Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 1:30
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
30. of him are ye in Christ Jesus ] Humanity is nothing in the sight of God, except it be created anew in Christ Jesus. By virtue of His Incarnation it becomes wisdom, not by means of human research but by Divine Revelation; righteousness, not by works done in obedience to law, but by the infusion of the Spirit of righteousness into the soul by Christ; sanctification, (i.e. the setting apart to the working of a principle of holiness), not by human merit, but by a Divine law of growth; redemption, (i.e. the paying the price of our deliverance from the captivity in which we were held by sin), because we were lost but for the Atonement made by Christ for our sins.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But of him – That is, by his agency and power. It is not by philosophy; not from ourselves; but by his mercy. The apostle keeps it prominently in view, that it was not of their philosophy, wealth, or rank that they had been raised to these privileges, but of God as the author.
Are ye – Ye are what you are by the mercy of God. 1Co 15:10. You owe your hopes to him. The emphasis in this verse is to he placed on this expression, are ye. You are Christians, not by the agency of man, but by the agency of God.
(See the supplementary note at Rom 8:10.)
In Christ Jesus – See the note at 1Co 1:4. By the medium, or through the work of Christ, this mercy has been conferred on you.
Who of God – From God apo theou. Christ is given to us by God, or appointed by him to be our wisdom, etc. God originated the scheme, and God gave him for this end.
Wisdom – That is, he is to us the source of wisdom; it is by him that we are made wise. This cannot mean that his wisdom becomes strictly and properly ours; that it is set over to us, and reckoned as our own, for that is not true. But it must mean simply, that Christians have become truly wise by the agency, the teaching, and the work of Christ. Philosophers had attempted to become wise by their own investigations and inquiries. But Christians had become wise by the work of Christ; that is, it had been by his instructions that they had been made acquainted with the true character of God; with his law; with their own condition; and with the great truth that there was a glorious immortality beyond the grave. None of these truths had been obtained by the investigations of philosophers, but by the instructions of Christ. In like manner it was that through him they had been made practically wise unto salvation. Compare Col 2:3, In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is the great agent by whom we become truly wise. Christ is often represented as eminently wise, and as the source of all true wisdom to his people. Isa 11:1; Mat 13:54; Luk 2:40, Luk 2:52; 1Co 1:24; 1Co 3:10. Ye are wise in Christ. Many commentators have supposed that the beautiful description of wisdom, in Prov. 8 is applicable to the Messiah. Christ may be said to be made wisdom to us, or to communicate wisdom:
(1) Because he has in his own ministry instructed us in the true knowledge of God, and of those great truths which pertain to our salvation.
(2) Because he has by his word and spirit led us to see our true situation, and made us wise unto salvation. He has turned us from the ways of folly, and inclined us to walk in the path of true wisdom.
(3) Because he is to his people now the source of wisdom. He enlightens their mind in the time of perplexity; guides them in the way of truth; and leads them in the path of real knowledge. It often happens that obscure and ignorant people, who have been taught in the school of Christ, have more true and real knowledge of that which concerns their welfare, and evince more real practical wisdom, than can be learned in all the schools of philosophy and learning on the earth. It is wise for a sinful and dying creature to prepare for eternity. But none but those who are instructed by the Son of God, become thus wise.
And righteousness – By whom we become righteous in the sight of God. This declaration simply affirms that we become righteous through him, as it is affirmed that we become wise, sanctified, and redeemed through him. But neither of the expressions determine anything as to the mode by which it is done. The leading idea of the apostle, which should never be lost sight of, is that the Greeks by their philosophy did not become truly wise, righteous, sanctified, and redeemed; but that this was accomplished through Jesus Christ. But in what way this was done, or by what process or mode, is not here stated; and it should be no more assumed from this text that we became righteous by the imputation of Christs righteousness, than it should be that we became wise by the imputation of his wisdom, and sanctified by the imputation of his holiness. If this passage would prove one of these points, it would prove all. But as it is absurd to say that we became wise by the imputation of the personal wisdom of Christ, so this passage should not be brought to prove that we became righteous by the imputation of his righteousness. Whatever may be the truth of that doctrine, this passage does not prove it.
By turning to other parts of the New Testament to learn in what way we are made righteous through Christ, or in what way he is made unto us righteousness; we learn that it is in two modes:
(1) Because it is by his merits alone that our sins are pardoned, and we are justified, and treated as righteous (see the note at Rom 3:26-27); and,
(2) Because by his influence, and work, and Spirit, and truth, we are made personally holy in the sight of God.
The former is doubtless the thing intended here, as sanctification is specified after. The apostle here refers simply to the fact, without specifying the mode in which it is done. That is to be learned from other parts of the New Testament. Compare the note at Rom 4:25. The doctrine of justification is, that God regards and treats those as righteous who believe on his Son, and who are pardoned on account of what he has done and suffered. The several steps in the process may be thus stated:
(1) The sinner is by nature exposed to the wrath of God. He is lost and ruined. He has no merit of his own. He has violated a holy law, and that law condemns him, and he has no power to make an atonement or reparation. He can never be pronounced a just man on his own merits. He can never vindicate his conduct, as a man can do in a court of justice where he is unjustly accused, and so be pronounced just.
(2) Jesus Christ has taken the sinners place, and died in his stead. He has honored a broken law; he has rendered it consistent for God to pardon. By his dreadful sufferings, endured in the sinners place, God has shown his hatred of sin, and his willingness to forgive. His truth will be vindicated, and his law honored, and his government secured, if now he shall pardon the offender when penitent. As he endured these sorrows for others, and not for himself, they can be so reckoned, and are so judged by God. All the benefits or results of that atonement, therefore, as it was made for others, can be applied to them, and all the advantage of such substitution in their place, can be made over to them, as really as when a man pays a note of hand for a friend; or when he pays for another a ransom. The price is reckoned as paid for them, and the benefits flow to the debtor and the captive. It is not reckoned that they paid it, for that is not true; but that it was done for them, and the benefit may be theirs, which is true.
(3) God has been pleased to promise that these benefits may be conferred on him who believes in the Saviour. The sinner is united by faith to the Lord Jesus, and is so adjudged, or reckoned. God esteems or judges him to be a believer according to the promise. And so believing, and so repenting, he deems it consistent to pardon and justify him who is so united to his Son by faith. He is justified, not by the ACT of faith; not by any merits of his own, but by the merits of Christ. He has no other ground, and no other hope. Thus, he is in fact a pardoned and justified man; and God so reckons and judges. Gods law is honored, and the sinner is pardoned and saved; and it is now as consistent for God to treat him as a righteous man, as it would be if he had never sinned – since there is as high honor shown to the law of God, as there would have been had he been personally obedient, or had he personally suffered its penalty. And as, through the death of Christ, the same results are secured in upholding Gods moral government as would be by his condemnation, it is consistent and proper for God to forgive him and treat him as a righteous man; and to do so accords with the infinite benevolence of his heart.
And sanctification – By him we are sanctified or made holy. This does not mean, evidently, that his personal holiness is reckoned to us, but that by his work applied to our hearts, we become personally sanctified or holy. Compare Eph 4:24. This is done by the agency of his Spirit applying truth to the mind Joh 17:19, by the aid which he furnishes in trials, temptations, and conflicts, and by the influence of hope in sustaining, elevating and purifying the soul. All the truth that is employed to sanctify, was taught primarily by him; and all the means that may be used are the purchase of his death, and are under his direction; and the Spirit by whose agency Christians are sanctified, was sent into the world by him, and in answer to his prayers. Joh 14:16; Joh 15:26.
And redemption – apolutrosis. For the meaning of this word, see the note at Rom 3:24. Here it is evidently used in a larger sense than it is commonly in the New Testament. The things which are specified above, justification and sanctification, are a part of the work of redemption. Probably the word is used here in a wide sense, as denoting the whole group, or class of influences by which we are brought at last to heaven; so that the apostle refers not only to his atonement, but to the work by which we are in fact redeemed from death, and made happy in heaven. Thus, in Rom 8:23, the word is applied to the resurrection, the redemption of the body. The sense is, it is by Christ that we are redeemed; by him that an atonement is made; by him that we are pardoned; by him that we are delivered from the dominion of sin, and the power of our enemies; and by him that we shall be rescued from the grave, and raised up to everlasting life. Thus, the whole work depends on him; and no part of it is to be ascribed to the philosophy, the talent, or the wisdom of human beings. He does not merely aid us; he does not complete that which is imperfect; he does not come in to do a part of the work, or to supply our defects; but it is all to be traced to him. Col 2:10, and ye are complete in him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Co 1:30
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption
The life of the Christian from Christ
In using these words the apostle seems to have in mind the principal phases of Christs being.
I. Wisdom, by His life and teaching.
II. Righteousness, by His death and resurrection.
III. Sanctification, by His elevation to glory.
IV. Redemption, by His future return. (Prof. Godet.)
The union of the genuine disciple with his Master
This union is–
I. Most vital. In Christ, not merely in His school, dispensation, character, but in Himself, as branches are in the vine. He is their life.
II. Divinely formed. Of Him–Whom? God. It is the Eternal Spirit that brings the soul into vital connection with Christ. My Father is the Husbandman.
III. Blessedly productive.
1. Wisdom.
2. Righteousness.
3. Sanctification.
4. Redemption, come out of this union. What transcendent blessings are these!
IV. Exultingly adoring (1Co 1:31). It inspires the highest worship. It causes the soul to triumph to God Himself. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The connection of Christ with Christians
I. A most intimate connection exists between Christ and Christians. In Christ. The connection is–
1. Real. Ye are in Christ Jesus. Not imaginary; not theoretical; not prospective.
2. Vital. Not that of a sapless branch with a decayed root; not that of a pulseless arm with a lifeless head.
3. Essential to the continuance of spiritual life. Not merely a life like Christs, but a life that is a part of Christs life. The temperament of Christ pervades the whole body.
II. This connection has been formed by God. Of Him. Our Lord referred to Divine operation as well as supervision when He said, My Father is the Husbandman (Comp. Rom 11:17-24). Union with Christ is–
1. Not natural. Our natural condition is one of separation and alienation.
2. Not affected by human agency; neither our own, nor anothers.
3. Effected by Divine agency–
(1) Incomprehensible in the mode of operation.
(2) Inexplicable in the selection of its subjects.
III. This connection has been productive of most advantageous results to Christians. These, as well as the connection, are of Divine ordination.
1. Observe the progression of thought.
(1) There is the truth by which the mind is arrested, instructed, convinced, strengthened, and elevated.
(2) There is the work without us by virtue of which we are accepted and treated as righteous; conjoined with–
(3) The work within us by virtue of which we are purified and made actually righteous.
(4) There is the final deliverance from all evil; when with the redemption of the body the soul will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God; when salvation will be consummated in the glorification of all.
2. Christ is–
(1) Our wisdom. He said I am the truth. He is the light of the world. He is that by which we are enlightened. The condition of the non-Christian is described in Eph 4:18, and Rom 10:3. Ignorant of our real spiritual state, Christ enlightens us respecting it. Ignorant of our relation to God, Christ reveals our alienation from Him, and invites us to be reconciled. Ignorant of what is to be done, Christ tells us what is essential. Ignorant of the way of salvation, Christ says, I am the way, &c.
(2) Our righteousness. The revelation of truth is not all we want. Christ was not only the Revealer but the Doer, not only the Teacher but the Mediator. The condition of the non-Christian is represented as one of condemnation, guilt, and rebellion. Out of this we are brought by Christ. He is our Representative; in nature and character perfect; possessing immaculate righteousness; therefore competent to appear and act for us. His life and death of obedience are accepted on our behalf, and we are accepted through Him. The rebel is pardoned; alienation is displaced by friendship; as virtually righteous he is received into Gods family, a joint heir with Christ.
(3) Our sanctification. The condition of the non-Christian is one of corruption and defilement. Christ will have all His followers conformed to His image. The process of sanctification is–
(a) Effected by direct and indirect agency. Direct. The influence of Spirit upon spirit. The Spirit dwelleth in you, &c. Indirect. Christian ordinances and privileges, providential circumstances, social influences; every temptation resisted, trial endured, difficulty overcome, passion quelled, habit corrected; triumph over self, steadfast opposition to evil, loss suffered for the cause of Christ; manful exhibition of godliness, true-hearted adherence to principle.
(b) Invisible and indescribable. More mystery respecting the internal work of the Spirit than the external work of Christ. Facts perceived by the senses are more easily described than those perceived by consciousness.
(c) Sometimes prolonged. If immediacy may be regarded as a characteristic of justification, progressiveness is characteristic of sanctification. It is the work of our lifetime.
(d) Generally apparently incomplete. But we cannot unveil the spiritual world. What constitutes completeness? Enough for us to aim at her lofty attainment. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, &c.
(4) Our redemption. Reference to the final release from the bondage, dangers, and trials of humanity. The condition of the non-Christian is one of bondage to sin (2Pe 2:19). Christ makes His people free. The liberty of the sons of God includes not only release from the condemnation of law and from the power of sin, but also from the laws and limitations of human nature; from the habits which bind us, and dispositions which enslave us; from the annoyances of earthly life; from associations with evil; from injurious influences, human and satanic.
IV. This connection and its results are designed to promote the glory of God (verses 29, 31). Not to glorify ourselves, but to live, in time and in eternity, to the glory of His grace, who hath made us accepted in the Beloved. (T. T. Waterman, B. A.)
The relation of Christ to His people
He is set forth as made unto us–
I. Wisdom. A controversy has been carried on as to the character of real wisdom from the days of Job (Job 28:20). But his definition is the only correct one (verse 18).
1. What is wisdom unconnected with Christ? It can elevate mans mind by leading it up the pathway of science, it can help to the study of men and manners, it may solve some of the higher problems of morality. But its best efforts are only as the light of the taper compared with the sun. It cannot bestow peace or joy in the moment of trial, or in the day of death.
2. What is wisdom connected with Christ (Jam 3:17)?
II. Righteousness (Jer 23:6; Rom 8:33).
III. Sanctification.
1. It is necessary to distinguish between justification and sanctification. They differ essentially–
(1) In their nature; the one being an alteration of his state in the sight of God, the other a change in his character before man and his conscience.
(2) In their causes; the former is imputed through Christs obedience, the latter is communicated by the Holy Spirits influence.
2. Sanctification is a difficult work, so far as we are concerned in it.
(1) Our nature is opposed to it.
(2) The world generally is opposed to it.
(3) Satan with all his varied instruments are opposed to it.
3. But yet it is possible and easy; for Christ is made such unto us. How is this? It is simply to have Christ enter the lists with sin in us (Php 4:13; 1Th 5:23).
IV. Redemption. Our present redemption is only partial. We have a privilege to come into Gods presence, &c. Nevertheless the glorious liberty of the sons of God yet remains to be enjoyed. Then every fetter shall be knocked off. The mind no longer shall be hindered in its investigations; the heart shall be deceitful no more; the body itself shall no more be weary. (G. F. Galaher, M. A.)
What is Christ to us
I. Our prophet to impart wisdom.
1. Anointing us with His Spirit.
2. Revealing Himself in us.
3. Giving us understanding to know Him as the only way to the Father.
II. Our high priest to impart righteousness.
1. Making atonement for us.
2. Pronouncing our absolution.
3. Constantly interceding for us at the right hand of God.
III. Our King to communicate holiness.
1. Pouring out His Spirit.
2. Ruling in our hearts.
3. Giving us dominion over sin.
IV. Our final deliverer from all evil. (E. Fraser.)
Gods device for the salvation of sinners
I. The whole of mans salvation is from Christ. God has made or constituted Him the fountain of all salvation, from whom it must be conveyed to all that shall partake of it (Psa 89:24).
1. Man is ignorant naturally of the way to true happiness; he has lost God, and knows not how to find Him again. For remedy of this Christ is made wisdom (Col 2:3), and He is constituted the grand Teacher of all that seek for eternal happiness.
2. Man is unrighteous, and cannot stand before a righteous God. Now, the natural man, for remedy of this, goes about to work out a righteousness of his own. But when it appears in the light of the holy law, it is nothing but as a moth-eaten garment, that cannot cover the soul before the Lord (Isa 64:7). For remedy of this Christ is made righteousness. He, by His obedience to the laws commands, and suffering the wrath it threatened, hath brought in everlasting righteousness, which is a large garment, able to cover all that betake themselves to it.
3. Man is unholy, unfit for communion with a holy God here or hereafter. The natural man, to help himself in this point, calls together his natural powers, and endeavours to turn the stream of his life into the channel of the law. Some prevail this way to the reformation of their outward conversation; but there is as much difference betwixt true holiness and their attainment as between a living body and an embalmed corpse. Others find all their endeavours to no purpose, and so they come to despair of sanctification, and therefore even lay the reins on the necks of their lusts (Jer 2:25). But for remedy in this, Christ is made sanctification. There is a fulness of the Spirit of holiness lodged in Him, to be communicated to the unholy; and to Him God sends the unholy sinner, that out of His fulness he may receive, and grace for grace.
4. Man by the fall is become liable to many bodily infirmities and miseries, and at length must go to the grave. Nature could find no remedy for this. But mans salvation cannot be complete without a remedy; therefore Christ is made redemption, who will give in due time deliverance to His people from misery and death (Rom 8:23). And in this sense He calls Himself the resurrection and the life.
II. All who are saved must be saved by virtue of union with Christ. As the stock is stay, strength, and sap, to the branches, so is Christ wisdom, &c., to those who are united to Him. The sap of the stock is not conveyed to branches that are not in it; neither is Christ wisdom, &c., to any but those who are in Him. He is the Saviour of His body; and we must be partakers of His salvation as members of His body. (T. Boston, D. D.)
Adaptedness of Christianity to mans spiritual necessities
This is a very strong evidence of its Divine character.
1. An individual is taken suddenly ill in the street. Persons gather round him, administering many things for his relief; but all is in vain. A stranger draws near, examines his symptoms, and from his case administers a medicine. Immediately he is relieved, and they all cry out, He is a doctor! His ability to make a correct diagnosis and to prescribe the proper medicine demonstrates his professional character.
2. We are all of us sinful, and suffering, and dying. Can any one provide a relief? Men have been experimenting ever since the days of Cain; the wisest and best have utterly failed. It follows, then, that if there be a provision by which we can be saved from sin, such provision must come from God.
3. We claim that in the gospel God has made such a provision, which is very comprehensively stated in our text. God is its author, Christ is its medium or agent, and wisdom, &c., are its benefits. Christ is made unto us–
I. Wisdom.
1. What is the first great need of mankind? Light; knowledge of God, of His law, of Christ, of the way of salvation, of duty and interest.
2. We have evidence of this in the general practice of Christian parents in seeking the spiritual welfare of their children, which is to impart instruction. And when our missionaries go to heathen countries, their first work is the same. And is it not a constant effort of the Church, both at home and abroad, to spread religious knowledge through the Sabbath school, the pulpit, and the religious press?
3. The gospel provides this light. Hence Jesus Christ is made unto us wisdom, by furnishing to us–
(1) The Bible. But for His mediation we should never have received it. These Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation.
(2) The institutions of the Church.
(3) The lives, activities, and instrumentalities, of Christian believers, who are the light of the world.
(4) The teachings of the Holy Spirit; His Divine illumination, His assistance enabling us to apprehend and understand the written Word.
II. Righteousness.
1. Light, in its first revealings, does not always bring comfort and hope. When we see our moral condition we discover ourselves to be lost sinners; as absolutely helpless as was a poor man once upon the rock just above the falls of Niagara. Certainly he saw and felt that if he ever regained the shore and the home of his love, it must be through some agency other than his own. And when we discover our sinfulness and helplessness, how anxiously do we inquire where help may be found!
2. Righteousness is a conformity to law. If we observe the laws of the State there is no unrighteousness in us in relation to those laws. And if we could observe the law of God, there would be no unrighteousness in us in respect to His law. It is because we have transgressed that law that we are unrighteous.
3. Being thus under condemnation, Christ rendered a perfect obedience to that law, and having thus honoured it, He submitted to its penalties in our stead. Thus Christ has wrought out a righteousness for us; He has made it possible for us to obtain the remission of our sins.
4. But if this were the extent; of the atonement, it would leave us still unrighteous in character, unconformed to the law in our motives and spirit. It was, therefore, necessary that there should be the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; so that; Jesus Christ might work a real righteousness within us.
5. If the provision were to stop here it would still fail of meeting the whole case, because we are accountable to God, and our conduct subsequent to this great exercise of mercy toward us must be in conformity with the principles and spirit of His law. We consequently need the constant help of our Lord and of the Divine Spirit.
6. And even with these helps we are not able so fully to meet tile claims of this law that we do not need constantly to depend upon the atonement.
III. Sanctification. But the regenerate have still further spiritual needs.
1. The converted man hates sin; and when he finds it in his heart he is afflicted. To him there is nothing so lovely, so precious, as holiness. How he hungers and thirsts after it! He cannot be satisfied until he realises it, any more than a famishing man can be satisfied without; food and drink. His heart, his soul, cries out for the nature and image of God!
2. Can we realise this full salvation? Yes, for He is able to do exceeding abundantly, &c. The blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin. When we are thus brought to bear the image of the heavenly–
IV. Is there still anything further needed? Yes, we still need Christ as our redemption. To redeem is to deliver from some obligation, or embarrassment, or danger, or necessity, from which a person is unable to deliver himself.
1. We are subject to affliction, and we need the presence, and power, and comfort, of Christ to enable us to stand.
2. We have many duties to perform. Who of himself is competent to work the works of our Divine Master? None of us; but, through Christ strengthening us, we can do all things, meet all our obligations to our own souls, to our fellow-men, and to God.
3. And how about the dying hour? With the Captain of our salvation with us, we can meet death with joy, accounting it a gain. (Bp. Janes.)
Christ Jesus the believers wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption
Let us–
I. Explain the words. Christ is made unto us–
1. Wisdom.
(1) As in knowing Him we know everything that is essential, and especially God, whom to know is life eternal. God in nature is God above us; God in providence is God beyond us; God in law is God against us; but God in Christ is God with us and for us.
(2) As He is the Author of our wisdom. He opens the eyes of our understandings, and, by His Spirit, leads us into all the truth. And the knowledge, which He imparts, is always distinguished by its influences and effects. Wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence, but the excellency of this wisdom is that it giveth life to them that have it.
2. Righteousness. Christ is the end of the law of righteousness, to every one that believeth.
3. Sanctification.
(1) The former is a relative thing, this is a personal. The former is the change of our state, this the change of our nature; the former is a work complete at once, but the latter is gradual, and carried on through the whole of life. But then, though these are distinguishable, they are never separate.
(2) But what is this sanctification. It must be something more than mere reformation or morality. A man cannot be sanctified indeed, unless he be moral; but he may be moral, without being sanctified. Sanctification is a transformation by the renewing of the mind; the implantation of new principles; a separation from the Spirit and course of the world, and a deliverance from the dominion and the love of sin, and a dedication of ourselves to the service and glory of God.
4. Redemption. The resurrection is called so–
(1) Because it is the effect of the Saviours purchase; for He ransomed the bodies of His people, as well as their souls.
(2) Because of the grandeur that awaits us.
II. Apply the words. If we be made of God unto us wisdom.
1. We see the state we are all in by nature. We see that we are destitute of all these things, and that, if ever we have them, we must obtain them from another.
2. We see the value and importance of the Lord Jesus.
3. We need not wonder that He should be the subject of the whole of revelation.
4. He ought to be the theme of every minister.
5. We see the wretched and dreadful state of unbelievers. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life, hath not wisdom, &c.
6. What can be so worthy of our pursuit as to seek after union and communion with Him. This was the apostles conviction–That I may win Christ, and be found in Him.
7. We learn the happiness of all those who belong to Him–or rather to whom He belongs. (W. Jay.)
Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption derived from Christ
This is one of the most comprehensive texts in the Bible. It is a short but full inventory of the invaluable blessings of the gospel; enough to make a poor sinner rich, and a miserable sinner happy.
I. Wisdom
1. Wisdom chooses the best objects, and then pursues the best means of obtaining them.
2. All wisdom is from God; but there is a peculiar and superior kind of wisdom, viz., religion (Pro 28:28); and this St. Paul terms being wise unto salvation, and James, the wisdom that is from above.
3. Christ is the original fountain of wisdom. He is wisdom itself (Pro 8:1-36.; Col 2:3); so that whatever true wisdom is found in the world is derived from Him, even as the natural sun is the source of all the light of this world. Accordingly, we find Him, by His personal ministry, diffusing wonderful light, and when He ascended into heaven He committed this work to the Holy Spirit. The natural man knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God; but, by His gracious help, they are spiritually discerned, and believers learn the mind of Christ.
4. Other kinds of wisdom have their value; yet what do they avail? I have spent my life, said a great scholar on his dying bed, I have spent my life in laborious trifling! Compared with heavenly wisdom, all literary attainments will be as a grain of sand to a mountain, or a drop of water to the ocean.
II. Righteousness, i.e., perfect conformity to the will of God. The word signifies that which is full weight or measure, the standard being Gods holy law. And is there any man thus righteous? No; there is not a just man upon earth; that is, one that doeth good, and sinneth not. Yet, without a perfect righteousness, no man can be justified. But must we, then, despair? Yes; of making ourselves righteous; but not of becoming righteous by other means, for Christ is made unto us righteousness (Rom 4:24). But do any suppose that we may therefore become careless about good works? Let them attend to the declaration that Christ is made unto us–
III. Sanctification.
1. By this we mean the renewing of our nature in the image of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the mediation of Christ.
2. Sanctification differs from justification. Justification respects the state of man; sanctification respects His nature, disposition, conduct. A man may be tried for his life, and he may be acquitted; but if he have, at the same time, a mortal disease upon him, he will die. The province of a judge and a physician are very different. Justification is the act of God as a Judge; sanctification is the work of God the Spirit as the great Physician of souls; and we find both these works united in Psa 103:3. It is also to be observed that our title to heaven is founded only on the righteousness of Christ, by which we are justified; but in sanctification consists our meetness for heaven.
3. Christ is made unto us sanctification.
(1) Because He first relieves us by His atoning sacrifice from the guilt and defilement of sin.
(2) By His intercession (Joh 17:15; Joh 17:17).
(3) By His Word–its doctrines, precepts, examples, promises, and threatenings.
(4) By union to Him.
(5) By His example.
(6) By His love, which is, of all motives to holiness, the strongest and most effectual.
IV. Redemption. If Christ be made unto us wisdom, we are delivered from the powers of darkness; if righteousness, we are redeemed from the curse of the law; if sanctification, we are delivered from the dominion of sin. In these things consists the redemption of the soul. But the redemption of the body seems to be intended; and this agrees with Rom 8:21. (G. Burder.)
Christ the believers wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption
I. I would point out to you the fountain from which all those blessings flow, that the elect of God partake of in Jesus, who of God is made unto us, the Father, He it is who is spoken of here. Not as though Jesus Christ was not God also; but God the Father is the fountain of the Deity.
II. I come to show what these blessings are which are here, through Christ, made over to the elect.
1. Christ is made to them wisdom; but wherein does true wisdom consist? Were I to ask some of you, perhaps you would say in indulging the lust of the flesh; but this is only the wisdom of brutes. Others would tell me true wisdom consisted in adding house to house; but this cannot be true wisdom, for riches often take to themselves wings, and fly away. But perhaps you despise riches and pleasure, and therefore place wisdom in the knowledge of books; but it is possible for you to tell the numbers of the stars, and call them all by their names, and yet be mere fools; learned men are not always wise. Know thyself, was a saying of one of the wise men of Greece; this is certainly true wisdom, and this is that wisdom spoken of in the text, and which Jesus Christ is made to all elect sinners. They see the necessity of closing with a Saviour, and behold the wisdom of God in appointing Him to be a Saviour; they are also made willing to accept of salvation upon our Lords own terms: thus Christ is made to them wisdom.
2. Righteousness. Christs whole personal righteousness is made over to, and accounted theirs.
3. Christ is not only made to them righteousness, but sanctification; by sanctification I do not mean a bare hypocritical attendance on outward ordinances, nor do I mean a bare outward reformation, and a few transient convictions, or a little legal sorrow; for all this an unsanctified man may have; but by sanctification I mean a total renovation of the whole man. Their understandings, which were before dark, now become light in the Lord; and their wills, before contrary to, now become one with the will of God; their affections are now set on things above; their memory is now filled with Divine things; their natural consciences are now enlightened; their members, which were before instruments of uncleanness, and of iniquity unto iniquity, are now instruments of righteousness and true holiness. But, before we enter upon the explanation and contemplation of this privilege
(1) Learn hence the great mistake of those writers and clergy who, notwithstanding they talk of sanctification and inward holiness, yet they generally make it the cause, whereas they should consider it as the effect, of our justification. For Christs righteousness, or that which Christ has done in our stead without us, is the sole cause of our acceptance in the sight of God, and of all holiness wrought in us: to this, and not to the light within, or anything wrought within, should poor sinners seek for justification in the sight of God.
(2) From hence also the Antinomians and formal hypocrites may be confuted, who talk of Christ without, but know nothing, experimentally, of a work of sanctification wrought within them.
4. Let us now go on, and take a view of the other link, or rather the end, of the believers golden chain of privileges, Redemption. But we must look very high; for the top of it, like Jacobs ladder, reaches heaven, where all believers will ascend, and be placed at the right hand of God. By the word redemption we are to understand, not only a complete deliverance from all evil, but also a full enjoyment of all good both in body and soul. (G. Whitfield, M. A.)
The fourfold treasure
I. Our spiritual existence.
1. Its origin, Of Him, i.e., as some think, through Him. Are you this day united to Christ–a stone in that building of which He is both foundation and topstone–a limb of that mystical body of which He is the head? Then you did not get there of yourself. By the grace of God I am what I am. He hath begotten us again unto a lively hope.
2. Its dignity. Being in Christ you are of God. Gods husbandry, people, children, beloved. Some have thought it a great thing to be of a princes household; but you are of the Divine family.
3. Its essence. We have no life except as we are in Christ Jesus. Out of Christ we abide in death.
II. Our spiritual wealth. Here are four things, and in the original the second and third have a peculiar connecting link. The wisdom stands alone, and the redemption, but the righteousness and sanctification have a special link, as though we should be taught that they always go together. Christ is made unto us–
1. Wisdom. The apostle had been speaking of some other wisdom which set itself up in opposition to the Cross. Now, instead of pointing to his own brain, or to the statue of Socrates or Solon, he says Christ is made of God unto us wisdom. There are those who will have it that the gospel such as was preached by Banyan, Whitefield, and Wesley, was very well for the dark times in which they lived; but that there is wanted in this intensely luminous century a more progressive theology. We are afraid that instead of bringing greater light, the advanced thinkers have made darkness worse. Christ makes us wise–
(1) By His teaching. All you want to know of God, of sin, of life, of death, of eternity, &c., Christ has either personally, or by His Spirit in the Word of God, taught you. Anything that you find out for yourself over and above revelation, is folly.
(2) By His example. You shall never be a fool if you follow Christ, except in the estimation of fools.
(3) By His presence. Let none of us ever be so foolish as to suppose that when we have received Jesus we have occasion to blush when we are in the company of the very wisest. Carry a bold face when you confront the brazen-faced philosophy which insults your Lord.
2. Righteousness. The doctrine of imputed righteousness is firmly established in the Word of God; yet it is possible to put too much stress upon imputed, and scarcely enough upon righteousness. Not only is Christs righteousness imputed to me, but it is mine actually, for Christ is mine.
3. Sanctification.
(1) Because we are in Christ we have the basis of sanctification, which consists in being set apart.
(2) The power by which we are sanctified comes to us by virtue of our union with Christ. The Holy Spirit who sanctifies us through the truth works in us by virtue of our union with Jesus.
(3) Let Jesus always be the motive for your sanctification. Is it not a strange thing that some professors should look to Christ alone for pardon and justification, and run away to Moses when they desire sanctification? The love of Christ constraineth us; not fear of hell.
4. Redemption. Somebody says: That ought to have come first; because redemption is the first blessing that we enjoy. Ay, but it is the last as well. You are not yet redeemed altogether. By price you are–but you are not yet redeemed by power. In a measure you are set free by Divine power, but there are links of the old chains yet to be snapped from off, and there is a bondage still about you from which you are ere long to be delivered. You are waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of the body. Conclusion: If all this be the case, then let all our glory be unto Him. What insanity it is to boast in any but in our Lord Jesus! How foolish are they who are proud of their wisdom, of their wealth, &c. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ the wisdom of believers
I. Because of those new and illustrious revelations which he has given to us of God. Christ is the great Teacher of God.
1. By declaration. In the course of His ministrations He did not reason concerning God. No man hath seen God at any time. Man, therefore, must darkly reason, and doubtfully infer. The only-begotten Son, who lay in the bosom of the Father, neither acquired nor made known this knowledge in that way. He hath declared Him. An instance of this declaratory mode of teaching we have in His conversation with the Samaritan woman (Joh 4:21-24). What instruction is here! What a contrast to the teachings of men!
2. By action. In His life, He was the visible image of Gods purity; in His works, of Gods power; in His condescending compassion, of Gods yearning goodness; in the freeness of His gifts, of Gods abundant grace and liberality; in His intercourse with His disciples, of Gods regard for pious humble souls; in His denunciations of judgment, of Gods justice; and in His death, the brightest and most awful demonstration was given of His holiness, justice, and love united.
II. By the views which He has given us of the moral condition of man. The sinfulness, helplessness, and danger of mankind have all been acknowledged and felt; but in what new and awful views are they placed by Christ! Sin is not a trifle. See the proof of this in the sufferings of thy Saviour. It is not in man to make atonement for sin. Behold, the Victim which God appointed was both God and man. The punishment of sin is not light. If the Substitute so suffered, what must the principal suffer, should he reject his Saviour? By those sufferings justice was satisfied, and God reconciled to man; and this light is thrown upon our condition, that, sinful, helpless, and endangered as it is, we are all invited to obtain mercy.
III. In the discoveries he has made of the nature, extent, and possibility of holiness. The foulest blot in creation is an unholy spirit. The brightest, the loveliest idea that can enter the human mind is that of moral order, and the purity of the heart. The nature of real holiness is explained to us by Christ. It is not a ceremonial holiness–the mistake of superstition. It is not merely a regulation of the heart and conduct–the mistake of philosophers. It is not a sentimental approval of what is fair and good–the mistake of men of imagination. It is the conversion of the heart to God; the renewal of the primitive image of God in man. The possibility of this is explained by Christ. Without hope there could be no effort. The agency exhibited by Christ in the accomplishment of our sanctification is equal to the effect. His Spirit is the sanctifier; and the whole process of our consecration to God is the mighty working of the Holy Ghost, with the means which He has appointed in order to that end. (R. Watson.)
Wisdom in Christ
Having Christ, believers have a key which unlocks the mysteries of Gods eternal purpose of mercy and of the present life; and knowing this eternal purpose and the eternal realities, they are able to choose their steps in life. (Prof. Beet.)
Union with Christ the only way to sanctification
Consider Rom 7:4; Joh 15:5; Gal 2:20.
I. The holiness derived from Christ. It is that disposition of heart and course of life which is conformable to Gods holy law, and pleases Him.
1. True holiness is universal in respect of the commands of God (Psa 119:6). A profane life is a sure evidence of a profane heart (Gal 5:19, &c.).
2. True holiness is not only in external duties, but necessarily includes internal obedience of the soul to the will of God (Psa 24:3).
3. In true holiness there is a bent, inclination, and propensity of heart to obedience. By Adams fall the hearts of men got a wrong set (Rom 8:7; Hos 11:7). Now, in sanctification it is bent the other way, towards God and godliness (2Th 3:5), that as the needle in the compass, touched with a good loadstone, turns towards the north, so the heart, touched by sanctifying grace, inclines Godward and Christward.
4. As the love of God is the great comprehensive duty of holiness, love is the fulfilling of the law; so love runs through all the duties of religion, to give them the tincture of holiness (Heb 6:10).
5. True holiness is influenced by the command of God. The will of God is not only the rule, but the reason of a holy life (Joh 5:30).
6. True holiness has for its chief end the glory of God (1Co 10:31). He that is the first cause of all goodness must needs be the last end of it.
7. Lastly, true holiness is universal as regards man.
(1) Mortification is universal (Gal 5:24). It is no true mortification where one lust is spared.
(2) Vivification is universal (2Co 5:17). As when the body of Christ was raised there was life put into every member; so when the soul is raised to live the life of holiness, the image of God is repaired in all its parts, and the soul embraces the whole yoke of Christ, so far as it knows the same. So that sanctification sets a man on every known duty.
II. This holiness is derived from Christ, according to the grand device of infinite wisdom for the sanctifying of an unholy world.
1. God made the first Adam holy, and all mankind was so in Him (Ecc 7:29).
2. Adam, sinning, lost the image of God, so that all mankind are naturally dead in sin.
3. Mans sanctification by himself thus being hopeless, it pleased God to constitute a Mediator, to be the head of sanctifying influences to all that should partake of them.
4. Though by the death and resurrection of Christ the sanctification of His people is infallibly insured, as the corruption of all mankind was by the fall of Adam; yet we cannot actually partake of Christs holiness till we have a spiritual being in Him, even as we partake not of Adams corruption till we have a natural being from him.
5. As Christ is the prime receptacle of the Spirit of holiness, as the head of all the saints; so the continual supplies of that Spirit are to be derived from Him for the saints progress in holiness, till they come to perfection. And faith is the great mean of communication betwixt Christ and us (Act 15:9).
III. Uses.
1. Of information. This lets us see–
(1) The absolute necessity of holiness.
(2) In vain do men attempt sanctification without coming to Christ for it.
(3) Unholiness ought not to stop a sinner from coming to Christ, more than a disease ought to hinder a man to take the physicians help, or cold from taking the benefit of the fire.
(4) True faith is the souls coming to Christ for sanctification as well as justification. For faith must receive Christ as God offers Him, and He offers Him with all His salvation. Now He is made sanctification. Wherefore the soul, being willing to take Christ with all His salvation, to be sanctified, comes to Him for it.
2. Of exhortation. Come then to Christ for sanctification, and note the following motives.
(1) If ye be not holy ye will never see heaven (Heb 12:14).
(2) Ye will never attain holiness if ye come not to Christ for it.
(a) While ye are out of Christ ye are under the curse; and is it possible for the cursed tree to bring forth the fruit of holiness?
(b) Can ye be holy without sanctifying influences, or can ye expect that these shall be conveyed to you otherwise than through a Mediator, by His Spirit?
(c) Ye have nothing wherewith to produce holiness. The most skilful musician cannot play unless his instrument be in tune. The lame man, if he were ever so willing, cannot run till he be cured. Ye are under an utter impotency, by reason of the corruption of your nature.
(d) If ye will come to Christ ye shall be made holy. There is a fulness of merit and spirit in Him for sanctification. Come then to the fountain of holiness. The worst of sinners may be sanctified this way (1Co 6:11). (T. Boston, D. D.)
Christ our righteousness
One day, as I was passing into the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at Gods right hand. There, I say, was my righteousness, so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, He wants a righteousness, for that was just before Him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame that made my righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and my irons; my temptations also fled away, so that from that time those dreadful Scriptures of God left off to trouble me. (John Bunyan.)
Christ is our sanctification
I. What is sanctification?
1. It is to be changed (2Co 3:18). Sanctification makes a great change; the judgment is changed, the disposition, the way, the company.
2. It is to be cured. Sin is the sickness of the soul. The only physician is our Lord Jesus Christ, raised up of God for that purpose; no hand but His can heal us.
3. It is to be cleansed. Sin is the pollution of the soul; and it is pollution in grain, such as nothing can wash us from but the fountain opened, and that fountain is Christ (Zec 13:1).
4. It is to be clothed. A sinful condition is a naked condition (Rev 3:17). And what must poor naked souls do, but come to Christ, to His shop, and here buy of Him white raiment (Rev 3:18; Zec 3:3-4). I clothed thee also with broidered work, &c. (Eze 16:10-14). Grace is rich raiment, princely, priestly, comely clothing, that waxeth not old.
5. It is to be consecrated. Sanctifying is the same with consecrating, that is, setting apart from common and profane to holy and spiritual uses, as persons, places, vessels, times, were under the Old Testament.
II. How is Jesus Christ made all this to us?
1. Principally by the working of His Spirit and grace. The Spirit of Christ is the Sanctifier. When He comes into the heart to dwell there, He renews, and He regenerates, and He raises, and He reconciles. It is through Jesus Christ. If He had not satisfied and died, to make God friends with us, He would never have sent the Spirit, to make us friends with Him.
2. Instrumentally by the Word, Sanctify them through Thy truth (Joh 17:17). Error never sanctifies. Truth only doth that (Jam 1:17; Tit 1:1). The Word of truth begins, and the same carries on this good work.
III. The practical improvement.
1. Shall I propound one needful question to you? Are ye sanctified? is Jesus Christ made of God sanctification to you? It is a thing that may be known. There are three marks:
(1) Where Christ is made to us sanctification, it is become natural to us to walk in all holy obedience to the will of God. I say natural, not to the old, but to the new, nature. Then, says one, I fear I am not sanctified. I reply, The trial is not to be made by any one single action at any one time, but by our course and way. How is it ordinarily with us? There is no man but doth something that beasts do; but is he therefore a beast? There is no beast but doth something that a man doth; but is he therefore a man?
(2) Where Christ is made to us sanctification, holiness is highly prized and dearly loved, and more and more of it earnestly desired. I believe it is never otherwise among the truly sanctified.
(3) Where Christ is made to us sanctification, He is owned and acknowledged as our all in all. The crown is set upon His head. To us to live is Christ.
2. I shall suppose you now propounding to me another needful question. What may I do that Christ may be made to me sanctification?
(1) We must be inwardly and thoroughly convinced that there is an absolute necessity He should be so. If we mean to please God in this world. None but the sanctified are accepted of Him, He hath no pleasure but where His image is. Our sacrifices are an abomination, our prayers an abomination, otherwise. Till the tree is good the fruit cannot be good. And also, if we mean to enjoy God in the other world. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Heb 12:14).
(2) We must apply ourselves to the Lord Jesus by faith and prayer.
(3) We must attend upon the ordinances. These are the conduit pipes through which the grace of sanctification is conveyed to poor souls.
3. What must they do to whom Christ is already made sanctification?
(1) They have cause to bless God for it every day, all their days (Psa 103:1-3).
(2) They must press after further degrees of sanctification, more and more. Dying to sin. Living to righteousness. (Philip Henry.)
Christ is our redemption
That Jesus Christ is made of God unto all men that are in Him redemption.
I. What does this mean–made redemption? He is made of God redemption to us; that is, God hath ordained and appointed Him from all eternity, and in the fulness of time raised Him up, and sent Him, to be the author and procurer of redemption for us; or, which is all one, to be a redeemer to us (Luk 1:68). Now to redeem is, in general, to recover those that are in bondage out of bondage, as the Jews were released by Cyrus out of their captivity in Babylon. Redemption, viz.
1. By power; when those who kept us in bondage are conquered and overcome.
2. By exchange; when one prisoner is let go for another.
3. By price; when a sum of money is paid to buy off a prisoner, more or less, according as the quality of the prisoner is. Now this last is properly redemption, and this last is the way in which Jesus Christ hath made us free. To this purpose we are told of a covenant of redemption which was transacted from all eternity between the Father and the Son, the terms whereof were–That if the Son would come and be man and die, that dying of His should be accepted as the price or ransom of all the elect, how many soever there were. The Son accepted of this motion, did what was to be done, suffered what was to be suffered, and so became our redemption. See some footsteps of this covenant transaction in two Scriptures (Psa 40:6-8 : Isa 49:2; Isa 49:6; Isa 49:9). But–
II. What find of redemption is this?
1. Needed redemption. It is the redemption that we needed. He came to supply all our needs. Now among other needs, being in bondage, we needed one to redeem us; not only one to clothe us, being naked; to feed us, being hungry; to wash us, being filthy; to heal us, being wounded; to cure us, being sick;–but to redeem us. If He had done all this for us in our bondage, and left us still in bondage, we had been miserable notwithstanding.
2. It is a nonsuch redemption, when compared with other redemption. Whether personal, as Joseph out of prison, or Peter (Act 12:1-25.), or Daniel out of the lions den. Whether public, as from Egypt, from Babylon. It surpasses them all in number, way, and consequences.
3. Distinguishing redemption. It is denied to the angels that sinned. The commons are ransomed, the nobles left behind. He paid no price to redeem them.
4. It is divers, manifold redemption according to the manifold evils that we lay under. They are of three sorts–temporal, spiritual, eternal.
(1) He is redemption to us from temporal evils. Such as concern the body, and the life that now is; such as sickness, death, poverty. Not that they shall not befall us, but that they shall not hurt us. The sting of them is taken out (Psa 91:10).
(2) Which is better, it is redemption to us from spiritual evils. These are worse evils than the former, because they affect the better part of us. The guilt of sin; whereby we are bound over to punishment, the fear whereof causes bondage (Heb 2:14). To redeem us from this, He is made righteousness to us for our justification. The filth and power of sin; whereby sin hath dominion over us, and we are perfect slaves to it, the vilest of slaves (Joh 8:34). To redeem us from this He is made sanctification to us.
(3) There is another sort of evils yet, and those are eternal evils; and by redemption here we are especially to understand our deliverance from those. Because it is mentioned after righteousness and sanctification as a thing different from them; and because of what we find in other Scriptures, where redemption is applied to something in the other world: Waiting for the redemption of the body (Rom 8:23), that is, the resurrection and glorification of our bodies: compare Luk 21:28 with Eph 4:30, the day of redemption.
1. What those eternal evils are which redemption frees us from.
(1) It frees us for ever, not only from the guilt, and filth, and power of sin, but from the very being of it also.
(2) It frees us from Satan ever having any more to do with us, either as a tempter or as a tormentor. He is busy now with the saved (1Pe 5:8), and he will be more busy hereafter with those that perish (Mat 18:34). But where the redeemed are he comes not (Rom 16:20).
(3) It frees us from all sorrow and suffering, of what kind soever, in mind or body (Rev 21:4).
(4) It frees us from all society with wicked and ungodly men, and that for ever. They are blended here, and it pleases neither (Psa 120:5-6). But there is a redemption coming (Mat 25:33).
2. What there is that is positive in this redemption.
(1) As soon as the redeemed die their souls immediately go to God, to the vision and fruition of Him in glory (Luk 23:43; Php 1:23).
(2) At the resurrection, at the last day, the same soul and the same body shall come together again. Though we are not redeemed from death, we are to be from the grave (Isa 26:19; Hos 13:14).
(3) To all eternity there shall be a fulness of uninterrupted joy and felicity; a remaining rest; a Sabbath without a week of working days after it, perpetual, eternal.
3. I shall show how Jesus Christ is made this to us, this future redemption. He is the purchaser of it; it was bought with His blood, bought back. We had mortgaged it for an apple, and must never have retrieved it, had not He died (Eph 1:14). He is our forerunner in it (Heb 6:20). He went thither as our attorney or proxy, to take possession of the purchase in our name and stead (Joh 14:1-2). It is He that Himself actually puts us into possession of it. At the resurrection it is His voice and trumpet that raises the dead; He is the resurrection. It is He Himself alone that is the sole object of all our future happiness; to be with Him, to see and enjoy Him, is our future redemption (Rev 21:23).
III. The improvement.
1. Then it concerns us all, by all means, to give all diligence to make sure to ourselves our interest in this redemption.
2. If Jesus Christ be made of God this redemption to you, then, in Gods name, take the comfort of it. Lift up the head and hands that hang down; Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, rejoice.
3. Then live as the redeemed of the Lord. (Philip Henry.)
Christ our sanctification
I remember a short time ago, when I was conducting a service at Oxford, a working man came into the meeting. He was the first penitent that night, and he has frequently told me since that he had been most honestly and sincerely trying for twenty years to be a true Christian, but he had failed every day and almost given up in despair when he came by accident and heard this truth–that his failure was due to the fact that he had been trying to be a Christian in his own strength. He then went into the inquiry-room, trusted in Christ, and was united with Christ, shared the life of Christ, and from that day to this he has done what he could not do for twenty years before, although he was really trying, because he was strong in the life which he shared with Christ. Are not some of us in danger of supposing that we can make ourselves better Christians, more Christlike Christians, by our own resolution, and efforts, and rules, and discipline? (Hugh Price Hughes, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus] Even the good which you possess is granted by God, for it is by and through him that Christ Jesus comes, and all the blessings of the Gospel dispensation.
Who of God is made unto us wisdom] As being the author of that evangelical wisdom which far excels the wisdom of the philosopher and the scribe, and even that legal constitution which is called the wisdom of the Jews, De 4:6.
And righteousness] , Justification, as procuring for us that remission of sins which the law could not give, Ga 2:21; Ga 3:21.
And sanctification] As procuring for and working in us, not only an external and relative holiness, as was that of the Jews, but , true and eternal holiness, Eph 4:24, wrought in us by the Holy Spirit.
And redemption] He is the author of redemption, not from the Egyptian bondage, or Babylonish captivity, but from the servitude of Satan, the dominion of sin and death, and from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, or the redemption of the body, Ro 8:21; Ro 8:23. See Whitby.
The object of the apostle is to show that man of himself possesses no good, that whatever he has comes from God, and from God only through Christ. For the different acceptations of the word righteousness the reader may consult the note on Ro 1:17, where the subject is considered in every point of view.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus; of his grace ye are implanted into Christ, and believe in him. You are of him, not by creation only, as all creatures are, but by redemption and regeneration, which is in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom; the principal means by which we come to the knowledge of God, and an acquaintance with his will; for he is the image of the invisible God, Col 1:15. The brightness of his Fathers glory, and the express image of his person, Heb 1:3. God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 2Co 4:6. So that he who hath seen him, hath seen the Father, Joh 14:9. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him, Col 2:3. And no man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him, Mat 11:27. Thus, though God destroyed the wisdom of the wise, yet the Corinthians were not without wisdom; for God had made Christ to them wisdom, both causally, being the author of wisdom to them; and objectively, their wisdom lay in their knowledge of him, and in a fellowship and conmmnion with him. And whereas they wanted a righteousness in which they might stand before God justified and accepted, God had also made Christ to them righteousness: Sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, Rom 8:3,4.
And sanctification also, believers being renewed and sanctified by his Spirit.
And he is also made redemption: where by redemption is meant the redemption of the body, mentioned Rom 8:23; so as redemption here signifies the same with resurrection of the body. Christ is the resurrection, and the life, Joh 11:25.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. But . . . yein contrastto them that “glory” in worldly wisdom and greatness.
of him arenot ofyourselves (Eph 2:8), but of Him(Ro 11:36). From Him yeare (that is, have spiritual life, who once were spiritually amongthe “things which are not.” 1Co1:28).
in Christby livingunion with Him. Not “in the flesh” (1Co 1:26;1Co 1:29).
of Godfrom God;emanating from Him and sent by Him.
is made unto ushasbeen made to us, to our eternal gain.
wisdomunattainable bythe worldly mode of seeking it (1Co 1:19;1Co 1:20; contrast Col 2:3;Pro 8:1-36; Isa 9:6).By it we become “wise unto salvation,” owing to His wisdomin originating and executing the plan, whereas once we were “fools.”
righteousnesstheground of our justification (Jer 23:5;Jer 23:6; Rom 4:25;2Co 5:21); whereas once we were”weak” (Ro 5:6).Isa 42:21; Isa 45:24.
sanctificationby HisSpirit; whereas formerly we were “base.” Hereafter ourrighteousness and sanctification alike shall be both perfect andinherent. Now the righteousness wherewith we are justified isperfect, but not inherent; that wherewith we are sanctified isinherent, but not perfect [HOOKER].Now sanctification is perfect in principle, but not in attainment.These two are joined in the Greek as forming essentially butone thing, as distinguished from the “wisdom” indevising and executing the plan for us (“abounded towardus in all wisdom,” Eph 1:8),and “redemption,” the final completion of the schemein the deliverance of the body (the position of “redemption”last shows that this limited sense is the one intended here). Luk 21:28;Rom 8:23; Eph 1:14;Eph 4:30.
redemptionwhereas oncewe were “despised.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,…. These words, as they direct to the proper object of glorying, Christ, so they show the high honour the called ones are brought to in and through Christ, and are opposed to their outward meanness, folly, weakness, poverty, and contempt. They are first of God the Father, of his own rich free grace and goodness, without any regard to any motive, merit, or desert of theirs, put into Christ by electing grace, in whom they are preserved and blessed; and which is their original secret being in him; and is made manifest by regenerating grace, by their being made new creatures; which also is not owing to their blood, or to the will of the flesh, or to the will of man, but to God and his free favour in Christ: and in consequence of their being in Christ, as their head and representative, he becomes all to them, which is here expressed;
who of God is made unto us wisdom. Though they are foolish creatures in their own and the world’s esteem, yet Christ is their wisdom; he is so “efficiently”, the author and cause of all that spiritual wisdom and understanding in divine things they are possessed of; he is so “objectively”, their highest wisdom lying in the knowledge of his person, blood, and righteousness, of interest in him, and salvation by him; with which knowledge eternal life is connected: and he is so “representatively”; he is their head, in whom all their wisdom lies; he acts for them as their wisdom to God, he is their Counsellor, their Advocate, who pleads and intercedes for them, and as their wisdom to men, and gives them a mouth and wisdom which their adversaries are not able to gainsay; and having the tongue of the learned, he speaks a word in season to themselves, when weary, distressed, and disconsolate, and for them in the court of heaven; he is their wisdom, to direct their paths, to guide them with his counsel, in the way they should go, safe to his kingdom and glory:
and righteousness. He is the “author” of righteousness; he has wrought out and brought in one for them, which is well pleasing to God, satisfying to his justice, by which his law is magnified and made honourable; which justifies from all sin, and discharges from all condemnation, is everlasting, and will answer for them in a time to come; this he has brought in by the holiness of his nature, the obedience of his life, and by his sufferings and death: and which is “subjectively” in him, not in themselves; nor does it lie in any thing wrought in them, or done by them; but in him as their head and representative, who by “imputation” is made righteousness to them; and they the same way are made the righteousness of God in him; or in other words, this righteousness, by an act of the Father’s grace, is imputed, reckoned, and accounted to them as their justifying righteousness:
and sanctification; Christ is the sanctification of his people, through the constitution of God, the imputation of the holiness of his nature, the merits of his blood, and the efficacy of his grace, he is so “federally” and “representatively”; he is their covenant head, and has all covenant grace in his hands for them, and so the whole stock and fund of holiness, which is communicated to them in all ages, until the perfection of it in every saint: this is sanctification in Christ, which differs from sanctification in them in these things; in him it is as the cause, in them as the effect; in him as its fountain, in them as the stream; in him it is complete, in them it is imperfect for the present: and they have it by virtue of union to him; sanctification in Christ can be of no avail to any, unless it is derived from him to them; so that this sanctification in Christ does not render the sanctification of the Spirit unnecessary, but includes it, and secures it: likewise Christ is the sanctification of his people “by imputation”, as the holiness of his human nature is, together with his obedience and sufferings, imputed to them for their justification; Christ assumed an holy human nature, the holiness of it was not merely a qualification for his office as a Saviour, or what made his actions and sufferings in that nature significant and useful, or is exemplary to men; but is a branch of the saints justification before God: the law required an holy nature, theirs is not holy; Christ has assumed one not for, himself, but for them, and so is the end of the law in all respects: and this may be greatly designed in the whole of this passage; “wisdom” may stand in general for the wise scheme of justification, as it is laid in Christ; “sanctification” may intend the holiness of his nature; “righteousness” the obedience of his life; and “redemption” his sufferings and death, by which it is obtained: but then justification and sanctification are not to be confounded; they are two distinct things, and have their proper uses and effects; sanctification in the saints does not justify, or justification sanctify; the one respects the power and being of sin, the other the guilt of it. Moreover, Christ is the sanctification of his people “meritoriously”; through the shedding of his blood, whereby he has sanctified them, that is, expiated their sins, and made full atonement for them; see Heb 10:10. Once more, he is their sanctification “efficiently”; by his Spirit, as the author, and by his word, as the means; he is the source of all holiness, it all comes from him, and is wrought by his Spirit in the heart; which lies in filling the understanding with spiritual light and knowledge; the mind with a sense of sin, and a detestation of it; the heart with the fear of God; the affections with love to divine objects and things; the will with submission and resignation to the will of God in all respects; and is exercised in living a life of faith on Christ, and in living soberly, righteously, and godly, before God and man: and this, though imperfect now, will be perfected from and by Christ, without which it is impossible to see the Lord:
and redemption; which he is by the appointment of his Father, being foreordained to it before the foundation of the world; and this sense of the word made will agree with every clause in the text; and he is so efficiently, having obtained eternal redemption from sin, Satan, the law, and this present evil world, for his people; and “subjectively”, it being in him, and every other blessing which is either a part of it, and comes through it, or is dependent on it, as justification, adoption, and remission of sins. Moreover, this may have respect not only to redemption past, which is obtained by Christ; but to that which draws near, the saints are waiting for, and to which they are sealed up by the Spirit of God; even their redemption and deliverance from very being of sin, from all sorrow and sufferings, from death and the grave, and everything that is afflicting and distressing.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Of him ( ). Out of God. He chose you.
In Christ Jesus ( ). In the sphere of Christ Jesus the choice was made. This is God’s wisdom.
Who was made unto us wisdom from God ( ). Note , became (first aorist passive and indicative), not , was, the Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection. Christ is the wisdom of God (Co 2:2f.) “both righteousness and sanctification and redemption” ( ), as is made plain by the use of —-. The three words (, , ) are thus shown to be an epexegesis of (Lightfoot). All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ Jesus. We are made righteous, holy, and redeemed in Christ Jesus. Redemption comes here last for emphasis though the foundation of the other two. In Ro 1:17 we see clearly Paul’s idea of the God kind of righteousness () in Christ. In Ro 3:24 we have Paul’s conception of redemption (, setting free as a ransomed slave) in Christ. In Ro 6:19 we have Paul’s notion of holiness or sanctification () in Christ. These great theological terms will call for full discussion in Romans, but they must not be overlooked here. See also Acts 10:35; Acts 24:25; 1Thess 4:3-7; 1Cor 1:2.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
The last three terms illustrate and exemplify the first – wisdom. The wisdom impersonated in Christ manifests itself as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. 79 For dikaiosunh righteousness, see on Rom 1:17. For aJgiasmov sanctification, on Rom 6:19. For ajpolutrwsiv redemption, Rom 3:24.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus.” (Greek eks autou de) “out of Him indeed” – (humeis este en Christo iesou) “ye are in Christ Jesus.” The origin, source, or fountain from which salvation comes is God in Christ Jesus, Jon 2:9; Act 4:11-12.
2) “Who of God is made unto us wisdom.” (hos
egenethe) “who became” (Greek sophia hemin apo theou) “wisdom to us from God.” Joh 14:6; Mat 12:42; Mat 13:54; Luk 2:20; Mar 6:2.
3) “And righteousness.” (te dikaiosune) “And even, or also righteousness,” 2Co 5:21; Rom 3:25-26; 2Co 9:9.
4) “And sanctification and redemption.” (kai hagiasmos kai apolutrosis) “And sanctification and redemption.” In His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus became all these things on behalf of the believer, Rom 3:24; 1Pe 1:18-19; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Heb 9:14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
30. Of him are ye. Lest they should think that any of those things that he had said were inapplicable to them, he now shows the application of those things to them, inasmuch as they are not otherwise than of God For the words ye are are emphatic, as though he had said — “You have your beginning from God, who calleth those things which are not, ” (Rom 4:17,) passing by those things that appear to be; and your subsistence is founded upon Christ, and thus you have no occasion to be proud. Nor is it of creation merely that he speaks, but of that spiritual existence, into which we are born again by the grace of God.
Who of God is made unto us As there are many to be found who, while not avowedly inclined to draw back from God, do nevertheless seek something apart from Christ, as if he alone did not contain all things (100) in himself, he reckons up in passing what and how great are the treasures with which Christ is furnished, and in such a way as to intimate at the same time what is the manner of subsistence in Christ. For when he calls Christ our righteousness, a corresponding idea must be understood — that in us there is nothing but sin; and so as to the other terms. Now he ascribes here to Christ four commendatory titles, that include his entire excellence, and every benefit that we receive from him.
In the first place, he says that he is made unto us wisdom, by which he means, that we obtain in him an absolute perfection of wisdom, inasmuch as the Father has fully revealed himself to us in him, that we may not desire to know any thing besides him. There is a similar passage in Col 2:3 —
In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Of this we shall have occasion to speak afterwards when we come to the next chapter.
Secondly, he says that he is made unto us righteousness, by which he means that we are on his account acceptable to God, inasmuch as he expiated our sins by his death, and his obedience is imputed to us for righteousness. For as the righteousness of faith consists in remission of sins and a gracious acceptance, we obtain both through Christ.
Thirdly, he calls him our sanctification, by which he means, that we who are otherwise unholy by nature, are by his Spirit renewed unto holiness, that we may serve God. From this, also, we infer, that we cannot be justified freely through faith alone without at the same time living holily. For these fruits of grace are connected together, as it were, by an indissoluble tie, (101) so that he who attempts to sever them does in a manner tear Christ in pieces. Let therefore the man who seeks to be justified through Christ, by God’s unmerited goodness, consider that this cannot be attained without his taking him at the same time for sanctification, or, in other words, being renewed to innocence and purity of life. Those, however, that slander us, as if by preaching a free justification through faith we called men off from good works, are amply refuted from this passage, which intimates that faith apprehends in Christ regeneration equally with forgiveness of sins.
Observe, on the other hand, that these two offices of Christ are conjoined in such a manner as to be, notwithstanding, distinguished from each other. What, therefore, Paul here expressly distinguishes, it is not allowable mistakenly to confound.
Fourthly, he teaches us that he is given to us for redemption, by which he means, that through his goodness we are delivered at once from all bondage to sin, and from all the misery that flows from it. Thus redemption is the first gift of Christ that is begun in us, and the last that is completed. For the commencement of salvation consists in our being drawn out of the labyrinth of sin and death; yet in the meantime, until the final day of the resurrection, we groan with desire for redemption, (as we read in Rom 8:23.) If it is asked in what way Christ is given to us for redemption, I answer — “Because he made himself a ransom.”
In fine, of all the blessings that are here enumerated we must seek in Christ not the half, or merely a part, but the entire completion. For Paul does not say that he has been given to us by way of filling up, or eking out righteousness, holiness, wisdom, and redemption, but assigns to him exclusively the entire accomplishment of the whole. Now as you will scarcely meet with another passage of Scripture that more distinctly marks out all the offices of Christ, you may also understand from it very clearly the nature and efficacy of faith. For as Christ is the proper object of faith, every one that knows what are the benefits that Christ confers upon us is at the same time taught to understand what faith is.
(100) “ Toute plenitude;” — “All fulness.” (Col 1:19.)
(101) The reader will find the same train of thought as above in the Institutes, volume 2. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(30) But.So far from boasting in His presence, we all owe all to Him. He is the author of the spiritual life of us who are in union with Christ, who was (not is) made wisdom unto us from God. The past tense here refers us back to the fact of the Incarnation; in it Christ became to us Gods revelation of Himself, thus giving us a wisdom from the source of all wisdom, which surpasses utterly any wisdom we could have derived from nature or from man. Not only is Christ the source of whatever true wisdom we have, but also (so adds the Apostle) of whatever righteousness and holiness we havespiritual gifts, as well as gifts of knowledge, come all from Himand beyond all that, He is also our redemption, the ransom paid for us, by which we are redeemed from the bondage and slavery of sin. (See Joh. 8:34; Rom. 6:18; Rom. 6:20; Rom. 8:21; Rom. 8:23; 1Pe. 1:18-19.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
30. Of him Paul now shows how the Corinthian Christians are identified with the real and the permanent. The true reading, rightly translated, is, From him ye are in Christ Jesus. Being incorporated into Christ, they are sharers in his being and triumph. Who has become unto us wisdom Christ is our sophia; our substitute for the Greek philosophy. On 1Co 2:6-16 our apostle will fully explain the nature of this Christian sophia. Righteousness, and sanctification These two words are, in the Greek, closely conjoined as two parts of the same work; justification as the negative, and sanctification as the positive, side. Redemption embraces Christ’s whole work of rescue from sin, even to glorification. The whole verse shows how in Christ the believer is triumphant over this world’s wisdom and greatness.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who has become to us wisdom from God, even righteousness, sanctification and redemption. That according as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord”.’
Having stressed their lowliness Paul now points out their glorious state ‘in Christ’. In Him they have all the riches of God. In Him they belong to God and are born of God. They are ‘of Him’, that is, of God. (Note that in the phrase ‘Of Him are you’ – ‘are you’ is stressed). And because they are ‘of Him’, His own reborn children, His treasured possession, they are ‘in Christ Jesus’ Who has become to them the wisdom of God and wisdom from God. That is, He through His action and power has brought about what God’s wisdom knew to be best, and what God in His wisdom purposed, and indeed knew was the only way. That is, that through His death and resurrection, and the power of His Spirit, Christ Jesus Himself would become their righteousness, their sanctification and their redemption.
‘Who has become to us — righteousness, sanctification and redemption.’ This primarily refers to the first work wrought on the believer to make him acceptable in God’s sight, the work that takes place when he believes. He becomes as one who is accounted righteous with the righteousness of Christ (2Co 5:21), as one who is set apart for God in Christ (Joh 17:19; Act 26:18; Eph 5:26) and as one freed from sin by the payment of a price, the price of His death (Mar 10:45; 1Pe 1:18-19). But with God it can never stop there. The final result must be that they will become truly righteous, that they will become holy as God is holy, and that they will reveal that redemption by demonstrating that they are God’s true and fully delivered sons, delivered from the power of sin, for that will be the result of the effectual working of His power. So what Christ imputes to them He will certainly also impart to them.
‘Righteousness.’ Through what He has done for them on the cross they are counted as righteous and acceptable in the sight of a just God (Rom 3:26), being freely declared righteous through His grace (Rom 3:24), as a result of the response of faith (Rom 3:28). God’s gracious favour is the means, faith the channel. ‘For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him’ (2Co 5:21). And what greater righteousness can there be than the righteousness of God in Christ?
‘Sanctification.’ This is why they are sanctified, and sanctified ones (see on 1Co 1:2), because Christ is made unto them sanctification. In His holiness they are accepted as holy. In His being set apart as God’s alone, they are set apart as God’s alone. In His being sacred to God, they are sacred to God. In His being God’s treasured possession, they are God’s treasured possession (compare 1Pe 2:9). For they are ‘in Him’, united with Him in His body so that what is His is theirs. Yet being so united can only finally result in their being made truly holy (1Th 4:3-8; Heb 2:10-11; Heb 10:14) and zealous of good works (Tit 2:14).
‘Redemption.’ Redemption means being released by the payment of a price, here with the emphasis of freedom from the slavery of sin. In the Old Testament redemption signified the delivering of His people by God through the exercise of His power, and it would finally result in another Eden. In the New Testament ‘redemption through His blood’ brings the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14). That is the price paid, for He is the One Who gave His life a ransom for many (Mar 10:45; 1Pe 1:18-19). So being redeemed from transgressions through His death provides the promise of an eternal inheritance (Heb 9:15). This redemption is a present redemption achieved through the cross. They have been bought out from under sin. In Him they are a delivered people, for He is their redemption, both in the price paid and the power exercised. But this also looks forward to the final redemption when they will finally be delivered from all sin, and from every ill (Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30; Rom 8:23).
No better picture of this can be found than the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the journey through the wilderness, extended because of weakness, and the final (if idealistic) triumphant entry into Canaan.
Some see ‘wisdom from God’ as meaning that He is the personification of Old Testament wisdom (e.g. Proverbs 8), but if this be so it is surely secondary, for the Greek construction separates wisdom from righteousness, sanctification and redemption, suggesting that the latter arise from the former, and the context thus suggests that saving wisdom is in mind, the wisdom revealed through the effectiveness of the preaching of the cross which results in righteousness, sanctification and redemption in Christ. ‘Wisdom’ may guide men’s lives, but it does not save them. Only God’s wisdom does that through God’s means.
Others see righteousness, sanctification and redemption as indicating a process. First believers are accounted righteous, then they experience sanctification, and finally they are redeemed at the final redemption. But the usage in 1 Corinthians favours the seeing in the nouns a description of the once-for-all work of Christ on those who believe. All Christians have been declared righteous (1Co 6:11; Rom 3:24-28), all are now ‘sanctified ones’ (1Co 1:2; 1Co 6:11), all have been ‘bought with a price’ from under the slavery of sin (1Co 6:20). But the idea is right in that this initial work then begins a continuing work which results in a process of being made righteous, of experiencing salvation, of experiencing the power of redemption, and then comes to completion in being finally made righteous, in being finally made holy, and in final redemption being fulfilled (Eph 5:27; Col 1:22; Jud 1:24).
‘As it is written.’ Again indicating a quotation from Scripture as the abiding word of God.
‘That according as it is written, “He who glories (or ‘boasts’), let him glory (or ‘boast’) in the Lord.” ’ This is a summarised rendering of Jer 9:23-24. Christians are sometimes called conceited because they claim to have eternal life, to be going to ‘Heaven’, to be righteous in God’s eyes. But they do this, if they are behaving as true Christians, (and, alas, sometimes we do not), because they are humbly glorying in the Lord and what He has done for them. They know they have no merit of their own, that all that is theirs is through Christ. And they glory in Him, yes, boast in Him, and want others to glory in Him too.
But while one purpose of Paul in citing this here is to demonstrate that Christians glory in the Lord because of what Christ has been made to them, he also intends his readers to recognise that therefore neither they, nor those who minister to them, have anything to glory in except this. They do not glory in ministers of the Gospel, they do not glory in any privileged position they may have, they glory in Christ alone. For He alone can save, and all attention must therefore be on Him, that men may see Jesus only. This will be the theme of what follows.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 1:30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus “For, on the whole, all that we have that is worth mentioning we receive from Christ; and we receive it from him as the gift of God, since it is of him; and his free mercy and grace, that ye are called to share in the blessings given by Christ Jesus his Son. He exhibits this blessed Saviour to us, and disposes our hearts to accept of him; Who, amidst our ignorance and folly, is made of God unto us a source of wisdom; and through him, guilty as we are, we receive righteousness or justification; polluted as we are, we obtain sanctification, and, enslaved as we naturally are, to the power of lusts, and the dominion of Satan, the faithful obtain by him complete redemption.” See Doddridge. As the conversion of the Corinthians, to whom this and the followingEpistle are addressed, is a fact of a peculiar nature, and one which affords a striking testimony to the truth of our holy religion, we shall here subjoin an Essay instead of Inferences.
Essay.A very masterly writer has proved, that the conversion and the apostleship of St. Paul, alone, is of itself a sufficient demonstration to prove Christianity to be a divine revelation. And I cannot but think, that the conversion of the Corinthians is another strong proof of the truth of our religion. We have the greatest reason to believe that God did perform the promise which he made to this great Apostle, when he said, I am with thee. For if we duly consider the condition of St. Paul, the nature of the doctrine which he taught, and the manner in which he delivered it, we shall be ready to conclude, that the success which he had in preaching the Gospel at Corinth must be ascribed to the divine power.
Without supposing St. Paul to be mad, (a supposition too gross for a man of sense to make) we cannot conceive how he could hope, without God’s extraordinary assistance, to convince the people of Corinth that they were in error. He went a stranger thither, unknown to any person there, unless he was before acquainted with Aquila and Priscilla. With these two banished Jews, who were of the same occupation with himself, he worked for his livelihood. His bodily presence was no recommendation of him; for he himself acknowledges, that he was with them in weakness of body, and in much fear and trembling. And he has informed us, that the Corinthians did in fact object to him, that his bodily presence was weak, and his speech contemptible. What they said of his person was true, if we may believe the ancients, who inform us that his stature was low, his body crooked, and his head bald. And it is not improbably conjectured by Dr. Whitby, that a stammering in his speech, or a squeaking shrillness in his voice, or some other infirmity in his speech in teaching, rendered him contemptible in the eyes of some of the Corinthians. He was a base and contemptible person, they said, and one who lived by his labour. Nay, some affirmed that he was mad or beside himself. He himself has declared, that he was made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men; that he was laughed at for Christ’s sake; that he was weak, despised; that he both hungered and thirsted, was naked, buffeted, and had no certain dwelling-place; that he worked with his own hands, labouring unto weariness; that he was reviled, persecuted, defamed, made as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things: was a man of St. Paul’s character a likely person to convert the richest and most flourishing city in Greece, a city filled with orators, philosophers, and banished Jews; a city above all others infamous for lewdness? Every unprejudiced person, I should think, will grant, that nothing can be more improbable; especially if it be considered what kind of doctrine he taught the Corinthians.
Without having the fullest assurance that God was with him, he could never hope to persuade the proud and vain philosophers, who depended wholly upon human reason, and would admit nothing for truth but what was demonstrable by it, to give their assent to the articles of our most holy faith. He was sure to meet with the utmost opposition when he endeavoured to persuade these wise men to admit for certain truths things above their reason. They were so fully persuaded of the sufficiency of that reason as to think that they could account for every thing. A poor obscure mechanic, therefore, a person who was of a nation which the rest of mankind despised and hated, could never hope to persuade them in a natural way by reasoning and disputation, to embrace for certain truths many points which were above the reach of human understanding,several things which they had not so much as thought or dreamed of. When this Jewish tent-maker informed them, that when all mankind were concluded under sin, and knew not how to be absolved from the guilt of it, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, came down from heaven, for us men, and for our salvation; was miraculously conceived, was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man,he delivered to them nothing but the truth. But these wise men knew nothing of Jesus Christ, nor of the Holy Ghost; neither could they conceive how a man could be born of a pure virgin. St. Paul, therefore, could not have persuaded them by any human means that all this was true; for these wise men of the world, these wise men according to the flesh, (as the Apostle styles them) admitted of no higher principle to judge of things by, but philosophy, and demonstration from the principles of natural reason. And therefore he must needs think it an impossible thing, without God’s special assistance, to persuade them to believe him to be God, who was born of a pure virgin; to adore him, whose mother was a poor Jewish woman espoused to a carpenter; to pay divine honour to him who was supposed to be a carpenter by trade; to believe him who died, and was buried, to be God blessed for ever; by whom all things were created that are in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones and dominions, or principalities and powers; in a word, to acknowledge him for their Lord and Master, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate between two thieves. Not only in St. Paul’s days, but for a long time after, the doctrine of Christ’s crucifixion was foolishness. In the days of Lactantius, Christians were reckoned a silly and contemptible people for following a crucified Master and Leader. Arnobius acquaints us, that the heathens said, the gods were not angry with Christians because they worshipped the Omnipotent Deity, but because in their daily prayers they adored a man that was born, and suffered the infamous death of the cross; and because they contended that he was God, and believed him to be yet alive. In another place he informs us, that they asked these questions: If Christ was God, why did he die as a man? Who was it that was seen hanging upon the cross? Who was it that died?”The wise men of the world insult over us,” says St. Austin, “and ask, where is your understanding, who worship him for a god, who was crucified?” And in the days of Athanasius, when the Gentiles were told by the Christians, that their images were but silver and gold, the work of men’s hands; in opposition to this reproach they answered, that the doctrine of the cross was foolishness. “The Greeks laugh at this mystery as foolishness,” says Theophylact, “because by faith alone, and not by syllogisms and reasonings, it is found that God was crucified.” The same author informs us, that there were some unbelievers at Corinth who made a jest of the cross, and said, Truly it is a folly to preach a crucified God. For had he been God, he would have defended himself at the time of his crucifixion. But how could he rise from the dead, who could not prevent his own death? They accounted the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead as ridiculous and absurd a tenet as was ever held, and made it matter of their sport and jest. To raise a body that was perfectly dead, and restore it to life again, was not in the power of any being in the world, they said. But suppose it was possible, yet they did not account it a thing worthy of God to raise dead bodies to be united to the souls of good men. Their chief objection against the resurrection of the flesh, and of the body, was this; that the body was the prison and sepulchre of the soul, and that it was her punishment to be tied to it; that the body was the great hindrance to the knowledge of the truth, and that we could not be truly happy till by death we were delivered from it. It was therefore judged by them, as Dr. Whitby informs us, not only an impossible, but even an unjust, unworthy thing, for God to raise these bodies, to be united to those souls whose happiness consisted in being delivered from the body, and whose punishment it was to be confined to it; that being, according to their philosophy, not to make them live, but die again. And therefore Celsus says, The hope of the resurrection of the flesh is the hope of worms, a filthy, abominable, and impossible thing, which God neither will nor can do. He cannot do what is vile, neither will he do what is against nature. And Origen expressly declares, that the doctrine of the resurrection was a mystery which the unbelievers laughed at, and made a jest of. So many, such great and formidable obstacles, the Apostle could not but expect to meet with from the philosophers.
And he was sure to meet with as great opposition from the magistrates, who would suffer no innovation in the theology established by law. Had he contented himself with confuting the Jews only, I believe he would have given no offence to the civil power: but when he attempted to demonstrate the absurdity of the religion of the heathen, he must be very sensible that they would be greatly alarmed. How furiously must they be enraged when he endeavoured to alter their religious rites, the ancient usages, the agreeable and pleasing customs of their country? What an abhorrence must they have of him, when he taught them, that the objects of their worship were not gods; that an idol was nothing in the world but a senseless piece of matter? Could any thing be more shocking to the Corinthians than to hear a poor mechanic affirm, that what they worshipped were no gods, and that they ought to admit Jesus Christ for their Lord and their God? When Plato was in Sicily he brought himself into the greatest danger by endeavouring to render virtue amiable. If a barbarian had not been more humane than the Sicilian tyrant, the philosopher would probably have spent the remainder of his days in servitude in a strange country, only for making some innovations in political affairs. He did not so much as attempt to destroy the gods of Sicily, as St. Paul did those of Corinth. Nay, the Apostle did not only affirm that what they worshipped were no gods, but that his countryman Jesus, who had been crucified as a malefactor, was God blessed for ever. And must not such a doctrine be highly provoking to the Corinthians?
Anaxagoras, who was the first of the Greeks that taught this theology,that not the sun, but the Creator of it, was God, was accounted an atheist by a people who had made the utmost improvement of their parts, and was in the utmost danger of being stoned to death. The same Athenians expelled Protagoras of Abdera from their city, and caused his works to be burnt, because he spoke, as they thought, disrespectfully of the gods. They likewise banished Diagoras, and promised a talent for a reward to him that should slay him, because he denied that there was a God, or rather only set at nought the idols and false gods of his time. The great Socrates, prince of the philosophers, being suspected of holding bad opinions of the gods, was condemned to die by drinking a potion of hemlock. And if a bare suspicion of innovation brought the philosophers into so much danger; if persons so greatly renowned for their wisdom and understanding could not effect what they designed; can we account, in a natural way, for the success of our Apostle, who was so far from being held in admiration, as the philosophers whom I have mentioned were, that he was despised upon the account of his nation, his person, his mean occupation, and rudeness of speech?
Plato was greatly admired by his countrymen, and very justly. And yet he himself confessed, that he durst not, consistent with his own security, discover his opinion of God to the folly of the multitude. Was it not as dangerous for St. Paul to discover to the Corinthians his notions, which were far more noble and exalted than those of Plato?
The philosophers and magistrates were not the only powerful adversaries whom St. Paul had to encounter at Corinth. He could not but expect to meet with a very strong opposition from the priests, the augurs, diviners, statuaries, and many others whose interest it was that the superstitious religion of their ancestors should be continued. All these would undoubtedly be as full of wrath, and raise as great an uproar against St. Paul, as Demetrius the silversmith, and the workmen of like occupation did, when they heard him persuade the people, that they are no gods which are made with hands. In a word, a man of his good sense, great penetration, foresight, and experience, could not but expect to be accounted and treated as one who turned the world upside down, a blasphemer of their gods, and consequently a subverter of the whole frame of their religion.
As the Apostle was sure of the greatest repugnance, when he taught the Corinthians what they were to believe; so he must expect to meet with the utmost opposition, when he endeavoured to persuade them to set about the reformation and amendment of their lives: when he commanded them to flee fornication; when he taught them, that every other sin that a man doth is without the pollution of the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against and polluteth his own body; when he forbade them to eat with any brother who is a fornicator, and declared that God would pronounce the sentence of condemnation upon whoremongers and adulterers,He could not but foresee that the Corinthians would be averse to his doctrine: For Corinth was above all other cities, even to a proverb, infamous for fornication and lasciviousness. How then was it possible for the Apostle, without the help of God, to convince so debauched and lascivious a people, that fornication and uncleanness ought not to be named among them, being crimes of a most destructive nature? Or how could he hope for success when he informed them, that neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, were to be named among them? Or when he acquainted them, that at the day of judgment men were to give an account of every idle word which they had spoken? Or when he declared, that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause, shall be in danger of the judgment? Or when he told them, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart? Lastly, how could he in a natural way prevail upon a people who were proud and ambitious, debauched and intemperate, revengeful and envious, contentious and litigious, to embrace a religion which taught humility, sobriety, temperance, the forgiving of injuries, love, charity, moderation, meekness, and universal benevolence? We are all of us very sensible what a difficult matter it is to persuade men to become in love with holiness and virtue, who have been long accustomed to a vicious course of life. Even persons who know the terrors of the Lord, who are fully persuaded and do sincerely believe, that a dreadful day will come when they must give a strict account of all their actions, are, with great difficulty, reclaimed from the error of their way, if their sins have had the growth of many years; (though nothing is too hard for grace, when submitted to:) and if old habitual sinners, who really believe the Gospel in speculation, and consequently expect to be judged for their actions, are seldom, or with great difficulty, reformed; how will an unbeliever account for the Apostle’s persuading the Corinthians to lay aside such practices as they thought indifferent and innocent; such practices as were pleasant and agreeable to depraved mankind? How will he account for his convincing them that their most sacred and religious solemnities were the greatest abominations?
Having shewn what obstacles St. Paul must necessarily meet with at Corinth from the Gentiles; I shall now inquire what opposition he might expect from the unbelieving Jews, who inhabited this city, when he undertook that glorious work of converting them from darkness to light, of giving knowledge of salvation to them, for the remission of their sins.
When he went to Corinth, the city was full of Jews, whom the emperor Claudius had expelled from Rome. They were as bitter enemies as the Gentiles to the Christian religion, and the preachers of it; and they hated St. Paul much more than the rest of the apostles, because all on a sudden, from being a violent persecutor of the disciples of the crucified Jesus, and making havoc of his church, he gave a convincing proof of the power of grace, by becoming one of the most zealous propagators of his religion. A people so much prejudiced against him, must be, nay, were in fact greatly incensed, when they heard him persuade men to worship God in a manner different from what their law required. What a hatred must they have of him who abolished circumcision? How could our Apostle hope for success, in a natural way, when he preached such a doctrine to a people, who had read in one of their inspired books, that God had threatened that the soul should be cut off which neglected this rite? How, without the assistance of God, could he, who taught such a doctrine, ever think of making converts of Jews, whose religion was so much corrupted at our Saviour’s coming into the world, that they held, “that circumcision was a sufficient virtue to render them accepted of God, and to preserve them from eternal ruin: that no circumcised person goes to hell, God having promised to deliver them from it, for the merit of circumcision, and having told Abraham that when his children fell into transgression and did wicked works, he would remember the merit of their circumcision, and would be satisfied with their piety?” They were prejudiced against several other doctrines that he taught, which they imagined derogated from the perfection and honour of their law. Such was the doctrine of making the visible church universal by receiving the Gentiles to the privileges of the true church without submitting to the ritual law, and not being justified by the works of the law, but by faith in the Messiah. They were prejudiced in favour of their law, as unchangeable and eternal; or as the necessary means of justifying a sinner before God. Without the interposition of God, the Apostle could never hope to persuade them who had been informed in their sacred books that the Messiah was to have an everlasting kingdom, a throne for ever and everThat he should be great unto the ends of the earth, and was to abide for ever, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the preserved of Israel; to have a portion divided him with the great, and to divide the spoil with the strong; to have dominion and glory, and a kingdom; that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; that his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.Without the divine aid, I say, the Apostle could never hope to persuade the Jews who expected such a triumphant Messiah, in the carnal natural sense of the words, to believe that Jesus was the Christ, who had suffered that death which by the law was counted execrable. The crucifixion of Christ, as the Apostle himself has informed us, was unto the Jews a stumbling-block. And in Justin Martyr, Trypho the Jew says, “Your Jesus having by this fallen under the extremest curse of the law of God, we cannot but sufficiently admire that you should expect any good from God, who place your hopes in a man that was crucified; for our law styles every one that is crucified accursed.” And Theophylact informs us, that the Jews objected; “How can he be God who did eat and drink with publicans and harlots, and was at last crucified with thieves?” See on 1Co 1:22-24.
To all that has been said I may still further add, that the danger which attended the profession of Christianity, might deter both Jew and Gentile from embracing it. A man no sooner became a Christian than he exposed himself to all the miseries that human nature is capable of suffering. Had our Apostle therefore made use of all the eloquence he was master of, yet had not God been with him, he could not have persuaded the Corinthians to become Christians. But he preached the Gospel in the most plain and simple manner, to as wicked and debauched a people as any in the world: he delivered the most pure and heavenly doctrine, the strictest and severest precepts, that had ever been taught mankind; and yet he confounded the mighty and the noble, and gained a victory over their orators and philosophers. I concluded, therefore, that this success must be attributed not to a natural, but divine cause, and, consequently, that the Gospel is the word of truth.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The Apostle opens his Epistle, 1. With an assertion of his apostolic character; which some among them affected to traduce and vilify, as if he had assumed an honour to which he was in no wise entitled. He affirms, therefore, the divine authority upon which he acted; not self-constituted, but called of Jesus Christ to the high honour and important charge of apostleship. And Sosthenes, a fellow-minister, joins him in affectionate salutations. Note; There are times when, to vindicate our real character and magnify our office is not pride, but a debt that we owe to the church of God.
2. He addresses himself to the church of God at Corinth, as to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, separated by his grace from the world which lieth in wickedness, and incorporated in his name; called to be saints, justly so denominated, and proving by their conduct the propriety of the name they bore; with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their’s and our’s, in whom we have a joint interest, and are all one in him. Note; (1.) All who profess the name of Jesus, are called to prove their relation to him by the holiness of their walk. (2.) Since Christ is proposed to us as the object of our worship, he must needs be very God. (3.) The life of a Christian is an habitual course of calling upon God. To live without prayer is the surest mark of a Christless soul.
3. He gives them his apostolical benediction. Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.Grace, the source of every blessing, and peace with a reconciled God through Jesus Christ. Note; (1.) Every mercy that a sinner enjoys in time, or hopes for in eternity, flows purely from the free and boundless grace of God in Jesus Christ (2.) All solid peace of conscience can only arise from a sense of God’s favour and reconciliation through the Redeemer.
4. He thanks God on their account for the graces and gifts which were bestowed upon them. I thank my God (and blessed and happy are they who can call him so) always on your behalf, (so constantly did he feel a tender concern for them upon his heart) for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, as the great Head of his believing people, to whom they are united, and from whom, as the fountain of vital influence, they draw continual supplies of strength and consolation. And as he charitably hoped the generality of them were partakers of the grace of God in truth, he had also another cause for thankfulness, because in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, endued with clear views of that rich salvation which is in a crucified Jesus, and capable of expressing themselves on the subject with singular fluency of speech and energy of diction, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, the Holy Ghost giving the fullest demonstration to their consciences of the truth of that Gospel which was preached unto them; so that ye come behind in no gift, in nothing inferior to any church which had been planted, in these distinguished gifts of the Spirit; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the declarations of his word, which they had heard and embraced, preparing to meet him, and with patient but joyful expectation, looking for the day of his appearing. Note; They who are Christians indeed, cannot but rejoice in the prospect, that, when Christ who is their hope shall appear, then the faithful also shall appear with him in glory.
5. The Apostle professes his confidence in them, that they will not swerve from the hope of the Gospel: Who shall also confirm you unto the end, in faith and holiness, enabling you to persevere, if you continue to cleave to him, unshaken amidst all your trials, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, being found complete in him, and then transformed wholly into his image: for, he adds, God is faithful to all his promises, and will assuredly do his part, if we do ours: by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
2nd, One chief end of St. Paul’s writing this Epistle appears to have been, the healing of those divisions of which he had been informed. He therefore,
1. Exhorts them to union among themselves; in sentiment and affection to have their hearts knit together, avoiding, as the most dangerous rock, those disputes and divisions which must be the bane of Christian love, and could not but end in the ruin of the church.
And he urges this by the most powerful motive, even by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; not only as one authorized to enjoin this upon them, but suggesting that the very mention of the endearing name of Jesus should silence every jar, and fill their souls with love to him and one another. Note; Internal divisions among the members of Christ have more wounded his cause than all the external attacks of earth or hell.
2. He informs them whence he received his information of those evils which he so justly condemns; and solemnly remonstrates against their making so ill a use of his name, as well as of his brethren, to range themselves in different parties; while some said, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, or Peter, depreciating the one and exalting the other; as if it mattered aught by whose instrumentality they were converted to the faith: whilst others, as if above all means and instruments, boasted, I am of Christ, and so immediately under the teachings of his Spirit as to need no other instructor. But how absurd were these pretensions, and how dangerous these discords! Is Christ divided? so as to act separately from the means of his own appointment? or can there be the least sort of division between him and those who act by his authority? and with whom he has promised to be to the end of the world? or can his church, which is his body, and one with him, be disjointed, and his members subsist separately from each other, without infinite injury? Surely, no. And as for those ministers, under whose names you range yourselves, let me ask, applying it to myself, Was Paul crucified for you? Did I, or my brethren, ever pretend that we were your saviours? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul, by my authority, as my disciples, professing your faith in me, or obedience to my service? God forbid. Neither I, nor my fellow-labourers, ever taught you to hope for any other atonement than in a crucified Jesus, nor baptized you in any other name than his. I thank God, since this matter has been so abused by many of you, that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say, that I had baptized in mine own name, and sought to set myself at the head of a party. I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. Note; A faithful minister of Christ rejects with abhorrence all attempts to set him at the head of a party, solicitous only that his Master should be glorified, and jealous above all things never to rob him of his peculiar honours.
3rdly, Having vindicated himself from every insinuation that he designed to form a party by baptizing disciples, he disclaims every attempt to aggrandize himself by the manner in which he preached the Gospel unto them. For, says he, Christ, from whom immediately I received my commission, sent me not to baptize as my principal business; but to preach the Gospel, according to the revelation made known unto me; and he informs them,
1. Of the manner in which he preached,not with wisdom of words, with affected flourishes of oratory, or to gratify philosophic pride, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect, the simple truth of a crucified Jesus should be obscured, its efficacy defeated, its honour tarnished, and the success be ascribed, not to the divine simplicity and native force of the truth, but to the art and eloquence of those who preached the Gospel. Note; Though eloquence, without ostentation, is both lawful and laudable, yet, as Luther says, he is the best preacher that can speak the most familiarly, and suits his discourse best to the capacity and understanding of the hearer, more solicitous to be understood than to be admired.
2. Of the effects of his preaching. For the preaching of the cross, and the great salvation obtained by the blood-shedding of the Redeemer on the ignominious tree, is to them that perish, foolishness. They who are puffed up in pride in their own sufficiency, or ignorant of their guilt and sinfulness, and their need of the redemption which is in Christ, reject the Gospel as nonsense and absurdity, and perish in their impenitence and unbelief. (1.) The doctrine of the cross was to the Jews a stumbling-block. They could not bear to receive him for their Messiah, who made so mean an appearance in his life, and died as a malefactor on a tree. Rejecting all the amazing miracles which he wrought, they required a sign from heaven, (Mat 12:38.) expecting that he should appear in all worldly pomp and grandeur, as their temporal, instead of a spiritual, Redeemer. (2.) To the Greeks this doctrine was foolishness. They sought after wisdom, they received nothing but what was demonstrable on what they termed the principles of reason; and since their philosophic minds could perceive no connection between a man who was crucified, and the redemption of sinners; nor esteemed it possible, on their principles, that he who could not, as they conceived, save himself from the cross, should be able to save others from death and hell; they stamped the declaration with folly, and rejected it as absurd. But, (3.) unto us who are saved, however proud Greeks or self-righteous Jews may think of it, Christ, and the doctrine of salvation through his cross, appears to be the power of God, and the wisdom of God. The power of God is seen to be most gloriously displayed in the Mediator’s undertakings and sufferings; in his miracles, resurrection, ascension; and especially in the mighty efficacy with which his Gospel is attended, through the influences of his Spirit, effectually quickening the dead in trespasses and sins, turning them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. The wisdom of God is astonishingly displayed in the stupendous scheme of man’s redemption, wherein the sinner, consistent with the glory of every divine perfection, can be received into the bosom of mercy; and pardon, holiness, and glory, be bestowed on him, without dishonour to God’s government or law, and this through the substitution of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, in our stead.
3. He shews the triumph of this doctrine of a crucified Jesus over all the inventions of the wisest sages: their schemes and systems could never relieve a guilty conscience, or lay a solid foundation for the sinner’s hope. The Lord therefore, according to his word, (Isa 29:14.) stamps all human wisdom as folly. Where is the wise philosopher? Where is the learned scribe, deep read in traditions? Where is the disputer of this world, whether Jew or Gentile? Can the one or the other give the least satisfactory account, how a guilty sinner can be reconciled to an offended God? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? and left philosophers and rabbins to grope for the wall as blind? For after that, or since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, but their most learned sages were permitted to become vain in their imaginations, (see Rom 1:21-22.) ignorant of God, his worship, and ways; it pleased God, in his infinite grace and love, to make a more transcendant display of his own glory, by the foolishness of preaching, (for so would a wise world call the doctrine of the cross) to save them that believe, making it effectual to their peace, and joy, and holiness. This contrivance of divine wisdom to save lost souls by the incarnation of Jesus, is deemed the greatest folly; but the foolishness of God is wiser than men, infinitely excelling all their boasted researches, and ingenious systems; and the weakness of God is stronger than men, however inadequate the Gospel method in their eyes may appear; and however weak the instruments are, which are chiefly employed in the work, yet it was clear to demonstration, that what all the precepts of philosophy and the power of oratory never produced, the doctrine of the cross effected, destroying the kingdom of sin and Satan in the hearts of men, and causing such an evident change in their tempers and conduct as spoke the finger of God. Note; Wherever the Gospel is truly preached, however weak the instrument may be, God will bear testimony to his own word, that the excellency of the power may appear to be of God and not of us.
4. He appeals to them for the truth of what he had advanced, as verified by experience. For ye see your calling, brethren; how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; (see the Annotations;) some few singular instances to the contrary may be observed: but, in general, the proud philosopher, the self-righteous scribes, and the men of high birth and affluence, refuse to submit to the humbling and self-denying doctrines of the cross: and, leaving them to their folly and ruin, God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, that an illiterate Christian should shame the proud philosopher, and shew the surpassing influence of the doctrine of Jesus, above all his learned precepts. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world, men in the meanest outward circumstances, to confound the things which are mighty, to stamp vanity on human grandeur, and to shew that his kingdom stands without any earthly supports, nay, in defiance of all worldly power and influence; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, even the poor Gentiles, whom the self-righteous Jews would scarcely deign to put among the dogs of their flock, these hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, who never had a name or place in the church of God before, to bring to nought ( ), to abolish, the things that are, putting a period to the covenant of peculiarity, under which the Jewish people formerly stood, thinking themselves, exclusive of all others, the only favourites of heaven. But now all difference ceases, that no flesh should glory in his presence, on account of any imagined superiority in wisdom, wealth, nobility, or any external privileges; but that, as it is written, he that glorieth should glory in the Lord, ascribing the whole of their salvation to his rich and boundless grace, as revealed in the Gospel of Jesus to the miserable and the penitent.
5. He reminds them of the inestimable blessings to which, in virtue of their interest in Christ, they were entitled. They had of themselves nothing to glory in; but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, incorporated into the mystical body of Christ, who of God is made unto us, according to the constitution of the covenant of grace, wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. (1.) Wisdom; we are naturally foolish, deceived, and ignorant; but all the treasures of wisdom reside in our exalted Head: and, as the prophet of his church, it is his office to lead us into all truth, for which end he has given us his word, and promises his Spirit, that we may be taught of God, and thereby be made wise unto salvation. (2.) Righteousness; as, by his sufferings and obedience unto death, he has satisfied the law and justice of God in our stead; and as this is accepted for us, and placed to our account, through faith in him, for the remission of our sins, and discharging us from condemnation, and for our justification in the sight of God. And since it does not become the holy God to take away the guilt of our sins, and at the same time leave us under their power and dominion, he has also made Christ to be, (3.) Sanctification; he is the head of vital influence, and, as a quickening Spirit, works effectually in the hearts of his believing people, mortifying and destroying their corrupt and vile affections, and daily renewing them in the inner man, that their spirits and temper may be brought to a nearer conformity with his own, until his whole mind be established in them. Lastly, God has made Christ to be Redemption to all his faithful saints, as he is their great and final Deliverer from all that is contemptible and miserable in this world, as well as in that to come; and as he will raise their dead bodies, and make them like unto his own glorious body, by the working of his mighty power; and, so complete their felicity: and thus Christ will become all in all to his saints; and to him alone shall all the glory be eternally ascribed.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 1:30 f. In contrast ( ) to the . . . . , we have now the true relation to God and the true and right arising out of it: But truly it is God’s work, that ye are Christians and so partakers of the greatest divine blessings, that none of you should in any way boast himself save only in God . Comp Eph 2:8 f.
] has the principal emphasis: From no other than God is derived the fact that you are in Christ (as the element of your life). denotes the causal origination. Comp Eph 2:8 : , , also in profane writers: , (Valckenaer, a [283] Herod. ii. 13); and generally, Winer, p. 345 [E. T. 460]. While Hofmann here, too, as in 1Co 1:28 , introduces into the notion of the true existence , which they have from God “in virtue of their being included in Christ,” others again, following Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Theophylact, take by itself in such a way as to make it express sonship with God (comp Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 553), and regard as conveying the more precise definition of the mode whereby this sonship is attained: , , Chrysostom; comp Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Flatt, Billroth, Rckert, Ewald, and others. But wrongly; or the conception in the supposed sense is Johannine, but is not in accordance with the Pauline mode of expression (not even in Gal 4:4 ); and was a conception so habitually in use (Rom 16:7 ; Rom 16:11 ; 2Co 5:17 ; Gal 1:22 , al [286] ), that it must have occurred of itself here also to the reader; besides, the which follows answers to the . This applies, too, against Osiander, who, after , mentally supplies : “being born of God, ye are members of Christ.”
] with emphasis: ye for your part, ye the chosen out of the world.
] brings home to the heart the high value of that God-derived : who has become to us from God wisdom, righteousness and holiness, and redemption . is simply a later (Doric) form for (Thom. Mag. p. 189; Lobeck, a [287] Phryn. p. 108 f.), not, as Rckert makes it (comp Luther: “ gemacht ist”), a true passive in sense ; comp Act 4:4 ; Col 4:11 ; 1Th 2:14 (Eph 3:7 , Lachm.). Christ became to us wisdom , etc., inasmuch as His manifestation and His whole saving work have procured for believers these blessings; namely, first of all, what was of primary importance in the connection of 1Co 1:19 ff., wisdom , for to believers is revealed the counsel of God, in whom are all treasures of wisdom and knowledge (see 1Co 2:7 ff.; Col 2:3 ); righteousness , for by means of faith we are through the Lord’s atoning death constituted righteous before God (Rom 3:24 f., al [290] ; see on Rom 1:17 ); holiness (see on Rom 6:19 ; Rom 6:22 ), for in those who are justified by faith Christ works continually by His Spirit the new holy life (Rom 8:1-11 ); redemption , for Christ has delivered believers, through His blood paid as their ransom (Rom 3:24 ; Rom 6:20 ; Rom 7:23 ), from the wrath of God, to which they were subject before the entrance of faith (see on Eph 1:7 ; Eph 2:3 ). The order in which these predicates stand is not illogical ; for after the first intellectual benefit ( ) which we have received in Christ, marked out too from the rest by the position of the word, Paul brings forward the ethical blessedness of the Christian, and that in the first place positively as and , but then also as though in triumph that there was now nothing more to fear from God negatively as , in which is quenched all the wrath of God against former sin (instead of which with the Christian there are now righteousness and holiness). Hence in explaining . we should not (with Chrysostom) abide by the general , which is already contained in what goes before; nor again should we, with Grotius, Calovius, Rckert, Osiander, Neander, and others (comp also Schmid, bibl. Theol. II. p. 325; and Lipsius, Paulin. Rechtfertigungslehre , p. 8), make it the final redemption from death and all evils , such as is the object of , the redemption perfecting itself beyond our earthly-life (Hofmann), or the definitive acquittal at the last judgment (Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 327). In the passages alleged to support the interpretation in question, this sense is given solely by the accessory defining phrases namely, in Eph 1:14 by , in Eph 4:30 by , and in Rom 8:23 by . Rckert (comp Neander) is further of opinion that . . [293] is merely explanatory of how far Christ is to us , namely, as , , and ., and that these three refer to the three essential things in the Christian life, faith, love, and hope: the binding together the last three words and separating them from the first. But (1) the links closely together only . and ., and does not include .; much less does it separate the three last predicates from ; [294] on the contrary, embraces . and ., as it were, in one, so that then comes to be added with the adjunctive as a separate element, and consequently there results the following division: ( a ) wisdom, ( b ) righteousness and holiness, and ( c ) redemption. See as to this use of , Hartung, Partikell . I. p. 102; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 878 f.; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 224 f. (2) Paul would, on this theory, have left his readers without the slightest hint of the subordinate relation of the three last predicates to the first, although he could so easily have indicated it by or a participle. (3) According to the correct interpretation, . is not something yet future , but something which has already taken place in the death of Christ. Bos ( Obs. Misc. p. 1 ff.), Alethius, Clericus, Nsselt ( Opusc. II. p. 127 ff.), Valckenaer, and Krause interpret in a still more involved way, holding that only the words from to apply to Christ, and these are to be put in a parenthesis; while . . [295] are abstracta pro concretis (2Co 5:21 ), and belong to : “Ejus beneficio vos estis in Christo Jesu . . [296] ,” Valckenaer. How ambiguous and unsuitable would such a statement as . . . [297] be for a mere parenthetical notice!
] on God’s part , by God as the author of the fact. Comp Herod. vi. 125: . See generally, Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 194; Winer, p. 348 [E. T. 464]; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 280 [E. T. 325]. That it belongs to , and not to , is proved by the which stands between. The latter, however, is not to be understood, with Rckert, as though it ran (“what to the Hellene his is, or is merely assumed to be, namely, the ground of confidence, that Christ is to us”), else Paul must have written: with the article, and have placed first with the emphasis of contrast.
Observe further, that Paul has said with his eye still, as in 1Co 1:26 , upon the church to which his readers belonged; but now, in adducing the blessings found in Christ, he extends the range of his view to all Christians; and hence, instead of the individualizing , we have the including himself and others.
[283] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[286] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[287] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
[290] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[293] . . . .
[294] With the has nothing whatever to do. Hofmann makes it serve as a link of connection to . In that case, Paul must have written: . . . . .
[295] . . . .
[296] . . . .
[297] . . . .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1932
CHRIST IS ALL IN ALL
1Co 1:30. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
HABITUATED as we have been from our early childhood to read the Holy Scriptures, and to hear them read in public, it is surprising that we do not gain a more clear and accurate knowledge of their contents. But experience shews, that, however strongly the inspired writers have declared the revealed will of God, it is but very partially and imperfectly known amongst us. The fact is, that we do not sufficiently consider the import of what we read. We pass over the most plain and significant expressions, without considering what is contained in them. When we read of a Saviour, we do not advert to the awful truth comprehended in that word, namely, that in ourselves we are utterly and eternally lost. In other words, we are very little affected with what is expressed in Scripture, because we do not pause to inquire into what those expressions imply. That we suffer great loss by this inadvertence is evident from what our blessed Lord taught respecting the resurrection of our bodies to eternal life. The Sadducees could not find that doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures, or at all events not in the Pentateuch, which alone they regarded as of divine authority. Our Lord appealed to the name of Jehovah as proclaimed in the Pentateuch. namely, as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now, says our Lord, consider what is implied in that name. Jehovah, as their God, is the God of their whole persons, their bodies as well as their souls; and, if their bodies are not to be raised again, that relation between God and them, so far as respects their bodies, is dissolved. But that relation never can be dissolved: therefore their bodies must be raised again, and be re-united to their souls, that so those departed saints may, in their whole and entire persons, for ever serve and enjoy their God [Note: Mat 22:32.].
Now I would wish to commend to you the passage before us in this peculiar view. St. Paul is shewing the Corinthians, that they neither have, nor ever can have, any thing to boast of; since God has chosen the poor, and the weak, and the foolish, in preference to the rich, the mighty, and the wise; and since whatsoever any of them may have, they have it solely in Christ, who of God is made to them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; and that consequently, whosoever glories, must glory, not in himself, but in the Lord alone.
In order that we may unfold these words to the greater advantage, we shall, in accordance with this hint, consider, first, What is implied in them, and then, What is expressed.
Now if we will duly consider these words, we shall see this evidently implied in them: first, that we are destitute of all good in ourselves, and, secondly, that we are incapable of acquiring it by any power of our own. On a supposition that either of these positions were not true, what occasion would there be that all good should be treasured up for us in another, to be received from him? But they are true.It is a fact, that we are destitute of all good in ourselves; for in ourselves we are ignorant, guilty, polluted, and enslaved.
We are ignorant. What do we by nature know of ourselves? What know we of the corruption of the human heart? God himself has told us, that in the heart of man there are depths of iniquity altogether unfathomable, and workings that are utterly unsearchable: the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: Who can know it? And what know we of God? of his holiness, which cannot behold iniquity without the utmost abhorrence of it? of his justice, which cannot but visit it with righteous indignation? and of his truth, which cannot but execute every threatening which he has denounced against it? As to any mere notions which men may entertain in theory, I speak not of them; it is of practical knowledge that I speak: and I need only appeal to the lives of all around us, to prove that, so far from having any just knowledge of God, there is not in the whole world an unconverted man, that understandeth, so as duly and habitually to seek after him [Note: Rom 3:11. Psa 53:2-3.]. On the contrary the conduct of all clearly shews, that God is not in all their thoughts [Note: Psa 10:4.]. And what know we of Christ and of the incomprehensible extent of his love? Or what of his Holy Spirit, and all his enlightening, sanctifying, and consoling operations? What know we of the evil and bitterness of sin? or of the beauty and blessedness of true holiness? The testimony which our Lord himself has borne of us is undeniably true, that, however we may fancy ourselves rich, and increased in goods, and in need of nothing, we are wretched, and miserable, even poor, and blind, and naked [Note: Rev 3:17.].
We are guilty also, to an extent which no words can adequately describe. As to gross sins, I make no mention of them. Our whole life has been one continued scene of rebellion against God. Nor have we ceased to trample under foot the blood of Christ, by which we have been redeemed; or to do despite to the Spirit of God [Note: Heb 10:29.], who has striven with us, warning us against the evils which we have been habituated to commit, and stimulating us to those duties, which we have neglected to perform. Truly, on the most superficial view of our state we must be convinced, that every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God [Note: Rom 3:19.].
How polluted we are, in every member of our bodies and in every faculty of our souls, God alone knoweth or can conceive. Darkness is not more opposed to light, or Belial to Christ, than we, every one of us, are to the holy will of God, whether as proclaimed in his law, or as exhibited in his Gospel. How blind we are in our understanding, how perverse in our will, how sensual in our affections, who shall be able to declare? Even the Apostles themselves once had their conversation in the lusts of their flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as other [Note: Eph 2:3.]: And such have we been also. Our very mind and conscience have been defiled, so that there is not one amongst us who must not join in that humiliating acknowledgment, that there is no health in us.
In fact, we are altogether enslaved, or, as the Scripture expresses it, taken in the snare of the devil, and led captive by him at his will [Note: 2Ti 2:26.]. Nor is this true merely in relation to more flagrant transgressors only; for the prince of the power of the air worketh in all the children of disobedience [Note: Eph 2:2.]; and, however insensible we may be of his motions, does really instigate us to every evil we commit.
But I observed that there is yet further implied in my text, not only that we are destitute of all good in ourselves, but that we are incapable of acquiring it by any power of our own. Were not this true, there would, as I have before observed, have been no need that all good should be treasured up in another for us.
Now no one of these fore-mentioned evils can we remove. Not our ignorance; for we are told that God alone giveth wisdom [Note: Pro 2:6.]. The Spirit of God must open the eyes of our understanding [Note: Eph 1:18.]: nor can we without his gracious influence, know the things which belong unto our peace. We must have a spiritual discernment in order to discern the things of the Spirit [Note: 1Co 2:14.]. St. Paul, notwithstanding he had made a greater proficiency in Jewish literature than most of his own age, yet could not comprehend the true import of the Mosaic writings, or see their accomplishment in Jesus Christ, till the scales, by which his organs of vision had been obstructed, were made to fall from his eyes [Note: Act 9:18.]: nor could the immediate disciples of our Lord, who had heard all his instructions both in public and private for the space of three years, see the law of Moses fulfilled in him. The end of his death as a sacrifice for sin, the necessity of his resurrection to carry on and perfect his work, and the spiritual nature of his kingdom, were still hidden from them, till He opened their understandings to understand the Scriptures [Note: Luk 24:45.]. So must the Holy Spirit be given unto us also, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God [Note: 1Co 2:12.]. Earthly knowledge we may acquire by the powers of intellect and by dint of application: but heavenly knowledge is the gift of God alone, who, whilst he takes the wise in their own craftiness [Note: 1Co 3:19.], will reveal to babes what is hid from the wise and prudent [Note: Mat 11:25.]. Nor can we by any means remove our guilt. Let us go and blot out of the book of Gods remembrance all the sins we have ever committed. Vain attempt! We cannot cancel so much as one sin; nor would rivers of tears suffice to wash away the slightest stain from our souls. Nor can we even abstain from contracting fresh guilt: for there is imperfection in our best deeds: our very tears need to be washed, and our repentances to be repented of. Even St. Paul himself, eminent as he was, could do nothing on which he could rely for his justification before God; and therefore he desired to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness which was of God by faith in Christ [Note: Php 3:9.]. A justifying righteousness must be perfect: but we can do nothing perfect: we need one to bear the iniquity even of our holiest actions [Note: Exo 28:38.]: and therefore we must for ever despair of establishing a righteousness of our own, and must submit simply and entirely to the righteousness provided for us in the Gospel [Note: Rom 10:3.].
Nor can we cleanse ourselves from our pollution. As well might an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots, as we restore ourselves to the image of God in which we were at first created [Note: Jer 13:23.]. The renovation of the heart is on this very account called a new birth and a new creation [Note: Joh 3:3. 2Co 5:17.]; and it can be effected by none but God himself. Let any man put this matter to a trial: let him see whether he can mortify all the desires of the flesh, and efface from his mind the love of this world, and transform himself into the Divine image in righteousness and true holiness:he may as well attempt to create a world.
As for deliverance from all spiritual bondage, that also is utterly unattainable by human efforts. St. Paul even to his dying hour was constrained to cry, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me [Note: Rom 7:24.]? Hence in the truly scriptural Liturgy of our Church we are taught to acknowledge; that we are tied and bound with the chain of our sins, and to cry, But do thou, O God, of the pitifulness of thy great mercy loose us.
Now all this is clearly implied in the words of our text: and by a just view of this we are prepared to consider, secondly, what is expressed.
In perfect correspondence with the foregoing truths, we find in our text two things expressed, viz. that God has treasured up for us in Christ all the good that we stand in need of: and that He will freely bestow it on every believing soul.
Observe here how God has treasured up for us in Christ all the good that we stand in need of. God has laid help for us on One that is mighty [Note: Psa 89:19.], even on his own dear and only-begotten Son. He has treasured up for us in Christ a fulness suited to the necessities of fallen man [Note: Col 1:19.], and has constituted him Head over all things to the Church [Note: Eph 1:22.], that out of his fulness every member of his mystical body may receive [Note: Joh 1:16.] such a measure of grace as his peculiar necessities require. This is shadowed forth under the image of a vine, which supplies every one of its branches with the sap and nutriment which alone can enable it to bring forth fruit [Note: Joh 15:5.]. Separate from him, every one of us would become dry and fit only for fuel. The Apostle Paul knew no other source of life and strength; and therefore he said, The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me [Note: Gal 2:20.]. So in like manner must every soul of man come to Christ for grace to help him in the time of need. Our fresh springs must be altogether in him [Note: Psa 87:7.]. Our life is hid with Christ in God: yea, Christ is our very life: and it is from that circumstance alone that we are warranted to hope, that when he shall appear we also shall appear with him in glory [Note: Col 3:3-4.]. He is ascended up on high on purpose that he may fill all things [Note: Eph 4:10.]: and he does fill all in all [Note: Eph 1:23.]. The very light which is reflected by the whole planetary system of moon and stars, proceeds from the sun; and the life of all the vegetable creation is sustained by its reviving rays. And so is Christ the light and life of the whole world; as it is written, With thee is the fountain of life; and in thy light shall we see light [Note: Psa 36:9.].
This is yet more fully expressed in our text, which declares, that Christ shall be made all unto us, even wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, to every soul that believes in him.
Do we need wisdom? He shall be made wisdom to us. Wonderful shall be the views which he will impart to the believing soul: yes, the believer shall have, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, the very mind that was in Christ himself, and be made to view every thing as God himself views it [Note: Php 2:5. 1Jn 2:20.]. What humiliating views will he have of himself as a guilty, corrupt creature, deserving of Gods wrath and indignation! What exalted views will he have of all the Divine perfections, and particularly of them as united and harmonizing in the person and work of Christ! How will he be enabled to comprehend the height and depth and length and breadth of Christs unsearchable love, so as even to be filled by it with all the fulness of God [Note: Eph 3:18-19.]! What a perception will he have of the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost [Note: Rom 5:5.], and of all his gracious influences, as a spirit of adoption testifying to his soul, that God is his Father, and that he is Gods beloved child [Note: Rom 8:15-16.]! In what hateful colours will he now behold the sins which he once loved; and how lovely in his estimation will be the paths of righteousness and true holiness! When once God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness in the material world shall shine into his heart to give him this knowledge, he will behold all the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ [Note: 2Co 4:6.].
Do we need righteousness? Christ shall be made righteousness to the believing soul. The very name by which we are privileged to call our blessed Lord, is, Jehovah our righteousness [Note: Jer 23:6.]. In Christ we shall have a righteousness fully answering all the requirements of Gods holy law, and satisfying the demands of his inflexible justice. Clothed in the robe of Christs perfect righteousness, we shall be so pure that God will not behold in us a spot or blemish [Note: Eph 5:26-27.]. Not the angels before the throne of God shall shine more bright than we: indeed they have only the righteousness of a creature, whilst the believing soul is clad in the righteousness of the Creator himself. Nor let any one imagine that this is the privilege of the Apostles only: no: the righteousness of Christ is given unto every believing soul, and put upon him as a garment, in which he shall stand accepted of God to all eternity [Note: Rom 3:22. Eph 1:6.].
Do we need sanctification? This also shall Christ be made unto us. Yes, he will make us new creatures. He will enable us to put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to put on the new man, whereby we shall be assimilated to the Divine image [Note: Eph 4:22-24.]. He has promised his Holy Spirit for this end, even to sanctify us wholly [Note: 1Th 5:23.]. By applying to our souls his promises, he will enable us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God [Note: 2Co 7:1.]. Yea, by enabling us to behold his glory, he will change us into his own image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord [Note: 2Co 3:18.].
Finally, do we need redemption? He will be redemption to us, delivering us from all the bondage of corruption, and bringing us into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. When once the Son thus makes us free, we become free indeed [Note: Joh 8:36.]. With what delight do we then walk in the ways of God, and with what enlargement of heart do we run in the paths of his commandments! Truly under the influence of his grace we enjoy almost a heaven upon earth. The exercises of prayer and praise are far different from what they were wont to be in our unregenerate state. Formerly we had no taste for them, no pleasure in them: now we are never so happy as when we get access to God in these duties: it is even as marrow and fatness to our souls, when we can praise our God with joyful lips [Note: Psa 63:5.].
True, the flesh will yet lust against the spirit, as well as the spirit against the flesh: but sin shall no more have dominion over us [Note: Rom 6:14.]; we shall, in desire at least, be holy as God himself is holy, and perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect [Note: 1Pe 1:15-16.].
Before I come to my concluding remarks on this subject, I beg you to inquire with yourselves, whether you have ever had a practical experience of these things in your own souls? It is said in my text, Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Now is this true of you? Have you, (I speak to every individual,) Have you ever been brought to such a sense of your own destitution of all good, and of your utter incapacity to supply, by any efforts of your own, your manifold necessities? Have you also been led to see what a fulness there is in Christ, exactly suited to your necessities? and have you actually received out of his fulness a supply of all that you stand in need of, so that Christ is daily regarded by you as your entire Saviour, your all in all? I pray you, let not this matter be thought of small import; No indeed. These things are not to be viewed as a mere theory, but as practical truths, upon the experience of which your everlasting salvation depends: and, if you die before they are realized by you in your daily experience, it will be better for you that you had never been born.
Here I might well close my subject. But, having taken hitherto only the more obvious and superficial view of it, I would, if it detain you not too long, briefly entreat your attention to some points which are more deep and recondite, and which, I hope, will repay the trespass which I thus reluctantly make upon your time.
Mark then, I pray you, how entirely salvation is of grace from first to last. You have seen what provision God has made for us in our low estate. You have seen what he has laid up for us in Christ, and what Christ is made unto us, even all that we stand in need of. But you have not seen how it is that Christ is made all this to the believing soul. It is by our being in Christ Jesus: Of him are ye in Christ Jesus. Now we must be engrafted into Christ as scions, before we can partake of any of these things: we must be cut off from the old stock whereon we grew in our natural state, and be made living branches of Him the living Vine. And who, I beg leave to ask, can do this for us? It can be done by none but God, the great husbandman, who has himself ordained this as the only way of saving our ruined race. And this is twice marked in my text with very peculiar force and emphasis: Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who Of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Now I ask, who was it that gave the Saviour to us, or us to him? Who was it that accepted him in our behalf? Who was it that, after accepting his sacrifice in our behalf, constituted him our living Head, and treasured up in him such a fulness of all that we stood in need of? And who was it that cut us off from our old stock and grafted us into him? And who was it that by this mysterious process actually made us partakers of all these benefits? Hear it, and forget it not: It is of God that ye are in Christ Jesus: and of God that Christ is made unto you all that you stand in need of. Let God then have all the glory. This was the very end for which he did all this, as he tells us both in the words that precede my text, and in the words that follow it: God, says the Apostle, has chosen things which are not, to bring to nought things which are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now I entreat your attention to this. Do not rob God of his glory. Do not ascribe any thing to yourselves, but give him the glory of your salvation from first to last. If you could go up to heaven, you would not find one soul there that arrogates any thing to himself. All with one heart and one voice are singing, Salvation to God and to the Lamb; to God, as the alone Author of salvation, and to the Lamb, as the only means: and I call on every one of you to begin this song on earth, giving all praise to God the Father as the source and fountain of your happiness, and to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has both purchased it for you by his blood, and imparted it to you by his Spirit. God is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to another: and if you rob him of his glory here, you shall not be partakers of it in the world to come.
Having called your attention to this, I next say, seek this salvation in the precise way that God has appointed. Seek it in its full extentseek it in its proper orderseek it for its only just and legitimate endseek it with a confidence that you shall not seek in vain.
Seek it in its full extent. Look to Christ for every thing without exception. Look to him for wisdom. Even though you be the most learned man on earth in respect of human sciences, you must look to him alone to instruct you in that which is divine. You must come to him even as a little child, to be taught of him; you must in your own apprehension be a fool, if you would be truly wise [Note: 1Co 3:18.]. If you lean to your own understanding, instead of relying upon the teaching of his Spirit, you will never attain true saving knowledge. If you would be made wise unto salvation, your eyes must be anointed with the eye-salve which he alone can bestow [Note: Rev 3:18.]. Look to him also for righteousness. There must be no dependence whatever on any thing of your own. There must be no attempt to blend your own righteousness with his. You must not even look to any attainments of your own, as your warrant to go to him, or to hope in him: your hope must be founded wholly on the sufficiency of his atonement, and the perfection of the righteousness which he wrought out for you. I do not mean that you are to be remiss in your obedience; but you are not to rely upon it. In point of dependence, your best deeds must be disclaimed as much as your worst. The fixed and habitual sentiment of your heart must be, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ [Note: Heb 12:14.]. For sanctification also must you look to him, and that with as much earnestness, as if you were to be saved by your own works. Whilst I warn you that your own good works must be renounced in point of dependence, I would not have you imagine that you can ever be saved without them: No: I declare to every living man, that antinomianism is a horrible delusion, and a damning sin. God has plainly warned us, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord; and that every man who has a scriptural hope in Christ, must purify himself even as he is pure [Note: 1Jn 3:3.]. Your complete redemption also must be received from Christ alone. You must be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus [Note: 2Ti 2:1.]. It is in his strength alone that you are to maintain your contest with your great adversary, for it is he alone that can bruise Satan under your feet [Note: Rom 16:20.]. And bear in mind, that no one of these things is to be separated from another. There must be no harbouring of philosophic pride, or of pharisaic self-righteousness, or of antinomian licentiousness: but the whole of Christs benefits must be sought by you, without partiality and without hypocrisy [Note: Jam 3:17.].
Next, I would observe, these things must be sought in their proper order, that is, in the very order in which they are here proposed. Divine teaching must be sought in the first instance; for without that, you can know nothing either of your own need of Christ, or of his sufficiency. Then you must, as a poor perishing sinner, look to Christ, to wash you in his blood, and to clothe you in the unspotted robe of his righteousness. Then, having obtained a hope of acceptance through him, you must seek to be sanctified throughout, in body, soul, and spirit. And further, having obtained a measure of holiness, you must not be self-confident, but, like the Apostle Paul, must keep your body under, and bring it into subjection, lest after all your high professions, you prove a cast-away at last [Note: 1Co 9:27.]. To the latest hour of your life, you must retain the frame recommended by the Apostle, Be not high-minded, but fear. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall [Note: Rom 11:20. 1Co 10:12.]. And, whilst you acknowledge Christ as the author of your faith, you must look to him, and to him alone, as the finisher of it [Note: Heb 12:2.].
Further, seek all these blessings for the only just and legitimate end, the glory of God. The mind of all the glorified saints must be your mind. They all prostrate themselves before the throne of God, and cast their crowns at the Saviours feet [Note: Rev 4:10.]. They are nothing; and He is all. This is the true end of all religion, that God in all things may be glorified through Christ Jesus [Note: 1Pe 4:11.]. An adoring frame of mind is that which you should cultivate to your dying hour. Whilst you are in that frame, God, if I may so speak, is in his place, and you in yours. Even the angels that never sinned, are all upon their faces before God [Note: Rev 7:11.]. Much more should you, who have never done any thing but sin, and yet have been redeemed from condemnation by the blood of your incarnate God. The higher you are exalted by God, the lower you must lie before him: and the deeper your sense of your own unworthiness, the more devoutly will you join in the song of the redeemed, To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and the Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen [Note: Rev 1:5-6.].
Lastly, seek these blessings with a due confidence that you shall not seek in vain. Recollect, who were the persons of whom these things were spoken? They were sinners of no common stamp. Such were the enormities which many of them had committed, that they seemed to be almost beyond the reach of mercy: yet of them was it said, But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God [Note: 1Co 6:9-11.]. Let none then entertain the doubt, Shall Christ be made all this to me? for he shall be so made to every believing soul; nor shall the vilest sinner in the universe be suffered to seek Gods face in vain [Note: Isa 45:19.]. Only let the pursuit of these things be your great object in life (for, what is there that can for a moment be put in competition with them?) and there shall not be a soul amongst us, who shall not be able to say, I am the happy person in whom all this blessedness is realized; Of God am I in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto me wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; and in him do I glory, yea and will glory throughout all the ages of eternity. May this be the happy experience of us all, for Christs sake! Amen and Amen.
an analysis of the foregoing discourse.
We should consider in Sacred Scripture what is implied as well as what is expressed.
So did Christ (Mat 22:32,) and so will we.
I.
What is implied.
1.
That we are destitute of all good in ourselves
We are ignorant, guilty, polluted, and enslaved
2.
That we are incapable of attaining it by any power of our own
We cannot remove any one of these; ignorance, guilt, pollution, or bondage.
II.
What is expressed,
1.
That God has treasured up for us in Christ all the good that we stand in need of
He is the Vine and we the branches
2.
That he will impart it to every soul that believes in him
Do we need wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption? He will make Christ all unto us.
Inquire whether He is made all this to you.
application.
1.
See how entirely salvation is of grace from first to last.
Who gave the Saviour to us? God alone.
Who gave us to him? God alone.
Both these things are marked in the text, and must be marked by us.
2.
Seek it altogether in Gods appointed way
In its full extentomitting none, preferring none
In its proper orderthe precise order stated ill the text
For its only just and legitimate endGods glorytwice mentioned.
With full confidence that you shall not seek it in vain
None can be more unworthy of it than the persons addressed in the text, 1Co 6:9-11.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(30) But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (31) That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
I beseech the Reader to observe how blessedly Christ is here spoken of by the Holy Ghost, as made all these things to his people, and that by God himself. It is not only said, that Christ is the wisdom, and the righteousness, and the sanctification, and the redemption of his Church, but that God hath made him so. Here, indeed, is the blessedness of the whole. For, when God the Holy Ghost leads a poor sinner to God, in the perfections of Jesus; if it be demanded how, or by what authority, the poor self-condemned creature comes in another’s perfections, and not his own? this is the answer: this is faith’s warrant, Christ is made of God unto the soul these things. So that here is the authority in which all the Persons of the Godhead join. God the Holy Ghost, who regenerates the sinner, and makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus, leads him to the throne, in the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of Christ Jesus; and, taught of God the Spirit, the regenerated sinner pleads in Christ, and by Christ, on the footing of Christ’s person and work, for acceptance before God, and in the covenant word, oath, and promise, of God the Father! And, how then can any soul fail of justification at the throne, who thus pleads God’s grace, and Christ’s righteousness, as the sole means of acceptance? Who doth not see all human glory tarnished, and divine grace praised, when as it is written, he that gloried, thus glorieth the Lord? Jer 9:23-24 .
Reader! pause a moment longer over these precious verses, for they are most precious. You, and I, are both by nature and by practice, so lost and fallen in the Adam-state of sin and corruption, that we are not only miserably blind and ignorant of our state by nature, but so utterly senseless of our ruin, that Until Christ, the sun of righteousness, arose on our benighted souls, so far were either of us from seeking redemption, we did not even know that we needed it. How blessed that Christ was made of God to us wisdom, to open to our view a sense of sin, and to make us wise unto salvation? But it would not have been enough to have made us sensible of our misery, and to have instructed us in the way of obtaining salvation by Christ out of it, had not the same Lord which taught us these precious things, taught us also, that He who made Christ to us wisdom, made him also our righteousness. Oh! the blessedness, when a child taught of God, can say, the Lord is my righteousness. But here again, a soul needed somewhat more. The child of God, though renewed in soul, is not renewed in body. The flesh lusteth against the spirit. I feel, I groan daily under a conscious sense of indwelling, inbred, corruptions. Oh! the grace, the mercy, when my Lord taught Me that Christ is made of God sanctification also, and He who justified me, as freely sanctifieth me. And, finally, to crown all, and to counteract all the exercises, which at any time sin or Satan, the world without, or fears within, might suggest; how blessedly doth this scripture come in to our aid, that Christ is not only wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, but redemption God’s works, and not man’s. God’s providing, not our’s. And He who gives the covering, puts it on. First gives a gracious acceptation to the persons of his people, in His dear Son; and then blesseth them with all spiritual blessings, in Christ; that they may be holy, and blameless before him, in love! Thanks! thanks be to God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ! 2Co 2:14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
Ver. 30. But of him are ye ] q.d. Albeit ye have nothing of your own, yet in Christ you have all; for in him is all fulness both repletive and diffusive, both of abundance and of redundance too, both of plenty and of bounty.
Is made unto us wisdom ] This notes out Christ’s prophetic office.
Righteousness and sanctification ] By his priestly office.
Redemption ] By his kingly office, having fully delivered his from sin, death, and hell; all which is not fully done till after death. And that is the reason why redemption is here set last. See Rom 8:23 ; Luk 21:28 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30. ] But (contrast to the boasting just spoken of) of Him are ye (from Him ye, who once were as , . He is the author of your spiritual life) in (in union with) Christ Jesus, Who was made (not ‘is made:’ see reff. On see 1Th 1:5 note) to us from God wisdom (standing us in stead of all earthly wisdom and raising us above it by being ; Wisdom in His incarnation, in His life of obedience, in His teaching, in His death of atonement, in His glorification and sending of the Spirit: and not only Wisdom, but all that we can want to purify us from guilt, to give us righteousness before God, to sanctify us after His likeness, ( and ) both righteousness (the source of our justification before God), and sanctification (by His Spirit; observe the , implying that in these two, . and ., the Christian life is complete that they are so joined as to form one whole our righteousness as well as our sanctification . As Bisping well remarks, “ . and . are closely joined by the ( ) and form but one idea, that of Christian justification: the negative side, in Christ’s justifying work the positive, sanctification, the imparting to us of sanctifying grace”), and redemption (by satisfaction made for our sin, reff.: or perhaps deliverance , from all evil, and especially from eternal death, as Rom 8:23 ; but I prefer the other). The foregoing construction of the sentence is justified, (1) as regards belonging to , and not to , by the position of , which has been altered in rec. to connect with ., (2) as regards the whole four substantives being co-ordinate, and not the last three merely explicative of , by the usage of , e.g. Herod. i. 23, , and Hom. Od. . 78, , , so that (see Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 103; Donaldson, Gr. Gram. 551) the words coupled by (compare the exegesis above) rank as but one with regard to those coupled to them by , compare above. Hence these three cannot be under one category, as explicative of , but must be thus ranged: , .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 1:30 . : is . or ( sc. ) the predicate to ? Does P. mean, “It comes of Him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus” i.e. , “Your Christian status is due to God” (so Mr [256] , Hn [257] , Bt [258] , Ed [259] , Gd [260] , El [261] )? or, “It is in Christ Jesus that you are of Him” “Your new life derived from God is grounded in Christ” (Gr [262] Ff [263] , Cv [264] , Bz [265] , Rckert, Hf [266] , Lt [267] )? The latter interpretation suits the order of words and the trend of thought (see Lt [268] ): “ You , whom the world counts as nothing (1Co 1:26 ff.: note the contrastive ), are of Him before whom all human glory vanishes (1Co 1:29 ); in Christ this Divine standing is yours”. Thus Paul exalts those whom he had abased. The conception of the Christian estate as “of God,” if Johannine, is Pauline too ( cf. 1Co 8:6 , 1Co 10:12 , 1Co 12:6 , 2Co 4:6 ; 2Co 5:18 , etc.), and lies in Paul’s fundamental appropriation, after Jesus, of God as (1Co 1:4 , and passim ), and in the correlative doctrine of the ; the whole passage (1Co 1:18-29 ) is dominated by the thought of the Divine initiative in salvation. This derivation from God is not further defined, as in Gal 3:26 ; enough to state the grand fact, and to ground it “in Christ Jesus” (see note, 1Co 1:4 ).
[256] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).
[257] C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklrung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer’s krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).
[258] J. A. Beet’s St. Paul’s Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).
[259] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2
[260] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. p. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).
[261] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .
[262] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
[263]
[264] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .
[265] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).
[266] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).
[267] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).
[268] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).
The relative clause, “who was made wisdom,” etc., unfolds the content of the life communicated “to us from God” in Christ. Of the four defining complements to , stands by itself, with the other three attached by way of definition “wisdom from God, viz. , both righteousness, etc.”; Mr [269] , Al [270] , Gd [271] , however, read the four as coordinate. On the whole debate, from 1Co 1:17 onwards, hinges: we have seen how God turned the world’s wisdom to folly (1Co 1:20-25 ); now He did this not for the pleasure of it, but for our salvation to establish His own wisdom (1Co 1:24 ), and to bestow it upon us in Christ (“us” means Christians collectively cf. 1Co 1:17 while “you” meant the despised Cor [272] Christians, 1Co 1:26 ). This wisdom (how diff [273] from the other! See 1Co 1:191Co 1:19 ; Jas 3:15 ff.) comes as sent “from God” ( of ultimate source: of direct derivation). It is a vitalising moral force (1Co 1:24 ) taking the shape of , and signally contrasted in its spiritual reality and regenerating energy with the and . , after which the Cor [274] hankered. Righteousness and Sanctification are allied “by their theological affinity” (El [275] ): cf. note on 1Co 6:11 , and Rom 6 passim hence the double copula ; follows at a little distance (so Lt [276] , Hn [277] , Ed [278] ; who adduce numerous cl [279] parls. to this use of the Gr [280] conjunctions): “who was made wisdom to us from God viz. , both righteousness and sanctification, and redemption”. carries with it, implicitly, the Pauline doctrine of Justification by faith in the dying, risen Christ (see 1Co 6:11 , and other parls.; esp., for Paul’s teaching at Cor [281] , 2Co 5:21 ). With the righteousness of the believer justified in Christ sanctification (or consecration ) is concomitant (see note on the kindred terms in 2); the connexion of chh. 5 and 6 in Rom. expounds this ; all is . (Vbl. nouns in – denote primarily a process, then the resulting state.) (based on the of Mat 20:28 , 1Ti 2:6 , with of separation, release ), deliverance by ransom , is the widest term of the three “primum Christi donum quod inchoatur in nobis, et ultimum quod perficitur” (Cv [282] ); it looks backward to the cross (1Co 1:18 ), by whose blood we “were bought” for God (1Co 6:19 ), so furnishing the ground both of justification (Rom 3:24 ) and sanctification (Heb 10:10 ), and forward to the resurrection and glorification of the saints, whereby Christ secures His full purchased rights in them (Rom 8:23 ; Eph 1:14 ; Eph 4:30 ); thus Redemption covers the entire work of salvation, indicating the essential and just means of its accomplishment (see Cr [283] on and derivatives).
[269] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).
[270] Alford’s Greek Testament .
[271] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. p. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).
[272] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
[273] difference, different, differently.
[274] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
[275] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .
[276] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).
[277] C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklrung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer’s krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).
[278] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians .
[279] classical.
[280] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
[281]
[282] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .
[283] Cremer’s Biblico-Theological Lexicon of N.T. Greek (Eng. Trans.).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
of. App-104.
of = from. App-104. The Greek reads “became . . . wisdom from God”.
is made = became. Greek. ginomai.
and = both.
righteousness. App-191.
sanctification = holiness. Greek. hagiasmos. See Rom 6:19.
and = even.
redemption. Greek. apolutrosis. See Rom 3:24 and compare Eph 1:7, Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
30.] But (contrast to the boasting just spoken of) of Him are ye (from Him ye, who once were as ,-.-He is the author of your spiritual life) in (in union with) Christ Jesus, Who was made (not is made: see reff. On see 1Th 1:5 note) to us from God wisdom (standing us in stead of all earthly wisdom and raising us above it by being ;-Wisdom-in His incarnation, in His life of obedience, in His teaching, in His death of atonement, in His glorification and sending of the Spirit: and not only Wisdom, but all that we can want to purify us from guilt, to give us righteousness before God, to sanctify us after His likeness, (and) both righteousness (the source of our justification before God), and sanctification (by His Spirit; observe the , implying that in these two, . and ., the Christian life is complete-that they are so joined as to form one whole-our righteousness as well as our sanctification. As Bisping well remarks, . and . are closely joined by the () and form but one idea, that of Christian justification: the negative side, in Christs justifying work- the positive, sanctification, the imparting to us of sanctifying grace), and redemption (by satisfaction made for our sin, reff.:-or perhaps deliverance, from all evil, and especially from eternal death, as Rom 8:23; but I prefer the other). The foregoing construction of the sentence is justified, (1) as regards belonging to , and not to , by the position of , which has been altered in rec. to connect with ., (2) as regards the whole four substantives being co-ordinate, and not the last three merely explicative of , by the usage of -, e.g. Herod. i. 23, , and Hom. Od. . 78, , ,-so that (see Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 103; Donaldson, Gr. Gram. 551) the words coupled by (compare the exegesis above) rank as but one with regard to those coupled to them by , compare above. Hence these three cannot be under one category, as explicative of , but must be thus ranged: , .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 1:30. , of Him) Ye are of God, not now any longer of the world, Rom 11:36; Eph 2:8.-, ye) An antithesis to many, 1Co 1:26. Those persons themselves, whom the apostle addresses, ye, were not the many wise men according to the flesh, etc.- , ye are in Christ Jesus) ye are Christians, etc. The antithesis is between, things which are not [1Co 1:28], and, ye are [1Co 1:30]; likewise flesh [1Co 1:26; 1Co 1:29], and Christ [1Co 1:30].- , is made to us) More is implied in these words, than if he had said; we have become wise, etc., He is made to us wisdom, etc., in respect of our knowledge, and, before that was attained, by Himself in His cross, death, resurrection. To us the dative of advantage.-, wisdom) whereas we were formerly fools. The variety of the Divine goodness in Christ presupposes that our misery is from ourselves.-, righteousness) Whereas we were formerly weak (without strength) [Rom 5:6], comp. Isa 45:24. Jehovah, our righteousness, Jer 23:6, where (comp. 1Co 1:5) he is speaking of the Son: for the Father is not called our righteousness.-, sanctification) whereas we were formerly base.-) redemption, even to the utmost; whereas we were formerly despised, [1Co 1:28].
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 1:30
1Co 1:30
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,-By the provisions of God we are brought into Christ Jesus through faith. Faith affects the heart, the emotions, and directs the confidence and trust toward Christ. Faith carries into Christ only as it leads us to perform the acts that place us in Christ. Faith perfected by obedience is the bringing the whole man-spirit and soul and body-into harmony with the faith of the heart. Faith perfected by obedience embodied and expressed by repentance and baptism (Act 2:38), puts us in Christ. For ye are all sons of God. through faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. (Gal 3:26-27).
who was made unto us wisdom from God,-Jesus Christ with his works, teachings, and requirements is the perfection of divine wisdom to save man. When man acts according to his teaching and follows his ways, he appropriates and uses Gods wisdom to guide his steps. This lifts the humble man of earth above the weakness of his own wisdom and ignorance, and enables him to walk by the wisdom of God. When Solomon gave divine sanction to the wise proverbs of nations and peoples, he enabled everyone who has faith in God to appropriate this wisdom as his own and to walk by it. So Jesus Christ is to us the wisdom of God. Behold, a greater than Solomon is here. (Mat 12:42).
and righteousness-Jesus suffered and died as though he was a sinful man that sinful men might stand clothed with the righteousness of God, and live as though he had never sinned. God is righteous, and for man to become righteous, he must live according to the will of God, that in character he may be like him. Man by faith enters into Christ, drinks into his spirit, walks as he walked, and so clothes himself with the righteousness of Christ, thus has God made him righteousness to us.
and sanctification,-Jesus sanctified himself that in him man might be sanctified or set apart to the service of God. Only in Christ, and walking in his wisdom, can man be set apart or sanctified to the services of God. Out of Christ man cannot serve God.
and redemption:-Jesus Christ came to rescue man from the thralldom of sin, and gave his life to rescue him from death. In Jesus Christ as his servant God will accept him. Thus is Christ made unto us redemption.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
wisdom from God, or, wisdom from God, even righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
righteousness (See Scofield “Rom 3:21”).
redemption (See Scofield “Rom 3:24”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
in: 1Co 12:18, 1Co 12:27, Isa 45:17, Joh 15:1-6, Joh 17:21-23, Rom 8:1, Rom 12:5, Rom 16:7, Rom 16:11, 2Co 5:17, 2Co 12:2, Eph 1:3, Eph 1:4, Eph 1:10, Eph 2:10
of God: Rom 11:36, 2Co 5:18-21
wisdom: 1Co 1:24, 1Co 12:8, Pro 1:20, Pro 2:6, Pro 8:5, Dan 2:20, Luk 21:15, Joh 1:18, Joh 8:12, Joh 14:6, Joh 17:8, Joh 17:26, 2Co 4:6, Eph 1:17, Eph 1:18, Eph 3:9, Eph 3:10, Col 2:2, Col 2:3, Col 3:16, 2Ti 3:15-17, Jam 1:5
righteousness: Psa 71:15, Psa 71:16, Isa 45:24, Isa 45:25, Isa 54:17, Jer 23:5, Jer 23:6, Jer 33:16, Dan 9:24, Rom 1:17, Rom 3:21-24, Rom 4:6, Rom 4:25, Rom 5:19, Rom 5:21, 2Co 5:21, Phi 3:9, 2Pe 1:1
sanctification: 1Co 1:2, 1Co 6:11, Mat 1:21, Joh 17:17-19, Act 26:18, Rom 8:9, Gal 5:22-24, Eph 2:10, Eph 5:26, 1Pe 1:2, 1Jo 5:6
redemption: 1Co 15:54-57, Hos 13:14, Rom 3:24, Rom 8:23, Gal 1:4, Gal 3:13, Eph 1:7, Eph 4:30, Col 1:14, Tit 2:14, Heb 9:12, 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19, Rev 5:9, Rev 14:4
Reciprocal: Gen 12:3 – in thee Exo 28:2 – glory Exo 39:30 – the plate Exo 40:10 – most holy Exo 40:14 – General Lev 8:22 – the ram of consecration Lev 8:23 – Moses took Lev 15:28 – General Lev 20:8 – sanctify Lev 25:24 – redemption Num 19:18 – General 1Ki 3:28 – the wisdom 1Ki 10:3 – told her 1Ch 16:10 – Glory 2Ch 9:23 – God Job 28:23 – General Psa 4:1 – O Psa 24:5 – righteousness Psa 33:1 – Rejoice Psa 62:7 – In God Psa 64:10 – upright Psa 85:12 – the Lord Psa 89:17 – For thou Pro 2:7 – layeth Pro 8:14 – Counsel Ecc 2:26 – wisdom Isa 1:27 – her converts Isa 9:6 – Counsellor Isa 11:2 – the spirit of wisdom Isa 28:5 – shall the Isa 41:16 – thou shalt rejoice Eze 37:28 – sanctify Dan 2:21 – he giveth Mat 6:33 – his Luk 11:49 – the wisdom Joh 4:10 – If Joh 14:20 – ye in Joh 16:10 – righteousness Joh 17:23 – I Joh 19:34 – came Rom 10:4 – Christ Rom 14:17 – but 1Co 1:9 – the fellowship 1Co 3:6 – God 2Co 3:9 – the ministration of righteousness Gal 1:22 – in Eph 2:13 – in Eph 3:8 – unsearchable Eph 5:8 – but Phi 1:21 – to live Col 1:28 – perfect Col 2:6 – received Col 2:10 – complete Col 3:11 – but 1Th 4:3 – your Heb 3:14 – we are Heb 10:10 – we 1Pe 5:14 – in 1Jo 1:3 – our fellowship 1Jo 2:5 – hereby 1Jo 5:12 – that hath the 1Jo 5:20 – and hath
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRISTIAN SANCTITY
Christ made unto us sanctification.
1Co 1:30
The special interest of this passage is to note the means of sanctification. How is Christ made sanctification to us?
I. Not merely by a presentation of motives.No doubt motives are presentedmotives of gratitude, motives of love, all have their appointed place, but who has not found that the motive power of these affections fails to produce the good fruit which was expected from them? We ought to be grateful, but our gratitude is sadly evanescent; we ought to love, but how dull and cold our love soon grows! No, the presentation of motives will not suffice; something more is needed.
II. Nor is He our sanctification merely by the exhibition of a pattern.He is our accepted and perfect pattern, the absolutely faultless life was found in Him alone; but to present Christ as a pattern may rather depress than encourage me. If all that is given is a pattern I shall despair of imitating it, and despair is the death-knell of exertion. There must be something more than a pattern, or Christianity would be a failure. But Christ offers us far more than a pattern.
III. He is our sanctification first as to its source.It is remarkable, indeed, that sanctification in Scripture should be ascribed to each person in the Holy Trinity. We read in Jud 1:1, Sanctified by God the Father. In 2Th 2:13 sanctification is declared to be through the Spirit, and it is certain that the Holy Ghost is the great agent in this work; yet both here and in Heb 2:11 we find sanctification ascribed to Christ. We may certainly, therefore, say that Christ, as head of His Church, is the source of its sanctity. What light does this fact throw upon the means of sanctification? It teaches us that, as we have already indicated, holy dispositions are received not by any efforts of our own, but by faith in our sanctifier.
IV. Christ is made our sanctification as to its spherei.e. He is made to us a sanctuary in which we may be safe. The word sanctification is translated in the Septuagint (Isa 8:14) as sanctuary. This gives us the thought of a spiritual atmosphere into which we may plunge, a hiding-place into which we may flee and in which we may abide, and only as we do thus abide in Christ, in fellowship with Him, shall we be in a position to receive from Him and to be sanctified by Him.
V. Christ is made to us sanctification as to its secret.If you would be holy you must not only have Christ for you, you must have Christ in you.
Rev. E. W. Moore.
Illustration
It is a frequent though ill-founded objection to the doctrine of justication by faith only, that it overlooks the necessity of holy living, that the effect of teaching it will be to lead men to suppose that no radical change of life is needed in themselves, that they may believe in Christ and yet live as they please. How great a fallacy this is every true Christian is aware, for he knows that wherever Christ is really received a new nature is received with Him, and that the tendency of the new disposition is as truly to holiness as that of the former was to sin.
ST.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Co 1:30. Ye in Christ refers to the brethren at Corinth, and Him stands for God in verse 28, who had received these brethren in Christ. Is made unto us denotes that Paul ascribed to them the qualities named in the verse, even though the philosophers might belittle them.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 1:30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God,[1] both righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
[1] This is beyond doubt the correct order of the original words, and it is only when they are read in this order that the true sense comes clearly out.
Thus reads this great statement, to catch the true sense of which requires careful attention. It is not four co-ordinate blessings which the apostle says Christ is made unto usas our Authorised Version represents it, and most modern interpreters understand it. On the contrary, wisdom stands out here by itself, as all-comprehensiveas the one thing which Christ is made unto us from God in contrast with all boasted human wisdom. But that we may see how comprehensive this gift is, the apostle makes it branch out into three divisions, corresponding to the three great stages of our whole salvation:
(1) RIGHTEOUSNESS which brings us into a right relation to God;
(2) SANCTIFICATION, embracing our whole progressive transformation into the image of God; and
(3) that in which this at length culminates, REDEMPTION from all the effects of the fall in soul and body onwards to final glory.
All this, Christ is made unto us from God, thus precluding all boasting. Still, bad it been left wholly to ourselves to receive or reject it, the thought might have crept into the proud heart, that after all, in the last instance, salvation is of him that willetha thought repudiated in Rom 9:16. But to cut off even this last refuge of human pride, the statement opens with these words: OF HIM are ye in Christ Jesus; that is to say, it is not by a self-originated act that any one is in Christ, and so partaker of His fulness, but by an immediate Divine operation upon the soul that this vital union is effected, and that in virtue of it, He is made unto us wisdom in its threefold provision of righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. And the grand design of this entire exclusion of human merit is,
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle had in the foregoing verses acquainted the Corinthins how low and despicable their outward condition was in this world; he tells them the world looked upon them as weak and foolish, and, as such, despised and disdained them, but as a superabundant recompence for the despicable meanness of their outward condition, he tells them what they are in Christ Jesus, how rich they are as Christians; that Christ is made unto them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Observe here 1. An enumeration of the believing Christian’s privileges, received by virtue of his interest in Christ, and union with him; and they are wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; to relieve us against our ignorance and blindness, he is our wisdom, the fountain of divine illumination, enabling us to see both our sin and danger; to discharge us from the burden of our guilt and obnoxiousness to divine wrath, he is our righteousness, the author of justification, procuring for us remission of sin, and acceptance with God; to free us from the pollution and power of sin, he is our sanctification; purging us by his Spirit, as well as pardoning by his blood, coming both by water and blood into our souls: and to set us at liberty from captivity and thraldom to sin and Satan, and the law, he is made our redemption, that is, the blessed author of a beloved redemption, not from Egyptian bondage or Babylonish captivity, but from the dominion of sin and servitude to Satan, from the wrath of God, from the curse of the law, from the danger and dread of death.
Learn hence, That God hath stored up in Christ all that we want, a suitable and full supply for every need, and made it communicable to us: he is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and redemption, our all in all, our all in the want of all.
Observe, 2. The method, way, and manner, by and after which believers come to be invested with, and made partakers of, these glorious privileges: Christ of God is made unto us; this denotes,
(1.) That Christ with all his benefits becomes ours by a special and effectual application: he is made unto us.
(2.) That this application of Christ is the work of God, and not of man; of God he is made unto us.
Learn hence, That the Lord Jesus Christ, with all the precious fruits and invaluable benefits of his death, became ours by God’s special and effectual application.
Observe, 3. The reason here assigned why the whole economy of grace is put into the hand of Christ, why all is communicated by him, and derived from him, namely, that all the saints’ glorying may be in him, and not in themselves: That no flesh should glory in his presence, but as it is written, Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord, ver. 29, 31.
Infinite wisdom and sovereign pleasure has centered all grace in Christ; it hath pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; and the fullness that is in him is a ministerial fullness, it dwells in him on purpose to dispense to us, according as our exigencies do require, and our faith deserve; for of him are we in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
1Co 1:30-31. But of him Of his free mercy and grace; are ye in Christ Jesus Ingrafted into him, and therefore possessed of an interest in him, and union with him; who of God The original source of our salvation in all its parts, and of all the gifts and graces we possess; is made unto us who now believe But were formerly ignorant and foolish; wisdom Teaching us by his word and Spirit, and making us wise unto salvation; righteousness The procuring cause of justification through his obedience unto death, to us who were before under guilt, condemnation, and wrath; sanctification The principle and example, source and author of universal holiness to us, whereas before we were altogether polluted and dead in sin; and redemption Complete deliverance from all the consequences of sin, and especially from death, the punishment of it, by a glorious resurrection, (termed the redemption of our body, Rom 8:23,) and eternal bliss both of soul and body. That, as it is written, (see on Jer 9:23-24,) He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord Not in himself, not in the flesh, not in the world, not in any creature, nor in any endowment or qualification, mental or bodily.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 30, 31. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who, on the part of God, has been made unto us wisdom, as also righteousness and sanctification and redemption; 31. that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
Rckert, with his usual precision, asks whether the thought expressed in these two verses is logically connected with the passage as a whole; he answers in the negative, and sees in those two verses only an appendix. We think, as we have just pointed out, that they are on the contrary the indispensable complement of the passage. 1Co 1:26-29 : See what your calling is not, and understand why! 1Co 1:30-31 : See what it is, and again understand why! The is therefore adversative to the vain boasting of the things that are wise, etc., henceforth reduced to silence; there is opposed the cry of triumph and praise on the side of the things foolish and weak; for 1Co 1:31 evidently forms the counterpart of 1Co 1:29. , of Him (God), expresses the essential idea of this conclusion: If things that were not have now become something, it is due to God alone; therefore indicates the origin of this spiritual creation; comp. Eph 2:9. , ye: the things formerly weak, powerless, despised. This pronoun resumes the address of 1Co 1:26. Calvin, Rckert, Hofmann see in the word , ye are, a contrast to the preceding expression: things which are not. It is of God that your transition from nothingness to being proceeds. The words, in Christ, would thus express, secondarily, the means whereby God has accomplished this miracle. Others strictly connect with in the sense of the Johannine phrase: to be of God, to be born of God. But these two explanations have the awkwardness of separating the words from ; whereas we know well how frequently Paul uses the form . It is better therefore, as it seems to me, to translate thus: It is of Him that ye are in Christ; that is to say: It is to God alone that you owe the privilege of having been called to the communion of Christ, and of having thereby become the wise and mighty and noble of the new era which is now opening on the world. The following proposition will explain, by what Christ Himself was, these glorious effects of communion with Him. The phrase , to be in, denotes two moral facts: first, the act of faith whereby man lays hold of Christ; second, the community of life with Him contracted by means of this act of faith. In this relation the believer can appropriate all that Christ was, and thus become what he was not and what he could not become of himself.
In the proposition which follows, the apostle substitutes for , ye, the pronoun , to us; and this because the matter in question now is, what Christ is objectively to men, and not the subjective appropriation of Him by believers.
The aor. Passive, , is generally regarded (Meyer, Edwards) as equivalent in meaning to the aor. Middle, , was, became. It is, indeed, a form springing up from the dialects, and which was only introduced latterly into Attic Greek. But that does not, we think, prevent there being a difference in the use of the two forms. The passive form occurs in the New Testament only some fifty times, compared with about 550 times that the aor. Middle is used; and it is easy in each of those instances to see the meaning of being made, which is naturally that of the Passive. I think, therefore, that we must translate, not, has been or has become, but, has been made. This is confirmed by the adjunct , on the part of God. Yet it should be remarked that the apostle has not written , by God. The , on the part of, weakens the passivity contained in the , and leaves space for the free action of Christ. In using the words , who has been made (historically), the apostle seems to have in mind the principal phases of Christ’s being: wisdom, by His life and teaching; righteousness, by His death and resurrection; sanctification, by His elevation to glory; redemption, by His future return.
The received text places the pronoun , to us, before , wisdom. This reading would have the effect of bringing this substantive into proximity with the three following, from which it would only be separated by the adjunct ; and this adjunct again can be made to depend, not on the verb , but on the substantive itself: wisdom coming from God. In this case there would be nothing to separate it from the three following substantives. But the authority of the mss. speaks strongly in favour of the position of after ; and the adjunct depends more naturally on the verb ; it serves to bring out the idea of the at the beginning of the verse. It must thus be held that the apostle’s intention was clearly to separate the first substantive from the other three, and this has led him to interpose between and the other substantives the two adjuncts: and .
If it is so, it is impossible to maintain the relation which Meyer establishes between the four substantives, according to which they express three co-ordinate notions: 1, that of knowledge of the Divine plan revealed in Christ (wisdom); 2, that of salvation, regarded on the positive side, of the blessings which it brings (righteousness and holiness); 3, that of salvation from the negative view-point, deliverance from condemnation and sin (redemption). Meyer rests his view on the fact that the particle binds the second and third terms closely together, isolating them at the same time from the first and fourth. But regard to philological exactness may have misled this excellent critic here, as in so many instances. Why, in that case, interpose the two adjuncts between the first term and the second? And is it not obvious at a glance that the three last terms are in the closest relation to one another, so that it is impossible to separate them into two distinct groups, co-ordinate with the first? This is what has led a large number of commentators (Rckert, Neander, Heinrici, Edwards, etc.) to see in the three last terms the explanation and development of the first: Christ has become our wisdom, and that inasmuch as He has brought us the most necessary of blessings, salvation, consisting of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It is easy in this case to understand why the first term, which states the general notion, has been separated from the other three which are subordinate to it. Only this explanation is not in harmony with the special sense of religious knowledge, in which the word wisdom is taken in the passage. Wisdom, as a plan of salvation, is contrasted, 1Co 1:24, with salvation itself as a Divine act (, power). How does it come to be identified here with salvation itself? The word, therefore, cannot denote anything else here than the understanding of the Divine plan communicated to man by Jesus Christ. The parallel 1Co 1:24 leads us, I think, to the true explanation which Osiander has developed. According to him, the last three terms are the unfolding of the notion of , power, as the counterpart to that of wisdom. In Christ there has been given first the knowledge of the Divine plan, whereby the believer is rendered wise; then to the revelation there has been added the carrying out of this salvation, by the acquisition of which we become strong. This effective salvation includes the three gifts: righteousness, holiness, redemption. The only objection to this view is that the would require to be placed so as to connect together on the one hand, and the following three terms on the other, whereas by its position this copula rather connects and (righteousness and holiness), as the second connects the third substantive with the fourth. But the omission of a copula fitted to connect the first substantive with the other three may have been occasioned by two circumstances: 1, the two adjuncts which separate the word wisdom from the following three; 2, the difficulty of adding to the copula , which joins the word righteousness with the following, a new copula intended to connect it with the preceding (see Osiander). Then, if it is remembered that the salvation described in the last three substantives is only the realization of the Divine plan designated by the first (wisdom), it will be seen that these may be placed there as a sort of grammatical apposition to the first.
The idea of , righteousness, is that developed by Paul in the first part of the Epistle to the Romans, chaps. 1-5. It is the act of grace whereby God removes the condemnation pronounced on the sinner, and places him relatively to Himself, as a believer, in the position of a righteous man. The possibility of such a Divine act is due to the death and resurrection of Christ.
The term , holiness or sanctification, is the Divine act which succeeds the preceding, and whereby there is created in the believer a state in harmony with his position as righteous. It is the destruction of sin by the gift of a will which the Holy Spirit has consecrated to God. This act is that described by the apostle in the succeeding passage of the Epistle to the Romans, Rom 6:1 to Rom 8:17. I have sought to show in my Commentary on that Epistle, at Rom 6:19, that the term denotes sanctification, not in the sense in which we usually take the word, as a progressive human work, but as the state of holiness divinely wrought in believers. Justification is generally regarded as a gift of God; but sanctification as the work by which man ought to respond to the gift of righteousness. St. Paul, on the contrary, sees in holiness a Divine work no less than in righteousness: Christ Himself is the holiness of the believer as well as his righteousness. This new work is due to His exaltation to glory, whence He sends the Holy Spirit; and by Him He communicates His own life to the justified believer (Joh 7:39; Joh 16:14). If, then, our righteousness is Christ for us, our sanctification is Christ in us, Christ is our holiness as well as our righteousness. He is finally our redemption, our complete and final deliverance. Such is the meaning of the word . The development of this third idea is found, Rom 8:18-30. This deliverance, which consists of entrance into glory, is the consummation of the two preceding acts of grace. It is by His glorious advent that Jesus will thus emancipate justified and sanctified believers from all the miseries of their present state, and give them an external condition corresponding to their spiritual state. Meyer asserts that this meaning of would demand the complement , of the body, as in Rom 8:23. But the term redemption embraces much more than the simple fact of the resurrection of the body. It has the wide sense in which we find it, Luk 21:28; Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30; Heb 11:35. As to the view of Meyer, who sees in this word only the negative side of moral redemption, deliverance from guilt and sin, it is certainly too weak, and besides this blessing was already implied in the two foregoing terms.
If we so obviously find in the Epistle to the Romans the development of the three last terms, in which the notion of salvation is summed up, we cannot forget that the development of the first, , occurs immediately afterwards in the same Epistle, in chaps. 9-11, which so admirably expound the whole plan of God.
Calvin rightly observes that it would be hard to find in the whole of Scripture a saying which more clearly expresses the different phases of Christ’s work.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God was made unto us wisdom and justification and sanctification and redemption. This wonderful climacteric sentence would be condemned by an English critic as bad grammar. Why? Too many conjunctions. It is a figure of speech peculiar to the Greek language called polysyndeton, which means many conjunctions. Why does the Holy Ghost in this sentence use this polysyndeton? Rest assured He makes no mistakes. The Greek Testament abounds in what an English critic would call grammatical error, from the simple fact that the English language sacrifices precision for elegance, which is never done in the inspired Scriptures, where all other considerations succumb to the grand predominating interest of truth. In this beautiful, wonderful and comprehensive verse the Holy Ghost has effectually fortified His truth against some very fatal heresies, which are this day endeavoring to undermine it. This polysyndeton effectually and eternally annihilates the Zinzendorf heresy that you get it all in conversion, by separately and distinctly specifying the different works of grace, laying them down in their consecutive order. Wisdom is here used in its general sense, and means conviction, contrastively with the egregious folly exhibited by the wicked walking straight into Hell. The highest behest of true wisdom is to keep out of danger. We all commend George Washington for his long, frequent, and (in the estimation of his foolish critics) disgraceful retreats before the British army, till the arrival of General Lafayette, in command of the French army, when he fought heroically and achieved American independence, which in the finale was due more to his judicious retreats than chivalric courage. Conviction is superinduced by preaching the Sinai gospel till the wicked get their eyes open, see Hell coming to meet them, and the devil dragging them in, and actually feel a prelude of Hell torment (Psa 116:3). The reason why the churches are filled up with unsaved people is because they have never had a genuine gospel conviction, which is the foundation of every true work of grace, and without which conversion is impossible. The fact that we have a copulative conjunction here coming between wisdom and righteousness is demonstrative proof that they represent separate and distinct works of grace, i. e., conviction and justification, wrought by the Holy Ghost. Righteousness here, which is the true justification, is none other than the righteousness of God in Christ, which is imputed to the sinner when in the profound realization of his utterly ruined condition and his meekness for Hell fire he casts himself in utter desperation on the mercy of God in Christ. Then the loving Father, for Christs sake alone, counts him righteous, i. e., imputing to him the righteousness of Christ. Oh! what a wonderful Christ we have! He has three righteousnesses one peculiar to His Divinity, and essential to it, which He will ever retain and never impart to you or to me; another peculiar to His humanity, and essential to it, which He will ever retain and never impart to you or to me. Besides, He has a third righteousness arising from His perfect obedience to the Divine law, actively keeping it unbroken forever, and passively dying for it, thus perfectly by His expiatory atonement forever satisfying the violated law in our behalf. This third righteousness, which is neither essential to His Divinity nor humanity, He procured not for Himself, because He did not need it, but for us, who without it are eternally undone. This is the righteousness which the Father freely imputes to every truly penitent sinner who in utter desperation and self-abandonment, by simple faith, letting go every other hope, casts himself on the mercy of God in Christ, felicitously realizing his happy soul caught and safe in the arms of Jesus. While all sinners are full of sin, it is equally true that all Christians are sinful (i. e., having inward tendencies to sin) until they are sanctified wholly. This is admitted by all churches, Papist and Protestant, the only question of controversy being the time and condition of receiving this complete and final expurgation of sinful proclivities out of the heart, Popery locating it in purgatory, hyper- Calvinism in death, and the Word of God now, through faith. The copulative conjunction properly translated, and here intervening between righteousness, i. e., justification and sanctification, is unanswerable proof that they are separate and distinct works of grace; e. g., you say husband and wife, meaning two distinct persons; horse and buggy, meaning not the same but different things; water and fire produce steam, meaning two distinct elements, both indispensable in the manufacture of steam. Here the Holy Ghost says righteousness and sanctification, the copulative conjunction distinctly revealing two separate works of grace. How we grieve the Holy Ghost, who made this revelation, when we mix up conversion and sanctification in the same work of grace, which always ultimates in the eclipse of the latter. It is the testimony of Christendom that people having been truly born of God, and enjoying the true witness of the Spirit to their adoption, ever and anon realize an inward conflict, the flesh warring against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, so that they may not do the things which they wish (Gal 6:17). It is a matter equally incontestably attested by myriads of witnesses, living and dead, that these sinward tendencies have been removed and perfect spiritual liberty enjoyed long before lifes end. About dinner time you speak to your chum, Is it not time the bell would ring for dinner? The tavern keeper overhearing you, responds, Certainly; we always have dinner in this hotel, but do you not know that you ate your dinner along with your breakfast? You settle with that tavern keeper and leave him at once, knowing that he has concocted a stratagem to cheat you out of your dinner. Equally inconsistent, thousands of preachers this day respond to the people, hungry for sanctification, sick of the inward conflict, and longing for full redemption, Certainly, beloved; we believe and preach sanctification; that is all right, rest assured; but do you not know that you got sanctified when you were converted? Good Lord, give you all a lot of the colored preachers sanctifigumption Then you will know that all this is a trick of the devil through the preacher (whom he has deceived) to cheat you out of your sanctification, which is to be convicted for, sought after, found, witnessed to, and enjoyed as a glorious work of grace, subsequent to and distinct from your conversion. This verse is really invaluable as a schedule of the different works of grace wrought by the Holy Ghost in the plan of salvation, severally and distinctly presented in their consecutive order, hence invaluable as a theological compendium. Redemption is also connected with the preceding link in this golden chain by the copulative conjunction and. Hence we see it is another separate and distinct work wrought by the Holy Ghost. This redemption means the glorification of humanity, soul, mind and body. There are two methods by which the body enters the glorified state, i. e., translation, which was evidently the Edenic economy, and will be the prerogative of all the members of the Bridehood in the Rapture, and I know again become prominent during the Millennial ages. The body also will be glorified in the resurrection. The mind enters the glorified state when the soul leaves the body in the physical death, or goes with the body the nigh way of translation. Much Scripture on perfection, ordinarily applied to the perfection of grace in this life, really appertains to the perfection of glory in the age to come (Heb 6:5). Justification saves us from guilt, sanctification from depravity, and glorification from infirmity. Multitudes of our unsanctified critics put sanctification where the Bible puts glorification, thus holding the professors of sanctification responsible for the standard of angelic or glorified perfection, which precludes all infirmities, and is not applicable to any person invested in mortal flesh, and which none of us will ever be competent to verify till this mortal puts on immortality. Wesley well says, While in these bodies we can only think, speak and act through organs of clay. Hence we are all full of infirmities, liable to a thousand mistakes, doing wrong, aiming to do right. We are constantly incident to mistakes through error of judgment, memory and failure of bodily organs generally. When our Savior was interviewed in reference to the woman who survived her seventh husband, Whose wife shall she be in the resurrection? He responded, There will neither be marrying nor giving in marriage in that day, but all will be as the angels of God. The Greek translated as the angels, is isoi aggelol. Isoi means like, or equal. Hence our Savior said that we shall be like the angels and equal to the angels in the resurrection. Hence we see that the glorified state confers angelic perfection, which is entirely different from Christian perfection. In the latter, infirmities abound in the former, they disappear altogether.
Absolute perfection belongs to God only; angelic perfection to the angels and glorified humanity in Heaven, while Christian perfection, free from sin, with Christ crowned in the heart and life, still abounds in infirmities which are not sin, but simply the effects of sin. The small-pox is cured so that your health is perfect; yet you are very ugly, because the scars disfigure you all over your body. The sanctified soul is glorified by the Holy Ghost simultaneously with the evacuation of the body. The countenances of departed saints lying in their coffins frequently shine with supernatural radiance, and reflect an unearthly beauty. It is the splendor of the glorified soul reflected back in the vacated tenement simultaneously with its triumphant exit; like the setting sun anon bespangling the Oriental skies with myriad tints and hues, exhibiting the variegated beauties of the rainbow reflected back while retreating through the golden gates of Hesperus.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 30
Of him are ye in Christ Jesus; that is, your being in Christ is the work of God, and glory of it is to be given to him, and not to any human instrument.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1Co 1:30. Stands in a relation to 1Co 1:26-29 similar to that of 1Co 1:24 to 1Co 1:21-23, declaring what Christ actually is to His people. 1Co 1:27-28 say what God did that men may not (1Co 1:29) exult in themselves: 1Co 1:30 says what God has done in Paul’s readers that they may (1Co 1:31) exult in Him.
You are etc.: cp. 1Co 6:11.
In Christ: see Rom 6:11. Christ is the element in which you live and from which you draw your life.
From Him: from God, the source of all inward union with Christ. For, salvation and all that pertains to it has its origin in the Father.
Who has become etc.] In those who dwell in Christ, Christ dwells; and in proportion as His presence fills and rules them are they full of divine Wisdom. Having Him they have a key which unlocks the mysteries of God’s eternal purpose of mercy, and of the present life: and, knowing this eternal purpose and the eternal realities, they are able to choose aright their steps in life.
From God: emphatic repetition of From Him. He who gave Christ to be the element of our life also gave Him to be in us as our wisdom. These references to wisdom prepare the way for 4.
Righteousness: as in Rom 1:17.
Sanctification: the impartation of objective and subjective holiness. See notes, Rom 1:7; Rom 6:19. Since Christ died that we (Rom 3:26) may be justified, and (Rom 6:10-11) may live by spiritual contact with the risen Saviour a life devoted to God, and since this purpose is realized in those who abide in Christ, He is to us both righteousness and sanctification.
Redemption: liberation on payment of a price: see Rom 3:24; Rom 8:23. The bondage or evil, from which the redeemed are set free, must in each case be determined by the context. The general statement here suggests deliverance from the material and moral evils and powers around us, from death, and from the grave. So Luk 21:28; Eph 4:30. In Christ redemption is already ours. For we are now free in spirit from the powers which once held us in bondage: and the rescue of our body is only a matter of time. And, only in proportion as Christ is the element of our life, are we free. Thus Christ crucified is (1Co 1:24) to us the power and wisdom of God.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
1:30 But {a} of him are ye in Christ Jesus, {27} who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
(a) Whom he cast down before, now he lifts up, indeed, higher than all men: yet in such a way that he shows them that all their worthiness is outside of themselves, that is, it stands in Christ, and that of God.
(27) He teaches that especially and above all things, the Gospel ought not to be condemned, seeing that it contains the principal things that are to be desired, that is, true wisdom, the true way to obtain righteousness, the true way to live honestly and godly, and the true deliverance from all miseries and calamities.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
God is the source of the believer’s life in Christ (cf. 1Co 1:2). Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are metaphors of salvation, the result of the wisdom we find in Christ (cf. 1Co 6:11). Righteousness focuses on our right standing in the sight of God (justification), sanctification on His making us more holy (sanctification), and redemption on our liberation from sin (glorification).