still this cannot be affirmed of the whole body of be- lievers. The great majority of commentators, there- fore, from Augustin down to the present time, under- stand the apostle as stating what is to take place when Christ comes the second time to be admired in all them that believe. It is then, when the dead are raised in the likeness of the Son of God, and when those who shall be alive shall be changed—when this corruption shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality—it is then that the church shall be ‘as a bride prepared for her husband,” Rey. 21, 2, and 19, 7-9.
“Iva παραστήσῃ depends upon what immediately precedes: “having purified it that he might present it,” i. e. cause it to stand before or near him as a bride. So the apostle writing to the Corinthians says, he had * espoused them to one husband, παρθενὸν ἁγνὴν παρα- στῆσαι τῷ Χριστῷ, to present you as a chaste virgin unto Christ.” Here the figure is somewhat different. Christ presents the church to himself, αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ, ἢ he and no other, to himself. He does it. He gave him- self for it. He sanctifies it. He, before the assembled universe, places by his side the bride purchased with his blood. He presents it to himself a glorious church. That is glorious which excites admiration. The church is to be an object of admiration to all intelligent beings, because of its freedom from all defect, and because of its
* The common Text reads αὐτὴν instead of αὐτός. The latter reading on the authority of the MSS. ABDFG, has, since Griesbach, been almost universally adopted.
CHAP. V. vs. 27. 28. 591
absolute perfection. It is to be conformed to the glori- fied humanity of the Son of God, in the presence of which the disciples on the mount became as dead men, and from the clear manifestation of which, when Christ comes the second time, the heavens and the earth are to flee away. God has predestined his people to be conformed to the image of his Son. And when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, 1 John 3,2. The figure is preserved in the description here given of the glory of the consummated church. It is to be as a faultless bride; perfect in beauty and splendidly adorned. She is to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, i. 6. without any thing to mar her beauty, free from every indication of age, faultless and immortal. What is thus expressed figuratively is expressed literally in the last clause of the verse, that it should be holy and without blame, ayia καὶ ἄμωμος. Compare 1, 4, where it is said God hath chosen us, εἶναι ἁγίους καὶ ἀμώμους. It is, there- fore, the original purpose of election formed before the foundation of the world, that is to be fulfilled in this consummation of the church.
V. 28. So ought men to love their wives, as ther own bodies. This does not mean that men ought to love their wives so as they love their own bodies; as though the particles so and as, οὕτως and ὡς, stood related to each other. Οὕτως, so, at the beginning of the verse, refers to the preceding representation. As Christ loves the church and gave himself for it, and as the church is his body, so, in like manner and agreeably