I Cor. 6:11 ... "And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God."
In Charlotte Elliott's hymn we sing: "Just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot. To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come!" In Rom. 5:8-9 we read: "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." However it has been possible for man to sin, people have sinned many times over. In the verses just preceding I Cor. 6:11 Paul mentions fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers and swindlers. In other places various New Testament writers extend this list to include quite a number of other sins. All sins are wicked and incur God's wrath and condemnation, but many of them are especially vile, being destructive both to those who commit them and to those who are often their victims. Some sins seem so abominable that human judgment rules them unforgivable. And yet, for all we know God will forgive any sin except the one of which a person will not repent. God gave His Son as the sacrifice sufficient to remove all sin, if people will avail themselves of His most gracious gift.
Christians who have lived "straight" moral lives may feel that those who practice fornication, homosexual behavior, theft, drunkenness, and the like are so fouled up by wickedness that they can never really be cleansed and converted into the true image of Christ. We may feel that a residue of the sin always remains dormant somewhere, ready to spring to life at the right opportunity, so that the brother or sister can never be trusted. The Corinthian Christians, however, had a background in sinful practices that were nothing short of abominable. Fornication was sanctioned in their native religion, the worship of Aphrodite. Homosexuality was open in society and was defended by influential people as being a higher level of love than the heterosexual type. Drunkenness was also incorporated in Greek religion in the worship of Bacchus, the god of wine. And yet, when Paul preached the gospel of Christ to them, they believed and were baptized into Christ for the remission of all those sins, (Acts 18:8). Looking back upon their conversion, Paul declares, "but you were washed (baptized)." As a result he says that they were sanctified (set apart to serve God) and justified (pronounced not guilty of the sins they had formerly committed many times over). Now Paul says they were saints (I Cor. 1:2) and brethren (I Cor. 1:10).
While Christians may be reluctant to accept former fornicators, homosexuals, drunkards, and thieves as being truly converted, many of those who continue in these sins refuse to accept what they are doing as being sinful. There are many who see no evil in fornication. They defend same gender sexual behavior as being an "alternate lifestyle" just as moral as heterosexual behavior. Drunkenness is defined as a "disease" rather than a sin, so that the inebriate is "sick" and not sinful. God through the apostle whom He inspired, however, puts all such behavior in the category of "unrighteousness" and declares that those who practice it "shall not inherit the kingdom of God," (v.9). As Christians we must oppose such behavior as unequivocally sinful. But when someone who lived in it is converted, we must accept him without reservation as "washed, sanctified, and justified," being now a saint of God and a true brother in Christ.
