Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (3)

Vers. 12, 13. _The Power of Example._--1. So weak and inconstant are the best of men that, being left to themselves, the least blast of temptation will make them break off the course of doing well in the very midst, and without respect either to conscience or credit, openly desert it. 2. To separate from a true Church and break off communion with its members cannot be attempted without sin, not though we eschew the offence and stumbling of many. 3. Of so great force is the bad example of men, eminent, gracious, and learned, that not only the weak and infirm, but even those who are strong and richly endowed with both grace and parts, will sometimes be corrupted by it. It is usual for us unawares to esteem such as more than men and being once so far engaged in our esteem of them we do not so narrowly examine their actions as we do those of other men. 4. An inundation of evil examples, though held forth by private Christians, is so impetuous and of such force to carry others along with it, that even the very best of men can hardly stand against it.--_Fergusson._

_An Erring Apostle._

+I. Peter's sin was simulation.+--Among the Gentiles at Antioch he used Christian liberty in eating things forbidden by the ceremonial law; yet after the coming of certain Jews from Jerusalem, he separates himself from the Gentiles, and plays the Jew among the Jews. This act of Peter was not a sin in itself, but the circumstances made it a sin. 1. He not only abstained from meats forbidden by the ceremonial law but withdrew himself from the Gentiles and kept company apart with the Jews. 2. He abstained not among the Jews at Jerusalem, but at Antioch among the Gentiles, where a little before he had openly done the contrary, using his Christian liberty. 3. He used this abstinence when certain Jews came from Jerusalem to search out the liberty of the Gentiles. 4. While Peter seeks to avoid the small offence of some Jews, he incurs a greater offence of all the Gentiles. 5. This act of Peter tended to the overthrowing of Paul's ministry and the suppressing of the truth of the Gospel.

+II. The cause of Peter's sin was fear of offending the Jews.+--It was a sin because he feared man more than God. It was a sin, not of malice, but infirmity. A sin of infirmity is when there is a purpose in the heart not to sin, and yet for all this the sin is committed, by reason the will is over-carried by temptation, or by violence of affection as by fear, anger, lust.

+III. The effect of Peter's sin.+--He drew the Jews and Barnabas to the like dissimulation. Here we see the contagion of an evil example. 1. Ministers of the Word must join with good doctrine the example of a good life. 2. Practice in the ministry is a part of the teaching. 3. All superiors are warned to go before their inferiors by good example. 4. The consent of many together is not a note of truth. Peter, Barnabas, and the Jews, all together are deceived; Paul alone has the truth. Ponormitane said, "A layman bringing Scripture is to be preferred before a whole council." Paphnutius alone had the truth, and the whole council of Nice inclined to error.--_Perkins._

Vers. 14-16. _Justification by Faith, not by Works._--1. Though private sins, which have not broken forth to a public scandal, are to be rebuked in private, public sins are to receive public rebukes, that public scandal may be removed, and others scared from taking encouragement to do the like (ver. 14). 2. Though the binding power of the ceremonial law was abrogated at Christ's death, and the practice in some things left as a thing lawful and in itself indifferent, yet the observance, even for that time, was dispensed with more for the Jews' sake, and was more tolerable in them who were born and educated under that yoke, than in the Gentiles, to whom that law was never given, and so were to observe it, or any part of it, only in case of scandalising the weak Jews by their neglecting of it (ver. 14). 3. Though every man by nature is a child of wrath and enemy to God, yet those born within the visible Church have a right to Church privileges and to enjoy the external means of grace and salvation (ver. 15). 4. The doctrine of justification by faith and not by works was early opposed, and no doctrine so much opposed, because no truth is more necessary to be kept pure, as if it be kept pure several other truths are kept pure also, and if it fall other truths fall with it (ver. 16).--_Fergusson._

Ver. 16. _Justification by Faith._

+I. Man is justified by the mere mercy of God.+--And there is excluded by justification all merit of congruity, all meritorious works of preparation wrought by us, all co-operation of man's will with God's grace in the effecting of our justification.

+II. Man is justified by the mere merit of Christ.+--That is, by the meritorious obedience which He wrought in Himself, and not by anything wrought by Him in us.

+III. A sinner is justified by mere faith.+--That is, nothing within us concurs as a cause of our justification but faith, and nothing apprehends Christ's obedience for our justification but faith. This will more easily appear if we compare faith, hope, and love. Faith is like a hand that opens itself to receive a gift, and so is neither love nor hope. Love is also a hand, but yet a hand that gives out, communicates, and distributes. For as faith receives Christ into our hearts, so love opens the heart and pours our praise and thanks to God and all manner of goodness to men. Hope is no hand, but an eye that wistfully looks and waits for the good things faith believes. Therefore, it is the only property of faith to clasp and lay hold of Christ and His benefits.

+IV. The practice of them that are justified is to believe.+--To put their trust in Christ. 1. Faith and practice must reign in the heart and have all at command. We must not go by sense, feeling, reason, but shut our eyes and let faith keep our hearts close to the promise of God. Faith must overrule and command nature and the strongest affections thereof. 2. When we know not what to do by reason of the greatness of our distress, we must fix our hearts on Christ with separation, as he that climbs up a ladder or some steep place: the higher he goes the faster he holds.--_Perkins._

Vers. 17, 18. _False Methods of Salvation_--

+I. To seek justification in any other way than through
Christ.+--"If, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we
ourselves are found sinners" (ver. 17).

+II. Reflect unjustly on the character of the only Saviour.+--"Is
therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid" (ver. 17).

+III. Aggravate our sin by restoring in practice what we have
abandoned in theory.+--"For if I build again the things which
I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor" (ver. 18).

Ver. 19. _The Christian Dead to the Law._

+I. The state in which the apostle describes himself to be.+--"I am dead to the law." Not the moral law of God. Every rational creature in the universe is under its dominion, the believer as well as others. He must escape from existence before he can escape from the law of God. The apostle means he is dead to it as a covenant between God and himself. There still stands the law before him in all its primitive authority, purity, and majesty; he honours it and strives to obey it, and often rejoices in the thought that the time will come when he shall have his soul in a state of perfect conformity to it, but this is all. Its life-giving, death-bringing powers are utterly at an end, and he knows they are at an end. He is dead to all hope from the law, dead to all expectation of heaven or of salvation from it. He builds no more hope on his obedience to it than as though the law had ceased to exist, and no more fear has he of condemnation from it. The believer, dead to the legal covenant, rests from it. The connection between him and it is over, and with it are over the feelings within him, the painful, perturbing, apprehensive, slavish feelings arising out of it.

+II. The means whereby the apostle has been brought into the state he describes.+--"I through the law am dead to the law." Suppose a man anxious to pass from one country to another, from a dangerous and wretched country to a safe and happy one. Directly in his road stands a mountain which he cannot pass over, and which he at first imagines he can without much difficulty climb. He tries, but scarcely has he begun to breast it when a precipice stops him. He descends and tries again in another direction. There another precipice or some other obstacle arrests his course; and still ever as he begins his ascent he is baffled, and the little way he contrives to mount serves only to show him more and more of the prodigious height of the mountain, and its stern, rugged, impassable character. At last, wearied and worn, heart-sick with labour and disappointment, and thoroughly convinced that no efforts of his can carry him over, he lies down at the mountain's foot in utter despair, longing still to be on the other side, but making not another movement to get there. Now ask him as he lies exhausted on the ground what has occasioned his torpor and despair; he will say that mountain itself: its situation between him and the land of his desires, and its inaccessible heights and magnitude. So stands the law of God between the Christian and the land he longs for. The impossibility of making our way to God by means of the law arises from the extent of its requirements, and the unbending, inexorable character of its denunciations. We can do nothing but die to it, sink down before this broad, high, terrific mountain in utter despair. While through the law the believer dies to all hope from the law, through the cross of Christ he also dies to all apprehension from it.

+III. The design of this deadness to the law in the Christian's soul.+--"That I might live unto God." This living unto God dethrones self, discovers to the man the base, degrading idol to which he has been bowing down, makes him ashamed of the worship he has paid it, and places on the throne of his heart his Saviour and his God. His renunciation of his self-righteousness has gradually brought on other renunciations of self. The law driving him to Christ has been the means of driving him out of self altogether. It has brought him into the sphere of the Gospel and among those soul-stirring principles, feelings, and aspirations connected with the Gospel. There is no greater mistake than to imagine that the Gospel has destroyed the law or loosened in any degree its hold on men. The Gospel rests on the law. But for the law and its unbending, unchangeable, external character the Gospel had not existed, for it would not have been needed. Dead to the law and alive unto God are two things that go together; the one springs out of the other. The more completely we die to the law as a covenant, the more fully, freely, and happily shall we live unto God.--_C. Bradley._

_Dead to the Law by the Law._

+I. The person justified is dead to the law.+--Here the law is compared to a hard and cruel master, and we to slaves or bondmen, who so long as they are alive are under the dominion and at the command of their masters; yet when they are dead they are free from that bondage, and their masters have no more to do with them. To be dead to the law is to be free from the dominion of the law. 1. In respect of the accusing and damnatory sentence of the law. 2. In respect of the power of the law. 3. In respect of the rigour of the law, exacting most perfect obedience for our justification. 4. In respect of the obligation of the conscience to the observance of ceremonies.

+II. The justified person is dead to the law by the law.+--By the law of Moses I am dead to the law of Moses. The law accuses, terrifies, and condemns us, and therefore occasions us to flee unto Christ who is the cause that we die unto the law. As the needle goes down and draws in the thread which sews the cloth, so the law goes before and makes a way that grace may follow after and take place in the heart.

+III. The end of our death to the law is that we may live to God.+--We live to God wisely in respect of ourselves, godly in respect go God, justly in respect to men. That we may live godly we must: 1. Bring ourselves into the presence of the invisible God and set all we do in His sight and presence. 2. We must take knowledge of the will of God in all things. 3. In all we do and suffer we must depend on God for success and deliverance. 4. In all things we must give thanks and praise to God.--_Perkins._

Ver. 20. _The Believer crucified with Christ, and Christ living in the Believer._

+I. The believer is conformed to the death of Christ.+--1. The nature of this crucifixion. It is figurative, not literal; yet real, and not chimerical. It not only signifies suffering and dying to sin, but also to effect this by the efficacy of Christ's cross. 2. The objects to which the Christian is crucified, and the principles which thereby expire: (1) The law considered as a means of justification. (2) The world--its applause, treasures, gratification. (3) Self. 3. The sufferings which accompany this crucifixion. Severe conviction and mortification. The complete surrender of heart is attended with many pangs. The continuance of the struggle is grievous.

+II. The believer participates in the life of Christ.+--1. The principle of the life--Christ living in the soul. 2. The evidences of this life--holy tempers, spiritual conversation, benevolent actions. 3. The instrument by which this life is introduced and maintained in the soul--faith.

+Lessons.+--1. _This subject furnishes a test to try the reality of our religion and the measure of our attainments._ 2. _Exposes the delusion of Pharisees, hypocrites, and antinomians._ 3. _Exhibits the dignity, felicity, and exalted hopes of the real believer.--Delta._

_The Religious Life of the Apostle_--

+I. Was characterised from the beginning by promptitude of action.+

+II. Was marked by a constant solicitude for his own personal
salvation.+

+III. Was eminent for its spirit of devotion.+

+IV. Was one of high fellowship with the Divine.+

+V. Had its foundation and power in a living faith in Christ.+

_Truths to live on._--Some one has said, "Give me a great truth that I may live on it." And the preacher may well say, "Give me a great truth that I may preach it." There are many great truths in this verse. And yet how simply are they put! The first great truth taught in this verse is the _oneness_ between Christ and those who believe in Him. What St. Paul means is this, that having died with Christ on the cross, he has in Christ paid the penalty of sin, and it is no longer his old self that lives and rules, but Christ lives in him. And is not this the Christ I want? Not only a Christ to copy, not a Christ outside me, but a Christ living and reigning within. The believer lives by faith, and faith lives on the promises, for faith is a loving trust. The presence or absence of faith rules the whole destiny of every man. The man who believes will live one way. The unbeliever will live in another way. If you have this simple trust in Christ, you may appropriate the last clause of the verse, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." When did that love begin? Never. When will that love end? Never.

"Every human tie may perish,
Friend to friend ungrateful prove,
Mothers cease their own to cherish,
Heaven and earth at last remove;
But no changes
Can attend the Saviour's love."

For those Christ loves He will undertake altogether. He gives them His peace, His joy, His smile, His arm, His hand, His home. For _He gave Himself._ There are all treasures in Him. Strength for every need, wisdom for every question, comfort for every sorrow, healing for every wound, provision for every day. "For _me,_" so insignificant, unworthy, so bad; for me, whose iniquities have darkened the blue heavens; for me, a slave of sin.

"Why was I made to hear Thy voice
And enter while there's room,
While thousands made a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?
'Twas the same love that spread the feast,
That gently forced me in,
Else I had still refused to taste,
And perished in my sin."

--_F. Harper, M.A._

_The Love of the Son of God to Men._

+I. The existence of this amazing affection.+--Let not the strangeness of the love stagger us into doubt or disbelief, but let us receive and rest in the revealed fact. Viewed from the side of the Divine, it is affection from a superior towards those vastly inferior. Viewed from the side of the human beings beloved, it is an affection altogether undeserved. The contrast between His dignity and our demerit is the background on which His love stands out conspicuously.

+II. The proof of affection He gave.+--Not left to assertion or speculation, but proved by a public act. What he _did_ expresses what He felt. He showed it openly by self-denial and self-surrender. He gave not His substance or possessions, not another being, but to procure our salvation and express His love He delivered up His own person.

+III. The personality or individuality of the affection.+--He died for all and for each. His love to each human being might be inferred from that to the whole race, but it is affirmed directly. Each singly had a distinct place in His loving death. Each was a unit before Him, and had a personal interest in His affection.--_W. Smiley, B.A._

_The Life of Faith._

+I. The life which the apostle lived in the flesh.+--1. _His whole life was a life of religious decision._ He made his choice and never faltered in it. He saw what he had to do, and he began to do it at once. He allowed no parley with the enemy. Nor was this resolution fleeting; it continued through life.

2. _His life was marked by a solemn regard and care for his own personal salvation._--There are two sources of religious danger of which we are not always sufficiently aware--zeal for doctrinal truth, and active employment in promoting the spread of truth. How possible it is that, through the treachery of our hearts, even these may be allowed insensibly to sap the very foundations of that solemn fear, as to our own selves, which ought to influence us! Remember that truth is not the substance of salvation but its instrument. Water others, but neglect not your own vineyard.

3. _His life was truly a life of devotion._--His was a life of prayer. Philosophy asks for a reason for the efficacy of prayer, and waiting for an answer, never prays at all. Religion hears that God will be inquired of by us, thankfully bends the knee, touches the golden sceptre, and bears away the blessing. We always want; we must always pray. And wish we for a model of high aspiration in prayer? Let the apostle elevate and expand our languid desires.

4. _His life was one of heavenly-mindedness._--He lived indeed in the flesh, but his life was in heaven. Heavenly-mindedness is the result of three things--an assurance of present acceptance with God, habitual intercourse with Him through His Son, and the extinction of the worldly spirit. Our fears and aversions result from principles directly opposite.

5. _His life was one of cheerful submission to providential appointments._--His was no life of envied ease. In every city bonds and afflictions awaited him. These dispensations operated on a tender and delicate mind, for in him were united great energy and great tenderness. Yet this man, hunted like a beast of prey, always preserves and exhibits a contented cheerfulness. There was no sorrow for himself, none allowed to others for him. The principle itself reason could not furnish; but when furnished it is seen to be most reasonable.

6. _His life was one of laborious usefulness._--He lived not to himself, but to Christ Jesus his Lord, in the promotion of His will in the moral benefit and eternal salvation of men. This was the life he lived in the flesh, even to spread the light and influence of the Gospel to all.

+II. The principle and source of his life.+--1. _It is Christian faith._ Its object, the Son of God. It receives His words as true, and regards Him as an atoning sacrifice. "He gave Himself for me."

2. _In its nature it is confiding and appropriating._--How does faith connect itself with the results stated? (1) It regenerates as well as justifies. (2) It produces vital union with Christ. (3) It is habitual in its exercise. (4) It is realising. It gives a spiritual apprehension of invisible and eternal realities.--_R. Watson._

_Self-abolished and Replaced._--Caroline Herschel, the sister of the great astronomer, was through all her life the most attached servant of her brother. She called herself "a mere tool, which my brother had the trouble of sharpening." She learned the details of observing with such success that she independently discovered eight comets. Her devotion was most complete. Wherever her brother was concerned she abolished self and replaced her nature with his. Having no taste for astronomy, her work at first was distasteful to her; but she conquered this and lived to help his work and fame.

Ver. 21. _The Perils of False Teaching._

+I. It seeks to base personal righteousness on an effete
legalism.+--"If righteousness come by the law."

+II. It defeats the gracious purposes of God.+--"I do not
frustrate the grace of God."

+III. It renders the sacrifice of Christ nugatory.+--"Then Christ is
dead in vain."

_Frustrating Divine Grace._--1. The joining of works with faith in the manner of justification is a total excluding of God's free grace and favour from any hand in the work. Grace admits of no partner. If grace does not all, it does nothing; if anything be added, that addition makes grace to be no grace. 2. That the apostle doth exclude in this dispute from having any influence in justification the works, not only of the ceremonial but also of the moral law, appears from this--that he opposes the merit of Christ's death to all merit of our own, whether by obedience to the one law or the other. 3. If there had been any other way possible by which the salvation of sinners could have been brought about but by the death of Christ, then Christ would not have died. To suppose Christ died in vain or without cause is an absurdity. If justification could have been attained by works or any other means, then His death had been in vain, and it were an absurd thing to suppose He would have died in that case.--_Fergusson._

_Justification by Works makes Void the Grace of God._

I. +Grace must stand wholly and entirely in itself.+--God's grace cannot stand with man's merit. Grace is not grace unless it be freely given every way. Grace and works of grace in the causing of justification can no more stand together than fire and water.

II. The apostle answers the objection +that if a sinner is justified only by faith in Christ then we abolish the grace of God.+--He shows that if we be justified by our own fulfilment of the law then Christ died in vain to fulfil the law for us.

III. +We have here a notable ground of true religion.+--That the death of Christ is made void if anything be joined with it in the work of our justification as a means to satisfy God's justice and to merit the favour of God. Therefore the doctrine of justification by works is a manifest error.--_Perkins._

* * * * * * * *

+CHAPTER III.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +Who hath bewitched you?+--Fascinated you, as if overlooked by the evil eye, so that your brain is confused. The Galatians were reputed to possess acute intellects: the apostle marvelled the more at their defection. +That you should not obey the truth.+--Omitted in R.V. +Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified.+--In preaching, a vivid portraiture of Christ crucified has been set before you as if depicted in graphic characters impossible to mistake.

Ver. 3. +Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?+--What monstrous folly is this! Will you so violate the Divine order of progress? The flesh may be easily mistaken for the Spirit, even by those who have made progress, unless they continue to maintain a pure faith (_Bengel_).

Ver. 4. +Have ye suffered so many things in vain?+--Since ye might have avoided them by professing Judaism. Will ye lose the reward promised for all suffering?

Ver. 5. +He that worketh miracles among you.+--In you, at your conversion and since.

Ver. 6. +Even as Abraham believed God.+--Where justification is there the Spirit is, so that if the former comes by faith the latter must also.

Ver. 8. +Preached before the Gospel unto Abraham.+--Thus the Gospel in its essential germ is older than the law, though the full development of the former is subsequent to the latter. The promise to Abraham was in anticipation of the Gospel, not only as announcing the Messiah, but also as involving the doctrine of righteousness by faith.

Ver. 10. +As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.+--This the Scripture itself declares. It utters an anathema against all who fail to fulfil every single ordinance contained in the book of the law (Deut. xxvii. 26).

Ver. 13. +Christ hath redeemed us from the curse.+--Bought us off from our bondage and from the curse under which all lie who trust to the law. The ransom price He paid was His own precious blood (1 Pet. i. 18, 19). +Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.+--Christ's bearing the particular curse of hanging on the tree is a sample of the general curse which He representatively bore. Not that the Jews put to death malefactors by hanging, but after having put them to death otherwise, in order to brand them with peculiar ignominy, they hung the bodies on a tree, and such malefactors were accursed by the law. The Jews in contempt called Him _the hanged one._ Hung between heaven and earth as though unworthy of either.

Ver. 17. +The covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law cannot disannul.+--From the recognised inviolability of a human covenant (ver. 15), the apostle argues the impossibility of violating the Divine covenant. The law cannot set aside the promise.

Ver. 19. +Wherefore then serveth the law?+--As it is of no avail for justification, is it either useless or contrary to the covenant of God? +It was added because of transgressions.+--To bring out into clearer view the transgression of the law; to make men more fully conscious of their sins, by being perceived as transgression of the law, and so make them long for the promised Saviour. +It was ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator.+--As instrumental enactors of the law. In the giving of the law the angels were representatives of God; Moses, as mediator, represented the people.

Ver. 20. +Now a Mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.+--The very idea of mediation supposes two persons at least, between whom the mediation is carried on. The law then is of the nature of a contract between two parties--God on the one hand, and the Jewish people on the other. It is only valid so long as both parties fulfil the terms of the contract. It is therefore contingent and not absolute. Unlike the law, the promise is absolute and unconditional. It depends on the sole decree of God. There are not two contracting parties. There is nothing of the nature of a stipulation. The Giver is everything, the recipient nothing (_Lightfoot_).

Ver. 22. +The Scripture hath concluded all under sin.+--The written letter was needed so as permanently to convict man of disobedience to God's command. He is shut up under condemnation as in a prison.

Ver. 24. +The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.+--As a tutor, checking our sinful propensities, making the consciousness of the sinful principle more vivid, and showing the need of forgiveness and freedom from the bondage of sin.

Ver. 26. +Ye are all the children of God.+--No longer children requiring a tutor, but sons emancipated and walking at liberty.

Ver. 28. +Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.+--No class privileged above another, as the Jews under the law had been above the Gentiles. Difference of sex makes no difference in Christian privileges. But under the law the male sex had great privileges.

Ver. 29. +If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs.+--Christ is Abraham's seed, and all who are baptised into Christ, put on Christ (ver. 27), and are one in Christ (ver. 28), are children entitled to the inheritance of promise.

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-5.

_The Deceptive Glamour of Error_--

+I. Diverts the gaze of the soul from the most suggestive truth.+--"Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified" (ver. 1). The cross of Christ was the great theme of Paul's preaching. He depicted it in such vivid colours and dwelt on every detail of the story with such intense earnestness and loving emphasis, that the Galatians were arrested, excited, charmed. They were smitten with a sense of sin. They seemed to be actors in the scene, as if their own hands had driven in the nails that pierced the sacred Victim. They were bowed with shame and humiliation, and in an agony of repentance they cast themselves before the Crucified and took Him for their Christ and King. While they looked to Jesus they were secure, but when they listened to the deceptive voice of error, their gaze was diverted, and the deep significance of the cross became obscured. Then backsliding began. Like mariners losing sight of their guiding star, they drifted into strange waters. The cross is the central force of Christianity; when it fades from view Christianity declines. "As the sun draws the vapours of the sea, and then paints a rainbow on them, so Christ draws men and then glorifies them. His attraction is like that of the sun. It is magnetic too, like that of the magnet to the pole. It is not simply the Christ that is the magnet; it is the crucified Christ. It is not Christ without the cross, nor the cross without Christ; it is both of them together."

+II. Confuses the mind as to the nature and value of spiritual agencies.+--1. _Concerning the method of their first reception._--"Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (ver. 2). Making it appear that spiritual blessings were acquired by outward observance rather than by inward contemplation and faith. Confusing the true method of moral regeneration, it arrests all growth and advancement in the spiritual life. It throws back the soul on the weary round of toilsome and hopeless human effort.

2. _Concerning the purpose for which they were given._--"Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (ver. 3). It was a reversal of the Divine order. Having begun in the Spirit, so they must continue, or they would be undone. It was absurd to look for perfection in the flesh, especially when they had discovered its helplessness and misery. Pharisaic ordinances could do nothing to consummate the work of faith and love; Moses could not lead them higher than Christ; circumcision could never effect what the Holy Ghost failed to do. Spiritual results can be brought about only by spiritual agencies.

3. _Rendering suffering on behalf of the truth meaningless._--"Have ye suffered so many things in vain?" (ver. 4). The Galatians on their conversion were exposed to the fiercest persecution from the Jews and from their own countrymen incited by the Jews. No one could come out of heathen society and espouse the cause of Christ in those days, nor can he do so to-day, without making himself a mark for ridicule and violence, without the rupture of family and public ties, and many painful sacrifices. But if the truth may be so easily abandoned, all early struggles against opposition and all the educative influence and promised reward of suffering must go for nothing. It is disappointing and disastrous when a youthful zeal for religion degenerates in maturer life into apathy and worldliness, when the great principles of right and liberty, for which our fathers fought and suffered, are treated by their descendants with supine indifference.

+III. Creates misconceptions as to the Divine method of ministering spiritual blessing.+--"He that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (ver. 5). One of the most subtle effects of error is to suspend the mind in a state of hesitation and doubt. It is a dangerous mood. Confidence in the truth is shaken, and for the moment the soul has nothing stable on which to lay hold. It is the opportunity for the enemy, and damage is done which even a subsequent return to the truth does not wholly efface. Paul saw the peril of his converts, and he suggests this test--the Spirit of God had put His seal on the apostle's preaching and on the faith of his hearers. Did any such manifestation accompany the preaching of the legalists? He takes his stand on the indubitable evidence of the work of the Spirit. It is the only safe ground for the champion of experimental Christianity (1 Cor. ii. 14, 15).

+Lessons.+--1. _Every error is the distortion of some truth._ 2. _The cross is the central truth of Christianity._ 3. _The highest truths are spiritually discerned._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Ver. 1. _Faithful Reproof._--1. The minister when he is called to insist upon the clearing up of truth, whether positively by showing what is revealed in Scripture or controversially by refuting errors, should mix his discourse with exhortation and reproof, to excite and quicken the affections of his hearers. 2. False teachers, who by fair words deceive the simple, are spiritual sorcerers, and error is spiritual witchcraft. As sorcerers by deluding the senses make people apprehend that they see what they see not, so false teachers, by casting a mist of seeming reason before the understanding, delude it, and make the deluded person to believe that to be truth which is not. 3. Though Christ and His sufferings are to be vividly represented and pictured by the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel, yet it does not follow they are to be artificially painted with colours on stone or timber for religious use. The graven image is a teacher of lies (Hab. ii. 18).--_Fergusson._

_The Folly of Disobedience._

+I. We are wise in matters of the world, but in matters concerning the kingdom of heaven the most of us are fools,+ besotted and bewitched with worldly cares and pleasures, without sense in matters of religion; like a piece of wax without form, fit to take the form and print of any religion.

+II. The truth here mentioned is the heavenly doctrine of the Gospel,+ so called because it is absolute truth without error, and because it is a most worthy truth--the truth according to godliness.

+III. The office of the minister is to set forth Christ crucified.+--1. The ministry of the Word must be plain, perspicuous, and evident, as if the doctrine were pictured and painted out before the eyes of men. 2. It must be powerful and lively in operation, and as it were crucifying Christ within us and causing us to feel the virtue of His passion. The Word preached must pierce into the heart like a two-edged sword. 3. The effectual and powerful preaching of the Word stands in three things: (1) True and proper interpretation of the Scripture. (2) Savoury and wholesome doctrine gathered out of the Scriptures truly expounded. (3) The application of the said doctrine, either to the information of the judgment or the reformation of the life.

+IV. The duty of all believers is to behold Christ crucified.+--And we must behold Him by the eye of faith, which makes us both see Him and feel Him, as it were, crucified in us. 1. By beholding Christ crucified we see our misery and wickedness. 2. This sight brings us true and lively comfort. 3. This sight of Christ makes a wonderful change in us. The chameleon takes the colours of the things it sees and that are near to it; and the believing heart takes to it the disposition and mind that was in Christ--_Perkins._

_Attractiveness of Worth._--In the Paris Salon some few years ago there was a bust of the painter Baudry by Paul Dubois, one of the greatest modern sculptors. Mr. Edmund Gosse was sitting to contemplate this bust when an American gentleman strolled by, caught sight of it, and after hovering round it for some time came and sat by his side and watched it. Presently he turned to Mr. Gosse inquiring if he could tell him whose it was, and whether it was thought much of, adding with a charming modesty, "I don't know anything about art; but I found that I could not get past that head." Would that we could so set forth Christ that His Word might be fulfilled, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me"! (John xii. 32).

Vers. 2-5. _Searching Questions._--1. As to the mode of receiving the Spirit (ver. 2). 2. As to the folly of expecting advancement by substituting an inferior for a superior force (ver. 3). 3. As to the uselessness of suffering (ver. 4). 4. As to the exercise of spiritual and miraculous power (ver. 5).

Ver. 4. _Suffering for the Truth._--1. They may suffer many things for truth who afterwards fall from it. As the example of others, particular interest and general applause will make even hypocrites suffer much, so continued suffering will make even the godly faint for a time. The best, being left to themselves, in an hour of temptation, will turn their back upon truth, so that no profession, no experience or remembrance of the joy and sweetness found in the way of truth, nor their former sufferings for it, will make them adhere to it. 2. Whatever have been the sufferings for truth, they are all in vain, lost and to no purpose, if the party make defection from and turn his back upon the truth. 3. Though those who have suffered much for the truth should afterwards fall from it, we are to keep charity towards them, hoping God will give them repentance and reclaim them. All our sharpness towards them ought to be wisely tempered, by expressing the charitable thoughts we have of them.--_Fergusson._

_The Uses of Suffering._--1. They serve for trial of men, that it may appear what is hidden in their hearts. 2. They serve for the correction of things amiss in us. 3. They serve as documents and warnings to others, especially in public persons. 4. They are marks of adoption if we be content to obey God in them. 5. They are the trodden and beaten way to the kingdom of heaven.--_Perkins._

Ver. 5. _Miracles confirmatory of the Truth._--1. The Lord accompanied the first preaching of the Gospel with the working of miracles that the truth of the doctrine might be confirmed, which being once sufficiently done, there is no further use for miracles. 2. So strong and prevalent is the spirit of error, and so weak the best in themselves to resist it, that for love to error they will quit truth, though confirmed and sealed by the saving fruits of God's Spirit in their hearts.--_Fergusson._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-9.

_The Abrahamic Gospel_--

+I. Recognised the principle that righteousness is only by faith.+--"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" (ver. 6). The promise to Abraham contained the germ of the Gospel and was the only Gospel known to pre-Christian times. Though dimly apprehending its vast import, Abraham trusted in God's Messianic promise, and his unfaltering faith, often severely tried, was in the judgment of the gracious God imputed to him as rectitude. "In this mode of salvation there was after all nothing new. The righteousness of faith is more ancient than legalism. It is as old as Abraham. In the hoary patriarchal days as now, in the time of promise as of fulfilment, faith is the root of religion; grace invites, righteousness waits upon the hearing of faith."

+II. Was universal in its spiritual provisions.+--"The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed" (ver. 8). Twice is Abraham designated "the friend of God." The Arabs still call him _the friend._ His image has impressed itself with singular force on the Oriental mind. He is the noblest figure of the Old Testament, surpassing Isaac in force, Jacob in purity, and both in dignity of character. His religion exhibits a heroic strength and firmness, but at the same time a large-hearted, genial humanity, an elevation and serenity of mind, to which the temper of those who boasted themselves his children was utterly opposed. Father of the Jewish race, Abraham was no Jew. He stands before us in the morning light of revelation a simple, noble, archaic type of man, true father of many nations. And his faith was the secret of the greatness which has commanded for him the reverence of four thousand years. His trust in God made him worthy to receive so immense a trust for the future of mankind (_Findlay_).

+III. Shares its privilege and blessing with all who believe.+--"They which are of faith, the same are the children of . . . are blessed with faithful Abraham" (vers. 7, 9). With Abraham's faith the Gentiles inherit his blessing. They were not simply blessed _in_ him, through his faith which received and handed down the blessing but blessed _with_ him. Their righteousness rests on the same principle as his. Reading the story of Abraham, we witness the bright dawn of faith, its springtime of promise and of hope. These morning hours passed away; and the sacred history shuts us in to the hard school of Mosaism, with its isolation, its mechanical routine and ritual drapery, its yoke of legal exaction ever growing more burdensome. Of all this the Church of Christ was to know nothing. It was called to enter into the labours of the legal centuries without the need of sharing their burdens. In the "Father of the Faithful" and the "Friend of God" Gentile believers were to see their exemplar, to find the warrant for that sufficiency and freedom of faith of which the natural children of Abraham unjustly strove to rob them (_Findlay_).

+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel has an honourable antiquity._ 2. _Righteousness is the practical side of true religion._ 3. _Faith is the way to righteousness._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 6-9. _Righteousness through Faith._

+I. The Divine method of blessing in past ages+ (ver. 6).

+II. Modern believers are spiritual successors of the most eminent
examples of faith in ancient times+ (ver. 7).

+III. The unchanging Gospel taught in Holy Scripture+ (ver. 8).

+VI. Ensures the enjoyment of promised blessings+ (ver. 9).

Vers. 6, 7. _Imitators of Abraham's Faith._

+I. We must have knowledge of the main and principal promise touching the blessing of God in Christ,+ and all other promises depending on the principal; and we must know the scope and tenor of them that we be not deceived.

+II. We must with Abraham believe the truth and power of God+ in the accomplishment of the said promises, or in the working of our vocation, justification, sanctification, glorification.

+III. We must by faith obey God+ in all things, shutting our eyes and suffering ourselves to be led blindfold, as it were, by the Word of God. Thus did Abraham in all things, even in actions against nature. But this practice is rare among us. For there are three things which prevail among us--the love of worldly honour, the love of pleasure, and the love of riches; and where these bear sway there faith takes no place.--_Perkins._

Vers. 8, 9. _All Nations blessed in Abraham._--1. The covenant of grace with Abraham extended not only to his carnal seed, but to all believers, even among the Gentiles. 2. The blessings promised to Abraham were not only temporal, but heavenly and spiritual: the temporal were often inculcated on the ancient Church, not as if they were all or the main blessings of the covenant, but as they were shadows of things heavenly. 3. The promise to Abraham contained the sum of the Gospel--the glad tidings of all spiritual blessings, and that the Gentiles should have access, in the days of the Gospel, to these blessings. The Gospel is therefore no new doctrine, but the same in substance with that taught to Abraham and to the Church under the Old Testament. 4. Eminent privileges bestowed on particular persons do not exempt them from walking to heaven in the common pathway with others. Abraham, the father of believers, in whom all nations were blessed, enjoyed the blessing, not because of his own merit, but freely and by faith as well as others.--_Fergusson._

_The Abrahamic Gospel intended for All._

+I. The nation of the Jews shall be called and converted to the participation of this blessing.+--When and how, God knows; but it shall be done before the end of the world. If all nations be called, then the Jews.

+II. That which was foretold to Abraham is verified in our eyes.+--This nation and many other nations are at this day blessed in the seed of Abraham. 1. Give to God thanks and praise that we are born in these days. 2. We must amend and turn to God that we may now be partakers of the promised blessing. 3. We must bless all, do good to all, and hurt to none.

+III. All men who are of Abraham's faith shall be partakers of the same blessing with him.+--God respects not the greatness of our faith so much as the truth of it.--_Perkins._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-14.

_The Conflict between the Law and Faith._

+I. The law condemns the least violation of its enactments.+--"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things . . . in the law to do them" (ver. 10). The law is a unity; to violate a part is to violate the whole. It is like a perfect bell, every stroke resounds through every atom of the metal. If the bell is fractured in the least degree, the dissonance is evident in every part. Law is so all-pervasive and so perfect that to break one law is to be guilty of all. It is intolerant of all imperfection and makes no provision to prevent or repair imperfection except by a rigid obedience to every statute. If obedience could be perfect from this moment onwards, the past disobedience would not be condoned; we should be still liable to its penalties, still be under the curse. To pledge ourselves to unsinning obedience is to pledge ourselves to the impossible. All our efforts to obey law--to conform our life to the law of righteousness, the purity and beauty of which we perceive even while in a state of lawless unnature--are futile. It is like running alongside a parallel pathway into which we are perpetually trying to turn ourselves, but all in vain. We cannot escape the condemnation of the disobedient.

+II. The law cannot justify man.+--"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith" (ver. 11). The law reveals our sin and our utter helplessness to rid ourselves of its misery. The law forces out the disease that is spreading under the skin. Such is its task. But healing it does not bring. "The law," says Luther, "is that which lays down what man is to do; the Gospel reveals whence man is to obtain help. When I place myself in the hands of the physician, one branch of art says where the disease lies, another what course to take to get quit of it. So here. The law discovers our disease, the Gospel supplies the remedy." We become aware in critical moments that our evil desires are more powerful than the prohibition of law and are in truth first stirred up thoroughly by the prohibition. And this disposition of our heart is the decisive point for the question, "Whether then the holy law, the holy, just and good commandment makes us holy, just, and good men?" The answer to this is, and remains a most decided, "No."

+III. The law ignores faith.+--"The law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them" (ver. 12). Its dictum is _do,_ not _believe_; it takes no account of faith. To grant righteousness to faith is to deny it to legal works. The two ways have different starting-points, as they lead to opposite goals. From faith one marches through God's righteousness to blessing; from works, through self-righteousness, to the curse. In short, the legalist tries to make God believe in him. Abraham and Paul are content to believe in God. Paul puts the calm, grand image of Father Abraham before us for our pattern, in contrast with the narrow, painful, bitter spirit of Jewish legalism, inwardly self-condemned.

+IV. The law, the great barrier to man's justification, is done away in Christ.+--"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law" (ver. 13). Christ brought us out of the curse of the law by Himself voluntarily undergoing its penalty and submitting to the utmost indignity it imposed--hanging on a tree. It was this crowning scandal that shocked the Jewish pride and made the cross an offence to them. Once crucified, the name of Jesus would surely perish from the lips of men; no Jew would hereafter dare to profess faith in Him. This was God's method of rescue; and all the terrors and penalties of law disappear, being absorbed in the cross of Christ. His redemption was offered to the Jew first. But not to the Jew alone, nor as a Jew. The time of release had come for all men. Abraham's blessing, long withheld, was now to be imparted, as it had been promised, to all the tribes of the earth. In the removal of the legal curse, God comes near to men as in the ancient days. In Christ Jesus crucified, risen, reigning, a new world comes into being, which restores and surpasses the promise of the old.

+V. Faith ends the conflict of the law by imparting to man a superior spiritual force.+--"That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (ver. 14). Faith is a spiritual faculty, and its exercise is made possible by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The law of works is superseded by the higher law of the Spirit. It is in the human soul that law has its widest sweep and accomplishes its highest results. The soul can never rise higher in its experience and efforts than the law by which it is governed. The law of sin has debased and limited the soul, and only as it is united by faith to Christ and responds to the lofty calls of His law will it break away from the corruption and restraints of the law of sin and rise to the highest perfection of holiness. "In every law," says F. W. Robertson, "there is a spirit, in every maxim a principle; and the law and the maxim are laid down for the sake of conserving the spirit and the principle which they enshrine. Man is severed from submission to the maxim because he has got allegiance to the principle. He is free from the rule and the law because he has got the spirit written in his heart."

+Lessons.+--1. _It is hopeless to attain righteousness by law._ 2. _Faith in Christ is the only and universal way of obedience._ 3. _The law is disarmed by obeying it._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 10-12. _The Inexorability of Law._

+I. The law renders no help in fulfilling its requirements but
curses the incompetent+ (ver. 10).

+II. The law, though strictly observed, is powerless to justify+
(ver. 11).