are not like theirs; the children of Christ sin
through infirmity of the flesh, and the force of temptation, but
wicked men through the malignity of their hearts, willingly and
purposely; what good men do of this kind they hate, but what
Christless and graceless sinners do they love; saints do not
continue in sin, but ungodly men do, and proceed to more
ungodliness, and wax worse and worse; gracious souls when they
sin, are sorry for it, repent of it, are melted for it, and take
shame to themselves on account of it; but unconverted men repent
not of their wickedness, are hardened in it, and glory of it; see
the character of the Jews in Christ's time, to which this song
refers, ( John 8:44
) ; though these clauses may be rendered to another sense, more
agreeably to the context, and to the Hebrew accents, as they are
by some; "is there any corruption in him? no" F14, that
is, is there any corruption in the illustrious Person before
described, as without iniquity, just, and right? no, none at all
in his nature, divine or human; not in his divine nature, being
the incorruptible God; nor in his human nature, which is entirely
free from that corruption by sin, common to all that des, tend
from Adam by natural generation, he being conceived under the
power of the Holy Ghost; nor any in his life and conversation,
being perfectly agreeable to the pure and holy law of God; nor
any in his doctrines, however they may be charged by ignorant and
malicious men, a proof of which follows: or "his children are
their spot" F15; so the clause may be rendered; the
spots of the Jewish nation, the most wicked and vilest among
them, became his children; not only the lowest and meanest of
them, as to civil and worldly things, but the more ignorant and
the more wicked, even publicans and harlots; these, and not the
righteous, he came to call and save, and did receive; these were
regenerated by his grace, and they believed in him; and to them
gave he power to become his children: but then did they remain
the wicked persons they had been? no, they were made new
creatures, they were internally sanctified, and lived holy lives
and conversations; a clear proof this, that there was no
corruption in Christ, nor in his doctrine, and that he neither by
his tenets nor example encouraged sin, but all the reverse;
Wisdom is justified of her children, ( Matthew
11:19 ) ; but then the rest, and the far greater part of the
Jewish nation, in his time, have their character truly drawn, as
follows:
[they are] a perverse and crooked generation;
men of perverse and crooked natures, tempers, dispositions, ways,
and works; who walked contrary to the will and law of God, and
were indeed contrary to all men, ( 1
Thessalonians 2:15 1
Thessalonians 2:16 ) ; this is the very character that is
given of them, ( Matthew
17:17 ) ( Acts 2:40 ) .