THE internal and external evidence for Paul's authorship is conclusive. The style is characteristically Pauline. The superscription, and allusions to the apostle of the Gentiles in the first person, throughout the Epistle, establish the same truth ( Ga 1:1, 13-24; 2:1-14). His authorship is also upheld by the unanimous testimony of the ancient Church: compare IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 3,7,2] ( Ga 3:19); POLYCARP [Epistle to the Philippians, 3] quotes Ga 4:26; 6:7; JUSTIN MARTYR, or whoever wrote the Discourse to the Greeks, alludes to Ga 4:12; 5:20.
The Epistle was written "TO THE CHURCHES OF GALATIA" ( Ga 1:2), a district of Asia Minor, bordering on Phrygia, Pontus, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Paphlagonia. The inhabitants (Gallo-græci, contracted into Galati, another form of the name Celts) were Gauls in origin, the latter having overrun Asia Minor after they had pillaged Delphi, about 280 B.C. and at last permanently settled in the central parts, thence called Gallo-græcia or Galatia. Their character, as shown in this Epistle, is in entire consonance with that ascribed to the Gallic race by all writers. Cæsar [Commentaries on the Gallic War, 4,5], "The infirmity of the Gauls is that they are fickle in their resolves and fond of change, and not to be trusted." So Thierry (quoted by ALFORD), "Frank, impetuous, impressible, eminently intelligent, but at the same time extremely changeable, inconstant, fond of show, perpetually quarrelling, the fruit of excessive vanity." They received Paul at first with all joy and kindness; but soon wavered in their allegiance to the Gospel and to him, and hearkened as eagerly now to Judaizing teachers as they had before to him ( Ga 4:14-16). The apostle himself had been the first preacher among them ( Ac 16:6; Ga 1:8; 4:13; see on Ga 4:13; "on account of infirmity of flesh I preached unto you at the first": implying that sickness detained him among them); and had then probably founded churches, which at his subsequent visit he "strengthened" in the faith ( Ac 18:23). His first visit was about A.D. 51, during his second missionary journey. JOSEPHUS [Antiquities, 16.62] testifies that many Jews resided in Ancyra in Galatia. Among these and their brethren, doubtless, as elsewhere, he began his preaching. And though subsequently the majority in the Galatian churches were Gentiles ( Ga 4:8, 9), yet these were soon infected by Judaizing teachers, and almost suffered themselves to be persuaded to undergo circumcision ( Ga 1:6; 3:1, 3; 5:2, 3; 6:12, 13). Accustomed as the Galatians had been, when heathen, to the mystic worship of Cybele (prevalent in the neighboring region of Phrygia), and the theosophistic doctrines connected with that worship, they were the more readily led to believe that the full privileges of Christianity could only be attained through an elaborate system of ceremonial symbolism ( Ga 4:9-11; 5:7-12). They even gave ear to the insinuation that Paul himself observed the law among the Jews, though he persuaded the Gentiles to renounce it, and that his motive was to keep his converts in a subordinate state, excluded from the full privileges of Christianity, which were enjoyed by the circumcised alone ( Ga 5:11, Ga 4:16, compare with Ga 2:17); and that in "becoming all things to all men," he was an interested flatterer ( Ga 1:10), aiming at forming a party for himself: moreover, that he falsely represented himself as an apostle divinely commissioned by Christ, whereas he was but a messenger sent by the Twelve and the Church at Jerusalem, and that his teaching was now at variance with that of Peter and James, "pillars" of the Church, and therefore ought not to be accepted.
His PURPOSE, then, in writing this Epistle was: (1) to defend his apostolic authority ( Ga 1:11-19; 2:1-14); (2) to counteract the evil influence of the Judaizers in Galatia ( Ga 3:1-4:31), and to show that their doctrine destroyed the very essence of Christianity, by lowering its spirituality to an outward ceremonial system; (3) to give exhortation for the strengthening of Galatian believers in faith towards Christ, and in the fruits of the Spirit ( Ga 5:1-6:18). He had already, face to face, testified against the Judaizing teachers ( Ga 1:9; 4:16; Ac 18:23); and now that he has heard of the continued and increasing prevalence of the evil, he writes with his own hand ( Ga 6:11: a labor which he usually delegated to an amanuensis) this Epistle to oppose it. The sketch he gives in it of his apostolic career confirms and expands the account in Acts and shows his independence of human authority, however exalted. His protest against Peter in Ga 2:14-21, disproves the figment, not merely of papal, but even of that apostle's supremacy; and shows that Peter, save when specially inspired, was fallible like other men.
There is much in common between this Epistle and that to the Romans on the subject of justification by faith only, and not by the law. But the Epistle to the Romans handles the subject in a didactic and logical mode, without any special reference; this Epistle, in a controversial manner, and with special reference to the Judaizers in Galatia.
The STYLE combines the two extremes, sternness. ( Ga 1:1-24; 3:1-5) and tenderness ( Ga 4:19, 20), the characteristics of a man of strong emotions, and both alike well suited for acting on an impressible people such as the Galatians were. The beginning is abrupt, as was suited to the urgency of the question and the greatness of the danger. A tone of sadness, too, is apparent, such as might be expected in the letter of a warm-hearted teacher who had just learned that those whom he loved were forsaking his teachings for those of perverters of the truth, as well as giving ear to calumnies against himself.
The TIME OF WRITING was after the visit to Jerusalem recorded in Ac 15:1, &c.; that is, A.D. 50, if that visit be, as seems probable, identical with that in Ga 2:1. Further, as Ga 1:9 ("as we said before"), and Ga 4:16 ("Have [ALFORD] I become your enemy?" namely, at my second visit, whereas I was welcomed by you at my first visit), refer to his second visit ( Ac 18:23), this Epistle must have been written after the date of that visit (the autumn of A.D. 54). Ga 4:13, "Ye know how . . . I preached . . . at the first" (Greek, "at the former time"), implies that Paul, at the time of writing, had been twice in Galatia; and Ga 1:6, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed," implies that he wrote not long after having left Galatia for the second time; probably in the early part of his residence at Ephesus ( Ac 18:23; 19:1, &c., from A.D. 54, the autumn, to A.D. 57, Pentecost) [ALFORD]. CONYBEARE and HOWSON, from the similarity between this Epistle and that to the Romans, the same line of argument in both occupying the writer's mind, think it was not written till his stay at Corinth ( Ac 20:2, 3), during the winter of 57-58, whence he wrote his Epistle to the Romans; and certainly, in the theory of the earlier writing of it from Ephesus, it does seem unlikely that the two Epistles to the Corinthians, so dissimilar, should intervene between those so similar as the Epistles to the Galatians and Romans; or that the Epistle to the Galatians should intervene between the second to the Thessalonians and the first to the Corinthians. The decision between the two theories rests on the words, "so soon." If these be not considered inconsistent with little more than three years having elapsed since his second visit to Galatia, the argument, from the similarity to the Epistle to the Romans, seems to me conclusive. This to the Galatians seems written on the urgency of the occasion, tidings having reached him at Corinth from Ephesus of the Judaizing of many of his Galatian converts, in an admonitory and controversial tone, to maintain the great principles of Christian liberty and justification by faith only; that to the Romans is a more deliberate and systematic exposition of the same central truths of theology, subsequently drawn up in writing to a Church with which he was personally unacquainted. See on Ga 1:6, for BIRKS'S view. PALEY [Horæ Paulinæ] well remarks how perfectly adapted the conduct of the argument is to the historical circumstances under which the Epistle was written! Thus, that to the Galatians, a Church which Paul had founded, he puts mainly upon authority; that to the Romans, to whom he was not personally known, entirely upon argument.
Ga 1:1-24. SUPERSCRIPTION. GREETINGS. THE CAUSE OF HIS WRITING IS THEIR SPEEDY FALLING AWAY FROM THE GOSPEL HE TAUGHT. DEFENSE OF HIS TEACHING: HIS APOSTOLIC CALL INDEPENDENT OF MAN.
Judaizing teachers had persuaded the Galatians that Paul had taught them the new religion imperfectly, and at second hand; that the founder of their church himself possessed only a deputed commission, the seal of truth and authority being in the apostles at Jerusalem: moreover, that whatever he might profess among them, he had himself at other times, and in other places, given way to the doctrine of circumcision. To refute this, he appeals to the history of his conversion, and to the manner of his conferring with the apostles when he met them at Jerusalem; that so far was his doctrine from being derived from them, or they from exercising any superiority over him, that they had simply assented to what he had already preached among the Gentiles, which preaching was communicated, not by them to him, but by himself to them [PALEY]. Such an apologetic Epistle could not be a later forgery, the objections which it meets only coming out incidentally, not being obtruded as they would be by a forger; and also being such as could only arise in the earliest age of the Church, when Jerusalem and Judaism still held a prominent place.
1. apostle--in the earliest Epistles, the two to the
Thessalonians, through humility, he uses no title of
authority; but associates with him "Silvanus and
Timotheus"; yet here, though "brethren" (
Ga 1:2) are with him, he does not name them but
puts his own name and apostleship prominent: evidently
because his apostolic commission needs now to be vindicated
against deniers of it.
of--Greek, "from."
Expressing the origin from which his mission came,
"not from men," but from Christ and the
Father (understood) as the source. "By" expresses
the immediate operating agent in the call. Not only was the
call from God as its ultimate source, but by
Christ and the Father as the immediate agent in calling him
(
Ac 22:15; 26:16-18). The laying on of Ananias'
hands (
Ac 9:17) is no objection to this; for that was but a
sign of the fact, not an assisting cause. So the Holy Ghost
calls him specially (
Ac 13:2, 3); he was an apostle before this
special mission.
man--singular; to mark the contrast to
"Jesus Christ." The opposition between
"Christ" and "man," and His name being
put in closest connection with God the Father, imply His
Godhead.
raised him from the dead--implying
that, though he had not seen Him in His humiliation as the
other apostles (which was made an objection against him),
he had seen and been constituted an apostle by Him in
His resurrection power (
Mt 28:18; Ro 1:4, 5). Compare as to the ascension, the
consequence of the resurrection, and the cause of His
giving "apostles,"
Eph 4:11. He rose again, too, for our
justification (
Ro 4:25); thus Paul prepares the way for the prominent
subject of the Epistle, justification in Christ, not by the
law.
2. all the brethren--I am not alone in my doctrine; all my
colleagues in the Gospel work, travelling with me (
Ac 19:29, Gaius and Aristarchus at Ephesus:
Ac 20:4, Sopater, Secundus, Timotheus, Tychicus,
Trophimus, some, or all of these), join with me. Not that
these were joint authors with Paul of the Epistle:
but joined him in the sentiments and
salutations. The phrase, "all the brethren,"
accords with a date when he had many travelling companions,
he and they having to bear jointly the collection to
Jerusalem [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].
the churches--Pessinus and Ancyra were
the principal cities; but doubtless there were many other
churches in Galatia (
Ac 18:23; 1Co 16:1). He does not attach any honorable
title to the churches here, as elsewhere, being displeased
at their Judaizing. See First Corinthians; First
Thessalonians, &c. The first Epistle of Peter is
addressed to Jewish Christians sojourning in Galatia (
1Pe 1:1), among other places mentioned. It is
interesting thus to find the apostle of the circumcision,
as well as the apostle of the uncircumcision, once at issue
(
Ga 2:7-15), co-operating to build up the same churches.
3. from . . . from--Omit the second "from." The Greek joins God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ in closet union, by there being but the one preposition.
4. gave himself-- (
Ga 2:20); unto death, as an offering. Found only in
this and the Pastoral Epistles. The Greek is
different in
Eph 5:25 (see on Eph
5:25).
for our sins--which enslaved us to the
present evil world.
deliver us from this--Greek,
"out of the," &c. The Father and Son are each
said to "deliver us," &c. (
Col 1:13): but the Son, not the Father, gave Himself
for us in order to do so, and make us citizens of a
better world (
Php 3:20). The Galatians in desiring to return to legal
bondage are, he implies, renouncing the deliverance
which Christ wrought for us. This he more fully repeats in
Ga 3:13. "Deliver" is the very word used by
the Lord as to His deliverance of Paul himself (
Ac 26:17): an undesigned coincidence between Paul and
Luke.
world--Greek, "age";
system or course of the world, regarded from
a religious point of view. The present age opposes
the "glory" (
Ga 1:5) of God, and is under the authority of the Evil
One. The "ages of ages" (Greek,
Ga 1:5) are opposed to "the present evil
age."
according to the will of God and our
Father--Greek, "of Him who is at once God [the
sovereign Creator] and our Father" (
Joh 6:38, 39; 10:18, end). Without merit of ours. His
sovereignty as "GOD," and our filial relation to
Him as "OUR FATHER," ought to keep us from
blending our own legal notions (as the Galatians were
doing) with His will and plan. This paves the way for his
argument.
5. be glory--rather, as Greek, "be the glory"; the glory which is peculiarly and exclusively His. Compare Note, see on Eph 3:21.
6. Without the usual expressions of thanksgiving for their
faith, &c., he vehemently plunges into his subject,
zealous for "the glory" of God (
Ga 1:5), which was being disparaged by the Galatians
falling away from the pure Gospel of the "grace"
of God.
I marvel--implying that he had hoped
better things from them, whence his sorrowful surprise at
their turning out so different from his expectations.
so soon--after my last visit; when I
hoped and thought you were untainted by the Judaizing
teachers. If this Epistle was written from Corinth, the
interval would be a little more than three years, which
would be "soon" to have fallen away, if they were
apparently sound at the time of his visit.
Ga 4:18, 20 may imply that he saw no symptom of
unsoundness then, such as he hears of in them
now. But English Version is probably not correct
there. See see on Ga 4:18; Ga 4:20; also see
Introduction. If from Ephesus, the interval would
be not more than one year. BIRKS holds the Epistle to have
been written from Corinth after his FIRST visit to Galatia;
for this agrees best with the "so soon" here:
with
Ga 4:18, "It is good to be zealously affected
always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with
you." If they had persevered in the faith during three
years of his first absence, and only turned aside after his
second visit, they could not be charged justly with
adhering to the truth only when he was present: for his
first absence was longer than both his visits, and they
would have obeyed longer in his "absence"
than in his "presence." But if their
decline had begun immediately after he left them, and
before his return to them, the reproof will be just. But
see on Ga 4:13.
removed--Translate, "are being
removed," that is, ye are suffering yourselves so
soon (whether from the time of my last visit, or from
the time of the first temptation held out to you)
[PARÆUS] to be removed by Jewish seducers.
Thus he softens the censure by implying that the Galatians
were tempted by seducers from without, with whom the chief
guilt lay: and the present, "ye are being
removed," implies that their seduction was only in
process of being effected, not that it was actually
effected. WAHL, ALFORD, and others take the Greek as
middle voice. "ye are removing" or "passing
over." "Shifting your ground" [CONYBEARE and
HOWSON]. But thus the point of Paul's oblique reference
to their misleaders is lost; and in
Heb 7:12 the Greek is used passively, justifying
its being taken so here. On the impulsiveness and
fickleness of the Gauls (another form of Kel-t-s, the
progenitors of the Erse, Gauls, Cymri, and Belgians),
whence the Galatians sprang, see
Introduction and CÆSAR [Commentaries on
the Gallic War, 3.19].
from him that called you--God the
Father (
Ga 1:15; Ga 5:8; Ro 8:30; 1Co 1:9; 1Th 2:12;
5:24).
into--rather, as Greek,
"IN the grace of Christ," as the element
in which, and the instrument by which, God calls
us to salvation. Compare Note, see on 1Co 7:15;
Ro 5:15, "the gift by (Greek, 'in')
grace (Greek, 'the grace') of (the)
one man." "The grace of Christ," is
Christ's gratuitously purchased and bestowed
justification, reconciliation, and eternal life.
another--rather, as Greek,
"a second and different gospel," that is,
into a so-called gospel, different altogether from
the only true Gospel.
7. another--A distinct Greek word from that in
Ga 1:6. Though I called it a gospel (
Ga 1:6), it is not really so. There is really but
one Gospel, and no other gospel.
but--Translate, "Only that there
are some that trouble you," &c. (
Ga 5:10, 12). All I meant by the "different
gospel" was nothing but a perversion by
"some" of the one Gospel of Christ.
would pervert--Greek,
"wish to pervert"; they could not really pervert
the Gospel, though they could pervert Gospel professors
(compare
Ga 4:9, 17, 21; 6:12, 13; Col 2:18). Though
acknowledging Christ, they insisted on circumcision and
Jewish ordinances and professed to rest on the authority of
other apostles, namely, Peter and James. But Paul
recognizes no gospel, save the pure Gospel.
8. But--however weighty they may seem "who trouble
you." Translate as Greek, "Even though
we," namely, I and the brethren with me, weighty and
many as we are (
Ga 1:1, 2). The Greek implies a case supposed
which never has occurred.
angel--in which light ye at first
received me (compare
Ga 4:14; 1Co 13:1), and whose authority is the highest
possible next to that of God and Christ. A new revelation,
even though seemingly accredited by miracles, is not to be
received if it contradict the already existing revelation.
For God cannot contradict Himself (
De 13:1-3; 1Ki 13:18; Mt 24:24; 2Th 2:9). The Judaizing
teachers sheltered themselves under the names of the great
apostles, James, John, and Peter: "Do not bring these
names up to me, for even if an angel," &c.
Not that he means, the apostles really supported the
Judaizers: but he wishes to show, when the truth is in
question, respect of persons is inadmissible [C
HRYSOSTOM].
preach--that is, "should
preach."
any other gospel . . .
than--The Greek expresses not so much "any
other gospel different from what we have
preached," as, "any gospel BESIDE that which we
preached." This distinctly opposes the traditions of
the Church of Rome, which are at once besides and
against (the Greek includes both ideas) the
written Word, our only "attested rule."
9. said before--when we were visiting you (so
"before" means,
2Co 13:2). Compare
Ga 5:2, 3, 21. Translate, "If any man
preacheth unto you any gospel BESIDE that which,"
&c. Observe the indicative, not the subjunctive or
conditional mood, is used, "preacheth,"
literally, "furnisheth you with any gospel." The
fact is assumed, not merely supposed as a
contingency, as in
Ga 1:8, "preach," or "should
preach." This implies that he had already observed
(namely, during his last visit) the machinations of the
Judaizing teachers: but his surprise (
Ga 1:6) now at the Galatians being misled by
them, implies that they had not apparently been so
then. As in
Ga 1:8 he had said, "which we preached," so
here, with an augmentation of the force, "which ye
received"; acknowledging that they had truly
accepted it.
accursed--The opposite appears in
Ga 6:16.
10. For--accounting for the strong language he has just
used.
do I now--resuming the "now"
of
Ga 1:9. "Am I now persuading men?"
[ALFORD], that is, conciliating. Is what I have just
now said a sample of men-pleasing, of which I am
accused? His adversaries accused him of being an interested
flatterer of men, "becoming all things to all
men," to make a party for himself, and so observing
the law among the Jews (for instance, circumcising
Timothy), yet persuading the Gentiles to renounce it (
Ga 5:11) (in order to flatter those, really keeping
them in a subordinate state, not admitted to the full
privileges which the circumcised alone enjoyed). NEANDER
explains the "now" thus: Once, when a Pharisee, I
was actuated only by a regard to human authority and to
please men (
Lu 16:15; Joh 5:44), but NOW I teach as responsible to
God alone (
1Co 4:3).
or God?--Regard is to be had to God
alone.
for if I yet pleased men--The oldest
manuscripts omit "for." "If I were still
pleasing men," &c. (
Lu 6:26; Joh 15:19; 1Th 2:4; Jas 4:4; 1Jo 4:5). On
"yet," compare
Ga 5:11.
servant of Christ--and so pleasing Him
in all things (
Tit 2:9; Col 3:22).
11. certify--I made known to you as to the Gospel which was
preached by me, that it is not after man, that is, not
of, by, or from man (
Ga 1:1, 12). It is not according to man; not
influenced by mere human considerations, as it would be, if
it were of human origin.
brethren--He not till now calls them
so.
12. Translate, "For not even did I
myself (any more than the other apostles) receive it
from man, nor was I taught it (by man)."
"Received it," implies the absence of labor in
acquiring it. "Taught it," implies the labor of
learning.
by the revelation of Jesus
Christ--Translate, "by revelation of [that is, from]
Jesus Christ." By His revealing it to me. Probably
this took place during the three years, in part of which he
sojourned in Arabia (
Ga 1:17, 18), in the vicinity of the scene of the
giving of the law; a fit place for such a revelation of the
Gospel of grace, which supersedes the ceremonial law (
Ga 4:25). He, like other Pharisees who embraced
Christianity, did not at first recognize its independence
of the Mosaic law, but combined both together. Ananias, his
first instructor, was universally esteemed for his legal
piety and so was not likely to have taught him to sever
Christianity from the law. This severance was partially
recognized after the martyrdom of Stephen. But Paul
received it by special revelation (
1Co 11:23; 15:3; 1Th 4:15). A vision of the Lord Jesus
is mentioned (
Ac 22:18), at his first visit to Jerusalem (
Ga 1:18); but this seems to have been subsequent to the
revelation here meant (compare
Ga 1:15-18), and to have been confined to giving a
particular command. The vision "fourteen years
before" (
2Co 12:1) was in A.D. 43, still later, six years after
his conversion. Thus Paul is an independent witness to the
Gospel. Though he had received no instruction from the
apostles, but from the Holy Ghost, yet when he met them his
Gospel exactly agreed with theirs.
13. heard--even before I came among you.
conversation--"my former way of
life."
Jews' religion--The term,
"Hebrew," expresses the language;
"Jew," the nationality, as distinguished
from the Gentiles; "Israelite," the highest
title, the religious privileges, as a member of the
theocracy.
the church--Here singular, marking its
unity, though constituted of many particular churches,
under the one Head, Christ.
of God--added to mark the greatness of
his sinful alienation from God (
1Co 15:19).
wasted--laid it waste: the opposite of
"building it up."
14. profited--Greek, "I was becoming a
proficient"; "I made progress."
above--beyond.
my equals--Greek, "Of mine
own age, among my countrymen."
traditions of my fathers--namely,
those of the Pharisees, Paul being "a Pharisee, and
son of a Pharisee" (
Ac 23:6; 26:5). "MY fathers," shows that it
is not to be understood generally of the traditions of
the nation.
15. separated--"set me apart": in the purposes of
His electing love (compare
Ac 9:15; 22:14), in order to show in me His
"pleasure," which is the farthest point
that any can reach in inquiring the causes of his
salvation. The actual "separating" or
"setting apart" to the work marked out for him,
is mentioned in
Ac 13:2; Ro 1:1. There is an allusion, perhaps, in the
way of contrast, to the derivation of Pharisee from
Hebrew, "pharash,"
"separated." I was once a so-called Pharisee or
Separatist, but God had separated me to
something far better.
from . . . womb--Thus merit
in me was out of the question, in assigning causes for His
call from
Ac 9:11. Grace is the sole cause (
Ps 22:9; 71:6; Isa 49:1, 5; Jer 1:5; Lu 1:15).
called me--on the way to Damascus (
Ac 9:3-8).
16. reveal his Son in me--within me, in my inmost soul, by
the Holy Spirit (
Ga 2:20). Compare
2Co 4:6, "shined in our hearts." The
revealing of His Son by me to the Gentiles (so translate
for "heathen") was impossible, unless He had
first revealed His Son in me; at first on my
conversion, but especially at the subsequent revelation
from Jesus Christ (
Ga 1:12), whereby I learned the Gospel's
independence of the Mosaic law.
that I might preach--the present in
the Greek, which includes the idea "that I
may preach Him," implying an office still
continuing. This was the main commission entrusted to
him (
Ga 2:7, 9).
immediately--connected chiefly with
"I went into Arabia" (
Ga 1:17). It denotes the sudden fitness of the apostle.
So
Ac 9:20, "Straightway he preached Christ in
the synagogue."
I conferred not--Greek, "I
had not further (namely, in addition to revelation)
recourse to . . . for the purpose of
consulting." The divine revelation was sufficient for
me [BENGEL].
flesh and blood-- (
Mt 16:17).
17. went I up--Some of the oldest manuscripts read,
"went away."
to Jerusalem--the seat of the
apostles.
into Arabia--This journey (not
recorded in Acts) was during the whole period of his stay
at Damascus, called by Luke (
Ac 9:23), "many [Greek, a considerable
number of] days." It is curiously confirmatory of the
legitimacy of taking "many days" to stand for
"three years," that the same phrase exactly
occurs in the same sense in
1Ki 2:38, 39. This was a country of the
Gentiles; here doubtless he preached as he did before
and after (
Ac 9:20, 22) at Damascus: thus he shows the
independence of his apostolic commission. He also here had
that comparative retirement needed, after the first fervor
of his conversion, to prepare him for the great work before
him. Compare Moses (
Ac 7:29, 30). His familiarity with the scene of the
giving of the law, and the meditations and revelations
which he had there, appear in
Ga 4:24, 25; Heb 12:18. See on Ga
1:12. The Lord from heaven communed with him, as He on
earth in the days of His flesh communed with the other
apostles.
returned--Greek "returned
back again."
18. after three years--dating from my conversion, as
appears by the contrast to "immediately" (
Ga 1:16). This is the same visit to Jerusalem as in
Ac 9:26, and at this visit occurred the vision (
Ac 22:17, 18). The incident which led to his leaving
Damascus (
Ac 9:25; 2Co 11:33) was not the main cause of
his going to Jerusalem. So that there is no
discrepancy in the statement here that he went "to see
Peter"; or rather, as Greek, "to make the
acquaintance of"; "to become personally
acquainted with." The two oldest manuscripts read,
"Cephas," the name given Peter elsewhere in the
Epistle, the Hebrew name; as Peter is the
Greek (
Joh 1:42). Appropriate to the view of him here as the
apostle especially of the Hebrews. It is remarkable that
Peter himself, in his Epistles, uses the Greek name
Peter, perhaps to mark his antagonism to the
Judaizers who would cling to the Hebraic form. He was
prominent among the apostles, though James, as bishop of
Jerusalem, had the chief authority there (
Mt 16:18).
abode--or "tarried"
[ELLICOTT].
fifteen days--only fifteen days;
contrasting with the long period of three years,
during which, previously, he had exercised an independent
commission in preaching: a fact proving on the face of it,
how little he owed to Peter in regard to his apostolical
authority or instruction. The Greek for "to
see," at the same time implies visiting a person
important to know, such as Peter was. The plots of the
Jews prevented him staying longer (
Ac 9:29). Also, the vision directing him to depart to
the Gentiles, for that the people of Jerusalem would not
receive his testimony (
Ac 22:17, 18).
19. Compare
Ac 9:27, 28, wherein Luke, as an historian, describes
more generally what Paul, the subject of the history,
himself details more particularly. The history speaks of
"apostles"; and Paul's mention of a
second apostle, besides Peter, reconciles the Epistle
and the history. At Stephen's martyrdom, and the
consequent persecution, the other ten apostles, agreeably
to Christ's directions, seem to have soon
(though not immediately,
Ac 8:14) left Jerusalem to preach elsewhere. James
remained in charge of the mother church, as its bishop.
Peter, the apostle of the circumcision, was present during
Paul's fifteen days' stay; but he, too, presently
after (
Ac 9:32), went on a circuit through Judea.
James, the Lord's brother--This
designation, to distinguish him from James the son of
Zebedee, was appropriate while that apostle was alive. But
before Paul's second visit to Jerusalem (
Ga 2:1; Ac 15:1-4), he had been beheaded by Herod (
Ac 12:2). Accordingly, in the subsequent mention of
James here (
Ga 2:9, 12), he is not designated by this distinctive
epithet: a minute, undesigned coincidence, and proof of
genuineness. James was the Lord's brother, not in our
strict sense, but in the sense, "cousin," or
"kinsman" (
Mt 28:10; Joh 20:17). His brethren are never called
"sons of Joseph," which they would have been had
they been the Lord's brothers strictly. However,
compare
Ps 69:8, "I am an alien to my mother's
children." In
Joh 7:3, 5, the "brethren" who believed not
in Him may mean His near relations, not including
the two of His brethren, that is, relatives (James and
Jude) who were among the Twelve apostles.
Ac 1:14, "His brethren," refer to Simon and
Joses, and others (
Mt 13:55) of His kinsmen, who were not apostles. It is
not likely there would be two pairs of brothers named
alike, of such eminence as James and Jude; the likelihood
is that the apostles James and Jude are also the writers of
the Epistles, and the brethren of Jesus. James and Joses
were sons of Alpheus and Mary, sister of the Virgin Mary.
20. Solemn asseveration that his statement is true that his visit was but for fifteen days and that he saw no apostle save Peter and James. Probably it had been reported by Judaizers that he had received a long course of instruction from the apostles in Jerusalem from the first; hence his earnestness in asserting the contrary facts.
21. I came into . . . Syria and Cilicia--"preaching the faith" ( Ga 1:23), and so, no doubt, founding the churches in Syria and Cilicia, which he subsequently confirmed in the faith ( Ac 15:23, 41). He probably went first to Cæsarea, the main seaport, and thence by sea to Tarsus of Cilicia, his native place ( Ac 9:30), and thence to Syria; Cilicia having its geographical affinities with Syria, rather than with Asia Minor, as the Tarsus mountains separate it from the latter. His placing "Syria" in the order of words before "Cilicia," is due to Antioch being a more important city than Tarsus, as also to his longer stay in the former city. Also "Syria and Cilicia," from their close geographical connection, became a generic geographical phrase, the more important district being placed first [CONYBEARE and HOWSON]. This sea journey accounts for his being "unknown by face to the churches of Judea" ( Ga 1:22). He passes by in silence his second visit, with alms, to Judea and Jerusalem ( Ac 11:30); doubtless because it was for a limited and special object, and would occupy but a few days ( Ac 12:25), as there raged at Jerusalem at the time a persecution in which James, the brother of John, was martyred, and Peter was m prison, and James seems to have been the only apostle present ( Ac 12:17); so it was needless to mention this visit, seeing that he could not at such a time have received the instructions which the Galatians alleged he had derived from the primary fountains of authority, the apostles.
22. So far was I from being a disciple of the apostles, that I was even unknown in the churches of Judea (excepting Jerusalem, Ac 9:26-29), which were the chief scene of their labors.
23. Translate as Greek, "They were
hearing": tidings were brought them from time to time
[CONYBEARE and HOWSON].
he which persecuted us in times
past--"our former persecutor" [ALFORD]. The
designation by which he was known among Christians still
better than by his name "Saul."
destroyed--Greek, "was
destroying."
24. in me--"in my case." "Having understood the entire change, and that the former wolf is now acting the shepherd's part, they received occasion for joyful thanksgiving to God in respect to me" [THEODORET]. How different, he implies to the Galatians, their spirit from yours!
Ga 2:1-21. HIS CO-ORDINATE AUTHORITY AS APOSTLE OF THE CIRCUMCISION RECOGNIZED BY THE APOSTLES. PROVED BY HIS REBUKING PETER FOR TEMPORIZING AT ANTIOCH: HIS REASONING AS TO THE INCONSISTENCY OF JUDAIZING WITH JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.
1. Translate, "After fourteen years"; namely,
from Paul's conversion inclusive [ALFORD]. In the
fourteenth year from his conversion [BIRKS]. The same visit
to Jerusalem as in
Ac 15:1-4 (A.D. 50), when the council of the apostles
and Church decided that Gentile Christians need not be
circumcised. His omitting allusion to that decree is; (1)
Because his design here is to show the Galatians his
own independent apostolic authority, whence he was not
likely to support himself by their decision. Thus we see
that general councils are not above apostles. (2) Because
he argues the point upon principle, not authoritative
decisions. (3) The decree did not go the length of the
position maintained here: the council did not impose Mosaic
ordinances; the apostle maintains that the Mosaic
institution itself is at an end. (4) The Galatians were
Judaizing, not because the Jewish law was imposed by
authority of the Church as necessary to
Christianity, but because they thought it necessary to
be observed by those who aspired to higher
perfection (
Ga 3:3; 4:21). The decree would not at all disprove
their view, and therefore would have been useless to quote.
Paul meets them by a far more direct confutation,
"Christ is of no effect unto you whosoever are
justified by the law" (
Ga 5:4), [PALEY].
Titus . . . also--specified
on account of what follows as to him, in
Ga 2:3. Paul and Barnabas, and others, were
deputed by the Church of Antioch (
Ac 15:2) to consult the apostles and elders at
Jerusalem on the question of circumcision of Gentile
Christians.
2. by revelation--not from being absolutely dependent on
the apostles at Jerusalem, but by independent divine
"revelation." Quite consistent with his at the
same time, being a deputy from the Church of Antioch, as
Ac 15:2 states. He by this revelation was led to
suggest the sending of the deputation. Compare the case of
Peter being led by vision, and at the same time by
Cornelius' messengers, to go to Cæsarea,
Ac 10:1-22.
I . . . communicated unto
them--namely, "to the apostles and elders" (
Ac 15:2): to the apostles in particular (
Ga 2:9).
privately--that he and the apostles at
Jerusalem might decide previously on the principles to be
adopted and set forward before the public council (
Ac 15:1-29). It was necessary that the Jerusalem
apostles should know beforehand that the Gospel Paul
preached to the Gentiles was the same as theirs, and had
received divine confirmation in the results it wrought on
the Gentile converts. He and Barnabas related to the
multitude, not the nature of the doctrine they preached
(as Paul did privately to the apostles), but only the
miracles vouchsafed in proof of God's
sanctioning their preaching to the Gentiles (
Ac 15:12).
to them . . . of
reputation--James, Cephas, and John, and probably some of
the "elders";
Ga 2:6, "those who seemed to be
somewhat."
lest, &c.--"lest I should be
running, or have run, in vain"; that is, that they
might see that I am not running, and have not run, in vain.
Paul does not himself fear lest he be running, or
had run, in vain; but lest he should, if he gave them no
explanation, seem so to them. His race was
the swift-running proclamation of the Gospel to the
Gentiles (compare "run," Margin, for
"Word . . . have free course,"
2Th 3:1). His running would have been in vain, had
circumcision been necessary, since he did not require it of
his converts.
3. But--So far were they from regarding me as running in vain, that "not even Titus who was with me, who was a Greek (and therefore uncircumcised), was compelled to be circumcised." So the Greek should be translated. The "false brethren," Ga 2:4 ("certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed," Ac 15:5), demanded his circumcision. The apostles, however, constrained by the firmness of Paul and Barnabas ( Ga 2:5), did not compel or insist on his being circumcised. Thus they virtually sanctioned Paul's course among the Gentiles and admitted his independence as an apostle: the point he desires to set forth to the Galatians. Timothy, on the other hand, as being a proselyte of the gate, and son of a Jewess ( Ac 16:1), he circumcised ( Ac 16:3). Christianity did not interfere with Jewish usages, regarded merely as social ordinances, though no longer having their religious significance, in the case of Jews and proselytes, while the Jewish polity and temple still stood; after the overthrow of the latter, those usages naturally ceased. To have insisted on Jewish usages for Gentile converts, would have been to make them essential parts of Christianity. To have rudely violated them at first in the case of Jews, would have been inconsistent with that charity which (in matters indifferent) is made all things to all men, that by all means it may win some ( 1Co 9:22; compare Ro 14:1-7, 13-23). Paul brought Titus about with him as a living example of the power of the Gospel upon the uncircumcised heathen.
4. And that--that is, What I did concerning Titus (namely,
by not permitting him to be circumcised) was not from
contempt of circumcision, but "on account of the false
brethren" (
Ac 15:1, 24) who, had I yielded to the demand for his
being circumcised, would have perverted the case into a
proof that I deemed circumcision necessary.
unawares--"in an underhand manner
brought in."
privily--stealthily.
to spy out--as foes in the guise of
friends, wishing to destroy and rob us of
our liberty--from the yoke of the
ceremonial law. If they had found that we circumcised Titus
through fear of the apostles, they would have made that a
ground for insisting on imposing the legal yoke on the
Gentiles.
bring us into bondage--The
Greek future implies the certainty and
continuance of the bondage as the result.
5. Greek, "To whom not even for an hour did we
yield by subjection." ALFORD renders the Greek
article, "with THE subjection required of
us." The sense rather is, We would willingly have
yielded for love [BENGEL] (if no principle was at
issue), but not in the way of subjection, where
"the truth of the Gospel" (
Ga 2:14; Col 1:5) was at stake (namely, the fundamental
truth of justification by faith only, without the works of
the law, contrasted with another Gospel,
Ga 1:6). Truth precise, unaccommodating, abandons
nothing that belongs to itself, admits nothing that is
inconsistent with it [B ENGEL].
might continue with you--Gentiles. We
defended for your sakes your true faith and liberties,
which you are now renouncing.
6. Greek, "From those who," &c. He
meant to complete the sentence with "I derived no
special advantage"; but he alters it into "they
. . . added nothing to me."
accepteth--so as to show any
partiality; "respecteth no man's person" (
Eph 6:9).
seemed to be somewhat--that is,
not that they seemed to be what they were
not, but "were reputed as persons of some
consequence"; not insinuating a doubt but that
they were justly so reputed.
in conference added--or
"imparted"; the same Greek as in
Ga 1:16, "I conferred not with flesh and
blood." As I did not by conference impart to them
aught at my conversion, so they now did not impart aught
additional to me, above what I already knew. This proves to
the Galatians his independence as an apostle.
7. contrariwise--on the contrary. So far from adding
any new light to ME, THEY gave in THEIR adhesion to the
new path on which Barnabas and I, by independent
revelation, had entered. So far from censuring, they gave a
hearty approval to my independent course, namely, the
innovation of preaching the Gospel without circumcision to
the Gentiles.
when they saw--from the effects which
I showed them, were "wrought" (
Ga 2:8; Ac 15:12).
was committed unto me--Greek,
"I was entrusted with."
gospel of the uncircumcision--that is,
of the Gentiles, who were to be converted without
circumcision being required.
circumcision . . . unto
Peter--Peter had originally opened the door to the Gentiles
(
Ac 10:1-48; 15:7). But in the ultimate apportionment of
the spheres of labor, the Jews were assigned to him
(compare
1Pe 1:1). So Paul on the other hand wrote to the
Hebrews (compare also
Col 4:11), though his main work was among the Gentiles.
The non-mention of Peter in the list of names, presciently
through the Spirit, given in the sixteenth chapter of
Romans, shows that Peter's residence at Rome, much more
primacy, was then unknown. The same is palpable from
the sphere here assigned to him.
8. he--God (
1Co 12:6).
wrought effectually--that is, made the
preached word efficacious to conversion, not only by
sensible miracles, but by the secret mighty power of the
Holy Ghost.
in Peter--ELLICOTT and others,
translate, "For Peter." GROTIUS translates
as English Version.
to--with a view to.
was mighty--Translate as before, the
Greek being the same, "wrought
effectually."
in me--"for (or 'in') me
also."
9. James--placed first in the oldest manuscripts, even
before Peter, as being bishop of Jerusalem, and so
presiding at the council (
Ac 15:1-29). He was called "the Just," from
his strict adherence to the law, and so was especially
popular among the Jewish party though he did not fall into
their extremes; whereas Peter was somewhat estranged from
them through his intercourse with the Gentile Christians.
To each apostle was assigned the sphere best suited to his
temperament: to James, who was tenacious of the law, the
Jerusalem Jews; to Peter, who had opened the door to the
Gentiles but who was Judaically disposed, the Jews of the
dispersion; to Paul, who, by the miraculous and
overwhelming suddenness of his conversion, had the whole
current of his early Jewish prejudices turned into an
utterly opposite direction, the Gentiles. Not separately
and individually, but collectively the apostles together
represented Christ, the One Head, in the apostleship. The
twelve foundation-stones of various colors are joined
together to the one great foundation-stone on which they
rest (
1Co 3:11; Re 21:14, 19, 20). John had got an intimation
in Jesus' lifetime of the admission of the Gentiles (
Joh 12:20-24).
seemed--that is, were reputed to
be (see on Ga 2:2 and Ga 2:6) pillars, that is, weighty supporters
of the Church (compare
Pr 9:1; Re 3:12).
perceived the grace . . .
given unto me-- (
2Pe 3:15).
gave to me and Barnabas the right
hands of fellowship--recognizing me as a colleague
in the apostleship, and that the Gospel I preached by
special revelation to the Gentiles was the same as theirs.
Compare the phrase,
La 5:6; Eze 17:18.
heathen--the Gentiles.
10. remember the poor--of the Jewish Christians in
Judea, then distressed. Paul and Barnabas had already done
so (
Ac 11:23-30).
the same--the very thing.
I . . . was forward--or
"zealous" (
Ac 24:17; Ro 15:25; 1Co 16:1; 2Co 8:1-9:15). Paul was
zealous for good works, while denying justification by
them.
11. Peter--"Cephas" in the oldest manuscripts
Paul's withstanding Peter is the strongest proof that
the former gives of the independence of his apostleship in
relation to the other apostles, and upsets the Romish
doctrine of Peter's supremacy. The apostles were not
always inspired; but were so always in writing the
Scriptures. If then the inspired men who wrote them
were not invariably at other times infallible, much less
were the uninspired men who kept them. The Christian
fathers may be trusted generally as witnesses to facts, but
not implicitly followed in matters of opinion.
come to Antioch--then the citadel of
the Gentile Church: where first the Gospel was preached to
idolatrous Gentiles, and where the name
"Christians" was first given (
Ac 11:20, 26), and where Peter is said to have been
subsequently bishop. The question at Antioch was not
whether the Gentiles were admissible to the Christian
covenant without becoming circumcised--that was the
question settled at the Jerusalem council just before--but
whether the Gentile Christians were to be admitted to
social intercourse with the Jewish Christians without
conforming to the Jewish institution. The Judaizers, soon
after the council had passed the resolutions recognizing
the equal rights of the Gentile Christians, repaired to
Antioch, the scene of the gathering in of the Gentiles (
Ac 11:20-26), to witness, what to Jews would look so
extraordinary, the receiving of men to communion of the
Church without circumcision. Regarding the proceeding with
prejudice, they explained away the force of the Jerusalem
decision; and probably also desired to watch whether the
Jewish Christians among the Gentiles violated the
law, which that decision did not verbally sanction
them in doing, though giving the Gentiles latitude (
Ac 15:19).
to be blamed--rather,
"(self)-condemned"; his act at one time
condemning his contrary acting at another time.
12. certain--men: perhaps James' view (in which he was
not infallible, any more than Peter) was that the Jewish
converts were still to observe Jewish ordinances, from
which he had decided with the council the Gentiles
should be free (
Ac 15:19). NEANDER, however, may be right in thinking
these self-styled delegates from James were not really from
him.
Ac 15:24 favors this. "Certain from James,"
may mean merely that they came from the Church at Jerusalem
under James' bishopric. Still James' leanings were
to legalism, and this gave him his influence with the
Jewish party (
Ac 21:18-26).
eat with . . . Gentiles--as
in
Ac 10:10-20, 48, according to the command of the vision
(
Ac 11:3-17). Yet after all, this same Peter, through
fear of man (
Pr 29:25), was faithless to his own so distinctly
avowed principles (
Ac 15:7-11). We recognize the same old nature in him as
led him, after faithfully witnessing for Christ, yet for a
brief space, to deny Him. "Ever the first to
recognize, and the first to draw back from great
truths" [ALFORD]. An undesigned coincidence between
the Gospels and the Epistle in the consistency of character
as portrayed in both. It is beautiful to see how earthly
misunderstandings of Christians are lost in Christ. For in
2Pe 3:15, Peter praises the very Epistles of Paul which
he knew contained his own condemnation. Though apart from
one another and differing in characteristics, the two
apostles were one in Christ.
withdrew--Greek,
"began to withdraw," &c. This implies
a gradual drawing back; "separated,"
entire severance.
13. the other--Greek, "the rest."
Jews--Jewish Christians.
dissembled likewise--Greek,
"joined in hypocrisy," namely, in living as
though the law were necessary to justification, through
fear of man, though they knew from God their Christian
liberty of eating with Gentiles, and had availed themselves
of it already (
Ac 11:2-17). The case was distinct from that in
1Co 8:1-10:33; Ro 14:1-23. It was not a question of
liberty, and of bearing with others' infirmities, but
one affecting the essence of the Gospel, whether the
Gentiles are to be virtually "compelled to live as do
the Jews," in order to be justified (
Ga 2:14).
Barnabas also--"Even
Barnabas": one least likely to be led into such an
error, being with Paul in first preaching to the idolatrous
Gentiles: showing the power of bad example and numbers. In
Antioch, the capital of Gentile Christianity and the
central point of Christian missions, the controversy first
arose, and in the same spot it now broke out afresh; and
here Paul had first to encounter the party that afterwards
persecuted him in every scene of his labors (
Ac 15:30-35).
14. walked not uprightly--literally, "straight":
"were not walking with straightforward steps."
Compare
Ga 6:16.
truth of the gospel--which teaches
that justification by legal works and observances is
inconsistent with redemption by Christ. Paul alone here
maintained the truth against Judaism, as afterwards against
heathenism (
2Ti 4:16, 17).
Peter--"Cephas" in the
oldest manuscripts
before . . . all-- (
1Ti 5:20).
If thou, &c.--"If thou,
although being a Jew (and therefore one who might seem to
be more bound to the law than the Gentiles), livest
(habitually, without scruple and from conviction,
Ac 15:10, 11) as a Gentile (freely eating of every
food, and living in other respects also as if legal
ordinances in no way justify,
Ga 2:12), and not as a Jew, how (so the oldest
manuscripts read, for 'why') is it that thou art
compelling (virtually, by thine example) the Gentiles to
live as do the Jews?" (literally, to Judaize,
that is, to keep the ceremonial customs of the Jews: What
had been formerly obedience to the law, is now mere
Judaism). The high authority of Peter would constrain
the Gentile Christians to regard Judaizing as necessary to
all, since Jewish Christians could not consort with Gentile
converts in communion without it.
15, 16. Connect these verses together, and read with most of the oldest manuscripts "But" in the beginning of Ga 2:16: "We (I and thou, Peter) by nature (not by proselytism), Jews, and not sinners as (Jewish language termed the Gentiles) from among the Gentiles, YET (literally, ' BUT') knowing that . . . even we (resuming the 'we' of Ga 2:15, 'we also,' as well as the Gentile sinners; casting away trust in the law), have believed," &c.
16. not justified by the works of the law--as the GROUND of
justification. "The works of the law" are those
which have the law for their object--which are wrought to
fulfil the law [ALFORD].
but by--Translate, "But only (in
no other way save) through faith in Jesus
Christ," as the MEAN and instrument of
justification.
Jesus Christ--In the second case, read
with the oldest manuscripts, "Christ Jesus," the
Messiahship coming into prominence in the case of
Jewish believers, as "Jesus" does in the
first case, referring to the general proposition.
justified by the faith of Christ--that
is, by Christ, the object of faith, as the ground of our
justification.
for by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified--He rests his argument on this as an
axiom in theology, referring to
Ps 143:2, "Moses and Jesus Christ; The law and the
promise; Doing and believing; Works and faith; Wages and
the gift; The curse and the blessing--are represented as
diametrically opposed" [BENGEL]. The moral law is, in
respect to justification, more legal than the
ceremonial, which was an elementary and preliminary Gospel:
So "Sinai" (
Ga 4:24), which is more famed for the Decalogue than
for the ceremonial law, is made pre-eminently the type of
legal bondage. Thus, justification by the law, whether the
moral or ceremonial, is excluded (
Ro 3:20).
17. Greek, "But if, seeking to be justified IN (that is, in believing union with) Christ (who has in the Gospel theory fulfilled the law for us), we (you and I) ourselves also were found (in your and my former communion with Gentiles) sinners (such as from the Jewish standpoint that now we resume, we should be regarded, since we have cast aside the law, thus having put ourselves in the same category as the Gentiles, who, being without the law, are, in the Jewish view, "sinners," Ga 2:15), is therefore Christ, the minister of sin?" (Are we to admit the conclusion, in this case inevitable, that Christ having failed to justify us by faith, so has become to us the minister of sin, by putting us in the position of "sinners," as the Judaic theory, if correct, would make us, along with all others who are "without the law," Ro 2:14; 1Co 9:21; and with whom, by eating with them, we have identified ourselves?) The Christian mind revolts from so shocking a conclusion, and so, from the theory which would result in it. The whole sin lies, not with Christ, but with him who would necessitate such a blasphemous inference. But his false theory, though "seeking" from Christ, we have not "found" salvation (in contradiction to Christ's own words, Mt 7:7), but "have been ourselves also (like the Gentiles) found" to be "sinners," by having entered into communion with Gentiles ( Ga 2:12).
18. Greek, "For if the things which I overthrew (by the faith of Christ), those very things I build up again (namely, legal righteousness, by subjecting myself to the law), I prove myself (literally, 'I commend myself') a transgressor." Instead of commending yourself as you sought to do ( Ga 2:12, end), you merely commend yourself as a transgressor. The "I" is intended by Paul for Peter to take to himself, as it is his case, not Paul's own, that is described. A "transgressor" is another word for "sinner" (in Ga 2:17), for "sin is the transgression of the law." You, Peter, by now asserting the law to be obligatory, are proving yourself a "sinner," or "transgressor," in your having set it aside by living as the Gentiles, and with them. Thus you are debarred by transgression from justification by the law, and you debar yourself from justification by Christ, since in your theory He becomes a minister of sin.
19. Here Paul seems to pass from his exact words to
Peter, to the general purport of his argument on the
question. However, his direct address to the Galatians
seems not to be resumed till
Ga 3:1, "O foolish Galatians," &c.
For--But I am not a
"transgressor" by forsaking the law.
"For," &c. Proving his indignant denial of
the consequence that "Christ is the minister of
sin" (
Ga 2:17), and of the premises from which it would
follow. Christ, so far from being the minister of sin and
death, is the establisher of righteousness and life. I am
entirely in Him [B ENGEL].
I--here emphatical. Paul
himself, not Peter, as in the "I" (
Ga 2:18).
through the law--which was my
"schoolmaster to bring me to Christ" (
Ga 3:24); both by its terrors (
Ga 3:13; Ro 3:20) driving me to Christ, as the refuge
from God's wrath against sin, and, when spiritually
understood, teaching that itself is not permanent, but must
give place to Christ, whom it prefigures as its scope and
end (
Ro 10:4); and drawing me to Him by its promises (in the
prophecies which form part of the Old Testament law) of a
better righteousness, and of God's law written in the
heart (
De 18:15-19; Jer 31:33; Ac 10:43).
am dead to the law--literally, "I
died to the law," and so am dead to it, that
is, am passed from under its power, in respect to
non-justification or condemnation (
Col 2:20; Ro 6:14; 7:4, 6); just as a woman, once
married and bound to a husband, ceases to be so bound to
him when death interposes, and may be lawfully married to
another husband. So by believing union to Christ in His
death, we, being considered dead with Him, are severed from
the law's past power over us (compare
Ga 6:14; 1Co 7:39; Ro 6:6-11; 1Pe 2:24).
live unto God-- (
Ro 6:11; 2Co 5:15; 1Pe 4:1, 2).
20. I am crucified--literally, "I have been crucified
with Christ." This more particularizes the foregoing.
"I am dead" (
Ga 2:19; Php 3:10).
nevertheless I live; yet not
I--Greek, "nevertheless I live, no longer
(indeed) I." Though crucified I live; (and this) no
longer that old man such as I once was (compare
Ro 7:17). No longer Saul the Jew (
Ga 5:24; Col 3:11, but "another man"; compare
1Sa 10:6). ELLICOTT and others translate,
"And it is no longer I that live, but Christ
that liveth in me." But the plain antithesis between
"crucified" and "live," requires the
translation, "nevertheless."
the life which I now live--as
contrasted with my life before conversion.
in the flesh--My life seems to be a
mere animal life "in the flesh," but this is not
my true life; "it is but the mask of life under which
lives another, namely, Christ, who is my true life"
[LUTHER].
I live by the faith,
&c.--Greek, "IN faith (namely), that of
(that is, which rests on) the Son of God." "In
faith," answers by contrast to "in the
flesh." Faith, not the flesh, is the
real element in which I live. The phrase, "the Son of
God," reminds us that His Divine Sonship is the source
of His life-giving power.
loved me--His eternal gratuitous love
is the link that unites me to the Son of God, and His
"giving Himself for me," is the strongest proof
of that love.
21. I do not frustrate the grace of God--I do not make
it void, as thou, Peter, art doing by Judaizing.
for--justifying the strong expression
"frustrate," or "make void."
is dead in vain--Greek,
"Christ died needlessly," or "without just
cause." Christ's having died, shows that the law
has no power to justify us; for if the law can justify or
make us righteous, the death of Christ is superfluous
[CHRYSOSTOM].
Ga 3:1-29. REPROOF OF THE GALATIANS FOR ABANDONING FAITH FOR LEGALISM. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH VINDICATED: THE LAW SHOWN TO BE SUBSEQUENT TO THE PROMISE: BELIEVERS ARE THE SPIRITUAL SEED OF ABRAHAM, WHO WAS JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. THE LAW WAS OUR SCHOOLMASTER TO BRING US TO CHRIST, THAT WE MIGHT BECOME CHILDREN OF GOD BY FAITH.
1. that ye should not obey the truth--omitted in the oldest
manuscripts.
bewitched--fascinated you so that you
have lost your wits. THEMISTIUS says the Galatians were
naturally very acute in intellect. Hence, Paul wonders they
could be so misled in this case.
you--emphatical. "You, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been graphically set forth
(literally, in writing, namely, by vivid
portraiture in preaching) among you, crucified"
(so the sense and Greek order require rather than
English Version). As Christ was
"crucified," so ye ought to have been by faith
"crucified with Christ," and so "dead
to the law" (
Ga 2:19, 20). Reference to the "eyes" is
appropriate, as fascination was supposed to be
exercised through the eyes. The sight of Christ crucified
ought to have been enough to counteract all fascination.
2. "Was it by the works of the law that ye received
the Spirit (manifested by outward miracles,
Ga 3:5; Mr 16:17; Heb 2:4; and by spiritual graces,
Ga 3:14; Ga 4:5, 6; Eph 1:13), or by the hearing of
faith?" The "only" implies, "I desire,
omitting other arguments, to rest the question on this
alone"; I who was your teacher, desire now
to "learn" this one thing from you. The epithet
"Holy" is not prefixed to "Spirit"
because that epithet is a joyous one, whereas this Epistle
is stern and reproving [B ENGEL].
hearing of faith--Faith consists not
in working, but in receiving (
Ro 10:16, 17).
3. begun--the Christian life (
Php 1:6).
in the Spirit--Not merely was Christ
crucified "graphically set forth" in my
preaching, but also "the Spirit" confirmed the
word preached, by imparting His spiritual gifts.
"Having thus begun" with the receiving His
spiritual gifts, "are ye now being made
perfect" (so the Greek), that is, are ye
seeking to be made perfect with "fleshly"
ordinances of the law? [ESTIUS]. Compare
Ro 2:28; Php 3:3; Heb 9:10. Having begun in the Spirit,
that is, the Holy Spirit ruling your spiritual life as its
"essence and active principle" [E LLICOTT], in
contrast to "the flesh," the element in which the
law works [ALFORD]. Having begun your Christianity in the
Spirit, that is, in the divine life that proceeds from
faith, are ye seeking after something higher still (the
perfecting of your Christianity) in the sensuous and the
earthly, which cannot possibly elevate the inner life of
the Spirit, namely, outward ceremonies? [NEANDER]. No doubt
the Galatians thought that they were going more deeply into
the Spirit; for the flesh may be easily mistaken for the
Spirit, even by those who have made progress, unless they
continue to maintain a pure faith [B ENGEL].
4. Have ye suffered so many things--namely, persecution
from Jews and from unbelieving fellow countrymen, incited
by the Jews, at the time of your conversion.
in vain--fruitlessly,
needlessly, since ye might have avoided them by
professing Judaism [GROTIUS]. Or, shall ye, by falling from
grace, lose the reward promised for all your sufferings, so
that they shall be "in vain" (
Ga 4:11; 1Co 15:2, 17-19, 29-32; 2Th 1:5-7; 2Jo
8)?
yet--rather, "If it be
really (or 'indeed') in vain" [ELLICOTT].
"If, as it must be, what I have said, 'in
vain,' is really the fact" [ALFORD]. I prefer
understanding it as a mitigation of the preceding words. I
hope better things of you, for I trust you will return from
legalism to grace; if so, as I confidently expect,
you will not have "suffered so many things in
vain" [ESTIUS]. For "God has given you the Spirit
and has wrought mighty works among you" (
Ga 3:5; Heb 10:32-36) [BENGEL].
5. He . . . that ministereth--or
"supplieth," God (
2Co 9:10). He who supplied and supplies to you
the Spirit still, to the present time. These
miracles do not prove grace to be in the heart (
Mr 9:38, 39). He speaks of these miracles as a matter
of unquestioned notoriety among those addressed; an
undesigned proof of their genuineness (compare
1Co 12:1-31).
worketh miracles among you--rather,
"IN you," as
Ga 2:8; Mt 14:2; Eph 2:2; Php 2:13; at your conversion
and since [ALFORD].
doeth he it by the works of the
law--that is, as a consequence resulting from (so
the Greek) the works of the law (compare
Ga 3:2). This cannot be because the law was then
unknown to you when you received those gifts of the Spirit.
6. The answer to the question in Ga 3:5 is here taken for granted, It was by the hearing of faith: following this up, he says, "Even as Abraham believed," &c. ( Ge 15:4-6; Ro 4:3). God supplies unto you the Spirit as the result of faith, not works, just as Abraham obtained justification by faith, not by works ( Ga 3:6, 8, 16; Ga 4:22, 26, 28). Where justification is, there the Spirit is, so that if the former comes by faith, the latter must also.
7. they which are of faith--as the source and
starting-point of their spiritual life. The same phrase is
in the Greek of
Ro 3:26.
the same--these, and these
alone, to the exclusion of all the other descendants of
Abraham.
children--Greek,
"sons" (
Ga 3:29).
8. And--Greek, "Moreover."
foreseeing--One great excellency of
Scripture is, that in it all points liable ever to be
controverted, are, with prescient wisdom, decided in the
most appropriate language.
would justify--rather,
"justifieth." Present indicative. It is now, and
at all times, God's one way of
justification.
the heathen--rather, "the
Gentiles"; or "the nations," as the same
Greek is translated at the end of the verse. God
justifieth the Jews, too, "by faith, not by
works." But he specifies the Gentiles in
particular here, as it was their case that was in
question, the Galatians being Gentiles.
preached before the
gospel--"announced beforehand the Gospel." For
the "promise" was substantially the Gospel by
anticipation. Compare
Joh 8:56; Heb 4:2. A proof that "the old fathers
did not look only for transitory promises" [Article
VII, Church of England]. Thus the Gospel, in its essential
germ, is older than the law though the full development of
the former is subsequent to the latter.
In thee--not "in thy seed,"
which is a point not here raised; but strictly "in
thee," as followers of thy faith, it having first
shown the way to justification before God [ALFORD]; or
"in thee," as Father of the promised seed,
namely, Christ (
Ga 3:16), who is the Object of faith (
Ge 22:18; Ps 72:17), and imitating thy faith (see on Ga 3:9).
all nations--or as above, "all
the Gentiles" (
Ge 12:3; 18:18; 22:18).
be blessed--an act of grace, not
something earned by works. The blessing of justification
was to Abraham by faith in the promise, not by works. So to
those who follow Abraham, the father of the faithful, the
blessing, that is, justification, comes purely by faith in
Him who is the subject of the promise.
9. they--and they alone.
of faith--(See on Ga
3:7, beginning).
with--together with.
faithful--implying what it is in which
they are "blessed together with him," namely,
faith, the prominent feature of his character, and of which
the result to all who like him have it, is justification.
10. Confirmation of Ga 3:9. They who depend on the works of the law cannot share the blessing, for they are under the curse "written," De 27:26, Septuagint. PERFECT obedience is required by the words, "in all things." CONTINUAL obedience by the word, "continueth." No man renders this obedience (compare Ro 3:19, 20). It is observable, Paul quotes Scripture to the Jews who were conversant with it, as in Epistle to the Hebrews, as said or spoken; but to the Gentiles, as written. So Matthew, writing for Jews, quotes it as "said," or "spoken"; Mark and Luke, writing for Gentiles, as "written" ( Mt 1:22; Mr 1:2; Lu 2:22, 23) [TOWNSON].
11. by the law--Greek, "IN the law." Both
in and by are included. The syllogism in this
verse and
Ga 3:12, is, according to Scripture, "The just
shall live by faith." But the law is not of faith, but
of doing, or works (that is, does not make faith, but
works, the conditional ground of justifying). Therefore
"in," or "by the law, no man is justified
before God" (whatever the case may be before
men,
Ro 4:2) --not even if he could, which he cannot, keep
the law, because the Scripture element and conditional mean
of justification is faith.
The just shall live by faith-- (
Ro 1:17; Hab 2:4). Not as BENGEL and ALFORD, "He
who is just by faith shall live." The Greek
supports English Version. Also the contrast is
between "live by faith" (namely, as the
ground and source of his justification), and "live
in them," namely, in his doings or works (
Ga 3:12), as the conditional element wherein he
is justified.
12. doeth--Many depended on the law although they did not keep it; but without doing, saith Paul, it is of no use to them ( Ro 2:13, 17, 23; 10:5).
13. Abrupt exclamation, as he breaks away impatiently
from those who would involve us again in the curse of
the law, by seeking justification in it, to
"Christ," who "has redeemed us from
its curse." The "us" refers primarily to the
Jews, to whom the law principally appertained, in contrast
to "the Gentiles" (
Ga 3:14; compare
Ga 4:3, 4). But it is not restricted solely to
the Jews, as A LFORD thinks; for these are the
representative people of the world at large, and their
"law" is the embodiment of what God requires of
the whole world. The curse of its non-fulfilment affects
the Gentiles through the Jews; for the law represents that
righteousness which God requires of all, and which, since
the Jews failed to fulfil, the Gentiles are equally unable
to fulfil.
Ga 3:10, "As many as are of the works of the law,
are under the curse," refers plainly, not to the
Jews only, but to all, even Gentiles (as the
Galatians), who seek justification by the law. The
Jews' law represents the universal law which condemned
the Gentiles, though with less clear consciousness on their
part (
Ro 2:1-29). The revelation of God's
"wrath" by the law of conscience, in some degree
prepared the Gentiles for appreciating redemption through
Christ when revealed. The curse had to be removed from off
the heathen, too, as well as the Jews, in order that the
blessing, through Abraham, might flow to them. Accordingly,
the "we," in "that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit," plainly refers to both
Jews and Gentiles.
redeemed us--bought us off from
our former bondage (
Ga 4:5), and "from the curse" under which all
lie who trust to the law and the works of the law for
justification. The Gentile Galatians, by putting themselves
under the law, were involving themselves in the curse from
which Christ has redeemed the Jews primarily, and through
them the Gentiles. The ransom price He paid was His own
precious blood (
1Pe 1:18, 19; compare
Mt 20:28; Ac 20:28; 1Co 6:20; 7:23; 1Ti 2:6; 2Pe 2:1; Re
5:9).
being made--Greek, "having
become."
a curse for us--Having become what we
were, in our behalf, "a curse," that we
might cease to be a curse. Not merely accursed (in
the concrete), but a curse in the abstract,
bearing the universal curse of the whole human race. So
2Co 5:21, "Sin for us," not sinful,
but bearing the whole sin of our race, regarded as
one vast aggregate of sin. See Note there.
"Anathema" means "set apart to God," to
His glory, but to the person's own destruction.
"Curse," an execration.
written-- (
De 21:23). Christ's bearing the particular
curse of hanging on the tree, is a sample of the
"general" curse which He representatively bore.
Not that the Jews put to death malefactors by hanging; but
after having put them to death otherwise, in order
to brand them with peculiar ignominy, they hung the
bodies on a tree, and such malefactors were accursed by the
law (compare
Ac 5:30; 10:39). God's providence ordered it so
that to fulfil the prophecy of the curse and other
prophecies, Jesus should be crucified, and so hang
on the tree, though that death was not a Jewish mode of
execution. The Jews accordingly, in contempt, call Him
Tolvi, "the hanged one," and
Christians, "worshippers of the hanged one"; and
make it their great objection that He died the accursed
death [TRYPHO, in Justin Martyr, p. 249] (
1Pe 2:24). Hung between heaven and earth as though
unworthy of either!
14. The intent of "Christ becoming a curse for
us"; "To the end that upon the Gentiles the
blessing of Abraham (that is, promised to Abraham,
namely, justification by faith) might come in Christ
Jesus" (compare
Ga 3:8).
that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit--the promised Spirit (
Joe 2:28, 29; Lu 24:49). This clause follows not the
clause immediately preceding (for our receiving the
Spirit is not the result of the blessing of Abraham
coming on the Gentiles), but "Christ hath redeemed
us," &c.
through faith--not by works. Here he
resumes the thought in
Ga 3:2. "The Spirit from without, kindles within
us some spark of faith Whereby we lay hold of Christ, and
even of the Spirit Himself, that He may dwell within
us" [FLACIUS].
15. I speak after the manner of men--I take an illustration
from a merely human transaction of everyday
occurrence.
but a man's covenant--whose
purpose it is far less important to maintain.
if it be confirmed--when once it hath
been ratified.
no man disannulleth--"none
setteth aside," not even the author himself, much less
any second party. None does so who acts in common equity.
Much less would the righteous God do so. The law is
here, by personification, regarded as a second person,
distinct from, and subsequent to, the promise of God.
The promise is everlasting, and more peculiarly belongs
to God. The law is regarded as something extraneous,
afterwards introduced, exceptional and temporary (
Ga 3:17-19, 21-24).
addeth--None addeth new conditions
"making" the covenant "of none effect"
(
Ga 3:17). So legal Judaism could make no alteration in
the fundamental relation between God and man, already
established by the promises to Abraham; it could not add as
a new condition the observance of the law, in which case
the fulfilment of the promise would be attached to a
condition impossible for man to perform. The
"covenant" here is one of free grace, a
promise afterwards carried into effect in the Gospel.
16. This verse is parenthetical. The covenant of promise
was not "spoken" (so Greek for
"made") to Abraham alone, but "to Abraham
and his seed"; to the latter especially; and this
means Christ (and that which is inseparable from Him, the
literal Israel, and the spiritual, His body,
the Church). Christ not having come when the law was given,
the covenant could not have been then fulfilled, but
awaited the coming of Him, the Seed, to whom it was
spoken.
promises--plural, because the same
promise was often repeated (
Ge 12:3, 7; 15:5, 18; 17:7; 22:18), and because it
involved many things; earthly blessings to the literal
children of Abraham in Canaan, and spiritual and heavenly
blessings to his spiritual children; but both promised to
Christ, "the Seed" and representative Head of the
literal and spiritual Israel alike. In the spiritual seed
there is no distinction of Jew or Greek; but to the
literal seed, the promises still in part remain to be
fulfilled (
Ro 11:26). The covenant was not made with
"many" seeds (which if there had been, a pretext
might exist for supposing there was one seed before the
law, another under the law; and that those sprung from one
seed, say the Jewish, are admitted on different terms, and
with a higher degree of acceptability, than those sprung
from the Gentile seed), but with the one seed; therefore,
the promise that in Him "all the families of the earth
shall be blessed" (
Ge 12:3), joins in this one Seed, Christ, Jew and
Gentile, as fellow heirs on the same terms of
acceptability, namely, by grace through faith (
Ro 4:13); not to some by promise, to others by the law,
but to all alike, circumcised and uncircumcised,
constituting but one seed in Christ (
Ro 4:16). The law, on the other hand, contemplates the
Jews and Gentiles as distinct seeds. God makes a covenant,
but it is one of promise; whereas the law is a covenant of
works. Whereas the law brings in a mediator, a third party
(
Ga 3:19, 20), God makes His covenant of promise with
the one seed, Christ (
Ge 17:7), and embraces others only as they are
identified with, and represented by, Christ.
one . . . Christ--not in the
exclusive sense, the man Christ Jesus, but
"Christ" (Jesus is not added, which would
limit the meaning), including His people who are
part of Himself, the Second Adam, and Head of redeemed
humanity.
Ga 3:28, 29 prove this, "Ye are all ONE in Christ
Jesus" (Jesus is added here as the person is
indicated). "And if ye be Christ's, ye are
Abraham's SEED, heirs according to the
promise."
17. this I say--"this is what I mean," by what I
said in
Ga 3:15.
continued . . . of
God--"ratified by God" (
Ga 3:15).
in Christ--rather, "unto
Christ" (compare
Ga 3:16). However, Vulgate and the old Italian
versions translate as English Version. But the
oldest manuscripts omit the words altogether.
the law which was--Greek,
"which came into existence four hundred thirty years
after" (
Ex 12:40, 41). He does not, as in the case of "the
covenant," add "enacted by God" (
Joh 1:17). The dispensation of "the promise"
began with the call of Abraham from Ur into Canaan, and
ended on the last night of his grandson Jacob's sojourn
in Canaan, the land of promise. The dispensation of
the law, which engenders bondage, was beginning to draw on
from the time of his entrance into Egypt, the land of
bondage. It was to Christ in him, as in his grandfather
Abraham, and his father Isaac, not to him or them as
persons, the promise was spoken. On the day following the
last repetition of the promise orally (
Ge 46:1-6), at Beer-sheba, Israel passed into Egypt. It
is from the end, not from the beginning of the dispensation
of promise, that the interval of four hundred thirty years
between it and the law is to be counted. At Beer-sheba,
after the covenant with Abimelech, Abraham called on the
everlasting God, and the well was confirmed to him and his
seed as an everlasting possession. Here God appeared to
Isaac. Here Jacob received the promise of the blessing, for
which God had called Abraham out of Ur, repeated for the
last time, on the last night of his sojourn in the land of
promise.
cannot--Greek, "doth not
disannul."
make . . . of none
effect--The promise would become so, if the power of
conferring the inheritance be transferred from it to the
law (
Ro 4:14).
18. the inheritance--all the blessings to be inherited by
Abraham's literal and spiritual children, according to
the promise made to him and to his Seed, Christ,
justification and glorification (
Ga 4:7; Ro 8:17; 1Co 6:9).
but God, &c.--The Greek
order requires rather, "But to Abraham it was by
promise that God hath given it." The conclusion is,
Therefore the inheritance is not of, or from the
law (
Ro 4:14).
19. "Wherefore then serveth the law?" as it is of
no avail for justification, is it either useless, or
contrary to the covenant of God? [CALVIN].
added--to the original covenant of
promise. This is not inconsistent with
Ga 3:15, "No man addeth thereto"; for there
the kind of addition meant, and therefore denied, is
one that would add new conditions, inconsistent with
the grace of the covenant of promise. The law, though
misunderstood by the Judaizers as doing so, was really
added for a different purpose, namely, "because of (or
as the Greek, 'for the sake of') the
transgressions," that is, to bring out into clearer
view the transgressions of it (
Ro 7:7-9); to make men more fully conscious of their
"sins," by being perceived as transgressions
of the law, and so to make them long for the promised
Saviour. This accords with
Ga 3:23, 24; Ro 4:15. The meaning can hardly be
"to check transgressions," for the law
rather stimulates the corrupt heart to disobey it (
Ro 5:20; 7:13).
till the seed--during the period up
to the time when the seed came. The law was a
preparatory dispensation for the Jewish nation (
Ro 5:20; Greek, "the law came in
additionally and incidentally"),
intervening between the promise and its fulfilment in
Christ.
come--(Compare "faith
came,"
Ga 3:23).
the promise-- (
Ro 4:21).
ordained--Greek,
"constituted" or "disposed."
by angels--as the instrumental
enactors of the law [ALFORD] God delegated the law to
angels as something rather alien to Him and severe (
Ac 7:53; Heb 2:2, 3; compare
De 33:2, "He came with ten thousands of
saints," that is, angels,
Ps 68:17). He reserved "the promise" to
Himself and dispensed it according to His own
goodness.
in the hand of a mediator--namely,
Moses.
De 5:5, "I stood between the Lord and
you": the very definition of a mediator. Hence the
phrase often recurs, "By the hand of Moses." In
the giving of the law, the "angels" were
representatives of God; Moses, as mediator, represented the
people.
20. "Now a mediator cannot be of one (but must be of two parties whom he mediates between); but God is one" (not two: owing to His essential unity not admitting of an intervening party between Him and those to be blessed; but as the ONE Sovereign, His own representative, giving the blessing directly by promise to Abraham, and, in its fulfilment, to Christ, "the Seed," without new condition, and without a mediator such as the law had). The conclusion understood is, Therefore a mediator cannot appertain to God; and consequently, the law, with its inseparable appendage of a mediator, cannot be the normal way of dealing of God, the one, and unchangeable God, who dealt with Abraham by direct promise, as a sovereign, not as one forming a compact with another party, with conditions and a mediator attached thereto. God would bring man into immediate communion with Him, and not have man separated from Him by a mediator that keeps back from access, as Moses and the legal priesthood did ( Ex 19:12, 13, 17, 21-24; Heb 12:19-24). The law that thus interposed a mediator and conditions between man and God, was an exceptional state limited to the Jews, and parenthetically preparatory to the Gospel, God's normal mode of dealing, as He dealt with Abraham, namely, face to face directly; by promise and grace, and not conditions; to all nations united by faith in the one seed ( Eph 2:14, 16, 18), and not to one people to the exclusion and severance from the O NE common Father, of all other nations. It is no objection to this view, that the Gospel, too, has a mediator ( 1Ti 2:5). For Jesus is not a mediator separating the two parties in the covenant of promise or grace, as Moses did, but ONE in both nature and office with both God and man (compare "God in Christ," Ga 3:17): representing the whole universal manhood ( 1Co 15:22, 45, 47), and also bearing in Him "all the fulness of the Godhead." Even His mediatorial office is to cease when its purpose of reconciling all things to God shall have been accomplished ( 1Co 15:24); and God's ONENESS ( Zec 14:9), as "all in all," shall be fully manifested. Compare Joh 1:17, where the two mediators--Moses, the severing mediator of legal conditions, and Jesus, the uniting mediator of grace--are contrasted. The Jews began their worship by reciting the Schemah, opening thus, "Jehovah our God is ONE Jehovah"; which words their Rabbis (as JARCHIUS) interpret as teaching not only the unity of God, but the future universality of His Kingdom on earth ( Zep 3:9). Paul ( Ro 3:30) infers the same truth from the ONENESS of God (compare Eph 4:4-6). He, as being One, unites all believers, without distinction, to Himself ( Ga 3:8, 16, 28; Eph 1:10; 2:14; compare Heb 2:11) in direct communion. The unity of God involves the unity of the people of God, and also His dealing directly without intervention of a mediator.
21. "Is the law (which involves a mediator)
against the promises of God (which are without a mediator,
and rest on God alone and immediately)? God
forbid."
life--The law, as an externally
prescribed rule, can never internally impart spiritual life
to men naturally dead in sin, and change the disposition.
If the law had been a law capable of giving life,
"verily (in very reality, and not in the mere fancy of
legalists) righteousness would have been by the law (for
where life is, there righteousness, its condition,
must also be)." But the law does not pretend to
give life, and therefore not righteousness; so there is no
opposition between the law and the promise. Righteousness
can only come through the promise to Abraham, and through
its fulfilment in the Gospel of grace.
22. But--as the law cannot give life or righteousness
[ALFORD]. Or the "But" means, So far is
righteousness from being of the law, that the
knowledge of sin is rather what comes of the law
[BENGEL].
the scripture--which began to be
written after the time of the promise, at the time when the
law was given. The written letter was needed SO as
PERMANENTLY to convict man of disobedience to God's
command. Therefore he says, "the Scripture," not
the "Law." Compare
Ga 3:8, "Scripture," for "the God of the
Scripture."
concluded--"shut up," under
condemnation, as in a prison. Compare
Isa 24:22, "As prisoners gathered in the pit and
shut up in the prison." Beautifully contrasted with
"the liberty wherewith Christ makes free," which
follows,
Ga 3:7, 9, 25, 26; 5:1; Isa 61:1.
all--Greek neuter, "the
universe of things": the whole world, man, and all
that appertains to him.
under sin-- (
Ro 3:9, 19; 11:32).
the promise--the inheritance
promised (
Ga 3:18).
by faith of Jesus Christ--that is
which is by faith in Jesus Christ.
might be given--The emphasis is on
"given": that it might be a free gift; not
something earned by the works of the law (
Ro 6:23).
to them that believe--to them that
have "the faith of (in) Jesus Christ" just spoken
of.
23. faith--namely, that just mentioned (
Ga 3:22), of which Christ is the object.
kept--Greek, "kept in
ward": the effect of the "shutting up" (
Ga 3:22; Ga 4:2; Ro 7:6).
unto--"with a view to the
faith," &c. We were, in a manner, morally forced
to it, so that there remained to us no refuge but faith.
Compare the phrase,
Ps 78:50, Margin;
Ps 31:8.
which should afterwards,
&c.--"which was afterwards to be revealed."
24. "So that the law hath been (that is,
hath turned out to be) our schoolmaster (or
"tutor," literally, "pedagogue": this
term, among the Greeks, meant a faithful servant entrusted
with the care of the boy from childhood to puberty, to keep
him from evil, physical and moral, and accompany him to his
amusements and studies) to guide us unto Christ," with
whom we are no longer "shut up" in bondage, but
are freemen. "Children" (literally,
infants) need such tutoring (
Ga 4:3).
might be--rather, "that we
may be justified by faith"; which we could not be
till Christ, the object of faith, had come. Meanwhile the
law, by outwardly checking the sinful propensity which was
constantly giving fresh proof of its refractoriness--as
thus the consciousness of the power of the sinful principle
became more vivid, and hence the sense of need both of
forgiveness of sin and freedom from its bondage was
awakened--the law became a "schoolmaster to guide us
unto Christ" [NEANDER]. The moral law shows us
what we ought to do, and so we learn our inability to do
it. In the ceremonial law we seek, by animal
sacrifices, to answer for our not having done it, but find
dead victims no satisfaction for the sins of living men,
and that outward purifying will not cleanse the soul; and
that therefore we need an infinitely better Sacrifice, the
antitype of all the legal sacrifices. Thus delivered up to
the judicial law, we see how awful is the doom we
deserve: thus the law at last leads us to Christ, with whom
we find righteousness and peace. "Sin, sin! is
the word heard again and again in the Old Testament. Had it
not there for centuries rung in the ear, and fastened on
the conscience, the joyful sound, "grace for
grace," would not have been the watchword of the New
Testament. This was the end of the whole system of
sacrifices" [THOLUCK].
25. "But now that faith is come," &c. Moses the lawgiver cannot bring us into the heavenly Canaan though he can bring us to the border of it. At that point he is superseded by Joshua, the type of Jesus, who leads the true Israel into their inheritance. The law leads us to Christ, and there its office ceases.
26. children--Greek, "sons."
by--Greek, "through
faith." "Ye all" (Jews and Gentiles alike)
are no longer "children" requiring a
tutor, but SONS emancipated and walking at liberty.
27. baptized into Christ-- (
Ro 6:3).
have put on Christ--Ye did, in that
very act of being baptized into Christ, put on,
or clothe yourselves with, Christ: so the Greek
expresses. Christ is to you the toga virilis (the
Roman garment of the full-grown man, assumed when ceasing
to be a child) [BENGEL]. GATAKER defines a Christian,
"One who has put on Christ." The argument is, By
baptism ye have put on Christ; and therefore, He being the
Son of God, ye become sons by adoption, by virtue of His
Sonship by generation. This proves that baptism, where
it answers to its ideal, is not a mere empty sign, but
a means of spiritual transference from the state of legal
condemnation to that of living union with Christ, and of
sonship through Him in relation to God (
Ro 13:14). Christ alone can, by baptizing with His
Spirit, make the inward grace correspond to the outward
sign. But as He promises the blessing in the faithful use
of the means, the Church has rightly presumed, in charity,
that such is the case, nothing appearing to the contrary.
28. There is in this sonship by faith in Christ, no class
privileged above another, as the Jews under the law had
been above the Gentiles (
Ro 10:12; 1Co 12:13; Col 3:11).
bond nor free--Christ alike belongs to
both by faith; whence he puts "bond"
before "free." Compare Note, see on 1Co 7:21, 22; Eph 6:8.
neither male nor female--rather, as
Greek, "there is not male and
female." There is no distinction into male and female.
Difference of sex makes no difference in Christian
privileges. But under the law the male sex had great
privileges. Males alone had in their body circumcision, the
sign of the covenant (contrast baptism applied to
male and female alike); they alone were capable of being
kings and priests, whereas all of either sex are now
"kings and priests unto God" (
Re 1:6); they had prior right to inheritances. In the
resurrection the relation of the sexes shall cease (
Lu 20:35).
one--Greek, "one
man"; masculine, not neuter, namely "one new
man" in Christ (
Eph 2:15).
29. and heirs--The oldest manuscripts omit "and." Christ is "Abraham's seed" ( Ga 3:16): ye are "one in Christ" ( Ga 3:28), and one with Christ, as having "put on Christ" ( Ga 3:27); therefore YE are "Abraham's seed," which is tantamount to saying (whence the "and" is omitted), ye are "heirs according to the promise" (not "by the law," Ga 3:18); for it was to Abraham's seed that the inheritance was promised ( Ga 3:16). Thus he arrives at the same truth which he set out with ( Ga 3:7). But one new "seed" of a righteous succession could be found. One single faultless grain of human nature was found by God Himself, the source of a new and imperishable seed: "the seed" ( Ps 22:30) who receive from Him a new nature and name ( Ge 3:15; Isa 53:10, 11; Joh 12:24). In Him the lineal descent from David becomes extinct. He died without posterity. But He lives and shall reign on David's throne. No one has a legal claim to sit upon it but Himself, He being the only living direct representative ( Eze 21:27). His spiritual seed derive their birth from the travail of His soul, being born again of His word, which is the incorruptible seed ( Joh 1:12; Ro 9:8; 1Pe 1:23).
Ga 4:1-31. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED: ILLUSTRATION OF OUR SUBJECTION TO THE LAW ONLY TILL CHRIST CAME, FROM THE SUBJECTION OF AN HEIR TO HIS GUARDIAN TILL HE IS OF AGE. PETER'S GOOD WILL TO THE GALATIANS SHOULD LEAD THEM TO THE SAME GOOD WILL TO HIM AS THEY HAD AT FIRST SHOWN. THEIR DESIRE TO BE UNDER THE LAW SHOWN BY THE ALLEGORY OF ISAAC AND ISHMAEL TO BE INCONSISTENT WITH THEIR GOSPEL LIBERTY.
1-7. The fact of God's sending His Son to redeem us who
were under the law (
Ga 4:4), and sending the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts (
Ga 4:6), confirms the conclusion (
Ga 3:29) that we are "heirs according to the
promise."
the heir-- (
Ga 3:29). It is not, as in earthly inheritances, the
death of the father, but our Father's sovereign will
simply that makes us heirs.
child--Greek, "one under
age."
differeth nothing, &c.--that is,
has no more freedom than a slave (so the Greek for
"servant" means). He is not at his own
disposal.
lord of all--by title and virtual
ownership (compare
1Co 3:21, 22).
2. tutors and governors--rather, "guardians (of the
person) and stewards (of the property)." Answering to
"the law was our schoolmaster" or
"tutor" (
Ga 3:24).
until the time appointed of the
father--in His eternal purposes (
Eph 1:9-11). The Greek is a legal term,
expressing a time defined by law, or testamentary
disposition.
3. we--the Jews primarily, and inclusively the Gentiles
also. For the "we" in
Ga 4:5 plainly refers to both Jew and Gentile
believers. The Jews in their bondage to the law of Moses,
as the representative people of the world, include all
mankind virtually amenable to God's law (
Ro 2:14, 15; compare Note, see on Ga 3:13; Ga 3:23). Even
the Gentiles were under "bondage," and in a state
of discipline suitable to nonage, till Christ came as the
Emancipator.
were in bondage--as
"servants" (
Ga 4:1).
under the elements--or
"rudiments"; rudimentary religion teaching of a
non-Christian character: the elementary lessons of
outward things (literally, "of the [outward]
world"); such as the legal ordinances mentioned,
Ga 4:10 (
Col 2:8, 20). Our childhood's lessons [CONYBEARE
and H OWSON]. Literally, The letters of the alphabet
(
Heb 5:12).
4. the fulness of the time--namely, "the time
appointed by the Father" (
Ga 4:2). Compare Note, see on Eph 1:10;
Lu 1:57; Ac 2:1; Eze 5:2. "The Church has its own
ages" [BENGEL]. God does nothing prematurely, but,
foreseeing the end from the beginning, waits till all is
ripe for the execution of His purpose. Had Christ come
directly after the fall, the enormity and deadly fruits of
sin would not have been realized fully by man, so as to
feel his desperate state and need of a Saviour. Sin was
fully developed. Man's inability to save himself by
obedience to the law, whether that of Moses, or that of
conscience, was completely manifested; all the prophecies
of various ages found their common center in this
particular time: and Providence, by various arrangements in
the social and political, as well as the moral world, had
fully prepared the way for the coming Redeemer. God often
permits physical evil long before he teaches the remedy.
The smallpox had for long committed its ravages before
inoculation, and then vaccination, was discovered. It was
essential to the honor of God's law to permit evil long
before He revealed the full remedy. Compare "the set
time" (
Ps 102:13).
was come--Greek,
"came."
sent forth--Greek,
"sent forth out of heaven from
Himself" [ALFORD and BENGEL]. The same verb is used of
the Father's sending forth the Spirit (
Ga 4:6). So in
Ac 7:12. Compare with this verse,
Joh 8:42; Isa 48:16.
his--emphatical. "His own
Son." Not by adoption, as we are (
Ga 4:5): nor merely His Son by the anointing of the
Spirit which God sends into the heart (
Ga 4:6; Joh 1:18).
made of a woman--"made" is
used as in
1Co 15:45, "The first man, Adam, was made a
living soul," Greek, "made to be
(born) of a woman." The expression implies a
special interposition of God in His birth as man, namely,
causing Him to be conceived by the Holy Ghost. So
ESTIUS.
made under the law--"made to be
under the law." Not merely as GROTIUS and ALFORD
explain, "Born subject to the law as a
Jew." But "made" by His Father's
appointment, and His own free will, "subject to the
law," to keep it all, ceremonial and moral, perfectly
for us, as the Representative Man, and to suffer and
exhaust the full penalty of our whole race's violation
of it. This constitutes the significance of His
circumcision, His being presented in the temple (
Lu 2:21, 22, 27; compare
Mt 5:17), and His baptism by John, when He said (
Mt 3:15), "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness."
5. To--Greek, "That He might
redeem."
them . . . under the
law--primarily the Jews: but as these were the
representative people of the world, the Gentiles,
too, are included in the redemption (
Ga 3:13).
receive--The Greek implies the
suitableness of the thing as long ago predestined by
God. "Receive as something destined or due" (
Lu 23:41; 2Jo 8). Herein God makes of sons of men sons
of God, inasmuch as God made of the Son of God the Son of
man [AUGUSTINE on Psalm 52].
6. because ye are sons--The gift of the Spirit of prayer is
the consequence of our adoption. The Gentile Galatians
might think, as the Jews were under the law before their
adoption, that so they, too, must first be under the law.
Paul, by anticipation, meets this objection by saying, YE
ARE sons, therefore ye need not be as children (
Ga 4:1) under the tutorship of the law, as being
already in the free state of "sons" of God by
faith in Christ (
Ga 3:26), no longer in your nonage (as
"children,"
Ga 4:1). The Spirit of God's only Begotten Son in
your hearts, sent from, and leading you to cry to, the
Father, attests your sonship by adoption: for the Spirit is
the "earnest of your inheritance" (
Ro 8:15, 16; Eph 1:13). "It is because ye are sons
that God sent forth" (the Greek requires this
translation, not "hath sent forth") into
OUR (so the oldest manuscripts read for "your,"
in English Version) hearts the Spirit of His son,
crying, "Abba, Father" (
Joh 1:12). As in
Ga 4:5 he changed from "them," the third
person, to "we," the first person, so here he
changes from "ye," the second person, to
"our," the first person: this he does to identify
their case as Gentiles, with his own and that of his
believing fellow countrymen, as Jews. In another point of
view, though not the immediate one intended by the context,
this verse expresses, "Because ye are sons
(already in God's electing purpose of love), God sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,"
&c.: God thus, by sending His Spirit in due time,
actually conferring that sonship which He already regarded
as a present reality ("are") because of His
purpose, even before it was actually fulfilled. So
Heb 2:13, where "the children" are spoken of
as existing in His purpose, before their actual
existence.
the Spirit of his Son--By faith ye are
one with the Son, so that what is His is yours; His Sonship
ensures your sonship; His Spirit ensures for you a share in
the same. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of His" (
Ro 8:9). Moreover, as the Spirit of God proceeds from
God the Father, so the Spirit of the Son proceeds from the
Son: so that the Holy Ghost, as the Creed says,
"proceedeth from the Father and the Son." The
Father was not begotten: the Son is begotten
of the Father; the Holy Ghost proceeding from the
Father and the Son.
crying--Here the SPIRIT is regarded as
the agent in praying, and the believer as His
organ. In
Ro 8:15, "The Spirit of adoption" is said to
be that whereby WE cry, "Abba, Father"; but in
Ro 8:26, "The SPIRIT ITSELF maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." The
believers' prayer is His prayer: hence arises its
acceptability with God.
Abba, Father--The Hebrew says,
"Abba" (a Hebrew term), the
Greek, "Father" ("Pater," a
Greek term in the original), both united together in
one Sonship and one cry of faith, "Abba, Father."
So "Even so ('Nai,' Greek) Amen
(Hebrew)," both meaning the same (
Re 1:7). Christ's own former cry is the
believers' cry, "Abba, Father" (
Mr 14:36).
7. Wherefore--Conclusion inferred from
Ga 4:4-6.
thou--individualizing and applying the
truth to each. Such an individual appropriation of this
comforting truth God grants in answer to them who cry,
"Abba, Father."
heir of God through Christ--The oldest
manuscripts read, "an heir through God." This
combines on behalf of man, the whole before-mentioned
agency, of THE TRINITY: the Father sent His Son and the
Spirit; the Son has freed us from the law; the Spirit has
completed our sonship. Thus the redeemed are heirs THROUGH
the Triune GOD, not through the law, nor through fleshly
descent [WINDISCHMANN in ALFORD]; (
Ga 3:18 confirms this).
heir--confirming
Ga 3:29; compare
Ro 8:17.
8-11. Appeal to them not to turn back from their privileges
as free sons, to legal bondage again.
then--when ye were
"servants" (
Ga 4:7).
ye knew not God--not opposed to
Ro 1:21. The heathen originally knew God, as
Ro 1:21 states, but did not choose to retain God in
their knowledge, and so corrupted the original truth. They
might still have known Him, in a measure,
from His works, but as a matter of fact they knew Him not,
so far as His eternity, His power as the Creator, and His
holiness, are concerned.
are no gods--that is, have no
existence, such as their worshippers attribute to them, in
the nature of things, but only in the corrupt imaginations
of their worshippers (see on 1Co
8:4; 1Co 10:19, 20;
2Ch 13:9). Your "service" was a different
bondage from that of the Jews, which was a true service.
Yet theirs, like yours, was a burdensome yoke; how then is
it ye wish to resume the yoke after that God has
transferred both Jews and Gentiles to a free service?
9. known God or rather are known of God--They did
not first know and love God, but God first, in His
electing love, knew and loved them as His, and therefore
attracted them to the saving knowledge of Him (
Mt 7:23; 1Co 8:3; 2Ti 2:19; compare
Ex 33:12, 17; Joh 15:16; Php 3:12). God's great
grace in this made their fall from it the more
heinous.
how--expressing indignant wonder at
such a thing being possible, and even actually occurring
(
Ga 1:6). "How is it that ye turn back
again?"
weak--powerless to justify: in
contrast to the justifying power of faith (
Ga 3:24; compare
Heb 7:18).
beggarly--contrasted with the
riches of the inheritance of believers in Christ (
Eph 1:18). The state of the "child" (
Ga 4:1) is weak, as not having attained manhood;
"beggarly," as not having attained the
inheritance.
elements--"rudiments." It is
as if a schoolmaster should go back to learning the A, B,
C'S [BENGEL].
again--There are two Greek
words in the original. "Ye desire again, beginning
afresh, to be in bondage." Though the Galatians,
as Gentiles, had never been under the Mosaic yoke, yet they
had been under "the elements of the world" (
Ga 4:3): the common designation for the Jewish and
Gentile systems alike, in contrast to the Gospel (however
superior the Jewish was to the Gentile). Both systems
consisted in outward worship and cleaved to sensible forms.
Both were in bondage to the elements of sense, as
though these could give the justification and
sanctification which the inner and spiritual power of God
alone could bestow.
ye desire--or "will."
Will-worship is not acceptable to God (
Col 2:18, 23).
10. To regard the observance of certain days as in itself
meritorious as a work, is alien to the free spirit of
Christianity. This is not incompatible with observing the
Sabbath or the Christian Lord's day as obligatory,
though not as a work (which was the Jewish and
Gentile error in the observance of days), but as a holy
mean appointed by the Lord for attaining the great end,
holiness. The whole life alike belongs to the Lord in the
Gospel view, just as the whole world, and not the Jews
only, belong to Him. But as in Paradise, so now one portion
of time is needed wherein to draw off the soul more
entirely from secular business to God (
Col 2:16). "Sabbaths, new moons, and set
feasts" (
1Ch 23:31; 2Ch 31:3), answer to "days, months,
times." "Months," however, may refer to the
first and seventh months, which were sacred
on account of the number of feasts in them.
times--Greek,
"seasons," namely, those of the three great
feasts, the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.
years--The sabbatical year was about
the time of writing this Epistle, A.D. 48 [BENGEL].
11. lest--Greek, "lest haply." My fear is not for my own sake, but for yours.
12. be as I am--"As I have in my life among you cast
off Jewish habits, so do ye; for I am become as ye
are," namely, in the non-observance of legal
ordinances. "The fact of my laying them aside among
Gentiles, shows that I regard them as not at all
contributing to justification or sanctification.
Do you regard them in the same light, and act
accordingly." His observing the law among the Jews was
not inconsistent with this, for he did so only in order to
win them, without compromising principle. On the other
hand, the Galatian Gentiles, by adopting legal ordinances,
showed that they regarded them as needful for salvation.
This Paul combats.
ye have not injured me at all--namely,
at the period when I first preached the Gospel among you,
and when I made myself as you are, namely, living as a
Gentile, not as a Jew. You at that time did me no
wrong; "ye did not despise my temptation in the
flesh" (
Ga 4:14): nay, you "received me as an angel of
God." Then in
Ga 4:16, he asks, "Have I then, since that
time, become your enemy by telling you the truth?"
13. how through infirmity--rather, as Greek,
"Ye know that because of an infirmity of
my flesh I preached," &c. He implies that
bodily sickness, having detained him among them, contrary
to his original intentions, was the occasion of his
preaching the Gospel to them.
at the first--literally, "at the
former time"; implying that at the time of
writing he had been twice in Galatia. See my Introduction; also see on
Ga 4:16, and Ga
5:21. His sickness was probably the same as recurred
more violently afterward, "the thorn in the
flesh" (
2Co 12:7), which also was overruled to good (
2Co 12:9, 10), as the "infirmity of the
flesh" here.
14. my temptation--The oldest manuscripts read, "your
temptation." My infirmity, which was, or might have
been, a "temptation," or trial, to you, ye
despised not, that is, ye were not tempted by it to despise
me and my message. Perhaps, however, it is better to
punctuate and explain as LACHMANN, connecting it with
Ga 4:13, "And (ye know) your temptation (that is,
the temptation to which ye were exposed through the
infirmity) which was in my flesh. Ye despised not (through
natural pride), nor rejected (through
spiritual pride), but received me," &c.
"Temptation does not mean here, as we now use the
word, tendency to an evil habit, but BODILY
TRIAL."
as an angel of God--as a
heaven-inspired and sent messenger from God:
angel means "messenger" (
Mal 2:7). Compare the phrase,
2Sa 19:27, a Hebrew and Oriental one for a person to be
received with the highest respect (
Zec 12:8). An angel is free from the flesh,
infirmity, and temptation.
as Christ--being Christ's
representative (
Mt 10:40). Christ is Lord of angels.
15. Where, &c.--Of what value was your
congratulation (so the Greek for
"blessedness" expresses) of yourselves, on
account of your having among you me, the messenger of the
Gospel, considering how entirely you have veered about
since? Once you counted yourselves blessed in being
favored with my ministry.
ye would have plucked out your own
eyes--one of the dearest members of the body--so highly did
you value me: a proverbial phrase for the greatest
self-sacrifice (
Mt 5:29). CONYBEARE and HOWSON think that this
particular form of proverb was used with reference to a
weakness in Paul's eyes, connected with a nervous
frame, perhaps affected by the brightness of the vision
described,
Ac 22:11; 2Co 12:1-7. "You would have torn out
your own eyes to supply the lack of mine." The divine
power of Paul's words and works, contrasting with the
feebleness of his person (
2Co 10:10), powerfully at first impressed the
Galatians, who had all the impulsiveness of the Celtic race
from which they sprang. Subsequently they soon changed with
the fickleness which is equally characteristic of Celts.
16. Translate, "Am I then become your enemy (an enemy in your eyes) by telling you the truth" ( Ga 2:5, 14)? He plainly did not incur their enmity at his first visit, and the words here imply that he had since then, and before his now writing, incurred it: so that the occasion of his telling them the unwelcome truth, must have been at his second visit ( Ac 18:23, see my Introduction). The fool and sinner hate a reprover. The righteous love faithful reproof ( Ps 141:5; Pr 9:8).
17. They--your flatterers: in contrast to Paul himself, who
tells them the truth.
zealously--zeal in proselytism was
characteristic especially of the Jews, and so of Judaizers
(
Ga 1:14; Mt 23:15; Ro 10:2).
affect you--that is, court you (
2Co 11:2).
not well--not in a good way, or for a
good end. Neither the cause of their zealous
courting of you, nor the manner, is what it ought to
be.
they would exclude you--"They
wish to shut you out" from the kingdom of God (that
is, they wish to persuade you that as uncircumcised
Gentiles, you are shut out from it), "that ye may
zealously court them," that is, become
circumcised, as zealous followers of themselves. ALFORD
explains it, that their wish was to shut out the Galatians
from the general community, and attract them as a separate
clique to their own party. So the English word
"exclusive," is used.
18. good to be zealously affected--rather, to correspond to
"zealously court" in
Ga 4:18, "to be zealously courted." I do not
find fault with them for zealously courting you, nor with
you for being zealously courted: provided it be
"in a good cause" (translate so), "it is a
good thing" (
1Co 9:20-23). My reason for saying the "not
well" (
Ga 4:17; the Greek is the same as that for
"good," and "in a good cause," in
Ga 4:28), is that their zealous courting of you
is not in a good cause. The older interpreters, however,
support English Version (compare
Ga 1:14).
always--Translate and arrange the
words thus, "At all times, and not only when I
am present with you." I do not desire that I
exclusively should have the privilege of zealously courting
you. Others may do so in my absence with my full approval,
if only it be in a good cause, and if Christ be faithfully
preached (
Php 1:15-18).
19. My little children-- (
1Ti 1:18; 2Ti 2:1; 1Jo 2:1). My relation to you is not
merely that of one zealously courting you (
Ga 4:17, 18), but that of a father to his
children (
1Co 4:15).
I travail in birth--that is, like a
mother in pain till the birth of her child.
again--a second time. The former time
was when I was "present with you" (
Ga 4:18; compare Note, see on
Ga 4:13).
Christ be formed in you--that you may
live nothing but Christ, and think nothing but Christ (
Ga 2:20), and glory in nothing but Him, and His death,
resurrection, and righteousness (
Php 3:8-10; Col 1:27).
20. Translate as Greek, "I could wish." If
circumstances permitted (which they do not), I would gladly
be with you [M. STUART].
now--as I was twice already. Speaking
face to face is so much more effective towards loving
persuasion than writing (
2Jo 12; 3Jo 13, 14).
change my voice--as a mother (
Ga 4:19): adapting my tone of voice to what I saw in
person your case might need. This is possible to one
present, but not to one in writing [G ROTIUS and
ESTIUS].
I stand in doubt of you--rather,
"I am perplexed about you," namely, how to deal
with you, what kind of words to use, gentle or severe, to
bring you back to the right path.
21. desire--of your own accord madly courting that which
must condemn and ruin you.
do ye not hear--do ye not consider the
mystic sense of Moses' words? [GROTIUS]. The law itself
sends you away from itself to Christ [ESTIUS]. After having
sufficiently maintained his point by argument, the apostle
confirms and illustrates it by an inspired allegorical
exposition of historical facts, containing in them general
laws and types. Perhaps his reason for using allegory was
to confute the Judaizers with their own weapons: subtle,
mystical, allegorical interpretations, unauthorized by the
Spirit, were their favorite arguments, as of the Rabbins in
the synagogues. Compare the Jerusalem Talmud
[Tractatu Succa, cap. Hechalil]. Paul meets them
with an allegorical exposition, not the work of fancy, but
sanctioned by the Holy Spirit. History, if properly
understood contains in its complicated phenomena, simple
and continually recurring divine laws. The history
of the elect people, like their legal ordinances, had,
besides the literal, a typical meaning (compare
1Co 10:1-4; 15:45, 47; Re 11:8). Just as the
extra-ordinarily-born Isaac, the gift of grace according to
promise, supplanted, beyond all human calculations, the
naturally-born Ishmael, so the new theocratic race, the
spiritual seed of Abraham by promise, the Gentile, as well
as Jewish believers, were about to take the place of the
natural seed, who had imagined that to them exclusively
belonged the kingdom of God.
22. (
Ge 16:3-16; 21:2).
Abraham--whose sons ye wish to be
(compare
Ro 9:7-9).
a bond maid . . . a free
woman--rather, as Greek, "the bond maid
. . . the free woman."
23. after the flesh--born according to the usual course of nature: in contrast to Isaac, who was born "by virtue of the promise" (so the Greek), as the efficient cause of Sarah's becoming pregnant out of the course of nature ( Ro 4:19). Abraham was to lay aside all confidence in the flesh (after which Ishmael was born), and to live by faith alone in the promise (according to which Isaac was miraculously born, contrary to all calculations of flesh and blood).
24. are an allegory--rather, "are allegorical,"
that is, have another besides the literal
meaning.
these are the two
covenants--"these [women] are (that is, mean;
omit 'the' with all the oldest manuscripts) two
covenants." As among the Jews the bondage of the
mother determined that of the child, the children of the
free covenant of promise, answering to Sarah, are free; the
children of the legal covenant of bondage are not so.
one from--that is, taking his
origin from Mount Sinai. Hence, it appears, he is
treating of the moral law (
Ga 3:19) chiefly (
Heb 12:18). Paul was familiar with the district of
Sinai in Arabia (
Ga 1:17), having gone thither after his conversion. At
the gloomy scene of the giving of the Law, he learned to
appreciate, by contrast, the grace of the Gospel, and so to
cast off all his past legal dependencies.
which gendereth--that is, bringing
forth children unto bondage. Compare the phrase (
Ac 3:25), "children of the covenant which
God made . . . saying unto Abraham."
Agar--that is, Hagar.
25. Translate, "For this word, Hagar, is
(imports) Mount Sinai in Arabia (that is, among the
Arabians--in the Arabian tongue)." So
CHRYSOSTOM explains. Haraut, the traveller, says that to
this day the Arabians call Sinai, "Hadschar,"
that is, Hagar, meaning a rock or
stone. Hagar twice fled into the desert of Arabia (
Ge 16:1-16; 21:9-21): from her the mountain and city
took its name, and the people were called Hagarenes. Sinai,
with its rugged rocks, far removed from the promised land,
was well suited to represent the law which inspires with
terror, and the spirit of bondage.
answereth--literally, "stands in
the same rank with"; "she corresponds
to."
Jerusalem which now is--that is, the
Jerusalem of the Jews, having only a present temporary
existence, in contrast with the spiritual Jerusalem of the
Gospel, which in germ, under the form of the
promise, existed ages before, and shall be for ever in
ages to come.
and--The oldest manuscripts read,
"For she is in bondage." As Hagar was in
bondage to her mistress, so Jerusalem that now is, is in
bondage to the law, and also to the Romans: her civil state
thus being in accordance with her spiritual state [BENGEL].
26. This verse stands instead of the sentence which we
should expect, to correspond to
Ga 4:24, "One from Mount Sinai," namely,
the other covenant from the heavenly mount above, which
is (answers in the allegory to) Sarah.
Jerusalem . . . above-- (
Heb 12:22), "the heavenly Jerusalem."
"New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from
my God" (
Re 3:12; 21:2). Here "the Messianic
theocracy, which before Christ's second appearing
is the Church, and after it, Christ's kingdom of
glory" [MEYER].
free--as Sarah was; opposed to
"she is in bondage" (
Ga 4:25).
all--omitted in many of the oldest
manuscripts, though supported by some. "Mother of
us," namely, believers who are already members
of the invisible Church, the heavenly Jerusalem, hereafter
to be manifested (
Heb 12:22).
27. (
Isa 54:1).
thou barren--Jerusalem above: the
spiritual Church of the Gospel, the fruit of "the
promise," answering to Sarah, who bore not
"after the flesh": as contrasted with the law,
answering to Hagar, who was fruitful in the ordinary course
of nature. Isaiah speaks primarily of Israel's
restoration after her long-continued calamities; but his
language is framed by the Holy Spirit so as to reach beyond
this to the spiritual Zion: including not only the Jews,
the natural descendants of Abraham and children of the law,
but also the Gentiles. The spiritual Jerusalem is
regarded as "barren" while the law trammeled
Israel, for she then had no spiritual children of the
Gentiles.
break forth--into crying.
cry--shout for joy.
many more--Translate as Greek,
"Many are the children of the desolate (the New
Testament Church made up in the greater part from the
Gentiles, who once had not the promise, and so was
destitute of God as her husband), more than of her which
hath an (Greek, 'THE') husband (the Jewish
Church having G OD for her husband,
Isa 54:5; Jer 2:2)." Numerous as were the children
of the legal covenant, those of the Gospel covenant are
more so. The force of the Greek article is,
"Her who has THE husband of which the other is
destitute."
28. we--The oldest manuscripts and versions are divided
between "we" and "ye." "We"
better accords with
Ga 4:26, "mother of us."
children of promise--not children
after the flesh, but through the promise (
Ga 4:23, 29, 31). "We are" so, and
ought to wish to continue so.
29. persecuted--Ishmael "mocked" Isaac, which
contained in it the germ and spirit of persecution (
Ge 21:9). His mocking was probably directed against
Isaac's piety and faith in God's promises. Being
the older by natural birth, he haughtily prided himself
above him that was born by promise: as Cain hated
Abel's piety.
him . . . born after the
Spirit--The language, though referring primarily to Isaac,
born in a spiritual way (namely, by the promise or word of
God, rendered by His Spirit efficient out of the course of
nature, in making Sarah fruitful in old age), is so framed
as especially to refer to believers justified by Gospel
grace through faith, as opposed to carnal men, Judaizers,
and legalists.
even so it is now-- (
Ga 5:11; 6:12, 17; Ac 9:29; 13:45, 49, 50; 14:1, 2, 19;
17:5, 13; 18:5, 6). The Jews persecuted Paul, not for
preaching Christianity in opposition to heathenism, but for
preaching it as distinct from Judaism. Except in the two
cases of Philippi and Ephesus (where the persons beginning
the assault were pecuniarily interested in his expulsion),
he was nowhere set upon by the Gentiles, unless they were
first stirred up by the Jews. The coincidence between
Paul's Epistles and Luke's history (the Acts) in
this respect, is plainly undesigned, and so a proof of
genuineness (see PALEY, Horæ Paulinæ).
30.
Ge 21:10, 12, where Sarah's words are, "shall
not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." But
what was there said literally, is here by inspiration
expressed in its allegorical spiritual import, applying to
the New Testament believer, who is antitypically "the
son of the free woman." In
Joh 8:35, 36, Jesus refers to this.
Cast out--from the house and
inheritance: literally, Ishmael; spiritually, the carnal
and legalists.
shall not be heir--The Greek is
stronger, "must not be heir," or
"inherit."
31. So then--The oldest manuscripts read, "Wherefore." This is the conclusion inferred from what precedes. In Ga 3:29 and Ga 4:7, it was established that we, New Testament believers, are "heirs." If, then, we are heirs, "we are not children of the bond woman (whose son, according to Scripture, was 'not to be heir,' Ga 4:30), but of the free woman (whose son was, according to Scripture, to be heir). For we are not "cast out" as Ishmael, but accepted as sons and heirs.
Ga 5:1-26. PERORATION. EXHORTATION TO STAND FAST IN THE GOSPEL LIBERTY, JUST SET FORTH, AND NOT TO BE LED BY JUDAIZERS INTO CIRCUMCISION, OR LAW JUSTIFICATION: YET THOUGH FREE, TO SERVE ONE ANOTHER BY LOVE: TO WALK IN THE SPIRIT, BEARING THE FRUIT THEREOF, NOT IN THE WORKS OF THE FLESH.
1. The oldest manuscripts read, "in liberty (so ALFORD, MOBERLEY, HUMPHRY, and ELLICOTT. But as there is no Greek for 'in,' as there is in translating in 1Co 16:13; Php 1:27; 4:1, I prefer 'It is FOR freedom that') Christ hath made us free (not in, or for, a state of bondage). Stand fast, therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage" (namely, the law, Ga 4:24; Ac 15:10). On "again," see on Ga 4:9.
2. Behold--that is, Mark what I say.
I Paul--Though you now think less of
my authority, I nevertheless give my name and personal
authority as enough by itself to refute all opposition of
adversaries.
if ye be circumcised--not as ALFORD,
"If you will go on being circumcised."
Rather, "If ye suffer yourselves to be
circumcised," namely, under the notion of its being
necessary to justification (
Ga 5:4; Ac 15:1). Circumcision here is not regarded
simply by itself (for, viewed as a mere national
rite, it was practiced for conciliation's sake by Paul
himself,
Ac 16:3), but as the symbol of Judaism and
legalism in general. If this be necessary, then the
Gospel of grace is at an end. If the latter be the way of
justification, then Judaism is in no way so.
Christ . . . profit
. . . nothing-- (
Ga 2:21). For righteousness of works and justification
by faith cannot co-exist. "He who is circumcised [for
justification] is so as fearing the law, and he who fears,
disbelieves the power of grace, and he who disbelieves can
profit nothing by that grace which he disbelieves
[CHRYSOSTOM].
3. For--Greek, "Yea, more";
"Moreover."
I testify . . . to every
man--as well as "unto you" (
Ga 5:2).
that is circumcised--that submits to
be circumcised. Such a one became a "proselyte of
righteousness."
the whole law--impossible for man to
keep even in part, much less wholly (
Jas 2:10); yet none can be justified by the law, unless
he keep it wholly (
Ga 3:10).
4. Literally, "Ye have become void from Christ,"
that is, your connection with Christ has become void (
Ga 5:2).
Ro 7:2, "Loosed from the law," where
the same Greek occurs as here.
whosoever of you are
justified--"are being justified," that is, are
endeavoring to be justified.
by the law--Greek, "IN the
law," as the element in which justification is
to take place.
fallen from grace--Ye no longer
"stand" in grace (
Ro 5:2). Grace and legal righteousness cannot co-exist
(
Ro 4:4, 5; 11:6). Christ, by circumcision (
Lu 2:21), undertook to obey all the law, and fulfil all
righteousness for us: any, therefore, that now seeks to
fulfil the law for himself in any degree for justifying
righteousness, severs himself from the grace which flows
from Christ's fulfilment of it, and becomes "a
debtor to do the whole law" (
Ga 5:3). The decree of the Jerusalem council had said
nothing so strong as this; it had merely decided that
Gentile Christians were not bound to legal observances. But
the Galatians, while not pretending to be so bound,
imagined there was an efficacy in them to merit a higher
degree of perfection (
Ga 3:3). This accounts for Paul not referring to the
decree at all. He took much higher ground. See PALEY'S
Horæ Paulinæ. The natural mind loves
outward fetters, and is apt to forge them for itself, to
stand in lieu of holiness of heart.
5. For--proof of the assertion, "fallen from
grace," by contrasting with the case of
legalists, the "hope" of
Christians.
through the Spirit--Greek,
rather, "by the Spirit": in opposition to by
the flesh (
Ga 4:29), or fleshly ways of justification, as
circumcision and legal ordinances. "We" is
emphatical, and contrasted with "whosoever of you
would be justified by the law" (
Ga 5:4).
the hope of righteousness--"We
wait for the (realization of the) hope (which is the fruit)
of the righteousness (that is, justification which comes)
by (literally, 'from--out of') faith,"
Ro 5:1, 4, 5; 8:24, 25, "Hope . . .
we with patience wait for it." This is a
farther step than being "justified"; not only are
we this, but "wait for the hope" which is
connected with it, and is its full consummation.
"Righteousness," in the sense of justification,
is by the believer once for all already attained: but the
consummation of it in future perfection above is the object
of hope to be waited for: "the crown of
righteousness laid up" (
2Ti 4:8): "the hope laid up for you in
heaven" (
Col 1:5; 1Pe 1:3).
6. For--confirming the truth that it is "by
faith" (
Ga 5:5).
in Jesus Christ--Greek,
"in Christ Jesus." In union with Christ
(the ANOINTED Saviour), that is, Jesus of
Nazareth.
nor uncircumcision--This is levelled
against those who, being not legalists, or Judaizers, think
themselves Christians on this ground alone.
faith which worketh by
love--Greek, "working by love." This
corresponds to "a new creature" (
Ga 6:15), as its definition. Thus in
Ga 5:5, 6, we have the three, "faith,"
"hope," and "love." The Greek
expresses, "Which effectually worketh"; which
exhibits its energy by love (so
1Th 2:13). Love is not joined with faith
in justifying, but is the principle of the works which
follow after justification by faith. Let not legalists,
upholding circumcision, think that the essence of the law
is set at naught by the doctrine of justification by faith
only. Nay, "all the law is fulfilled in one
word--love," which is the principle on which
"faith worketh" (
Ga 5:14). Let them, therefore, seek this
"faith," which will enable them truly to fulfil
the law. Again, let not those who pride themselves on
uncircumcision think that, because the law does not
justify, they are free to walk after "the flesh"
(
Ga 5:13). Let them, then, seek that "love"
which is inseparable from true faith (
Jas 2:8, 12-22). Love is utterly opposed to the
enmities which prevailed among the Galatians (
Ga 5:15, 20). The Spirit (
Ga 5:5) is a Spirit of "faith" and
"love" (compare
Ro 14:17; 1Co 7:19).
7. Translate, "Ye were running well" in the
Gospel race (
1Co 9:24-26; Php 3:13, 14).
who, &c.--none whom you ought to
have listened to [BENGEL]: alluding to the Judaizers
(compare
Ga 3:1).
hinder--The Greek means,
literally, "hinder by breaking up a road."
not obey the truth--not submit
yourselves to the true Gospel way of justification.
8. This persuasion--Greek, "The
persuasion," namely, to which you are yielding. There
is a play on words in the original, the Greek for
persuasion being akin to "obey" (
Ga 5:7). This persuasion which ye have
obeyed.
cometh not of--that is
"from." Does not emanate from Him, but from an
enemy.
that calleth you-- (
Ga 5:13; Ga 1:6; Php 3:14; 1Th 5:24). The calling is
the rule of the whole race [BENGEL].
9. A little leaven--the false teaching of the Judaizers. A small portion of legalism, if it be mixed with the Gospel, corrupts its purity. To add legal ordinances and works in the least degree to justification by faith, is to undermine "the whole." So "leaven" is used of false doctrine ( Mt 16:12: compare Mt 13:33). In 1Co 5:6 it means the corrupting influence of one bad person; so B ENGEL understands it here to refer to the person ( Ga 5:7, 8, 10) who misled them. Ec 9:18, "One sinner destroyeth much good" ( 1Co 15:33). I prefer to refer it to false doctrine, answering to "persuasion" ( Ga 5:8).
10. Greek, "I (emphatical: 'I on my
part') have confidence in the Lord with regard
to you (
2Th 3:4), that ye will be none otherwise minded"
(than what by this Epistle I desire you to be,
Php 3:15).
but he that troubleth you-- (
Ga 1:7; Ac 15:24; Jos 7:25; 1Ki 18:17, 18). Some one,
probably, was prominent among the seducers, though the
denunciation applies to them all (
Ga 1:7; 4:17).
shall bear--as a heavy burden.
his--his due and inevitable
judgment from God. Paul distinguishes the case of the
seduced, who were misled through thoughtlessness, and who,
now that they are set right by him, he confidently hopes,
in God's goodness, will return to the right way, from
that of the seducer who is doomed to judgment.
whosoever he be--whether great (
Ga 1:8) or small.
11. Translate, "If I am still preaching (as I did
before conversion) circumcision, why am I still
persecuted?" The Judaizing troubler of the Galatians
had said, "Paul himself preaches circumcision,"
as is shown by his having circumcised Timothy (
Ac 16:3; compare also
Ac 20:6; 21:24). Paul replies by anticipation of their
objection, As regards myself, the fact that I am still
persecuted by the Jews shows plainly that I do not
preach circumcision; for it is just because I preach Christ
crucified, and not the Mosaic law, as the sole ground of
justification, that they persecute me. If for conciliation
he lived as a Jew among the Jews, it was in accordance with
his principle enunciated (
1Co 7:18, 20; 9:20). Circumcision, or uncircumcision,
are things indifferent in themselves: their lawfulness or
unlawfulness depends on the animus of him who uses
them. The Gentile Galatians' animus in circumcision
could only be their supposition that it influenced
favorably their standing before God. Paul's living as a
Gentile among Gentiles, plainly showed that, if he lived as
a Jew among Jews, it was not that he thought it meritorious
before God, but as a matter indifferent, wherein he might
lawfully conform as a Jew by birth to those with
whom he was, in order to put no needless stumbling-block to
the Gospel in the way of his countrymen.
then--Presuming that I did so,
"then," in that case, "the offense of
(stumbling-block,
1Co 1:23 occasioned to the Jews by) the cross has
become done away." Thus the Jews' accusation
against Stephen was not that he preached Christ crucified,
but that "he spake blasphemous words against this holy
place and the law." They would, in some
measure, have borne the former, if he had mixed with it
justification in part by circumcision and the law, and if
he had, through the medium of Christianity, brought
converts to Judaism. But if justification in any degree
depended on legal ordinances, Christ's crucifixion in
that degree was unnecessary, and could profit nothing (
Ga 5:2, 4). Worldly Wiseman, of the town of Carnal
Policy, turns Christian out of the narrow way of the Cross,
to the house of Legality. But the way to it was up a
mountain, which, as Christian advanced, threatened to fall
on him and crush him, amidst flashes of lightning from the
mountain [BUNYAN, Pilgrim's Progress] (
Heb 12:18-21).
12. they . . . which trouble you--Translate, as
the Greek is different from
Ga 5:10, "they who are unsettling
you."
were even cut off--even as they desire
your foreskin to be cut off and cast away by
circumcision, so would that they were even cut off
from your communion, being worthless as a castaway foreskin
(
Ga 1:7, 8; compare
Php 3:2). The fathers, JEROME, AMBROSE, AUGUSTINE, and
CHRYSOSTOM, explain it, "Would that they would even
cut themselves off," that is, cut off not merely the
foreskin, but the whole member: if circumcision be
not enough for them, then let them have excision
also; an outburst hardly suitable to the gravity of an
apostle. But
Ga 5:9, 10 plainly point to excommunication as
the judgment threatened against the troublers: and danger
of the bad "leaven" spreading, as the reason for
it.
13. The "ye" is emphatical, from its position in
the Greek, "Ye brethren"; as opposed to
those legalists "who trouble you."
unto liberty--The Greek
expresses, "on a footing of liberty." The
state or condition in which ye have been called
to salvation, is one of liberty. Gospel liberty consists in
three things, freedom from the Mosaic yoke, from sin, and
from slavish fear.
only, &c.--Translate, "Only
turn not your liberty into an occasion for the
flesh." Do not give the flesh the handle or pretext
(
Ro 7:8, "occasion") for its indulgence which
it eagerly seeks for; do not let it make Christian
"liberty" its pretext for indulgence (
Ga 5:16, 17; 1Pe 2:16; 2Pe 2:19; Jude 4).
but by love serve one
another--Greek, "Be servants (be in bondage) to
one another." If ye must be servants, then
be servants to one another in love. While free as to
legalism, be bound by Love (the article in the
Greek personifies love in the abstract) to serve one
another (
1Co 9:19). Here he hints at their unloving strifes
springing out of lust of power. "For the lust of power
is the mother of heresies" [C HRYSOSTOM].
14. all the law--Greek, "the whole law,"
namely, the Mosaic law. Love to God is presupposed
as the root from which love to our neighbor springs;
and it is in this tense the latter precept (so
"word" means here) is said to be the fulfilling
of "all the law" (
Le 19:18). Love is "the law of Christ" (
Ga 6:2; Mt 7:12; 22:39, 40; Ro 13:9, 10).
is fulfilled--Not as received text
"is being fulfilled," but as the oldest
manuscripts read, "has been fulfilled"; and so
"receives its full perfection," as rudimentary
teachings are fulfilled by the more perfect doctrine. The
law only united Israelites together: the Gospel unites all
men, and that in relation to God [GROTIUS].
15. bite--backbite the character.
devour--the substance by injuring,
extortion, &c. (
Hab 1:13; Mt 23:14; 2Co 11:20).
consumed, &c.--Strength of soul,
health of body, character, and resources, are all consumed
by broils [BENGEL].
16. This I say then--Repeating in other words, and
explaining the sentiment in
Ga 5:13, What I mean is this."
Walk in the Spirit--Greek,
"By (the rule of) the (Holy) Spirit." Compare
Ga 5:16-18, 22, 25; Ga 6:1-8, with Ro 7:22; 8:11. The
best way to keep tares out of a bushel is to fill it with
wheat.
the flesh--the natural man, out of
which flow the evils specified (
Ga 5:19-21). The spirit and the flesh mutually exclude
one another. It is promised, not that we should have no
evil lusts, but that we should "not
fulfil" them. If the spirit that is in us can be
at ease under sin, it is not a spirit that comes from the
Holy Spirit. The gentle dove trembles at the sight even of
a hawk's feather.
17. For--the reason why walking by the Spirit will exclude
fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, namely, their mutual
contrariety.
the Spirit--not "lusteth,"
but "tendeth (or some such word is to be supplied)
against the flesh."
so that ye cannot do the things that
ye would--The Spirit strives against the flesh and its evil
influence; the flesh against the Spirit and His good
influence, so that neither the one nor the other can be
fully carried out into action. "But" (
Ga 5:18) where "the Spirit" prevails, the
issue of the struggle no longer continues doubtful (
Ro 7:15-20) [BENGEL]. The Greek is, "that
ye may not do the things that ye would." "The
flesh and Spirit are contrary one to the other," so
that you must distinguish what proceeds from the
Spirit, and what from the flesh; and you must not fulfil
what you desire according to the carnal self, but what
the Spirit within you desires [NEANDER]. But the antithesis
of
Ga 5:18 ("But," &c.), where the conflict
is decided, shows, I think, that here
Ga 5:17 contemplates the inability both for fully
accomplishing the good we "would," owing to the
opposition of the flesh, and for doing the
evil our flesh would desire, owing to the opposition of
the Spirit in the awakened man (such as the
Galatians are assumed to be), until we yield ourselves
wholly by the Spirit to "walk by the Spirit" (
Ga 5:16, 18).
18. "If ye are led (give yourselves up to be led) by (Greek) the Spirit, ye are not under the law." For ye are not working the works of the flesh ( Ga 5:16, 19-21) which bring one "under the law" ( Ro 8:2, 14). The "Spirit makes free from the law of sin and death" ( Ga 5:23). The law is made for a fleshly man, and for the works of the flesh ( 1Ti 1:9), "not for a righteous man" ( Ro 6:14, 15).
19-23. Confirming
Ga 5:18, by showing the contrariety between the works
of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.
manifest--The hidden fleshly
principle betrays itself palpably by its works, so that
these are not hard to discover, and leave no doubt that
they come not from the Spirit.
which are these--Greek,
"such as," for instance.
Adultery--omitted in the oldest
manuscripts.
lasciviousness--rather,
"wantonness" petulance, capricious insolence; it
may display itself in "lasciviousness," but not
necessarily or constantly so (
Mr 7:21, 22, where it is not associated with fleshly
lusts) [TRENCH]. "Works" (in the plural) are
attributed to the "flesh," because they are
divided, and often at variance with one another, and even
when taken each one by itself, betray their fleshly origin.
But the "fruit of the Spirit" (
Ga 5:23) is singular, because, however manifold the
results, they form one harmonious whole. The results of the
flesh are not dignified by the name "fruit"; they
are but works (
Eph 5:9, 11). He enumerates those fleshly
"works" (committed against our neighbor, against
God, and against ourselves) to which the Galatians were
most prone (the Celts have always been prone to
disputations and internal strifes): and those
manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit most
needed by them (
Ga 5:13, 15). This passage shows that "the
flesh" does not mean merely sensuality, as
opposed to spirituality: for "divisions"
in the catalogue here do not flow from sensuality. The
identification of "the natural (Greek,
'animal-souled') man," with the
"carnal" or fleshly man (
1Co 2:14), shows that "the flesh" expresses
human nature as estranged from God. TRENCH observes,
as a proof of our fallen state, how much richer is every
vocabulary in words for sins, than in those for graces.
Paul enumerates seventeen "works of the
flesh," only nine manifestations of "the
fruit of the Spirit" (compare
Eph 4:31).
20. witchcraft--sorcery; prevalent in Asia (
Ac 19:19; compare
Re 21).
hatred--Greek,
"hatreds."
variance--Greek,
"strife"; singular in the oldest
manuscripts.
emulations--in the oldest manuscripts,
singular--"emulation," or rather,
"jealousy"; for the sake of one's own
advantage. "Envyings" (
Ga 5:21) are even without advantage to the person
himself [BENGEL].
wrath--Greek, plural,
"passionate outbreaks" [ALFORD].
strife--rather as Greek,
"factions," "cabals"; derived from a
Greek root, meaning "a worker for hire":
hence, unworthy means for compassing ends, factious
practices.
seditions--"dissensions," as
to secular matters.
heresies--as to sacred things (see on
1Co 11:19).
Self-constituted parties; from a Greek root,
to choose. A schism is a more recent split in
a congregation from a difference of opinion. Heresy
is a schism become inveterate [AUGUSTINE, Con. Crescon.
Don., 2,7].
21. tell . . . before--namely, before the
event.
I . . . told you in
time past--when I was with you.
you--who, though maintaining
justification by the law, are careless about keeping the
law (
Ro 2:21-23).
not inherit . . . kingdom of
God-- (
1Co 6:9, 10; Eph 5:5).
22. love--the leader of the band of graces (
1Co 13:1-13).
gentleness--Greek,
"benignity," conciliatory to others; whereas
"goodness," though ready to do good, has not such
suavity of manner [JEROME]. ALFORD translates,
"kindness."
faith--"faithfulness";
opposed to "heresies" [BENGEL]. ALFORD refers to
1Co 13:7, "Believeth all things":
faith in the widest sense, toward God and man.
"Trustfulness" [CONYBEARE and H OWSON].
23. temperance--The Greek root implies
self-restraint as to one's desires and lusts.
against such--not persons, but
things, as in
Ga 5:21.
no law--confirming
Ga 5:18, "Not under the law" (
1Ti 1:9, 10). The law itself commands love (
Ga 5:14); so far is it from being "against
such."
24. The oldest manuscripts read, "They that are of
Christ Jesus"; they that belong to Christ Jesus; being
"led by (His) Spirit" (
Ga 5:18).
have crucified the flesh--They nailed
it to the cross once for all when they became Christ's,
on believing and being baptized (
Ro 6:3, 4): they keep it now in a state of
crucifixion (
Ro 6:6): so that the Spirit can produce in them,
comparatively uninterrupted by it, "the fruit of the
Spirit" (
Ga 5:22). "Man, by faith, is dead to the former
standing point of a sinful life, and rises to a new life
(
Ga 5:25) of communion with Christ (
Col 3:3). The act by which they have crucified the
flesh with its lust, is already accomplished ideally in
principle. But the practice, or outward conformation of the
life, must harmonize with the tendency given to the inward
life" (
Ga 5:25) [NEANDER]. We are to be executioners, dealing
cruelly with the body of sin, which has caused the acting
of all cruelties on Christ's body.
with the affections--Translate,
"with its passions." Thus they are dead to the
law's condemning power, which is only for the fleshly,
and their lusts (
Ga 5:23).
25. in . . . in--rather, as Greek, "If we live (see on Ga 5:24) BY the Spirit, let us also walk ( Ga 5:16; 6:16) BY the Spirit." Let our life in practice correspond to the ideal inner principle of our spiritual life, namely, our standing by faith as dead to, and severed from, sin, and the condemnation of the law. "Life by (or 'in') the Spirit" is not an occasional influence of the Spirit, but an abiding state, wherein we are continually alive, though sometimes sleeping and inactive.
26. Greek, "Let us not BECOME." While not
asserting that the Galatians are
"vainglorious" now, he says they are
liable to become so.
provoking one another--an effect of
"vaingloriousness" on the stronger: as
"envying" is its effect on the weaker. A
danger common both to the orthodox and Judaizing Galatians.
Ga 6:1-18. EXHORTATIONS CONTINUED; TO FORBEARANCE AND HUMILITY; LIBERALITY TO TEACHERS AND IN GENERAL. POSTSCRIPT AND BENEDICTION.
1. Brethren--An expression of kindness to conciliate
attention. Translate as Greek, "If a man
even be overtaken" (that is, caught in the very
act [ALFORD and ELLICOTT]: BEFORE he expects:
unexpectedly). BENGEL explains the "before" in
the Greek compound verb, "If a man be overtaken
in a fault before ourselves": If another has
really been overtaken in a fault the first;
for often he who is first to find fault, is the very
one who has first transgressed.
a fault--Greek, "a
transgression," "a fall"; such as a falling
back into legal bondage. Here he gives monition to those
who have not so fallen, "the spiritual," to be
not "vainglorious" (
Ga 5:26), but forbearing to such (
Ro 15:1).
restore--The Greek is used of a
dislocated limb, reduced to its place. Such is the
tenderness with which we should treat a fallen member of
the Church in restoring him to a better state.
the spirit of meekness--the
meekness which is the gift of the Holy Spirit
working in our spirit (
Ga 5:22, 25). "Meekness" is that temper of
spirit towards God whereby we accept His dealings without
disputing; then, towards men, whereby we endure meekly
their provocations, and do not withdraw ourselves from the
burdens which their sins impose upon us [TRENCH].
considering thyself--Transition from
the plural to the singular. When congregations are
addressed collectively, each individual should take home
the monition to himself.
thou also be tempted--as is likely to
happen to those who reprove others without meekness
(compare
Mt 7:2-5; 2Ti 2:25; Jas 2:13).
2. If ye, legalists, must "bear burdens," then
instead of legal burdens (
Mt 23:4), "bear one another's burdens,"
literally, "weights." Distinguished by BENGEL
from "burden,"
Ga 6:4 (a different Greek word,
"load"): "weights" exceed the strength
of those under them; "burden" is proportioned to
the strength.
so fulfil--or as other old manuscripts
read, "so ye will fulfil," Greek,
"fill up," "thoroughly fulfil."
the law of Christ--namely,
"love" (
Ga 5:14). Since ye desire "the law," then
fulfil the law of Christ, which is not made up of various
minute observances, but whose sole "burden" is
"love" (
Joh 13:34; 15:12);
Ro 15:3 gives Christ as the example in the particular
duty here.
3. Self-conceit, the chief hindrance to forbearance and
sympathy towards our fellow men, must be laid aside.
something--possessed of some spiritual
pre-eminence, so as to be exempt from the frailty of other
men.
when he is nothing--The Greek
is subjective: "Being, if he would come to himself,
and look on the real fact, nothing" [ALFORD] (
Ga 6:2, 6; Ro 12:3; 1Co 8:2).
deceiveth himself--literally, "he
mentally deceives himself." Compare
Jas 1:26, "deceiveth his own heart."
4. his own work--not merely his own opinion of
himself.
have rejoicing in himself
alone--Translate, "Have his (matter for)
glorying in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to
another (namely, not in regard to his neighbor, by
comparing himself with whom, he has fancied he has matter
for boasting as that neighbor's superior)." Not
that really a man by looking to "himself alone"
is likely to find cause for glorying in himself. Nay, in
Ga 6:5, he speaks of a "burden" or
load, not of matter for glorying, as what really
belongs to each man. But he refers to the idea those
whom he censures had of themselves: they
thought they had cause for "glorying" in
themselves, but it all arose from unjust self-conceited
comparison of themselves with others, instead of looking at
home. The only true glorying, if glorying it is to be
called, is in the testimony of a good conscience, glorying
in the cross of Christ.
5. For (by this way, Ga 6:4, of proving himself, not depreciating his neighbor by comparison) each man shall bear his own "burden," or rather, "load" (namely, of sin and infirmity), the Greek being different from that in Ga 6:2. This verse does not contradict Ga 6:2. There he tells them to bear with others' "burdens" of infirmity in sympathy; here, that self-examination will make a man to feel he has enough to do with "his own load" of sin, without comparing himself boastfully with his neighbor. Compare Ga 6:3. Instead of "thinking himself to be something," he shall feel the "load" of his own sin: and this will lead him to bear sympathetically with his neighbor's burden of infirmity. ÆSOP says a man carries two bags over his shoulder, the one with his own sins hanging behind, that with his neighbor's sins in front.
6. From the mention of bearing one another's burdens,
he passes to one way in which those burdens may be
borne--by ministering out of their earthly goods to their
spiritual teachers. The "but" in the
Greek, beginning of this verse, expresses this: I said,
Each shall bear his own burden; BUT I do not intend that he
should not think of others, and especially of the wants of
his ministers.
communicate unto him--"impart a
share unto his teacher": literally, "him that
teacheth catechetically."
in all good things--in every kind of
the good things of this life, according as the case
may require (
Ro 15:27; 1Co 9:11, 14).
7. God is not mocked--The Greek verb is, literally,
to sneer with the nostrils drawn up in contempt. God does
not suffer Himself to be imposed on by empty words: He will
judge according to works, which are seeds sown for eternity
of either joy or woe. Excuses for illiberality in God's
cause (
Ga 6:6) seem valid before men, but are not so before
God (
Ps 50:21).
soweth--especially of his resources
(
2Co 9:6).
that--Greek, "this";
this and nothing else.
reap--at the harvest, the end of the
world (
Mt 13:39).
8. Translate, "He that soweth unto his own
flesh," with a view to fulfilling its desires. He does
not say, "His spirit," as he does say,
"His flesh." For in ourselves we are not
spiritual, but carnal. The flesh is devoted to
selfishness.
corruption--that is, destruction (
Php 3:19). Compare as to the deliverance of believers
from "corruption" (
Ro 8:21). The use of the term "corruption"
instead, implies that destruction is not an
arbitrary punishment of fleshly-mindedness, but is its
natural fruit; the corrupt flesh producing
corruption, which is another word for destruction:
corruption is the fault, and corruption the punishment (see
on 1Co 3:17;
2Pe 2:12). Future life only expands the seed sown here.
Men cannot mock God because they can deceive themselves.
They who sow tares cannot reap wheat. They alone reap life
eternal who sow to the Spirit (
Ps 126:6; Pr 11:18; 22:8; Ho 8:7; 10:12; Lu 16:25; Ro 8:11;
Jas 5:7).
9. (
2Th 3:13). And when we do good, let us also persevere
in it without fainting.
in due season--in its own proper
season, God's own time (
1Ti 6:15).
faint not--literally, "be
relaxed." Stronger than "be not weary."
Weary of well-doing refers to the will; "faint
not" to relaxation of the powers [BENGEL]. No one
should faint, as in an earthly harvest sometimes happens.
10. Translate, "So then, according as (that is,
in proportion as) we have season (that is, opportunity),
let us work (a distinct Greek verb from that
for "do," in
Ga 6:9) that which is (in each case)
good." As thou art able, and while thou art able,
and when thou art able (
Ec 9:10). We have now the "season" for
sowing, as also there will be hereafter the "due
season" (
Ga 6:9) for reaping. The whole life is, in one
sense, the "seasonable opportunity" to us: and,
in a narrower sense, there occur in it more especially
convenient seasons. The latter are sometimes lost in
looking for still more convenient seasons (
Ac 24:25). We shall not always have the opportunity
"we have" now. Satan is sharpened to the greater
zeal in injuring us, by the shortness of his time (
Re 12:12). Let us be sharpened to the greater zeal in
well-doing by the shortness of ours.
them who are of the household--Every
right-minded man does well to the members of his own family
(
1Ti 5:8); so believers are to do to those of the
household of faith, that is, those whom faith has
made members of "the household of God" (
Eph 2:19): "the house of God" (
1Ti 3:15; 1Pe 4:17).
11. Rather, "See in how large letters I have written." The Greek is translated "how great" in Heb 7:4, the only other passage where it occurs in the New Testament. Owing to his weakness of eyes ( Ga 4:15) he wrote in large letters. So JEROME. All the oldest manuscripts are written in uncial, that is, capital letters, the "cursive," or small letters, being of more recent date. Paul seems to have had a difficulty in writing, which led him to make the uncial letters larger than ordinary writers did. The mention of these is as a token by which they would know that he wrote the whole Epistle with his own hand; as he did also the pastoral Epistle, which this Epistle resembles in style. He usually dictated his Epistles to an amanuensis, excepting the concluding salutation, which he wrote himself ( Ro 16:22; 1Co 16:21). This letter, he tells the Galatians, he writes with his own hand, no doubt in order that they may see what a regard he had for them, in contrast to the Judaizing teachers ( Ga 6:12), who sought only their own ease. If English Version be retained, the words, "how large a letter (literally, 'in how large letters')," will not refer to the length of the Epistle absolutely, but that it was a large one for him to have written with his own hand. NEANDER supports English Version, as more appropriate to the earnestness of the apostle and the tone of the Epistle: "How large" will thus be put for "how many."
12. Contrast between his zeal in their behalf, implied in
Ga 6:11, and the zeal for self on the part of the
Judaizers.
make a fair show-- (
2Co 5:12).
in the flesh--in outward things.
they--it is "these"
who
constrain you--by example (
Ga 6:13) and importuning.
only lest--"only that they may
not," &c. (compare
Ga 5:11).
suffer persecution--They escaped in a
great degree the Jews' bitterness against Christianity
and the offense of the cross of Christ, by making the
Mosaic law a necessary preliminary; in fact, making
Christian converts into Jewish proselytes.
13. Translate, "For not even do they who submit to
circumcision, keep the law themselves (
Ro 2:17-23), but they wish you (emphatical) to be
circumcised," &c. They arbitrarily selected
circumcision out of the whole law, as though observing it
would stand instead of their non-observance of the rest of
the law.
that they may glory in your
flesh--namely, in the outward change (opposed to an
inward change wrought by the SPIRIT) which they have
effected in bringing you over to their own Jewish-Christian
party.
14. Translate, "But as for me (in opposition to
those gloriers 'in your flesh,'
Ga 6:13), God forbid that I," &c.
in the cross--the atoning death on the
cross. Compare
Php 3:3, 7, 8, as a specimen of his glorying. The
"cross," the great object of shame to them, and
to all carnal men, is the great object of glorying to me.
For by it, the worst of deaths, Christ has destroyed all
kinds of death [AUGUSTINE, Tract 36, on John, sec.
4]. We are to testify the power of Christ's death
working in us, after the manner of crucifixion (
Ga 5:24; Ro 6:5, 6).
our--He reminds the Galatians by this
pronoun, that they had a share in the "Lord
Jesus Christ" (the full name is used for greater
solemnity), and therefore ought to glory in Christ's
cross, as he did.
the world--inseparably allied to the
"flesh" (
Ga 6:13). Legal and fleshly ordinances are merely
outward, and "elements of the world" (
Ga 4:3).
is--rather, as Greek, "has
been crucified to me" (
Ga 2:20). He used "crucified" for dead
(
Col 2:20, "dead with Christ"), to imply his
oneness with Christ crucified (
Php 3:10): "the fellowship of His sufferings being
made conformable unto His death."
15. availeth--The oldest manuscripts read, "is"
(compare
Ga 5:6). Not only are they of no avail, but they
are nothing. So far are they from being matter for
"glorying," that they are "nothing."
But Christ's cross is "all in all," as a
subject for glorying, in "the new creature" (
Eph 2:10, 15, 16).
new creature-- (
2Co 5:17). A transformation by the renewal of the
mind (
Ro 12:2).
16. as many--contrasting with the "as many,"
Ga 6:12.
rule--literally, a straight
rule, to detect crookedness; so a rule of life.
peace--from God (
Eph 2:14-17; 6:23).
mercy-- (
Ro 15:9).
Israel of God--not the Israel after
the flesh, among whom those teachers wish to enrol you; but
the spiritual seed of Abraham by faith (
Ga 3:9, 29; Ro 2:28, 29; Php 3:3).
17. let no man trouble me--by opposing my apostolic
authority, seeing that it is stamped by a sure seal,
namely, "I (in contrast to the Judaizing teachers who
gloried in the flesh) bear (as a high mark of honor from
the King of kings)."
the marks--properly, marks branded on
slaves to indicate their owners. So Paul's scars of
wounds received for Christ's sake, indicate to whom he
belongs, and in whose free and glorious service he is (
2Co 11:23-25). The Judaizing teachers gloried in the
circumcision mark in the flesh of their followers:
Paul glories in the marks of suffering for Christ on his
own body (compare
Ga 6:14; Php 3:10; Col 1:24).
the Lord--omitted in the oldest
manuscripts.
18. Brethren--Place it, as Greek, "last"
in the sentence, before the "Amen." After much
rebuke and monition, he bids them farewell with the loving
expression of brotherhood as his last parting word
(see on Ga 1:6).
be with your spirit--which, I trust,
will keep down the flesh (
1Th 5:23; 2Ti 4:22; Phm 25).