+I. It seeks to base personal righteousness on an effete
legalism.+--"If righteousness come by the law."
+II. It defeats the gracious purposes of God.+--"I do not
frustrate the grace of God."
+III. It renders the sacrifice of Christ nugatory.+--"Then Christ is
dead in vain."
_Frustrating Divine Grace._--1. The joining of works with faith in
the manner of justification is a total excluding of God's free grace
and favour from any hand in the work. Grace admits of no partner. If
grace does not all, it does nothing; if anything be added, that
addition makes grace to be no grace. 2. That the apostle doth exclude
in this dispute from having any influence in justification the works,
not only of the ceremonial but also of the moral law, appears from
this--that he opposes the merit of Christ's death to all merit of our
own, whether by obedience to the one law or the other. 3. If there
had been any other way possible by which the salvation of sinners
could have been brought about but by the death of Christ, then Christ
would not have died. To suppose Christ died in vain or without cause
is an absurdity. If justification could have been attained by works
or any other means, then His death had been in vain, and it were an
absurd thing to suppose He would have died in that case.--_Fergusson._
_Justification by Works makes Void the Grace of God._
I. +Grace must stand wholly and entirely in itself.+--God's grace
cannot stand with man's merit. Grace is not grace unless it be freely
given every way. Grace and works of grace in the causing of
justification can no more stand together than fire and water.
II. The apostle answers the objection +that if a sinner is justified
only by faith in Christ then we abolish the grace of God.+--He shows
that if we be justified by our own fulfilment of the law then Christ
died in vain to fulfil the law for us.
III. +We have here a notable ground of true religion.+--That the
death of Christ is made void if anything be joined with it in the
work of our justification as a means to satisfy God's justice and to
merit the favour of God. Therefore the doctrine of justification by
works is a manifest error.--_Perkins._
* * * * * * * *
+CHAPTER III.+
_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._
Ver. 1. +Who hath bewitched you?+--Fascinated you, as if overlooked
by the evil eye, so that your brain is confused. The Galatians were
reputed to possess acute intellects: the apostle marvelled the more
at their defection. +That you should not obey the truth.+--Omitted in
R.V. +Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified.+--In preaching, a vivid portraiture of Christ crucified
has been set before you as if depicted in graphic characters
impossible to mistake.
Ver. 3. +Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the
flesh?+--What monstrous folly is this! Will you so violate the Divine
order of progress? The flesh may be easily mistaken for the Spirit,
even by those who have made progress, unless they continue to
maintain a pure faith (_Bengel_).
Ver. 4. +Have ye suffered so many things in vain?+--Since ye might
have avoided them by professing Judaism. Will ye lose the reward
promised for all suffering?
Ver. 5. +He that worketh miracles among you.+--In you, at your
conversion and since.
Ver. 6. +Even as Abraham believed God.+--Where justification is there
the Spirit is, so that if the former comes by faith the latter must
also.
Ver. 8. +Preached before the Gospel unto Abraham.+--Thus the Gospel
in its essential germ is older than the law, though the full
development of the former is subsequent to the latter. The promise to
Abraham was in anticipation of the Gospel, not only as announcing the
Messiah, but also as involving the doctrine of righteousness by faith.
Ver. 10. +As many as are of the works of the law are under the
curse.+--This the Scripture itself declares. It utters an anathema
against all who fail to fulfil every single ordinance contained in
the book of the law (Deut. xxvii. 26).
Ver. 13. +Christ hath redeemed us from the curse.+--Bought us off
from our bondage and from the curse under which all lie who trust to
the law. The ransom price He paid was His own precious blood (1 Pet.
i. 18, 19). +Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.+--Christ's
bearing the particular curse of hanging on the tree is a sample of
the general curse which He representatively bore. Not that the Jews
put to death malefactors by hanging, but after having put them to
death otherwise, in order to brand them with peculiar ignominy, they
hung the bodies on a tree, and such malefactors were accursed by the
law. The Jews in contempt called Him _the hanged one._ Hung between
heaven and earth as though unworthy of either.
Ver. 17. +The covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ,
the law cannot disannul.+--From the recognised inviolability of a
human covenant (ver. 15), the apostle argues the impossibility of
violating the Divine covenant. The law cannot set aside the promise.
Ver. 19. +Wherefore then serveth the law?+--As it is of no avail for
justification, is it either useless or contrary to the covenant of
God? +It was added because of transgressions.+--To bring out into
clearer view the transgression of the law; to make men more fully
conscious of their sins, by being perceived as transgression of the
law, and so make them long for the promised Saviour. +It was ordained
by angels in the hand of a Mediator.+--As instrumental enactors of
the law. In the giving of the law the angels were representatives of
God; Moses, as mediator, represented the people.
Ver. 20. +Now a Mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is
one.+--The very idea of mediation supposes two persons at least,
between whom the mediation is carried on. The law then is of the
nature of a contract between two parties--God on the one hand, and
the Jewish people on the other. It is only valid so long as both
parties fulfil the terms of the contract. It is therefore contingent
and not absolute. Unlike the law, the promise is absolute and
unconditional. It depends on the sole decree of God. There are not
two contracting parties. There is nothing of the nature of a
stipulation. The Giver is everything, the recipient nothing
(_Lightfoot_).
Ver. 22. +The Scripture hath concluded all under sin.+--The written
letter was needed so as permanently to convict man of disobedience to
God's command. He is shut up under condemnation as in a prison.
Ver. 24. +The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.+--As
a tutor, checking our sinful propensities, making the consciousness
of the sinful principle more vivid, and showing the need of
forgiveness and freedom from the bondage of sin.
Ver. 26. +Ye are all the children of God.+--No longer children
requiring a tutor, but sons emancipated and walking at liberty.
Ver. 28. +Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.+--No class privileged above
another, as the Jews under the law had been above the Gentiles.
Difference of sex makes no difference in Christian privileges. But
under the law the male sex had great privileges.
Ver. 29. +If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and
heirs.+--Christ is Abraham's seed, and all who are baptised into
Christ, put on Christ (ver. 27), and are one in Christ (ver. 28), are
children entitled to the inheritance of promise.
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-5.
_The Deceptive Glamour of Error_--
+I. Diverts the gaze of the soul from the most suggestive
truth.+--"Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set
forth, crucified" (ver. 1). The cross of Christ was the great theme
of Paul's preaching. He depicted it in such vivid colours and dwelt
on every detail of the story with such intense earnestness and loving
emphasis, that the Galatians were arrested, excited, charmed. They
were smitten with a sense of sin. They seemed to be actors in the
scene, as if their own hands had driven in the nails that pierced the
sacred Victim. They were bowed with shame and humiliation, and in an
agony of repentance they cast themselves before the Crucified and
took Him for their Christ and King. While they looked to Jesus they
were secure, but when they listened to the deceptive voice of error,
their gaze was diverted, and the deep significance of the cross
became obscured. Then backsliding began. Like mariners losing sight
of their guiding star, they drifted into strange waters. The cross is
the central force of Christianity; when it fades from view
Christianity declines. "As the sun draws the vapours of the sea, and
then paints a rainbow on them, so Christ draws men and then glorifies
them. His attraction is like that of the sun. It is magnetic too,
like that of the magnet to the pole. It is not simply the Christ that
is the magnet; it is the crucified Christ. It is not Christ without
the cross, nor the cross without Christ; it is both of them together."
+II. Confuses the mind as to the nature and value of spiritual
agencies.+--1. _Concerning the method of their first
reception._--"Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by
the hearing of faith?" (ver. 2). Making it appear that spiritual
blessings were acquired by outward observance rather than by inward
contemplation and faith. Confusing the true method of moral
regeneration, it arrests all growth and advancement in the spiritual
life. It throws back the soul on the weary round of toilsome and
hopeless human effort.
2. _Concerning the purpose for which they were given._--"Having begun
in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (ver. 3). It
was a reversal of the Divine order. Having begun in the Spirit, so
they must continue, or they would be undone. It was absurd to look
for perfection in the flesh, especially when they had discovered its
helplessness and misery. Pharisaic ordinances could do nothing to
consummate the work of faith and love; Moses could not lead them
higher than Christ; circumcision could never effect what the Holy
Ghost failed to do. Spiritual results can be brought about only by
spiritual agencies.
3. _Rendering suffering on behalf of the truth meaningless._--"Have
ye suffered so many things in vain?" (ver. 4). The Galatians on their
conversion were exposed to the fiercest persecution from the Jews and
from their own countrymen incited by the Jews. No one could come out
of heathen society and espouse the cause of Christ in those days, nor
can he do so to-day, without making himself a mark for ridicule and
violence, without the rupture of family and public ties, and many
painful sacrifices. But if the truth may be so easily abandoned, all
early struggles against opposition and all the educative influence
and promised reward of suffering must go for nothing. It is
disappointing and disastrous when a youthful zeal for religion
degenerates in maturer life into apathy and worldliness, when the
great principles of right and liberty, for which our fathers fought
and suffered, are treated by their descendants with supine
indifference.
+III. Creates misconceptions as to the Divine method of ministering
spiritual blessing.+--"He that ministereth to you the Spirit, and
worketh miracles, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith?" (ver. 5). One of the most subtle effects of error
is to suspend the mind in a state of hesitation and doubt. It is a
dangerous mood. Confidence in the truth is shaken, and for the moment
the soul has nothing stable on which to lay hold. It is the
opportunity for the enemy, and damage is done which even a subsequent
return to the truth does not wholly efface. Paul saw the peril of his
converts, and he suggests this test--the Spirit of God had put His
seal on the apostle's preaching and on the faith of his hearers. Did
any such manifestation accompany the preaching of the legalists? He
takes his stand on the indubitable evidence of the work of the
Spirit. It is the only safe ground for the champion of experimental
Christianity (1 Cor. ii. 14, 15).
+Lessons.+--1. _Every error is the distortion of some truth._ 2. _The
cross is the central truth of Christianity._ 3. _The highest truths
are spiritually discerned._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._
Ver. 1. _Faithful Reproof._--1. The minister when he is called to
insist upon the clearing up of truth, whether positively by showing
what is revealed in Scripture or controversially by refuting errors,
should mix his discourse with exhortation and reproof, to excite and
quicken the affections of his hearers. 2. False teachers, who by fair
words deceive the simple, are spiritual sorcerers, and error is
spiritual witchcraft. As sorcerers by deluding the senses make people
apprehend that they see what they see not, so false teachers, by
casting a mist of seeming reason before the understanding, delude it,
and make the deluded person to believe that to be truth which is not.
3. Though Christ and His sufferings are to be vividly represented and
pictured by the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel, yet it
does not follow they are to be artificially painted with colours on
stone or timber for religious use. The graven image is a teacher of
lies (Hab. ii. 18).--_Fergusson._
_The Folly of Disobedience._
+I. We are wise in matters of the world, but in matters concerning
the kingdom of heaven the most of us are fools,+ besotted and
bewitched with worldly cares and pleasures, without sense in matters
of religion; like a piece of wax without form, fit to take the form
and print of any religion.
+II. The truth here mentioned is the heavenly doctrine of the
Gospel,+ so called because it is absolute truth without error, and
because it is a most worthy truth--the truth according to godliness.
+III. The office of the minister is to set forth Christ
crucified.+--1. The ministry of the Word must be plain, perspicuous,
and evident, as if the doctrine were pictured and painted out before
the eyes of men. 2. It must be powerful and lively in operation, and
as it were crucifying Christ within us and causing us to feel the
virtue of His passion. The Word preached must pierce into the heart
like a two-edged sword. 3. The effectual and powerful preaching of
the Word stands in three things: (1) True and proper interpretation
of the Scripture. (2) Savoury and wholesome doctrine gathered out of
the Scriptures truly expounded. (3) The application of the said
doctrine, either to the information of the judgment or the
reformation of the life.
+IV. The duty of all believers is to behold Christ crucified.+--And
we must behold Him by the eye of faith, which makes us both see Him
and feel Him, as it were, crucified in us. 1. By beholding Christ
crucified we see our misery and wickedness. 2. This sight brings us
true and lively comfort. 3. This sight of Christ makes a wonderful
change in us. The chameleon takes the colours of the things it sees
and that are near to it; and the believing heart takes to it the
disposition and mind that was in Christ--_Perkins._
_Attractiveness of Worth._--In the Paris Salon some few years ago
there was a bust of the painter Baudry by Paul Dubois, one of the
greatest modern sculptors. Mr. Edmund Gosse was sitting to
contemplate this bust when an American gentleman strolled by, caught
sight of it, and after hovering round it for some time came and sat
by his side and watched it. Presently he turned to Mr. Gosse
inquiring if he could tell him whose it was, and whether it was
thought much of, adding with a charming modesty, "I don't know
anything about art; but I found that I could not get past that head."
Would that we could so set forth Christ that His Word might be
fulfilled, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me"! (John
xii. 32).
Vers. 2-5. _Searching Questions._--1. As to the mode of receiving the
Spirit (ver. 2). 2. As to the folly of expecting advancement by
substituting an inferior for a superior force (ver. 3). 3. As to the
uselessness of suffering (ver. 4). 4. As to the exercise of spiritual
and miraculous power (ver. 5).
Ver. 4. _Suffering for the Truth._--1. They may suffer many things
for truth who afterwards fall from it. As the example of others,
particular interest and general applause will make even hypocrites
suffer much, so continued suffering will make even the godly faint
for a time. The best, being left to themselves, in an hour of
temptation, will turn their back upon truth, so that no profession,
no experience or remembrance of the joy and sweetness found in the
way of truth, nor their former sufferings for it, will make them
adhere to it. 2. Whatever have been the sufferings for truth, they
are all in vain, lost and to no purpose, if the party make defection
from and turn his back upon the truth. 3. Though those who have
suffered much for the truth should afterwards fall from it, we are to
keep charity towards them, hoping God will give them repentance and
reclaim them. All our sharpness towards them ought to be wisely
tempered, by expressing the charitable thoughts we have of
them.--_Fergusson._
_The Uses of Suffering._--1. They serve for trial of men, that it may
appear what is hidden in their hearts. 2. They serve for the
correction of things amiss in us. 3. They serve as documents and
warnings to others, especially in public persons. 4. They are marks
of adoption if we be content to obey God in them. 5. They are the
trodden and beaten way to the kingdom of heaven.--_Perkins._
Ver. 5. _Miracles confirmatory of the Truth._--1. The Lord
accompanied the first preaching of the Gospel with the working of
miracles that the truth of the doctrine might be confirmed, which
being once sufficiently done, there is no further use for miracles.
2. So strong and prevalent is the spirit of error, and so weak the
best in themselves to resist it, that for love to error they will
quit truth, though confirmed and sealed by the saving fruits of God's
Spirit in their hearts.--_Fergusson._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-9.
_The Abrahamic Gospel_--
+I. Recognised the principle that righteousness is only by
faith.+--"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness" (ver. 6). The promise to Abraham contained the germ of
the Gospel and was the only Gospel known to pre-Christian times.
Though dimly apprehending its vast import, Abraham trusted in God's
Messianic promise, and his unfaltering faith, often severely tried,
was in the judgment of the gracious God imputed to him as rectitude.
"In this mode of salvation there was after all nothing new. The
righteousness of faith is more ancient than legalism. It is as old as
Abraham. In the hoary patriarchal days as now, in the time of promise
as of fulfilment, faith is the root of religion; grace invites,
righteousness waits upon the hearing of faith."
+II. Was universal in its spiritual provisions.+--"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" (ver. 8). Twice is Abraham designated "the friend of God."
The Arabs still call him _the friend._ His image has impressed itself
with singular force on the Oriental mind. He is the noblest figure of
the Old Testament, surpassing Isaac in force, Jacob in purity, and
both in dignity of character. His religion exhibits a heroic strength
and firmness, but at the same time a large-hearted, genial humanity,
an elevation and serenity of mind, to which the temper of those who
boasted themselves his children was utterly opposed. Father of the
Jewish race, Abraham was no Jew. He stands before us in the morning
light of revelation a simple, noble, archaic type of man, true father
of many nations. And his faith was the secret of the greatness which
has commanded for him the reverence of four thousand years. His trust
in God made him worthy to receive so immense a trust for the future
of mankind (_Findlay_).
+III. Shares its privilege and blessing with all who believe.+--"They
which are of faith, the same are the children of . . . are blessed
with faithful Abraham" (vers. 7, 9). With Abraham's faith the
Gentiles inherit his blessing. They were not simply blessed _in_ him,
through his faith which received and handed down the blessing but
blessed _with_ him. Their righteousness rests on the same principle
as his. Reading the story of Abraham, we witness the bright dawn of
faith, its springtime of promise and of hope. These morning hours
passed away; and the sacred history shuts us in to the hard school of
Mosaism, with its isolation, its mechanical routine and ritual
drapery, its yoke of legal exaction ever growing more burdensome. Of
all this the Church of Christ was to know nothing. It was called to
enter into the labours of the legal centuries without the need of
sharing their burdens. In the "Father of the Faithful" and the
"Friend of God" Gentile believers were to see their exemplar, to find
the warrant for that sufficiency and freedom of faith of which the
natural children of Abraham unjustly strove to rob them (_Findlay_).
+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel has an honourable antiquity._
2. _Righteousness is the practical side of true religion._ 3. _Faith
is the way to righteousness._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._