If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
All Commentaries on 1 John 1:6 Go To 1 John 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
This is He who cometh by water and blood, Jesus Christ. This is Messias, the Son of God, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, whom the Prophets foretold should come to redeem the world by His Blood, and purify it by the water of baptism, as is plain from Ezekiel 36:47, and Zechariah 12:13. John proves that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; that Isaiah , that Jesus is true Man and true God. He does this, 1st Because He is He who came, Greek, ό ε̉λθὼν, i.e, Hebrews , the Coming One, the Messias, who indeed the Prophets promised should come: whom the Scripture ( Isaiah 9:6. and elsewhere) signified should be God and the Son of God. Wherefore Coming or About to come is the Name of Messiah. For so the Jews called Him from the prophetic oracles. This is plain from S. John 1:15, &c.
Again, he proves the same thing from the water and the blood of which the Body of Christ was constituted, and which He shed for us. For they signify, 1That Christ was a true Prayer of Manasseh , and not a phantasm, as Simon Magus and Manes pretended. For the human body is composed of water and blood.
2d. The water and blood proved that Christ is true God. One reason is that the Blood of Christ was the full price of our redemption, entirely satisfying God for the offences of our sins. Therefore it was necessary that the Blood should be the Blood of a God- Prayer of Manasseh , a man hypostatically united to God: for the blood of a mere man could not be an adequate price for offences against God. A second reason Isaiah , because Christ by the virtue of His Blood in ordaining baptism, endowed it with a Divine power to expiate all the sins of all men. Therefore it was necessary for Him to be God. For Christ did this per se, and authoritatively, not ministerially as dependent upon some one else. But per se to institute a sacrament to remit and atone for sin is a work of Divine power.
There is an allusion in the first place to the water and blood of the victims with which Moses ratified the Old Testament ( Exodus 24:8). By this he signified that Christ by His own Blood and Water would ratify the New Testament. Hear S. Paul, Hebrews 9:19, "For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop," &c.
There is an allusion, secondly, to the water and blood which miraculously flowed from the side of Christ when He was dead upon the Cross. For a dead body, instead of the blood and water of a living one, naturally emits gore (saniem). S. John alone of the Evangelists records this emission of blood and water. By these two it was set forth that by the power of the blood of Christ the faithful should be cleansed from their sins by the water of Baptism. And this is the meaning of the Bride, i.e, the Church, when she says ( Song of Solomon 510), "My Beloved is white and ruddy." (So Cyril, Hieros. Cat13; S. Augustine, lib2de Catech. rud. c6; S. Leo, Epist45 , Hier83; Damascene, 4de Fide, c10; Suarez, 3part. qust53 , disput41 , and others.) From hence our Salmeron is of opinion that Christ always mingled water with His Blood, viz, tears at His circumcision, His Bloody Sweat, His Scourging, and on the Cross before His death. And that this was why He ordered water to be mingled with wine in the Eucharistic Chalice to be converted into His Blood.
Moreover, S. John distinguishes Christ"s Baptism from that of John the Baptist, because the latter was in water only, and, therefore unavailing for the remission of sins. But Christ"s Baptism was in water and blood, and therefore availing to that end. Again, he confutes the Ebionites, who thought that God was appeased with mere water, and who therefore washed themselves daily with water, and offered water only, without wine, in the Eucharistic Chalice, because they denied that we were redeemed by the Blood of Christ. (See Irenus, lib5 c1.)
Lastly, Tertullian (lib. de Bapt. c16) says, Christ came by water when he was baptized by John , by blood when He suffered, that "He might be washed by water, glorified by blood," by the victory of His Passion and Death. "He would have us called by water, elected by blood. This twofold Baptism He shed forth from the wound in His pierced side, that they who believed in His Blood might be washed with water, and that those who were laved with the water of Baptism might also drink His Blood in the Eucharist."
Tropologically, S. Bernard explains it to mean a twofold baptism and a twofold martyrdom: 1st Of compunction by tears; 2nd, By the desire of mortification. "Now because we have said that baptism is signified by water, martyrdom by blood, remember that there is one only and daily baptism, one only and daily martyrdom. For there is indeed a kind of martyrdom and a certain effusion of blood in the daily affliction of the body. There is also a species of baptism in compunction of the heart and frequent tears."
