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Galatians 3 — Commentary 4

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Benson Commentary Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? Galatians 3:1 . St Paul having, by many arguments, proved himself to be a real apostle, and showed that his knowledge of the gospel was given him by immediate revelation from the Lord Jesus, proceeds in this and the following chapter to treat of the doctrines in dispute between him and the false teachers, and especially of that of justification, which these Jewish teachers affirmed could not be obtained by the Gentiles unless they were circumcised, and observed the ceremonies of the law of Moses; but which Paul insisted, was simply and only by faith in Christ. And to impress the Galatians the more strongly with a sense of the danger of the doctrine which his opposers taught, he here charges them with want of understanding or consideration, for listening to it, saying: O foolish Galatians — Or thoughtless, as the word ??????? may be properly rendered; for it not only signifies persons void of understanding, but also persons who, though they have understanding, do not form right judgments of things, through want of consideration. “The apostle, by calling the Galatians foolish, doth not contradict our Saviour’s doctrine, ( Matthew 5:22 ,) because he doth it not, ???? , rashly, without cause, saith Theophylact, nor out of anger and ill-will to them, but from an ardent desire to make them sensible of their folly.” — Whitby. Who hath bewitched, or deceived, you — For the word ????????? is often used for deceiving another with false appearances, after the manner of jugglers; that ye should not obey — Should not continue to obey, that is, to be persuaded of, and influenced by; the truth — That has been so fully declared and proved to you; before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth — By our preaching; as if he had been crucified among you — As if he had said, Who hath so deluded you, as to prevail with you thus to contradict both your own reason and experience? For ye have been as fully and clearly informed of the nature and design of Christ’s sufferings, as if they had been endured by him in your very sight; and you have witnessed their efficacy in procuring for you reconciliation with God, peace of conscience, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Galatians 3:2-4 . This only would I learn of you — That is, this one argument might convince you; received ye the Spirit — In his gifts and graces, in his witness and fruits. See Galatians 4:6 ; Galatians 5:22 . By the works of the law — By your observing the ceremonies of Moses’s law, or by your embracing the doctrine which inculcates the necessity of complying with these rites? or by the hearing of faith — By receiving and obeying that doctrine, which teaches that justification is attained by faith in Christ, and in the truths and promises of his gospel? Are ye so foolish — So thoughtless, as not to consider what you yourselves have experienced? having begun in the Spirit — Having entered upon your Christian course under the light and grace of the Holy Spirit, received by faith in Christ and his gospel; do you now, when you ought to be more enlightened and renewed, more acquainted with the power of faith, and therefore more spiritual; expect to be made perfect by the flesh? — Do you think to retain and complete either your justification or sanctification, by giving up that faith whereby you received both, and depending on the law, which is a gross and carnal thing when opposed to the gospel? “The law of Moses is called the flesh,” says Macknight, “because of the carnal form of worship, by sacrifices and purifications of the body, which it prescribed; because that form of worship did not cleanse the conscience of the worshipper, but only his body, and because the Israelites were put under the law by their fleshly descent from Abraham.” Have ye suffered — Both from the zealous Jews and from the heathen; so many things — For adhering to the gospel; in vain — So as to lose all the blessings which ye might have obtained by enduring to the end? Will you give up the benefit of all those sufferings, and lose, in a great measure at least, the reward of them, by relinquishing what is so material in that system of doctrine you have been suffering for? If it be yet in vain — Which I am willing to hope it is not entirely, and that, however your principles may have been shaken, yet God will preserve you from being quite overthrown. Galatians 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Galatians 3:4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. Galatians 3:5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Galatians 3:5-9 . He therefore — Namely, God; that ministereth to you the Spirit — Who is continually giving you additional supplies of grace by the Spirit; and worketh miracles, &c. — Bestows the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit upon you; doeth he it by the works of the law — Through your hearing and embracing the doctrine of those who inculcate the necessity of observing the ceremonies of the law; or by the hearing of faith — By your hearing, receiving, and acquiescing in the doctrine of justification and salvation by faith in Christ and his gospel? Or doeth he it in confirmation of men’s preaching justification by observing regal rites, or of their preaching justification by faith? Even as Abraham, &c. — Doubtless he does it in confirmation of that grand doctrine, that we are justified by faith even as Abraham was. The apostle, both in this and in the epistle to the Romans, makes great use of the instance of Abraham; the rather, because from Abraham the Jews drew their great argument (as they do at this day) both for their own continuance in Judaism, and for denying the Gentiles to be the church of God. As Abraham believed God — When God said, Thy seed shall be as the stars; and it was accounted to him for righteousness — Because his belief of this promise implied that he entertained just conceptions of the divine power, goodness, and veracity. See notes on Romans 4:3-22 . Know then that they which are of faith — Who receive God’s truths and promises in faith, relying on the power, goodness, and faithfulness of God to fulfil them; the same are the children of Abraham — Show themselves to be his spiritual children, of the same disposition with him, and entitled to the same blessings of which he was the heir. And the Scripture — That is, the Holy Spirit, by whose inspiration the Holy Scriptures were written; foreseeing that God would justify the heathen — When he should call them by his grace, in the same manner as he justified Abraham; only through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham — Declared to him the glad tidings of salvation; saying, In, or through thee — As the father of the Messiah; shall all nations — Gentiles as well as Jews; be blessed — That is to say, by their faith in that glorious person who is to descend from thee, all persons, of whatever nation they be, who imitate thy ready and obedient faith, shall obtain justification, and all other blessings, as Abraham did by his faith. So then — The inference to be drawn is; all they — And they only; who are of faith — Who believe God as Abraham did, and show their faith by their works; are blessed with faithful Abraham — Shall inherit the promises made to him, and the blessings promised, though they are as he was when he first received these promises, in a state of uncircumcision, and always remain in that state, and never comply with the ceremonies of the Mosaic law. Galatians 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Galatians 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Galatians 3:8 And 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. Galatians 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Galatians 3:10 . As many as are of the works of the law — Of the number of those who seek justification thereby; are under — Or liable to; the curse: for it is written, ( Deuteronomy 27:26 ,) Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, &c. — Or, as it is there expressed, that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. So that it required what no man on earth can perform, namely, universal, perfect, uninterrupted, and perpetual obedience. The apostle, it must be observed, in quoting this passage from the book of Deuteronomy, follows the translation of the LXX., the Hebrew word, which our translators have rendered confirmeth, signifying also continueth, and having been so translated, 1 Samuel 13:14 , Thy kingdom shall not continue; the apostle, following the LXX., has added the words, every one and all, and written in this book. “But,” as Macknight observes, “they make no alteration in the sense of the passage; for the indefinite proposition, cursed is he, hath the same meaning with cursed is every one; and all things written in the book of the law, is perfectly the same with the words of this law; which, as is plain from the context, means not any particular law, but the law of Moses in general.” Galatians 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. Galatians 3:11-12 . That no man is justified by his obedience to the law in the sight of God — Whatever he may be in the sight of man; is further evident — From the words of Habakkuk, who hath said nothing of men’s being justified by works, but hath declared, The just shall live by faith — That is, the man who is accounted just or righteous before God, shall be made and continue such, and consequently shall live a spiritual life here, and receive eternal life hereafter, by faith. This is the way God hath chosen: see on Romans 1:17 . And the law — Strictly considered; is not of faith — Doth not allow, or countenance, the seeking of salvation in such a way. In other words, the seeking justification, by keeping the law, whether moral or ceremonial, is quite a different thing from seeking it by faith. For the law saith not, Believe, but, Do, and live; its language is, The man that doeth them — Namely, the things commanded; shall live in, or by them — That is, he who perfectly and constantly conforms himself to these precepts, shall have a right to life and everlasting happiness, in consequence thereof; but he that breaks them must bear the penalty, without any further assistance from a law, which, being in one instance violated, must for ever condemn the transgressor. See on Leviticus 18:5 . Galatians 3:12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: Galatians 3:13-14 . Christ — Christ alone; the abruptness of the sentence shows a holy indignation at those who reject so great a blessing; hath redeemed us — Or, hath bought us off, whether Jews or Gentiles; from the curse of the law — The curse which the law denounces against all transgressors of it, or the punishment threatened to them. Dr. Whitby proves, in his note on this verse, that the violation of the law given to Adam was attended with a curse, as well as that given to the Israelites by Moses, and that it is the more general curse. Nearly to the same purpose speaks Dr. Macknight, thus: — “That the persons here said to be bought off from the curse of the law, are the Gentiles as well as the Jews, is evident from Galatians 3:10 , where the apostle tells us, As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for the proposition being general, it implies that the Gentiles as well as the Jews are under the curse, and need to be bought off. This appears likewise from the purpose for which Christ is said ( Galatians 3:14 ) to have bought us off; namely, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations, that is, on both Jews and Gentiles. Next, the curse of the law, from which all are bought off by Christ, is not a curse peculiar to the law of Moses. For as the Gentiles never were under that law, they could have no concern with its curse. But it is the curse of that more ancient law of works, under which Adam and Eve fell, and which, through their fall, came on all their posterity. Also it is the curse of the law of nature, under which all mankind, as the subjects of God’s universal moral government, are lying for having broken that law. These curses are called by the general name of the curse of the law; not as being peculiar to the law of Moses, but because they were published in the law of Moses. From this curse of the law of works, Christ hath bought us off, by becoming a curse for us. For in the view of his death, to be accomplished in due time, God allowed Adam and his posterity a short life on earth, and resolved to raise them all from the dead, that every one may receive reward, or punishment, according to the deeds done by him in the body. Further, being bought off by Christ from the curse of the law of works, mankind, at the fall, were bought off from law itself; not indeed as a rule of life, but as a rule of justification; and had a trial appointed to them under a more gracious dispensation, in which not a perfect obedience to law, but the obedience of faith is required in order to their obtaining eternal life. Of this gracious dispensation, or covenant, St. Paul hath given a clear account,” Romans 5:18 . The same writer observes further here, “Christ’s dying on the cross is called his becoming a curse; that is, an accursed person, a person ignominiously punished as a malefactor: not because he was really a malefactor, and the object of God’s displeasure, but because he was punished in the manner in which accursed persons, or malefactors, are punished. He was not a transgressor, but he was numbered with the transgressors, Isaiah 53:12 .” That the blessing of Abraham — The blessing promised to him; might come on the Gentiles also; that we — Who believe, whether Jews or Gentiles; might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith — As the evidence of our being justified by faith, and of our being the sons of God, Galatians 4:5-7 . This promise of the Spirit, which includes all the other promises, is not explicitly mentioned in the covenant with Abraham, but it is implied in the promise, ( Genesis 22:17 ,) In blessing I will bless thee; and is expressly mentioned by the prophets, Isaiah 44:3 ; Ezekiel 39:29 ; Joel 2:28 . Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Galatians 3:15 . I speak after the manner of men — I illustrate this by a familiar instance, taken from the practice of men: or, I argue on the principles of common equity, according to what is the allowed rule of all human compacts: Though it be but a man’s covenant — That is, the covenant of a man with his fellow-creature: yet if it be confirmed — Legally, by mutual promise, engagement, and seal; no man — No, not the covenanter himself, unless something unforeseen occur, which cannot be the case with God; disannulleth — What was agreed to by it; or addeth thereto — Any new condition, or altereth the terms of it, without the consent of the other stipulating party. Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Galatians 3:16 . Now to Abraham, &c. — To apply this to the case before us. The promises relating to the justification of believers, and the blessings consequent thereon, were made first by God to Abraham and his seed, who are expressly mentioned as making a party with him in the covenant. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many — As if the promises belonged to all his seed, both natural and spiritual, or to several kinds of seed; but as of one — “The apostle having affirmed, ( Galatians 3:15 ,) that, according to the customs of men, none but the parties themselves can set aside or alter a covenant that is ratified, he observes, in this verse, that the promises in the covenant with Abraham were made to him and his seed;” to him, Genesis 12:3 ; In thee shall all the families, or tribes, of the earth be blessed: to his seed, Genesis 22:18 ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. “Now, since by the oath, which God sware to Abraham, after he had laid Isaac on the altar, both promises were ratified, the apostle reasons justly, when he affirms that both promises must be fulfilled. And having shown, ( Galatians 3:9 ,) that the promise to Abraham, to bless all the families of the earth in him, means their being blessed as Abraham had been, not with justification through the law of Moses, as the Jews affirmed, but with justification by faith, he proceeds, in this passage, to consider the promise made to Abraham’s seed, that in it likewise all the nations of the earth should be blessed. And from the words of the promise, which are not, And in thy seeds, but, And in thy seed, he argues that the seed in which the nations of the earth should be blessed, is not Abraham’s seed in general, but one of his seed in particular, namely, Christ; who, by dying for all nations, hath delivered them from the curse of the law, that the blessing of justification by faith might come on believers of all nations, through Christ, as was promised to Abraham and to Christ. To this argument it hath been objected, that the word seed was never used by the Hebrews in the plural number, except to denote the seeds of vegetables, Daniel 1:12 .” To this it may be answered, “That, notwithstanding the Hebrews commonly used the word seed collectively, to denote a multitude of children, they used it likewise for a single person, and especially a son, Genesis 3:15 ; I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And Eve, speaking of Seth, says, ( Genesis 4:25 ,) God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. The word seed being thus applied to denote a single person, as well as a multitude, is ambiguous, and therefore the Jews could not certainly know that they were to be instruments of blessing the nations, unless it had been said, And in thy seeds, or sons. And from the apostle’s argument, we may presume the word was used in the plural, to denote either a multitude or a diversity of children. In this sense, Eve had two seeds in her two sons, as is evident from her calling Seth another seed. So likewise Abraham had two seeds in Isaac and Ishmael. See Genesis 21:12-13 . Now, because God termed Ishmael Abraham’s seed, perhaps Ishmael’s descendants affirmed that they also were the seed of Abraham in which the nations were to be blessed. And if the Jewish doctors confuted their claim, by observing, that in the promise it is not said, in seeds, that is, in sons, as God would have said, if he had meant both Ishmael and Isaac, but in thy seed, the apostle might, with propriety, turn their own argument against themselves, especially as the Jews were one of the nations of the earth that were to be blessed in Abraham’s seed. Lastly, to use the word seed for a single person was highly proper in the covenant with Abraham, wherein God declared his gracious purpose of saving mankind; because that term leads us back to the original promise, that the seed, or Song of Solomon of the woman, should bruise the serpent’s head.” — Macknight. Which is Christ — In Christ, and in no other of Abraham’s seed, have all the nations of the earth been blessed. They have not been blessed in Isaac, although it was said of him, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Neither have they all been blessed in Abraham’s posterity collectively as a nation; nor in any individual of his posterity, except in Christ alone. He therefore is the only seed of Abraham spoken of in the promise, as the apostle expressly assures us. Besides, Peter, long before Paul became a Christian, gave the same interpretation of this promise, as we see Acts 3:25 . Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. Galatians 3:17-18 . And this I say — What I mean by the foregoing example of human covenants is this; The covenant that was confirmed before of God — By the promise itself, by the repetition of it, and by a solemn oath, concerning the blessing all nations through Christ; the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after the date of it, cannot disannul — Abolish, or make it void, by introducing a new way of justification, or of blessing the nations, namely, by the works of the Mosaic law; so as to make the promise of no effect: 1st, With regard to other nations, which would be the case if only the Jews could obtain the accomplishment of it: yea, 2d, With regard to them also, if it were to be by works superseding it, and introducing another way of obtaining the blessing. “The apostle’s argument proceeds on this undeniable principle of justice, that a covenant made by two parties cannot, after it is ratified, be altered or cancelled, except with the consent of both parties: who in the present case were, on the one hand, God; and on the other, Abraham and his seed, Christ. Wherefore, as neither Abraham nor his seed, Christ, was present at the making of the Sinai covenant, nothing in it can alter or set aside the covenant with Abraham, concerning the blessing of the nations in Christ.” It must be observed, that the four hundred and thirty years here spoken of are not to be computed from the time when the covenant was confirmed, but from the time when it was first made, as mentioned Genesis 12:3 , when Abraham was yet in Ur of the Chaldees, and was seventy-five years old, Galatians 3:4 . From that time to the birth of Isaac, which happened when Abraham was one hundred years old, are twenty-five years, Genesis 21:5 . To the birth of Jacob were sixty years, Isaac being sixty years old when Jacob was born, Genesis 25:26 . From Jacob’s birth to his going into Egypt were one hundred and thirty years, as he says to Pharaoh, Genesis 47:9 ; and according to the LXX. the Israelites sojourned in Egypt two hundred and fifteen years; for thus they translate Exodus 12:40 : Now the sojourning of the children of Israel in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years, the number mentioned by the apostle. For — Or, besides, this being a new argument, drawn not from the time, as the former was, but from the nature of the transaction; if the inheritance — Of the blessing promised to Abraham; be of the law — Be suspended on such a condition that it cannot be obtained but by the observation of the Mosaic law, it must then follow that it is no more of promise — By virtue of a free gratuitous promise; but that cannot be said, for God gave it to Abraham by promise — It must therefore be by it, and not by the law, which must have been given for some other and subordinate end, as the next verse shows. Galatians 3:18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Galatians 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Galatians 3:19 . Wherefore then serveth the law — If the inheritance was not by the law, but by the promise, as a free gift, for what purpose was the law given, or what significancy had it? It was added because of transgressions — That is, to restrain the Israelites from transgressions, particularly idolatry, and the vices connected with idolatry, the evil of which the law discovered to them by its prohibitions and curse. Agreeably to this account of the law, idolatry, and all the abominations practised by the Canaanites, and the other heathen nations who surrounded the Israelites, were forbidden in the law under the severest penalties. Maimonides, a learned Jew, acknowledges, in his More-Nevochim, that the ceremonial law was given for the extirpation of idolatry; for, saith he, “When God sent Moses to redeem his people out of Egypt, it was the usual custom of the world, and the worship in which all nations were bred up, to build temples in honour of the sun, moon, and stars, and to offer divers kinds of animals to them, and to have priests appointed for that end. Therefore God, knowing it is beyond the strength of human nature instantly to quit that which it hath been long accustomed to, and so is powerfully inclined to, would not command that all that kind of worship should be abolished, and that he should be worshipped only in spirit; but required that he only should be the object of this outward worship; that temples and altars should be built to him alone; sacrifices offered to him only, and priests consecrated to his service.” So Cedrenus, of their festivals, separations, purgations, oblations, &c., observing, God enjoined them, that, being employed in doing these things to the true God, they might abstain from idolatry. And thus, saith Dr. Spencer, were they kept under the discipline of the law, and shut up from the idolatrous rites and customs of the heathen world, by the strictness of these legal observances, and the penalties denounced against the violators of them. “And it is well-known,” says Whitby, “that all the ancient fathers were of this opinion, that God gave the Jews only the decalogue, till they had made the golden calf; and that afterward he laid this yoke of ceremonies upon them to restrain them from idolatry, (see Ezekiel 20:7 ; Ezekiel 20:11 ; Ezekiel 20:24-25 ,) called by the apostle the law of carnal commandments, which he says, was abolished for the weakness and unprofitableness of it, Hebrews 7:16 . Hence these ceremonies were called by St. Paul, ???????? ??? ?????? , the rudiments of the world, Galatians 4:3 ; Colossians 2:8 ; namely, because for matter they were the same which the heathen used before to their false gods. But this ancient exposition, though partly true, does not contain the whole truth; for the apostle, in the Epistle to the Romans, informs us, that the law entered that sin might abound; that is, might appear to abound, unto death, that sin might appear sin, working death in, us, Romans 5:20 ; Romans 7:13 . And that the law worketh wrath, namely, by giving us the knowledge of that sin which deserves it, Romans 3:20 ; Romans 4:15 . And this answers to what the apostle here saith, that the law was added because of transgressions, namely, to discover them, and the punishment due to them. See on Galatians 3:22 ; Galatians 3:24 . So also Macknight: “The law was added after the promise, to show the Israelites what things were offensive to God, Romans 3:20 . Also, that by the manner in which it was given, becoming sensible of their transgressions, and of God’s displeasure with them for their transgressions, and of the punishment to which they were liable, they might be constrained to have recourse to the covenant with Abraham, in which justification was promised through faith, as it is now promised in the gospel. See Colossians 2:14 .” Till the seed should come — That illustrious seed, the Messiah; to whom the promise was made — “It was not fit that the law of Moses, which condemned every sinner to death, should continue any longer than till the seed should come to whom it was promised that in him all nations should be blessed, by having their faith counted for righteousness. For Christ having come, and published in his gospel God’s gracious intention of justifying believers of all nations by faith, if the law of Moses, which condemned every sinner to death without mercy, had been allowed to remain, it would have contradicted the gospel, and have made the promise of no effect. It was, therefore, abrogated with great propriety at the death of Christ; especially as the gospel was a dispensation of religion more effectual than the law for destroying idolatry, and restraining transgression.” And was ordained — Greek, ????????? , appointed, promulgated, or spoken, as it is expressed Hebrews 2:2 . This is affirmed likewise by Stephen, Acts 7:38 ; Acts 7:53 . In the hand of a mediator — Namely, Moses, then appointed by God to act the part of a mediator between him and the people of Israel. The law was not given to Israel, as the promise was to Abraham, immediately from God himself, but was conveyed by the ministry of angels to Moses, and delivered into his hand as a mediator between God and them, and as a type of the great Mediator. Galatians 3:20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Galatians 3:20 . Now a mediator is not a mediator of one — There must be two parties, or there can be no place or use for a mediator: but God, who made the free promise to Abraham, is only one of the parties; the other, Abraham, was not present at the time of Moses. Therefore, in the affair of the promise, Moses had nothing to do: the law, wherein he was concerned, was a transaction of quite another nature. Or, as Dr. Doddridge paraphrases this difficult passage more at large, following, as he says, Mr. Locke’s interpretation, not without attentively comparing a variety of others, “A mediator is not merely the mediator of one party, but at least of two, between which he must pass, and, by the nature of his office, transact for both; but God is only one party in that covenant made with Abraham, and Abraham and his seed, including all that believe, both Jews and Gentiles, are the other. As Moses, therefore, when the law was given, stood at that time, between the Lord and Israel, ( Deuteronomy 5:5 ,) and did not pass between the whole collective body of Abraham’s seed and the blessed God; so nothing was transacted by him with relation to those for whom he did not appear, and consequently nothing in that covenant wherein he did mediate could disannul the promise, or affect the right accruing to any from a prior engagement, in which the Gentiles were concerned as well as the Israelites; for no covenant can be altered but by the mutual consent of both parties; and in what was done at mount Sinai by the mediation of Moses, there was none to appear for the Gentiles; so that this transaction between God and the Israelites could have no force to abrogate the promise, which extended likewise to the Gentiles, or to vacate a covenant that was made between parties of which one only was there.” Galatians 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. Galatians 3:21-22 . Is the law then — Which requires perfect obedience, and subjects all that in any respect violate it, to the curse, against, or contrary to, the promises of God — Wherein he declares that he will justify men by faith? God forbid — That we should intimate any thing of that kind! On the contrary, it was intended to be subservient to the promise, by leading those who were under it to a higher and better dispensation, by subjecting them to the curse, without giving them the least hope of mercy, to oblige them to flee to the promises for justification. For if there had been a law given which could have given life — Either spiritual or eternal; if any law, considered in itself alone, could have been a sufficient mean of justification and eternal happiness, then verily righteousness — Justification, and the blessings consequent thereon; would have been by the Mosaic law — Which is so holy, just, and good in all its moral precepts. By this the apostle shows that the law of Moses was utterly incapable of giving the Jews life and salvation; becau

Expositors

Expositor's Bible Commentary Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? Chapter 11 THE GALATIAN FOLLY. Galatians 3:1-5 . AT the beginning of chap. 3 falls the most marked division of this Epistle. So far, since the exordium, its course has been strictly narrative. The Apostle has been "giving" his readers "to know" many things concerning himself and his relations to the Judean Church of which they had been ignorant or misinformed. Now this preliminary task is over. From explanation and defence he passes suddenly to the attack. He turns sharply round upon the Galatians, and begins to ply them with expostulation and argument. It is for their sake that Paul has been telling this story of his past career. In the light of the narration just concluded, they will be able to see their folly and to understand how much they have been deceived. Here also the indignation so powerfully expressed in the Introduction, breaks forth again, directed this time, however, against the Galatians themselves and breathing grief more than auger. And just as after that former outburst the letter settled down into the sober flow of narrative, so from these words of reproach Paul passes on to the measured course of argument which he pursues through the next two chapters. In Galatians 4:8-20 , and again in Galatians 5:1-12 , doctrine gives way to appeal and warning. But these paragraphs still belong to the polemical division of the Epistle, extending from this point to the middle of chap. 5. This section forms the central and principal part of the letter, and is complete in itself. Its last words, in Galatians 5:6-12 , will bring us round to the position from which we are now setting out. This chapter stands, nevertheless, in close connection of thought with the foregoing. The Apostle’s doctrine is grounded in historical fact and personal experience. The theological argument has behind it the weight of his proved Apostleship. The Judaistic dispute at Antioch, in particular, bears immediately on the subject-matter of the third chapter. Peter’s vacillation had its counterpart in the defection of the Galatians. The reproof and refutation which the elder Apostle brought upon himself, Paul’s readers must have felt, touched them very nearly. In the crafty intriguers who made mischief at Antioch, they could see the, image of the Judaists who had come into their midst. Above all, it was the cross which Cephas had dishonoured, whose efficacy he had virtually denied. His act of dissimulation, pushed to its issue, nullified the death of Christ. This is the gravamen of Paul’s impeachment. And it is the foundation of all his complaints against the Galatians. Round this centre the conflict is waged. By its tendency to enhance or diminish the glory of the Saviour’s cross, Paul judges of the truth of every teaching, the worth of every policy. Angel or Apostle, it matters not-whoever disparages the cross of Jesus Christ finds in Paul an unflinching enemy. The thought of Christ "dying in vain" rouses in him the strong emotion under which he indites the first verses of this chapter. What greater folly, what stranger bewitchment can there be, than for one who has seen "Jesus Christ crucified" to turn away to some other spectacle, to seek elsewhere a more potent and diviner charm! "O senseless Galatians!" 1. Here then was the beginning of their folly. The Galatians forgot their Saviour’s cross. This was the first step in their backsliding. Had their eyes continued to be fixed on Calvary, the Legalists would have argued and cajoled in vain. Let the cross of Christ once lose its spell for us, let its influence fail to hold and rule the soul, and we are at the mercy of every wind of doctrine. We are like sailors in a dark night on a perilous coast, who have lost sight of the lighthouse beacon. Our Christianity will go to pieces. If Christ crucified should cease to be its sovereign attraction, from that moment the Church is doomed. This forgetfulness of the cross on the part of the Galatians is the more astonishing to Paul, because at first they had so vividly realised its power, and the scene of Calvary, as Paul depicted it, had taken hold of their nature with extraordinary force. He was conscious at the time-so his words seem to intimate-that it was given him, amongst this susceptible people, to draw the picture with unwonted effect. The gaze of his hearers was riveted upon the sight. It was as if the Lord Jesus hung there before their eyes. They beheld the Divine sufferer. They heard His cries of distress and of triumph. They felt the load which crushed Him. Nor was it their sympathies alone and their reverence, to which the spectacle appealed. It stirred their conscience to its depths. It awakened feelings of inward humiliation and contrition, of horror at the curse of sin, of anguish under the bitterness and blackness of its death. "It was you," Paul would say - "you" and I for whom He died. Our sins laid on Him. that ignominy, those agonies of body and of spirit. He died the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." They looked, they listened, till their hearts were broken, till all their sins cried out against them; and in a passion of repentance they cast themselves before the Crucified, and took Him for their Christ and King. From the foot of the cross they rose new men, with heaven’s light upon their brow, with the cry Abba, Father, rising from their lips, with the Spirit of God and of Jesus Christ, the consciousness of a Divine sonship, filling their breast. Has all this passed away? Have the Galatians forgotten the shame, the glory of that hour-the tears of penitence, the cries of joy and gratitude which the vision of the cross drew from their souls, the new creation it had wrought within them, the ardour of spirit and high resolve with which they pledged themselves to Christ’s service? Was the influence of that transforming experience to prove no more enduring than the morning cloud and early dew? Foolish Galatians! Had they not the wit to see that the teaching of the Legalists ran counter to all they had then experienced, that it "made the death of Christ of none effect," which had so mighty and saving an effect upon themselves? Were they "so senseless," so bereft of reason and recollection? The Apostle is amazed. He cannot understand how impressions so powerful should prove so transient, and that truths thus clearly perceived and realised should come to be forgotten. Some fatal spell has been cast over them. They are "bewitched" to act as they are doing. A deadly fascination, like that of the "evil eye," has paralysed their minds. The ancient word alluded to in the word the Apostle uses here is not altogether a superstition. The malignity that darts out in the glance of the "evil eye" is a presage of mischief. Not without reason does it cause a shudder. It is the sign of a demoniac jealousy and hate. "Satan has entered into" the soul which emits it, as once into Judas. Behind the spite of the Jewish false brethren Paul recognised a preternatural malice and cunning, like that with which "the Serpent beguiled Eve." To this darker source of the fascination his question, "Who hath bewitched you?" appears to point. 2. Losing sight of the cross of Christ, the Galatians were furthermore rejecting the Holy Spirit of God. This heavy reproach the Apostle urges upon his readers through the rest of the paragraph, pausing only for a moment in Galatians 3:4 to recall their earlier sufferings for Christ’s sake in further witness against them. "I have but one question to put to you," he says-"You received the Spirit: how did that come about? Was it through what you did according to law? or what you heard in faith? You know well that this great blessing was given to your faith. Can you expect to retain this gift of God on other terms than those on which you received it? Have you begun with the Spirit to be brought to perfection by the flesh? ( Galatians 3:3 ) Nay, God still bestows on you His Spirit, with gifts of miraculous energy; and I ask again, whether these displays attend on the practice of law works, or upon faith’s hearing?" ( Galatians 3:5 ). The Apostle wished the Galatians to test the competing doctrines by their effects. The Spirit of God had put His seal on the Apostle’s teaching, and on the faith of his hearers. Did any such manifestation accompany the preaching of the Legalists? That is all he wants to know. His cause must stand or fall by "the demonstration of the Spirit." By "signs and wonders," and diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit, God was wont to "bear witness with" the ministers and witnesses of Jesus Christ: { Hebrews 2:3-4 ; 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 } was this testimony on the side of Paul, or the Circumcisionists? Did it sustain the gospel of the grace of God, or the "other gospel" of Legalism? "He, the Spirit of truth, shall testify of Me," Christ had said; and so John, at the end of the Apostolic age: "It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." When the Galatians accepted the message of the cross proclaimed by Paul’s lips, "the Holy Spirit fell" on them, as on the Jewish Church at the Pentecost, and the Gentile believers in the house of Cornelius; { Acts 10:44 } "the love of God was poured out in their hearts through the Holy Ghost that was given them". { Romans 5:5 } As a mighty, rushing wind this supernatural influence swept through their souls. Like fire from heaven it kindled in their spirit, consuming their lusts and vanities, and fusing their nature into a new, holy passion of love to Christ and to God the Father. It broke from their lips in ecstatic cries, unknown to human speech; or moved them to unutterable groans and pangs of intercession. { Romans 8:26 } There were men in the Galatian Churches on whom the baptism of the Spirit conferred besides miraculous charismata, superhuman powers of insight and of healing. These gifts God continued to "minister amongst" them (God is unquestionably the agent in Galatians 3:5 ). Paul asks them to observe on what conditions, and to whom, these extraordinary gifts are distributed. For the "receiving of the Spirit" was an infallible sign of true Christian faith. This was the very proof which in the first instance had convinced Peter and the Judean Church that it was God’s will to save the Gentiles, independently of the Mosaic law. { Acts 11:15-18 } Receiving the Spirit, the Galatian believers knew that they were the sons of God. "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father". { Galatians 4:6-7 } When Paul speaks of "receiving the Spirit," it is this that he thinks of most of all. The miraculous phenomena attending His visitations were facts of vast importance; and their occurrence is one Of the historical certainties of the Apostolic age. They were "signs," conspicuous, impressive, indispensable at the time-monuments set up for all time. But they were in their nature variable and temporary. There are powers greater and more enduring than these. The things that "abide" are "faith, hope, love"; love chiefest of the three. Hence when the Apostle in a later chapter enumerates the qualities that go to make up "the fruit of the Spirit," he says nothing of tongues or prophecies, or gifts of healing; he begins with love. Wonder-working powers had their times and seasons, their peculiar organs; but every believer in Christ-whether Jew or Greek, primitive or mediaeval or modern Christian, the heir of sixty generations of faith or the latest converts from heathenism-joins in the testimony, "The love of God is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost given unto us." This mark of God’s indwelling Spirit the Galatians had possessed. They were "sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus". { Galatians 3:26 } And with the filial title they had received the filial nature. They were "taught of God to love one ‘another." Being sons of God in Christ, they were also "heirs". { Galatians 4:7 ; Romans 8:17 } They possessed the earnest of the heavenly inheritance, { Ephesians 1:14 } the pledge of their bodily redemption, { Romans 8:10-23 } and of eternal life in the fellowship of Christ. In their initial experience of "the salvation which is in Jesus Christ" they had the foretaste of its "eternal glory," of the "grace" belonging to "them that love our Lord Jesus Christ," which is "in in-corruption." No legal condition was laid down at this beginning of their Christian life; no "work" of any kind interposed between the belief of the heart and the conscious reception of the new life in Christ. Even their baptism, significant and memorable as it was, had not been required as in itself a precondition of salvation. Sometimes after baptism, but often-as in the case of Cornelius’ household-before the rite was administered, "the Holy Ghost fell" on believing souls. { Acts 10:44-48 ; Acts 11:15-16 } They "confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus"; they "believed in their hearts that God had raised Him from the dead,"-and they were saved. Baptism is, as Paul’s teaching elsewhere shows, { Galatians 3:24 ; Galatians 3:27 ; Romans 6:2 ; Colossians 2:11-13 ; Titus 3:5 } the expression, not the medium - the symbol, and not the cause, of the new birth which it might precede or follow. The Catholic doctrine of the opus operatum in the sacraments is radically anti-Pauline; it is Judaism over again. The process by which the Galatians became Christians was essentially spiritual. They had begun in the Spirit. And so they must continue. To begin in the Spirit, and then look for perfection to the flesh, to suppose that the work of faith and love was to be consummated by Pharisaic ordinances, that Moses could lead them higher than Christ, and circumcision effect for them what the power of the Holy Ghost failed to do-this was the height of unreason. "Are you so senseless?" the Apostle asks. He dwells on this absurdity, pressing home his expostulation with an emphasis that shows he is touching the centre of the controversy between himself and the Judaisers. They admitted, as we have shown in chap. 9., that Gentiles might enter the kingdom of God through faith and by the baptism of the Spirit. This was settled at the Council of Jerusalem. Without a formal acceptance of this evangelical principle, we do not see how the legalists could again have found entrance into Gentile Christian Churches, much less have carried Peter and Barnabas and the liberal Jews of Antioch with them, as they did. They no longer attempted to deny salvation to the uncircumcised; but they claimed for the circumcised a more complete salvation, and a higher status in the Church. "Yes, Paul has laid the foundation," they would Say; "now we have come to perfect his work, to give you the more advanced instruction, derived from the fountain-head of Christian knowledge, from the first Apostles in Jerusalem. If you would be perfect, keep the commandments; be circumcised, like Christ and His disciples, and observe the law of Moses. If you be circumcised, Christ will profit you much more than hitherto; and you will inherit all the blessings promised in Him to the children of Abraham." Such was the style of "persuasion" employed by the Judaisers. It was well calculated to deceive Jewish believers, even those best affected to their Gentile brethren. It appeared to maintain the prescriptive rights of Judaism and to satisfy legitimate national pride, without excluding the Gentiles from the fold of Christ. Nor is it difficult to understand the spell which the circumcisionist doctrine exerted over susceptible Gentile minds, after some years of Christian training, of familiarity with the Old Testament and the early history of Israel. Who is there that does not feel the charm of ancient memories and illustrious names? Many a noble mind is at this present time "bewitched," many a gifted and pious spirit is "carried away" by influences precisely similar. Apostolical succession, potristic usage, catholic tradition, the authority of the Church- what words of power are these! How wilful and arbitrary it appears to rely upon any present experience of the grace of God, upon one’s own reading of the gospel of Christ, in contradiction to claims advanced under the patronage of so many revered and time-honoured names. The man, or the community, must be deeply conscious of having "received the Spirit," that can feel the force of attractions of this nature, and yet withstand them. It requires a clear view of the cross of Jesus Christ, an absolute faith in the supremacy of spiritual principles to enable one to resist the fascinations of ceremonialism and tradition. They offer us a more "ornate worship," a more "refined" type of piety, "consecrated by antiquity"; they invite us to enter a selecter circle, and to place ourselves on a higher level than that of the vulgar religionism of faith and feeling. It is the Galatian "persuasion" over again. Ceremony, antiquity, ecclesiastical authority are after all poor substitutes for faith and love. If they come between us and the living Christ, if they limit and dishonour the work of His Spirit, we have a right to say, and we will say with the Apostle Paul, Away with them! The men of tradition are well content that we should "begin in the Spirit," provided they may have the finishing of our faith. To prey upon the Pauline Church is their ancient and natural habit. An evangelical beginning is too often followed by a ritualistic ending. And Paul is ever begetting spiritual children, to see himself robbed of them by these bewitching Judaisers. "O foolish Galatians," he seems still to be saying, What is it that charms you so much in all this ritual and externalism? Does it bring you nearer to the cross of Christ? Does it give you more of His Spirit? Is it a spiritual satisfaction that you find in these works of Church law, these priestly ordinances and performances? How can the sons of God return to such childish rudiments? Why should a religion which began so spiritually seek its perfection by means so formal and mechanical? The conflict which this Epistle signalised is one that has never ceased. Its elements belong to human nature. It is the contest between the religion of the Spirit and that of the letter, between the spontaneity of personal faith and the rights of usage and prescription. The history of the Church is largely the record of this incessant struggle. In every Christian community, in every earnest and devout spirit, it is repeated in some new phase. When the Fathers of the Church in the second and third centuries began to write about "the new law" and to identify the Christian ministry with the Aaronic priesthood, it was evident that Legalism was regaining its ascendency. Already the foundations were laid of the Catholic Church-system, which culminated in the Papacy of Rome. What Paul’s opponents sought to do by means of circumcision and Jewish prerogatives, that the Catholic legalists have done, on a larger scale, through the claims of the priesthood and the sacramental offices. The spiritual functions of the private Christian, one after another, were usurped or carelessly abandoned. Step by step the hierarchy interposed itself between Christ and His people’s souls, till its mediation became the sole channel and organ of the Holy Spirit’s influence. So it has come to pass, by a strange irony of history, that under the forms of Pauline doctrine and in the same of the Apostle of the Gentiles joined to that of Peter, Catholic Christendom, delivered by him from the Jewish yoke, has been entangled in a bondage in some respects even heavier and more repressive. If tradition and prescription are to regulate our Christian belief, they lead us infallibly to Rome, as they would have led the Galatians to perishing Jerusalem. 3. Paul said he had but one question to ask his readers, that which we have already discussed. And yet he does put to them, by way of parenthesis, another ( Galatians 3:4 ), suggested by what he has already called to mind, touching the beginning of their Christian course: "Have ye suffered so many things in vain?" Their folly was the greater in that it threatened to deprive them of the fruit of their past sufferings in the cause of Christ. The Apostle does not say this without a touch of softened feeling. Remembering the trials these Galatians had formerly endured, the sacrifices they had made in accepting the gospel, he cannot bear to think of their apostasy. Hope breaks through his fear, grief passes into tenderness as he adds, "If it be indeed in vain." The link of reminiscence connecting Galatians 3:3-4 is the same as that we find in 1 Thessalonians 1:6 : "Ye received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.". {Comp. 2 Thessalonians 1:4-6 ; Romans 8:17 ; 2 Timothy 1:8 } We need. not seek for any peculiar cause of these sufferings; nor wonder that the Apostle does not mention them elsewhere. Every infant Church had its baptism of persecution. No one could come out of heathen society and espouse the cause of Jesus, without making himself a mark for ridicule and violence, without the rupture of family and public ties, and many painful sacrifices. The hatred of Paul’s fellow-countrymen towards him was an additional cause of persecution to the Churches he had founded. They were followers of the crucified Nazarene, of the apostate Saul. And they had to suffer for it. With the joy of their new life in Christ there had come sharp pangs of loss and grief, heart-wounds deep and lasting. This slight allusion sufficiently reminds the Apostle’s readers of what they had passed through at the time of their conversion. And now were they going to surrender the faith won by such a struggle? Would they let themselves be cheated of blessings which had cost them so dear? "So many things," he asks, "did you suffer in vain?" He will not believe it. He cannot think that this brave beginning will have so mean an ending. If "God counts them worthy of His kingdom for which they suffered," let them. not deem themselves unworthy. Surely they have not escaped from the tyranny of heathenism, in order to yield up their liberties to Jewish intrigue, to the cozenage of false brethren who seek to exalt themselves at their expense. { Galatians 2:4 ; Galatians 4:17 ; Galatians 6:12-13 } Will flattery beguile from them the treasure to which persecution had made them cling the more closely? Too often, alas! the Galatian defection is repeated. The generous devotion of youth is followed by the lethargy and formalism of a prosperous age; and the man who at twenty-five was a pattern of godly zeal, at fifty is a finished worldling. The Christ whom he adored, the cross at which he bowed in those early days-he seldom thinks of them now. "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals; how thou wentest after Me in the wilderness." Success has spoiled him. The world’s glamour has bewitched him. He bids fair to "end in the flesh." In a broader sense, the Apostle’s question addresses itself to Churches and communities untrue to the spiritual principles that gave them birth. The faith of the primitive Church, that endured three centuries of persecution, yielded its purity to Imperial blandishments. Our fathers, Puritan and Scottish, staked their lives for the crown-rights of Jesus Christ and the freedom of faith. Through generations they endured social and civil ostracism in the cause of religious liberty. And now that the battle is won, there are those amongst their children who scarcely care to know what the struggle was about. Out of indolence of mind and vanity of scepticism, they abandon at the bidding of priest or sophist the spiritual heritage bequeathed to them. Did they then suffer so many things in vain? Was it an illusion that sustained those heroic souls, and enabled them to "stop the mouths of lions and subdue kingdoms"? Was it for nought that so many of Christ’s witnesses in these realms since the Reformation days have suffered the loss of all things rather than yield by subjection to a usurping and worldly priesthood? And can we, reaping the fruit of their faith and courage, afford in these altered times to dispense with the principles whose maintenance cost our forefathers so dear a price? "O foolish Galatians," Paul in that case might well say to us again! Galatians 3:6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Chapter 12 ABRAHAM’S BLESSING AND THE LAW’S CURSE. Galatians 3:6-14 FAITH then, we have learnt, not works of law, was the condition on which the Galatians received the Spirit of Christ. By this gate they entered the Church of God, and had come into possession of the spiritual blessings common to all Christian believers, and of those extraordinary gifts of grace which marked the Apostolic days. In this mode of salvation, the Apostle goes on to show, there was after all nothing new. The righteousness of faith is more ancient than legalism. It is as old as Abraham. His religion rested on this ground. "The promise of the Spirit," held by him in trust for the world, was given to his faith. "You received the Spirit, God works in you His marvellous powers, by the hearing of faith-even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." 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. So Paul declares in Galatians 3:6-9 , and re-affirms with emphasis in Galatians 3:14 . The intervening sentences set forth by contrast the curse that hangs over the man who seeks salvation by way of law and personal merit. Thus the two standing types of religion, the two ways by which men seek salvation, are put in contrast with each other-faith with its blessing, law with its curse. The former is the path on which the Galatians had entered, under the guidance of Paul; the latter, that to which the Judaic teachers were leading them. So far the two principles stand only in antagonism. The antinomy will be resolved in the latter part of the chapter. But why does Paul make so much of the faith of Abraham? Not only because it furnished him with a telling illustration, or because the words of Genesis 15:6 supplied a decisive proof-text for his doctrine: he could not well have chosen any other ground. Abraham’s case was the instantia probans in this debate. "We are Abraham’s seed": { Matthew 3:9 ; John 8:33-59 } this was the proud consciousness that swelled every Jewish breast. "Abraham’s bosom" was the Israelite’s heaven: even in Hades his guilty sons could claim pity from "Father Abraham". { Luke 16:19-31 } In the use of this title were concentrated all the theocratic pride and national bigotry of the Jewish race. To the example of Abraham the Judaistic teacher would not fail to appeal. He would tell the Galatians how the patriarch was called, like themselves, out of the heathen world to the knowledge of the true God; how he was separated from his Gentile kindred, and received the mark of circumcision to be worn thenceforth by all who followed in his steps, and who sought the fulfilment of the promise granted to Abraham and his seed. The Apostle holds, as strongly as any Judaist, that the promise belongs to the children of Abraham. But what makes a son of Abraham? "Birth, true Jewish blood, of course," replied the Judaist. The Gentile, in his view, could only come into a share of the heritage by receiving circumcision, the mark of legal adoption and incorporation. Paul answers this question by raising another. What was it that brought Abraham his blessing? To what did he owe his righteousness? It was faith: so Scripture declares-"Abraham believed God." Righteousness, covenant, promise, blessing-all turned upon this. And the true sons of Abraham are those who are like him: "Know then that the men of faith, these are Abraham’s sons." This declaration is a blow, launched with studied effect full in the face of Jewish privilege. Only a Pharisee, only a Rabbi, knew how to wound in this fashion. Like the words of Stephen’s defence, such sentences as these stung Judaic pride to the quick. No wonder that his fellow-countrymen, in their fierce fanaticism of race, pursued Paul with burning hate and set a mark upon his life. But the identity of Abraham’s blessing with that enjoyed by Gentile Christians is not left to rest on mere inference and analogy of principle. Another quotation clinches the argument: "In thee," God promised to the patriarch, "shall be blessed"-not the natural seed, not the circumcised alone-but "all the nations (Gentiles)"! And "the Scripture" said this, "foreseeing" what is now taking place, namely, "that God justifieth the Gentiles by faith." So that in giving this promise to Abraham it gave him, his "gospel before the time ( ??????????????? )." Good news indeed it was to the noble patriarch, that all the nations-of whom as a wide traveller he knew so much, and over whose condition he doubtless grieved - were finally to be blessed with the light of faith and the knowledge of the true God; and thus blessed through himself. In this prospect he "rejoiced to see Christ’s day"; nay, the Saviour tells us, like Moses and Elijah, "he saw it and was glad." Up to this point in Abraham’s history, as Paul’s readers would observe, there was no mention of circumcision or legal requirement ( Galatians 3:17 ; Romans 4:9-13 ). It was on purely evangelical principles, by a declaration of God’s grace listened to in thankful faith, that he had received the promise which linked him to the universal Church and entitled every true believer to call him father. "So that the men of faith are blessed, along with faithful Abraham." 1. What then, we ask, was the nature of Abraham’s blessing? In its essence, it was righteousness. The "blessing" of Galatians 3:9 ; Galatians 3:14 is synonymous with the "justification" of Galatians 3:6 ; Galatians 3:8 , embracing with it all its fruits and consequences. No higher benediction could come to any man than that God should "count him righteous." Paul and the Legalists agreed in designating righteousness before God man’s chief good. But they and he intended different things by it. Nay, Paul’s conception of righteousness, it is said, differed radically from that of the Old Testament, and even of his companion writers in the New Testament. Confessedly, his doctrine presents this idea under a peculiar aspect. But there is a spiritual identity, a common basis of truth, in all the Biblical teaching on this vital subject. Abraham’s righteousness was the state of a man who trustfully accepts God’s word of grace, and is thereby set right with God, and put in the way of being and doing right thenceforward. In virtue of his faith, God regarded and dealt with Abraham as a righteous man: Righteousness of character springs out of righteousness of standing. God makes a man righteous by counting him so! This is the Divine paradox of Justification by Faith. When the Hebrew author says, "God counted it to him for righteousness," he does not mean in lieu of righteousness, as though faith were a substitute for a righteousness not forthcoming and now rendered superfluous; but so as to amount to righteousness, with a view to righteousness. This "reckoning" is the sovereign act of the Creator, who gives what He demands, "who maketh alive the dead," and calleth the things that are not as though they Romans 4:17-22 . He sees the fruit in the germ. There is nothing arbitrary, or merely forensic in this imputation. Faith is, for such a being as man, the spring of all righteousness before God, the one act of the soul which is primarily and supremely right. What is more just than that the creature should trust his Creator, the child his Father? Here is the root of all right understanding and right relations between men and God-that which gives God, so to speak, a moral hold upon us. And by this trust of the heart, yielding itself in the "obedience of faith" to its Lord and Redeemer, it comes into communion with all those energies and purposes in Him which make for righteousness. Hence from first to last, alike in the earlier and later stages of revelation, man’s righteousness is "not his own"; it is "the righteousness that is of God, based upon faith." { Php 3:9 } Faith unites us to the source of righteousness, from which unbelief severs us. So that Paul’s teaching leads us to the fountainhead, while other Biblical teachers for the most part guide us along the course of the same Divine righteousness for man.

Illustrator

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? Galatians 3:1 A foolish Church D. Allport. I. In its ORIGIN. II. In its IDEA OF THE SUSTAINING ENERGY OF THE CHURCH. III. In its RETROGRESSION. IV. In its ESTIMATE OF THE TRUE POSITION AND REQUIREMENTS OF HUMANITY. V. In having LEFT ITS FIRST LOVE. ( D. Allport. )

Matthew Henry

3:1-5 Several things made the folly of the Galatian Christians worse. They had the doctrine of the cross preached, and the Lord's supper administered among them, in both which Christ crucified, and the nature of his sufferings, had been fully and clearly set forth. Had they been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, by the ministration of the law, or on account of any works done by them in obedience thereto? Was it not by their hearing and embracing the doctrine of faith in Christ alone for justification? Which of these had God owned with tokens of his favour and acceptance? It was not by the first, but the last. And those must be very unwise, who suffer themselves to be turned away from the ministry and doctrine which have been blessed to their spiritual advantage. Alas, that men should turn from the all-important doctrine of Christ crucified, to listen to useless distinctions, mere moral preaching, or wild fancies! The god of this world, by various men and means, has blinded men's eyes, lest they should learn to trust in a crucified Saviour. We may boldly demand where the fruits of the Holy Spirit are most evidently brought forth? whether among those who preach justification by the works of the law, or those who preach the doctrine of faith? Assuredly among the latter. 3:6-14 The apostle proves the doctrine he had blamed the Galatians for rejecting; namely, that of justification by faith without the works of the law. This he does from the example of Abraham, whose faith fastened upon the word and promise of God, and upon his believing he was owned and accepted of God as a righteous man. The Scripture is said to foresee, because the Holy Spirit that indited the Scripture did foresee. Through faith in the promise of God he was blessed; and it is only in the same way that others obtain this privilege. Let us then study the object, nature, and effects of Abraham's faith; for who can in any other way escape the curse of the holy law? The curse is against all sinners, therefore against all men; for all have sinned, and are become guilty before God: and if, as transgressors of the law, we are under its curse, it must be vain to look for justification by it. Those only are just or righteous who are freed from death and wrath, and restored into a state of life in the favour of God; and it is only through faith that persons become righteous. Thus we see that justification by faith is no new doctrine, but was taught in the church of God, long before the times of the gospel. It is, in truth, the only way wherein any sinners ever were, or can be justified. Though deliverance is not to be expected from the law, there is a way open to escape the curse, and regain the favour of God, namely, through faith in Christ. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law; being made sin, or a sin-offering, for us, he was made a curse for us; not separated from God, but laid for a time under the Divine punishment. The heavy sufferings of the Son of God, more loudly warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come, than all the curses of the law; for how can God spare any man who remains under sin, seeing that he spared not his own Son, when our sins were charged upon him? Yet at the same time, Christ, as from the cross, freely invites sinners to take refuge in him. 3:15-18 The covenant God made with Abraham, was not done away by the giving the law to Moses. The covenant was made with Abraham and his Seed. It is still in force; Christ abideth for ever in his person, and his spiritual seed, who are his by faith. By this we learn the difference between the promises of the law and those of the gospel. The promises of the law are made to the person of every man; the promises of the gospel are first made to Christ, then by him to those who are by faith ingrafted into Christ. Rightly to divide the word of truth, a great difference must be put between the promise and the law, as to the inward affections, and the whole practice of life. When the promise is mingled with the law, it is made nothing but the law. Let Christ be always before our eyes, as a sure argument for the defence of faith, against dependence on human righteousness. 3:19-22 If that promise was enough for salvation, wherefore then serveth the law? The Israelites, though chosen to be God's peculiar people, were sinners as well as others. The law was not intended to discover a way of justification, different from that made known by the promise, but to lead men to see their need of the promise, by showing the sinfulness of sin, and to point to Christ, through whom alone they could be pardoned and justified. The promise was given by God himself; the law was given by the ministry of angels, and the hand of a mediator, even Moses. Hence the law could not be designed to set aside the promise. A mediator, as the very term signifies, is a friend that comes between two parties, and is not to act merely with and for one of them. The great design of the law was, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to those that believe; that, being convinced of their guilt, and the insufficiency of the law to effect a righteousness for them, they might be persuaded to believe on Christ, and so obtain the benefit of the promise. And it is not possible that the holy, just, and good law of God, the standard of duty to all, should be contrary to the gospel of Christ. It tends every way to promote it. 3:23-25 The law did not teach a living, saving knowledge; but, by its rites and ceremonies, especially by its sacrifices, it pointed to Christ, that they might be justified by faith. And thus it was, as the word properly signifies, a servant, to lead to Christ, as children are led to school by servants who have the care of them, that they might be more fully taught by Him the true way of justification and salvation, which is only by faith in Christ. And the vastly greater advantage of the gospel state is shown, under which we enjoy a clearer discovery of Divine grace and mercy than the Jews of old. Most men continue shut up as in a dark dungeon, in love with their sins, being blinded and lulled asleep by Satan, through wordly pleasures, interests, and pursuits. But the awakened sinner discovers his dreadful condition. Then he feels that the mercy and grace of God form his only hope. And the terrors of the law are often used by the convincing Spirit, to show the sinner his need of Christ, to bring him to rely on his sufferings and merits, that he may be justified by faith. Then the law, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, becomes his loved rule of duty, and his standard for daily self-examination. In this use of it he learns to depend more simply on the Saviour. 3:26-29 Real Christians enjoy great privileges under the gospel; and are no longer accounted servants, but sons; not now kept at such a distance, and under such restraints as the Jews were. Having accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, and relying on him alone for justification and salvation, they become the sons of God. But no outward forms or profession can secure these blessings; for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. In baptism we put on Christ; therein we profess to be his disciples. Being baptized into Christ, we are baptized into his death, that as he died and rose again, so we should die unto sin, and walk in newness and holiness of life. The putting on of Christ according to the gospel, consists not in outward imitation, but in a new birth, an entire change. He who makes believers to be heirs, will provide for them. Therefore our care must be to do the duties that belong to us, and all other cares we must cast upon God. And our special care must be for heaven; the things of this life are but trifles. The city of God in heaven, is the portion or child's part. Seek to be sure of that above all things.