A COMMENTARY. THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. CHAP. I. AUL, an apostle, (a not of men, neither by a ver. 11, 12. PAUL, 1. "Not of men "-"not from men." 1. "Paul, an apostle (not of men, neither by man,") &c. St. Paul here asserts his Apostleship at the outset, because upon that, and that alone, depended the allegiance of the Galatian Christians to him as their spiritual father. Through his instrumentality they had been converted to the faith, but that would not have been a sufficient reason for their obedience to him in such a matter as the rejection of circumcision, if he had been only an ordinary teacher, sent by some other church to evangelize them. He had a special message, and that was to declare the complete freedom in Christ of the Gentiles, and this in the counsels of God required a distinct and independent Apostolate; and this distinct and independent Apostolate God ordained in him. "Not of men." There were, in this earliest age, men called apostles who, though inwardly moved by God to take upon themselves the office, were "of men "—that is, they did not receive their commission directly from the Lord. Such, apparently, was Barnabas, for we nowhere read of his receiving such a call as St. Paul and the original twelve received—such, probably, was Matthias; such in a sense was Epaphroditus (your Apostle, Phil. ii. 25), and from the recently discovered Didache we learn that such quasiapostles were numerous. In contrast with these was St. Paul. He 8 b Acts ix. 6. c Acts ii. 24. [GALATIANS. BY JESUS CHRIST. man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, was "not of men " in the same sense that SS. Peter and John were "not of men," for he, as well as the original twelve, were called directly and personally by Christ. "Neither by man." More properly, "neither through man.” Christ in converting him used no human instrumentality. He was separated to the Apostleship from the very womb. He was designated to the same office from the time of his conversion (Acts ix. 15). And though it pleased the Lord, even in the case of St. Paul, to honour His own ordinance of the imposition of hands, yet this was by the direct, one might say audible, voice of the Holy Ghost, and this ordination was not committed to the original twelve, or any one of them, but to certain very obscure prophets and teachers, so that in no way could the Apostle be said to have been "of " them, or "through" them, as it might have been said if he had been ordained or sent by some of the twelve.1 "But by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." Here let the reader notice how the Apostolate of St. Paul comes equally from God and from Christ. This can only be because their glory is co-equal, their majesty co-eternal. "God the Father." A similar expression to "Him hath God the Father sealed" (John vi. 27). The term Father here designates, not His relation to men as their Father, but His relation to the Son Whom He has begotten from eternity. "Who raised him from the dead." Many answers have been given to the question: Why is the Resurrection of Christ brought in here? Some say that the Resurrection of Christ is the primal truth of the Gospel, of which all the Apostles, as Apostles, are witnesses (Acts i. 22); others give what is to me a strange answer, that the Apostleship of St. Paul comes not from the man Christ Jesus, as that of the twelve did, but from the glorified Son of God; but surely in the lowest depth of His humiliation He was as much the Son of God as in His highest exaltation, just as He is now, as the One Mediator, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. ii. 5). Must not the reason be that St. Paul sends this Epistle to set the See particularly my notes on Acts xiii. 1. CHAP. I.] THE CHURCHES OF GALATIA. e 9 2 And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: d Phil. ii. 22. & iv. 21. e 1 Cor. xvi. 1. Galatians (and through them the Church), right upon the subject of Justification, and so at the outset he brings in God raising Christ from the dead, because according to what he has written in the Epistle to the Romans, the ultimate object of justifying faith is God the Father, Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead (Rom. iv. 24, 25) ? Christ is raised from the dead for our justification. Salvation is intimately connected with the gift of Life from our Lord, as Reconciliation is as intimately connected with the Death of the same Lord. Though the Lord's Death and Resurrection are one redeeming act, and are inseparable, yet Justification is, in St. Paul's system, more intimately connected with the Resurrection of the Lord, as the restoration to Him of that Life which He can now impart to us; and without keeping this steadily in mind St. Paul's view of this great matter cannot be properly understood (Rom. iv. 24, 25, v.10). 2. "And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia." "All the brethren which are with me." These brethren must be such men as Timothy, Titus, Tychicus, Trophimus, Luke, and others, whom he had constantly in attendance upon him, that he might send them with his letters and messages to his various churches, and bring back word of their steadfastness in the faith, or their vacillation. These he invested with some portion of his own authority, that in his absence, or much more at his decease, they might oversee the churches, and, as far as possible, continue those churches in his teaching, and in his traditions. It is impossible to suppose that this "all" comprehends the members of the particular local church in which he was writing this letter, for it is in the last degree unlikely that he would submit such a letter to them for their approval. In no way, we may be sure, did these brethren contribute anything to the contents of the Epistle. "To the churches of Galatia." Not to the Christians of any one city, but to those of a district. The principal cities of Galatia were Ancyra, Pessinus, and Tavium. 3. "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ." "Grace" means favour, but the favour 10 f Rom. i. 7. 1 Cor. i. 3. 2 Cor. i. 2. Eph. i. 2. Phil. i. 2. Col. i. 2. 1 Thess. i. 1. 2 Thess. i. 2. 2 John 3. g Matt. xx. 28. Rom. iv. 25. ii. 14. GRACE AND PEACE. [GALATIANS. 3 'Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he of such a being as God, and one so full of love as the ch. ii. 20. Tit. Lord Jesus, cannot be mere favour dwelling in the breast of God; it must include the outcoming of this secret favour in actual tokens of love answering to the needs of the creature, such as remission of sins, a new life, and new powers of serving God: peace, too, is not only peace with God through reconciliation to Him, but that from which it is inseparable, peace with one another. From v. 15 of this Epistle we learn that the Galatians were falling from this grace, for he there writes, "If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." This the reader will observe is another proof of the co-equal Godhead of the Father and of the Son. But it may be asked, "Why is not the Holy Spirit mentioned ? Because He is the grace and the peace, for He is the power of God within us. He is the promise of the Father. Through Him the Father and the Son dwell in us. 4. "Who gave himself for our sins." He gave Himself as a sacrifice-not as a substitute in a mere forensic sense, but a sacrifice fulfilling the idea of those sacrifices of the old œconomy, by which God ordained that till the immolation of His Son He should be worshipped. This mighty truth is expressed in various ways by the Lord and His Apostles, as "the Lamb of God (of course a sacrificial lamb) that taketh away the sins of the world; "I lay down my life for the sheep; ' ""the Son of man came... to give His Life a ransom for many; ""He was delivered for our offences; "In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree; ""He is the propitiation for our sins." All such expressions (of which I have given scarcely a tenth part) seem to have their root in the evangelical prophecy, Isaiah liii., "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed..... The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." This evangelical prophecy is the application to the Messiah that was to come of the terms used with respect to Jewish sacrifices. Just as in the case of ""He CHAP. I.] THIS PRESENT EVIL WORLD. h 11 might deliver us from this present evil world, h See Is. lxv. according to the will of God and our Father: 17. John xv. 19. & xvii. 14.. Heb. ü. 5. & vi. 5. 1 John v. 19. 4. "World;" æon, "age." the burnt offering, the man who brought it was to lay his hands on the head of the victim, and it would be accepted for him to make atonement for him; so we, in faith in the One all-sufficient sacrifice, have to lay our hands on Him in the ways of His own appointment, and we are partakers of it. There is a difference of reading in respect of the prepositions. In the Vatican MS. and Text. Rec. it is vπèρ. In N, A., D., E., F., G., &c., it is repì. It has not the meaning of exact substitution, but rather means "because of," but there is no difference, for if the Son of God gave Himself for our sins in any sense of the word "for," it must have been to atone for them, and take them away. "That he might deliver us from this present evil world," i.e., from its dominion, its slavery, its antagonism to God. The evil world of St. Paul was twofold. It was the Jewish evil world, with its self-righteousness, its legalism, its utterly Godless and immoral traditions, forming a character of intense worldliness and deepseated alienation from God, and the Gentile evil world with its lasciviousness, lusts, and abominable idolatries. The sacrifice of Christ could alone deliver from this twofold world of evil. It reconciled men to God and purified their hearts by faith. 66 "This evil world" perhaps should be rendered, "this world of evil." World," we need hardly say, does not signify the globe or even its inhabitants, but the course of things upon it in which fallen men and fallen angels are concerned. Thus the Apostle John speaks of "the whole world lying in wickedness" (1 John v. 19), and the Apostle James of the "friendship of the world being enmity with God" (James iv. 4). 66 According to the will of God and our Father." Here at the opening of the Epistle we have the whole redemptive act ascribed to the will of the Father. This ought to have rendered impossible that horrible caricature of Salvation which represents God the Father as angry with the human race, and seeking nothing but their punishment, and as lifting up his sword of vengeance to slay them, whilst His Son rushes forward and receives the blow upon Himself. As the Father has always been held to be the Fountain |