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Verse 11

And such were some of you - It was not with the prospect of collecting saints that the apostles went about preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. None but sinners were to be found over the face of the earth; they preached that sinners might be converted unto God, made saints, and constituted into a Church; and this was the effect as well as the object of their preaching.

But ye are washed - Several suppose that the order in which the operations of the grace of God take place in the soul is here inverted; but I am of a very different mind. Every thing will appear here in its order, when we understand the terms used by the apostle.

Ye are washed, απελουσασθε ; ye have been baptized into the Christian faith, and ye have promised in this baptism to put off all filthiness of the flesh and spirit: and the washing of your bodies is emblematical of the purification of your souls.

Ye are sanctified - Ἡγιασθητε ; from α , privative, and γη , the earth; ye are separated from earthly things to be connected with spiritual. Ye are separated from time to be connected with eternity. Ye are separated from idols to be joined to the living God. Separation from common, earthly, or sinful uses, to be wholly employed in the service of the true God, is the ideal meaning of this word, both in the Old and New Testaments. It was in consequence of their being separated from the world that they became a Church of God. Ye were formerly workers of iniquity, and associated with workers of iniquity; but now ye are separated from them, and united together to work out your salvation with fear and trembling before God.

Ye are justified - Εδικαιωθητε· Ye have been brought into a state of favor with God; your sins having been blotted out through Christ Jesus, the Spirit of God witnessing the same to your conscience, and carrying on by his energy the great work of regeneration in your hearts. The process here is plain and simple: -

  1. Paul and his brother apostles preached the Gospel at Corinth, and besought the people to turn from darkness to light - from idol vanities to the living God, and to believe in the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins.
  • The people who heard were convinced of the Divine truths delivered by the apostle, and flocked to baptism.
  • They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and thus took upon them the public profession of the Gospel.
  • Being now baptized into the Christian faith, they were separated from idols and idolaters, and became incorporated with the Church of God.
  • As penitents, they were led to the Lord Jesus for justification, which they received through faith in his blood.
  • 6. Being justified freely - having their sins forgiven through the redemption that is in Jesus, they received the Spirit of God to attest this glorious work of grace to their consciences; and thus became possessed of that principle of righteousness, that true leaven which was to leaven the whole lump, producing that universal holiness without which none can see the Lord.

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