Now are ye clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you
Further cleansing necessary
Now are ye clean through the Word, and yet needing to be cleansed.
We have a hint here of the mystery of that double relation in which every believing man stands to God, of that double relation which is more fully and dogmatically stated in some of the Epistles; but which is yet distinctly anticipated here and at chap. 10:10. The faithful in Christ Jesus are “clean,” being by faith justified from all things, and having thus a standing ground before God; which yet is in some sort an ideal one--their actual state, although ever approximating to this, yet still failing to correspond to it--they therefore needing by the same faith to appropriate ever more and more of that sanctifying grace, those purifying influences, which continually stream forth from Him on all them that are His; and by aid of which He is bringing them to be all that, which for His sake His Father has been already willing to regard them, however the absolute identity of what they are and what they are counted to be, is reserved for another state of existence. (Archbishop Trench.)
The Christian’s present condition as compared with the past
At Munich the custom is said to prevail that every child found begging in the streets is arrested, and carried to a charitable establishment. The moment he enters, and before he is cleaned, and gets the new clothes intended for him, his portrait is painted in his ragged dress, and precisely as he was found begging. When his education is finished, this portrait is given him, and be promises by an oath to keep it all his life, that he may be reminded of the abject condition from which he has been rescued, and of the gratitude he owes the establishment which raised him from misery, and taught him how to avoid it for the future. Let the Christian often compare thus his former condition, as a sinner unsaved, with his state as a renewed believer, that his love and gratitude may be excited, and his affections drawn to Him who has wrought the change.