EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS
SCOPE AND DIVISIONS OF
GALATIANS
GALATIANS is in character a controversy. In effect
it is a buttress to the foundation truths of Romans, yet not stopping where
Romans does, but carrying the truth of Christian position further. In Romans we
have the man "in Christ," "dead to sin," "dead to the law." In Galatians we
have the further truth that he is "crucified to the world," and a "new
creation." New creation has been, indeed, implied in Romans, as we have seen
through all the latter part, but we have only had at present Christ as the Head
of it. Now we have it actually named. "In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation."
The
controversial character accounts for the historical development which we find
so much in Galatians, and for the place in which we find the history. In
Romans, for instance, we have the apostle referring to Christ as "Minister of
the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the
fathers," but also "that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy," and he
refers to his own ministry to the Gentiles; but there is no development of all
this, nor is it needed, and it comes rather as an appendix to the epistle
itself, than as forming any proper part of it. On the other hand, in Galatians,
we begin with history - a history of his own ministry, in which the source and
channel of his apostleship and his absolute independence of those who were
apostles before him are made apparent. He owes nothing to them. He has from
them only a confirmation of the gospel which he preached before, and, in
Peter's case, finds it in what, in a certain way, is opposition, although this
is a matter of weakness on the part of the Jewish apostle and not of deliberate
opposition. All this comes at the beginning necessarily, because the question
made of his teaching goes on to question of his ministry altogether, and in
order that he may be listened to, he has to put this upon the most positive
ground. This occupies the first two chapters.
We have then what is more
doctrinal, the contrast between faith and law, but even here the argument is in
method historical. We have, for instance, the priority of God's promise to
Abraham and of the principle of faith established in it as 430 years before the
law; with the consequence of this that the law could add nothing, coming where
it does, to the unconditional promise. The opposition of principle is also
given to us, its attitude toward man such that Christ has to bear the curse for
him in order that the blessing promised him may come. If the law comes so late,
also, there is seen in this very thing that it is not other than, as the
apostle has already said in Romans, a thing coming in by the way. God has not
put the whole world under the school-master, nor men at all from the beginning
of the world. It was added "for the sake of transgressions," as the verse
really says; that is, to have them; not to have sin, but, as we have seen
already, to turn sin into transgression, so to make it manifest, and in its
exceeding sinfulness as against the authority of God Himself. Thus, of
necessity, we find the limit of the law also, when God takes up openly faith as
His principle; the purpose for which the law came, (that is, to shut man up to
faith,) is accomplished, and we are no longer under a school-master.
In
the third place, the apostle dwells upon that which is the characteristic of
Christianity now, and which the law never gave, the Spirit of adoption, by
which we cry, "Abba Father." The law brought distance. Here is nearness of the
most endeared kind, and he can bring the law itself as typically, but none the
less really, teaching the bringing forth to bondage which characterized the
children of law, the seed according to the flesh; in contrast with the freedom
of those who are children of the free woman and themselves free. Here too is
history: even the gift of the Spirit is that; especially as marked openly by
the signs which we know accompanied this, public as they were; and so the story
of Abraham's children, however much the use of this is allegorical.
This mode of argument is strikingly different from Romans, where the
appeal is rather to the conscience. History, as God's writing broadly on the
face of the world, is evidently more adapted to the conviction of the
Galatians, now giving up so much of what He had witnessed to their consciences,
and who are made to face a witness which they cannot gainsay or mistake. The
arrangement of every detail here is nothing short of divine; and they must face
God about it.
Finally, we have in Galatians, the practical test as to
the working of the two principles in opposition - law and grace. The Galatians
themselves are a sample of it. They had found in the gospel a happiness which
made them ready to give their very eyes to the man who had ministered it to
them. Now they have taken up the law to perfect according to the flesh what had
been begun in the power of the Spirit: as a consequence they were biting and
devouring one another. The effect of law was being made manifest. He closes
with the declaration of the perfect rule for a Christian, the man in Christ, as
belonging to the new creation, neither to walk, therefore, as the Gentile, in
lawlessness, nor in legality, as the Jew. His whole standpoint, as shown in the
unique character of the gospel which he brings, is outside the world, outside,
therefore, all that to which the law applied. The veil is rent and Christ in
heaven is once more seen as both the rule and power of the new activity.
The divisions are, therefore:
1. (Chaps. i. and ii.) Paul's gospel
as unique in source and power.
2. (Chap. iii.) The contrast of law with
faith.
3. (Chaps. iv. - v. 6.) The meaning of the Spirit of adoption having
come.
4. (Chaps. v. 7 - vi. 18.) The practical test.
THE
EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS
DIVISION 1. (Chaps. i., ii.) Paul's
Gospel unique in Source and Power.
SUBDIVISION 1. (Chap. i.) His entire
independence of man in it.
Section 1 (1 - 5): An apostle not from men, nor
through man, but from God alone.
NOTES.
DIVISION. 1.
THE Galatians show us, in a
pregnant example, how little man can be trusted to hold the blessing that he
has. If, in fact, its continuance to him depended upon this, how hopeless would
be the case; but our blessings are in Christ, held fast there by divine grace
for us, and thus it is alone that they could avail us.
The Galatians
had received the gospel with joy and thankfulness, yet now seemed ready to
surrender it, no doubt without proper realization that they were doing so. They
were simply adding the law to it, but, as the apostle shows them, this would
be, in fact, to surrender it altogether. He writes with earnestness as always,
but with a sharpness which was not characteristic of him. He salutes no one in
the letter. He starts at once with his theme, wishing them, indeed, "grace and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ," but not even
addressing them as the church of God, but simply as the "churches" (or
assemblies) "of Galatia." He is, as he says, "in doubt about them." He has "to
travail in birth again until Christ be formed" in them. Thus, they are for him
assemblies which have afresh to prove their right to be called Christian
assemblies. Their doctrinal wanderings he treats more seriously than that moral
evil which we find at Corinth, and which strikes men naturally as being of a
far worse character; but without the gospel, morality cannot maintain itself;
and in the doctrine of Christ is the root of all morality. Thus he is as strong
and peremptory as possible, pronouncing a curse upon himself or an angel from
heaven, if it were possible for such to preach any different gospel from that
he had preached to them.
Section 1 (1 - 5): An apostle not from
men, nor through man, but from God alone.
He begins at once declaring
the unique character of his ministry. He affirms his apostleship in the fullest
manner, as "not of men," (derived from them as its source,) "nor through man"
as the channel of its conveyance; but alone "through Jesus Christ, and God the
Father who raised Him from the dead." He is sent by the risen Christ, as we
know, and not simply by Christ risen, but by One whom he sees for the first
time in the glory of God in heaven. This character of his ministry marks his
whole teaching here. He adds as confirmation of what he is saying, that all the
brethren are with him in what he writes. This defection of the Galatians was,
as he will show more perfectly, in fact, from the faith held by all. He adds
that "Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this
present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." The age, as we
have seen, is the time-world, characterized by its opposition to God. The true
Prince of the world has been crucified and cast out; the "god of this age" is
Satan, but we are thus at once outside the world - outside the whole region to
which the law applies, as is evident. The Father's will is our deliverance from
it.
1. PAUL, an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from among the dead, and all
the brethren with me, to the assemblies of Galatia: grace to you and peace from
God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that
he might deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God
and Father: to whom be glory throughout the ages of ages: Amen.
Section 2 (6 - 10) A different
gospel, not another.
He begins at once, his heart full, to express his
wonderment, knowing what he had known of how divine grace had wrought in them,
that they were so soon being removed from Him who had called them unto the
grace of Christ, to a different gospel. They had had in themselves, surely, the
evidence that this call was of God. Blessing and power had not lacked. The
gospel to which now they were listening was not another gospel, for there was
no other. It was no true gospel, though it might bear the name of that. It was
only the effort of some who were troubling them and who wished to pervert the
gospel of Christ. Immediately he denounces them with the utmost severity; but
it is love that speaks it, the severity itself. If it were himself or "an angel
from heaven who preached any other gospel than that which had been preached to
them," (and he repeats this lest they should think that it was an
ill-considered outburst) - if any one "preached any other gospel than that,"
not merely which had been preached to them, but "which they had received" also,
"let him be accursed." He was not, he adds, concerned about conciliating men in
saying this. It was for God he spoke, as desiring to have Him upon his side,
not seeking to please men; for to be a man-pleaser and a servant of Christ
would be in total contradiction.
I marvel that ye are thus quickly
changing from him who called you in the power of the grace of Christ, unto a
different* gospel, which is not another:* only there are some who are troubling
you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach unto you any other gospel than that we have preached
unto you, let him be anathema. As we have said before, so now I say again, If
any man preacheth unto you any other gospel than that ye did receive, let
him be anathema. For do I now make friends of men, or God? or am I
seeking to please men? If I were yet pleasing men, I should not be the bondman
of Christ.
*These are two words in the original.
Literally,
"evangelise."
Literally, "persuade," or "satisfy."
Section 3 (11, 12): The preaching of a reve1ation.
He goes on now to show how he had himself learned this gospel. He had
not learned it of men, he had not preached it as being educated in any human
school. He had been taught it by one thing alone, the marvellous revelation of
Christ to him. It was this which changed him from an enemy and a persecutor to
the ardent and self-sacrificing disciple of Christ. The Galatians were
listening to human teachers, though, as he had already intimated, they had, in
fact, had the gospel which they had received, confirmed to them by the internal
evidence as to its character, and the joy and power with which God had
accompanied it.
For I declare to you, brethren, regarding the gospel
which was preached by me. that it is not according to man. For I neither
received it from man, nor was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
Section 4 (13 - 24) His
change and surrender of flash and blood.
He goes now into the
circumstances of his conversion. He knew all about this Judaism which they were
getting back into. He did not speak as one who had been a stranger to it. On
the contrary, he had made the very greatest advances - was an enthusiast for
the law, beyond those of his own nation amongst whom he was, and, as an
evidence of this he was beyond them all in persecuting the Church of God and
wasting it. How the essential opposition of principles comes out here! Here it
was only the human school that he was following; the traditions of his fathers,
with all their appeal to nature and self-interest, stirred up his zeal; but God
had better purposes for him, God, who had separated him from his mother's womb,
and now called him by His grace. His Son was revealed, not merely to him,
objectively, but in him, to be henceforth the one abiding power and reality for
his soul; and the spell of his traditional religion which had set him in
opposition to the Christ of God, collapsed in that moment.
He was thus
the suited preacher for the Gentiles, just as himself no Gentile, but a Jew in
fullest reality of zealous legalism. If he gave this up, he gave it up as fully
knowing it, as realizing in himself its contrariety to the grace which God had
shown him. In the consciousness of this divine call, he now conferred not with
flesh and blood, and not even with those who were apostles before him. God had,
in his case, broken through all semblance even of apostolic succession, so dear
to many since. On the contrary, having received this revelation, he went off
into Arabia, into the desert, and returned once more, from such a school as
Moses learned in, to the place to which he had come to persecute this faith
which he now was preaching. By and by he did indeed go up to Jerusalem "to
see Peter; but abode with him only fifteen days, and other of the apostles saw
none except James, the Lord's brother." Again he went off into regions far
apart, and the churches of Judea which were in Christ did not know him even by
face. They had simply heard that the persecutor preached now what he had been
persecuting, and they glorified God in him.
As we think upon this
history in its connection with what we have already seen as to the character of
Christianity, it is plain how fully the prophetic character is manifested in it
as characteristic of its ministry. The prophet is one brought near to God, to
learn His mind in His presence, and is sent forth from God, responsible to Him
alone in the message intrusted to him, to declare that mind. The priesthood in
Israel was successional; but, as a consequence, in fact, of this, the
succession guaranteed to it no true spiritual character whatever. The
priesthood might, and did as we know, go far astray from God. Still the priest
was the priest, and to be owned as that until God were pleased to set. him
aside; but the prophet even in Israel was a totally different person. Receiving
his call in the most distinct way possible from God Himself; his spiritual
character was vouched for by this independent call of God. He who sent him was
responsible for him. Acquaintance with God was what marked him. He was
characteristically the "man of God"; and as such stood forth for God, as we see
in the history, in the times of deepest defection and apostasy, with his
message of recall or of warning and judgment. This is, in fact, the character
of all New Testament ministry. There is no official standing anywhere, to be
revered whatever the life may be. The message from God is the whole matter; and
the life if not with God would forfeit at once the claim to reality in the
message. The gift is from God alone, bringing its responsibility with it. To
accept man's authorization of it would only be dishonour to the glorious Giver.
For ye have heard of my manner of life once in the Jews'* religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and ravaged it: and
advanced in the Jews' * religion beyond many my contemporaries in my nation,
being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it was
the good pleasure of God who set me apart, [even] from my mother's
womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might
preach the good news as to him among the nations, immediately I conferred not
with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem, to those who were apostles
before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then
after three years I went up to Jerusalem, to become acquainted with
Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days; but other of the apostles I
saw none, save James the brother of the Lord. Now touching the things
that I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not. Then I came into the
regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was unknown by face to the assemblies of
Judea which were in Christ; but they had only heard [say], He that persecuted
us once now preacheth* the faith which once he ravaged; and they glorified God
in me.
*Judaism
Some leave out "God."
Many read,
"Peter."
*"Evangelizes."
SUBDIVISION 2.
(Chap. ii.) Confirmation, spite of opposition.
2. The
apostle goes on now to the history of his after-communications with those who
were apostles before him, and to show that while they added nothing to him in
the matter of testimony, they themselves did in the fullest way confirm the
reality of that apostleship which he independently received.
Section 1 (1 - 10) Acknowledgment of the grace
given.
He did not go up again to Jerusalem till fourteen years had
elapsed, during which much work had been done amongst the Gentiles, and Titus
accompanying himself and Barnabas was the fruit of that work. The time at which
he went up was that when there had been raised at Antioch itself a question of
the character of this new gospel to the Gentiles. We have had the history of it
already in the fifteenth of Acts. Paul and Barnabas, as we find there, were
sent with the full concurrence of the brethren at Antioch, to settle once for
all this matter which was agitating them; but, as he tells us here, even in
this case, he did not go up as yielding merely to the solicitation of others,
but by express revelation from God. The time had come, in fact, when if there
was not to be an open breach, there must be the manifestation of an agreement
between those who were the leaders at Jerusalem, the central place for Judaism,
and those who were preaching the new gospel. He went up accordingly and
communicated to them the gospel that he was preaching; first of all, (on
account of the height to which the opposition ran,) "privately to those who
were of reputation," lest the outbreak of the legalism which was carrying
the multitude should work disaster among those who had been gathered out among
the Gentiles. This is what he means evidently by saying that he did this,
"lest he should run or had run in vain." There was no yielding to the
opposition in the slightest degree. Titus was with him, a Greek, yet in fullest
Christian fellowship, and without being circumcised. Already he speaks of false
brethren who had been unawares brought in, who were seeking to bring into
bondage Christ's free men. Christianity, in fact, at Jerusalem was at present
so little more than a Jewish sect that we can readily understand how open would
be the door for men of this class to flock into it. The apostle withstands
them, not giving place, as he says "for an hour." It might seem to
others to be a small matter, that for which he was contending. With him it
involved the whole truth of the gospel. The success was manifest. In conference
he found that "those who seemed to be somewhat" had nothing to
communicate to him; but, on the other hand, recognized that to him God had, in
fact, committed the gospel of the uncircumcision just as truly as to Peter he
had given that of the circumcision. The same mighty power in signs and wonders
accompanied his work amongst the Gentiles as that which had manifested itself
in Peter among the circumcision; and those who seemed to be pillars, (whom he
now names, as James, Cephas and John,) perceived the grace that was given to
him. They gave then to him and to Barnabas "the right hand of
fellowship"; not simply as Christian brethren, but that they should go to
the Gentiles, as they themselves remained as ministers to the circumcision.
They only stipulate that the poor should be remembered; a testimony, as it
seems, as to the character of those who were being reached by the gospel in
Israel; and we find, accordingly, Paul zealous afterwards to bring to these the
offerings of the Gentiles.
THEN after a lapse of fourteen years I
went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. And I went
up according to revelation, and laid before them the gospel that I preach*
among the Gentiles, but privately before those conspicuous [among them], lest
in any way I were running, or had run in vain. But neither was Titus, who was
with me, being a Greek, compelled to be circumcised; and that on account of
false brethren privily brought in, who came in privily to spy out our
liberty that we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into
bondage: to whom we gave place in subjection, not even for an hour, that the
truth of the gospel might continue with you. And of those who seemed to be
somewhat (whatever they were, it maketh no matter to me, - God accepteth not
the person of man) they, I say, who seemed to he somewhat imparted nothing to
me; but on the contrary, seeing that the gospel of the "uncircumcision was
entrusted to me, even as that of the circumcision was to Peter* (for he who
wrought in Peter for the apostleship of the circumcision wrought also in me
toward the Gentiles), and when they perceived the grace given unto me, James
and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the
right hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto
the circumcision. Only [they would] that we should remember the poor; which
same thing I also was earnest to do.
*"Evangelizes."
Perhaps
we should read, "Cephas."
Section 2. (11 -
21): Peter's contradiction.
Such then had been the
confirmation given him; but he now goes further And shows that upon an after
occasion at Antioch, he had had to withstand Peter himself and that as
blameworthy. He had been with them in the unrestricted liberty of Christianity,
eating with the Gentiles. A change was induced by the coming of some from
James. We see how firmly the Judaizing character still remained with many of
these. And when they were come, Peter withdrew and separated himself, not from
any conviction of error on his part, but simply as giving way, as Paul had not
given way, to the opposition which he feared. Such an example in such a place
soon worked disastrously. The other Jews, apparently the mass of those there,
dissembled likewise with him. It was not, as we see again, conviction, but
retrograde movement in spite of their convictions; and this went so far that
Barnabas, the companion of Paul himself, was carried away with this
dissimulation. The power of God to resist this movement was found with Paul
alone. He saw that they "walked not uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel;" and singling out Peter, not now for private conference, but in the
presence of them all, (for Peter needed not to be convinced but convicted,) he
said to him: "If thou being a Jew livest after the manner of Gentiles,"
as he had been doing, "and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou now the
Gentiles to live as do the Jews?" Necessarily they were doing that if they
were making circumcision a necessity for the Jews to have fellowship with them.
He appeals to the character of Judaism in itself in opposition to this. What
had they themselves who were Jews by nature done with regard to this? They were
not sinners of the Gentiles, yet - he could speak for himself fully, as we
know, as the most zealous of law-keepers, - yet they knew that a man was not
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. They had
given up, therefore, the one for the other. They had believed in Christ to be
justified by the faith of Christ; because by the works of the law could no
flesh be justified. Judaism had thus been given up: for men could not take up
the law as they pleased, as a rule of life, as people say sometimes, but not as
a rule of judgment. They had to take it for that for which God gave it, and a
rule of judgment it necessarily was if it was to answer the purpose for which
He gave it. If then they had renounced the law in order to be justified by
Christ, and had found justification in this way, could it at the same time be
sin to renounce it; and had Christ become the minister of sin in this matter of
their justification? To build again the things destroyed was to make themselves
transgressors in having destroyed them. The law either existed for them or it
did not exist. We see that he goes much further than applying it or not to
Gentiles; and carries to its full result the principle of the decision at
Jerusalem, which went beyond the decision itself. He himself through the law
had become dead to the law, and that he might live to God. The whole Christian
life, therefore, was involved in this. The epistle to the Romans has made us
fully acquainted with the argument here. The law itself, through Christ bearing
its penalty for them, had, as it were, affirmed their death to it. He was
crucified with Christ, with Him who, as he says afterwards, had borne the curse
of the law, its extremest penalty, beyond which it had no claim at all. Thus he
was free. Dead with Christ, it was to live, and he lived; yet not, so to speak,
himself. The Christ who had been upon the cross for him, who was now in heaven,
had won him for Himself, that Christ who henceforth in the glorious reality of
what he saw Him to be, lived in him. It was more than Christ being his life:
Christ was his true self, the aim and object of his life from henceforth; for
the life which he lived in the flesh, he lived now in the faith of the Son of
God who, in the wonder of His perfect grace, had loved and given Himself for
him. Would they put Christ under the law also? Alas, some would and do even
to-day. For the apostle, it was far otherwise. The law, if it remained now for
him, would be simply the destruction of all the value of Christ's death for
him. If righteousness came by the law, that death of Christ was null and void.
Thus it is plain that the question of the law as a possible rule of life for
the Christian is settled by the apostle's words here. God never made it that.
It is manifest that even as a rule, if it were, - nay, just because it was -
the perfect rule for the Jew, if the Christian be anything different, anything
higher than a Jew, the Jew's rule could not give to his walk its Christian
character. Instead of being too high for Christian attainment as a standard, it
is all too low. In fact, there is nothing of the heavenly side of Christianity
expressed in the law at all. It is the man in the flesh over whom the law has
dominion; and, as we have seen elsewhere, the sphere of law is thus altogether
this side of death, and not beyond it. The Christian is, through grace, beyond
it. Death and judgment are behind him, not before him. He belongs to another
sphere; and though upon earth, he is, nevertheless, the man in Christ, to live
and walk as that. It is plain that Peter, in pursuing the course he did, had no
thought whatever to be in conflict with the truth of justification before God.
He simply adopted the law for the moment as a rule of life, but the apostle
makes it a question of the whole gospel. He has no thought of the possibility
of its being a mere rule of conduct. God meant it to raise the question of
righteousness before Him. "The man that doeth these things shall live by them"
was, in regard to it, the whole matter.
But when Peter* came to
Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because be was to be condemned. For be
fore that certain came from James, he ate with the Gentiles; but when they
came, he drew back and separated himse1f fearing those of the circumcision. And
the rest of the Jews dissembled likewise with him, so that even Barnabas was
carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter* before them
all, If thou, being a Jew, livest as do the nations, and not as do
the Jews, show compellest thou the nations to be as Jews? We, by nature
Jews, and not sinners of the nations, but§ knowing that a man is not
justified by works of law, but only by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have
believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ,
and not by works of law: because by works of law shall no flesh be justified.
Now if in seeking to be justified in Christ, we also have been found sinners,
is Christ then the minister of sin? Far be the thought. For if the things which
I threw down, these I build again, I constitute myself a transgressor. For I
through the law died to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified
with Christ; but I live, no longer I, but Christ liveth in me; and as to that
which I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith which is of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God: for
if righteousness be through law, then Christ hath died in vain.
*Perhaps "Cephas."
These changes are expressed by a single
adverb, "Gentilely" and "Jewishly."
Literally, "Judaize."
§Some MSS. omit "but"
DIVISION
2. (Chap. iii.)
The Contrast between Law and Faith.
Paul comes now, at once, to the question of doctrine, but, as has already
been said. he takes it up in a way in which we have not seen it in Romans. His
historical treatment of it was indeed the plainest possible argument that he
could use for those whose eyes were as dull as those of the Galatians had got
to be. The broad facts of the history were there and none could deny them. God
had given the promise to Abraham, a simple, unconditional promise, in which He
had pledged His whole truthfulness to fulfil His word, long before the law was
given at all. The argument at once brings in the authority of God Himself to
settle the question.
Section 1
(1-9) The promise to Abraham gives priority to faith.
He
appeals to them, however, in the first place, as having received that Spirit of
Christ which was the distinctive feature of Christianity. It was nothing less
than a bewitchment for them now not to obey the truth, when Christ Himself -
Christ crucified, as announced in the gospel, yet in the power of His Grace -
had been received in faith and owned by them. It was in consequence of their
reception of Him that the Spirit was given. Manifestly through all the
dispensation of law there was nothing like this. There was no Spirit of
adoption. It had never come to any by the works of the law. It now came in
universally as the result of the hearing of faith. As has often been said, if
it were declared in the Old Testament that God was a Father to Israel, this was
the very opposite of owning as His family those who were truly His children -
for all were not of the true Israel even, that were Israelites. It was a nation
in the flesh that God had been pleased to take up, and to put them in a certain
relation to Himself; not in that spiritual relation which Christianity implied,
for as to any of this people of God, there was no settlement of the eternal
question. They might drop out of this place into hell. There was no security as
to those in mere Judaism. Thus the Galatians had experience of the power of the
gospel and of its being a power which the Jew, as such, knew nothing of. They
had suffered, too, for the gospel, as the apostle implies. Was it all a
mistake? Had it been in vain? The Spirit was "ministered" manifestly through
those who preached the gospel to them; and who preached, as would ordinarily be
the case then, with accompanying signs and wonders on God's part, in witness to
His word. Was it by the works of the law (according to that principle) that
these things were wrought, or according to the opposite manner of the hearing
of faith? The law said doing, not hearing. The gospel said hearing, not doing.
But in this Christianity only went back to the pattern of the one whom
God had, in His wisdom, set in an unmistakable place in connection with the Jew
himself. Abraham was the one through whom they expected all their blessing; but
Abraham, as the record was, "believed God, and it was counted to him for
righteousness." In his case there were no works of the law, when the law as yet
did not exist. If then in him faith was reckoned for righteousness, - if in
him, God, having found no righteousness in man, took up the principle of faith
for righteousness, it is evident that those who were truly his children would
be accepted according to that principle. They which were of faith would be the
children of Abraham. The Scripture then had expressly anticipated the
justification of the nations through faith. It had preached, as it were, the
gospel unto Abraham in the announcement that in him all the nations should be
blessed. "In him" could not mean because of his merit, as the Jew perhaps was
ready to aver; for as to him all merit had been disclaimed: but, on the
contrary, that the nations should be blessed on that principle of faith which
God had brought to the front, and acknowledged with regard to Abraham. They
which were of faith, therefore, would be blessed with believing Abraham.
O SENSELESS Galatians, who hath bewitched you?* to whom as before
your eyes Jesus Christ hath been openly set forth, crucified? This only
would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by works of law, or by the hearing
of faith? Are ye so senseless? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now being
perfected in flesh? Have ye a suffered so many things in vain? if it be indeed
in vain. He therefore who ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles
among you, [doeth he it] by works of law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as
Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Know ye
therefore, that they that are of faith, these are sons of Abraham. And the
scripture foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, foreaunounced
the gospel unto Abraham, [saying], In thee shall all the nations be blessed. So
that they that are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
* Some
add, "that ye should not obey the truth)"
Some add, among
you.'
Section 2 (10-12) The
contrary principle and affect of law.
Now, to this the law could not
be added. It was, as we have seen again and again, precisely the reverse of
this principle. In faith there is the renouncing of self, the turning to
Another on that account. On the other hand, in the law, no question of Another
comes in at all. It is "the man that doeth them shall live by them "; but then,
alas, that means curse, and curse only. As many as were of the works of the
law, (as many as were on that principle), were under the curse; not that law
works were bad works; clearly, the very reverse; but it was written, "Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to
do them." That is the principle as announced by the apostle, when yet
Christianity had come. He certainly knew what he was speaking of. He certainly
did not believe that Christianity had modified this in any measure, so as to
make a certain amount of legal works acceptable to God. The law said "all
things," and the apostle says after it, "all things." No one has title to alter
this in the least. But then the curse was as manifestly on every one; and how
blessed, therefore, the grace which had declared in the Old Testament itself
the opposite principle, when it was said by the prophet that "the just shall
live by faith." That was the plain renunciation of the law for justification in
the sight of God, for "the law is not of faith," as we have seen. It is the man
that doeth them: it is not the work of Another, it is the man's own work by
which he is to live. Christ, therefore is out of question here. If we will be
justified upon the principle of the law, we must give up Christ.
For
as a many as are of the works of the law are under curse: for it is written,
Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the
book of the law, to do them. But that no one is justified by the law with God,
is manifest: for, the just shall live by faith; but the law is not of faith,
but, he* who hath done them shall live in them.
*Some read, "The man."
Section 3 (13, 14): Christ under
the curse, for the fulfillment of the promise of the Spirit.
But, in
fact, redemption has come for us. We were, says the apostle, hopelessly under
the curse of the law. That was all that it could do for us, and when Christ
came, instead of there being any relinquishment of this, on the contrary, He
Himself had to redeem us from the curse of the law as made Himse1f that curse.
A strange way this may seem to be expressed in, indeed, "for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree." One would say that the mere
hanging upon a tree could neither in itself be the curse, the true curse upon
sin, nor, on the other hand, mark out, of necessity, those who were under the
curse. It was, as we should say a thing apparently perfectly arbitrary. An
innocent man might hang upon a tree, just as a man steeped in guilt to the
uttermost might never hang there. Why is it then that the law expresses itself
after this manner? And here we must move carefully, for mistakes have been made
on different sides as to this. We have to remember that, while in itself the
law was a system of earthly government, though of divine appointment, on the
other hand, in its purport spiritually it went beyond this altogether. As an
earthly government - the government of an earthly people - it did not in its
rewards or penal sanction go beyond the earth. It never said of the keeper of
its commandments, "He shall go to heaven;" nor of the convicted sinner, "He
shall go to hell."* This has been often spoken of, yet needs to be fully
understood; for if it is not, confusion must result. God meant that the
conviction of man by it should be fully accomplished, and therefore put both
penalty and reward in a sphere cognizable by him, and not in an eternity as to
which he can speculate as he pleases. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die,"
and "the man that doeth them shall live by them," were meant to speak plainly
in the common language of men; and thus speaking, the issue of the law is as
plain and intelligible as its power to convict is absolutely undeniable.
The shadow of man's condemnation by it must darken the prospect beyond
death; while yet God has not tied Himself to the legal judgment. If He had,
there would be no hope for any. But the curse attached to hanging upon a tree
is not of necessity an eternal one. Yet if there be no way of escape it will be
that for all. He who bore it for others rose out of it by His own perfection
(Heb. v. 7), as those for whom He bore it by that vicarious work on their
behalf.
The Cross marked the character of that work as death in its
full penal character, and therefore the forsaking of God; and that which for
others might lose its deepest meaning, for the sacrificial victim had all its
significance. An ass might be redeemed with a lamb; but the lamb devoted could
not be redeemed (Lev. xxvii. 10). Is it not plain that prophetically this
hanging on a tree points out the One who was indeed to be under the curse from
God, and that the law waited, as it were, through all the centuries of its
existence until it found finally its satisfaction in that one wonderful
fulfilment, the cross of Christ? Thus alone could the blessing of Abraham come
on the Gentiles; for if the Gentiles were not, in fact, under the law, (as
dispensationally they were not,) yet sin must, of necessity, have the same
shadow of the curse following it ever, Gentile or Jew, it could make no
difference before God, and, in fact, that form which the law gave to the curse
could only be the figure of a deeper thing. The blessing of Abraham could not
come upon the Gentiles themselves except as that curse was removed out of the
way of man by Jesus Christ, and thus alone could we receive the promise of the
Spirit through faith.
*It must be remembered that the Old Testament "hell"
is "Sheol," which is hades, the place of the dead,
Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, (for it is
written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree,) that the b1essing of
Abraham might come unto the nations in Christ. Jesus, that we might receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith.
Section 4 (15-18): Impotence of the law to annul the
promise.
The apostle returns now back to Abraham and the promise to
him, in order to show the impotence of the law to annul it. He appeals here to
the moral sense of man. If he were only a man, and had made a covenant
unconditionally, pledging himself to this or that, and especially, he adds, "If
this covenant were confirmed, no one could disannul it" and no one could add a
condition to it. Now God had made it, as is clear, in these promises to
Abraham, and confirmed them, as he tells us directly, to Christ. The covenant
was of promise and it was both made and confirmed. It was an absolute promise,
not a conditional one. No condition, therefore, could be added without
destroying its very nature. When God said "in thy Seed," it was of Christ
plainly that He was speaking. As we look back at the history, we see that it
was after Isaac had been delivered, as Scripture says, in a figure, from that
sacrificial death from which Christ was not delivered, that God gave this. It
was Christ that was in His mind. Here was the Lamb whom God would provide for
the burnt-offering. Here was the ram who in the truth of it saved Isaac, as we
may say - the ram caught by its horns in the thicket: Christ thus, caught, as
it were, by the very power that He had to save and bless, which His love, would
not allow Him, therefore, not to put in exercise. Christ was the Seed to whom
God confirmed the covenant of promise, and the law came 430 years too late to
set it aside at all; but it is manifest if it were added to it, it would
disannul it. The apostle dismisses both thoughts, the disannulling and the
adding, the adding being, in fact, the same as disannulling. Law added would be
the introduction of a contradictory principle; for if the inheritance were of
the law, it would be no more of promise, whereas God gave it to Abraham by
promise.
Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: though it be but
a man's covenant, [if] confirmed, no man setteth it aside, or addeth
dispositions. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He
saith not, Unto seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is
Christ. Now this I say, A covenant confirmed by God [to Christ],* the law,
which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not annul, so as to make
the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance be of law, it is no longer of
promise; but God gave it in grace to Abraham by promise.
*Omitted by
the earliest MSS extant, but inserted by some quite early, and in the Syriac
versions as" in Christ."
Section 5 (19-22):
The governmental end of the law.
Naturally enough the
question comes here, Why then the law? "It was added," answers the apostle,
"for the sake of transgressions." Such is the expression; which means, not to
keep transgressions in check, as the common thought seems to be, for Scripture
itself has already told us that "where there is no law, there is no
transgression." Thus it could not keep transgression in check; on the contrary,
it could only produce it; that is, as we have already said, it could make sin
take that form. It was added, then, for that purpose; and it was added for a
certain season; not being that which could confer the blessing upon man, it
must be taken out of the way, in order that the blessing might come. It was
added, therefore, temporarily for a certain reason; added "till the Seed
should come to whom the promise was made." There was another thing. "It
was ordained by angels," but it had nothing of the glory of the new
covenant as made good by Christ. The glory at Sinai, as the Psalmist says, was
angelic glory (Ps. lxviii. 17). God Himself was unrevealed; He was behind, in
the thick darkness. Or if Moses saw Him, it was but the back parts: His face
could not be seen. And the very reflection of glory thus in the face of Moses
made men unable to behold; it, therefore, put man only in the distance, did not
bring him nigh, and thus there had to be a mediator, manifestly Moses himself;
but a mediator implies two parties. "A mediator is not a mediator of one," but
God was the only One who spoke in the promise to Abraham. God is One: there was
no other party. All depended, therefore, in the promise, upon God Himself.
But this seems to set the law against the promise of God, men might
urge. Nay, he says, in the nature of the case, a law would have had to be given
which could have given life, in order that righteousness might be worked out
under it. Life was what man needed. The law was the ministration of death and
not of life. Righteousness, therefore, could not be by the law; and the law was
not against the promise of God, but, on the contrary, shut men up to that
promise for all their blessing. The Scripture which speaks of it, "hath shut
up all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe."
Wherefore then the law? It was added for the
sake of transgressions, unti1 the seed should come to whom the promise was
made; being ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator
is not of one; but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Far
be the thought. For if there had been a law given able to give life,
righteousness would indeed have been of law. But the scripture hath shut up all
things under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
those who believe.
Section 6
(21-25): Its limit reached, faith having come.
This shows
us, therefore, clearly the limit of the law. "Before faith came," that is,
before it was God's open and acknowledged principle of blessing, "we were kept
under the law, shut up to the faith which should afterwards be revealed." That
faith was made necessary by the fact of the ruin in which the law proved us to
be. God must bring in blessing through Another: faith in Another must be His
principle. The law thus was our schoolmaster until Christ. It had a needed
lesson to teach for a time. No schooling is for all time. The schoolmaster's
work is to make us independent of himself, and the law's work was to bring us
into a place where it would no more he needful. Its very service was to shut us
up to justification by faith alone, no other mode being possible. But if, then,
this is to be so, "after that faith is come, we are no longer under the
schoolmaster." Faith being openly proclaimed God's principle, the law's work is
done.
But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law,
shut up to the faith which was about to be revealed. So that the law hath been
our tutor unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith; but now that faith
is come, we are no longer under a tutor.
Section 7 (26-29): And in Christ Jew and Gentile
perfected alike.
And this is shown by the fact of the new place into
which God has put His people now, "sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus;" the
school of law is not the proper place for us. That does not mean that we are
not to profit by the lessons which the law taught, of course. We may profit by
the lessons which we learn in school without being under the schoolmaster; but
under the schoolmaster, no one says "Father." The place of sons as such is
manifestly somewhere else than at school. This, then, has come for us, for "as
many of us as have been baptized to Christ have put on Christ." Christ is,
according to the truth announced in baptism itself, the One in whom we are,
therefore, before God. It is His perfection, His beauty that is seen upon us.
Nothing else is seen, no earthly condition, no place of privilege beside.
"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." Manifestly,
if each one of us is in Christ, Christ must be the same for each and all of us.
There can be no distinction here. For distinction, we must look away from
Christ; but if then we "are Christ's," then "are we Abraham's seed," in the
fullest way identified with the very One in whom the blessing was to be,
identified with the very Heir of blessing, and therefore heirs according to the
promise, "in thy Seed:" that is Christ, in whom we are.
For ye are
all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were
baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. There is no Jew nor Greek; there is no
bond- nor freeman; there is no male nor female; for ye are all tone in
Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to promise.
DIVISION
3. (Chaps. iv. - v. 6.)
The meaning of the Spirit of Adoption
having come.
SUBDIVISION 1.
(Chap. iv. 1 - 20.)
The Grace given.
Section 1 (1-3): Nonage.
The apostle,
therefore, now naturally returns to what he has already spoken of as the
manifest peculiar blessing of Christianity itself, the coming of the Spirit.
"We are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus;" but then there were
children of God before Christianity. The children of God were not gathered
together as such; the true children were not acknowledged as such; but they
were there. Christ died, not for the nation of Israel only, but that He might
gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. There
were, then, children, even while they were scattered. There were children of
God under the law, but as long as they were there, they differed nothing from
servants. There was no cry of "Abba, Father" There was no Father openly
acknowledging them. The children were just as much children. They were, in that
sense, "lords of all." Nevertheless, they differed nothing from servants as to
their practical condition. They were "under tutors and governors," for their
own good, "until the time appointed of the Father." Now this tutelage, as the
apostle tells us, was yet a real bondage. The law was the elements of the
world. It is, in fact, what enters into every system of natural religion that
was ever in man's mind. It is the principle upon which the whole world goes on,
which is necessary to it, and man can conceive no other; but, by that very
fact, it was bondage to the child of God. He was under that which denied him
the nearness which was truly his own and prevented his serving in the liberty
of the child's place.
1. NOW I say that so long as the heir is a
child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant, though lord of all; but he is
under guardians and stewards until the term appointed by the father. Even so
we, when we were children, were kept in bondage under the elements of the
world.
Section 2 (4, 5): The
Son subjected to law for our redemption from it.
But the "fullness of
time" came. God had steadfastly in view the Object which was before Him and He
could not delay longer than necessity demanded. "When the fullness of the time"
then "was come, God sent forth His Son," the One in whom there was necessarily,
by what He was, the greatest possible nearness to Himself, yet now apparently
at a distance, "come of a woman" and actually Man, but "come under the law"
also, under that which to every other was bondage, which for Himself could be
none. With Him there was no impossibility of working out the righteousness of
the law. it could only testify to the perfection that was in Him, and thus,
after His thirty years of probation, the Spirit of God comes openly upon Him,
marking Him out as the Object of God's fullest delight. He was sealed, as we
are not, because of His own perfection; but He entered, in that very act, upon
a course of ministry to others in which redemption would be accomplished for
those under the law, that now "we might receive the adoption of sons";
that is, the full place of children, as well as the reality of being such.
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
come of a woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we
might receive the adoption of sons.
Section 3 (6, 7): The Spirit in the heart manifests
the Sons.
For this is what sonship means, in contrast with children, as
the terms are used here. The child (teknon) is the one by nature that.
He is born to it, and if born he can never cease to be the child of the one of
whom he is born; but he may not have the place of child, and that is what in
Scripture, "sonship" implies. The son (uihos) is the acknowledged child,
the child in the child's place; and that is what is proper to Christianity.
Children there were before it, but now they are "sons"; and we have received,
in that way, the adoption. The consequence is: "Because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba,
Father." Notice that the place as given of God must be ours first, then
comes the qualification for the place, the Spirit of His Son. How wonderfully
does that speak! It is not the spirit of a son simply, but the Spirit of His
Son. In fact, it is the perfection of Christ which has rendered possible this
reception by us of the Spirit of Christ, and which, therefore, brings us into
the sweetness of the assurance of what Christ Himself is to God, in the value
of which we abide. How then, asks the apostle as it were, is it possible, in
such a place, to be a servant any longer, that is a slave? It is the bondage of
slavery of which he is speaking. Servants, of course, we are in a true sense,
by the very fact that we are sons. We serve as such. God has title to service,
surely, from all His sons, but there is no bondage in this. If sons, we are
gloriously free, and if sons, we are heirs of' God through Christ. This, then,
is the characteristic of Christianity.
And, because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your* hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir
through God.
*The weight of MS. authority is for "our"; although
the Syriac versions support "your." The sense seems decisive.
"An heir
through God" is given by most editors; though MS. authority is nearly equal for
"heir of God through Christ."
Section 4
(8-2O): The lapse of the Ga1atians.
The apostle turns now,
therefore, to the Galatians, to appeal to them as to their lapse from such
conscious blessedness. The going into Judaism is for him much the same thing as
going back to the heathenism out of which, in fact, they had been brought. They
had not known God, and then were doing service to those who by nature were no
gods. Now they had known Him, or rather He had known them. Known and
recognized, how could they turn to "the weak and beggarly elements of the
world" whereunto they desired again to be in bondage? It was heathenism in
which, in fact, they had been. These "elements of the world" for them had been
in heathenism, and yet he says "How turn ye again?" It was all the same thing,
in fact; if Christ were given up, what did it matter? They were observing days
and months and times and years. Nothing very dreadful, people would say, in
that; but he immediately comments upon it: "I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labour in vain." Then he beseeches them that they should
be still as he himself continued to be; their lapse could not injure him in one
sense. They knew how, in spite of infirmity of the flesh, he had preached the
gospel to them at the first. They had not taken offence at the weakness, the
physical weakness that they saw in him; they had not rejected him on account of
that, which, in fact, was only designed to make the power of the Spirit in him
more apparent. They had received him as an angel of God, even as the Christ he
represented. Had they then, in fact, known that blessedness of which they had
certainly spoken? They would have plucked out their own eyes and have given
them to him. How was it now? Did telling them the truth make him their enemy?
But there were others who were manifesting great zeal in their behalf, not in a
right way. They were acting, as he puts it, for a purpose, - would exclude the
apostle, that they might have themselves that place in their affections which
they had robbed him of; but if they had really found the blessing which they
declared, would it not be good for them to abide in that, to show their zeal
after that manner? In fact, he was full of longing after them. He had been the
one who had brought them into this blessing in Christ. Now he was travailing in
birth again, as it were, (had all the sorrow and pain of that), until Christ
should be formed in them. He desired to be present with them, yet with a
changed voice. He had had to change it, for he stood in doubt of them.
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature
are are no gods; but now, after that ye have known God, or rather, are known of
God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire
over again to be in bondage? Ye observe days and months and times and years: I
am afraid of you, lest by any means I have laboured as to you in vain. I
beseech you, brethren, be as I am; for I am as ye [were]: ye have in nothing
injured me. But ye know that in* weakness of the flesh I preached the gospel to
you at the first; and that which was your temptation in my flesh ye
despised not, nor rejected; but as an angel of God ye received me as Christ
Jesus. What blessedness then was yours! for I bear you witness that, if
possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.
So then, am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? They are zealous
after you in no right way; on the contrary they desire to shut you out [from
us], that ye may be zealous after them. But it is right to be zealously
affected always in what is right, and not only when I am present with you. My
children, of whom again I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you, yea,
I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in
doubt of you.
*Gk. dia with the accusative may have this sense.
f Some good authorities have "my"; others nothing.
Or
"where is the blessedness?"
SUBDIVISION 2
(Chaps. iv. 21 - v. 6.)
The testimony of the law itself.
Section 1 (iv. 21-31): As the
mother, so the birth.
If they would not listen any more to the gospel
or to the one who had spoken to them for Christ, the apostle would appeal now
to the very law itself, which undoubtedly they must hear. Zealous law-keepers
must hear the law. Here he goes back to Abraham again, and in a manner which,
to some who scarcely fully accept the typical character of Old Testament
history, would appear strange. Yet to "foolish Galatians" he can use this
without questioning their ability to realize, not only the likeness to truth,
but the truth itself that is in it. In fact, these typical pictures speak for
themselves and are designed to speak. When once we have the key to them, their
perfect agreement with the truth can be nothing else than that designed of God
to set it forth. Abraham's two sons thus naturally speak of those two classes
of his offspring of which the apostle has been speaking. There is the seed
after the flesh; there is the seed after the Spirit, the natural child "and the
spiritual child," the child "of faith." It is not hard, therefore, to
understand the similitude when he emphasizes the one seed as that by a
handmaid, the other by a free woman. Bondage and freedom have been his theme
already. How fully plain does it become when he tells us that he who was of the
bondwoman was born after the flesh, in the ordinary course of nature, with
nothing necessarily of God in it, and on the other hand he of the free woman
was by promise. He has already spoken of this promise, has already connected
its "in thee," said of him whose faith was reckoned to him for righteousness,
with the faith of those who are the children of promise. These things, he says,
not, "are an allegory," exactly, but "are allegorized" They were true things,
things which had actually taken place, no question, but which nevertheless had
"happened to them," as the apostle says of other things in their history, "for
types." They had a divinely intended meaning in them and not merely could be
used to show forth such things. These two, then, are the two covenants, the one
from the Mount Sinai, the law bringing forth to bondage, which is Hagar; the
other, that of promise "Jerusalem which is above," "which is the mother of us
all," or "which is our mother." "Jerusalem which is above" naturally carries
our thoughts on to that of which John gives us in his Revelation by and by a
fuller view. It was the home city, the city of which all the people of God now
are children. The apostle speaks of it as having a present reality and a place
which faith indeed alone can recognize, but which is none the less real. Paul
turns to the prophet here, in order to show us that while, in fact, the barren
was not bearing (before the time of Israel's real travailing and birth, as in a
day to come,) there would be, nevertheless, the strange paradox of many more
children to her than when she had an husband. This is language which the
apostle's word about the olive-tree in the epistle to the Romans should enable
us clearly to understand. The branches are broken off, but yet there are
branches in their place which are counted as part of the olive-tree itself They
are, in fact, in a true sense, the fruit of Israel, although Israel has in the
meantime lost that fruitful condition, and here we find the children which, in
fact, should more rejoice her heart, when looking at things from the divine
point of view, than all the generations of the nation in the flesh merely.
Here, of course, are the children of promise. Here is the true Isaac, but the
opposition between the one born after the flesh and this new spiritual birth is
manifest. This very apostle is proof of it even now, but the known opposition
everywhere manifest on the part of Israel to Christ and to His people was, of
course, the greatest proof. Israel after the flesh was persecuting the children
of promise, but what would be the result? The casting out of the bondwoman and
her son. God had, in fact, disclaimed the principle of the law, which was the
principle of bondage, and if He had now sons that were really of the free
woman, children of promise, children that divine grace had made such, there
could not be a common recognition of these and of those so totally opposite.
"We then," he says, "brethren, are not children of the bondwoman, but of the
free. The law could easily, as it were, and naturally, bring forth children to
God. How natural it is for men to accept a system of this sort and to be put
upon such terms with God. The whole nation of Israel at once and decisively
took this ground without a question. On the other band, the true seed desired
of God must be all born by divine power; born slowly, as one may think, long
years passing while they seem to be only scanty in number and slow enough to
mature, yet, after all, God will have His own. Scorn as Israel might those who
now were being by the Spirit of God led to Christ and Christianity, Israel's
casting out was already manifestly at hand, when the very place of their holy
house would be dug up by the Roman people and the worship ordained of God for
the people in the flesh would no longer be possible to them. Their house was
left to them desolate. It was their house, not God's, but that was the sentence
upon it. It would soon be not even their house any longer.
TELL me,
ye that desire to be under law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written that
Abraham had two sons: one by the handmaid and one by the freewoman. But he that
was of the handmaid was born after the flesh; and he that was of the freewoman
through the promise. Which things are to be al1egorized; for these are two
covenants; the one from mount Sina, bringing forth to bondage, which is Hagar.
For this Hagar is mount Sina in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem that now is,
for she is in bondage with her children; but Jerusalem which is above is free,
which is our mother.* For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest
not; break out and cry, thou that travailest not; for more are the children of
the desolate than of her that hath the husband. For we, brethren, as
Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he that was born after the
flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also is it now. But
what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son; for the son of the
handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we
are "not children of the handmaid, but of the freewoman.
*Some MSS.
have, "mother of us all."
Others read, "ye."
Section 2 (v. 1-6): Circumcision binds to law, and
antagonizes Christ and faith.
The apostle closes with the exhortation
to "stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ hath made us
free" and not to be "entangled again with the yoke of bondage." He
is very strong that there could be no profit of Christ to those who put
themselves under the law. If they were circumcised, Christ would profit them
nothing. A circumcised man was a debtor to do the whole law. This may seem
strange from one who, as we know, before this time had himself circumcised
Timothy, but the circumstances were entirely different. Timothy was a Jew by
his mother's side, and it was, in that case, such a concession on the part of
one not under the law putting himself under it in the very liberty that he had
to gain others, as made it a sign, therefore, of liberty instead of bondage.
With the Galatians it would be entirely different. They, as Gentiles, were not
debtors to the law in any way, and if they put themselves under it, it was to
gain from it a spiritual blessing; it was a real addition, therefore, to Christ
that they were making, but by this, as we have already seen, they would be
"fallen from grace," for grace cannot admit the conditional principle of law
without losing all its character. Again, we see also that be has no thought of
any one taking up the law as a rule of life simply; it is of justification by
it that he speaks, and this was in fact the only question that the law raised;
but as Christians in possession of the Spirit, which we have seen to be the
sign of their Christianity, they were outside the law, and necessarily in
possession of a righteousness which the Spirit of God could seal, a
righteousness perfect before God. They only waited in faith for the hope which
was connected with this; not for righteousness as a hope, but for the hope of
glory attaching to it. Thus, they were beyond any possible need of law; and "in
Christ," as he declares, "neither circumcision" availed "anything, nor
uncircumcision." A man was quite outside both the Jewish and the Gentile
acceptance. God accepted nothing, except as faith, which, as the sign of
dependence, drew blessing from Him; and which, in its nature, worked not by the
principle of fear, which was that of law, but by love.
With freedom
hath Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not held again in a yoke
of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify to every man that is circumcised, that
he is a debtor to do the I whole law. Ye are deprived of profit from
Christ, ye who are justified by law: ye are fallen away from grace. For we
through the Spirit await by faith the] hope of righteousness. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith
that worketh by love.
DIVISION 4.
(Chaps. v. 7 - vi. 18.)
The Practical Test of the Two
Principles.
Section 1 (7-15):
The one command of law.
The blessing could not be more complete, and
they had experienced the joy and power of it. This causes him again to express
his astonishment at their now refusing obedience to the truth. They had been
running well. Who now was hindering them? It certainly did not come from God,
this new persuasion. On the other hand, the power of evil was such that a
little leaven would soon leaven the whole lump. Evil, in fact, makes continual
demands. One departure from truth will necessitate many, in order that there
may be perfect consistency. There can be no possible compromise in a path like
this, but how great the folly of those who, having experienced the joy and
power of divine grace, could now take up with that which was in its nature
absolutely contrary! If he looks at them, he may well be disheartened; but in
grace itself he had found his refuge. In the Lord he could have confidence that
they would be none otherwise minded, and the troubler, whoever it might be,
should bear his judgment. He sees easily that there was temptation enough
indeed, in a certain sense, to adopt such a thing as circumcision, which would
remove, as between Jews and Christians, the whole offence of the cross. The
apostle puts it as a thing impossible rightly to cease, and we see the
persecution of which he is thinking is on the part of the Jew; and we have
seen, it was so distinctly in the history which the Acts has given us. It was
to the Jew that the cross was a scandal - the sign, as he has already told us,
of One upon whom the law put its curse, of a curse needed to be taken because
of the condition of those under law. How impossible for the Jew to allow that
the law had nothing but a curse for man, and that the very Saviour of men, to
be that, must bear the curse! The cross was the complete condemnation of man
before God. It was also complete deliverance for those who accepted the
condemnation, but this was the destruction necessarily of all legal
righteousness. "I would," he says, "they would even cut themselves off which
trouble you." He has no possible tolerance for that which was the destruction
of Christian truth and principle; his love to the souls of men made him what
people would call intolerant. But, in fact, while these men would uphold the
law, the very thing that the law required from man was in practice set aside.
The Galatians were finding it so. They had given up their true Christian
liberty, and yet, after all, were not keeping the law, for all the law was
fulfilled in one word, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." They
had surely realized the power of divine grace in this way, but now the effect
of their legal addition to the gospel was a total change in their own spirit.
They were, as he intimates, "biting and devouring one another." What use to
talk about the law in such a state as that? They might well be afraid lest they
should "be consumed one of another;" but this is the necessary effect of law
ever. The law is claim, demand, and expects, therefore, a full ability on man's
part to meet the demand. The spirit of self-righteousness, which alone could
take comfort in it on such a principle, has necessarily in it no tenderness, no
recognition of one's own infirmity and no compassion for the infirmity of
others. The law itself had none and could have none. It was its business to
condemn, and it did it well. If a man continued not "in all things written
in the book of the law to do them," he was under the curse. How simple,
that to accept the law, then, as that under which one was, would be the
destruction of all tenderness, of the very spirit which the law really
required.
YE were running well; who hath hindered you, .that ye
should not obey the truth? This persuasion is not of him who calleth you. A
little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence as to you in the
Lord, that ye will be no otherwise minded; and he that troubleth you shall bear
his judgment, whosoever he may be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? Then hath the stumb1ing-block of
the cross been done away. I would they would even cut themselves off who are
unsettling you. For ye, brethren, have been called to liberty; only [use] not
that liberty as an occasion for the flesh, but by love serve one another. For
all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this, Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself; but if ye bite and devour one another, see that ye be not
consumed of one another.
Section 2
(16-21): The antagonism of flesh and spirit.
There is indeed
in man everywhere the flesh and the lust of the flesh, and for a soul that does
not yet realize the true deliverance that God has for us, the perfectly natural
remedy is to take up with the law. It is, in fact, no remedy, but the reverse.
The remedy is to "walk in the Spirit," as he urges upon them here. "Walk in
the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," - not as some
would read it now, ye shall have no flesh, nor even, ye shall have no lust of
it. Lust is that which gives the flesh its character; that is to say, the
craving of an unsatisfied heart away from God, and this, too, remains in the
Christian, as is plain from what he urges here. "For the flesh" he says,
"lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are
contrary the one to the other." He does not say, as the common version puts
it: "So that ye cannot do the things that ye would," but "So that ye should
not." He will not think of an impossibility on the part of one who walks in
the Spirit. To the Spirit, clearly, no thing can be impossibility. Still, the
two remain here, as we have seen already in Romans, even in the delivered
Christian; and just as in Romans, it is against the Spirit that the flesh
lusts. He does not give us here the striving of self against self which was
that of the man in the seventh chapter, as yet not delivered. He is not,
therefore, as some imagine, speaking simply of what was a low state on the part
of the Galatians. Granted that they were in a low state, but he puts it here as
a general truth, and in language, as already said, which would apply to a man
in the Spirit, a delivered man. Even so, flesh and Spirit are there with all
their absolute opposition to one another, and the tendency is necessarily to
hinder one doing the things he would. Some have put it as if it was the will of
the flesh that the Spirit here hinders, but even in the conflict of the seventh
of Romans, or rather, in the state of bondage which we find there, the captive,
after all, assures himself that the things that he would are the things
according to God. The apostle would not allow that the will away from God is a
Christian state at all; but the flesh, nevertheless, will seek to assert itself
and the only remedy for the soul is the way of the Spirit; that is, as we have
seen, in occupation with Christ. With Him before our eyes, there is nothing for
the lust of the flesh whatever, and moreover the heart that truly knows Him
finds in Him a satisfaction and rest which delivers from the corruption that is
in the world through lust; but then, "if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not
under the law." The two things are in absolute and perfect contradiction one to
another.
The works of the flesh are now enumerated, and we must
remember that if the flesh be in the Christian, he can never promise himself
that they will not be found in their full dreadful character, if once there be
license given to it. The apostle has no idea of a modified flesh in a
Christian. There are doubt1ess very different characters of it, but a close
brotherhood in the family of sin. The apostle puts them together in that way -
"Murder, drunkenness, revellings and such like," very different in the
extent of the evil, but if the soul's anchorage be lost there is no possibility
of telling how far it will drift. It is only the power of the Spirit that can
control the flesh; and He controls it by leading us, as we have seen, in
another way; but the Spirit, while the full expression of divine grace towards
us, nevertheless requires the most complete subjection to Himself. God must be
God. It is no grace that will tolerate any forgetfulness of this. "Sin shall
not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under
grace." Grace is not toleration in any wise, and the Spirit of God can only
lead those who are in full subjection in desire, at least, to Him. It is here
that we need to be able so fully to say: "Search me, O God, and try me," to
have our feet in the blessed hands of One who cleanses after His own mind as to
cleansing. Of the whole category of sin here, it is said, "They that do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." That is the road to death
from which the Spirit of God takes a man, not leaves him upon it.
Now I say, Walk in* the Spirit, and ye shall in no wise fulfil the
lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit
against the flesh; and these are opposed one to the other, so that ye should
not practise the things that ye would. But if ye are led of the Spirit, ye are
not under law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication,
uncleanness, 1asciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies,
anger, disputes, factions, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revels, and such
like; as to which I tell you beforehand, even as I said before, that they who
do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
*Or, "by."
Section 3 (22-26): The fruit 0f the
Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit is now brought before us. Here, too, is a
brotherhood of graces. "Fruit" the apostle calls it. The flesh has its works.
He will not give that the name of "fruit," and here it is not, in fact, of work
that he is speaking, but of an inward temper, the development of the divine
nature, which, therefore, is in unity and peace all through. "The fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, self-government, against such there is no law." Thus, that which
the law could give no power to fulfil, is found by thus walking in the Spirit,
and "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts:" that is to say, they have accepted the cross of Christ as that
which is for them the judgment of it all and their separation from it. How
perfect, in fact, is the judgment of self which the cross truly apprehended
gives. It is not merely the judgment of this or that about us, but the complete
removal of the man in the flesh, in order that Christ may fill all the scene
for us. The knowledge of the new man is that "Christ is all and in all." Thus,
it is not a process, as he puts it here, this crucifixion: it is a thing
accomplished. We may have to learn by degrees what it means. The light grows
brighter upon the path as we walk in it, and we discern more clearly, no doubt,
that which suits God. Thus, there is growth in apprehension as to detail, but
as to principle, the thing is done at the start. It is Christ, not self that we
have put on, and it is that which suits Him that we follow. As it is put in
Colossians, we are to "do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus," that is to
say, as representing Him upon earth; and that means, assuredly, that from the
start the flesh is crucified for us. The cross stands at the beginning of the
Christian path, and the Galatians here had the Spirit. He does not question it.
They were alive in the Spirit. If so, he says, let the walk be in the Spirit
also, "let us not be desirous of vain glory" which the law, if man could keep
it, could not but promote, the effect necessarily following; but as to others
there would be a spirit of intolerance and not of love; "provoking one
another," he says here, "envying one another."
But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meek
nes, se1f~contro1: against such things there is no law. And they that are
Christ's* have crucified the flesh, with its passions and lusts. If we live in
the Spirit, let us walk also in the Spirit. Let us not become vainglorious,
provoking one another, envying one another.
*Many read, "of Christ
Jesus."
Section 4 (vi. 1-5): Mercy
to the failing, as experiencing one's own weakness.
We see that he is
occupied throughout here, with the practical test; a powerful method of appeal,
surely, to those who had, in fact, known the blessedness which the gospel could
give; far as they might now he departing from it, The law might require love
indeed and did; but it could not produce it, could not even encourage such a
spirit in those that followed it. You will never find the legal mind tender
really of others. The apostle, therefore, presses it upon them here, that if
they were, in fact, spiritual, that would be seen in their behaviour. If one
were overtaken in a fault, they would restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness, the very opposite of the spirit engendered by the principle which
they had taken up. They would consider themselves lest they also should be
tempted; but for a man under law, it does not do to consider himself after that
fashion; it would work discouragement and despair. On the other hand, he must
assure himself under law of his competence to fulfil the commandment, and
therefore he must exact from others the fulfilment; assured of their competence
no less than his. Spirituality, in fact, may be claimed by those who act in a
very opposite spirit to this. That is what he rebukes here. He does not mean to
affirm their spirituality. He does not mean that a man has to look at himself
and ask whether he is spiritual, before he can realize ability to restore
another. The spirit of meekness is the very opposite of such fancied
spirituality. The spiritual man is too near Christ to believe in himself; to
walk in that presence has, as its surest mark, the spirit of lowliness; and if
the spirit of God bear witness in our souls in a practical way, it will not be
to puff us up with the idea of Christ-likeness, but, on the contrary, to point
out to us where we are unlike Him; yet here there is no spirit of
discouragement or despair engendered. If we have once learned the true judgment
of ourselves before God as the cross gives it to us, we shall not expect to
find anything in ourselves, and therefore shall not be disappointed; yet our
resource is at hand, our strength is in Another, "In Christ dwelleth all the
fulness of the Godhead bodily, and we are filled up in Him." There can be no
want then to us, and there can be no self-confidence in those whose habitual
resort is to this fountain of supply. The spirit of meekness, therefore, will
go with true spirituality. Let them show it, he urges, in that way. Let them
"bear one another's burdens,"* so they would fulfil the law of Christ,
who Himself assuredly was the great burden Bearer. On the other hand, if a man
thought himself to be something when nothing (when did he ever think himself to
be something without being nothing?) he would deceive himself. He adds now a
word against those who were, in contradiction to his own principle, building
upon another man's foundations, and indeed, rather destroying those
foundations, than building upon them. "Let every man," he says,
"approve his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and
not in another." In the end, every one would bear his own burden.* Every
Christian must at last take up his own responsibility before God, as we know.
Every one must give account of himself to God. It will be the triumph of divine
grace to be able to do it after the fashion in which we shall do it; and yet,
nevertheless, there is enough in the thought for the utmost seriousness.
*These are two different words in the original.
Brethren, if
even a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye that are spiritual restore such an
one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou a1so be tempted.
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man
esteemeth himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But
let each prove his own work, and then he will have his glorying in regard to
himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one shall bear his own
burden.
Section 5 (6-10): The
reaping as the sowing.
He enters now upon the subject, which this
opens, of divine government, a thing which is not, as we know, in the slightest
contradiction with divine grace. These are things which are sometimes put as if
in some sense contrary to one another; but, on the other hand, the government
of God for us is expressly a Father's government, while it is, none the less,
that of One who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's
work. This is, of course, a thing of the present, not of the future. The future
judgment, whether with regard to saint or sinner, is in the hands of Christ.
God hath committed all judgment to Him because He is the Son of Man, but there
is a government which is, none the less, the government of grace, because it is
one absolutely intolerant of evil. We may repeat again that the toleration of
evil is never grace. It would be a perversion of the very thought of grace to
imagine this. "Be not deceived," he says, therefore, "God is not
mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, for he that
soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and he that soweth to
the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." These are
principles of absolute necessity. Nothing can alter them. If a man sows a
certain seed, he knows, or he should know, that he can get of that seed nothing
but what is proper to it. If a man sows to his flesh, he sows, in fact, the
corruption which he reaps. The very principle of self-will which must, of
necessity, be in it, is a principle which is essentially that of sin. Every
form of sin will come under this, and God may allow, in fact, such seed to come
to harvest, in order that we may recognize its character, as we otherwise would
not do. In the opposite way to that of the man who, bearing good seed, goes
forth even weeping, but returns with joy, a man in this way may sow his seed
rejoicing, but it will be the return that will be sorrowful. It does not follow
that God cannot come in and deliver us from what would otherwise be the
necessary fruit of such sowing, if only there be the true self-judgment of it
in the soul; for to a Christian, the reaping of it is but in order to
self-judgment, and if we will judge it first, there maybe no need of reaping at
all. Judge it first or last we surely must, or the thing will develop for what
it is and be manifest, not to ourselves alone it may be, but to others also. On
the other hand, "He that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting." Blessed and wonderful reaping! The life is looked at here, of
course, in its practical character, in its fruits and activities. The life
itself, the life which produces this, is no matter of reaping at all, it is
what we must have to be Christians. Nevertheless, we can reap it as a practical
thing, and the witness of it is that, even though reaped here upon earth, it is
something which has eternity in it. All that which in us here is the fruit of
the divine work has necessarily its link with eternity. It is for eternity that
we are preparing. There is not even just that sharp division between the
present and the future for us which, we are apt so to imagine. It is eternity
that God has before him, it is the things eternal with which we are conversant
day by day. It is eternity, therefore, that imprints its character upon the
present. It is the life everlasting which we live practically now, and let us
not then, says the apostle, be "weary in well doing, for in due season we
shall reap if we faint not." The path is through a world of trial, and
therefore, though in itself all well doing has its own delight, yet the
opposition to it from the world through which we pass will surely give us need
of such an encouragement as this. "As we have therefore, opportunity, let us do
good unto all men, but especially," he adds, "unto them who are of the
household of faith." This ends very much the practical test which he has been
making of the two principles which we have seen in opposition all the way
through the epistle. All the way through it is a controversy, and one from
which we need not expect to escape while we are here. God's principles lead
into conflict, and, alas, not merely with the men of the world, but, it may he,
as here, with the children of God themselves.
Now let him that is
taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things. Be not
deceived: God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. For he that soweth to his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;
but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. And let
us not lose heart in practising what is right: for in its own season we shall
reap, if we faint not. So then, as we have opportunity, let us work what is
good toward all; and especially toward those who are of the household of faith.
Section 6 (11-14): The end of the
world for us in the cross.
In the earnestness of his desire for them,
the apostle, contrary to his wont, has penned all this epistle with his own
hand. His custom was simply to put a salutation from his hand at the end; but
in this case, he could not, as it were, trust another, or was not free to
dictate to another the things that were in his heart. It was not with him, as
with those of whom he was writing, a fair show in the flesh that he was making.
He was not wanting followers, nor, as they, to escape persecution for the cross
of Christ. He charges them openly with this. They did not keep the law, they
could not but be conscious of that. Their desire to have others circumcised was
simply that they might glory in their flesh. For him all that was ended. The
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ had closed for him the whole scene here; and in
it the world it was that was crucified, and he himself to the world. The
character of the world was thus stamped upon it. The cross was for him a shadow
resting upon it. If it had judged and cast out Christ, he who was identified
with Christ before God, and had learned to identify himself thus, was one whom
they had crucified.
See in what a along letter* I have written unto
you with mine own hand. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh,
these are compelling you to be circumcised, only that they may not be
persecuted for the cross of Christ. For neither do they that are circumcised
themselves keep the law; but they desire you to be circumcised, that they may
glory in your flesh. But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified to me, and I unto the
world.
*Or, "in what large letters."
Or, "by whom."
Section 7 (15-18): The
perfect rule, a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Christ was beyond
it all. He had seen Him, Head of a new creation; in Him circumcision availed
nothing now, nor uncircumcision. These had nothing to do with new creation.
They belonged to the world, to the fallen world. The Christian walk was outside
them altogether, not after the Jewish pattern of legality nor the Gentile
pattern of lawlessness. There was a new rule, - a rule which made a man "a
pilgrim and a stranger" here, the rule of belonging to this other scene in
which already the glory of Christ was displayed. In the light of that he
walked, and for such as do so he desires and pronounces upon them "peace and
mercy," (mercy of which they still had need) "and upon the Israel of
God" - the true Israelite,* not the fleshly one. Here then, the matter
rested for him. None need trouble him more. He bore already in his body the
"brands of the Lord Jesus," the brands of trials and sufferings undergone
for Christ and which marked him as the bondman of Christ in the joyful
apprehension of the love that had been shown. He closes with the constant
benediction that was in his heart: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with your spirit."
*That is, the natural descendants of Abraham who
were also spiritual. - S. R.
For in Christ Jesus neither is
circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation. And as many as
shall walk by this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of
God. For the rest, let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the brands of
the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your
spirit. Amen.
*The great weight of textual authority is for this (in
Christ Jesus) though the editors in general reject it.
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