Saturday, January 11, 2020

Robert Sungenis on 1 Corinthians 6:11


In his commentary on First Corinthians, Robert Sungenis, author of the must-read Not by Faith Alone: The Biblical Evidence for the Catholic Doctrine of Justification (a biblical refutation of Sola Fide), rendered 1 Cor 6:11 thusly:

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.

Commenting on this passage and how it supports (1) baptismal regeneration and (2) refutes forensic justification, he noted:

“washed”: Gr: απελουσασθε, 2× (w: Ac 22:16), a combination of απο (“from” or “away from”) and λυο (“to loose,” “to destroy”), denoting that sin was loosed or removed from them, answering to the Christian sacrament of Baptism (cf. Ti 3:5). Baptism is also implied by the use of “the name of …Christ…the Spirit…our God” since it follows the baptismal formula of Mt 28:19: “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” According to Robertson, this verb is a causative or permissive middle voice and should be translated (as in the margin of the RSV): “you had yourselves washed,” indicating that the Corinthians voluntarily submitted to Baptism and thus it was not a mere ritual or symbolic act for them. They were, indeed, cleansed of sin. The middle voice απελουσασθε is in contrast to the passive voices of both ηγιασθητε (“sanctified”) and εδικαιωθητε (“justified”), the latter two showing that sanctification and justification are acts of God upon the individual. Yet because these passives follow the middle voice, it necessarily means that once the Corinthians submitted to Baptism by their own free will, they were at  once sanctified and justified at that instant. “Sanctified” comes first not because there is any particular ordo salutis in the act of Baptism, but because Paul wishes to stress the holy state that is immediately initiated (cf. Ep 5:26). Added to this is a second term, “justified,” indicating that the individual, through Baptism, has been made righteous in his inner essence, his soul. This is a clear indication in Paul’s theology that “justified” (Gr: δικαιοω) is not forensic . . . (Robert A. Sungenis, The First Epistle to the Corinthians [Catholic Apologetics Study Bible Volume 5; State Line, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc., 2009] 42 n. 113)