1 Corinthians 6:20 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Ye are bought’ – it is past tense in the Greek; it has already occurred. Christ has come and he has purchased souls; he has redeemed us. What price did he pay? What currency did Christ pay in when he purchased? He paid in the currency of pain. He was poured out like wax, says Psalm 22. All his bones were out of joint; his heart melted like wax. What agony, what searing pain, as he took upon himself all the punishment that we should have borne eternally. He was man, a true person; sustained, of course, by his divine nature. And while as God his divine being supported him and enabled him to endure it, as a man he had to feel just as we should have felt. He was as it were, while on that cross, in hell for all of us. He experienced for us the hopelessness of hell (Jonah 2:1-7); and all that had to be compressed into that space of hours. He suffered not only the agonies, but separation from the Father. Of course, in a sense, the divine being of Christ could never be separated from the Father, but in his experience he had to be separated; he had to bear and suffer our separation from the Father (Psalm 22:1). He paid also in the currency of love. Whatever bought Christ to suffer and die for creatures such as we are? He knew exactly what he must go through. In human terms you could say, for thousands and for millions of years Christ knew exactly what he would have to endure. And yet he still came, and his heart was fixed on that plan. Why did he come? Why did he go through with it? Oh, we could answer clinically – to deliver us from our sin. Yes, but there is a higher reason. Why did he come? Because of his love that was set upon us; because of his heart for us. In our worst moments, when we are most burdened and saddened by one thing or another, we have to reflect on this: that we are so loved as a child of God; loved from eternity; loved by Christ during his life; loved intensely ever since; loved into the eternal future. In terms of obedience also. He obeyed, he came down; he subordinated himself voluntarily to the Father with whom he was equal, and voluntary subordinated himself to the law. And he accepted hostility and rejection and insult; and had to bring his holy being and soul into the midst of the very worst things in this world for us. ‘Glorify God’ – make him glorious, magnify him, honour him, please him. ‘In your body, and in your spirit’: the two departments of the shrine, the building and the holy of holies within, your spirit.