Redeemed from the Curse, to the Blessing of Abraham.
The two chapters of Galatians that we have already studied give us
sufficient idea of the entire book, so that we can practically take
leave of the Galatian brethren, and consider it as addressed solely to
us. The circumstances that called forth the writing of the epistle were
that the Galatians, having accepted the Gospel, were led astray by false
teachers, who presented to them “another gospel,” that is, a counterfeit
gospel, since there is but one for all time and for all men. The way it
was presented to them was, “Except ye be circumcised after the manner of
Moses, ye can not be saved.” Outward circumcision was given as a sign of
righteousness which the individual already possessed by faith. Rom.
4:11. It was a sign that the law was written in the heart by the Spirit,
and it was, therefore, only a mockery and a sham when the law was
transgressed. Rom. 2:25-29. But for one to be circumcised in order to be
saved, was to put his trust in works of his own and not in Christ. Now,
although there is in these days no question as to whether or not a man
should submit to the specific rite of circumcision in order to be saved,
the question of salvation itself, whether by human works or by Christ
alone, is as live a one as ever.
Instead of attacking their error, and combating it with hard argument,
the apostle begins with experience, the relation of which illustrates
the case in hand. In this narrative he has occasion to show that
salvation is wholly by faith, for all men alike, and not in any degree
by works. As Christ tasted death for every man, so every man who is
saved must have Christ’s personal experience of death and resurrection
and life. Christ in the flesh does what the law could not do. Gal. 2:21;
Rom. 8:3, 4. But that very fact witnesses to the righteousness of the
law. If the law were at fault, Christ would not fulfil its demands. He
shows its righteousness by fulfilling, or doing, what it demands, not
simply for us, but in us. The grace of God in Christ attests the majesty
and holiness of the law. We do not frustrate the grace of God; if
righteousness could come by the law, then would Christ be dead in vain.
But to claim that the law could be abolished, or could relax its claims,
and thus be of no account, is also to say that Christ is dead in vain.
Let it be repeated, righteousness can not possibly come by the law, but
only by the faith of Christ; but the fact that the righteousness of the
law could be attained in no other way by us than by the crucifixion and
resurrection and life of Christ in us, shows the infinite greatness and
holiness of the law.
“O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus
Christ was openly set forth crucified? This only would I learn from you,
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
perfected in the flesh? Did ye suffer so many things in vain? if it be
indeed in vain. He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and
worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by
the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned
unto him for righteousness. Know therefore that they which be of faith,
the same are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. So then they
which be of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. For as many as
are of the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, Cursed
is every one which continueth not in all things that are written in the
book of the law, to do them. Now that no man is justified by the law in
the sight of God, is evident; for, The righteous shall live by faith;
and the law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for
us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree; that
upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus;
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
“Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, Though it be but a man’s
covenant, yet when it hath been confirmed, no one maketh it void, or
addeth thereto. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his
seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy
seed, which is Christ. Now this I say: A covenant confirmed beforehand
by God, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth
not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. For if the
inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God hath
granted it to Abraham by promise. What then is the law? It was added
because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise
hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a
mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one. Is
the law then against the promises of God? God forbid; for if there had
been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have
been of the law. Howbeit the Scripture hath shut up all things under
sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe.
“But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto
the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law hath been
our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor. For ye are
all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as
were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew
nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and
female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ’s,
then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” Galatians 3, R.
V.
[Sidenote: The Sin of Witchcraft.]
The apostle asks those who are departing from God and His truth, “Who
hath bewitched you?” “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” 1 Sam. 15:22, 23. If you
look up this text in the Bible, you will see that in both instances the
words “is as” are added. The literal Hebrew is, “Rebellion is the sin of
witchcraft, and stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry.” And how
so?—Plainly enough, for stubbornness and rebellion are rejection of God;
and he who rejects God, puts himself under the control of evil spirits.
All idolatry is devil-worship. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice,
they sacrifice to devils.” 1 Cor. 10:20. There is no middle ground.
Christ says, “He that is not with Me is against Me.” Matt. 12:30. That
is, disobedience, rejection of the Lord, is the spirit of antichrist.
The Galatian brethren were, as we have already seen, departing from God,
and consequently they were inevitably, although perhaps unconsciously,
relapsing into idolatry.
[Sidenote: The Safeguard against Spiritualism.]
Spiritualism is only another name for ancient witchcraft and
soothsaying. It is a fraud, but not the kind of fraud that most people
think it is. There is reality in it. It is a fraud in that while it
professes to receive communications from the spirits of the dead, it has
communication only with the spirits of devils, since “the dead know not
anything.” To be a Spiritualist medium is to give one’s self to the
control of demons. Now there is only one protection against this, and
that is to hold fast to the Word of God. He who lightly regards God’s
Word, severs himself from association with God, and puts himself within
Satan’s influence. Even though a man denounce Spiritualism in the
strongest terms, if he does not hold to God’s Word, he will sooner or
later be carried away by the strong delusion. Only by keeping the Word
of Christ’s patience can men be kept from the temptation that is coming
on all the world. Rev. 3:10. “The spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2), is the spirit of Satan, the spirit
of antichrist; and the Gospel of Christ, which reveals the righteousness
of God (Rom. 1:16, 17), is the only possible salvation from it.
[Sidenote: Christ Crucified before Us.]
“Who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set
forth crucified?” Jesus was set forth before the Galatians, when Paul
preached to them, as openly crucified before their eyes. So vivid was
the presentation, that they could actually see Christ crucified. It was
not skilful word-painting on the part of Paul, nor imagination on the
part of the Galatians, for then it would have been only deception. No;
it was an actual fact; Christ was there, crucified, before their eyes,
and Paul by the Spirit enabled them to see Him. We know that it was not
Paul’s skill in making beautiful word pictures that enabled them to
fancy that they saw the crucifixion, for elsewhere Paul says that he
determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that
he purposely and carefully refrained from using the wisdom of words, for
fear that he should make the cross of Christ without effect. 1 Cor.
1:17, 18; 2:1-4. The experience of the Galatians in this matter was not
peculiar to them. The cross of Christ is a present thing. The
expression, “Come to the cross,” is not an empty form of words, but an
invitation that can be literally complied with. Christ is crucified
before us, and each blade of grass, each leaf in the forest, reveals the
fact. Yea, we have the testimony in our own bodies, in that, although
sinful and corruptible, we yet live. Not until one has seen Christ
crucified before his eyes, and can see the cross of Christ at every
turn, does one know the reality of the Gospel. Let those scoff who will;
the fact that a blind man can not see the sun, and denies that it
shines, will not deter one who sees it from talking of its glory. Many
there are who can testify that it is something more than a figure of
speech, when the apostle says that Christ was crucified before the eyes
of the Galatians. They have had the experience. God grant that this
study of Galatians, before it is finished, may be the means of opening
the eyes of many more, so that they may see Christ crucified before
their eyes, and know Him crucified in them and for them.
[Sidenote: A Good Beginning.]
The question, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith?” admits of but one answer. It was by the hearing of
faith. The Spirit is given to those who believe. John 7:39; Eph. 1:13.
The question also shows that the Galatians had received the Holy Spirit.
There is no other way of beginning the Christian life. “No man can say
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” 1 Cor. 12:3. In the
beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, begetting
life and activity in the creation; for without the Spirit there is no
motion—no life. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts.” Zech. 4:6. The Spirit of God alone can carry out the
perfect will of God, and no works that a man can do can bring Him into
the soul, any more than a dead man can manufacture the breath by which
he can be made to live and move. Those to whom Paul addressed this
Epistle had seen Christ crucified before their eyes, and had accepted
Him through the Spirit. Have you also seen and accepted Him?
[Sidenote: Hold Fast the Beginning.]
“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in
the flesh?” Foolish is but a feeble term for it. The man who has not
power to begin a work, has strength to finish it! He who has not
strength to put one foot before the other, or even to stand alone, has
strength enough in himself to win a race! Impossible. Who has power to
beget himself? No one; we come into this world without having begotten
ourselves; we are born without strength; and, therefore, all the
strength that ever manifests itself in us, comes from another than
ourselves. It is all given to us. The new-born babe is the
representative of man. “A man is born into the world.” All the strength
that any man has of himself is found in the infant as it utters its
first cry with its first breath. And even that feeble strength is not of
itself. Even so in things spiritual. “Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of truth.” James 1:18. We can no more live righteous lives by
our own strength than we could beget ourselves. The work that is begun
by the Spirit, must be carried to completion by the Spirit. “We are made
partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end.” Heb. 3:14. “He which hath begun a good work in
you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil. 1:6. And He
alone can do it.
[Sidenote: Experience in the Gospel.]
“Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He
therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among
you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”
These questions show that the experience of the Galatian brethren had
been as deep and as real as would be expected from those before whose
eyes Christ was openly crucified. The Spirit had been given to them,
miracles had been wrought among them, and even by them, for the gifts of
the Spirit accompany the gift of the Spirit; and as the result of this
living Gospel among them, they had suffered persecution; for “all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3:12.
This makes the case the more serious. Having shared the sufferings of
Christ, they were now departing from Him; and this departure from
Christ, through whom alone righteousness can come, was marked by
disobedience to the law of truth. They were insensibly but inevitably
transgressing the law to which they were looking for salvation.
[Sidenote: Abraham Believed God.]
The questions asked in verses 3, 4, and 5 suggest their own answer. The
Spirit was ministered, and miracles were wrought, not by works of law,
but by “the hearing of faith,” that is, by the obedience of faith, for
faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Rom. 10:17. Thus Paul’s labor,
and the first experience of the Galatians, were exactly in line with the
experience of Abraham, whose faith was accounted for righteousness. Let
it be remembered that the “false brethren” who preached “another
gospel,” even the false gospel of righteousness by works, were Jews, and
claimed Abraham for their father. It would be their boast that they were
children of Abraham, and they would appeal to their circumcision as
proof of the fact. But the very thing upon which they relied as proving
them to be children of Abraham, was proof that they were not; for
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Abraham had the righteousness of faith before he was circumcised. Rom.
4:11. “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham.” Abraham was not justified by works (Rom. 4:2, 3),
but his faith “wrought righteousness.”
The same trouble still exists. People take the sign for the substance,
the end for the means. They see that righteousness reveals itself in
good works; therefore, they assume that the good works bring the
righteousness. Righteousness gained by trusting, good works wrought
without working, seem to them impractical and fanciful. They call
themselves “practical” men, and believe that the only way to have a
thing done is to do it. But the truth is that all such men are highly
impractical. A man absolutely “without strength” can not do anything,
not even so much as to raise himself up to take the medicine that is
offered him; and any counsel for him to try to do it would be
impractical. Only in the Lord is there righteousness and strength. Isa.
45:24. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall
bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the
light.” Ps. 37:5, 6. Abraham is the father of all who believe for
righteousness, and of those only. The only practical thing is to trust,
even as he did.
[Sidenote: The Gospel to the Gentiles.]
“The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the Gospel beforehand unto Abraham.” This verse will bear much
reading. An understanding of it will guard one against many errors. And
it is not difficult to understand; simply hold to what it says, and you
have it.
(_a_) For one thing, the verse shows us that the Gospel was preached at
least as early as the days of Abraham.
(_b_) It was God Himself who preached it; therefore, it was the true and
only Gospel.
(_c_) It was the same Gospel that Paul preached; so that we have no
other Gospel than that which Abraham had.
(_d_) The Gospel differs in no particular now from what it was in
Abraham’s day; for his day was the day of Christ. John 8:56.
God requires just the same things now that He required then, and nothing
more.
Moreover, the Gospel was then preached to the Gentiles, for Abraham was
a Gentile, or, in other words, a heathen. He was brought up as a
heathen, for “Terah, the father of Abraham,” “served other gods” (Joshua
24:2), and was a heathen till the Gospel was preached to him. So the
preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles was no new thing in the days of
Peter and Paul. The Jewish nation was taken out from among the heathen,
and it is only by the preaching of the Gospel to the heathen that Israel
is built up and saved. See Acts 15:14-18; Rom. 11:25, 26. The very
existence of the people Israel always was and still is a standing proof
that God’s purpose is to save a people from among the Gentiles. It is in
fulfilment of this purpose that Israel exists.
Thus we see that the apostle takes the Galatians, and us, back to the
fountain-head,—to the place where God Himself preaches the Gospel to us
Gentiles. No Gentile can hope to be saved in any other way or by any
other gospel than that by which Abraham was saved.
[Sidenote: Blessed with Abraham.]
“So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Mark
the close connection between this and the preceding verse. The Gospel
was preached to Abraham in the words, “In thee shall all nations be
blessed.” (It should be remembered, in passing, that the words
“heathen,” or “Gentiles,” as in the Revised Version, and “nations,” in
verse 8, come from the very same Greek word.) This blessing is the
blessing of righteousness through Christ, as we learn from Acts 3:25,
26: “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God
made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all
the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised
up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of
you from his iniquities.” Because God preached the Gospel to Abraham,
saying, “In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” those
who believe are blessed with the faithful Abraham. There is no blessing
for any man except the blessing which Abraham received, and the Gospel
preached to him is the only Gospel there is for any people under heaven;
for besides the name of Jesus, in whom Abraham believed, “there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” In
Him “we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of
sins.” Col. 1:14. The forgiveness of sins carries with it all blessings.
[Sidenote: A Contrast: Under the Curse.]
Note the sharp contrast in verses 9 and 10. “They which be of faith are
blessed,” but “as many as are of the works of the law are under the
curse.” Faith brings the blessing; works bring the curse, or, rather,
leave one under the curse. The curse is on all, for “he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of
the only-begotten Son of God.” John 3:18. Faith removes the curse.
Who are under the curse?—“As many as are of the works of the law.” Note
that it does not say that those who do the law are under the curse, for
that would be a contradiction of Rev. 22:14: “Blessed are they that do
His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may
enter in through the gates into the city.” “Blessed are the undefiled in
the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Ps. 119:1.
So, then, they that are of faith are keepers of the law; for they that
are of faith are blessed, and those who do the commandments are blessed.
By faith they do the commandments. The Gospel is contrary to human
nature, and so it is that we become doers of the law, not by doing, but
by believing. If we worked for righteousness, we should be exercising
only our own sinful human nature, and so would get no nearer to
righteousness, but farther from it; but by believing the “exceeding
great and precious promises,” we become partakers of the Divine nature
(2 Peter 1:4), and then all our works are wrought in God. “The Gentiles,
which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness,
even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of
righteousness. Wherefore?—Because they sought it not by faith, but as it
were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone;
as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a Stumbling-stone and Rock of
offense; and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” Rom.
9:30-33.
[Sidenote: What the Curse Is.]
No one can read Gal. 3:10 carefully and thoughtfully without seeing that
the curse is transgression of the law. Disobedience to God’s law is
itself the curse; for “by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin.” Rom. 5:12. Sin has death wrapped up in it. Without sin death
would be impossible, for “the sting of death is sin.” 1 Cor. 15:56. “As
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” Why? Is it
because the law is a curse?—Not by any means. “The law is holy, and the
commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12. Why, then, are as many
as are of the works of the law under the curse?—Because it is written,
“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them.” Mark it well: They are not cursed
because they do the law, but because they do not do it. So, then, we see
that being of the works of the law does not mean that one is doing the
law. No; “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. All are under the
curse, and he who thinks to get out by his own works, remains there. The
curse consists in not continuing in all things that are written in the
law; therefore, the blessing means perfect conformity to the law. This
is as plain as language can make it.
[Sidenote: Blessing and Cursing.]
“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing,
if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you
this day; and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord
your God.” Deut. 11:26-28. This is the living word of God, addressed to
each one of us personally. “The law worketh wrath” (Rom. 4:15), but the
wrath of God comes only on the children of disobedience (Eph. 5:6). If
we truly believe, we are not condemned, but only because faith brings us
into harmony with the law—the life of God. “Whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
James 1:25.
[Sidenote: Good Works.]
The Bible does not disparage good works. On the contrary, it exalts
them. “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou
affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful
to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable.” Titus
3:8. The charge against the unbelieving is that they are “unto every
good work reprobate.” Titus 1:16. Timothy was exhorted to “charge them
that are rich in this world,” “that they do good, that they be rich in
good works.” 1 Tim. 6:17, 18. And the apostle Paul prayed for us all,
that we might “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work.” Col. 1:10. Still further, we are assured that God
has created us in Christ Jesus “unto good works,” “that we should walk
in them.” Eph. 2:10.
He has Himself prepared these works for us, wrought them out, and laid
them up for all who trust in Him. Ps. 31:19. “This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” John 6:29. Good works are
commended, but we can not do them. They can be performed only by the One
who is good, and that is God. If there be ever any good in us, it is God
who worketh in us. There is no disparagement of anything that He does.
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in
you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Heb. 13:20, 21.
[Sidenote: Who Are the Just?]
When we read the frequent statement, “The just shall live by faith,” it
is necessary to have a clear idea of what the word “just” means. If we
read the same text in the Revised Version, we shall learn. It has it,
“The righteous shall live by faith.” To be justified by faith is to be
made righteous by faith. “All unrighteousness is sin” (1 John 5:17), and
“sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Therefore, all
unrighteousness is transgression of the law, and of course all
righteousness is obedience to the law. So we see that the just, or
righteous, man is the man who obeys the law, and to be justified is to
be made a keeper of the law.
[Sidenote: How to Become Just.]
Righteousness is the end to be obtained, and the law of God is the
standard. “The law worketh wrath,” because “all have sinned,” and “the
wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” How shall we
become doers of the law, and thus escape wrath, or the curse? The answer
is, “The righteous shall live by faith.” By faith, not by works, we
become doers of the law. “With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness.” Rom. 10:10. That no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God, it is evident. From what does it appear?—From this,—that
“the just shall live by faith.” If righteousness came by works, then it
would not be by faith; “if by grace, then is it no more of works;
otherwise grace is no more grace.” Rom. 11:6. “To him that worketh is
the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness.” Rom. 4:4, 5. There is no exception, no
half-way working. It is not said that some of the just shall live by
faith, or that they shall live by faith and works, but, simply, “the
just shall live by faith,” and that proves that it is not by their own
works. All of the just are made and kept just by faith alone. This is
because the law is so holy. It is greater than can be done by man; only
Divine power can accomplish it; so by faith we receive the Lord Jesus,
and He lives the perfect law in us.
[Sidenote: The Law Not of Faith.]
“The law is not of faith.” Of course it is the written law, no matter
whether in a book or on tables of stone, that is here referred to. That
law simply says, “Do this,” or, “Do not do that.” “The man that doeth
them shall live in them.” That is the sole condition on which the
written law offers life. Works, and works only, commend themselves to
it. How those works are obtained is of no consequence to it, provided
they are present. But none have done the requirements of the law, and so
there can be no doers of the law, that is, none who in their own lives
can present a record of perfect obedience.
[Sidenote: Life Is Action.]
“The man that doeth them shall live in them.” But one must be alive in
order to do. A dead man can do nothing, and he who is “dead in
trespasses and sins” can do no righteousness. Christ is the only one in
whom there is life, for He is the life, and He alone has done and can do
the righteousness of the law. When, instead of being denied and
repressed, He is acknowledged and received, He lives in us all the
fulness of His life, so that it is no more we but Christ living in us,
and then His obedience in us makes us righteous. Our faith is counted
for righteousness, simply because our faith appropriates the living
Christ. In trust we yield our bodies as temples of God; Christ, the
Living Stone, is enshrined in the heart, which becomes God’s throne, and
so the living law is our life; for out of the heart are the issues of
life.
[Sidenote: The Real Question at Issue.]
Let the reader pay particular attention to the fact that there is in
this epistle no controversy over the law, as to whether or not it should
be obeyed. No one had claimed that the law was abolished, or changed, or
had lost its force. The epistle contains no hint of any such thing. The
question was not if the law should be kept, but how it was to be kept.
Justification—being made righteous—was admitted to be a necessity; the
question was, Is it by faith, or by works? The false brethren were
persuading the Galatians that they must be made righteous by their own
efforts; Paul was by the Spirit showing that all such attempts were
useless, and could result only in fastening more firmly the curse upon
the sinner. Righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ is set forth to
all men in all time as the only real righteousness. The false teachers
made their boast in the law, but through breaking it caused the name of
God to be blasphemed. Paul made his boast in Christ, and by the
righteousness of the law, to which he thus submitted, caused the name of
God to be glorified in him.
[Sidenote: The Sting of Sin.]
That death is the curse is evident from the last part of verse 13,
“Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” Christ was made a curse
for us, in that He hung on a tree, that is, was crucified. But sin is
the cause of death. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom.
5:12. “The sting of death is sin.” 1 Cor. 15:56. So we have the
substance of verse 10 thus, that those who do not continue in the things
written in the law are dead. That is, disobedience is death. And this is
what the Scripture says: “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth
sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Sin contains
death, and men out of Christ are “dead in trespasses and sins.” It
matters not that they walk about seemingly full of life, the words of
Christ are, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His
blood, ye have no life in you.” John 6:53. “She that liveth in pleasure
is dead while she liveth.” 1 Tim. 5:6. It is a living death—a body of
death—that is endured. Rom. 7:24. Sin is the transgression of the law;
the wages of sin is death. The curse, therefore, is the death that is
carried about concealed even in the most attractive sin. “Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the
book of the law to do them.”
[Sidenote: Redemption from the Curse.]
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.” Let us stop right
here and contemplate this fact, leaving the way of redemption for later
consideration. We need to consider the statement very carefully, for
some who read it straightway rush off frantically exclaiming, “We don’t
need to keep the law, because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
it,” as though the text said that Christ redeemed us from the curse of
obedience. Such read the Scriptures to no profit. The curse, as we have
seen, is disobedience. “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Therefore,
Christ has redeemed us from disobedience to the law. God sent forth His
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, “that the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” Rom. 8:4.
Some one may lightly say, “Then we are all right; whatever we do is
right so far as the law is concerned, since we are redeemed.” It is true
that all are redeemed, but not all have accepted redemption. Many say of
Christ, “We will not have this Man to reign over us,” and thrust the
blessing of God from them. But redemption is for all; all have been
purchased with the precious blood—the life—of Christ, and all may be, if
they will, free from sin and death. By that blood we are redeemed from
our “vain manner of life.” 1 Peter 1:18, R. V.
Stop and think what this means; let the full force of the announcement
impress itself upon your consciousness. “Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law,”—from not continuing in all its righteous
requirements. We need not sin any more. He has snapped asunder the cords
of sin that bound us, so that we have but to accept His salvation in
order to be free from every besetting sin. It is not necessary for us
any longer to spend our lives in earnest longings for a better life, and
in vain regrets for desires unrealized. Christ raises no false hopes,
but He comes to the captives of sin, and cries to them, “Liberty! Your
prison doors are open. Go forth.” What more can be said? Christ has
gained the complete victory over “this present evil world,” over “the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” and
our faith in Him makes His victory ours. We have but to accept it.
[Sidenote: Christ Made a Curse for Us.]
That “Christ died for the ungodly” is evident to all who read the Bible.
He “was delivered for our offenses.” Rom. 4:25. The Innocent suffered
for the guilty; the Just for the unjust. “He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of
our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like
sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isa. 53:5, 6. But death
came by sin. Death is the curse that has passed upon all men, simply
because “all have sinned.” So, as Christ was “made a curse for us,” it
follows that Christ was “made to be sin on our behalf.” 2 Cor. 5:21, R.
V. He bore “our sins in His own body” up to the tree. 1 Peter 2:24,
margin. Note that our sins were “in His body.” It was no superficial
work that He undertook. The sins were not merely figuratively laid on
Him, but they were actually in Him. He was made a curse for us, made to
be sin for us, and consequently suffered death for us.
To some this truth seems repugnant; to the Greeks it is foolishness, and
to the Jews a stumbling-block, but “to us who are saved, it is the power
of God.” For bear in mind that it was our sins that He bore in His own
body—not His own sins. The same scripture that tells us that He was made
to be sin for us, assures us that He “knew no sin.” The same text that
tells us that He carried our sins “in His own body,” is careful to let
us know that He “did no sin.” The fact that He could carry our sin about
with Him, and in Him, being actually made to be sin for us, and yet not
do any sin, is to His everlasting glory and our eternal salvation from
sin. All the sins of all men were on Him, yet no person ever discovered
the trace of sin upon Him. No sin was ever manifested in His life,
although He took all sin upon Himself. He received it and swallowed it
up by the power of the endless life in which He swallows up death. He
can bear sin, and yet be untainted by it. It is by this marvelous life
that He redeems us. He gives us His life, so that we may be freed from
every taint of the sin that is in our flesh.
Christ, “in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to
save Him from death,” “was heard in that He feared.” Heb. 5:7. But He
died! Yes; but no one took His life from Him; He laid it down, that He
might take it again. John 10:17, 18. The pangs of death were loosed,
“because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” Acts 2:24.
Why was it not possible for death to hold Him, even though He
voluntarily put Himself in its power?—Because He “knew no sin;” He took
sin upon Himself, but was saved from its power. He was “in all things”
“made like unto His brethren,” “in all points tempted like as we are”
(Heb: 2:17; 4:15), and since He could of Himself do nothing (John 5:30),
He prayed to the Father to keep Him from being overcome and thereby
falling under the power of death. And He was heard. In His case these
words were fulfilled: “The Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not
be confounded; therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know
that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth Me; who will
contend with Me?” Isa. 50:7, 8.
Whose sin was it that thus oppressed Him, and from which He was
delivered?—Not His own, for He had none. It was your sin and mine. Our
sins have already been overcome—vanquished. We have to fight only with
an already defeated foe. When you come to God “in the name of Jesus,”
having surrendered yourself to His death and life, so that you do not
bear His name in vain, because Christ liveth in you, you have only to
remember that every sin was on Him, and is still on Him, and that He is
the conqueror, and straightway you will say, “Thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Now thanks be
unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh
manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.” 2 Cor. 2:14.
[Sidenote: The Revelation of the Cross.]
In Gal. 3:13 we are brought back to the subject presented in Gal. 2:20
and 3:1,—the ever-present cross. The subject is inexhaustible, but the
following few facts may serve to open it up to our minds:—
1. The redemption from sin and death is accomplished through the cross.
Gal. 3:13.
2. The Gospel is all contained in the cross; for the Gospel is “the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16),
and “unto us which are saved” the cross of Christ “is the power of God”
(1 Cor. 1:18).
3. Christ is revealed to fallen men only as the Crucified and risen One.
There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby salvation
may be obtained (Acts 4:12), and, therefore, it is all that God sets
forth before men, since He does not wish to confuse them. “Christ and
Him crucified,” is all that Paul wished to know; it is all that any man
needs to know. Thus the one thing that men need is salvation; if they
get that, they get all things; but salvation is found only in the cross
of Christ; therefore, God puts before the eyes of men nothing else: He
gives them just what they need. Jesus Christ is by God set forth openly
crucified before the eyes of every man, so that there is no excuse for
any to be lost, or to continue in sin.
4. Christ is set forth before men only as the crucified Redeemer; and
since that from which men need to be saved is the curse, He is set forth
as bearing the curse. Wherever there is any curse, there is Christ
bearing it. We have already seen that Christ bore, and still bears, our
curse, in that He bears our sin. He also bears the curse of the earth
itself, for He bore the crown of thorns, and the curse pronounced on the
earth was, “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth.” Gen. 3:18.
So the whole creation, which now groans under the curse, has been
redeemed through the cross of Christ. Rom. 8:19-23.
5. It is only on the cross that Christ bears the curse, for His being
made a curse for us was indicated by His hanging on the cross. The cross
is the symbol of the curse, but also of deliverance from the curse,
since it is the cross of Christ, the Conqueror and Deliverer. The very
curse itself, therefore, presents the cross, and proclaims our
deliverance.
6. Where is the curse? Ah, where is it not? The blindest can see it, if
he will but acknowledge the evidence of his own senses. Imperfection is
a curse, yea, that is the curse; and imperfection is on everything
connected with this earth. Man is imperfect, and even the finest plant
that grows from the earth is not as perfect as it might be. There is
nothing that meets the eye that does not show the possibility of
improvement, even if our untrained eyes can not see the absolute
necessity of it. When God made the earth, everything was “very good,”
or, as the Hebrew idiom has it, “good exceedingly.” God Himself could
see no chance, no possibility, for improvement. But now it is different.
The gardener spends his thought and labor trying to improve the fruits
and flowers under his care. And since the best that the earth produces
reveals the curse, what need be said of the gnarled, stunted growths,
the withered and blasted buds and leaves and fruits, and the noxious,
poisonous weeds? Everywhere “hath the curse devoured the earth.” Isa.
24:6.
7. What, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter? Is it
discouragement? Nay; “for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thess. 5:9. Although the
curse is visible everywhere,—
“Change and decay in all around I see,”—
yet things live, and men live. But the curse is death, and no man and no
thing in creation can bear death and still live. Death kills. But Christ
is He that liveth, and was dead, and is alive forevermore. Rev. 1:18. He
alone can bear the curse—death—and still live. Therefore, the fact that
there is life on the earth and in man, in spite of the curse, is proof
that the cross of Christ is everywhere. Every blade of grass, every leaf
of the forest, every shrub and tree, every flower and fruit, even the
bread that we eat, is stamped with the cross of Christ. In our own
bodies is Christ crucified. Everywhere is that cross; and as the
preaching of the cross is the power of God, which is the Gospel, so it
is that the everlasting power of God is revealed in all things that He
has made. That is “the power that worketh in us.” Eph. 3:20. Rom.
1:16-20, compared with 1 Cor. 1:17, 18, amounts to a plain declaration
that the cross of Christ is seen in all the things that God has
made—even in our own bodies.
[Sidenote: Courage from Despair.]
“Innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine iniquities have taken
hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the
hairs of mine head; therefore my heart faileth me.” Ps. 40:12. But not
only may we with confidence cry unto God out of the depths, but God in
His infinite mercy has so ordered it that the very depths themselves are
a source of confidence. The fact that we are in the depths of sin, and
yet live, is proof that God Himself, in the person of Christ on the
cross, is present with us to deliver us. So everything, even the curse,
for everything is under the curse, preaches the Gospel. Our own weakness
and sinfulness, instead of being a cause of discouragement, are, if we
believe the Lord, a pledge of redemption. Out of weakness we are made
strong. “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
that loved us.” Rom. 8:37. Truly, God has not left Himself without
witness among men. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself.” 1 John 5:10.
[Sidenote: The Blessing from the Curse.]
Christ bore the curse, in order that the blessing might come to us. He
bears the curse now, being crucified before us, and in us, and we with
Him, that we may continually experience the blessing. Death to Him is
life to us. If we willingly bear about in our bodies the dying of the
Lord Jesus, the life also of Jesus will be manifested in our mortal
flesh. 2 Cor. 4:10, 11. He was made to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21. What is the blessing
that we receive through the curse that He bears? It is the blessing of
salvation from sin; for as the curse is the transgression of the law
(Gal. 3:10), the blessing consists in turning away every one of us from
our iniquities (Acts 3:26). Christ suffered the curse, even sin and
death, “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ.” And what is the blessing of Abraham? The writer of this
Epistle, having stated that Abraham was made righteous by faith, adds:
“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God
imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Rom. 4:6-8. And then he shows
that this blessing comes on the Gentiles as well as on the Jews who
believe, because Abraham received it when he was uncircumcised, “that he
might be the father of all them that believe.” The blessing is freedom
from sin, even as the curse is the doing of sin; and as the curse
reveals the cross, so we find that the very curse is by the Lord made to
proclaim the blessing. The fact that we live, although we are sinners,
is the assurance that deliverance from the sin is ours. “While there’s
life there’s hope,” says the adage. Yes, because the Life is our hope.
Thank God for the blessed hope! The blessing has come upon all men; for
“as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation;
even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life.” Rom. 5:18. God, who is “no respecter of
persons,” “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ.” Eph. 1:3. It is ours to keep. If any one has not this
blessing, it is because he has not recognized the gift, or has
deliberately thrown it away.
[Sidenote: A Finished Work.]
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,”—from sin and death.
This He has done by “being made a curse for us,” and so we are freed
from all necessity of sinning. Sin can have no dominion over us if we
accept Christ in truth, and without reserve. This was just as much a
present truth in the days of Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah, as it is
to-day. More than seven hundred years before the cross was raised on
Calvary, Isaiah, who testified of the things which he understood,
because his own sin had been purged by a live coal from God’s altar,
said: “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; ... He
was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are
healed.... The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isa.
53:4-6. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and,
as a cloud, thy sins; return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.” Isa.
44:22. Long before Isaiah’s time, David wrote: “He hath not dealt with
us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” “As far
as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions
from us.” Ps. 103:10, 12.
“We which have believed do enter into rest,” because “the works were
finished from the foundation of the world.” Heb. 4:3. The blessing that
we received is “the blessing of Abraham.” We have no other foundation
than that of the apostles and prophets. Eph. 2:20. It is a full and
complete salvation that God has provided; it awaits us as we come into
the world; and we do not relieve God of any burden by rejecting it, nor
do we add to His labor by accepting it.
[Sidenote: “The Promise of the Spirit.”]
Christ hath redeemed us, “that we might receive the promise of the
Spirit through faith.” Do not make the mistake of reading this as though
it were “that we might receive the promise of the gift of the Spirit.”
It does not say that, and it does not mean that, as a little thought
will show. Christ has redeemed us, and that fact proves the gift of the
Spirit, for it was only “through the eternal Spirit” that He offered
Himself without spot to God. Heb. 9:14. But for the Spirit, we should
not know that we were sinners; much less should we know redemption. The
Spirit convinces of sin and of righteousness. John 16:8. “It is the
Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.” 1 John 5:6.
“He that believeth hath the witness in himself.” Christ is crucified in
every man; that, as we have already seen, is shown in the fact that we
are all under the curse, and Christ alone, on the cross, bears the
curse. But it is through the Spirit that Christ dwells on earth among
men. Faith enables us to receive the testimony of this witness, and
rejoice in that which the possession of the Spirit assures.
Note further: The blessing of Abraham comes on us, in order that we may
receive the promise of the Spirit. But it is only through the Spirit
that the blessing comes; therefore, the blessing can not bring to us the
promise that we shall receive the Spirit. We already have the Spirit
with the blessing. But, having the blessing of the Spirit, namely,
righteousness, we are sure of receiving that which the Spirit promises
to the righteous, namely, an everlasting inheritance. In blessing
Abraham God promised him an inheritance. The expression, “the promise of
the Spirit,” is used, as is plainly to be seen, in the same sense as
“the promise of God,” “the gift of God;” that is, the promise or the
gift which God bestows. The Spirit is the pledge of all good.
[Sidenote: The Spirit the Pledge of Inheritance.]
All God’s gifts are in themselves promises of more. There is always much
more to follow. God’s purpose in the Gospel is to gather together in one
all things in Jesus Christ, “in whom also we have obtained an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will; that we should be
to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your
salvation; in whom also after that [or when] ye believed, ye were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the
praise of His glory.” Eph. 1:10-14.
Of this inheritance we must speak further later on. Suffice it now to
say that it is the inheritance promised to Abraham, whose children we
become by faith. The inheritance belongs to all who are children of God
through faith in Christ Jesus; and the Spirit that marks our sonship is
the promise, the pledge, the first-fruits of that inheritance. Those who
accept Christ’s glorious deliverance from the curse of the
law,—redemption not from obedience to the law, for obedience is not a
curse, but from disobedience to the law,—have in the Spirit a taste of
the power and the blessing of the world to come.
[Sidenote: The Promise Was Made to Abraham.]
It will be seen that Abraham is the one about whom this chapter centers.
He is the one to whom the Gospel of world-wide salvation was preached.
He believed, and received the blessing, even the blessing of
righteousness. All who believe are blessed with believing Abraham. They
who are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse, in order that the blessing of Abraham might
come on us. “To Abraham and his seed were the promises made.” “If the
inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to
Abraham by promise.” Thus it is clear that the promise to us is the
promise that was made to Abraham,—the promise of an inheritance,—and in
which we share as his children. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse,
that we might receive the inheritance of righteousness. Christ through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, to purge our
consciences from dead works to serve the living God; because “He is the
Mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death ... they which are
called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” Heb. 9:14, 15.
[Sidenote: “And His Seed.”]
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And
to seeds, as of many; but as of one; and to thy Seed, which is Christ.”
There is here no play upon words; the issue is a vital one. The
controversy is over the way of salvation, whether it is by Christ alone,
or by something else, or by Christ and something or somebody else. Many
people imagine that it is by them,—that they must save themselves by
making themselves good. Many others think that Christ is a valuable
adjunct, a good assistant to their efforts; while others still are
willing to give Him the first place, but not the only place. They regard
themselves as good seconds. It is the Lord and they who do the work. But
our text shuts off all this assumption and self-assertion. Not seeds,
but the seed. Not many, but one. “And to thy Seed, which is Christ.”
Christ is the One.
[Sidenote: Not Two Lines.]
We hear much about the “spiritual seed” and the “literal seed” of
Abraham. If that contrast meant anything at all, it would mean a
fanciful seed as opposed to a real seed. The opposite of _spiritual_ is
_fleshly_, and the fleshly seed, as we shall see later on, is not the
real seed, but only a bond-servant, to be cast out, having no share
whatever in the inheritance. So there is no fleshly seed of Abraham. The
spiritual seed, however, is a literal, or real, seed, even as Christ is
“a quickening Spirit,” and yet most real. It is possible for men walking
about in the body, in this world, to be wholly spiritual, and such they
must be, or else they are not children of Abraham. “They that are in the
flesh can not please God.” “Flesh and blood doth not inherit the kingdom
of God.” There is only one line of descendants from Abraham, only one
set of real children, and they are those who are of faith,—those who, by
receiving Christ by faith, receive power to become sons of God.
[Sidenote: Many Promises in One.]
But while the Seed is singular, the promises are plural. It is not
merely one specific promise that was made to Abraham and his Seed, but
promises. God has nothing for any man that was not promised to Abraham;
and all the promises of God are conveyed in Christ, in whom Abraham
believed. “For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the
yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God
through us.” 2 Cor. 1:20.
[Sidenote: The Promised Inheritance.]
That the thing promised, and the sum of all the promises, is an
inheritance, is clearly seen from Gal. 3:15-18. The sixteenth verse has
just been noted, and the seventeenth verse tells us that the law, coming
in four hundred and thirty years after the promise was made and
confirmed, can not make it of none effect; “for if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by
promise.” Verse 18. What this promised inheritance is may be seen by
comparing the verse just quoted with Rom. 4:13: “For the promise, that
he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed,
through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” And so,
although the heavens and the earth which are now are “reserved unto fire
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men,” when “the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat,” we, “according to His promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:7, 12, 13.
This is the heavenly country for which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob looked.
[Sidenote: An Inheritance without Curse.]
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse; ... that we might receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith.” This “promise of the Spirit” we
have seen to be the possession of the whole earth made new—redeemed from
the curse; for “the creation itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of
God.” The earth, fresh and new from the hand of God, perfect in every
respect, was given to man for a possession. Gen. 1:27, 28, 31. Man
sinned, and brought the curse upon himself. Christ has taken the whole
curse, both of man and of all creation, upon Himself. He redeems the
earth from the curse, that it may be the everlasting possession that God
originally designed it to be, and He also redeems man from the curse,
that he may be fitted for the possession of such an inheritance. This is
the sum of the Gospel. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. This gift of eternal life is included in
the promise of the inheritance, for God promised the land to Abraham and
to his seed for “an everlasting possession.” Gen. 17:7, 8. It is an
inheritance of righteousness, because the promise that Abraham should be
heir of the world was through the righteousness of faith. Righteousness,
eternal life, and a place in which to live eternally,—these are all in
the promise, and they are all that could possibly be desired or given.
To redeem man, but to give him no place in which to live, would be an
incomplete work; the two things are parts of one whole, for the power by
which we are redeemed is the power of creation,—the power by which the
heavens and the earth are made new. When all is accomplished, “there
shall be no more curse.” Rev. 22:3.
[Sidenote: The Covenants of Promise.]
That the covenant and promise of God are one and the same thing, is
clearly seen from Gal. 3:17, where it appears that to disannul the
covenant would be to make void the promise. In Genesis 17 we read that
God made a covenant with Abraham to give him the land of Canaan—and with
it the whole world—for an everlasting possession; but Gal. 3:18 says
that God gave it to him by promise. God’s covenants with men can be
nothing else than promises to them: “Who hath first given to Him, and it
shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to
Him, are all things.” Rom. 11:35, 36. It is so rare for men to do
anything without expecting an equivalent, that theologians have taken it
for granted that it is the same with God. So they begin their
dissertations on God’s covenant with the statement that a covenant is “a
mutual agreement between two or more persons, to do or refrain from
doing certain things.” But God does not make bargains with men, because
He knows that they could not fulfil their part. After the flood God made
a covenant with every beast of the earth, and with every fowl; but the
beasts and the birds did not promise anything in return. Gen. 9:9-16.
They simply received the favor at the hand of God. That is all we can
do. God promises us everything that we need, and more than we can ask or
think, as a gift. We give Him ourselves, that is, nothing, and He gives
us Himself, that is, everything. That which makes all the trouble is
that even when men are willing to recognize the Lord at all, they want
to make bargains with Him. They want it to be a “mutual” affair—a
transaction in which they will be considered as on a par with God. But
whoever deals with God must deal with Him on His own terms, that is, on
a basis of fact—that we have nothing and are nothing, and He has
everything and is everything, and gives everything.
[Sidenote: The Covenant Confirmed.]
The covenant, that is, the promise of God to give men the whole earth
made new, after having made them free from the curse, was “confirmed
before of God in Christ.” He is the Surety of the new covenant, even the
everlasting covenant. “For how many soever be the promises of God, in
Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory
of God through us.” 2 Cor. 1:20, R. V. In Him we have obtained the
inheritance (Eph. 1:11), for the Holy Spirit is the first-fruits of the
inheritance, and the possession of the Holy Spirit is Christ Himself
dwelling in the heart by faith. God blessed Abraham, saying, “In thy
Seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed,” and this is
fulfilled in Christ, whom God has sent to bless us in turning us away
from our iniquities. Acts 3:25, 26.
[Sidenote: Confirmed by an Oath of God.]
“When God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater,
He sware by Himself; ... for men verily swear by the greater; and an
oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two
immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might
have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the
hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Heb. 6:13-20. Compare
Gen. 22:15-18.
It was the oath of God, therefore, that confirmed the covenant made to
Abraham; that promise and oath to Abraham are our ground of hope, our
strong consolation; they are “sure and steadfast,” because the oath sets
forth Christ as the pledge, the surety, and “He ever liveth.” He upholds
all things by the word of His power. Heb. 1:3. “In Him all things
consist.” Col. 1:17, R. V. Therefore, when God “interposed Himself by an
oath,” which is our consolation and hope in fleeing for refuge from sin,
He pledged His own existence, and with it the entire universe, for our
salvation. Surely a firm foundation for our hope is laid in His
excellent Word.
[Sidenote: The Law Can Not Make the Covenant Void.]
Do not forget as we proceed that the covenant and the promise are the
same thing, and that it conveys land, even the whole earth made new, to
Abraham and his seed; and remember also that, since only righteousness
is to dwell in the new heavens and the new earth promised to Abraham and
his seed, the promise includes the making righteous of all who believe.
This is done in Christ, in whom the promise is confirmed. Now, “though
it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth,
or addeth thereto.” Gal. 3:15. How much more must this be the case with
God’s covenant! Therefore, since perfect and everlasting righteousness
was assured by the covenant made with Abraham, which was also confirmed
in Christ, by the oath of God, it is impossible that the law, which was
spoken four hundred and thirty years later, could introduce any new
feature. The inheritance was given to Abraham by promise, but if after
four hundred and thirty years it should transpire that now the
inheritance must be gained in some other way, then the promise would be
of no effect, and the covenant would be made void. But that would
involve the overthrow of God’s government, and the ending of His
existence; for He pledged His own existence to _give_ Abraham and his
seed the inheritance and the righteousness necessary for it. “For the
promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or
to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
Rom. 4:13. The Gospel was as full and complete in the days of Abraham as
it has ever been or ever will be. No addition to it, or change in its
provisions or conditions, could possibly be made after God’s oath to
Abraham. Nothing can be taken away from it as it thus existed, and not
one thing can ever be required from any man more than what was required
of Abraham.
[Sidenote: What Is the Use of the Law?]
This is the question that the apostle Paul asks in verse 19, both for
the purpose of anticipating the objections of the Antinomians, and also
that he may the more emphatically show the place of the law in the
Gospel. The question is a very natural one. Since the inheritance is
wholly by promise, and a covenant confirmed can not be changed,—nothing
can be taken from it, and nothing added to it,—why did the law come in
four hundred and thirty years afterward? “Wherefore then serveth the
law?” More literally, Why then the law? What business has it here? What
part does it act? Of what use is it?
[Sidenote: The Question Answered.]
“It was added because of transgressions.” Let it be understood that “the
entering of the law” at Sinai was not the beginning of its existence.
The law of God existed in the days of Abraham, and was kept by him. Gen.
26:5. God proved the children of Israel, as to whether they would keep
His law or not, more than a month before the law was spoken upon Sinai.
Ex. 16:1-4, 27, 28.
[Sidenote: “It Was Added.”]
The word here rendered “added” is the same as that rendered “spoken” in
Heb. 12:19: “They that heard entreated that the word should not be
spoken to them any more.” It is the same word that occurs in the
Septuagint rendering of Deut. 5:22, where we read that God spoke the ten
commandments with a great voice; “and He added no more.” So we may read
the answer to the question, “Wherefore then the law?” thus: “It was
spoken because of transgressions.” It is the reprover of sin.
[Sidenote: Because of Transgressions.]
“Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound.” Rom. 5:20. In
other words, “that sin by the commandment might become exceeding
sinful.” Rom. 7:13. It was given under circumstances of the most awful
majesty, as a warning to the children of Israel that by their unbelief
they were in danger of losing the promised inheritance. They did not,
like Abraham, believe the Lord; and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
But the inheritance was promised “through the righteousness of faith,”
and, therefore, the unbelieving Jews could not receive it. So the law
was spoken to them, to convince them that they had not the righteousness
that was necessary for the possession of the inheritance; for, although
righteousness does not come by the law, it must be witnessed by the law.
Rom. 3:21. In short, the law was given to show them that they had not
faith, and so were not true children of Abraham, and were therefore in a
fair way to lose the inheritance. God would have put His law into their
hearts, even as He put it into Abraham’s heart, if they had believed;
but when they disbelieved, yet still professed to be heirs of the
promise, it was necessary to show them in the most marked manner that
their unbelief was sin. The law was spoken because of transgression, or,
what is the same thing, because of the unbelief of the people.
[Sidenote: Self-Confidence Is Sin.]
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just
shall live by his faith.” Hab. 2:4. The people of Israel were full of
self-confidence and of unbelief in God, as is shown by their murmuring
against God’s leading, and by their assumption of ability to do anything
that God required, or to fulfil His promises. They had the same spirit
as their descendants, who asked, “What shall we do, that we might work
the works of God?” John 6:28. They were so ignorant of God’s
righteousness that they thought that they could establish their own
righteousness as an equivalent. Rom. 10:3. Unless they saw their sin,
they could not avail themselves of the promise. Hence, the necessity of
the speaking of the law.
[Sidenote: The Ministration of Angels.]
“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the
sake of them that shall inherit salvation?” Heb. 1:14, R. V. Just what
office the “thousands of angels” who were at Sinai had to perform, we
can not know; but we do know that they have a close and deep interest in
everything that concerns man, although the preaching of the Gospel is
necessarily not committed to them. When the foundations of the earth
were laid, “all the sons of God shouted for joy;” and a multitude of the
heavenly host sang praises when the birth of the Saviour of mankind was
announced. They are attendants upon the King of kings, waiting to “do
His pleasure, harkening unto the voice of His word.” It would not be
otherwise than that they should attend as a royal body-guard when the
law was proclaimed, and, of course, they were not there merely for pomp
and parade. Stephen said to the murderous Sanhedrim: “Ye stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost;
as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your
fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the
coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and
murderers; who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and
have not kept it.” Acts 7:51-53. Of him who is now the adversary, the
devil, it was said, “Thou sealest up the sum,” measure, or pattern. Eze.
28:12. The French of Segond has it, “Thou puttest the seal to
perfection,” and the Danish, “Thou stampest the seal upon the fit
ordinance,” indicating that before his fall he was what might be termed
the keeper of the seal, and that it was his duty to affix it to every
ordinance passed. Angels “excel in strength,” and the fact that they
were all present at the giving of the law shows that it was an event of
the greatest magnitude and importance.
[Sidenote: In the Hand of a Mediator.]
For the present we may pass by the question of time involved in the
phrase, “till the Seed should come, to whom the promise was made,” since
our present study is the relation of the law to the promise. The law was
given to the people from Sinai “in the hand of a Mediator.” Who was this
Mediator?—There can be only one answer: “There is one God, and one
Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” 1 Tim. 2:5. “Now a
mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.” God is one, the
people are the other, and Christ Jesus is the Mediator. Just as surely
as God is one party to the transaction, Christ must be the Mediator, for
there is no other mediator between God and men. “Neither is there
salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.
[Sidenote: Christ’s Work as Mediator.]
Man has wandered from God, and rebelled against Him. “All we like sheep
have gone astray.” Our iniquities have separated between us and Him.
Isa. 59:1, 2. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. Christ came
that He might destroy the enmity, and reconcile us to God; for He is our
peace. Eph. 2:14-16. Christ “suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:18. Through Him we have access
to God. Rom. 5:1, 2; Eph. 2:18. In Him the carnal mind, the rebellious
mind, is taken away, and the mind of the Spirit given in its stead,
“that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4. Christ’s work
is to save that which was lost, to restore that which was broken, to
reunite that which was separated. His name is “God with us;” and so with
Him dwelling in us we are made “partakers of the Divine nature.” 2 Peter
1:4.
It should be understood that Christ’s work as Mediator is not limited
either as to time or extent. To be Mediator means more than to be
intercessor. Christ was Mediator before sin came into the world, and
will be Mediator when no sin is in the universe, and no need for
expiation. “In Him all things consist.” He is the very impress of the
Father’s being. He is the life. Only in and through Him does the life of
God flow to all creation. He is, then, the means, medium, mediator, the
way, by which the light of life pervades the universe. He did not first
become Mediator at the fall of man, but was such from eternity. No one,
not simply no man, but no created being, comes to the Father but by
Christ. No angel can stand in the Divine presence except in Christ. No
new power was developed, no new machinery, so to speak, was required to
be set in motion by the entering of sin into the world. The power that
had created all things only continued in God’s infinite mercy, to work
for the restoration of that which was lost. In Christ were all things
created, and, therefore, in Him we have redemption through His blood.
Col. 1:14-17. The power that pervades and upholds the universe is the
power that saves us. “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that
worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
[Sidenote: The Law Not against the Promise.]
“Is the law then against the promises of God?”—Not by any means. Far
from it. If it were, it would not be in the hands of a Mediator, Christ;
for all the promises of God are in Him. 2 Cor. 1:20. So we find the law
and the promise combined in Christ. We may know that the law was not and
is not against the promises of God, from the fact that God gave both the
promise and the law. We know, also, that the giving of the law
introduced no new element into the covenant, since, having been
confirmed, nothing could be added to or taken from it. But the law is
not useless, else God would not have given it. It is not a matter of
indifference whether we keep it or not, for God commands it. But, all
the same, it is not against the promise, and brings no new element in.
Why?—Simply because the law is in the promise. The promise of the Spirit
includes this: “I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in
their hearts.” Heb. 8:10. And this is what God indicated had been done
for Abraham when “He gave him the covenant of circumcision.” Read Rom.
4:11; 2:25-29; Phil. 3:3.
[Sidenote: The Law Magnifies the Promise.]
The law, as already seen, is not against the promise, because it is in
the promise. The promise that Abraham and his seed should inherit the
world, was “through the righteousness of faith.” But the law is
righteousness, as God says: “Harken unto Me, ye that know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is My law.” Isa. 51:7. So, then, the
righteousness which the law demands is the only righteousness that can
inherit the promised land, but it is obtained, not by the works of the
law, but by faith. The righteousness of the law is not attained by human
efforts to do the law, but by faith. See Rom. 9:30-32. Therefore, the
greater the righteousness which the law demands, the greater is seen to
be the promise of God; for He has promised to give it to all who
believe. Yea, He has sworn it. When, therefore, the law was spoken from
Sinai, “out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick
darkness, with a great voice,” accompanied by the sounding of the trump
of God, and with the whole earth quaking at the presence of the Lord and
all His holy angels, thus indicating the inconceivable greatness and
majesty of the law of God, it was, to every one who remembered the oath
of God, but a revelation of the wondrous greatness of God’s promise; for
all the righteousness which the law demands, He has sworn to give to
every one who trusts Him. The “loud voice” with which the law was
spoken, was the loud voice that from the mountain-tops proclaims the
glad tidings of the saving mercy of God. See Isa. 40:9. God’s precepts
are promises; they must necessarily be such, because He knows that men
have no power. All that God requires is what He gives. When He says,
“Thou shalt not,” we may take it as His assurance that if we but trust
Him He will preserve us from the sin against which He warns us. He will
keep us from falling.
[Sidenote: Conviction of Sin and of Righteousness.]
Jesus said of the Comforter, “When He is come, He will reprove the world
of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” John 16:8. Of Himself He
said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Mark 2:17. “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they
that are sick.” A man must feel his need before he will accept help; he
must know his disease before he can apply the remedy. Even so the
promise of righteousness will be utterly unheeded by one who does not
realize that he is a sinner. The first part of the comforting work of
the Holy Spirit, therefore, is to convince men of sin. So “the Scripture
hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe.” “By the law is the knowledge of
sin.” Rom. 3:20. He who knows that he is a sinner is in the way to
acknowledge it; and “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John
1:9. Thus the law is in the hands of the Spirit an active agent in
inducing men to accept the fulness of the promise. No one hates the man
who has saved his life by pointing out to him an unknown peril; on the
contrary, such an one is regarded as a friend, and is always remembered
with gratitude. Even so will the law be regarded by the one who has been
prompted by its warning voice to flee from the wrath to come. He will
ever say, with the psalmist, “I hate vain thoughts, but Thy law do I
love.”
[Sidenote: Righteousness and Life.]
“If there had been a law given which could make alive, verily
righteousness would have been of the law.” This shows us that
righteousness is life. It is no mere formula, no dead theory or dogma,
but is living action. Christ is the life, and He is, therefore, our
righteousness. “The Spirit is life because of righteousness.” The law
written on two tables of stone, could not give life, any more than could
the stones on which it was written. All its precepts are perfect, but
the flinty characters can not transform themselves into action. He who
receives only the law in letter, has a “ministration of condemnation,”
and death. But “the Word was made flesh.” In Christ, the Living Stone,
the law is life and peace. Receiving Him through the “ministration of
the Spirit,” we have the life of righteousness, which the law approves.
This twenty-first verse shows that the giving of the law was to
emphasize the importance of the promise. All the circumstances attending
the giving of the law,—the trumpet tone, the awful voice, the quaking
earth, the “fire, and blackness, and tempest,” the thunders and
lightnings, the bounds about the mount, beyond which it was death to
pass,—all these told that “the law worketh wrath” to “the children of
disobedience.” But the very fact that the wrath which the law works
comes only on the children of disobedience, proves that the law is good,
and that “the man that doeth them shall live in them.” Did God wish to
discourage the people?—Not by any means. The law must be kept, and the
terrors of Sinai were designed to drive them back to the oath of God,
which four hundred and thirty years before had been given to stand to
all people in all ages as the assurance of righteousness through the
crucified and ever-living Saviour.
[Sidenote: All Shut Up in Prison.]
Note the similarity between verses 8 and 22. “The Scripture hath
concluded [that is, shut up] all under sin, that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” “The Scripture,
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be
blessed.” We see that the Gospel is preached by the same thing—the
Scripture—that shuts men up under sin. The word “conclude” means
literally “shut up,” just as is given in verse 23. Of course, a person
who is shut up by the law is in prison. In human governments a criminal
is shut up as soon as the law can get hold of him; God’s law is
everywhere present, and always active, and, therefore, the instant a man
sins he is shut up. This is the condition of all the world, “for all
have sinned,” and “there is none righteous, no, not one.”
Those disobedient ones to whom Christ preached in the days of Noah were
“in prison.” 1 Peter 3:19, 20. But they, like all other sinners, were
“prisoners of hope.” Zech. 9:12. God “hath looked down from the height
of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the
groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.”
Ps. 102:19, 20. Christ is given “for a covenant of the people, for a
light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the
prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the
prison house.” Isa. 42:6, 7.
Let me speak from personal experience to the sinner who does not yet
know the joy and freedom of the Lord. Some day, if not already, you will
be sharply convicted of sin by the Spirit of God. You may have been full
of doubts and quibbles, of ready answers and self-defense, but then you
will have nothing to say. You will then have no doubt about the reality
of God and the Holy Spirit, and will need no argument to assure you of
it; for you will know the voice of God speaking to your soul, and will
feel, as did ancient Israel, “Let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
Then you will know what it is to be shut up in prison,—in a prison whose
walls seem to close on you, not only barring all escape, but seeming to
suffocate you. The tales of people condemned to be buried alive with a
heavy stone upon them, will seem very vivid and real to you, as you feel
the tables of the law crushing out your life, and a hand of marble seems
to be breaking your very heart. Then it will give you joy to remember
that you are shut up for the sole purpose that “the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ” might be accepted by you. As soon as you lay hold of that
promise,—the key that will unlock any door in Doubting Castle,—the
prison doors will fly open, and you can say, “Our soul is escaped as a
bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are
escaped.” Ps. 124:7.
[Sidenote: Under the Law, Under Sin.]
We have just read that the Scripture hath shut up all under sin, that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that
believe. Before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up
unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. We know that
whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23); therefore, to be under
the law is identical with being under sin. We are under the law solely
because we are under sin. The grace of God brings salvation from sin, so
that when we accept God’s grace we are no longer under the law, because
we are freed from sin. Those who are under the law, therefore, are the
transgressors of the law. The righteous are not under it, but are
walking in it.
[Sidenote: The Law a Jailer, a Taskmaster.]
“So that the law hath been our tutor unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith.” The words “to bring us” are marked both in the old
version and the new as having been added to the text, so we have dropped
them out. It really makes no material difference with the sense whether
they are retained or omitted. It will be noticed also that the new
version has “tutor” in the place of “schoolmaster.” This is better, but
the sense is still better conveyed by the word that is used in the
German and Scandinavian translations, which signifies “master of a house
of correction.” The single word in our language corresponding to it
would be jailer. The Greek word is the word which we have in English as
“pedagogue.” The _paidagogos_ was the slave who accompanied the boys to
school to see that they did not play truant. If they attempted to run
away, he would bring them back, and had authority even to beat them to
keep them in the way. The word has come to be used as meaning
“schoolmaster,” although the Greek word has not at all the idea of a
schoolmaster. “Taskmaster” would be better. The idea here is rather that
of a guard who accompanies a prisoner who is allowed to walk about
outside the prison walls. The prisoner, although nominally at large, is
really deprived of his liberty just the same as though he were actually
in a cell. The fact is that all who do not believe are “under sin,”
“shut up” “under the law,” and that, therefore, the law acts as their
jailer. It is that that shuts them in, and will not let them off; the
guilty can not escape in their guilt. God is merciful and gracious, but
He will not clear the guilty. Ex. 34:6, 7. That is, He will not lie, by
calling evil good; but He provides a way by which the guilty may lose
their guilt. Then the law will no longer be against them, will no longer
shut them up, and they can walk at liberty.
[Sidenote: Only One Door.]
Christ says, “I am the door.” John 10:7, 9. He is also the sheepfold and
the Shepherd. Men fancy that when they are outside the fold they are
free, and that to come into the fold would mean a curtailing of their
liberty; but it is exactly the reverse. The fold of Christ is “a large
place,” while unbelief is a narrow prison. The sinner can have but a
narrow range of thought; the true “free thinker” is the one who
comprehends with all saints what is the length, and breadth, and depth,
and height of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. Outside of
Christ is bondage; in Him alone is there freedom. Outside of Christ, the
man is in prison, “holden with the cords of his sins.” Prov. 5:22. “The
strength of sin is the law.” It is the law that declares him to be a
sinner, and makes him conscious of his condition. “By the law is the
knowledge of sin;” and “sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Rom.
3:20; 5:13. The law really forms the sinner’s prison walls. They close
in on him, making him feel uncomfortable, oppressing him with a sense of
sin, as though they would press his life out. In vain he makes frantic
efforts to escape. Those commandments stand as firm as the everlasting
hills. Whichever way he turns he finds a commandment which says to him,
“You can find no freedom by me, for you have sinned.” If he seeks to
make friends with the law, and promises to keep it, he is no better off,
for his sin still remains. It goads him and drives him to the only way
of escape—“the promise by faith of Jesus Christ.” In Christ he is made
“free indeed,” for in Christ he is made the righteousness of God. In
Christ is “the perfect law of liberty.”
[Sidenote: The Law Preaches the Gospel.]
“But,” says one, “the law says nothing of Christ.” No; but all creation
does speak of Christ, proclaiming the power of His salvation. We have
seen that the cross of Christ, “Christ and Him crucified,” is to be seen
in every leaf of the forest, and, indeed, in everything that exists. Not
only so, but every fiber of man’s being cries out for Christ. Men do not
realize it, but Christ is “the Desire of all nations.” It is He alone
that “satisfies the desire of every living thing.” Only in Him can
relief be found for the world’s unrest and longing. Now since Christ, in
whom is peace, “for He is our peace,” is seeking the weary and
heavy-laden, and calling them to Himself, and every man has longings
that nothing else in the world can satisfy, it is evident that if the
man is awakened by the law to keener consciousness of his condition, and
the law continues goading him, giving him no rest, and shutting up every
other way of escape, the man must at last find the Door of Safety, for
it always stands open. He is the City of Refuge, to which every one
pursued by the avenger of blood may flee, sure of finding a welcome. In
Christ alone will the sinner find release from the lash of the law, for
in Christ the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, and by Him it is
fulfilled in us. Rom. 8:4. The law is so far from requiring men to keep
it in order to be saved, as some suppose, that it will not allow anybody
to be saved unless he has “the righteousness which is of God by
faith,”—the faith of Jesus Christ.
[Sidenote: When Faith Is Come.]
Strangely enough, many have supposed that there was a definite time
fixed for faith to come. This passage has been “interpreted” to mean
that men were under the law until a certain time in the history of the
world, and that at that time faith came, and then they were henceforth
free from the law. The coming of faith they make synonymous with the
manifestation of Christ on earth. We can not say that anybody ever
thought so, for such an “interpretation” indicates utter absence of
thought about the matter. It would make men to be saved in bulk,
regardless of any concurrence on their part. It would have it that up to
a certain time all were in bondage under the law, and that from that
time henceforth all were free from sin. A man’s salvation would,
therefore, depend simply on the accident of birth, If he lived before a
certain time, he would be lost; if after, he would be saved. Such an
absurdity need not take more of our time than the statement of it. No
one can seriously think of the idea that the apostle is here speaking of
a fixed, definite point of time in the history of the world, dividing
between two so-called “dispensations,” without at once abandoning it.
When, then, does faith come? “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the Word of God.” Rom. 10:17. Whenever a man receives the Word of God,
the word of promise, which brings with it the fulness of the law, and no
longer fights against it, but yields to it, then faith comes to him.
Read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and you will see that faith came
from the beginning. Since the days of Abel, men have found freedom by
faith. The only time fixed is “now,” “to-day.” “Now is the accepted
time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “To-day if ye will hear His
voice, harden not your hearts.”
[Sidenote: Putting on Christ by Baptism.]
“As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into His death?” Rom. 6:3. It is by His death that Christ
redeems us from the curse of the law; but we must die with Him. Baptism
is “the likeness of His death.” We rise to walk “in newness of life,”
even Christ’s life. See Gal. 2:20. Having put on Christ, we are one in
Him. We are completely identified with Him. Our identity is lost in His.
It is often said of one who has been converted, “He is so changed you
would not know him; he is not the same man.” No, he is not. God has
turned him into “another man.” Therefore, being one with Christ, he has
a right to whatever Christ has, and a right to “the heavenly places”
where Christ sits. From the prison house of sin, he is exalted to the
dwelling-place of God. This, of course, presupposes that baptism is with
him a reality, not a mere outward form. It is not simply into the
visible water that he is baptized, but “into Christ,” into His life.
[Sidenote: Baptism Doth Save Us.]
The word “baptism,” which is the Greek word transferred, not translated,
has but one meaning, namely, to plunge into, to dip, to immerse. The
Greek blacksmith baptized his iron in the water, to cool it. The
housewife baptized her dishes in water, in order to clean them; and for
the same purpose all would baptize their hands in water. Yea, every man
would baptize himself frequently, going to the _baptisterion_, that is,
the immersing pool, for that purpose. We have the same word transferred
as “baptistery.” It was and is a place where people could plunge in, and
be wholly immersed in water.
That is not being “baptized into Christ,” but it indicates what must be
our relation to Him when we are baptized into Him. We must be swallowed
up and lost to sight in His life. Only Christ will henceforth be seen,
so that “it is no more I, but Christ,” for “we are buried with Him by
baptism into death.” Rom. 6:4. Baptism doth save us “by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ” from the dead (1 Peter 3:21), because we are “baptized
into His death,” that “like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Being reconciled to God by the death of Christ, we are “saved by His
life.” Rom. 5:10. So baptism into Christ, not the mere form, but the
fact, does save us.
This baptism is “the answer of a good conscience toward God.” If there
be not a good conscience toward God, there is no Christian baptism.
Therefore, the person to be baptized must be old enough to have a
conscience in the matter. He must have a consciousness of sin, and also
of forgiveness by Christ. He must know the life that is manifested, and
must willingly give up his old life of sin for the new life of
righteousness.
Baptism is “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh” (1 Peter
3:21), not the outward cleansing of the body, but the purging of the
soul and conscience. There is a fountain opened for sin and for
uncleanness (Zech. 13:1), and this fountain is the blood, the life of
Christ. That life flows in a stream from the throne of God, in the midst
of which is the slain Lamb (Rev. 5:6), even as it flowed from the side
of Christ on the cross. When, “through the eternal Spirit,” He had
offered Himself to God, there flowed from His side blood and water (John
19:34), “for there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the
water, and the blood; and the three agree in one” (1 John 5:8, R. V.).
All these are also one with the Word, which is Spirit and life. John
6:63. Christ “loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word.” Eph.
5:25, 26. Literally, “a water bath in the Word.” In being buried in the
water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the
conscientious believer signifies his acceptance of the water of life,
the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, and that he gives
himself to live henceforth by every word that proceeds out of the mouth
of God. From that time he disappears from sight, and only the life of
Christ is manifested in his mortal flesh.
[Sidenote: One in Christ, the Seed.]
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there
is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” “There
is no difference.” This is the key-note of the Gospel. All are alike
sinners, and all are saved in the same way. They who would make a
distinction on the ground of nationality, claiming that there is
something different for the Jew than for the Gentile, might just as well
make a difference on the ground of sex, claiming that women can not be
saved in the same way and at the same time as men, or that a servant can
not be saved in the same way as his master. No; there is but one way,
and all human beings, of whatever race or condition, are equal before
God. “Ye are all one in Christ Jesus,” and Christ is the One. So it is
that “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy
Seed, which is Christ.” “For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye
be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.” There is but one seed, but it embraces all who are Christ’s.
[Sidenote: Only One Man.]
In putting on Christ, we “put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness.” Eph. 4:24. He has abolished in His
flesh the enmity,—the carnal mind,—“for to make in Himself of twain one
new man.” Eph. 2:15. He alone is the real man,—“the Man Christ Jesus.”
Outside of Him there is no real manhood. We come unto “a perfect man”
only when we arrive at “the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ.” Eph. 4:13. In the fulness of time God will gather together in
one all things in Christ. There will be but one Man, and only one Man’s
righteousness, even as the seed is but one. But “if ye be Christ’s, then
are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
[Sidenote: “Until the Seed Should Come.”]
It needs not many words now to determine what is meant by the phrase,
“till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” We know what
the seed is,—all who are Christ’s,—and we know that it has not yet come
in its fulness. To be sure, Christ was once manifested on earth in the
flesh, but He did not receive the promised inheritance, any more than
Abraham did. Abraham had not so much as to put his foot on (Acts 7:5),
and Christ had not where to lay His head. Moreover, Christ can not come
into the inheritance until Abraham does also, for the promise was “to
Abraham and to his seed.” The Lord by the prophet Ezekiel spoke of the
inheritance at the time when David ceased to have a representative on
his throne on earth, and He foretold the overthrow of Babylon, Persia,
Greece, and Rome, in these words: “Remove the diadem, and take off the
crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him
that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no
more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” Eze.
21:26, 27.
So Christ sits on His Father’s throne, “from henceforth expecting till
His enemies be made His foot-stool.” Soon will He come, but not until
the last soul has accepted Him that can by any possibility be induced to
accept salvation. Those who are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, so that Christ can not come into
the inheritance before they do. The seed is one, not divided. When He
comes to execute judgment, and to slay those who said, “We will not have
this Man to reign over us,” He comes “with ten thousands of His holy
ones.” Jude 14.
Then will the seed be complete, and the promise will be fulfilled. And
until that time the law will faithfully perform its task of stirring up
and pricking the consciences of sinners, giving them no rest until they
become identified with Christ, or cast Him off altogether. Do you accept
the terms? Will you cease your complaints against the law which would
save you from sinking into a fatal sleep? And will you in Christ accept
its righteousness? Then, as Abraham’s seed, and an heir according to the
promise, you can rejoice in your freedom from the bondage of sin,
singing:—
“I’m the child of a King,
The child of a King,
With Jesus my Saviour,
I’m the child of a King.”