1Cor 6:9-11 - Getting the Right Perspective

9-10 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.


Why would Paul bring up all of these sins in the context of what has gone before in the last few verses? How is the willingness of the Corinthians to sue each other connected to this list of perniciousness? Well, it is only connected by the word "unrighteous". When the Corinthians sue each other in a blind and carnal determination to have their own rights exonerated at the expense of another they are displaying unrighteousness. And one manifestation of unrighteousness is not materially different from any other. Jesus Himself made this clear in the sermon on the mount when speaking about lust and adultery, amongst other things. Sin is a heart matter and sins are merely the fruit of the state of the heart.

But Paul goes on to make an incredible statement that completely changes the complexion of his admonishment. Make no mistake, this is a stinging rebuke; he is lumping their behaviour together with the worst of sins, and underlining the fact that the (habitual) practitioners of these things will not (not might not, but will not) inherit the kingdom. Ouch! But watch what happens in verse 11...

Despite their evident behaviour Paul says, "And such were some of you..." The clear implication is that those who are in Christ and have been justified through his blood are no longer under the reigning power of sin. They still commit sin, but a new principle is at work in their hearts freeing them from the reigning power of sin and unto obedience to God. They still have the influence of the flesh which is an enemy, a mortal wound in their being that drags and claws at their resolve - and to which they sometimes surrender - but they also have a new heart, born in them by the Spirit of God and quickened by the very life of Christ. It is a heart that knows the Father and cries out to Him; a heart that is truly brother to the Lord Jesus Christ; the heart of a betrothed bride longing for her husband. It is, nevertheless, a heart which was "born," and which like all newborns must be loved and cherished and disciplined and grown and matured over time.

Bottom line - those who are truly in Christ do not (habitually) sin. Though they stumble and fall and wallow in the mire; though they wander and chafe and balk and even rebel - yet there is a power at work in them that is the Power behind all powers. God Himself is at work in His people and they will bear fruit if they are indeed His Own, for God cannot fail. But He will succeed to the glory of His Name and on account of His wisdom and power, though we believe and though we obey, be it ever so poorly. Paul had this confidence in addressing the Philippians; {Php 1:6} Jonah had it as he languished in the belly of the great fish at the bottom of the ocean. {Jon 2:9} This confidence the Bible calls faith, and it is the gift of God to His people to bring about their sanctification and their endurance to the end.

The means used by God to effect the inevitable preservation of His elect are many and varied. In this case it is the severe rebuke and warning that all sin is deadly and that habitual sin with no indication of the overcoming power of God ought to cause us great fear when we examine ourselves for fruit. But Christ’s true sheep actually do hear His voice and they do come to Him. Those He has justified and in whom the Spirit of God resides also come to Him when He rebukes and corrects. They bow the head and the knee and they ask for the forgiveness that is so readily given to them because they are children and heirs. To the children of God repentance is not simply the one-time price for a ticket to heaven, but an condition of heart that characterizes the life and the attitude towards personal sin.

A word here about words, their meanings and their applications. And the word I want to zero in on is "sanctified". Normally we think of sanctification as a process and justification as a one-time forensic act, even though both are inseparable parts of the same salvation. But even the word "sanctified" must be taken according to its context because sanctification can refer the simple act of setting apart for holy purposes. Objects could be sanctified for use in the temple; they were dedicated, separated from the common, set apart for holy use. And this is the sense in which "sanctified" is being used here.

The saints have been set apart by God for holy use. In fact, the word "saint" (hagios) carries the sense of an awe-ful thing set apart - holy. We know that we are not experientially holy and yet we are called holy. Our holiness in this context is not on account of our manifest behaviour, but on account of God’s covenantal and decretive purpose for us in Christ. What makes us holy, what sanctifies us from the git-go is not we ourselves, but God’s intended purpose for us.

So the monergistic work of God brought to fruition in the atoning death and resurrection of Christ does these three things without any help from us whatsoever - they were all decreed while we were yet dead in trespasses and sins:

1) We are assigned to be washed clean. All of our sin is to be put away from before the face of God with such certainty that He remembers them no more. We are to be acquitted and cleansed. No more guilt from original Adamic sin. No more guilt from our own iniquities. It’s a done deal from the start and forever.

2) We are sanctified; not experientially, but as to purpose or use. We have been removed from the common and the ordinary and have been dedicated for holy use. We are God’s chosen vessels for the separated functions of worship and service. Vessels neither choose nor dedicate themselves. This is God’s work and God’s choice. It is necessarily discriminatory. One vessel is chosen and fitted for honourable use and another is left for menial use. So it is with the children of Adam, who are all of the same lump until and unless God does the separating.

3) We are slated to stand justified before God. Justification is that act by which we are justly regarded by God as righteous because Jesus took the penalty for our sin, exchanging it for His righteousness. We have moved from being under God’s righteous wrath and have been adopted into the family of His dear Son. This change in status occurs the moment we believe, but is decreed for each of His elect from before the foundation of the world. As such, it is plain that all that is necessary to bring about the decree is also ordained. God decrees the means as well as the ends. And part of the means are repentance for sin and faith towards God. Our faith and repentance themselves are gifts of God and are not our contribution to our salvation.

See that these things are all accomplished in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. What did we do that ensured and effected this great transformation in status? Nothing whatsoever - it is the gift of God. But how ought we to respond in the light of this gift? Aha! And therein lies the nub. All that we do as Christians comes through faith in Christ which responds to what Christ has already done for us. In this way, we actually can do nothing for Him and He rightly gets all the glory. As creatures we react to God; as clay we are molded and shaped by Him; as branches we carry His sap and bear His fruit. Yes, we do so with willingness and increasing obedience - and in doing so we are blessed with joy and peace - but these blessings are the superabundant overflow of the gifts themselves. They are grace upon grace. They are the infinite riches of Christ brimming over our finite rims and cascading out into the world.

So we are set apart in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. All that is represented by the Name of Christ is the authority and the reason - the appropriative means - of our sanctification. His work is recapitulated in His Name(s) - especially the Names used here...

1) Lord - He must be the Lord of our lives; indeed He will be the Lord of our lives to us if we are true believers. This means that He has actual authority over our thoughts, words and deeds. We defer to Him. We obey Him. Whenever our desires and wants are at variance with His revealed purposes and will then we bow the knee and put to death what is not of Him in us. Jesus cannot be Saviour unless He is also Lord. We do not make Him Lord, but we acknowledge Him to be Lord through our lives.

2) Jesus - He is named Jesus because he will save His people from their sins. {Mt 1:20-21} Not might save, but will save. Not make it possible for them to be saved, but to actually and effectually save them. The Name of Jesus incorporates the salvation He worked out for those He came to redeem.

3) Christ - This Saviour Jesus is also Messiah of the Jews and Christ of the Gentiles - the true and legitimate King of God’s people by right of descendancy according to the flesh (therefore truly a man) and according to the definite plan of God He is also Emmnu-el - God with us - recognizing that He is, at one and the same time, also the God of all creation.

And all of the rights encompassed and incorporated by the finished work of this "Lord Jesus Christ" are communicated to His people by the Spirit of God. Not by the cleverness of man, nor by any power vested in natural men, nor even by those men who may be the servants and vessels of God - but by the Spirit of God alone. So it is Christ’s finished work and His very Being that forms the basis and provides the means of our cleansing, allowing us to be set apart (sanctified) for God and it is the Holy Spirit Who applies these things in the lives of His elect people.

And Paul’s argument to the Corinthians here is through using the strong implication that, if indeed they were once corrupt and immoral people living according to the flesh and its passions and desires, but they have now been delivered and set apart by God Himself (and not by their own power), then they will behave differently. Obviously, if they do not behave differently then they have a legitimate reason to question whether they were really set apart by God in the first place. They may have been. But where is the fruit? This is not an assertion by Paul of something that has undeniably occurred to these particular people, for only God knows those that are His for sure. This is a rhetorical device that starts with the presupposition that they are indeed reborn children of God. It’s not an assertion, but a premise ... "But such were some of you..." Not all of them were grossly immoral. Some may have been saved from the far greater dangers of self righteousness, or religious disinterest, or cynicism.

No matter what particular manifestation of the reigning power of sin they were saved from, they were all born sinners and by nature enemies of God. But what has God done? He has saved even the worst of them from gross immorality, washed away the guilt of that corruption, and set them apart for holy use. That being the case – having, by grace, been forgiven much greater offenses against God than they could possibly perpetrate against each other - they ought to get some perspective and start taking the eternal view.