I. Whereas Christ is the giver of Himself it follows that +His death
and sacrifice were voluntary.+
II. Therefore, +all merit and satisfaction for sin are reduced to the
person of Christ,+ and there are no human satisfactions for sin, nor
meritorious works done by us.
III. +Christ our sacrifice works love in us.+--We must in mind and
meditation come to the cross of Christ. 1. The consideration of His
endless pains for our sins must breed in us a godly sorrow. If He
sorrowed for them, much more must we. 2. This knowledge is the
beginning of amendment of life. 3. Is the foundation of comfort in
them that truly turn to Christ.
IV. +Christ gave Himself that He might deliver us from this evil
world.+--1. We must be grieved at the wickedness of the world. 2. We
must not fashion ourselves to the wicked lives of the men of this
world. 3. Seeing we are taken out of this world, our dwelling must be
in heaven.--_Perkins._
_The Gift of Christ._
I. +The gift.+--"He gave Himself." Regard Christ: 1. As the object of
every prophecy. 2. The substance of every type and shadow. 3. The
subject of every promise. 4. He was qualified for the work of
redemption. Divine, human, spotless.
II. +Christ's marvellous act.+--"He gave Himself for our sins." 1. To
what He gave Himself. To all the privations and sorrows of human
life, to obscurity and indigence, to scorn and infamy, to pain and
anguish, to an ignominious and painful death. 2. The purpose for
which He gave Himself. To deliver us from sin's curse, defilement,
dominion, and from the effects of sin in this world and in eternity.
III. +The design of Christ's offering.+--"That He might deliver us
from the present evil world." From its evil practices, its spirit,
from attachment to it, and from the condemnation to which it will be
subjected.
IV. +Christ's offering was according to the will of God.+--1. It was
the will of God we should be saved. 2. Christ was the appointed
agent. 3. The sacrifice of Christ was voluntary.--_Helps._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-9.
_The One Gospel._
+I. Is an introduction into the grace of Christ.+--"I marvel that ye
are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of
Christ" (ver. 6). The one true Gospel is the emphatic call of God to
man to participate and revel in the grace of Christ as the element
and the only means by which his salvation can be secured. The grace
of Christ, with its persuasive gentleness and vast redemptive
resources, is in vivid contrast to the grim formalism and impossible
demands of the yoke of bondage into which the Galatians were being so
foolishly seduced. There is only one Gospel that can introduce the
soul into the midst of saving influences and bring it into contact
with the living Christ. This one fact differentiates the Gospel from
all mere human methods and gives it a unique character as the only
remedial agency in dealing with human sin and sorrow.
+II. The perversion of the one Gospel is not a gospel.+--"Unto
another gospel which is not another" (vers. 6, 7).
1. _It is a caricature of the true Gospel._--"And would pervert the
gospel of Christ" (ver. 7). The perversion is not in the one Gospel,
which is impossible of perversion (for truth is an incorruptible
unity), but in the mind of the false teacher. He distorts and
misrepresents the true Gospel by importing into it his own corrupt
philosophy, as the wolf did with Baron Munchausen's horse. Beginning
at the tail, it ate its way into the body of the horse, until the
baron drove the wolf home harnessed in the skin of the horse. The
Gospel has suffered more from the subtle infusion of human errors
than from the open opposition of its most violent enemies.
2. _It occasions distractions of mind._--"There be some that trouble
you" (ver. 7). A perverted gospel works the greatest havoc among
young converts. They are assailed before they reach the stage of
matured stability. Their half-formed conceptions of truth are
confused with specious ideas, attractive by their novelty, and
mischief is wrought which in many cases is a lifelong injury. The
spirit that aims at polluting a young beginner in the way of
righteousness is worse than reckless; it is diabolical.
+III. The propagator of a perverted gospel incurs an awful
malediction.+--"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any
other gospel, . . . let him be accursed" (vers. 8, 9). Let him be
devoted to destruction, as one hateful to God and an enemy of the
truth. The word denotes the condition of one alienated from God by
persistent sin. He not only rejects the truth himself, but
deliberately plots the ruin of others. He reaps the fruit of his own
sowing. It is impossible to do wrong without suffering. The greater
the wrong-doing, the more signal is the consequent punishment. All
perversions of truth are fruitful in moral disasters. It is a mad,
suicidal act for man to fight against God.
+Lessons.+--1. _There can be but one true and infallible Gospel._
2. _The best human method for moral reformation is but a caricature
of the true._ 3. _The false teacher will not escape punishment._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._