--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 543 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/543/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 543. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/543/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 543. 2 Corinthians · 10 of 24 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/543/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/543/#p-N [¶0] Ambassador is a person sent from one sovereign power to another; and is supposed to represent the person of the sovereign by whom he is deputed. Christ while on earth represented the person of the Sovereign of the world; his apostles and their successors represent the person of Christ. Christ declared the will of the Father to mankind; apostles, etc., declare the will of Christ to the world. We are ambassadors for Christ. [¶1] As though God did beseech you by us - What we say to you we say on the authority of God; our entreaties are his entreaties; our warm love to you, a faint reflection of his infinite love; we pray you to return to God, it is his will that you should do so; we promise you remission of sins, we are authorized to do so by God himself. In Christ's stead we pray you to lay aside your enmity and be reconciled to God; i.e. accept pardon, peace, holiness, and heaven; which are all procured for you by his blood, and offered to you on his own authority. "What unparalleled condescension and divinely tender mercies are displayed in this verse! Did the judge ever beseech a condemned criminal to accept of pardon? Does the creditor ever beseech a ruined debtor to receive an acquittance in full? Yet our almighty Lord, and our eternal Judge, not only vouchsafes to offer these blessings, but invites us, entreats us, and with the most tender importunity solicits us not to reject them." The Rev. J. Wesley's notes in loc. [¶2] This sentiment is farther expressed in the following beautiful poetic version of this place, by the Rev. Charles Wesley: - "God, the offended God most high, [¶3] Ambassadors to rebels sends; [¶4] His messengers his place supply, [¶5] And Jesus begs us to be friends. [¶6] Us, in the stead of Christ, they pray, [¶7] Us, in the stead of Christ, entreat, [¶8] To cast our arms, our sins, away, [¶9] And find forgiveness at his feet. [¶10] Our God, in Christ, thine embassy [¶11] And proffer'd mercy we embrace; [¶12] And, gladly reconciled to thee, [¶13] Thy condescending mercy praise. [¶14] Poor debtors, by our Lord's request [¶15] A full acquittance we receive; [¶16] And criminals, with pardon blest, [¶17] We, at our Judge's instance, live." ### Verse 21 [¶19] For he hath made him to be sin for us - Τον μη γνοντα ἁμαρτιαν, ὑπερ ἡμων ἁμαρτιαν εποιησεν· He made him who knew no sin, (who was innocent), a sin-offering for us. The word ἁμαρτια occurs here twice: in the first place it means sin, i.e. transgression and guilt; and of Christ it is said, He knew no sin, i.e. was innocent; for not to know sin is the same as to be conscious of innocence; so, nil conscire sibi, to be conscious of nothing against one's self, is the same as nulla pallescere culpa, to be unimpeachable. [¶20] In the second place, it signifies a sin-offering, or sacrifice for sin, and answers to the חטאה chattaah and חטאת chattath of the Hebrew text; which signifies both sin and sin-offering in a great variety of places in the Pentateuch. The Septuagint translate the Hebrew word by ἁμαρτια in ninety-four places in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, where a sin-offering is meant; and where our version translates the word not sin, but an offering for sin. Had our translators attended to their own method of translating the word in other places where it means the same as here, they would not have given this false view of a passage which has been made the foundation of a most blasphemous doctrine; viz. that our sins were imputed to Christ, and that he was a proper object of the indignation of Divine justice, because he was blackened with imputed sin; and some have proceeded so far in this blasphemous career as to say, that Christ may be considered as the greatest of sinners, because all the sins of mankind, or of the elect, as they say, were imputed to him, and reckoned as his own. One of these writers translates the passage thus: Deus Christum pro maximo peccatore habuit, ut nos essemus maxime justi, God accounted Christ the greatest of sinners, that we might be supremely righteous. Thus they have confounded sin with the punishment due to sin. Christ suffered in our stead; died for us; bore our sins, (the punishment due to them), in his own body upon the tree, for the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all; that is, the punishment due to them; explained by making his soul - his life, an offering for sin; and healing us by his stripes. [¶21] But that it may be plainly seen that sin-offering, not sin, is the meaning of the word in this verse, I shall set down the places from the Septuagint where the word occurs; and where it answers to the Hebrew words already quoted; and where our translators have rendered correctly what they render here incorrectly. In Exodus, [Exo 29:14], [Exo 29:36] : Leviticus, [Lev 4:3], [Lev 4:8], [Lev 4:20], [Lev 4:21], [Lev 4:24], [Lev 4:25], [Lev 4:29], [Lev 4:32-34]; [Lev 5:6], [Lev 5:7], [Lev 5:8], [Lev 5:9], [Lev 5:11], [Lev 5:12]; [Lev 6:17], [Lev 6:25], [Lev 6:30]; [Lev 7:7], [Lev 7:37]; [Lev 8:2], [Lev 8:14]; [Lev 9:2], [Lev 9:3], [Lev 9:7], [Lev 9:8], [Lev 9:10], [Lev 9:15], [Lev 9:22]; [Lev 10:16], [Lev 10:17], [Lev 10:19]; [Lev 12:6], [Lev 12:8]; [Lev 14:13], [Lev 14:19], [Lev 14:22], [Lev 14:31]; [Lev 15:15], [Lev 15:30]; [Lev 16:3], [Lev 16:5], [Lev 16:6], [Lev 16:9], [Lev 16:11], [Lev 16:15], [Lev 16:25], [Lev 16:27]; [Lev 23:19] : Numbers, [Num 6:11], [Num 6:14], [Num 6:16]; [Num 7:16], [Num 7:22], [Num 7:28], [Num 7:34], [Num 7:40], [Num 7:46], [Num 7:52], [Num 7:58], [Num 7:70], [Num 7:76], [Num 7:82], [Num 7:87]; [Num 8:8], [Num 8:12]; [Num 15:24], [Num 15:25], [Num 15:27]; [Num 18:9]; [Num 28:15], [Num 28:22]; [Num 29:5], [Num 29:11], [Num 29:16], [Num 29:22], [Num 29:25], [Num 29:28], [Num 29:31], [Num 29:34], [Num 29:38]. [¶22] Besides the above places, it occurs in the same signification, and is properly translated in our version, in the following places: - 2 Chronicles, [2Chr 29:21], [2Chr 29:23], [2Chr 29:24] : Ezra, [Ezr 6:17]; [Ezr 8:35] : Nehemiah, [Neh 10:33] : Job, [Job 1:5] : Ezekiel, [Eze 43:19], [Eze 43:22], [Eze 43:25]; [Eze 44:27], [Eze 44:29]; [Eze 45:17], [Eze 45:19], [Eze 45:22], [Eze 45:23], [Eze 45:25]. In all, one hundred and eight places, which, in the course of my own reading in the Septuagint, I have marked. [¶23] That we might be made the righteousness of God in him - The righteousness of God signifies here the salvation of God, as comprehending justification through the blood of Christ, and sanctification through his Spirit or, as the mountains of God, the hail of God, the wind of God, mean exceeding high mountains, extraordinary hail, and most tempestuous wind; so, here, the righteousness of God may mean a thorough righteousness, complete justification, complete sanctification; such as none but God can give, such as the sinful nature and guilty conscience of man require, and such as is worthy of God to impart. And all this righteousness, justification, and holiness, we receive in, by, for, and through Him, as the grand, sacrificial, procuring, and meritorious cause of these, and every other blessing. Some render the passage: We are justified through him; before God; or, We are justified, according to God's plan of justification, through him. [¶24] In many respects, this is a most important and instructive chapter. [¶25] 1. The terms house, building, tabernacle, and others connected with them, have already been explained from the Jewish writings. But it has been thought by some that the apostle mentions these as readily offering themselves to him from his own avocation, that of a tentmaker; and it is supposed that he borrows these terms from his own trade in order to illustrate his doctrine; This supposition would be natural enough if we had not full evidence that these terms were used in the Jewish theology precisely in the sense in which the apostle uses them here. Therefore, it is more likely that he borrowed them from that theology, than from his own trade. [¶26] 2. In the terms tabernacle, building of God, etc., he may refer also to the tabernacle in the wilderness, which was a building of God, and a house of God, and as God dwelt in that building, so he will dwell in the souls of those who believe in, love, and obey him. And this will be his transitory temple till mortality is swallowed up of life, and we have a glorified body and soul to be his eternal residence. [¶27] 3. The doctrines of the resurrection of the same body; the witness of the Spirit; the immateriality of the soul; the fall and miserable condition of all mankind; the death of Jesus, as an atonement for the sins of the whole world; the necessity of obedience to the Divine will, and of the total change of the human heart, are all introduced here: and although only a few words are spoken on each, yet these are so plain and so forcible as to set those important doctrines in the most clear and striking point of view. [¶28] 4. The chapter concludes with such a view of the mercy and goodness of God in the ministry of reconciliation, as is no where else to be found. He has here set forth the Divine mercy in all its heightenings; and who can take this view of it without having his heart melted down with love and gratitude to God, who has called him to such a state of salvation. [¶29] 5. It is exceedingly remarkable that, through the whole of this chapter, the apostle speaks of himself in the first person plural; and though he may intend other apostles, and the Christians in general, yet it is very evident that he uses this form when only himself can be meant, as in [2Cor 5:12] and [2Cor 5:13], as well as in several places of the following chapter. This may be esteemed rather more curious than important. ### Introduction [¶31] We should not receive the grace of God in vain, having such promises of support from him, [2Cor 6:1], [2Cor 6:2]. We should act so as to bring no disgrace on the Gospel, [2Cor 6:3]. How the apostles behaved themselves, preached, suffered, and rejoiced, [2Cor 6:4-10]. St. Paul's affectionate concern for the Corinthians, [2Cor 6:11-13]. He counsels them not to be yoked with unbelievers, and advances several arguments why they should avoid them, [2Cor 6:14-16]. Exhorts them to avoid evil companions and evil practices, on the promise that God will be their Father and that they shall be his sons and his daughters, [2Cor 6:17], [2Cor 6:18], ### Verse 1 [¶33] We then, as workers together with him - Συνεργουντες δε και παρακαλουμεν. The two last words, with him, are not in the text, and some supply the place thus: we then, as workers together With You, and the Armenian version seems to have read it so; but no MS. has this reading, and no other version. For my own part I see nothing wanting in the text if we only suppose the term apostles; we, (i.e. apostles), being fellow workers, also entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain. [¶34] By the grace of God, την χαριν του Θεου, this grace or benefit of God, the apostle certainly means the grand sacrificial offering of Christ for the sin of the world, which he had just before mentioned in speaking of the ministry of reconciliation. We learn, therefore, that it was possible to receive the grace of God and not ultimately benefit by it; or, in other words, to begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh. Should any one say that it is the ministry of reconciliation, that is, the benefit of apostolic preaching, that they might receive in vain; I answer, that the apostolic preaching, and the whole ministry of reconciliation, could be no benefit to any man farther than it might have been a means of conveying to him the salvation of God. And it is most evident that the apostle has in view that grace or benefit that reconciles us to God, and makes us Divinely righteous. And this, and all other benefits of the death of Christ, may be received in vain. ### Verse 2 [¶36] For he saith - That is, God hath said it, by the prophet Isaiah, [Isa 49:8]; which place the apostle quotes verbatim et literatim from the Septuagint. And from this we may at once see what is the accepted time, and what the day of salvation. The advent of the Messiah was the עת רצון eth ratson, the time of God's pleasure or benevolence, of which all the faithful were in expectation; and the day of salvation, יום שועה yom yeshuah, was the time in which this salvation should be manifested and applied. The apostle therefore informs them that this is the time predicted by the prophet; and the ministry of reconciliation being exercised in full force is a proof that the prophecy is fulfilled; and therefore the apostle confidently asserts, Behold, Now is this accepted time, Now the Messiah reigns, Now is the Gospel dispensation, and therefore Now is the day of salvation; that is, the very time in which the power of God is present to heal, and in which every sinner believing on the Lord Jesus may be saved. [¶37] I rather think that this second verse should be read immediately after the last verse of the preceding chapter; as where it now stands it greatly disturbs the connection between the first and the third verses. I will set down the whole in the order in which I think they should stand. [2Cor 5:20] : Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God. For he hath made him a sin-offering for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him: for he saith, "I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. Immediately after this, the sixth chapter will very properly commence, and we shall see that the connection will be then undisturbed: - [¶38] We then, as fellow workers, beseech you also, that ye receive not this grace of God in vain, giving no offense in any thing, that this ministry be not blamed. This change of the place of the second verse, which every one allows must, if it stand here, be read in a parenthesis, preserves the whole connection of the apostle's discourse, and certainly sets his argument before us in a stronger light. Let us review the whole: [¶39] 1. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, [2Cor 5:18]. [¶40] 2. He appointed the apostles to proclaim to mankind the doctrine of reconciliation, [2Cor 5:19]. [¶41] 3. The apostles, in consequence, proclaim this doctrine; and show that Christ was a sacrifice for sin, and that through him we may be perfectly saved, [2Cor 5:20], [2Cor 5:21]. [¶42] 4. They show also that all this was agreeable to the declaration of God by the prophet Isaiah, [Isa 49:8], where he predicts the days of the Messiah, and the grace then to be communicated, [2Cor 6:2]. [¶43] 5. The apostle then, speaking in the person of all his fellow laborers, who had this ministry of reconciliation intrusted to them, exhorts them not to receive such a benefit of God in vain, [2Cor 6:1]. [¶44] 6. He exhorts those who had embraced the Gospel not to put a stumbling block in the way of others, by acting irreligiously, lest this ministry of reconciliation should be reproached on their account, [2Cor 6:3].