1 Corinthians 6:11 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 6:11

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This is the golden verse, the great jewel in the passage. ‘And such were some of you.’ Some people think the three things that are referred to – ‘Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified’ – are different ways of looking at the same thing: justified – a declaration made by God that my sin is taken away; sanctified – a declaration made by God that I belong to him; and washed – a declaration made by God that the blood of Christ has taken away all my sin. But that is wrong. These are quite distinct things. ‘But ye are washed’ – it is past tense. It does not just refer to baptism. It is something which refers to the saving of the soul. The soul has been washed. Something has happened – a taint has been removed; wickedness has been cleansed out; the dominion of sin has been cleansed from you.‘But ye are sanctified’ – yet another aspect of salvation. You are separated, you are set apart for holy service, you are purified. You understand the term when you think of the Old Testament, and the methods of worship. You remember the utensils in the temple, and everything that was employed in the ritual and in the service of God. All those utensils had to be cleansed, and then they were holy, and they were set aside, and used exclusively for divine purpose. The word ‘sanctified’ is drawn from that. When you and I are spoke of as sanctified, in addition to being cleansed, it focuses our minds upon this – that we are dedicated to holy service, and we are to be separate from worldly things. The apostle does not refer here to ongoing sanctification, progressive sanctification, but to that element of sanctification which describes conversion which the Spirit works in our hearts. And then ‘justified in the name of the Lord Jesus’. Justification is a pronouncement which is made by God; but it affects us. When I am justified, it is not done to me, like the other two. It is a declaration in the heavens – ‘This man, this woman is not guilty, and I, God, will deal with this man, this woman as though he or she had never sinned, and even give them the rewards of the righteous, as though they had lived a perfect life, because Christ has lived a perfect life on their behalf.’ That is a declaration; it is our status now. It is not done to us, but it said about us. But here is how it affects us. We think of it, and we think, ‘I am justified before God. I am declared cleaned and righteous altogether. I am declared as deserving the rewards of the righteous. How much I owe.’

Application

Suppose somebody was deeply into fornication, perhaps sadly brought up in this modern society among the teenagers and the youngsters who are told that they are free to experiment and do whatever they wish; and the awareness of sinfulness is almost eradicated. Well, perhaps there are those who are perpetually unclean in their conduct and fornicating freely. Suppose they are saved. What is going to be the situation with them? Is there a weakness there? Is it going to be hard for them to overcome that? It has been a habitual practice, maybe from the age of 15 or even earlier, right through the years; bedding this one, and that one, and disgraceful things. Now the young person, say at 19, 20, comes to Jesus Christ. Are we to expect that there will be a run-on effect, and a deep-seated habit and contamination that cannot be overthrown? Now, this is the significance of washed. No, you are washed. That compulsion, that deep-seated tendency, that now deep character flaw, the inevitability that you will sin day after day, week after week – it is washed, you are new. In Psalm 51:2 we read, ‘Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.’ It is not only a theological matter. I am washed in the sight of God.

Somebody was saying to me, a young person, that clubbing and parties were the great thing in their life, clubbing particularly. This person said he thought he was a Christian, he thought he was saved. But then he knew when he was truly saved, because he went off all those things; they belonged to another life, another world, another realm. He didn’t have the same desire or inclination any more. Well, that is not only illustrated by the washing, but by the ‘sanctified’. He had been set apart, separated from the unclean and set apart to the service of the Lord. That is marked out in true conversion, it is evidenced; things change, your tastes change.

O how I must try, today and tomorrow, to please him and to serve him. What contentment I must have. This foolish heart, which sometimes says, ‘I want this, I would like that, I must have this, that is so important to me’: all unnecessary things. What more could I possibly have than to be declared righteous by God, when I am not?

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1 Corinthians 6:11 Commentary and Bible Study