Title: The Glad Tidings
Author: Waggoner, Ellet Joseph
Language: English
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                            The Glad Tidings

                            THE GLAD TIDINGS

                                   By
                             E. J. WAGGONER


                      PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.
                             Oakland, Cal.
                               New York.
                            Kansas City, Mo.
                                  1900



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1900, by PACIFIC PRESS
PUBLISHING COMPANY, In the office of the Librarian of Congress,
Washington, D. C.

ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND.



                               CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Real Gospel 9

CHAPTER II.

Life by the Faith of Christ, the Truth of the Gospel 54

CHAPTER III.

Redeemed from the Curse, to the Blessing of Abraham 95

CHAPTER IV.

The Adoption of Sons 159

CHAPTER V.

The Spirit’s Power over the Flesh 195

CHAPTER VI.

The Glory of the Cross 230



                                PREFACE.


The Epistle to the Galatians, together with its companion, the Epistle
to the Romans, was the source, through the Spirit, of the Reformation of
the sixteenth century, the key-note of which was, “The just shall live
by faith.” The reformation then begun is not yet complete, and the same
watchword needs to be sounded now as then. If the people of God will
become filled with the truth so vividly set forth in this epistle, both
the church and the world will be stirred as profoundly as in the days of
Luther. May this speedily be the case, and thus the times of restoration
of all things be hastened!



                            The Glad Tidings


It is quite common, in writing upon any book in the Bible, to spend some
time on an “Introduction” to the book in question—setting forth the
nature of it, the circumstances under which it was written, and the
probable purpose of the writer, together with many other things, partly
conjectural, and partly derived from the book itself. All such
statements the reader has to take on the authority of the one making
them, since, not having yet studied the book, he can not judge for
himself. The best way is to introduce him at once to the study of the
book, and then he will, if diligent and faithful, soon learn all that it
has to reveal concerning itself. We learn more of a man by talking with
him than by hearing somebody talk about him. So we will proceed at once
to the study of the Epistle to the Galatians, and let it speak for
itself.

Nothing can take the place of the Scriptures themselves. If all would
study the Bible as prayerfully and as conscientiously as they ought,
giving earnest heed to every word, and receiving it as coming directly
from God, there would be no need of any other religious book. Whatever
is written should be for the purpose of calling people’s attention more
sharply to the words of Scripture; whatever substitutes any man’s
opinions for the Bible, so that by it people are led to rest content
without any further study of the Bible itself, is worse than useless.
The reader is, therefore, most earnestly urged to study, first of all,
the Scripture text very diligently and carefully, so that every
reference to it will be a reference to a familiar acquaintance. May God
grant that this little aid to the study of the Word may make every
reader better acquainted with all Scripture, which is able to make him
wise unto salvation.



                               CHAPTER I.
            The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the Real Gospel.


“Paul, an apostle (not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus
Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), and all the
brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: Grace to you
and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave
Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil
world, according to the will of our God and Father; to whom be the glory
forever and ever. Amen.

“I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from Him that called you in
the grace of Christ unto a different gospel; which is not another
gospel; only there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the
Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach
unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him
be anathema. As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man
preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him
be anathema. For am I now persuading men, or God? or am I seeking to
please men? if I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of
Christ.

“For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the Gospel which was
preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it
from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of
Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my manner of life in time past in the
Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God,
and made havoc of it; and I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many
of mine own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for
the traditions of my fathers. But when it was the good pleasure of God,
who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His
grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the
Gentiles; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood; neither went
I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went away
into Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus.

“Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and
tarried with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none,
save James the Lord’s brother. Now touching the things which I write
unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. Then I came into the regions of
Syria and Cilicia. And I was still unknown by face unto the churches of
Judea which were in Christ; but they only heard say, He that once
persecuted us now preacheth the faith of which he once made havoc; and
they glorified God in me.” Galatians 1, R. V.

[Sidenote: An Apostolic Salutation.]

The first five verses form a greeting such as, with the exception of the
first verses of the book of Romans, is not to be found elsewhere in the
Bible, and, consequently, nowhere else in the world. It contains the
whole Gospel. If there were no other portion of Scripture accessible,
this contains sufficient to save the world. If we would study this small
portion as diligently, and prize it as highly, as if there were no more,
we should find our faith and hope and love infinitely strengthened, and
our knowledge of the rest of the Bible much increased. In reading it,
let the Galatians sink out of sight, and let each one consider it the
voice of God, through His apostle, speaking to him to-day.

[Sidenote: A Good Commission.]

An apostle is one who is sent. Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, and
of God, the Father, who raised Him from the dead. He had good backing. A
messenger’s confidence is in proportion to the authority of the one who
sends him, and to his confidence in that authority and power. Paul knew
that he was sent by the Lord, and he knew that the power of God is the
power that raises from the dead. Now “he whom God hath sent speaketh the
words of God.” John 3:34. Thus it was that Paul spoke with authority,
and the words which he spoke were the commandments of God. 1 Cor. 14:37.
So in reading this epistle, or any other in the Bible, we have not to
make allowance for the writer’s personal peculiarities and prejudices.
It is true that each writer retains his own individuality, since God
chooses different men to do different work solely on account of their
different personality; but it is God’s Word in all, and nothing need be
taken off from the authority of the message, and set down to the score
of prejudice or early education.

It is well to remember that not only the apostles, but every one in the
church, is commissioned to “speak as the oracles of God.” 1 Peter 4:11.
All who are in Christ are new creatures, having been reconciled to God
by Jesus Christ; and all who have been reconciled are given the word and
ministry of reconciliation, so that they are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God by them, even as by Christ, was beseeching men to be
reconciled to Himself. 2 Cor. 5:17-20. This is a wonderful support
against discouragement and against fear to speak God’s message. The
ambassadors of earthly governments have authority proportionate to the
power of the king or ruler whom they represent; but Christians represent
the King of kings and Lord of lords.

[Sidenote: Apostles Are of God.]

“God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets,
thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings,” etc. 1
Cor. 12:28. Let it be borne in mind that all these are set in the church
by God Himself. No other can do it. It is impossible for men to make a
true apostle or prophet. There are certain people in the world who say
to others, Why do you not have apostles and prophets, etc., in the
church? ignoring the fact that God has them in His church until this
day, although they are often unrecognized, even as the apostleship of
Paul and the others was often denied. Then there are some combinations
of people who claim to have all these among them. Reading that God has
set them in the church, they see that the true church of God ought to
have apostles, prophets, etc. Accordingly they appoint some to be
apostles, others to be prophets, and others to be teachers, and then
they point to these as evidence that they are the true church of God.
The fact is, however, that this is the strongest possible proof that
they are not the church of God. If they were the church of God, apostles
and prophets would be set among them by God Himself; but the fact that
they themselves are obliged to make apostles and prophets, shows that
they have none in fact. They are simply setting up a dummy to hide the
absence of the reality; but the presence of the sham only emphasizes the
absence of the real.

[Sidenote: Not of Men.]

All Gospel teaching is based upon and derives its authority from the
fact of the Divinity of Christ. The apostles and prophets were so fully
imbued with this truth that it appears everywhere in their writings. In
the very first verse of this epistle we find it in the statement that
Paul was not an apostle of men, nor by any man, but by Jesus Christ, who
is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), “the effulgence of His
glory, and the very image of His substance” (Heb. 1:1-3, R. V.); He was
in the beginning with God, and was God, before the world was. John 1:1;
17:5. “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Col.
1:17, R. V.

[Sidenote: The Father and the Son.]

“Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead,” are
associated on equal terms. “I and My Father are One.” John 10:30. They
both sit upon one throne. Heb. 1:3; 8:1; Rev. 3:21. The counsel of peace
is between them both. Zech. 6:12, 13. Jesus was the Son of God all His
life, although He was of the seed of David according to the flesh; but
it was by the resurrection from the dead, which was accomplished by the
power of the Spirit of holiness, that His Sonship was demonstrated to
all. Rom. 1:3, 4. This epistle has the same authority as Paul’s
apostleship: it is from Him who has power to raise the dead, and from
Him who was raised from the dead.

[Sidenote: The Churches of Galatia.]

Galatia was a province in Asia Minor, so called from the fact that it
was inhabited by Gauls,—people who came from the country now known as
France. They settled in the territory which took its name from them
(Gaul-atia—Galatia), in the third century before Christ. They were, of
course, pagans, their religion being quite similar to that of the
Druids, of Britain. Paul was the one who first preached Christianity to
them, as we read in Acts 16:6; 18:23. The country of Galatia also
included Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, which were visited by Paul, with
Barnabas, on his first missionary journey. Acts 14.

[Sidenote: Grace and Peace Be to You.]

This is the word of the Lord, let it be remembered, and therefore means
more than man’s word. The Lord does not deal in empty compliments. His
word is substantial; it carries with it the thing which it names. God’s
word creates, and here we have the very form of the creative word.

God said, “Let there be light; and there was light,” and so on through
the whole creation, “He spake, and it was.” So here, “Let there be grace
and peace to you,” and so it is. “The grace of God hath appeared,
bringing salvation to all men.” Titus 2:11. “Peace I leave with you, My
peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” John
14:27. “Peace, peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is near,
saith the Lord.” Isa. 57:19. God has sent grace and peace, bringing
righteousness and salvation to all men—even to you, whoever you are, and
to me. When you read this third verse of the first chapter of Galatians,
do not read it as a sort of complimentary phrase,—as a mere passing
salutation to open the real matter at hand,—but as the creative word
that brings to you personally all the blessings of the peace of God,
that passeth all understanding. It is to us the same word that Jesus
spoke to the woman: “Thy sins are forgiven.” “Go in peace.” Luke
7:48-50. Peace is given to you; therefore, “let the peace of God rule in
your hearts.”

[Sidenote: The Gift of Christ.]

This grace and peace come from Christ, “who gave Himself for our sins.”
“Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the
gift of Christ.” Eph. 4:7. But this grace is “the grace that is in
Christ Jesus.” 2 Tim. 2:1. Therefore we know that Christ Himself is
given to every one of us. The fact that men live is an evidence that
Christ has been given to them, for Christ is “the life,” and the life is
the light of men, and this life-light “lighteth every man that cometh
into the world.” John 1:4, 9; 14:6. In Christ all things consist (Col.
1:17), and thus it is that since God “spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all,” He can not do otherwise than, with Him,
freely “give us all things.” Rom. 8:32. “His Divine power hath given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” 2 Peter 1:3.
The whole universe is given to us in Christ, and the fulness of the
power that is in it is ours for the overcoming of sin. God counts each
soul of as much value as all creation. Christ has, by the grace of God,
tasted death for every man (Heb. 2:9), so that every man in the world
has received the “unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15). “The grace of God,
and the gift by grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded
unto many,” even to all; for “as by the offense of one judgment came
upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the
free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” Rom. 5:15, 18.

[Sidenote: Christ Not Divided.]

The question is asked, “Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you?”
(1 Cor. 1:13), the answer obviously being in the negative. In that
Christ is given to every man, each person gets the whole of Him. The
love of God embraces the whole world, but it also singles out each
individual. A mother’s love is not divided up among her children, so
that each one receives only a third, a fourth, or a fifth of it; each
one is the object of all her affection. How much more so with the God
whose love is more perfect than any mother’s, and who Himself is love!
Isa. 49:15. Christ is the light of the world, the Sun of Righteousness.
But light is not divided among a crowd of people. If a room full of
people be brilliantly lighted, each individual gets the benefit of all
the light, just as much as though he were alone in the room. So the life
of Christ lights every man that comes into the world, and in every
believing heart Christ dwells in all His fulness. Sow a seed in the
ground, and you get many seeds, each one having as much life as the one
sown. So Christ, the true Seed, whence everything of worth comes, gives
to all the whole of His life.

[Sidenote: Our Sins Purchased.]

Christ “gave Himself for our sins.” That is to say, He bought them, and
paid the price for them. This is a simple statement of fact; the
language used is that commonly employed in referring to purchases. “How
much did you give for it?” or, “How much do you want for it?” are
frequent questions. When we hear a man say that he gave so much for a
certain thing, what do we at once know?—We know that that thing belongs
to him, because he has bought it. So when the Holy Spirit tells us that
Christ gave Himself for our sins, of what should we be equally
sure?—That He has bought our sins, and that they belong to Him, and not
to us. They are ours no longer, and we have no right to them. Every time
we sin we are robbing the Lord, for we must remember that Christ has
purchased not merely the specific acts of sin that we have committed,
and that are in the past, but the sins that are in us, and which break
forth. In this faith there is righteousness.

[Sidenote: He Has Bought Us, Too.]

This follows from the fact that He has purchased our sins, to deliver us
from ourselves. Our sins are part of ourselves; nay, they are the whole
of us, for our natural lives are nothing but sin. Therefore, Christ
could not buy our sins without buying us also. Of this fact we have many
plain statements. He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from
all iniquity.” Titus 2:14. “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with
a price.” 1 Cor. 6:19. “Ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things,
with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your
fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot, even the blood of Christ.” 1 Peter 1:18, 19, R. V.

[Sidenote: “Accepted in the Beloved.”]

How often the Gospel worker hears some one say, “I am so sinful that I
am afraid the Lord will not accept me;” and even people who have long
professed to be Christians, often mournfully wish that they could be
sure of their acceptance with God. Now the Lord has given no ground for
any such doubts. The question of acceptance is forever settled by what
we have just read. Christ has bought us, together with all our sins, and
has paid the price. That shows that He has accepted us. Why does a man
go to the shop and buy an article?—Because he wants it. If he has paid
the price for it, having examined it so as to know what he was buying,
does the merchant worry lest he will not accept it?—Not at all; the
merchant knows that it is his business to get the goods to the purchaser
as soon as possible. If he does not deliver the goods to the purchaser,
he is guilty of fraud. The buyer will not indifferently say, “Well, I
have done my part, and if he doesn’t care to do his, he need not—that’s
all; he may keep the things if he wants to.” No; he will visit the shop,
and say, “Why have you not given me what belongs to me?” He will take
vigorous measures to come into possession of his property. Even so it is
not a matter of indifference to Jesus whether we surrender ourselves to
Him or not. He longs with an infinite yearning for the souls that He has
purchased with His own blood. “The Son of man is come to seek and to
save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10. God has “chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world,” and so “He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved.” Eph. 1:4-6.

[Sidenote: “This Present Evil World.”]

Christ gave Himself for our sins, “that He might deliver us from this
present evil world.” He will take from us that which He bought, which is
our sinfulness. In so doing, He delivers us from this “present evil
world.” That shows us that “this present evil world” is nothing but our
own sinful selves. It is “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life.” 1 John 2:16. We ourselves make all the
evil there is in the world. It is man that has made the world evil. “By
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12. We need not
try to throw the blame upon somebody else; we ourselves provide all the
evil that can possibly injure us.

The story is told of a man whose besetting sin was a violent temper. He
would frequently become very angry, but he laid all the blame upon the
people with whom he lived, who were so exasperating. Nobody, he
declared, could do right among such people. So he resolved, as many
others have done, to “leave the world,” and become a hermit. He chose a
cave in the forest for his dwelling-place, far from any other human
habitation. In the morning he took his jug to a spring near by to get
water for his morning meal. The rock was moss-grown, and the continual
flow of water had made it very slippery. As he set his jug down under
the stream, it slid away. He put it back, and again it was driven away.
Two or three times was this repeated, and each time the replacing of the
jug was done with increasing energy. Finally the hermit’s patience was
utterly exhausted, and exclaiming, “I’ll see if you’ll not stay!” he
picked the vessel up and set it down with such vehemence that it was
broken to pieces. There was nobody to blame but himself, and he had the
good sense to see that it was not the world around him but the world
inside of him that made him sin. Doubtless very many can recognize some
experience of their own in this little story.

Luther, in his monk’s cell, whither he had gone to escape from the
world, found his sins more grievous than ever. Wherever we go, we carry
the world with us; we have it in our hearts and on our backs,—a heavy,
crushing load. We find that when we would do good, “evil is present”
with us. Rom. 7:21. It is present, always, “this present evil world,”
until, goaded to despair, we cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me from this body of death?” Even Christ found His
greatest temptations in the desert, far away from human habitations. All
these things teach us that hermits and monks are not in God’s plan.
God’s people are the salt of the earth; and salt, no matter how good it
is, is of no use if shut up in a box; it must be mingled with that which
is to be preserved.

[Sidenote: Deliverance.]

That which God has promised, He is “able also to perform.” He “is able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Eph. 3:20.
He “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” Jude 24. He gave
Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us, and He did not die in
vain. Deliverance is ours. Christ was sent “to open the blind eyes, to
bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness
out of the prison house.” Isa. 42:7. Accordingly He cries out to the
captives, “Liberty!” To them that are bound He proclaims that the prison
doors are open. Isa. 61:1. To all the prisoners, He says, “Go forth.”
Isa. 49:9. Each soul may say, if he will, “O Lord, truly I am Thy
servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast
loosed my bonds.” Ps. 116:16. The thing is true, whether we believe it
or not. We are the Lord’s servants, even though we stubbornly refuse to
serve; for He has bought us; and, having bought us, He has broken every
bond that hindered us from serving Him. If we but believe, we have the
victory that has overcome the world, 1 John 5:4, R. V.; John 16:33. The
message to us is that our “warfare is accomplished,” our “iniquity is
pardoned.” Isa. 40:2. We have but to shout, as Israel did before
Jericho, to see that God has given to us the victory. God “hath visited
and redeemed His people.” Luke 1:68. Out of Zion has come the Deliverer,
to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Rom. 11:26. “Thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

              “My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
                My sin, not in part, but the whole,
              Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
                Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”

[Sidenote: The Will of God.]

All this deliverance is “according to the will of our God and Father.”
The will of God is our sanctification. 1 Thess. 4:3. He willeth that all
men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim. 2:4.
And He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” Eph.
1:11. “What! do you mean to teach universal salvation?” We mean to teach
just what the Word of God teaches,—that “the grace of God hath appeared,
bringing salvation to all men.” Titus 2:11, R. V. God has wrought out
salvation for every man, and has given it to him; but the majority spurn
it, and throw it away. The Judgment will reveal the fact that full and
complete salvation was given to every man, and that the lost have
deliberately thrown away their birthright possession. Thus every mouth
will be stopped.

The will of God is, therefore, something to rejoice in, and not
something to be accepted with a wry face, and merely endured. Even
though it involves suffering, it is for our good, and is designed to
work “for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Rom.
8:28; 2 Cor. 4:17. In the law His will is revealed (Rom. 2:18), and we
should, therefore, study it, saying with Christ, “I delight to do Thy
will, O My God.” Ps. 40:8.

Here is the comfort of knowing the will of God. He wills our deliverance
from the bondage of sin; therefore, we can pray with the utmost
confidence, and with thanksgiving; for “this is the confidence that we
have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth
us; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions that we desired of Him.” 1 John 5:14, 15. Blessed
assurance! Let us ever with glad and humble hearts pray, “Thy will be
done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

[Sidenote: To God Be the Glory.]

Not simply, “To Him be glory,” as in the common version, but “To whom be
the glory,” as in the Revision. “Thine is the kingdom; and the power,
and the glory.” All glory is God’s, whether men acknowledge it or not.
To give Him the glory is not to impart anything to Him, but to recognize
a fact. We give Him the glory by acknowledging that His is the power.
“It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” Ps. 100:3. Power and
glory are the same, as we learn from Eph. 1:19, 20, which tells us that
Christ was raised from the dead by the exceeding greatness of God’s
power, and from Rom. 6:4, where we learn that “Christ was raised up from
the dead by the glory of the Father.” Also when Jesus by His wondrous
power had turned water to wine, we are told that in the performance of
the miracle, He “manifested forth His glory.” John 2:11. So when we say
that to God is the glory, we are saying that the power is all from Him.
We do not save ourselves, for we are “without strength.” But God is the
Almighty, and He can and does save. If we confess that all glory belongs
to God, we shall not be indulging in vainglorious imaginations or
boastings, and then will God be glorified in us. “Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 5:16.

The last proclamation of “the everlasting Gospel,”—that which announces
the hour of God’s Judgment come,—has for its burden, “Fear God, and give
glory to Him;” “and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:6, 7. Thus we see that the
Epistle to the Galatians, which says, “To Him be the glory,” is the
setting forth of the everlasting Gospel. And it is emphatically a
message for the last days. Let us study it, and heed it, that we may
help to hasten the time when “the earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Hab.
2:14.

[Sidenote: A Critical Case.]

The abruptness with which the apostle plunges into the midst of his
subject shows how urgent was the matter that called forth his epistle.
His spirit seemed to be on fire, and, seizing his pen, he wrote as only
one can write who feels upon his heart the burden of souls about to rush
to destruction.

[Sidenote: Who Calls Men?]

“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son
Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Cor. 1:9. “The God of all grace, who hath
called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,” etc. 1 Peter 5:10.
“The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar
off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Acts 2:39. Those that
are near, and those that are afar off, include all that are in the
world; therefore, God calls everybody. Not all come, however. “The very
God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and
soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.” 1 Thess.
5:23, 24. It is God who calls men.

[Sidenote: Separating from God.]

Since the Galatian brethren were separating from Him that had called
them, and as God is the one who graciously calls men, it is evident that
they were separating from God. Thus we see that it was no slight thing
that called forth this epistle. Paul’s brethren were in mortal danger,
and he could not spend time on compliments, but must needs get at once
to the subject, and present it in as clear and direct terms as possible.

It may be well in passing to note an opinion that sometimes obtains,
namely, that Paul referred to himself as the one who had called the
Galatian brethren, and from whom they were removing. A little thought
should convince anybody of the fallacy of this idea. First, consider the
positive evidence, a little of which is already noted, that it is God
who calls. Remember also that it was Paul himself who said that the
apostasy would be the result of men’s seeking to draw away disciples
after themselves (Acts 20:30); he, as the servant of Christ, would be
the last man to draw people to himself. It is true that God uses agents,
of whom Paul was one, to call men, but it is God, nevertheless, that
calls. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself;” we are
ambassadors for Christ, so that now it is God beseeching men by us
instead of by Christ, to be reconciled to Himself. There may be many
mouths, but there is only one voice.

It is a small matter to be joined to or separated from men, but a matter
of vital importance to be joined to God. Many seem to think that if they
are only “members in good standing” in this or that church, they are
secure. But the only thing worth considering is, Am I joined to the
Lord, and walking in His truth? If one is joined to the Lord, he will
very soon find his place among God’s people, for those who are not God’s
people will not have a zealous, consistent follower of God among them
very long. See Isa. 66:5; John 9:22, 33, 34; 15:18-21; 16:1-3; 2 Tim.
3:1-5, 12. When Barnabas went to Antioch, he exhorted the brethren that
with purpose of heart they would “cleave unto the Lord.” Acts 11:22, 23.
That was all that was necessary. If we do that, we shall certainly be
with God’s own people.

[Sidenote: Without God.]

Those who were departing from God were “without God in the world,” just
to the extent that they were removed from Him. But those who are in that
condition are Gentiles, or heathen. Eph. 2:11, 12. It is evident,
therefore, that the Galatian brethren were relapsing into heathenism. It
could not be otherwise; for whenever any Christian loses his hold upon
God, he inevitably and even unconsciously drops back into the old life
from which he had been saved. Each backslider will take up the
particular habits to which he was formerly a slave. No more hopeless
condition can exist in the world than to be without God.

[Sidenote: Another Gospel.]

The Gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth.” Rom. 1:16. God Himself is the power, so that separation from
God means separation from the Gospel of Christ, who is the power of God.
Nothing can be called a gospel unless it professes to give salvation.
That which professes to offer nothing but death, can not be called a
gospel. “Gospel” means “joyful news,” “good tidings,” and a promise of
death does not answer that description. In order for any false doctrine
to pass as the Gospel, it must pretend to be the way of life; otherwise
it could not deceive men. It is evident, therefore, that the Galatians
were being seduced from God, by something that promised them life and
salvation, but by a power other than that of God, namely, their own
power. This other gospel was solely a human gospel. The question
consequently would be, Which is the true Gospel? Is it the one that Paul
preached? or the one the other men set forth? Therefore, we see that
this epistle must be an emphatic presentation of the true Gospel as
distinguished from every false gospel.

[Sidenote: No Other Gospel.]

Just as Jesus Christ is the only power of God, and there is no other
name than that of Jesus, given among men, whereby salvation can be
obtained, so there can be only one Gospel. “Power belongeth unto God,”
and to Him alone. See Ps. 62:9-11. A sham is nothing. A mask is not a
man. So this other gospel, to which the Galatian brethren were being
enticed, was only a perverted gospel, a counterfeit, a sham, and no real
gospel at all. Some versions give verses 6 and 7 thus: “I marvel that ye
are so soon removed ... unto another gospel, although there is not any
other.” Since there is no other gospel now, there never could have been
any other, for God changes not. So the Gospel which Paul preached to the
Galatians, as well as to the Corinthians,—“Jesus Christ and Him
crucified,”—was the Gospel that was preached by Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, and Isaiah. “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through
His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.”
Acts 10:43.

[Sidenote: “Accursed.”]

If any man, or even an angel from heaven, should preach any other gospel
than that which Paul preached, he would bring himself under a curse.
There are not two standards of right and wrong. That which will bring a
curse to-day would have produced the same result five thousand years
ago. Thus we find that the way of salvation has been exactly the same in
every age. The Gospel was preached to Abraham (Gal. 3:8), angels being
sent to him; and the prophets preached the Gospel (1 Peter 1:11, 12).
But if the Gospel preached by them had been different from that preached
by Paul, they would have been accursed.

Why should one be accursed for preaching a different gospel?—Because he
is the means of fastening others in the curse, by leading them to trust
for their salvation in that which professes to be power, but which is
nothing. Since the Galatians were removing from God, it is evident that
they were trusting to supposed human power—their own power—for
salvation. But no man can save another (Ps. 49:6, 7), therefore, “cursed
be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose
heart departeth from the Lord.” Jer. 17:5. The one who leads men into
the curse must, of course, himself be accursed.

“Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way.” Deut.
27:18. If this be so of the one who causes a physically blind man to
stumble, how much more must it apply to one who causes a soul to stumble
to its eternal ruin! To delude people with a false hope of salvation,—to
cause them to put their trust in that which can by no means deliver
them,—what could possibly be more wicked? It is to lead people to build
their house over the bottomless pit. Well might the apostle deliberately
reiterate his anathema. Here, again, we see the gravity of the situation
that called forth this epistle.

[Sidenote: “An Angel from Heaven.”]

But is there any danger, any possibility, that an angel from heaven
would preach any other than the one, true Gospel?—Most assuredly,
although it would not be an angel recently come from heaven. We read of
“the angels that sinned” (2 Peter 2:4), and “kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation” (Jude 6), and that the habitation
from which they were cast was heaven (Rev. 12:7-9). Now “Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if
his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.” 2
Cor. 11:14, 15. It is they who come professing to be the spirits of the
departed, and to bring messages fresh from the realms above (where the
departed are not), and preaching invariably “another gospel” than the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Beware of them. “Beloved, believe not every
spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God.” 1 John 4:1. “To
the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word,
it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20. No one need be
deceived, so long as he has God’s Word. Nay, it is impossible for
anybody to be deceived while he holds to the Word of God. That is a
light to the way.

[Sidenote: Not Men-Pleasers.]

It is admitted by churchmen that in the first three centuries the church
became leavened with paganism, and that, in spite of reformations, much
of paganism still remains. Now this was the result of trying to please
men. The bishops thought that they could gain influence over the heathen
by relaxing some of the strictness of the principles of the Gospel,
which they did, and the result was the corruption of the church.
Self-love is always at the bottom of efforts to conciliate and please
men. The bishops desired (often, perhaps, without being conscious of it)
to draw away disciples after themselves. Acts 20:30. In order to gain
the favor of the people, they had to compromise and pervert the truth.
This was what was being done in Galatia; men were perverting the Gospel
of Christ. But Paul was not of that class; he was seeking to please God,
and not men. He was the servant of God, and God was the only one whom he
needed to please. He who seeks to please men, is the servant of men, and
not of God.

This principle is true in every grade of service. The house-servants or
the shop assistants who labor only to please men, will not be faithful
servants, for they will do good work only where it will be seen, but
will slight any task that can not come under the eye of their employers.
So Paul exhorts: “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to
the flesh; not with eye service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of
heart, fearing God; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the
Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the
reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Col. 3:22-24.
He who cares for nothing else but to serve and please God, will render
the best service to men.

This is a thing that needs to be impressed upon all. Christian workers
especially need it. There is a tendency to dull the edge of truth, lest
we should lose the favor of some wealthy or influential person. How many
have stifled conviction, fearing the loss of money or position! Let
every one of us remember this: “If I yet pleased men, I should not be
the servant of Christ.” But this does not mean that we shall be stern
and uncourteous. It does not mean that we willingly offend any. God is
good to all. He is kind to the unthankful and the unholy. Jesus went
about doing good, speaking words of love and comfort. We are to be
soul-winners, and so must have a winning manner; but we are to win souls
to God, and, therefore, must exhibit only the attractiveness of the
loving, crucified One. We serve Christ by allowing His Spirit to control
us.

                                       “Who best
                 Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best.”

[Sidenote: “Not of Man.”]

Note how this epistle emphasizes the fact that the Gospel is divine, not
human. In the first verse the apostle states that he was not sent by
man, nor to represent any man. Again he says that he is not anxious to
please men, but only Christ; and now it is made very clear that the
message he bore was wholly from heaven. By birth and education he was
opposed to the Gospel, and when he was converted it was by a voice from
heaven. Read the accounts of his conversion in Acts 9:1-22; 22:3-16;
26:9-20. The Lord Himself appeared to him in the way as he was breathing
threatening and slaughter against the saints of God.

There are no two persons whose experience in conversion is the same, yet
the general principles are the same in all. In effect, every person must
be converted just as Paul was. The experience will seldom be so
striking, but if it is genuine, it must be a revelation from heaven as
surely as Paul’s was. “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord.”
Isa. 54:13; John 6:45. “Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath
learned of the Father, cometh unto Me.” “The anointing which ye have
received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you;
but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and
is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him.” 1
John 2:27.

Do not make the mistake of supposing that this does away with the
necessity for any human agency in the Gospel. If it did, then the
apostles would have been self-condemned, because they were preachers of
the Gospel. God has set apostles, prophets, teachers, etc., in the
church (1 Cor. 12:28); but it is the Spirit of God that works in all
these. “He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.” John 3:34.
Therefore, no matter by whom anybody first hears the truth, he is to
receive it as coming direct from heaven. The Holy Spirit enables those
who wish to do God’s will to tell what is truth as soon as they see or
hear it, and they accept it, not on the authority of the man through
whom it came to them, but on the authority of the God of truth. We may
be as sure of the truth which we hold and teach as the apostle Paul was.
But whenever anybody cites the name of some highly-esteemed preacher or
doctor of divinity, to justify his belief, or to give it more weight
with some person whom he would convince, you may be sure that he himself
does not know the truth of what he professes. It may be the truth, but
he does not know for himself that it is true. It is everybody’s
privilege to know the truth (John 8:31, 32); and when one holds a truth
directly from God, ten thousand times ten thousand great names in its
favor do not add a feather’s weight to its authority; nor is his
confidence in the least shaken if every great man on earth should oppose
it. It is a grand thing to be built on the Rock.

[Sidenote: The Revelation of Jesus Christ.]

Note that it is not simply a revelation from Jesus Christ, but the
“revelation of Jesus Christ.” It was not simply that Christ told Paul
something, but that Christ Himself revealed Himself to Paul, and in him,
and He is the truth. That this is what is meant here may be seen from
verse 16, where we read that God revealed His Son in Paul, that he might
preach Him among the heathen. The mystery of the Gospel is Christ in the
believer, the hope of glory. Col. 1:25-27. The Holy Spirit is Christ’s
personal representative. Christ sends Him, that He may abide with us
forever. The world receives Him not, because it sees Him not; “but ye
know Him,” says Christ; “for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”
John 14:16, 17. Only so can the truth of God be known and be made known.
Christ does not stand afar off and lay down right principles for us to
follow; but He impresses Himself upon us, takes possession of us, as we
yield to Him, and makes manifest His life in our mortal flesh. 2 Cor.
4:11. Without this life shining forth, there can be no preaching of the
Gospel. Note that Jesus was revealed in Paul, in order that Paul might
preach Him among the heathen. He was not to preach about Christ, but to
preach, to present, Christ Himself. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ
Jesus the Lord.” 2 Cor. 4:5.

God is waiting and anxious to reveal Christ in every man. We read of men
“who hold down the truth in unrighteousness,” and that “that which may
be known of God is manifest in them,” even as in everything that God has
made His “everlasting power and Divinity” are clearly seen. Rom.
1:18-20, R. V. Now Christ is the truth (John 14:6), and He is the power
of God (1 Cor. 1:24), and the Divinity of God (John 1:1). Therefore,
Christ is the truth that the wicked are holding down. He is the Divine
Word of God, present in men, that they may do it. Deut. 30:14; Rom.
10:6-8. That Christ is in all men is evident from the fact that they
live; but He is so held back and kept down that it is difficult to
discern Him. Nay, in most men the opposite character is revealed, the
mere fact of living and breathing being in many cases the only evidence
that Christ is there. Yet He is there, patiently waiting to be
revealed,—longing for the time to come when the Word of God may have
free course and be glorified, and the perfect life of Jesus of Nazareth
be manifested in mortal flesh. This may take place in “whosoever will,”
no matter how sinful and degraded he is now. It pleases God to do it
now; cease, then, to resist.

[Sidenote: Personal History.]

From the twelfth verse of the first chapter till the middle of the
second, we have a narrative of personal history, told for a definite
purpose. In Paul’s experience we see the truth of the Gospel, and how it
has nothing to gain from men, but everything to give. The apostle shows
that all his early life was against his being influenced by the Gospel,
for he studied that which was opposed to it, and he bitterly opposed it.
Then he was converted when there was no Christian near him, and he had
next to no association with Christians for years afterward. All this of
which the Galatians had been previously informed, it was necessary to
repeat in order that it might be clear to all that Paul was not bringing
them another human invention.

Note, in passing, the word “conversation,” which occurs several times in
the Bible in a sense that is not now common. Compare the Revised
Version, and we find that it means “manner of life.” Paul’s
“conversation in time past” was his early life. See the old and the
Revised Version of 1 Peter 1:18.

[Sidenote: “Concerning Zeal, Persecuting the Church.”]

This is what Paul said of himself, in his Epistle to the Philippians.
Phil. 3:6. How great his zeal was he himself tells. He says that he
persecuted the church of God “beyond measure,” and “wasted it,” or, as
in the Revision, “made havoc of it.” See also Acts 8:3. Before Agrippa
he said: “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things
contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in
Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having
received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to
death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every
synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.” Acts 26:9-11.
In an address to the Jews in Jerusalem, who knew his life, he said, “I
persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons
both men and women.” Acts 22:4. This he did because, as the previous
verse says, he was “zealous toward God.” So full of this sort of zeal
was he that he breathed nothing but “threatenings and slaughter.” Acts
9:1.

It seems almost incredible that any one professing to worship the true
God, can have such false ideas of Him as to suppose that He is pleased
with that kind of service; yet Saul of Tarsus, one of the most bitter
and relentless persecutors of Christians that ever lived, could say
years afterward, “I have lived in all good conscience before God until
this day.” Acts 23:1. Although kicking against the pricks (Acts 9:5),
and endeavoring to silence the growing conviction that would force
itself upon him as he witnessed the patience of the Christians, and
heard their dying testimonies to the truth, Saul was not wilfully
stifling the voice of conscience. On the contrary, he was striving to
preserve a good conscience, and so deeply had he been indoctrinated with
the Pharisaic traditions, that he felt sure that these inconvenient
prickings must be the suggestions of an evil spirit, which he was in
duty bound to suppress. So the prickings of the Spirit of God had for a
time only led him to redouble his zeal against the Christians. Of all
persons in the world, Saul, the self-righteous Pharisee, had no bias in
favor of Christianity. Yet his misdirected zeal was a “zeal for God,”
and this fact made him good material for a Christian worker.

[Sidenote: Paul’s Profiting.]

Paul “profited,” made advancement, “in the Jews’ religion,” above many
of his equals, that is, those of his own age, among his countrymen. He
had possessed every advantage that was possible to a Jewish youth. “An
Hebrew of the Hebrews” (Phil. 3:5), he was nevertheless a free-born
Roman citizen (Acts 22:26-28). Naturally quick and intelligent, he had
enjoyed the instruction of Gamaliel, one of the wisest doctors of the
law, and had been “taught according to the perfect manner of the law of
the fathers.” Acts 22:3. After the “straitest sect” among the Jews, he
lived a Pharisee, and was “a Pharisee of the Pharisees,” so that he was
“more exceedingly zealous of the traditions” of the fathers than any
others of his class. Grown to manhood, he had become a member of the
great council among the Jews,—the Sanhedrim,—as is shown by the fact
that he gave his vote (Acts 26:10, R. V.) when Christians were condemned
to death. Added to this, he possessed the confidence of the high priest,
who readily gave him letters of introduction to the rulers of all the
synagogues throughout the land, with authority to seize and bind any
whom he found guilty of “heresy.” He was, indeed, a rising young man, on
whom the rulers of the Jews looked with pride and hope, believing that
he would contribute much to the restoration of the Jewish nation and
religion to their former greatness. There had been a promising future
before Saul, from a worldly point of view; but what things were gain to
him, those he counted loss for Christ, for whose sake he suffered the
loss of all things. Phil. 3:7, 8.

[Sidenote: The Traditions of the Fathers, not the Religion of Christ.]

Paul says, “I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of mine own age
among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions
of my fathers.” It is easy to see that “the Jews’ religion” was not the
religion of God and Jesus Christ, but was human tradition. People make a
great mistake in considering “Judaism” as the religion of the Old
Testament. The Old Testament no more teaches Judaism than the New
Testament teaches Roman Catholicism. The religion of the Old Testament
is the religion of Jesus Christ. It was His Spirit that was in the
prophets, moving them to present the same Gospel that the apostles
afterwards preached. 1 Peter 1:10-12. When Paul was “in the Jews’
religion” he did not believe the Old Testament, which he read and heard
read daily, because he did not understand it; if he had, he would have
believed on Christ. “For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers,
because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are
read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him.”
Acts 13:27.

The traditions of the fathers led to transgression of the commandments
of God. Matt. 15:3. God said of the Jewish people (as a whole): “This
people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their
lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Verses 8, 9. On the
Sabbath days the rulers read in the synagogues from the Scriptures, and
for this instruction there was no reproof. Jesus said: “The scribes and
the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat; all therefore whatsoever they bid you
observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works; for they
say, and do not.” Matt. 23:2, 3. Jesus had no word of condemnation for
Moses and his writings. He said to the Jews, “Had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed Me; for he wrote of Me.” John 5:46. Everything,
therefore, which the scribes read and commanded from his writings was to
be followed; but the example of the readers was to be shunned, for they
did not obey the Scriptures. Christ said of them, “They bind heavy
burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but
they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” Matt.
23:4. These were not the commandments of God, for “His commandments are
not grievous” (1 John 5:3); and the burdens were not of Christ, for His
burden is light (Matt. 11:30).

We hear much about the “Judaizing teachers,” who sought to pervert the
Galatians, and we know that they who were teaching “another gospel” were
Jews; but we must not fall into the error of supposing that these
“Judaizing teachers” were presenting the Bible, or any part of it, to
the new converts, or trying to get them to follow the Scriptures written
by Moses. Far from it; they were leading them away from the Bible, and
substituting for its teaching the commandments of men. This was what
roused the spirit of Paul. The “Jews’ religion” was an entirely
different thing from the religion of God, as taught in the law, the
prophets, and the psalms.

[Sidenote: “Separated unto the Gospel of God.”]

These are the words with which Paul described himself in the Epistle to
the Romans: “Called to be an apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God.”
Rom. 1:1. So here he says that God “separated me from my mother’s womb,
and called me by His grace.” Gal. 1:15. That God chose Saul to be an
apostle, before Saul himself had any thought that he should ever be even
a Christian, is evident from the sacred narrative. On his way to
Damascus, whither, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter,” he was
proceeding with full authority to seize, bind, and drag to prison all
Christians, both men and women, Saul was suddenly arrested, not by human
hands, but by the over-powering glory of the Lord. Three days afterward
the Lord said to Ananias, when sending him to give Saul his sight, “He
is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles.” Acts
9:15. God arrested Saul in his mad career of persecution, because He had
chosen him to be an apostle. So we see that the pricks against which
Saul had been kicking were the strivings of the Spirit to turn him to
the work to which he had been called.

But how long before this had Saul been chosen to be the messenger of the
Lord?—He himself tells us that he was “separated,”—“set apart,”—from his
birth. He is not the first one of whom we read that from birth he was
chosen to his life-work. Recall the case of Samson. Judges 13:2-14. John
the Baptist was named, and his character and life-work were described,
months before he was born. The Lord said to Jeremiah: “Before I formed
thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the
womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
Jer. 1:5. The heathen king Cyrus was named more than a hundred years
before he was born, and his part in the work of God was laid out for
him. Isa. 44:28; 45:1-4.

These are not isolated cases, but are recorded for the purpose of
showing us that God rules in the world. It is as true of all men as it
was of the Thessalonians, that “God hath from the beginning chosen” them
“to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth.” 2 Thess. 2:13. It rests with every one to make that calling and
election sure. And he who “willeth that all men should be saved, and
come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3, 4, R. V.), has also
appointed “to every man his work” (Mark 13:34). He who leaves not
Himself without witness even in the inanimate creation (Acts 14:17; Rom.
1:20), would fain have man, His highest earthly creation, willingly give
such witness to Him as can be given only by human intelligence. All men
are chosen to be witnesses for God, and to each is his labor appointed.
All through life the Spirit is striving with every man, to induce him to
allow himself to be used for the work to which God has called him. Only
the Judgment Day will reveal what wonderful opportunities men have
recklessly flung away. Saul, the violent persecutor, became the mighty
apostle. Who can imagine how much good might have been done by the men
whose great power over their fellows has been exerted only for evil, if
they had yielded to the influence of the Spirit? Not every one can be a
Paul; but the thought that each one, according to the ability that God
has given him, is chosen and called of God to witness for Him, will,
when once grasped, give to life a new meaning.

The knowledge of this truth will not only make life more real for us,
leading us to seek to know the will of God for us individually, and to
submit wholly to Him, that He may use us to do the work for which He has
designed us, but it will tend to make us more considerate of others, and
not to despise the least. What a wonderful, a joyous, and yet a solemn
thought, as we see men moving about, that to each one of them God has
given a work of his own to do. They are all servants of the Most High
God, each one assigned to special service. It is a wondrous privilege,
and a wondrous responsibility. How few are doing the work God would have
them do! We should be extremely careful not to hinder any person in the
slightest degree from doing his heaven-appointed task.

Another thing that we should remember is that it is God who gives to
every man his work. Each one is to receive his orders from God, and not
from men. Therefore, we should beware of dictating to men concerning
their duty. God can make it plain to them, as well as to us; and if they
will not hear Him, they will not be likely to hear us, even if we could
direct them in the right way. “It is not in man that walketh to direct
his steps” (Jer. 10:23), much less to direct the steps of some other
man.

[Sidenote: Conferring with Flesh and Blood.]

“Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” This statement is
made for the purpose of showing that the apostle did not receive the
Gospel from any human being. He saw Christ, and accepted Him, then he
went to Arabia, and came back to Damascus, and not till three years
after his conversion did he go up to Jerusalem, where he stayed only
fifteen days, and saw only two of the apostles. Moreover, the brethren
were afraid of him, and would not at first believe that he was a
disciple; so it is evident that he did not receive the Gospel from any
man.

But there is much to learn from Paul’s not conferring with flesh and
blood. To be sure, he had no need to, since he had the Lord’s own word;
but such a course as his is by no means common. For instance, a man
reads a thing in the Bible, and then must ask some other man’s opinion
before he dare believe it. If none of his friends believe it, he is
fearful of accepting it. If his pastor, or some commentary, explains the
text away, then away it goes; flesh and blood gain the day against the
Spirit and the Word.

Or, it may be that the commandment is so plain that there is no
reasonable excuse for asking anybody what it means. Then the question
is, Can I afford to do it? Will it not cost too much sacrifice? The most
dangerous flesh and blood that one can confer with is one’s own. It is
not enough to be independent of others; in matters of truth one needs to
be independent of one’s self. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Prov. 3:5. “He that trusteth
in his own heart is a fool.” Prov. 28:26.

A pope is one who presumes to occupy the place in counsel which
rightfully belongs to God alone. The man who makes himself pope, by
following his own counsel, is just as bad as the man who dictates to
another, and is more likely to be led astray than is the man who follows
some pope other than himself. If one is to follow a pope at all, it
would be more consistent to accept the pope of Rome, because he has had
more experience in popery than any other. But none is necessary, since
we have the Word of God. When God speaks, the part of wisdom is to obey
at once, without taking counsel even of one’s own heart. The Lord’s name
is “Counselor” (Isa. 9:6), and He is “wonderful in counsel.” Hear Him!
“He will be our Guide forevermore.”

[Sidenote: “Immediately.”]

Note that word. Paul did not stop to parley. He lost no time. He thought
he was serving God when he was persecuting the church, and the minute he
found out his mistake he turned about. When he saw Jesus of Nazareth, he
recognized Him as his Lord, and immediately cried out, “Lord, what wilt
Thou have me to do?” He was ready to be set to work in the right way,
and that immediately. It is an example well worth consideration. Would
that everybody might truthfully say, “I made haste, and delayed not to
keep Thy commandments.” Ps. 119:60. “I will run the way of Thy
commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.” Verse 32.

[Sidenote: Gentiles—Heathen.]

Paul tells us that Christ was revealed in him, that he might preach Him
among the heathen. In the Revision we have the word “Gentiles” used
instead of “heathen.” There is no difference. The two words are used
interchangeably in the English Bible, for wherever they occur, they are
translated from only one Greek word, or, if it be in the Old Testament,
the corresponding Hebrew word. Let us note a few instances.

In 1 Cor. 12:2 we read, “Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away
unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.” This is from the ordinary
word for “heathen,” and the text itself shows that Gentiles are
idol-worshipers—heathen. Take notice that the Corinthians “were
Gentiles;” they ceased to be such on becoming Christians.

Eph. 2:11, 12: “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the
Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God
in the world.” Surely, to be a Gentile is to be in a most unenviable
condition.

We are told that “God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out
of them a people for His name.” Acts 15:14. And James referred to the
believers in Antioch and elsewhere as those who “from among the Gentiles
are turned to God.” God’s people are taken out from among the Gentiles,
but on being taken out, they cease to be Gentiles. Abraham, the father
of Israel, was taken from among the heathen (Joshua 24:2), so that all
Israel are taken from among the Gentiles. Thus it is that “all Israel
shall be saved” by the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles. Rom.
11:25, 26.

In Ps. 2:1-3 we might lawfully read, “Why do the Gentiles rage, and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and
the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His
anointed [that is, against Christ, for Christ means ‘anointed’], saying,
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”
How often we see this fulfilled in the cases of individuals, who, with a
triumphant air, exclaim: “Show me a place where the Gentiles are
commanded to keep the ten commandments!” meaning that they are Gentiles,
and thinking thus to cast away from themselves the laws of God. It is no
honorable class in which they place themselves. It is true that the
Gentiles are not commanded to keep the commandments, as Gentiles, for
that would be impossible; as soon as they accept Christ, and the law of
the Spirit of life in Him, they cease to be Gentiles. How solicitous God
is to save people from their Gentile state, is shown by His sending the
apostle Paul (to say nothing of Christ) to bring them to Himself.

[Sidenote: A Prophet to the Gentiles.]

In this connection it is worth while to note that God was as anxious for
the conversion of the Gentiles three thousand years ago as He is to-day.
The Gospel was preached to them before the first advent of Christ, as
well as it was afterwards. Paul was not the first one who preached to
the Gentiles after Christ, although he was sent specially to them. He
was known as the apostle to the Gentiles, yet everywhere he went he
preached to the Jews first, and as long as they would hear him. So it
was before Christ. By many agencies God made Himself known among all
nations, yet Jeremiah was specially chosen as the prophet to the
Gentiles, or heathen. In Jer. 1:5, “Before thou camest forth out of the
womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations,”
the Hebrew word from which the word “nations” is translated is the very
same that is regularly translated “heathen.” “Why do the heathen rage?”
Ps. 2:1. “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war,” etc.
“Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen.” Joel 3:9-11. The words
“heathen” and “Gentile” in these texts are the same as the word
“nations,” in Jer. 1:5. This can be seen by comparing the old with the
Revised Version. So the Lord said to Jeremiah, “I sanctified thee, and I
ordained thee, a prophet unto the Gentiles.” Let no one say that God
ever at any time confined His truth to any one people, whether Jew or
Gentile. “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the
same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.” Rom. 10:12.

[Sidenote: The New Convert Preaching.]

As soon as Paul was converted, “straightway he preached Christ in the
synagogues.” Acts 9:20. Was it not marvelous that he should at once be
able to preach so powerfully?—Indeed it was, as it is marvelous that any
man can preach Christ. That anybody should be able to preach Christ in
very truth, involves no less a mystery than Christ manifest in the
flesh. But do not let anybody suppose that Paul got his knowledge
instantaneously, without any study. Remember that he had all his life
been a diligent student of the Scriptures. It was not an uncommon thing
for a rabbi to be able to repeat the greater portion or the whole of the
Hebrew Scriptures from memory, and we may be sure that Paul, who had
made more advancement than any others of his age, was as familiar with
the words of the Bible as a bright schoolboy is with the multiplication
table. But his mind was blinded by the traditions of the fathers, which
had been drilled into him at the same time. The blindness which came
upon him when the light shone round him on the way to Damascus, was but
a picture of the blindness of his mind; and the seeming scales that fell
from his eyes when Ananias spoke to him, indicated the shining forth of
the Word within him, and the scattering of the darkness of tradition.
Paul’s case was very different from that of a new convert who has never
read or studied the Bible. Such an one can, indeed, tell what Christ has
done for him, and may thereby do much good; but he needs much study of
the Scriptures to make him able to show men the way of life perfectly,
and lead them in the way of righteousness.

[Sidenote: Paul in Arabia.]

Many have thought that it was while Paul was in Arabia that he had his
wonderful revelations, and was taken up into heaven, where he heard
“unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” This may
well be, although it is by no means probable that his visions of
heavenly things were confined to that time. All his life through the
apostle was in close communion with heaven, and we may be sure that “the
heavenly vision” was never hidden from his sight. So, also, we may be
sure that, since preaching was his life-work, he did not spend all the
months he was in Arabia in study and contemplation. He had been so
severe a persecutor, and had received so richly of God’s grace, that he
counted all the time lost in which he could not reveal that grace to
others, feeling, “Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel.” He preached in
the synagogues in Damascus, as soon as he was converted, before he went
into Arabia; so it is but natural to conclude that he preached the
Gospel to the Arabs. He could preach there without the opposition that
he always received when among the Jews, and, therefore, his labors would
not so much interfere with his meditation on the new worlds that had
just opened before him.

[Sidenote: The Persecutor Preaching.]

Wonderful, indeed, it was to hear that “he that once persecuted us, now
preacheth the faith of which he once made havoc.” In view of the case of
Saul of Tarsus, let no one look on any opposer of the Gospel as
incorrigible. Those who make opposition are to be instructed with
meekness, for who knows but that God will give them repentance to the
acknowledgment of the truth? One might have said of Paul, He has had the
light as clearly as any man can have it. He has had every opportunity;
he has not only heard the inspired testimony of Stephen, but he has
heard the dying confessions of many martyrs; he is a hardened wretch,
from whom it is useless to expect any good. Yet that same Saul became
the greatest preacher of the Gospel, even as he had been the most bitter
persecutor. Is there a malignant opposer of the truth? Do not strive
with him, and do not reproach him. Let him have all the bitterness and
strife to himself, while you hold yourself to the Word of God and to
prayer. It may not be long till God, who is now blasphemed, will be
glorified in him.

[Sidenote: Glorifying God.]

“And they glorified God in me.” How different Paul’s case was from that
of those to whom he said, “The name of God is blasphemed among the
Gentiles through you” (Rom. 2:24)! Every one who professes to be a
follower of God should be a means of bringing glory to His name, yet
many cause it to be blasphemed; and to have the name of God blasphemed
through us is as bad as to be ourselves open blasphemers. How can we
cause His name to be glorified?—“Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
heaven.” Matt. 5:16.


                            RECAPITULATION.


Let us now take a brief glance at the chapter as a whole.

The greeting, embracing the first five verses, tells us the name and
calling of the writer of the epistle, and his authority. It incidentally
notes the fact that Christ is Divine. A benediction is pronounced, from
God the Father, and Jesus Christ the Son. Christ gave Himself for our
sins,—purchased them,—thus to deliver us from this present evil world.
Our sins constitute this present evil world. Our sins belong to Christ,
not to us; so by the power of His death and resurrection, in which He
gave Himself for our sins, we may be kept from them. It is the will of
God to save us, so that there can be no doubt as to our acceptance. To
God belongs the glory, because His is the kingdom and the power.

The next two verses show us the condition of the churches in Galatia at
the time the epistle was written, and thus make known to us why it was
written. They were departing from God, being led astray by some who were
perverting the Gospel of Christ, preaching a pretended gospel instead of
the one only Gospel, which is the power of God to salvation to every one
that believes. The marvel of the thing is the same as that expressed in
Jer. 2:12, 13: “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly
afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For My people have
committed two evils: they have forsaken Me the Fountain of living
waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no
water.”

Then in the next two verses (8, 9) we find a curse pronounced on any
one, even though it were the apostle himself, or an angel from heaven,
who should presume to teach any other gospel than that he had preached.
This shows the seriousness of the situation. The Galatian brethren were
being placed under the curse by the accursed preachers who preached a
false gospel.

Following this, in verses 10-12, the apostle shows himself to be the
servant of Christ, because he was seeking to please God only, and not
men. The preachers who perverted the souls of men, would preach smooth
things,—things in harmony with human nature,—to draw away disciples
after them; Paul preached only the plain truth of God, which he received
not through any man, but direct from heaven.

Lastly we have the beginning of a little narrative of personal
experience, which is continued more than half way through the second
chapter. In this Paul refers to his life before his conversion, when he
persecuted the church; mentions his conversion, which was the revelation
of Christ in him; tells why he was called, and how promptly he responded
to the call; and lastly shows how he had no opportunity to get the
Gospel from apostles and brethren who were believers before him, even if
he had wished to, since he had no connection with them for years after
his conversion. The force of this will appear more plainly as we
proceed.



                              CHAPTER II.
         Life by the Faith of Christ, the Truth of the Gospel.


There are doubtless many who are reading this little book, not out of
curiosity to see what another person thinks about the Epistle to the
Galatians, but for help in arriving at an understanding of that
much-discussed portion of Scripture. With each one of these I wish to
hold a little personal talk before we proceed further with our study.
Every portion of Scripture is connected with every other portion; as
soon as we learn one thing thoroughly, making it a part of ourselves, it
joins us and aids us in the search for more knowledge, just as each
morsel of food that we eat and assimilate assists us in our labor for
our daily bread. If, therefore, we proceed in the right way with the
study of the Epistle to the Galatians, we shall have opened a wide door
to the whole Bible.

The way to knowledge is very simple, so simple that many people despise
it. It is not, however, to be despised, for, in spite of the
oft-repeated statement to the contrary, there is


                       A Royal Road to Knowledge,


and that road is open to all. Here are the directions, laid down by the
king who, to the highest degree, proved it to be the right way:—

“My son, if thou wilt receive My words, and hide My commandments with
thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart
to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up
thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and
searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the
fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth
wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” Prov.
2:1-6.

It was in a dream that God appeared to Solomon, and promised to give him
wisdom, but it was not by idle dreaming that the wisdom came. Solomon
did not go to sleep, and wake up to find himself the wisest man that
ever lived. He longed for knowledge so much that he did, indeed, dream
of it by night, but he worked for it by day. The foregoing Scripture
tells his experience.

Wisdom and knowledge concerning everything are to be found in God’s
Word; and if you would understand the Word of God, you must study it. No
man on earth can give you his knowledge. Another may aid you by his
experience, so that it need not take you as long as it took him; he may
direct you how and where to work; but whatever any one really knows he
must acquire for himself. When you have traveled over a road a thousand
times, you know every turn in it, no matter how many there are, and can
see the whole way in your mind. So after you have thought through a
portion of Scripture time after time, you will at last be able to see
the whole of it, and every separate statement in it, at a single glance.
And when you can do that, you will see in it what no man on earth can
tell you.

It is useless to think to understand a detached sentence that may
present special difficulty, without reference to the connection. If I
should bring you a letter, and, pointing to a sentence near the close,
should ask you to tell me what my correspondent means, you would at once
ask, “What is he writing about? what does he say in what precedes?” If I
should reply that I didn’t wish you to know the subject of the letter,
and would not allow you to read it from the beginning, you would say,
“Then I can not help you.” But if I should put the letter into your
hands, asking you to help me to understand the difficult sentence, you
would at once read the letter carefully from the beginning, making sure
that you understood everything as you read, and then, with all that
preceded the difficult sentence clearly in your mind, you would expect
to understand the sentence itself. Even thus reasonably should we deal
with the Bible.

Therefore, to each one I say: Study the very words of the text. Go over
them again and again; and every time you begin the study of a new
portion, go back to the beginning and review all that you have been
over. It is a royal method, and it yields royal results.

The first chapter of Galatians gives us a brief, comprehensive view of
what the Gospel is, of the condition of the Galatian brethren, and of
Paul’s personal experience. The second chapter refers to the meeting
held in Jerusalem, seventeen years after Paul’s conversion, and tells us
what was the subject of controversy, and Paul’s relation to it. The
apostle’s sole burden was to preserve “the truth of the Gospel” among
the brethren. Having the first chapter clearly in mind, we may proceed
to the study of the second, remembering that it is but a continuation of
the first.

“Then after the space of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem
with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. And I went up by revelation;
and I laid before them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but
privately before them who were of repute, lest by any means I should be
running, or had run, in vain. But not even Titus who was with me, being
a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised; and that because of the false
brethren privily brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty
which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage; to
whom we gave place in the way of subjection, no, not for an hour; that
the truth of the Gospel might continue with you. But from those who were
reputed to be somewhat (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me:
God accepteth no man’s person)—they, I say, who were of repute, imparted
nothing to me; but contrariwise, when they saw that I had been intrusted
with the Gospel of the uncircumcision, even as Peter with the Gospel of
the circumcision (for He that wrought for Peter unto the apostleship of
the circumcision wrought for me also unto the Gentiles); and when they
perceived the grace that was given unto me, James and Cephas and John,
they who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right
hands of fellowship, that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto
the circumcision; only they would that we should remember the poor;
which very thing I was also zealous to do.

“But when Cephas came to Antioch, I resisted him to the face, because he
stood condemned. For before that certain came from James, he did eat
with the Gentiles; but when they came, he drew back and separated
himself, fearing them that were of the circumcision. And the rest of the
Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that even Barnabas was
carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked
not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said unto Cephas
before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest as do the Gentiles, and
not as do the Jews, how compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the
Jews? We being Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, yet
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, save
through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we
might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law;
because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if,
while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found
sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build up
again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor. For
I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have
been crucified with Christ; yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ
liveth in me; and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in
faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
Himself up for me. I do not make void the grace of God; for if
righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for naught.”
Galatians 2, R. V.

[Sidenote: Another Visit to Jerusalem.]

“Fourteen years after,” following the natural course of the narrative,
means fourteen years after the visit recorded in Gal. 1:18, which was
three years after the apostle Paul’s conversion. The second visit,
therefore, was seventeen years after his conversion, or about the year
51 A. D., which coincides with the time of the conference in Jerusalem,
which is recorded in Acts 15. It is with that conference, and the things
that led to it, and grew out of it, that the second chapter of Galatians
deals. In reading this chapter, therefore, the fifteenth of Acts must be
understood and borne in mind.

[Sidenote: That New Gospel.]

In the first chapter of Galatians (verses 6, 7) we are told that some
were troubling the brethren, by perverting the Gospel of Christ,
presenting a false gospel, and pretending that it was the true Gospel.
In Acts 15:1 we read that “certain men which came down from Judea taught
the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of
Moses, ye can not be saved.” This, we see, was the other gospel, which
was not another, since there is only one, but which was being palmed off
upon the brethren as the true Gospel. That these men who brought this
teaching professed to be preaching the Gospel, is evident from the fact
that they professed to tell the people what they must do to be saved.
Paul and Barnabas would not give any place to the new preaching, but
withstood it, in order, as Paul tells the Galatians, “that the truth of
the Gospel might continue with you.” Gal. 2:5. The apostles had “no
small dissension and disputation with them.” Acts 15:2. The controversy
was no insignificant one, but was between the real Gospel and a
counterfeit. The question was a vital one for the new believers, and has
no less interest for us; it concerns our salvation.

[Sidenote: A Denial of Christ.]

A glance at the experience of the church at Antioch, to whom this new
gospel was brought, will show that it did in the most direct manner deny
the power of Christ to save. The Gospel was first brought to them by
brethren who had been scattered by the persecution that arose on the
death of Stephen. These brethren came to Antioch “preaching the Lord
Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number
believed, and turned unto the Lord.” Acts 11:19-21. Then the apostles
sent Barnabas to assist in the work; and he, “when he came, and had seen
the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of
heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full
of the Holy Ghost and of faith; and much people was added unto the
Lord.” Verses 22-24. Then Barnabas found Saul, and together they labored
with the church in Antioch for more than a year. Verses 25, 26. There
were in the church prophets and teachers, and as they ministered unto
the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost spoke to them, telling them to
separate Barnabas and Saul to the work to which He had called them. Acts
13:1-3. So we see that the church there had had much experience in the
things of God. They were acquainted with the Lord and with the voice of
the Holy Spirit, who witnessed that they were children of God. And now
after all this, these men said to them, “Except ye be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, ye can not be saved.” That was as much as to say,
All your faith in Christ, and all the witness of the Spirit, are nothing
without the sign of circumcision. The sign of circumcision, without
faith, was exalted above faith in Christ without any outward sign. The
new gospel was a most direct assault upon the Gospel, and a flat denial
of Christ.

[Sidenote: “False Brethren.”]

It is no wonder that Paul styles those who presented this teaching,
“false brethren,” who had, as the Danish strongly expresses it, “sneaked
in.” Gal. 2:4. To the Galatians he said of them, “There be some that
trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ.” Gal. 1:7. The
apostles and elders, in their letter to the churches, said of those men,
“Certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting
your souls.” Acts 15:24. And they further added that they “gave no
commandment” to them. Verse 24, R. V. That is to say, these teachers
were “false brethren,” who were not recognized by the apostles as
teachers, who were speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
themselves. There have been many such since that time. So vicious was
their work that the apostle said, “Let them be accursed.” They were
deliberately seeking to undermine the Gospel of Christ, and thus to
destroy the souls of the believers.

[Sidenote: “The Sign of Circumcision.”]

These false brethren had said, “Except ye be circumcised after the
manner of Moses, ye can not be saved.” Literally, you have not power to
be saved. They made salvation only a human thing, resulting solely from
the exercise of human power. They had no knowledge of what circumcision
really is. “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is
one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and
not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Rom. 2:28,
29. There was a time, after Abraham believed God, when he listened to
the voice of Sarai, instead of to God, and sought to fulfil the promises
of God by the power of his own flesh. See Genesis 16. The result was a
failure—a bond-servant instead of an heir. Then God appeared to him
again, exhorting him to walk before Him with singleness of heart, and
repeating His covenant. As a reminder of his failure, and of the fact
that “the flesh profiteth nothing,” Abraham received “the sign of
circumcision,”—a cutting off of the flesh. This was to show that since
in the flesh “dwelleth no good thing,” the promises of God can be
realized only by the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh,
through the Spirit. “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in
the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh.” Phil. 3:3. Abraham was, therefore, really circumcised as soon as
he received the Spirit through faith in God. “And he received the sign
of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had
yet being uncircumcised.” Rom. 4:11. Outward circumcision was never
anything more than a sign of the real circumcision of the heart; when
this was absent, the sign was a fraud; but when the real circumcision
was present, the sign could be dispensed with. Abraham is “the father of
all them that believe, though they be not circumcised.” The “false
brethren” who visited the church at Antioch, subverting the souls of the
disciples, and those of the same class who afterwards troubled the
Galatians, perverting the Gospel of Christ, were substituting the empty
sign for the reality. With them the shell of the nut without the kernel
counted for more than the kernel without the shell.

[Sidenote: “The Flesh Profiteth Nothing.”]

Jesus said, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are
life.” John 6:63. The people of Antioch and Galatia had trusted in
Christ for salvation; now there were some who sought to induce them to
trust in the flesh. They did not tell them that they were at liberty to
sin. Oh, no; they told them that they must keep the law! Yes, they must
do it themselves; they must make themselves righteous without Jesus
Christ. For circumcision stood for the keeping of the law. Now the real
circumcision was the law written in the heart by the Spirit; but these
“false brethren” wished the believers to trust in the outward form of
circumcision, as a substitute for the Spirit’s work; so that the thing
which was given as a sign of righteousness by faith, became only a sign
of self-righteousness. The false brethren would have them circumcised
for righteousness and salvation; but Peter said, “Through the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ we believe to be saved.” Just as Paul wrote, “With
the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.” Rom. 10:10. “Whatsoever is not of
faith is sin.” Rom. 14:23. Therefore, all the efforts of men to keep the
law of God by their own power, no matter how earnest and sincere they
may be, can never result in anything but imperfection—sin. “All our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Isa. 64:6.

[Sidenote: “A Yoke of Bondage.”]

When the question came up in Jerusalem, Peter said to those who would
have men seek to be justified by their own works, instead of by faith in
Christ, “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of
the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” Acts
15:10. This yoke was a yoke of bondage, as is shown by Paul’s words,
that the “false brethren” sneaked in “to spy out our liberty which we
have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.” Gal. 2:4.
Christ gives freedom from sin. His life is “the perfect law of liberty.”
“By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20), but not freedom from
it. “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good”
(Rom. 7:12), just because it gives the knowledge of sin by condemning
it. It is a sign-post, which points out the way, but does not carry us.
It can tell us that we are out of the way; but Jesus Christ alone can
make us walk in it; for He is the way. Sin is bondage. Prov. 5:22. Only
those who keep the commandments of God are at liberty (Ps. 119:45); and
the commandments can be kept only by faith in Christ (Rom. 8:3, 4).
Therefore, whoever induces people to trust in the law for righteousness,
without Christ, simply puts a yoke upon them, and fastens them in
bondage. When a man has been convicted by the law as a transgressor, and
cast into prison, he can not be delivered from his chains by the law
which holds him there. But that is no fault of the law: just because it
is a good law, it can not say that a guilty man is innocent. So these
Galatian brethren were brought into bondage by men who were foolishly
and vainly seeking to exalt the law of God by denying Him who gave it,
and in whom alone its righteousness is found.

[Sidenote: Why Paul Went Up to Jerusalem.]

The record in Acts says that it was determined at Antioch that Paul and
Barnabas and some others should go up to Jerusalem about this matter.
But Paul declares that he went up “by revelation.” Gal. 2:2. Paul did
not go up simply on their recommendation, but the same Spirit moved both
him and them. He did not go up to learn the truth of the Gospel, but to
maintain it. He went, not to find out what the Gospel really is, but to
communicate the Gospel which he had preached among the heathen. Those
who were chief in the conference imparted nothing to him. He had not
been preaching for seventeen years that of which he stood in doubt. He
knew whom he believed. He had not received the Gospel from any man, and
he did not need to have any man’s testimony that it was genuine. When
God has spoken, an indorsement by man is an impertinence. The Lord knew
that the brethren in Jerusalem needed his testimony, and the new
converts needed to know that those whom God sent spoke the words of God,
and, therefore, all spoke the same thing. They needed the assurance that
as they had turned from many gods to the one God, the truth is one, and
there is but one Gospel for all men.

[Sidenote: The Gospel Not Magic.]

The great lesson taught by this experience, to which Paul referred the
Galatians, is that there is nothing in this world that can confer grace
and righteousness upon men, and that there is nothing in the world that
any man can do, that will bring salvation. The Gospel is the power of
God unto salvation, and not the power of man. Any teaching that leads
men to trust in any object, whether it be an image, a picture, or
anything else, or to trust for salvation in any work or effort of their
own, even though that effort be directed toward the most praiseworthy
object, is a perversion of the truth of the Gospel,—a false gospel.
There are in the church of Christ no “sacraments” that by some sort of
magical working confer special grace on the receiver; but there are
things that a man who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, and who is
thereby justified and saved, may do as an expression of his faith. The
only thing in the world that has any efficacy in the way of salvation,
is the life of God in Christ. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any
man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before prepared that we should walk in
them.” Eph. 2:8-10, margin. This is “the truth of the Gospel,” and it
was for this that Paul stood. It is the Gospel for all time.

[Sidenote: Galatians and the Gospel.]

In this chapter the apostle says that he withstood the false teaching
which was now misleading the Galatian brethren, in order that “the truth
of the Gospel” might remain with them. Compare this with his
introduction, in the first chapter, and his vehement assertions
concerning the Gospel which he had preached to them, and his
astonishment that they were now forsaking it, and it will be
self-evident that the epistle must contain nothing else but the Gospel
in the most forcible form of expression. Many have misunderstood it, and
have derived no personal gain from it, because they have thought that it
was but a contribution to the “strivings about the law,” against which
Paul himself warned the brethren.

[Sidenote: No Monopoly of Truth.]

“Whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me; God accepteth no man’s
person.” There is no man or body of men on earth, that has a monopoly of
truth,—a corner, so to speak, so that whoever wishes it must come to
him. Truth is independent of men. Truth is of God, for Christ, who is
the shining of His glory, and the very impress of His substance (Heb.
1:3), is the truth (John 14:6). Whoever gets the truth, must get it from
God, and not from any man, just as Paul received the Gospel. God may and
does use men as instruments, or channels, but He alone is the Giver.
Neither names nor numbers have anything to do with determining what is
truth. The truth is no more mighty, nor to be accepted more readily,
when it is presented by ten thousand princes than when maintained by a
single humble, laboring man. And there is no more presumptive evidence
that ten thousand men have the truth than that one has it. Every man on
earth may be the possessor of just as much of the truth as he is willing
to use, and no more. See John 7:17; 12:35, 36. He who would act the
pope, thinking to hold a monopoly of the truth, and compel people to
come to him for it, dealing it out here, and withholding it there, loses
all the truth that he ever had, if he ever really had any. Truth and
popery can not exist together; no pope, or man with a popish
disposition, has the truth. As soon as a man receives the truth, he
ceases to be a pope. If the pope of Rome should get converted, and
become a disciple of Christ, that very hour he would vacate the papal
seat.

[Sidenote: The Biggest Not Always the Best.]

Just as there is no man who has a monopoly of truth, so there are no
places to which men must necessarily go in order to find it. The
brethren in Antioch did not need to go to Jerusalem to learn the truth,
or to find out if what they had was the genuine article. The fact that
truth was first proclaimed in a certain place, does not prove that it
can be found only there, or that it can be found there at all. In fact,
the last places in the world to go to with the expectation of finding or
learning truth, are the cities where the Gospel was preached in the
first centuries after Christ, as Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria,
etc. Paul did not go up to Jerusalem to them that were apostles before
him, but began at once to preach.

The Papacy arose in part in this way: It was assumed that the places
where the apostles, or some of them, had preached must have the truth in
its purity, and that all men must take it from there. It was also
assumed that the people of a city must know more of it than the people
in the country or in a village. So, from all bishops being on an
equality, as at the beginning, it soon came to pass that the “country
bishops” (_chorepiscopoi_) were rated as secondary to those who
officiated in the cities. Then, when that spirit crept in, of course the
next step was necessarily a strife among the city bishops to see which
one should be greatest; and the unholy struggle went on until Rome
gained the coveted place of power.

But Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a place that was “little among the
thousands of Judah” (Micah 5:2), and nearly all His life He lived in
Nazareth, a little town of so poor repute that a man in whom there was
no guile said, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” John
1:45-47. Afterward Jesus took up His abode in the wealthy city of
Capernaum, but was always known as “Jesus of Nazareth.” It is no farther
to heaven from the smallest village or even the smallest lonely cabin on
the plain, than it is from the largest city, or bishop’s palace. And
God, “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is
Holy,” dwells with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit. Isa.
57:15.

[Sidenote: Appearances Are Nothing.]

God looks at what a man is, and not at what he seems to be. What he
seems to be is what men estimate him to be, and depends largely on the
eyes of those who look at him; what he is, is the measure of the power
and wisdom of God that is in him. God does not set any store upon
official position. It is not position that gives authority, but
authority that gives the real position. Many a humble, poor man on
earth, with never an official title to his name, has occupied a position
really higher and of greater authority than that of all the kings of the
earth. Authority is the unfettered presence of God in the soul.

[Sidenote: It Is God That Works.]

“He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the
circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.” The Word
of God is living and active. Heb. 4:12, R. V. Whatever activity there is
in the work of the Gospel, if there is any work done, is all of God.
Jesus “went about doing good,” “for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38. He
Himself said, “I can of Mine own self do nothing.” John 5:30. “The
Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” John 14:10. So Peter
spoke of Him as “a Man approved of God” “by miracles and wonders and
signs, which God did by Him.” Acts 2:22. The disciple is not greater
than his Lord. Paul and Barnabas, therefore, at the meeting in
Jerusalem, told “what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the
Gentiles by them.” Acts 15:12. Paul declared that he labored to “present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus,” “striving according to His working,
which worketh in me mightily.” Col. 1:28, 29. This same power it is the
privilege of the humblest believer to possess, “for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:13.
The name of Jesus is Emmanuel, “God with us.” God with Jesus caused Him
to go about doing good. He is unchangeable; therefore, if we truly have
Jesus, God with us, we, likewise, shall go about doing good.

[Sidenote: Recognizing the Gift.]

The brethren in Jerusalem showed their connection with God by
recognizing the grace that was given to Paul and Barnabas. When Barnabas
first went to Antioch, and saw the grace of God that was working there,
he was glad, “and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they
would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy
Ghost.” Acts 11:21-24. Those who are moved by the Spirit of God will
always be quick to discern the workings of the Spirit in others. The
surest evidence that any one knows nothing personally of the Spirit is
that he can not recognize His working. The other apostles had the Holy
Spirit, and they perceived that God had chosen Paul for a special work
among the Gentiles; and, although his manner of working was different
from theirs, for God had given him special gifts for his special work,
they freely gave to him the right hand of fellowship, only requesting
that he would remember the poor among his own nation; and this he had
already shown his willingness to do. Acts 11:27-30. So Paul and Barnabas
returned to their work in Antioch.

[Sidenote: Perfect Unity.]

We must not lose sight of the object Paul had in mind in referring to
the meeting in Jerusalem. It was to show that there was no difference of
opinion among the apostles nor in the church as to what the Gospel is.
There were “false brethren,” it is true, but inasmuch as they were
false, they were no part of the church, the body of Christ, who is the
truth. Many professed Christians, sincere persons, suppose that it is
almost a matter of necessity that there be differences in the church.
“All can not see alike,” is the common statement. So they misread Eph.
4:13, making it read that God has given us gifts, “till we all come into
the unity of the faith.” What the Word teaches is that “in the unity of
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,” we all come “unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
There is only “one faith” (Eph. 4:5), “the faith of Jesus,” as there is
only one Lord; and those who have not that faith must necessarily be out
of Christ. It is not at all necessary that there be the slightest
difference upon any question of truth. Truth is the Word of God, and the
Word of God is light; nobody but a blind man ever has any trouble to see
a light that shines. The fact that a man has never in his life seen any
other light used at night, except that from a tallow candle, does not in
the least stand in the way of his recognizing that the light from an
electric lamp is light, the first moment he sees it. There are, of
course, different degrees of knowledge, but never any controversy
between those different degrees. All truth is one.

[Sidenote: Withstanding Peter.]

“But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face,
because he was to be blamed.” We need not magnify nor dwell upon the
mistakes of Peter or any other good man, because that is not profitable
for us; but we must note this overwhelming proof that Peter was never
considered the “prince of the apostles,” and that he never was, and
never considered himself to be, pope. Fancy any priest, bishop, or
cardinal, withstanding Leo XIII. to the face in a public assembly. He
would be considered extremely fortunate if the papal guards allowed him
to escape with his life for thus presuming to oppose the self-styled
“vicar of the Son of God.” But Peter made a mistake, and that upon a
vital matter of doctrine, because he was not infallible, and he meekly
accepted the rebuke that Paul gave him, like the sincere, humble
Christian that he was. If there were such a thing as a human head to the
church, it would evidently be Paul, instead of Peter, as appears from
the whole narrative. Paul was sent to the Gentiles, and Peter to the
Jews; but the Jews formed only a very small portion of the church; the
converts from the Gentiles soon outnumbered them, so that their presence
was scarcely discernible. All these Christians were largely the fruit of
Paul’s labors, and they naturally looked up to him more than to others,
so that Paul could say that upon him daily came “the care of all the
churches.” 2 Cor. 11:28. But infallibility is not the portion of any
man, and Paul himself did not claim it. The greatest man in the church
of Christ has no lordship over the weakest. “One is your Master, even
Christ; and all ye are brethren.” “Be subject one to another.”

[Sidenote: Making a Difference.]

When Peter was at the conference in Jerusalem, he told the facts about
the receiving of the Gospel by the Gentiles, through his preaching,
saying, “God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them
the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us
and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” Acts 15:8, 9. God put no
difference between Jews and Gentiles in the matter of the purification
of the heart, because, knowing the hearts, He knew that “there is no
difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” so
that there is no other way than for all to be “justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 3:22-24.
Yet, after having been shown this fact by the Lord; after having
preached to the Gentiles, and after having witnessed the gift of the
Holy Ghost to them, the same as to Jewish believers; after having eaten
with those Gentile converts, and faithfully defending his course; after
having given a clear testimony in conference, that God made no
difference between Jews and Gentiles; and even immediately after himself
making no difference, Peter suddenly, as soon as some came who he
thought would not approve of such freedom, began to make a difference.
“He withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the
circumcision.” This was, as Paul says, dissimulation, and was not only
wrong in itself, but was calculated to confuse and mislead the
disciples. The fact that this was dissimulation, which was apparent,
only emphasizes the fact that there was no real difference among the
brethren. It was fear, not faith, that for the moment controlled Peter.

[Sidenote: Contrary to the Truth of the Gospel.]

A wave of fear seems to have passed over the Jewish believers, for “the
other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was
carried away with their dissimulation.” This in itself was, of course,
not walking “uprightly, according to the truth of the Gospel;” but the
mere fact of dissembling was not the whole of the offense against the
truth of the Gospel. Under the circumstances it was a public denial of
Christ, just as much as that of which Peter had once before, through
sudden fear, been guilty. We have all been too often guilty of the same
sin to permit us to sit in judgment; we can only note the fact and the
natural consequence, as a warning to ourselves.

See how the action of Peter and the others was a virtual, although
unintentional, denial of Christ. There had just been a great controversy
over the question of circumcision. It was a question of justification
and salvation,—whether men were saved by faith alone in Christ, or by
outward forms. Clear testimony had been borne that salvation is by faith
alone: and now, while the controversy is still alive, while the “false
brethren” are still propagating their errors, these loyal brethren
suddenly discriminated against the Gentile believers, because they were
uncircumcised, in effect saying to them, Except ye be circumcised, ye
can not be saved. Their actions said, We also are in doubt about the
power of faith in Christ alone to save men; we really believe that
salvation depends on circumcision and the works of the law; faith in
Christ is well, but there’s something more to do; it is not in itself
sufficient. Such a denial of the truth of the Gospel Paul could not
endure, and he at once struck directly at the root of the matter.

[Sidenote: “Sinners of the Gentiles,” and Sinners of the Jews.]

Paul said to Peter, “We ... are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the
Gentiles.” Did he mean that they, being Jews, were, therefore, not
sinners?—By no means, for he immediately adds that they had believed on
Jesus Christ for justification. They were sinners of the Jews, and not
sinners of the Gentiles; but whatever things they had to boast of as
Jews, all had to be counted loss for the sake of Christ. Nothing availed
them anything except faith in Christ; and since this was so, it was
evident that the Gentile sinners could be saved directly by faith in
Christ, without going through the dead forms which had been of no
service to the Jews, and which were given largely as the result of their
unbelief.

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15. “All have
sinned,” and stand alike guilty before God; but all, of whatever race or
class, can accept this saying, “This Man receiveth sinners, and eateth
with them.” A circumcised sinner is no better than an uncircumcised one;
a sinner who stands as a church-member, is no better than one who is
outside. The sinner who has gone through the form of baptism is not
better than the sinner who has never made any profession of religion.
Sin is sin, and sinners are sinners, whether in the church or out; but,
thank God, Christ is the propitiation for our sins, as well as for the
sins of the whole world. There is hope for the unfaithful professor of
religion, as well as for the sinner who has never named the name of
Christ. The same Gospel that is preached to the world, must be preached
to the church; for there is only one Gospel. It serves to convert
sinners in the world, as well as sinners who stand as church-members,
and at the same time it renews those who are really in Christ.

[Sidenote: “Justified.”]

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,” “we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified,” said the apostle.
The meaning of the word “justified” is “made righteous.” This is the
exact term that appears in other languages, which are not composed of
foreign terms. The Latin word for righteousness is _justitia_. To be
just is to be righteous. Then we add the termination _fy_, from the
Latin word, meaning “to make,” and we have the exact equivalent of the
simpler term, “make righteous.” In an accommodated sense we use the term
“justified” of a man who has not done wrong in a thing whereof he is
accused. But, strictly speaking, such an one needs no justification,
since he is already just; his righteous deed justified him. He was
justified in his deed. But since all have sinned, there are none just or
righteous before God; therefore they need to be justified, or made
righteous, which God does. Now the law of God is righteousness. See Rom.
7:12; 9:30, 31; Ps. 119:172. Therefore Paul did not disparage the law,
although he declared that no man could be made righteous by the law,
meaning, of course, the law written on stones or in a book. No; so
highly did he appreciate the law, that he believed in Christ for the
righteousness which the law demands but can not give. “For what the law
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4. The law,
which declares all men to be sinners, could not justify them except by
declaring that sin is not sin; and that would not be justification, but
a self-contradiction in the law.

[Sidenote: The Law Can Not Justify.]

“By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Shall we say,
Then we will do away with the law? That is what every confirmed criminal
thinks. Persistent law-breakers would gladly do away with the law which
declares them guilty and will not say that wrong is right. But the law
of God can not be abolished, for it is the statement of the will of God.
Rom. 2:18. In very fact it is the life and character of God. “The law is
holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12. We read
the written law, and find in it our duty made plain. But we have not
done it; therefore we are guilty. “All have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God.” “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Rom.
3:23, 12. Moreover, there is not one who has strength to do the law, its
requirements are so great. Then it is very evident that no one can be
justified by the works of the law, and it is equally evident that the
fault is not in the law, but in the individual. Let the man get Christ
in the heart by faith, and then the righteousness of the law will be
there also, for Christ says, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea,
Thy law is within My heart.” Ps. 40:8. He who would throw away the law
because it will not call evil good, would reject God because He “will by
no means clear the guilty.” Ex. 34:7. But God will remove the guilt,
will make the sinners righteous, that is, in harmony with the law, and
then the law which before condemned them will witness to their
righteousness.

[Sidenote: “The Faith of Christ.”]

Much is lost, in reading the Scriptures, by not noting exactly what they
say. Here we have literally, “the faith of Christ,” just as in Rev.
14:12 we have “the faith of Jesus.” He is the Author and Finisher of
faith. Heb. 12:2. God has “dealt to every man the measure of faith”
(Rom. 12:3), in giving Christ to every man. “Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17), and Christ is the Word.
All things are of God. It is He who gives repentance and forgiveness of
sins.

There is, therefore, no opportunity for any one to plead that his faith
is weak. He may not have accepted and made use of the gift, but there is
no such thing as “weak faith.” A man may be “weak in faith,” that is,
may be afraid to depend on faith, but faith itself is as strong as the
Word of God. There is no faith but the faith of Christ; everything else
professing to be faith is a spurious article. Christ alone is righteous;
He has overcome the world, and He alone has power to do it; in Him
dwelleth all the fulness of God, because the law—God Himself—was in His
heart; He alone has kept and can keep the law to perfection; therefore,
only by His faith,—living faith, that is, His life in us,—can we be made
righteous.

But this is sufficient. He is a “tried Stone.” The faith which He gives
to us is His own tried and approved faith, and it will not fail us in
any contest. We are not exhorted to try to do as well as He did, or to
try to exercise as much faith as He had, but simply to take His faith,
and let it work by love, and purify the heart. It will do it; take it!

[Sidenote: Believing Is Receiving.]

“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on His name.” John 1:12. That is, as many
as believed on His name received Him. To believe on His name is to
believe that He is the Son of God; to believe that He is the Son of God,
means to believe that He is come in the flesh, in human flesh, in our
flesh, for His name is “God with us;” so to believe on His name means
simply to believe that He dwells personally in every man,—in all flesh.
We do not make it so by believing it; it is so, whether we believe it or
not; we simply accept the fact, which all nature reveals to us.

It follows, then, as a matter of course that, believing in Christ, we
are justified by the faith of Christ, since we have Him personally
dwelling in us, exercising His own faith. All power in heaven and earth
is in His hands, and, recognizing this, we simply allow Him to exercise
His own power in His own way. God does “exceedingly abundantly,” by “the
power that worketh in us.”

[Sidenote: Christ Not the Minister of Sin.]

Jesus Christ is “the Holy and Righteous One.” Acts 3:14, R. V. “He was
manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5. He
not only “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22), but He “knew no sin” (2 Cor.
5:21). Therefore, it is impossible that any sin can come from Him. He
does not impart sin. In the stream of life that flows from the heart of
Christ, through His wounded side, there is no trace of impurity. It is
“a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal.” He is not the
minister of sin, that is, He does not minister sin to anybody. If in any
one who has sought—and not only sought, but found—righteousness through
Christ, there is afterwards found sin, it is because the person has
dammed up the stream, allowing the water to become stagnant. The Word
has not been given free course, so that it could be glorified; and where
there is no activity, there is death. No one is to blame for this but
the person himself. Let no professed Christian take counsel of his own
imperfections, and say that it is impossible for a Christian to live a
sinless life. It is impossible for a true Christian, one who has full
faith, to live any other kind of life. “How shall we, that are dead to
sin, live any longer therein?” Rom. 6:2. “Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him; and he can not sin,
because he is born of God.” 1 John 3:9. Therefore “abide in Him.”

[Sidenote: What Was Destroyed?]

“If I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a
transgressor.” We ask again, What was destroyed, the building up of
which will prove us to be transgressors? Remembering that the apostle is
talking of those who have believed in Jesus Christ, that they might be
justified by the faith of Christ, we find the answer to the question in
Rom. 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that
the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin.” Also Col. 2:10, 11: “Ye are complete in Him, which is the head of
all principality and power; in whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of
the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” That which is destroyed is the
body of sin, and it is destroyed only by this personal presence of the
life of Christ. It is destroyed in order that we may be freed from its
power, and may no longer need to serve it. It is destroyed for
everybody, for Christ in His own flesh has abolished “the enmity,” the
carnal mind; not His own, for He had none, but ours. Our sins, our
weaknesses, were upon Him. For every soul the victory has been gained,
and the enemy has been disarmed. We have only to accept the victory
which Christ has won. The victory over all sin is already a reality; our
faith in it makes it real to us. The loss of faith puts us outside the
reality, and the old body of sin looms up again. That which is destroyed
by faith is built up again by unbelief. Remember that this destruction
of the body of sin, although performed by Christ for all, is,
nevertheless, a present, personal matter with each individual.

[Sidenote: “Dead to the Law.”]

Many seem to fancy that “dead to the law” means the same as that the law
is dead. Not by any means. The law must be in full force, else no one
could be dead by means of it. How does a man become dead to the law?—By
receiving its full penalty, which is death. He is dead, but the law
which put him to death is still as ready as ever to put to death another
criminal. Suppose, now, that the man who was executed for gross crimes
should, by some miraculous power, come to life again, would he not still
be dead to the law?—Certainly; nothing that he had done could be
mentioned to him by the law; but if he should again commit crimes, the
law would again execute him, but as another man. We say now that I,
through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. By the
body of Christ I am raised from the death which I have suffered by the
law because of my sin, and now I walk “in newness of life,” a life unto
God. Like Saul of old, I am by the Spirit of God “turned into another
man.” 1 Sam. 10:6. This is the Christian’s experience. That this is the
case is shown by what follows.

[Sidenote: Crucified with Christ.]

“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me.” Christ was crucified; He was “delivered for our offenses,
and raised again for our justification.” Rom. 4:25. But unless we are
crucified with Him, His death and resurrection profit us nothing. If the
cross of Christ is separated from us, and outside of us, even though it
be but by so much as a moment of time and an hair’s breadth of space, it
is to us all the same as if He were not crucified. No one was ever saved
simply by looking forward to a cross to be erected and a Christ to be
crucified at some indefinite time in the future, and no one can now be
saved simply by believing that at a certain time in the past Christ was
crucified. No; if men would see Christ crucified, they must look neither
forward nor backward, but upward; for the arms of the cross that was
erected on Calvary reach from Paradise lost to Paradise restored, and
embrace the whole world of sin. The crucifixion of Christ is not a thing
of but a single day. He is “the Lamb that hath been slain from the
foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8, R. V.); and the pangs of Calvary
will not be ended as long as a single sin or sinner exists in the
universe. Even now Christ bears the sins of the whole world, for “in Him
all things consist;” and when at the last He is obliged to cut off the
irreclaimably wicked in the lake of fire, the anguish which they suffer
will be only that which the Christ whom they have rejected suffered on
the cross.

[Sidenote: Where the Cross Is.]

Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. 1 Peter 2:24. He was
“made a curse for us,” in that He hung on the tree. Gal. 3:13. On the
cross He bore not only the weakness and sin of humanity, but also the
weakness of the earth. Thorns are the sign of the curse, the weakened,
imperfect condition of the earth (Gen. 3:17, 18; 4:11, 12); and on the
cross Christ bore the crown of thorns. Therefore, all the curse, every
trace of it, is borne by Christ,—by Christ crucified. Wherever,
therefore, we see any curse, or wherever there is any curse, whether we
see it or not, there is the cross of Christ. This can be seen again from
the following: The curse is death, and death kills; the curse is in
everything, yet everywhere we see life. Here is the miracle of the
cross. Christ suffered the curse of death, and yet lived. He is the only
one that could do it. Therefore, the fact that we see life everywhere,
also in ourselves, in spite of the curse which is everywhere, is
positive proof that the cross of the Crucified One is there bearing it.
So it is that not only every blade of grass, every leaf of the forest,
and every piece of bread that we eat has the stamp of the cross of
Christ on it, but, above all, we have the same. Wherever there is a
fallen, sin-scarred, miserable human being, there is also the Christ of
God crucified for him and in him. Christ on the cross bears all things,
and the sins of that man are on Him. Because of unbelief and ignorance
the man feels all the weight of the heavy burden, but the load is on
Christ, nevertheless. It is easy for Christ, but heavy for the man; if
the man will believe, he may be relieved of the load. In short, Christ
bears the sins of all the world on the cross. Therefore, wherever sin is
found, there we may be sure is the cross of Christ.

[Sidenote: Where Sin Is.]

Sin is a personal matter. A man is guilty only of his own sins, and not
of those which another has committed. Now I can not sin where I am not,
but only where I am. Sin is in the heart of man; “for from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an
evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from
within.” Mark 7:21-23. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked.” Jer. 17:9. Sin is in every fiber of our being by
nature. We are born in sin, and our life is sin, so that sin can not be
taken from us without taking our life. What I need is freedom from my
own personal sin,—that sin which not only has been committed by me
personally, but which dwells in the heart,—the sin which constitutes the
whole of my life.

[Sidenote: Bound by Sin.]

“His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be
holden with the cords of his sins.” Prov. 5:22. “For though thou wash
thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked
before Me, saith the Lord.” Jer. 2:22. My sin is committed by myself, in
myself, and I can not separate it from me. Cast it on the Lord? Ah, yes,
that is right, but how? Can I gather it up in my hands, and cast it from
me, so that it will light upon Him?—I can not. If I could separate it
but a hair’s breadth from me, then I should be safe, no matter what
became of it, since it would not be found in me. In that case I could
dispense with Christ; for if sin were not found on me, it would make no
matter to me where it was found. If I could gather up my sins so as to
lay them upon Christ crucified apart from me, then I would not need to
put them on Him. They would then be away from me, and that would clear
me. But no works of any kind that I can do can save me; therefore, all
my efforts to separate myself from my sins are unavailing.

[Sidenote: Christ Bears the Sin in Us.]

It is evident from what has been said that whoever bears my sins must
come where I am, yea, must come into me. And this is just what Christ
does. Christ is the Word, and to all sinners, who would excuse
themselves by saying that they can not know what God requires of them,
He says, “The Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy
heart, that thou mayest do it.” Deut. 30:11-14. Therefore, He says, “If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved.” Rom. 10:9. What shall we confess about the Lord Jesus?—Why,
confess the truth, that He is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, and believe that He is there risen from the dead. “Now that He
ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower
parts of the earth?” Eph. 4:9. The risen Saviour is the crucified
Saviour. As Christ risen is in the heart of the sinner, therefore,
Christ crucified is there. If it were not so, there would be no hope for
any. A man may believe that Jesus was crucified eighteen hundred years
ago, and may die in his sins; but he who believes that Christ is
crucified and risen in him, has salvation.

All that any man in the world has to do in order to be saved, is to
believe the truth, that is, to recognize and acknowledge facts, to see
things just as they actually are, and to confess them. Whoever believes
that Christ is crucified in him, which is the fact in the case of every
man, and confesses that the crucified Christ is also risen, and that He
dwells in him by and with the power of the resurrection, is saved from
sin, and will be saved as long as he holds fast his confession. This is
the only true confession of faith.

What a glorious thought that, wherever sin is, there is Christ, the
Saviour from sin! He bears sin, all sin, the sin of the world. Sin is in
all flesh, and so Christ is come in the flesh. Christ is crucified in
every man that lives on earth. This is the word of truth, the Gospel of
salvation, which is to be proclaimed to all, and which will save all who
accept it.

[Sidenote: Living by Faith.]

In the tenth chapter of Romans, as already noted, we learn that Christ
is in every man, “a very present help in trouble.” He is in the sinner,
in order that the sinner may have every incentive and facility for
turning from sin to righteousness. He is “the way, the truth, and the
life.” John 14:6. There is no other life than His. He is the life. But,
although He is in every man, not every man has His righteousness
manifested in his life; for some “hold down the truth in
unrighteousness.” Rom. 1:18, R. V. Now Paul’s inspired prayer was that
we might be strengthened with might by the Spirit of God in the inner
man, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;” “that ye might be
filled with all the fulness of God.” Eph. 3:16-19. The difference, then,
between the sinner and the Christian is this: that, whereas Christ
crucified and risen is in every man, in the sinner He is there
unrecognized and ignored, while in the Christian He dwells there by
faith.

Christ is crucified in the sinner, for wherever there is sin and the
curse, there is Christ bearing it. All that is needed now is for the
sinner to be crucified with Christ, to let Christ’s death be his own
death, in order that the life of Jesus may be manifested in his mortal
flesh. Faith in the eternal power and Divinity of God, that are seen in
all the things that He has made, will enable any one to grasp this
mystery. The seed is not quickened “except it die.” 1 Cor. 15:36.
“Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone;
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” John 12:24. So the one who
is crucified with Christ, begins at once to live, but it is as another
man. “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

[Sidenote: The Life of the World.]

“But Christ was actually crucified eighteen hundred years, and more,
ago, was He not?”—Certainly. “Then how can it be that my personal sins
were upon Him? or how can it be that I am now crucified with Him?”—Well,
it may be that we can not understand the fact, but that makes no
difference with the fact. But when we remember that Christ is the life,
even “that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us” (1 John 1:2), we may understand something of it. “In Him was
life; and the life was the light of men,”—“the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1:4, 9.

Christ is larger than the Man Jesus of Nazareth, whom the eyes of all
men could see. Flesh and blood,—that which the eyes can see,—can not
reveal “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matt. 16:16, 17. “Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God
hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.” 1 Cor. 2:9, 10. So no man, no
matter how well acquainted he was with the Carpenter of Nazareth, could
call Him Lord but by the Holy Ghost. 1 Cor. 12:3. By the Spirit, His own
personal presence, He can dwell in every man on earth, and fill the
heavens as well, a thing which Jesus, in the flesh could not do.
Therefore, it was expedient for Him to go away, and send the Comforter.
“He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Col. 1:16, 17,
R. V. Jesus of Nazareth was the manifestation of Christ in the flesh;
but the flesh was not Christ, for “the flesh profiteth nothing.” It is
the Word which was in the beginning, and whose power upholds all things,
that is the Christ of God. The sacrifice of Christ, so far as this world
is concerned, dates from the foundation of the world. While Christ was
going about doing good in Judea and Galilee, He was in the bosom of the
Father making reconciliation for the sins of the world.

The scene on Calvary was the manifestation of what has taken place as
long as sin has existed, and will take place until every man is saved
who is willing to be saved: Christ bearing the sins of the world. He
bears them now. One act of death and resurrection was sufficient for all
time, for it is eternal life that we are considering; therefore, it is
not necessary for the sacrifice to be repeated. That life pervades and
upholds all things, so that whoever accepts it by faith has all the
benefit of the entire sacrifice of Christ. By Himself He “made
purification of sins.” Whoever rejects the life, or is unwilling to
acknowledge that the life which he has is Christ’s life, loses, of
course, the benefit of the sacrifice.

[Sidenote: The Faith of the Son of God.]

Christ lived by the Father. John 6:57. His faith in the word that God
gave Him was such that He repeatedly and positively maintained that when
He died He should rise again the third day. In this faith He died,
saying, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.” Luke 23:46. That
faith which gave Him the victory over death (Heb. 5:7), because it gave
Him the complete victory over sin, is the faith which He exercises in
us, when He dwells in us by faith; for He is “the same yesterday, and
to-day, and forever.” It is not we that live, but Christ that lives in
us, and uses His own faith to deliver us from the power of Satan. “What
have we to do?”—Let Him live in us in His own way. “Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” How can we let Him?—Simply by
acknowledging Him; by confessing Him. We can not understand, so as to
explain the mystery of Christ in us the hope of glory, but everything in
nature that serves to sustain our life teaches us the fact. The sunlight
that shines upon us, the air that we breathe, the food that we eat, and
the water that we drink, are all means of conveying life to us. The life
that they convey to us is none other than the life of Christ, for He is
the life, and thus we have constantly before us and in us evidence of
the fact that Christ can live in us. If we allow the Word to have free
course in us, it will be glorified in us, and will glorify us.

[Sidenote: The Gift for Me.]

“Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” How personal this is. I am the
one whom He loved. Each soul in the world can say, “He loved me, and
gave Himself for me.” Leave Paul out of the question in reading this.
Paul is dead, but the words that he wrote are yet alive. It was true of
Paul, but no more so than of every other man. They are the words which
the Spirit puts in our mouths, if we will but receive them. The whole
gift of Christ is for each individual me. Christ is not divided, but
every soul gets the whole of Him, just the same as if there were not
another person in the world. Each one gets all the light that shines.
The fact that there are millions of people for the sun to shine upon,
does not make its light any the less for me; I get the full benefit of
it, and could not get more if I were the only person in the world. It
shines for me. So Christ gave Himself for me, the same as if I were the
only sinner in the world; and the same is true of every other sinner.
When you sow a grain of wheat, you get many more grains of the same
kind, each one having the same life, and just as much of it, as the
original seed had. So it is with Christ, the true Seed. In dying for us,
that we may also become the true seed, He gives to every one of us the
whole of His life. “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”

[Sidenote: Christ Not Dead in Vain.]

“I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the
law, then Christ is dead in vain.” This is the summing up of the case.
It is the substance of what has preceded. If righteousness came by the
law, then there would have been no use for the death of Christ. The law
itself can do nothing except point out men’s duty; therefore, to speak
of righteousness coming by the law, means by our works, by our
individual effort. So the text is equivalent to the statement that if we
could save ourselves, Christ died for nothing; for salvation is the one
thing to be gained. Well, we can not save ourselves; and Christ is not
dead in vain; therefore there is salvation in Him. He is able to save
all that come unto God by Him. Some must be saved, else He has died in
vain; but He has not died in vain; therefore, the promise is sure: “He
shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in His hand, He shall see of the travail of His soul,
and shall be satisfied.” Isa. 53:10, 11. “Whosoever will,” may be of the
number. Since He died not in vain, see to it “that ye receive not the
grace of God in vain.”



                              CHAPTER III.
          Redeemed from the Curse, to the Blessing of Abraham.


The two chapters of Galatians that we have already studied give us
sufficient idea of the entire book, so that we can practically take
leave of the Galatian brethren, and consider it as addressed solely to
us. The circumstances that called forth the writing of the epistle were
that the Galatians, having accepted the Gospel, were led astray by false
teachers, who presented to them “another gospel,” that is, a counterfeit
gospel, since there is but one for all time and for all men. The way it
was presented to them was, “Except ye be circumcised after the manner of
Moses, ye can not be saved.” Outward circumcision was given as a sign of
righteousness which the individual already possessed by faith. Rom.
4:11. It was a sign that the law was written in the heart by the Spirit,
and it was, therefore, only a mockery and a sham when the law was
transgressed. Rom. 2:25-29. But for one to be circumcised in order to be
saved, was to put his trust in works of his own and not in Christ. Now,
although there is in these days no question as to whether or not a man
should submit to the specific rite of circumcision in order to be saved,
the question of salvation itself, whether by human works or by Christ
alone, is as live a one as ever.

Instead of attacking their error, and combating it with hard argument,
the apostle begins with experience, the relation of which illustrates
the case in hand. In this narrative he has occasion to show that
salvation is wholly by faith, for all men alike, and not in any degree
by works. As Christ tasted death for every man, so every man who is
saved must have Christ’s personal experience of death and resurrection
and life. Christ in the flesh does what the law could not do. Gal. 2:21;
Rom. 8:3, 4. But that very fact witnesses to the righteousness of the
law. If the law were at fault, Christ would not fulfil its demands. He
shows its righteousness by fulfilling, or doing, what it demands, not
simply for us, but in us. The grace of God in Christ attests the majesty
and holiness of the law. We do not frustrate the grace of God; if
righteousness could come by the law, then would Christ be dead in vain.
But to claim that the law could be abolished, or could relax its claims,
and thus be of no account, is also to say that Christ is dead in vain.
Let it be repeated, righteousness can not possibly come by the law, but
only by the faith of Christ; but the fact that the righteousness of the
law could be attained in no other way by us than by the crucifixion and
resurrection and life of Christ in us, shows the infinite greatness and
holiness of the law.

“O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus
Christ was openly set forth crucified? This only would I learn from you,
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now
perfected in the flesh? Did ye suffer so many things in vain? if it be
indeed in vain. He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and
worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by
the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned
unto him for righteousness. Know therefore that they which be of faith,
the same are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. So then they
which be of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. For as many as
are of the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, Cursed
is every one which continueth not in all things that are written in the
book of the law, to do them. Now that no man is justified by the law in
the sight of God, is evident; for, The righteous shall live by faith;
and the law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for
us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree; that
upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus;
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

“Brethren, I speak after the manner of men, Though it be but a man’s
covenant, yet when it hath been confirmed, no one maketh it void, or
addeth thereto. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his
seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy
seed, which is Christ. Now this I say: A covenant confirmed beforehand
by God, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth
not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. For if the
inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God hath
granted it to Abraham by promise. What then is the law? It was added
because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise
hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a
mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one. Is
the law then against the promises of God? God forbid; for if there had
been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have
been of the law. Howbeit the Scripture hath shut up all things under
sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe.

“But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto
the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law hath been
our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor. For ye are
all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as
were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew
nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and
female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ’s,
then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” Galatians 3, R.
V.

[Sidenote: The Sin of Witchcraft.]

The apostle asks those who are departing from God and His truth, “Who
hath bewitched you?” “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” 1 Sam. 15:22, 23. If you
look up this text in the Bible, you will see that in both instances the
words “is as” are added. The literal Hebrew is, “Rebellion is the sin of
witchcraft, and stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry.” And how
so?—Plainly enough, for stubbornness and rebellion are rejection of God;
and he who rejects God, puts himself under the control of evil spirits.
All idolatry is devil-worship. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice,
they sacrifice to devils.” 1 Cor. 10:20. There is no middle ground.
Christ says, “He that is not with Me is against Me.” Matt. 12:30. That
is, disobedience, rejection of the Lord, is the spirit of antichrist.
The Galatian brethren were, as we have already seen, departing from God,
and consequently they were inevitably, although perhaps unconsciously,
relapsing into idolatry.

[Sidenote: The Safeguard against Spiritualism.]

Spiritualism is only another name for ancient witchcraft and
soothsaying. It is a fraud, but not the kind of fraud that most people
think it is. There is reality in it. It is a fraud in that while it
professes to receive communications from the spirits of the dead, it has
communication only with the spirits of devils, since “the dead know not
anything.” To be a Spiritualist medium is to give one’s self to the
control of demons. Now there is only one protection against this, and
that is to hold fast to the Word of God. He who lightly regards God’s
Word, severs himself from association with God, and puts himself within
Satan’s influence. Even though a man denounce Spiritualism in the
strongest terms, if he does not hold to God’s Word, he will sooner or
later be carried away by the strong delusion. Only by keeping the Word
of Christ’s patience can men be kept from the temptation that is coming
on all the world. Rev. 3:10. “The spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2), is the spirit of Satan, the spirit
of antichrist; and the Gospel of Christ, which reveals the righteousness
of God (Rom. 1:16, 17), is the only possible salvation from it.

[Sidenote: Christ Crucified before Us.]

“Who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set
forth crucified?” Jesus was set forth before the Galatians, when Paul
preached to them, as openly crucified before their eyes. So vivid was
the presentation, that they could actually see Christ crucified. It was
not skilful word-painting on the part of Paul, nor imagination on the
part of the Galatians, for then it would have been only deception. No;
it was an actual fact; Christ was there, crucified, before their eyes,
and Paul by the Spirit enabled them to see Him. We know that it was not
Paul’s skill in making beautiful word pictures that enabled them to
fancy that they saw the crucifixion, for elsewhere Paul says that he
determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and that
he purposely and carefully refrained from using the wisdom of words, for
fear that he should make the cross of Christ without effect. 1 Cor.
1:17, 18; 2:1-4. The experience of the Galatians in this matter was not
peculiar to them. The cross of Christ is a present thing. The
expression, “Come to the cross,” is not an empty form of words, but an
invitation that can be literally complied with. Christ is crucified
before us, and each blade of grass, each leaf in the forest, reveals the
fact. Yea, we have the testimony in our own bodies, in that, although
sinful and corruptible, we yet live. Not until one has seen Christ
crucified before his eyes, and can see the cross of Christ at every
turn, does one know the reality of the Gospel. Let those scoff who will;
the fact that a blind man can not see the sun, and denies that it
shines, will not deter one who sees it from talking of its glory. Many
there are who can testify that it is something more than a figure of
speech, when the apostle says that Christ was crucified before the eyes
of the Galatians. They have had the experience. God grant that this
study of Galatians, before it is finished, may be the means of opening
the eyes of many more, so that they may see Christ crucified before
their eyes, and know Him crucified in them and for them.

[Sidenote: A Good Beginning.]

The question, “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the
hearing of faith?” admits of but one answer. It was by the hearing of
faith. The Spirit is given to those who believe. John 7:39; Eph. 1:13.
The question also shows that the Galatians had received the Holy Spirit.
There is no other way of beginning the Christian life. “No man can say
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” 1 Cor. 12:3. In the
beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, begetting
life and activity in the creation; for without the Spirit there is no
motion—no life. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts.” Zech. 4:6. The Spirit of God alone can carry out the
perfect will of God, and no works that a man can do can bring Him into
the soul, any more than a dead man can manufacture the breath by which
he can be made to live and move. Those to whom Paul addressed this
Epistle had seen Christ crucified before their eyes, and had accepted
Him through the Spirit. Have you also seen and accepted Him?

[Sidenote: Hold Fast the Beginning.]

“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in
the flesh?” Foolish is but a feeble term for it. The man who has not
power to begin a work, has strength to finish it! He who has not
strength to put one foot before the other, or even to stand alone, has
strength enough in himself to win a race! Impossible. Who has power to
beget himself? No one; we come into this world without having begotten
ourselves; we are born without strength; and, therefore, all the
strength that ever manifests itself in us, comes from another than
ourselves. It is all given to us. The new-born babe is the
representative of man. “A man is born into the world.” All the strength
that any man has of himself is found in the infant as it utters its
first cry with its first breath. And even that feeble strength is not of
itself. Even so in things spiritual. “Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of truth.” James 1:18. We can no more live righteous lives by
our own strength than we could beget ourselves. The work that is begun
by the Spirit, must be carried to completion by the Spirit. “We are made
partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end.” Heb. 3:14. “He which hath begun a good work in
you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil. 1:6. And He
alone can do it.

[Sidenote: Experience in the Gospel.]

“Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 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?”
These questions show that the experience of the Galatian brethren had
been as deep and as real as would be expected from those before whose
eyes Christ was openly crucified. The Spirit had been given to them,
miracles had been wrought among them, and even by them, for the gifts of
the Spirit accompany the gift of the Spirit; and as the result of this
living Gospel among them, they had suffered persecution; for “all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3:12.
This makes the case the more serious. Having shared the sufferings of
Christ, they were now departing from Him; and this departure from
Christ, through whom alone righteousness can come, was marked by
disobedience to the law of truth. They were insensibly but inevitably
transgressing the law to which they were looking for salvation.

[Sidenote: Abraham Believed God.]

The questions asked in verses 3, 4, and 5 suggest their own answer. The
Spirit was ministered, and miracles were wrought, not by works of law,
but by “the hearing of faith,” that is, by the obedience of faith, for
faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Rom. 10:17. Thus Paul’s labor,
and the first experience of the Galatians, were exactly in line with the
experience of Abraham, whose faith was accounted for righteousness. Let
it be remembered that the “false brethren” who preached “another
gospel,” even the false gospel of righteousness by works, were Jews, and
claimed Abraham for their father. It would be their boast that they were
children of Abraham, and they would appeal to their circumcision as
proof of the fact. But the very thing upon which they relied as proving
them to be children of Abraham, was proof that they were not; for
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Abraham had the righteousness of faith before he was circumcised. Rom.
4:11. “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham.” Abraham was not justified by works (Rom. 4:2, 3),
but his faith “wrought righteousness.”

The same trouble still exists. People take the sign for the substance,
the end for the means. They see that righteousness reveals itself in
good works; therefore, they assume that the good works bring the
righteousness. Righteousness gained by trusting, good works wrought
without working, seem to them impractical and fanciful. They call
themselves “practical” men, and believe that the only way to have a
thing done is to do it. But the truth is that all such men are highly
impractical. A man absolutely “without strength” can not do anything,
not even so much as to raise himself up to take the medicine that is
offered him; and any counsel for him to try to do it would be
impractical. Only in the Lord is there righteousness and strength. Isa.
45:24. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall
bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the
light.” Ps. 37:5, 6. Abraham is the father of all who believe for
righteousness, and of those only. The only practical thing is to trust,
even as he did.

[Sidenote: The Gospel to the Gentiles.]

“The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the Gospel beforehand unto Abraham.” This verse will bear much
reading. An understanding of it will guard one against many errors. And
it is not difficult to understand; simply hold to what it says, and you
have it.

(_a_) For one thing, the verse shows us that the Gospel was preached at
least as early as the days of Abraham.

(_b_) It was God Himself who preached it; therefore, it was the true and
only Gospel.

(_c_) It was the same Gospel that Paul preached; so that we have no
other Gospel than that which Abraham had.

(_d_) The Gospel differs in no particular now from what it was in
Abraham’s day; for his day was the day of Christ. John 8:56.

God requires just the same things now that He required then, and nothing
more.

Moreover, the Gospel was then preached to the Gentiles, for Abraham was
a Gentile, or, in other words, a heathen. He was brought up as a
heathen, for “Terah, the father of Abraham,” “served other gods” (Joshua
24:2), and was a heathen till the Gospel was preached to him. So the
preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles was no new thing in the days of
Peter and Paul. The Jewish nation was taken out from among the heathen,
and it is only by the preaching of the Gospel to the heathen that Israel
is built up and saved. See Acts 15:14-18; Rom. 11:25, 26. The very
existence of the people Israel always was and still is a standing proof
that God’s purpose is to save a people from among the Gentiles. It is in
fulfilment of this purpose that Israel exists.

Thus we see that the apostle takes the Galatians, and us, back to the
fountain-head,—to the place where God Himself preaches the Gospel to us
Gentiles. No Gentile can hope to be saved in any other way or by any
other gospel than that by which Abraham was saved.

[Sidenote: Blessed with Abraham.]

“So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Mark
the close connection between this and the preceding verse. The Gospel
was preached to Abraham in the words, “In thee shall all nations be
blessed.” (It should be remembered, in passing, that the words
“heathen,” or “Gentiles,” as in the Revised Version, and “nations,” in
verse 8, come from the very same Greek word.) This blessing is the
blessing of righteousness through Christ, as we learn from Acts 3:25,
26: “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God
made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all
the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised
up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of
you from his iniquities.” Because God preached the Gospel to Abraham,
saying, “In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” those
who believe are blessed with the faithful Abraham. There is no blessing
for any man except the blessing which Abraham received, and the Gospel
preached to him is the only Gospel there is for any people under heaven;
for besides the name of Jesus, in whom Abraham believed, “there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” In
Him “we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of
sins.” Col. 1:14. The forgiveness of sins carries with it all blessings.

[Sidenote: A Contrast: Under the Curse.]

Note the sharp contrast in verses 9 and 10. “They which be of faith are
blessed,” but “as many as are of the works of the law are under the
curse.” Faith brings the blessing; works bring the curse, or, rather,
leave one under the curse. The curse is on all, for “he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of
the only-begotten Son of God.” John 3:18. Faith removes the curse.

Who are under the curse?—“As many as are of the works of the law.” Note
that it does not say that those who do the law are under the curse, for
that would be a contradiction of Rev. 22:14: “Blessed are they that do
His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may
enter in through the gates into the city.” “Blessed are the undefiled in
the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Ps. 119:1.

So, then, they that are of faith are keepers of the law; for they that
are of faith are blessed, and those who do the commandments are blessed.
By faith they do the commandments. The Gospel is contrary to human
nature, and so it is that we become doers of the law, not by doing, but
by believing. If we worked for righteousness, we should be exercising
only our own sinful human nature, and so would get no nearer to
righteousness, but farther from it; but by believing the “exceeding
great and precious promises,” we become partakers of the Divine nature
(2 Peter 1:4), and then all our works are wrought in God. “The Gentiles,
which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness,
even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of
righteousness. Wherefore?—Because they sought it not by faith, but as it
were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone;
as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a Stumbling-stone and Rock of
offense; and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” Rom.
9:30-33.

[Sidenote: What the Curse Is.]

No one can read Gal. 3:10 carefully and thoughtfully without seeing that
the curse is transgression of the law. Disobedience to God’s law is
itself the curse; for “by one man sin entered into the world, and death
by sin.” Rom. 5:12. Sin has death wrapped up in it. Without sin death
would be impossible, for “the sting of death is sin.” 1 Cor. 15:56. “As
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” Why? Is it
because the law is a curse?—Not by any means. “The law is holy, and the
commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12. Why, then, are as many
as are of the works of the law under the curse?—Because 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.” Mark it well: They are not cursed
because they do the law, but because they do not do it. So, then, we see
that being of the works of the law does not mean that one is doing the
law. No; “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. All are under the
curse, and he who thinks to get out by his own works, remains there. The
curse consists in not continuing in all things that are written in the
law; therefore, the blessing means perfect conformity to the law. This
is as plain as language can make it.

[Sidenote: Blessing and Cursing.]

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing,
if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you
this day; and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord
your God.” Deut. 11:26-28. This is the living word of God, addressed to
each one of us personally. “The law worketh wrath” (Rom. 4:15), but the
wrath of God comes only on the children of disobedience (Eph. 5:6). If
we truly believe, we are not condemned, but only because faith brings us
into harmony with the law—the life of God. “Whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
James 1:25.

[Sidenote: Good Works.]

The Bible does not disparage good works. On the contrary, it exalts
them. “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou
affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful
to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable.” Titus
3:8. The charge against the unbelieving is that they are “unto every
good work reprobate.” Titus 1:16. Timothy was exhorted to “charge them
that are rich in this world,” “that they do good, that they be rich in
good works.” 1 Tim. 6:17, 18. And the apostle Paul prayed for us all,
that we might “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work.” Col. 1:10. Still further, we are assured that God
has created us in Christ Jesus “unto good works,” “that we should walk
in them.” Eph. 2:10.

He has Himself prepared these works for us, wrought them out, and laid
them up for all who trust in Him. Ps. 31:19. “This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” John 6:29. Good works are
commended, but we can not do them. They can be performed only by the One
who is good, and that is God. If there be ever any good in us, it is God
who worketh in us. There is no disparagement of anything that He does.
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in
you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Heb. 13:20, 21.

[Sidenote: Who Are the Just?]

When we read the frequent statement, “The just shall live by faith,” it
is necessary to have a clear idea of what the word “just” means. If we
read the same text in the Revised Version, we shall learn. It has it,
“The righteous shall live by faith.” To be justified by faith is to be
made righteous by faith. “All unrighteousness is sin” (1 John 5:17), and
“sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Therefore, all
unrighteousness is transgression of the law, and of course all
righteousness is obedience to the law. So we see that the just, or
righteous, man is the man who obeys the law, and to be justified is to
be made a keeper of the law.

[Sidenote: How to Become Just.]

Righteousness is the end to be obtained, and the law of God is the
standard. “The law worketh wrath,” because “all have sinned,” and “the
wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” How shall we
become doers of the law, and thus escape wrath, or the curse? The answer
is, “The righteous shall live by faith.” By faith, not by works, we
become doers of the law. “With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness.” Rom. 10:10. That no man is justified by the law in the
sight of God, it is evident. From what does it appear?—From this,—that
“the just shall live by faith.” If righteousness came by works, then it
would not be by faith; “if by grace, then is it no more of works;
otherwise grace is no more grace.” Rom. 11:6. “To him that worketh is
the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness.” Rom. 4:4, 5. There is no exception, no
half-way working. It is not said that some of the just shall live by
faith, or that they shall live by faith and works, but, simply, “the
just shall live by faith,” and that proves that it is not by their own
works. All of the just are made and kept just by faith alone. This is
because the law is so holy. It is greater than can be done by man; only
Divine power can accomplish it; so by faith we receive the Lord Jesus,
and He lives the perfect law in us.

[Sidenote: The Law Not of Faith.]

“The law is not of faith.” Of course it is the written law, no matter
whether in a book or on tables of stone, that is here referred to. That
law simply says, “Do this,” or, “Do not do that.” “The man that doeth
them shall live in them.” That is the sole condition on which the
written law offers life. Works, and works only, commend themselves to
it. How those works are obtained is of no consequence to it, provided
they are present. But none have done the requirements of the law, and so
there can be no doers of the law, that is, none who in their own lives
can present a record of perfect obedience.

[Sidenote: Life Is Action.]

“The man that doeth them shall live in them.” But one must be alive in
order to do. A dead man can do nothing, and he who is “dead in
trespasses and sins” can do no righteousness. Christ is the only one in
whom there is life, for He is the life, and He alone has done and can do
the righteousness of the law. When, instead of being denied and
repressed, He is acknowledged and received, He lives in us all the
fulness of His life, so that it is no more we but Christ living in us,
and then His obedience in us makes us righteous. Our faith is counted
for righteousness, simply because our faith appropriates the living
Christ. In trust we yield our bodies as temples of God; Christ, the
Living Stone, is enshrined in the heart, which becomes God’s throne, and
so the living law is our life; for out of the heart are the issues of
life.

[Sidenote: The Real Question at Issue.]

Let the reader pay particular attention to the fact that there is in
this epistle no controversy over the law, as to whether or not it should
be obeyed. No one had claimed that the law was abolished, or changed, or
had lost its force. The epistle contains no hint of any such thing. The
question was not if the law should be kept, but how it was to be kept.
Justification—being made righteous—was admitted to be a necessity; the
question was, Is it by faith, or by works? The false brethren were
persuading the Galatians that they must be made righteous by their own
efforts; Paul was by the Spirit showing that all such attempts were
useless, and could result only in fastening more firmly the curse upon
the sinner. Righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ is set forth to
all men in all time as the only real righteousness. The false teachers
made their boast in the law, but through breaking it caused the name of
God to be blasphemed. Paul made his boast in Christ, and by the
righteousness of the law, to which he thus submitted, caused the name of
God to be glorified in him.

[Sidenote: The Sting of Sin.]

That death is the curse is evident from the last part of verse 13,
“Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” Christ was made a curse
for us, in that He hung on a tree, that is, was crucified. But sin is
the cause of death. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom.
5:12. “The sting of death is sin.” 1 Cor. 15:56. So we have the
substance of verse 10 thus, that those who do not continue in the things
written in the law are dead. That is, disobedience is death. And this is
what the Scripture says: “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth
sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Sin contains
death, and men out of Christ are “dead in trespasses and sins.” It
matters not that they walk about seemingly full of life, the words of
Christ are, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His
blood, ye have no life in you.” John 6:53. “She that liveth in pleasure
is dead while she liveth.” 1 Tim. 5:6. It is a living death—a body of
death—that is endured. Rom. 7:24. Sin is the transgression of the law;
the wages of sin is death. The curse, therefore, is the death that is
carried about concealed even in the most attractive sin. “Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the
book of the law to do them.”

[Sidenote: Redemption from the Curse.]

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.” Let us stop right
here and contemplate this fact, leaving the way of redemption for later
consideration. We need to consider the statement very carefully, for
some who read it straightway rush off frantically exclaiming, “We don’t
need to keep the law, because Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
it,” as though the text said that Christ redeemed us from the curse of
obedience. Such read the Scriptures to no profit. The curse, as we have
seen, is disobedience. “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Therefore,
Christ has redeemed us from disobedience to the law. God sent forth His
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, “that the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” Rom. 8:4.

Some one may lightly say, “Then we are all right; whatever we do is
right so far as the law is concerned, since we are redeemed.” It is true
that all are redeemed, but not all have accepted redemption. Many say of
Christ, “We will not have this Man to reign over us,” and thrust the
blessing of God from them. But redemption is for all; all have been
purchased with the precious blood—the life—of Christ, and all may be, if
they will, free from sin and death. By that blood we are redeemed from
our “vain manner of life.” 1 Peter 1:18, R. V.

Stop and think what this means; let the full force of the announcement
impress itself upon your consciousness. “Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law,”—from not continuing in all its righteous
requirements. We need not sin any more. He has snapped asunder the cords
of sin that bound us, so that we have but to accept His salvation in
order to be free from every besetting sin. It is not necessary for us
any longer to spend our lives in earnest longings for a better life, and
in vain regrets for desires unrealized. Christ raises no false hopes,
but He comes to the captives of sin, and cries to them, “Liberty! Your
prison doors are open. Go forth.” What more can be said? Christ has
gained the complete victory over “this present evil world,” over “the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” and
our faith in Him makes His victory ours. We have but to accept it.

[Sidenote: Christ Made a Curse for Us.]

That “Christ died for the ungodly” is evident to all who read the Bible.
He “was delivered for our offenses.” Rom. 4:25. The Innocent suffered
for the guilty; the Just for the unjust. “He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of
our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like
sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the
Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isa. 53:5, 6. But death
came by sin. Death is the curse that has passed upon all men, simply
because “all have sinned.” So, as Christ was “made a curse for us,” it
follows that Christ was “made to be sin on our behalf.” 2 Cor. 5:21, R.
V. He bore “our sins in His own body” up to the tree. 1 Peter 2:24,
margin. Note that our sins were “in His body.” It was no superficial
work that He undertook. The sins were not merely figuratively laid on
Him, but they were actually in Him. He was made a curse for us, made to
be sin for us, and consequently suffered death for us.

To some this truth seems repugnant; to the Greeks it is foolishness, and
to the Jews a stumbling-block, but “to us who are saved, it is the power
of God.” For bear in mind that it was our sins that He bore in His own
body—not His own sins. The same scripture that tells us that He was made
to be sin for us, assures us that He “knew no sin.” The same text that
tells us that He carried our sins “in His own body,” is careful to let
us know that He “did no sin.” The fact that He could carry our sin about
with Him, and in Him, being actually made to be sin for us, and yet not
do any sin, is to His everlasting glory and our eternal salvation from
sin. All the sins of all men were on Him, yet no person ever discovered
the trace of sin upon Him. No sin was ever manifested in His life,
although He took all sin upon Himself. He received it and swallowed it
up by the power of the endless life in which He swallows up death. He
can bear sin, and yet be untainted by it. It is by this marvelous life
that He redeems us. He gives us His life, so that we may be freed from
every taint of the sin that is in our flesh.

Christ, “in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and
supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to
save Him from death,” “was heard in that He feared.” Heb. 5:7. But He
died! Yes; but no one took His life from Him; He laid it down, that He
might take it again. John 10:17, 18. The pangs of death were loosed,
“because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” Acts 2:24.
Why was it not possible for death to hold Him, even though He
voluntarily put Himself in its power?—Because He “knew no sin;” He took
sin upon Himself, but was saved from its power. He was “in all things”
“made like unto His brethren,” “in all points tempted like as we are”
(Heb: 2:17; 4:15), and since He could of Himself do nothing (John 5:30),
He prayed to the Father to keep Him from being overcome and thereby
falling under the power of death. And He was heard. In His case these
words were fulfilled: “The Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not
be confounded; therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know
that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth Me; who will
contend with Me?” Isa. 50:7, 8.

Whose sin was it that thus oppressed Him, and from which He was
delivered?—Not His own, for He had none. It was your sin and mine. Our
sins have already been overcome—vanquished. We have to fight only with
an already defeated foe. When you come to God “in the name of Jesus,”
having surrendered yourself to His death and life, so that you do not
bear His name in vain, because Christ liveth in you, you have only to
remember that every sin was on Him, and is still on Him, and that He is
the conqueror, and straightway you will say, “Thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Now thanks be
unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh
manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.” 2 Cor. 2:14.

[Sidenote: The Revelation of the Cross.]

In Gal. 3:13 we are brought back to the subject presented in Gal. 2:20
and 3:1,—the ever-present cross. The subject is inexhaustible, but the
following few facts may serve to open it up to our minds:—

1. The redemption from sin and death is accomplished through the cross.
Gal. 3:13.

2. The Gospel is all contained in the cross; for the Gospel is “the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16),
and “unto us which are saved” the cross of Christ “is the power of God”
(1 Cor. 1:18).

3. Christ is revealed to fallen men only as the Crucified and risen One.
There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby salvation
may be obtained (Acts 4:12), and, therefore, it is all that God sets
forth before men, since He does not wish to confuse them. “Christ and
Him crucified,” is all that Paul wished to know; it is all that any man
needs to know. Thus the one thing that men need is salvation; if they
get that, they get all things; but salvation is found only in the cross
of Christ; therefore, God puts before the eyes of men nothing else: He
gives them just what they need. Jesus Christ is by God set forth openly
crucified before the eyes of every man, so that there is no excuse for
any to be lost, or to continue in sin.

4. Christ is set forth before men only as the crucified Redeemer; and
since that from which men need to be saved is the curse, He is set forth
as bearing the curse. Wherever there is any curse, there is Christ
bearing it. We have already seen that Christ bore, and still bears, our
curse, in that He bears our sin. He also bears the curse of the earth
itself, for He bore the crown of thorns, and the curse pronounced on the
earth was, “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth.” Gen. 3:18.
So the whole creation, which now groans under the curse, has been
redeemed through the cross of Christ. Rom. 8:19-23.

5. It is only on the cross that Christ bears the curse, for His being
made a curse for us was indicated by His hanging on the cross. The cross
is the symbol of the curse, but also of deliverance from the curse,
since it is the cross of Christ, the Conqueror and Deliverer. The very
curse itself, therefore, presents the cross, and proclaims our
deliverance.

6. Where is the curse? Ah, where is it not? The blindest can see it, if
he will but acknowledge the evidence of his own senses. Imperfection is
a curse, yea, that is the curse; and imperfection is on everything
connected with this earth. Man is imperfect, and even the finest plant
that grows from the earth is not as perfect as it might be. There is
nothing that meets the eye that does not show the possibility of
improvement, even if our untrained eyes can not see the absolute
necessity of it. When God made the earth, everything was “very good,”
or, as the Hebrew idiom has it, “good exceedingly.” God Himself could
see no chance, no possibility, for improvement. But now it is different.
The gardener spends his thought and labor trying to improve the fruits
and flowers under his care. And since the best that the earth produces
reveals the curse, what need be said of the gnarled, stunted growths,
the withered and blasted buds and leaves and fruits, and the noxious,
poisonous weeds? Everywhere “hath the curse devoured the earth.” Isa.
24:6.

7. What, then, is the conclusion of the whole matter? Is it
discouragement? Nay; “for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thess. 5:9. Although the
curse is visible everywhere,—

                  “Change and decay in all around I see,”—

yet things live, and men live. But the curse is death, and no man and no
thing in creation can bear death and still live. Death kills. But Christ
is He that liveth, and was dead, and is alive forevermore. Rev. 1:18. He
alone can bear the curse—death—and still live. Therefore, the fact that
there is life on the earth and in man, in spite of the curse, is proof
that the cross of Christ is everywhere. Every blade of grass, every leaf
of the forest, every shrub and tree, every flower and fruit, even the
bread that we eat, is stamped with the cross of Christ. In our own
bodies is Christ crucified. Everywhere is that cross; and as the
preaching of the cross is the power of God, which is the Gospel, so it
is that the everlasting power of God is revealed in all things that He
has made. That is “the power that worketh in us.” Eph. 3:20. Rom.
1:16-20, compared with 1 Cor. 1:17, 18, amounts to a plain declaration
that the cross of Christ is seen in all the things that God has
made—even in our own bodies.

[Sidenote: Courage from Despair.]

“Innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine iniquities have taken
hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the
hairs of mine head; therefore my heart faileth me.” Ps. 40:12. But not
only may we with confidence cry unto God out of the depths, but God in
His infinite mercy has so ordered it that the very depths themselves are
a source of confidence. The fact that we are in the depths of sin, and
yet live, is proof that God Himself, in the person of Christ on the
cross, is present with us to deliver us. So everything, even the curse,
for everything is under the curse, preaches the Gospel. Our own weakness
and sinfulness, instead of being a cause of discouragement, are, if we
believe the Lord, a pledge of redemption. Out of weakness we are made
strong. “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
that loved us.” Rom. 8:37. Truly, God has not left Himself without
witness among men. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself.” 1 John 5:10.

[Sidenote: The Blessing from the Curse.]

Christ bore the curse, in order that the blessing might come to us. He
bears the curse now, being crucified before us, and in us, and we with
Him, that we may continually experience the blessing. Death to Him is
life to us. If we willingly bear about in our bodies the dying of the
Lord Jesus, the life also of Jesus will be manifested in our mortal
flesh. 2 Cor. 4:10, 11. He was made to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21. What is the blessing
that we receive through the curse that He bears? It is the blessing of
salvation from sin; for as the curse is the transgression of the law
(Gal. 3:10), the blessing consists in turning away every one of us from
our iniquities (Acts 3:26). Christ suffered the curse, even sin and
death, “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ.” And what is the blessing of Abraham? The writer of this
Epistle, having stated that Abraham was made righteous by faith, adds:
“Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God
imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Rom. 4:6-8. And then he shows
that this blessing comes on the Gentiles as well as on the Jews who
believe, because Abraham received it when he was uncircumcised, “that he
might be the father of all them that believe.” The blessing is freedom
from sin, even as the curse is the doing of sin; and as the curse
reveals the cross, so we find that the very curse is by the Lord made to
proclaim the blessing. The fact that we live, although we are sinners,
is the assurance that deliverance from the sin is ours. “While there’s
life there’s hope,” says the adage. Yes, because the Life is our hope.
Thank God for the blessed hope! The blessing has come upon all men; for
“as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation;
even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life.” Rom. 5:18. God, who is “no respecter of
persons,” “hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ.” Eph. 1:3. It is ours to keep. If any one has not this
blessing, it is because he has not recognized the gift, or has
deliberately thrown it away.

[Sidenote: A Finished Work.]

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,”—from sin and death.
This He has done by “being made a curse for us,” and so we are freed
from all necessity of sinning. Sin can have no dominion over us if we
accept Christ in truth, and without reserve. This was just as much a
present truth in the days of Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah, as it is
to-day. More than seven hundred years before the cross was raised on
Calvary, Isaiah, who testified of the things which he understood,
because his own sin had been purged by a live coal from God’s altar,
said: “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; ... He
was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are
healed.... The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isa.
53:4-6. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and,
as a cloud, thy sins; return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.” Isa.
44:22. Long before Isaiah’s time, David wrote: “He hath not dealt with
us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” “As far
as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions
from us.” Ps. 103:10, 12.

“We which have believed do enter into rest,” because “the works were
finished from the foundation of the world.” Heb. 4:3. The blessing that
we received is “the blessing of Abraham.” We have no other foundation
than that of the apostles and prophets. Eph. 2:20. It is a full and
complete salvation that God has provided; it awaits us as we come into
the world; and we do not relieve God of any burden by rejecting it, nor
do we add to His labor by accepting it.

[Sidenote: “The Promise of the Spirit.”]

Christ hath redeemed us, “that we might receive the promise of the
Spirit through faith.” Do not make the mistake of reading this as though
it were “that we might receive the promise of the gift of the Spirit.”
It does not say that, and it does not mean that, as a little thought
will show. Christ has redeemed us, and that fact proves the gift of the
Spirit, for it was only “through the eternal Spirit” that He offered
Himself without spot to God. Heb. 9:14. But for the Spirit, we should
not know that we were sinners; much less should we know redemption. The
Spirit convinces of sin and of righteousness. John 16:8. “It is the
Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.” 1 John 5:6.
“He that believeth hath the witness in himself.” Christ is crucified in
every man; that, as we have already seen, is shown in the fact that we
are all under the curse, and Christ alone, on the cross, bears the
curse. But it is through the Spirit that Christ dwells on earth among
men. Faith enables us to receive the testimony of this witness, and
rejoice in that which the possession of the Spirit assures.

Note further: The blessing of Abraham comes on us, in order that we may
receive the promise of the Spirit. But it is only through the Spirit
that the blessing comes; therefore, the blessing can not bring to us the
promise that we shall receive the Spirit. We already have the Spirit
with the blessing. But, having the blessing of the Spirit, namely,
righteousness, we are sure of receiving that which the Spirit promises
to the righteous, namely, an everlasting inheritance. In blessing
Abraham God promised him an inheritance. The expression, “the promise of
the Spirit,” is used, as is plainly to be seen, in the same sense as
“the promise of God,” “the gift of God;” that is, the promise or the
gift which God bestows. The Spirit is the pledge of all good.

[Sidenote: The Spirit the Pledge of Inheritance.]

All God’s gifts are in themselves promises of more. There is always much
more to follow. God’s purpose in the Gospel is to gather together in one
all things in Jesus Christ, “in whom also we have obtained an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will; that we should be
to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your
salvation; in whom also after that [or when] ye believed, ye were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the
praise of His glory.” Eph. 1:10-14.

Of this inheritance we must speak further later on. Suffice it now to
say that it is the inheritance promised to Abraham, whose children we
become by faith. The inheritance belongs to all who are children of God
through faith in Christ Jesus; and the Spirit that marks our sonship is
the promise, the pledge, the first-fruits of that inheritance. Those who
accept Christ’s glorious deliverance from the curse of the
law,—redemption not from obedience to the law, for obedience is not a
curse, but from disobedience to the law,—have in the Spirit a taste of
the power and the blessing of the world to come.

[Sidenote: The Promise Was Made to Abraham.]

It will be seen that Abraham is the one about whom this chapter centers.
He is the one to whom the Gospel of world-wide salvation was preached.
He believed, and received the blessing, even the blessing of
righteousness. All who believe are blessed with believing Abraham. They
who are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse, in order that the blessing of Abraham might
come on us. “To Abraham and his seed were the promises made.” “If the
inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to
Abraham by promise.” Thus it is clear that the promise to us is the
promise that was made to Abraham,—the promise of an inheritance,—and in
which we share as his children. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse,
that we might receive the inheritance of righteousness. Christ through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, to purge our
consciences from dead works to serve the living God; because “He is the
Mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death ... they which are
called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” Heb. 9:14, 15.

[Sidenote: “And His Seed.”]

“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.”
There is here no play upon words; the issue is a vital one. The
controversy is over the way of salvation, whether it is by Christ alone,
or by something else, or by Christ and something or somebody else. Many
people imagine that it is by them,—that they must save themselves by
making themselves good. Many others think that Christ is a valuable
adjunct, a good assistant to their efforts; while others still are
willing to give Him the first place, but not the only place. They regard
themselves as good seconds. It is the Lord and they who do the work. But
our text shuts off all this assumption and self-assertion. Not seeds,
but the seed. Not many, but one. “And to thy Seed, which is Christ.”
Christ is the One.

[Sidenote: Not Two Lines.]

We hear much about the “spiritual seed” and the “literal seed” of
Abraham. If that contrast meant anything at all, it would mean a
fanciful seed as opposed to a real seed. The opposite of _spiritual_ is
_fleshly_, and the fleshly seed, as we shall see later on, is not the
real seed, but only a bond-servant, to be cast out, having no share
whatever in the inheritance. So there is no fleshly seed of Abraham. The
spiritual seed, however, is a literal, or real, seed, even as Christ is
“a quickening Spirit,” and yet most real. It is possible for men walking
about in the body, in this world, to be wholly spiritual, and such they
must be, or else they are not children of Abraham. “They that are in the
flesh can not please God.” “Flesh and blood doth not inherit the kingdom
of God.” There is only one line of descendants from Abraham, only one
set of real children, and they are those who are of faith,—those who, by
receiving Christ by faith, receive power to become sons of God.

[Sidenote: Many Promises in One.]

But while the Seed is singular, the promises are plural. It is not
merely one specific promise that was made to Abraham and his Seed, but
promises. God has nothing for any man that was not promised to Abraham;
and all the promises of God are conveyed in Christ, in whom Abraham
believed. “For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the
yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God
through us.” 2 Cor. 1:20.

[Sidenote: The Promised Inheritance.]

That the thing promised, and the sum of all the promises, is an
inheritance, is clearly seen from Gal. 3:15-18. The sixteenth verse has
just been noted, and the seventeenth verse tells us that the law, coming
in four hundred and thirty years after the promise was made and
confirmed, can not make it of none effect; “for if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by
promise.” Verse 18. What this promised inheritance is may be seen by
comparing the verse just quoted with Rom. 4:13: “For the promise, that
he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed,
through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” And so,
although the heavens and the earth which are now are “reserved unto fire
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men,” when “the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat,” we, “according to His promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:7, 12, 13.
This is the heavenly country for which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob looked.

[Sidenote: An Inheritance without Curse.]

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse; ... that we might receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith.” This “promise of the Spirit” we
have seen to be the possession of the whole earth made new—redeemed from
the curse; for “the creation itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of
God.” The earth, fresh and new from the hand of God, perfect in every
respect, was given to man for a possession. Gen. 1:27, 28, 31. Man
sinned, and brought the curse upon himself. Christ has taken the whole
curse, both of man and of all creation, upon Himself. He redeems the
earth from the curse, that it may be the everlasting possession that God
originally designed it to be, and He also redeems man from the curse,
that he may be fitted for the possession of such an inheritance. This is
the sum of the Gospel. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. This gift of eternal life is included in
the promise of the inheritance, for God promised the land to Abraham and
to his seed for “an everlasting possession.” Gen. 17:7, 8. It is an
inheritance of righteousness, because the promise that Abraham should be
heir of the world was through the righteousness of faith. Righteousness,
eternal life, and a place in which to live eternally,—these are all in
the promise, and they are all that could possibly be desired or given.
To redeem man, but to give him no place in which to live, would be an
incomplete work; the two things are parts of one whole, for the power by
which we are redeemed is the power of creation,—the power by which the
heavens and the earth are made new. When all is accomplished, “there
shall be no more curse.” Rev. 22:3.

[Sidenote: The Covenants of Promise.]

That the covenant and promise of God are one and the same thing, is
clearly seen from Gal. 3:17, where it appears that to disannul the
covenant would be to make void the promise. In Genesis 17 we read that
God made a covenant with Abraham to give him the land of Canaan—and with
it the whole world—for an everlasting possession; but Gal. 3:18 says
that God gave it to him by promise. God’s covenants with men can be
nothing else than promises to them: “Who hath first given to Him, and it
shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to
Him, are all things.” Rom. 11:35, 36. It is so rare for men to do
anything without expecting an equivalent, that theologians have taken it
for granted that it is the same with God. So they begin their
dissertations on God’s covenant with the statement that a covenant is “a
mutual agreement between two or more persons, to do or refrain from
doing certain things.” But God does not make bargains with men, because
He knows that they could not fulfil their part. After the flood God made
a covenant with every beast of the earth, and with every fowl; but the
beasts and the birds did not promise anything in return. Gen. 9:9-16.
They simply received the favor at the hand of God. That is all we can
do. God promises us everything that we need, and more than we can ask or
think, as a gift. We give Him ourselves, that is, nothing, and He gives
us Himself, that is, everything. That which makes all the trouble is
that even when men are willing to recognize the Lord at all, they want
to make bargains with Him. They want it to be a “mutual” affair—a
transaction in which they will be considered as on a par with God. But
whoever deals with God must deal with Him on His own terms, that is, on
a basis of fact—that we have nothing and are nothing, and He has
everything and is everything, and gives everything.

[Sidenote: The Covenant Confirmed.]

The covenant, that is, the promise of God to give men the whole earth
made new, after having made them free from the curse, was “confirmed
before of God in Christ.” He is the Surety of the new covenant, even the
everlasting covenant. “For how many soever be the promises of God, in
Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory
of God through us.” 2 Cor. 1:20, R. V. In Him we have obtained the
inheritance (Eph. 1:11), for the Holy Spirit is the first-fruits of the
inheritance, and the possession of the Holy Spirit is Christ Himself
dwelling in the heart by faith. God blessed Abraham, saying, “In thy
Seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed,” and this is
fulfilled in Christ, whom God has sent to bless us in turning us away
from our iniquities. Acts 3:25, 26.

[Sidenote: Confirmed by an Oath of God.]

“When God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater,
He sware by Himself; ... for men verily swear by the greater; and an
oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two
immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might
have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the
hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Heb. 6:13-20. Compare
Gen. 22:15-18.

It was the oath of God, therefore, that confirmed the covenant made to
Abraham; that promise and oath to Abraham are our ground of hope, our
strong consolation; they are “sure and steadfast,” because the oath sets
forth Christ as the pledge, the surety, and “He ever liveth.” He upholds
all things by the word of His power. Heb. 1:3. “In Him all things
consist.” Col. 1:17, R. V. Therefore, when God “interposed Himself by an
oath,” which is our consolation and hope in fleeing for refuge from sin,
He pledged His own existence, and with it the entire universe, for our
salvation. Surely a firm foundation for our hope is laid in His
excellent Word.

[Sidenote: The Law Can Not Make the Covenant Void.]

Do not forget as we proceed that the covenant and the promise are the
same thing, and that it conveys land, even the whole earth made new, to
Abraham and his seed; and remember also that, since only righteousness
is to dwell in the new heavens and the new earth promised to Abraham and
his seed, the promise includes the making righteous of all who believe.
This is done in Christ, in whom the promise is confirmed. Now, “though
it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth,
or addeth thereto.” Gal. 3:15. How much more must this be the case with
God’s covenant! Therefore, since perfect and everlasting righteousness
was assured by the covenant made with Abraham, which was also confirmed
in Christ, by the oath of God, it is impossible that the law, which was
spoken four hundred and thirty years later, could introduce any new
feature. The inheritance was given to Abraham by promise, but if after
four hundred and thirty years it should transpire that now the
inheritance must be gained in some other way, then the promise would be
of no effect, and the covenant would be made void. But that would
involve the overthrow of God’s government, and the ending of His
existence; for He pledged His own existence to _give_ Abraham and his
seed the inheritance and the righteousness necessary for it. “For the
promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or
to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”
Rom. 4:13. The Gospel was as full and complete in the days of Abraham as
it has ever been or ever will be. No addition to it, or change in its
provisions or conditions, could possibly be made after God’s oath to
Abraham. Nothing can be taken away from it as it thus existed, and not
one thing can ever be required from any man more than what was required
of Abraham.

[Sidenote: What Is the Use of the Law?]

This is the question that the apostle Paul asks in verse 19, both for
the purpose of anticipating the objections of the Antinomians, and also
that he may the more emphatically show the place of the law in the
Gospel. The question is a very natural one. Since the inheritance is
wholly by promise, and a covenant confirmed can not be changed,—nothing
can be taken from it, and nothing added to it,—why did the law come in
four hundred and thirty years afterward? “Wherefore then serveth the
law?” More literally, Why then the law? What business has it here? What
part does it act? Of what use is it?

[Sidenote: The Question Answered.]

“It was added because of transgressions.” Let it be understood that “the
entering of the law” at Sinai was not the beginning of its existence.
The law of God existed in the days of Abraham, and was kept by him. Gen.
26:5. God proved the children of Israel, as to whether they would keep
His law or not, more than a month before the law was spoken upon Sinai.
Ex. 16:1-4, 27, 28.

[Sidenote: “It Was Added.”]

The word here rendered “added” is the same as that rendered “spoken” in
Heb. 12:19: “They that heard entreated that the word should not be
spoken to them any more.” It is the same word that occurs in the
Septuagint rendering of Deut. 5:22, where we read that God spoke the ten
commandments with a great voice; “and He added no more.” So we may read
the answer to the question, “Wherefore then the law?” thus: “It was
spoken because of transgressions.” It is the reprover of sin.

[Sidenote: Because of Transgressions.]

“Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound.” Rom. 5:20. In
other words, “that sin by the commandment might become exceeding
sinful.” Rom. 7:13. It was given under circumstances of the most awful
majesty, as a warning to the children of Israel that by their unbelief
they were in danger of losing the promised inheritance. They did not,
like Abraham, believe the Lord; and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
But the inheritance was promised “through the righteousness of faith,”
and, therefore, the unbelieving Jews could not receive it. So the law
was spoken to them, to convince them that they had not the righteousness
that was necessary for the possession of the inheritance; for, although
righteousness does not come by the law, it must be witnessed by the law.
Rom. 3:21. In short, the law was given to show them that they had not
faith, and so were not true children of Abraham, and were therefore in a
fair way to lose the inheritance. God would have put His law into their
hearts, even as He put it into Abraham’s heart, if they had believed;
but when they disbelieved, yet still professed to be heirs of the
promise, it was necessary to show them in the most marked manner that
their unbelief was sin. The law was spoken because of transgression, or,
what is the same thing, because of the unbelief of the people.

[Sidenote: Self-Confidence Is Sin.]

“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just
shall live by his faith.” Hab. 2:4. The people of Israel were full of
self-confidence and of unbelief in God, as is shown by their murmuring
against God’s leading, and by their assumption of ability to do anything
that God required, or to fulfil His promises. They had the same spirit
as their descendants, who asked, “What shall we do, that we might work
the works of God?” John 6:28. They were so ignorant of God’s
righteousness that they thought that they could establish their own
righteousness as an equivalent. Rom. 10:3. Unless they saw their sin,
they could not avail themselves of the promise. Hence, the necessity of
the speaking of the law.

[Sidenote: The Ministration of Angels.]

“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the
sake of them that shall inherit salvation?” Heb. 1:14, R. V. Just what
office the “thousands of angels” who were at Sinai had to perform, we
can not know; but we do know that they have a close and deep interest in
everything that concerns man, although the preaching of the Gospel is
necessarily not committed to them. When the foundations of the earth
were laid, “all the sons of God shouted for joy;” and a multitude of the
heavenly host sang praises when the birth of the Saviour of mankind was
announced. They are attendants upon the King of kings, waiting to “do
His pleasure, harkening unto the voice of His word.” It would not be
otherwise than that they should attend as a royal body-guard when the
law was proclaimed, and, of course, they were not there merely for pomp
and parade. Stephen said to the murderous Sanhedrim: “Ye stiff-necked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost;
as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your
fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the
coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and
murderers; who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and
have not kept it.” Acts 7:51-53. Of him who is now the adversary, the
devil, it was said, “Thou sealest up the sum,” measure, or pattern. Eze.
28:12. The French of Segond has it, “Thou puttest the seal to
perfection,” and the Danish, “Thou stampest the seal upon the fit
ordinance,” indicating that before his fall he was what might be termed
the keeper of the seal, and that it was his duty to affix it to every
ordinance passed. Angels “excel in strength,” and the fact that they
were all present at the giving of the law shows that it was an event of
the greatest magnitude and importance.

[Sidenote: In the Hand of a Mediator.]

For the present we may pass by the question of time involved in the
phrase, “till the Seed should come, to whom the promise was made,” since
our present study is the relation of the law to the promise. The law was
given to the people from Sinai “in the hand of a Mediator.” Who was this
Mediator?—There can be only one answer: “There is one God, and one
Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” 1 Tim. 2:5. “Now a
mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.” God is one, the
people are the other, and Christ Jesus is the Mediator. Just as surely
as God is one party to the transaction, Christ must be the Mediator, for
there is no other mediator between God and men. “Neither is there
salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.

[Sidenote: Christ’s Work as Mediator.]

Man has wandered from God, and rebelled against Him. “All we like sheep
have gone astray.” Our iniquities have separated between us and Him.
Isa. 59:1, 2. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. Christ came
that He might destroy the enmity, and reconcile us to God; for He is our
peace. Eph. 2:14-16. Christ “suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:18. Through Him we have access
to God. Rom. 5:1, 2; Eph. 2:18. In Him the carnal mind, the rebellious
mind, is taken away, and the mind of the Spirit given in its stead,
“that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4. Christ’s work
is to save that which was lost, to restore that which was broken, to
reunite that which was separated. His name is “God with us;” and so with
Him dwelling in us we are made “partakers of the Divine nature.” 2 Peter
1:4.

It should be understood that Christ’s work as Mediator is not limited
either as to time or extent. To be Mediator means more than to be
intercessor. Christ was Mediator before sin came into the world, and
will be Mediator when no sin is in the universe, and no need for
expiation. “In Him all things consist.” He is the very impress of the
Father’s being. He is the life. Only in and through Him does the life of
God flow to all creation. He is, then, the means, medium, mediator, the
way, by which the light of life pervades the universe. He did not first
become Mediator at the fall of man, but was such from eternity. No one,
not simply no man, but no created being, comes to the Father but by
Christ. No angel can stand in the Divine presence except in Christ. No
new power was developed, no new machinery, so to speak, was required to
be set in motion by the entering of sin into the world. The power that
had created all things only continued in God’s infinite mercy, to work
for the restoration of that which was lost. In Christ were all things
created, and, therefore, in Him we have redemption through His blood.
Col. 1:14-17. The power that pervades and upholds the universe is the
power that saves us. “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that
worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

[Sidenote: The Law Not against the Promise.]

“Is the law then against the promises of God?”—Not by any means. Far
from it. If it were, it would not be in the hands of a Mediator, Christ;
for all the promises of God are in Him. 2 Cor. 1:20. So we find the law
and the promise combined in Christ. We may know that the law was not and
is not against the promises of God, from the fact that God gave both the
promise and the law. We know, also, that the giving of the law
introduced no new element into the covenant, since, having been
confirmed, nothing could be added to or taken from it. But the law is
not useless, else God would not have given it. It is not a matter of
indifference whether we keep it or not, for God commands it. But, all
the same, it is not against the promise, and brings no new element in.
Why?—Simply because the law is in the promise. The promise of the Spirit
includes this: “I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in
their hearts.” Heb. 8:10. And this is what God indicated had been done
for Abraham when “He gave him the covenant of circumcision.” Read Rom.
4:11; 2:25-29; Phil. 3:3.

[Sidenote: The Law Magnifies the Promise.]

The law, as already seen, is not against the promise, because it is in
the promise. The promise that Abraham and his seed should inherit the
world, was “through the righteousness of faith.” But the law is
righteousness, as God says: “Harken unto Me, ye that know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is My law.” Isa. 51:7. So, then, the
righteousness which the law demands is the only righteousness that can
inherit the promised land, but it is obtained, not by the works of the
law, but by faith. The righteousness of the law is not attained by human
efforts to do the law, but by faith. See Rom. 9:30-32. Therefore, the
greater the righteousness which the law demands, the greater is seen to
be the promise of God; for He has promised to give it to all who
believe. Yea, He has sworn it. When, therefore, the law was spoken from
Sinai, “out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick
darkness, with a great voice,” accompanied by the sounding of the trump
of God, and with the whole earth quaking at the presence of the Lord and
all His holy angels, thus indicating the inconceivable greatness and
majesty of the law of God, it was, to every one who remembered the oath
of God, but a revelation of the wondrous greatness of God’s promise; for
all the righteousness which the law demands, He has sworn to give to
every one who trusts Him. The “loud voice” with which the law was
spoken, was the loud voice that from the mountain-tops proclaims the
glad tidings of the saving mercy of God. See Isa. 40:9. God’s precepts
are promises; they must necessarily be such, because He knows that men
have no power. All that God requires is what He gives. When He says,
“Thou shalt not,” we may take it as His assurance that if we but trust
Him He will preserve us from the sin against which He warns us. He will
keep us from falling.

[Sidenote: Conviction of Sin and of Righteousness.]

Jesus said of the Comforter, “When He is come, He will reprove the world
of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” John 16:8. Of Himself He
said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Mark 2:17. “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they
that are sick.” A man must feel his need before he will accept help; he
must know his disease before he can apply the remedy. Even so the
promise of righteousness will be utterly unheeded by one who does not
realize that he is a sinner. The first part of the comforting work of
the Holy Spirit, therefore, is to convince men of sin. So “the Scripture
hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe.” “By the law is the knowledge of
sin.” Rom. 3:20. He who knows that he is a sinner is in the way to
acknowledge it; and “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John
1:9. Thus the law is in the hands of the Spirit an active agent in
inducing men to accept the fulness of the promise. No one hates the man
who has saved his life by pointing out to him an unknown peril; on the
contrary, such an one is regarded as a friend, and is always remembered
with gratitude. Even so will the law be regarded by the one who has been
prompted by its warning voice to flee from the wrath to come. He will
ever say, with the psalmist, “I hate vain thoughts, but Thy law do I
love.”

[Sidenote: Righteousness and Life.]

“If there had been a law given which could make alive, verily
righteousness would have been of the law.” This shows us that
righteousness is life. It is no mere formula, no dead theory or dogma,
but is living action. Christ is the life, and He is, therefore, our
righteousness. “The Spirit is life because of righteousness.” The law
written on two tables of stone, could not give life, any more than could
the stones on which it was written. All its precepts are perfect, but
the flinty characters can not transform themselves into action. He who
receives only the law in letter, has a “ministration of condemnation,”
and death. But “the Word was made flesh.” In Christ, the Living Stone,
the law is life and peace. Receiving Him through the “ministration of
the Spirit,” we have the life of righteousness, which the law approves.

This twenty-first verse shows that the giving of the law was to
emphasize the importance of the promise. All the circumstances attending
the giving of the law,—the trumpet tone, the awful voice, the quaking
earth, the “fire, and blackness, and tempest,” the thunders and
lightnings, the bounds about the mount, beyond which it was death to
pass,—all these told that “the law worketh wrath” to “the children of
disobedience.” But the very fact that the wrath which the law works
comes only on the children of disobedience, proves that the law is good,
and that “the man that doeth them shall live in them.” Did God wish to
discourage the people?—Not by any means. The law must be kept, and the
terrors of Sinai were designed to drive them back to the oath of God,
which four hundred and thirty years before had been given to stand to
all people in all ages as the assurance of righteousness through the
crucified and ever-living Saviour.

[Sidenote: All Shut Up in Prison.]

Note the similarity between verses 8 and 22. “The Scripture hath
concluded [that is, shut up] all under sin, that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” “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.” We see that the Gospel is preached by the same thing—the
Scripture—that shuts men up under sin. The word “conclude” means
literally “shut up,” just as is given in verse 23. Of course, a person
who is shut up by the law is in prison. In human governments a criminal
is shut up as soon as the law can get hold of him; God’s law is
everywhere present, and always active, and, therefore, the instant a man
sins he is shut up. This is the condition of all the world, “for all
have sinned,” and “there is none righteous, no, not one.”

Those disobedient ones to whom Christ preached in the days of Noah were
“in prison.” 1 Peter 3:19, 20. But they, like all other sinners, were
“prisoners of hope.” Zech. 9:12. God “hath looked down from the height
of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the
groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.”
Ps. 102:19, 20. Christ is given “for a covenant of the people, for a
light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the
prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the
prison house.” Isa. 42:6, 7.

Let me speak from personal experience to the sinner who does not yet
know the joy and freedom of the Lord. Some day, if not already, you will
be sharply convicted of sin by the Spirit of God. You may have been full
of doubts and quibbles, of ready answers and self-defense, but then you
will have nothing to say. You will then have no doubt about the reality
of God and the Holy Spirit, and will need no argument to assure you of
it; for you will know the voice of God speaking to your soul, and will
feel, as did ancient Israel, “Let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
Then you will know what it is to be shut up in prison,—in a prison whose
walls seem to close on you, not only barring all escape, but seeming to
suffocate you. The tales of people condemned to be buried alive with a
heavy stone upon them, will seem very vivid and real to you, as you feel
the tables of the law crushing out your life, and a hand of marble seems
to be breaking your very heart. Then it will give you joy to remember
that you are shut up for the sole purpose that “the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ” might be accepted by you. As soon as you lay hold of that
promise,—the key that will unlock any door in Doubting Castle,—the
prison doors will fly open, and you can say, “Our soul is escaped as a
bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are
escaped.” Ps. 124:7.

[Sidenote: Under the Law, Under Sin.]

We have just read that the Scripture hath shut up all under sin, that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that
believe. Before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up
unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. We know that
whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23); therefore, to be under
the law is identical with being under sin. We are under the law solely
because we are under sin. The grace of God brings salvation from sin, so
that when we accept God’s grace we are no longer under the law, because
we are freed from sin. Those who are under the law, therefore, are the
transgressors of the law. The righteous are not under it, but are
walking in it.

[Sidenote: The Law a Jailer, a Taskmaster.]

“So that the law hath been our tutor unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith.” The words “to bring us” are marked both in the old
version and the new as having been added to the text, so we have dropped
them out. It really makes no material difference with the sense whether
they are retained or omitted. It will be noticed also that the new
version has “tutor” in the place of “schoolmaster.” This is better, but
the sense is still better conveyed by the word that is used in the
German and Scandinavian translations, which signifies “master of a house
of correction.” The single word in our language corresponding to it
would be jailer. The Greek word is the word which we have in English as
“pedagogue.” The _paidagogos_ was the slave who accompanied the boys to
school to see that they did not play truant. If they attempted to run
away, he would bring them back, and had authority even to beat them to
keep them in the way. The word has come to be used as meaning
“schoolmaster,” although the Greek word has not at all the idea of a
schoolmaster. “Taskmaster” would be better. The idea here is rather that
of a guard who accompanies a prisoner who is allowed to walk about
outside the prison walls. The prisoner, although nominally at large, is
really deprived of his liberty just the same as though he were actually
in a cell. The fact is that all who do not believe are “under sin,”
“shut up” “under the law,” and that, therefore, the law acts as their
jailer. It is that that shuts them in, and will not let them off; the
guilty can not escape in their guilt. God is merciful and gracious, but
He will not clear the guilty. Ex. 34:6, 7. That is, He will not lie, by
calling evil good; but He provides a way by which the guilty may lose
their guilt. Then the law will no longer be against them, will no longer
shut them up, and they can walk at liberty.

[Sidenote: Only One Door.]

Christ says, “I am the door.” John 10:7, 9. He is also the sheepfold and
the Shepherd. Men fancy that when they are outside the fold they are
free, and that to come into the fold would mean a curtailing of their
liberty; but it is exactly the reverse. The fold of Christ is “a large
place,” while unbelief is a narrow prison. The sinner can have but a
narrow range of thought; the true “free thinker” is the one who
comprehends with all saints what is the length, and breadth, and depth,
and height of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. Outside of
Christ is bondage; in Him alone is there freedom. Outside of Christ, the
man is in prison, “holden with the cords of his sins.” Prov. 5:22. “The
strength of sin is the law.” It is the law that declares him to be a
sinner, and makes him conscious of his condition. “By the law is the
knowledge of sin;” and “sin is not imputed when there is no law.” Rom.
3:20; 5:13. The law really forms the sinner’s prison walls. They close
in on him, making him feel uncomfortable, oppressing him with a sense of
sin, as though they would press his life out. In vain he makes frantic
efforts to escape. Those commandments stand as firm as the everlasting
hills. Whichever way he turns he finds a commandment which says to him,
“You can find no freedom by me, for you have sinned.” If he seeks to
make friends with the law, and promises to keep it, he is no better off,
for his sin still remains. It goads him and drives him to the only way
of escape—“the promise by faith of Jesus Christ.” In Christ he is made
“free indeed,” for in Christ he is made the righteousness of God. In
Christ is “the perfect law of liberty.”

[Sidenote: The Law Preaches the Gospel.]

“But,” says one, “the law says nothing of Christ.” No; but all creation
does speak of Christ, proclaiming the power of His salvation. We have
seen that the cross of Christ, “Christ and Him crucified,” is to be seen
in every leaf of the forest, and, indeed, in everything that exists. Not
only so, but every fiber of man’s being cries out for Christ. Men do not
realize it, but Christ is “the Desire of all nations.” It is He alone
that “satisfies the desire of every living thing.” Only in Him can
relief be found for the world’s unrest and longing. Now since Christ, in
whom is peace, “for He is our peace,” is seeking the weary and
heavy-laden, and calling them to Himself, and every man has longings
that nothing else in the world can satisfy, it is evident that if the
man is awakened by the law to keener consciousness of his condition, and
the law continues goading him, giving him no rest, and shutting up every
other way of escape, the man must at last find the Door of Safety, for
it always stands open. He is the City of Refuge, to which every one
pursued by the avenger of blood may flee, sure of finding a welcome. In
Christ alone will the sinner find release from the lash of the law, for
in Christ the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, and by Him it is
fulfilled in us. Rom. 8:4. The law is so far from requiring men to keep
it in order to be saved, as some suppose, that it will not allow anybody
to be saved unless he has “the righteousness which is of God by
faith,”—the faith of Jesus Christ.

[Sidenote: When Faith Is Come.]

Strangely enough, many have supposed that there was a definite time
fixed for faith to come. This passage has been “interpreted” to mean
that men were under the law until a certain time in the history of the
world, and that at that time faith came, and then they were henceforth
free from the law. The coming of faith they make synonymous with the
manifestation of Christ on earth. We can not say that anybody ever
thought so, for such an “interpretation” indicates utter absence of
thought about the matter. It would make men to be saved in bulk,
regardless of any concurrence on their part. It would have it that up to
a certain time all were in bondage under the law, and that from that
time henceforth all were free from sin. A man’s salvation would,
therefore, depend simply on the accident of birth, If he lived before a
certain time, he would be lost; if after, he would be saved. Such an
absurdity need not take more of our time than the statement of it. No
one can seriously think of the idea that the apostle is here speaking of
a fixed, definite point of time in the history of the world, dividing
between two so-called “dispensations,” without at once abandoning it.

When, then, does faith come? “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the Word of God.” Rom. 10:17. Whenever a man receives the Word of God,
the word of promise, which brings with it the fulness of the law, and no
longer fights against it, but yields to it, then faith comes to him.
Read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and you will see that faith came
from the beginning. Since the days of Abel, men have found freedom by
faith. The only time fixed is “now,” “to-day.” “Now is the accepted
time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “To-day if ye will hear His
voice, harden not your hearts.”

[Sidenote: Putting on Christ by Baptism.]

“As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into His death?” Rom. 6:3. It is by His death that Christ
redeems us from the curse of the law; but we must die with Him. Baptism
is “the likeness of His death.” We rise to walk “in newness of life,”
even Christ’s life. See Gal. 2:20. Having put on Christ, we are one in
Him. We are completely identified with Him. Our identity is lost in His.
It is often said of one who has been converted, “He is so changed you
would not know him; he is not the same man.” No, he is not. God has
turned him into “another man.” Therefore, being one with Christ, he has
a right to whatever Christ has, and a right to “the heavenly places”
where Christ sits. From the prison house of sin, he is exalted to the
dwelling-place of God. This, of course, presupposes that baptism is with
him a reality, not a mere outward form. It is not simply into the
visible water that he is baptized, but “into Christ,” into His life.

[Sidenote: Baptism Doth Save Us.]

The word “baptism,” which is the Greek word transferred, not translated,
has but one meaning, namely, to plunge into, to dip, to immerse. The
Greek blacksmith baptized his iron in the water, to cool it. The
housewife baptized her dishes in water, in order to clean them; and for
the same purpose all would baptize their hands in water. Yea, every man
would baptize himself frequently, going to the _baptisterion_, that is,
the immersing pool, for that purpose. We have the same word transferred
as “baptistery.” It was and is a place where people could plunge in, and
be wholly immersed in water.

That is not being “baptized into Christ,” but it indicates what must be
our relation to Him when we are baptized into Him. We must be swallowed
up and lost to sight in His life. Only Christ will henceforth be seen,
so that “it is no more I, but Christ,” for “we are buried with Him by
baptism into death.” Rom. 6:4. Baptism doth save us “by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ” from the dead (1 Peter 3:21), because we are “baptized
into His death,” that “like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Being reconciled to God by the death of Christ, we are “saved by His
life.” Rom. 5:10. So baptism into Christ, not the mere form, but the
fact, does save us.

This baptism is “the answer of a good conscience toward God.” If there
be not a good conscience toward God, there is no Christian baptism.
Therefore, the person to be baptized must be old enough to have a
conscience in the matter. He must have a consciousness of sin, and also
of forgiveness by Christ. He must know the life that is manifested, and
must willingly give up his old life of sin for the new life of
righteousness.

Baptism is “not the putting away of the filth of the flesh” (1 Peter
3:21), not the outward cleansing of the body, but the purging of the
soul and conscience. There is a fountain opened for sin and for
uncleanness (Zech. 13:1), and this fountain is the blood, the life of
Christ. That life flows in a stream from the throne of God, in the midst
of which is the slain Lamb (Rev. 5:6), even as it flowed from the side
of Christ on the cross. When, “through the eternal Spirit,” He had
offered Himself to God, there flowed from His side blood and water (John
19:34), “for there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the
water, and the blood; and the three agree in one” (1 John 5:8, R. V.).
All these are also one with the Word, which is Spirit and life. John
6:63. Christ “loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word.” Eph.
5:25, 26. Literally, “a water bath in the Word.” In being buried in the
water, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the
conscientious believer signifies his acceptance of the water of life,
the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, and that he gives
himself to live henceforth by every word that proceeds out of the mouth
of God. From that time he disappears from sight, and only the life of
Christ is manifested in his mortal flesh.

[Sidenote: One in Christ, the Seed.]

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there
is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” “There
is no difference.” This is the key-note of the Gospel. All are alike
sinners, and all are saved in the same way. They who would make a
distinction on the ground of nationality, claiming that there is
something different for the Jew than for the Gentile, might just as well
make a difference on the ground of sex, claiming that women can not be
saved in the same way and at the same time as men, or that a servant can
not be saved in the same way as his master. No; there is but one way,
and all human beings, of whatever race or condition, are equal before
God. “Ye are all one in Christ Jesus,” and Christ is the One. So it is
that “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy
Seed, which is Christ.” “For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye
be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.” There is but one seed, but it embraces all who are Christ’s.

[Sidenote: Only One Man.]

In putting on Christ, we “put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness.” Eph. 4:24. He has abolished in His
flesh the enmity,—the carnal mind,—“for to make in Himself of twain one
new man.” Eph. 2:15. He alone is the real man,—“the Man Christ Jesus.”
Outside of Him there is no real manhood. We come unto “a perfect man”
only when we arrive at “the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ.” Eph. 4:13. In the fulness of time God will gather together in
one all things in Christ. There will be but one Man, and only one Man’s
righteousness, even as the seed is but one. But “if ye be Christ’s, then
are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

[Sidenote: “Until the Seed Should Come.”]

It needs not many words now to determine what is meant by the phrase,
“till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” We know what
the seed is,—all who are Christ’s,—and we know that it has not yet come
in its fulness. To be sure, Christ was once manifested on earth in the
flesh, but He did not receive the promised inheritance, any more than
Abraham did. Abraham had not so much as to put his foot on (Acts 7:5),
and Christ had not where to lay His head. Moreover, Christ can not come
into the inheritance until Abraham does also, for the promise was “to
Abraham and to his seed.” The Lord by the prophet Ezekiel spoke of the
inheritance at the time when David ceased to have a representative on
his throne on earth, and He foretold the overthrow of Babylon, Persia,
Greece, and Rome, in these words: “Remove the diadem, and take off the
crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him
that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no
more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” Eze.
21:26, 27.

So Christ sits on His Father’s throne, “from henceforth expecting till
His enemies be made His foot-stool.” Soon will He come, but not until
the last soul has accepted Him that can by any possibility be induced to
accept salvation. Those who are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, so that Christ can not come into
the inheritance before they do. The seed is one, not divided. When He
comes to execute judgment, and to slay those who said, “We will not have
this Man to reign over us,” He comes “with ten thousands of His holy
ones.” Jude 14.

Then will the seed be complete, and the promise will be fulfilled. And
until that time the law will faithfully perform its task of stirring up
and pricking the consciences of sinners, giving them no rest until they
become identified with Christ, or cast Him off altogether. Do you accept
the terms? Will you cease your complaints against the law which would
save you from sinking into a fatal sleep? And will you in Christ accept
its righteousness? Then, as Abraham’s seed, and an heir according to the
promise, you can rejoice in your freedom from the bondage of sin,
singing:—

                        “I’m the child of a King,
                          The child of a King,
                        With Jesus my Saviour,
                          I’m the child of a King.”



                              CHAPTER IV.
                         The Adoption of Sons.


                          A LITTLE RETROSPECT.


It is absolutely impossible to exhaust any portion of Scripture. The
more one studies it, the more one sees in it, and not only that, but the
more one becomes conscious of the fact that there is much more in it
than appears to view. The Word of God, like Himself, is absolutely
unfathomable. One’s understanding of any given portion of the Scripture
depends on the thoroughness of his knowledge of that which precedes it.
Let us, therefore, give a little further attention to that portion of
the third chapter of this Epistle which treats of


                               The Seed.


First of all, it must be borne in mind that Christ is the Seed. That is
plainly stated. But Christ did not live for Himself, and He is not heir
simply for Himself. He has won an inheritance, not for Himself, but for
His brethren. God’s purpose is to “gather together in one all things in
Christ.” He will finally put an end to divisions of every kind, and He
does it now in those who accept Him. In Christ there are no distinctions
of nationality, and no classes and ranks. No Christian thinks of any
other man as English, German, French, Russian, Turk, Chinese, or
African, but simply as a man, and, therefore, a possible heir of God
through Christ. If that other man, no matter what his race or nation, be
also a Christian, then the bond becomes mutual, and, therefore, still
stronger. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor
free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus.” It is for this reason that it is impossible for a Christian to
engage in war. He knows no distinction of nationality, but regards all
men as his brothers. But the chief reason why he can not engage in
warfare is that the life of Christ is his life, for he is one with
Christ; and it would be as impossible for him to fight as it would be
for Christ to seize a sword and wield it in self-defense; and two
Christians can no more fight against each other than Christ can fight
against Himself.

However, we are not now engaged in discussing war, but are merely
showing the absolute unity of believers in Christ. They are one. There
is, therefore, but one Seed, and that is Christ; for, however many
millions of true believers there may be, they are only one in Christ.
Each man has his own individuality, but it is in every case only the
manifestation of some phase of the individuality of Christ. In a human
body there are many members, and all members have, not the same office,
but differ in their individuality; yet there is absolute unity and
harmony in every healthy body. With those who have put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him,
“there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Col.
3:11.


                              The Harvest.


In Christ’s explanation of the parable of the tares and the wheat, we
are told that “the good seed are the children of the kingdom.” Matt.
13:38. The man would not allow the tares to be pulled out of the wheat,
because in the early stage it would be difficult to distinguish in every
case between the wheat and the tares, and some of the wheat would be
destroyed. So he said, “Let both grow together until the harvest; and in
the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first
the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat
into my barn.” It is in the harvest that the seed is gathered. Everybody
knows that. But what the parable especially shows is that it is in the
harvest that the seed is fully manifested; in short, that the seed comes
at harvest time. The harvest only waits for the seed to be fully
manifested and matured. But “the harvest is the end of the world.” So
the time when “the seed should come to whom the promise was made,” is
the end of the world, when the time comes for the promise of the new
earth to be fulfilled. Indeed, the seed can not possibly be said to come
before that time, since the end of the world will come just as soon as
the last person who can be induced to accept Christ has done so; and the
seed is not complete as long as there is one grain lacking.

Read now, in the nineteenth verse of the third chapter, that the law was
spoken because of transgression, “till the seed should come to whom the
promise was made.” What do we learn from that?—Simply this, that the law
as spoken from Sinai, without the change of a single letter, is an
integral part of the Gospel, and must be presented in the Gospel until
the second coming of Christ, at the end of the world. “Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law.”
And what of the time when heaven and earth pass, and the new heaven and
the new earth come?—Then the law will not be needed written in a book,
for men to preach to sinners, showing them their sins, for it will be in
the heart of every man. Heb. 8:10, 11. Done away?—Not by any means; but
indelibly engraved in the heart of every individual, written not with
ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.

With the truth concerning the seed before us, and the parable of the
wheat and the tares fresh in our minds, let us proceed in our study.

“But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing
from a bond-servant, though he is lord of all; but is under guardians
and stewards until the term appointed of the father. So we also, when we
were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world;
but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them which were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are
sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. So that thou art no longer a bond-servant, but a son; and
if a son, then an heir through God.

“Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them which
by nature are no gods; but now that ye have come to know God, or rather
to be known of God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly
rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? Ye observe
days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid of you, lest by
any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.

“I beseech you, brethren, be as I am, for I am as ye are. Ye did me no
wrong; but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached
the Gospel unto you the first time; and that which was a temptation to
you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but ye received me as an
angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where then is that gratulation of
yourselves? for I bear you witness, that, if possible, ye would have
plucked out your eyes and given them to me. So then am I become your
enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously seek you in no good
way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek them. But it is
good to be zealously sought in a good matter at all times, and not only
when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I am again in
travail until Christ be formed in you, yea, I could wish to be present
with you now, and to change my voice; for I am perplexed about you.

“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and
one by the freewoman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the
flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. Which
things contain an allegory; for these women are two covenants; one from
Mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now this
Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to the Jerusalem that now
is; for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is
above is free, which is our mother. For it is written:—

    “Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not;
    Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not;
    For more are the children of the desolate than of her which hath the
       husband.

“Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he
that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the
Spirit, even so it is now. Howbeit what saith the Scripture? Cast out
the handmaid and her son; for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit
with the son of the freewoman. Wherefore, brethren, we are not children
of a handmaid, but of a freewoman.” Galatians 4, R. V.

[Sidenote: A Statement of Fact.]

It must be apparent to all that the chapter division makes no difference
in the subject. The third chapter closes with a statement as to who are
heirs, and the fourth chapter proceeds with a study of the question of
heirship. The first two verses explain themselves. They are a simple
statement of fact. Although a child may be heir to a vast estate, he has
no more to do with it until he is of age, than a servant has. If he
should never come of age, then he would never actually enter upon his
inheritance. He would have lived all his life as a servant, so far as
any share in the inheritance is concerned. Now for


                            The Application.


“So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the
rudiments of the world.” If we look ahead to the fifth verse, we shall
see that the state here known as “children” is that before we receive
“the adoption of sons.” It represents the condition before we were
redeemed from the curse of the law, that is, before we were converted.
It does not, therefore, mean children of God, as distinguished from
worldlings, but the “children” of whom the apostle speaks in Eph. 4:14,
“tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by
the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to
deceive.” In short, it refers to us in our unconverted state, when we
“were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

[Sidenote: The Rudiments of the World.]

“When we were children,” we were in bondage under the rudiments of the
world. No one who has the slightest acquaintance with the Lord needs to
be told that the rudiments of the world have nothing in common with Him,
and do not proceed from Him. “For all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of
the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the
lust thereof.” 1 John 2:16, 17. The friendship of the world is enmity
with God. “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the
enemy of God.” James 4:4. It is from “this present evil world” that
Christ came to deliver us. We are warned to “take heed lest there shall
be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain
deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ.” Col. 2:8. The bondage to the rudiments of the
world is the condition of walking “according to the course of this
world,” “in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh
and of the mind;” being “by nature the children of wrath.” Eph. 2:1-3.
It is the same bondage that is described in Gal. 3:22-24, before faith
came, when we were under the law, “under sin.” It is the condition of
men who are “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world.” Eph. 2:12.

[Sidenote: All Men Possible Heirs.]

It may be asked, If such is the condition of those here referred to as
“children,” how can they be spoken of as heirs? The answer is plain. It
is on the principle that it is not manifest who constitute the seed,
until the harvest. God has not cast off the human race; therefore, since
the first man created was called “the son of God,” it follows that all
men are heirs in the sense that they are in their minority. As already
learned, “before faith came,” although all were wanderers from God, we
were kept under the law, guarded by a severe master, “shut up,” in order
that we might be led to accept the promise. What a blessed thing it is
that God counts even the ungodly, those who are in the bondage of sin,
as His children,—wandering, prodigal sons, but still children. God has
made all men “accepted in the Beloved.” This probationary life is given
us for the purpose of giving us a chance to acknowledge Him as Father,
and to become sons indeed. But, unless we come back to Him, we shall die
as slaves of sin.

[Sidenote: “The Fulness of the Time.”]

Christ came in the fulness of time. A parallel statement to this is
found in Rom. 5:6: “When we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly.” But the death of Christ serves for those
who live now and for those who lived before He was manifested in the
flesh in Judea, just as well as for the men who lived at that time. His
death made no more change eighteen hundred years ago than it did four
thousand years ago. It had no more effect on the men of that generation
than on the men of any other generation. It is once for all, and,
therefore, has an equal effect on every age. “The fulness of time” was
the time foretold in prophecy, when the Messiah should be revealed; but
the redemption was for all men in all ages. He was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was “manifest in these last times.” 1
Peter 1:20. If it had been God’s plan that He should have been revealed
in this century, or even not until the last year before the close of
time, it would have made no difference with the Gospel. “He ever
liveth,” and He ever has lived, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and
forever.” It is “through the eternal Spirit” that He offers Himself for
us (Heb. 9:14), so that the sacrifice is equally present and efficacious
in every age.

[Sidenote: “Born of a Woman.”]

God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, and, therefore, a veritable
man. He lived an average lifetime on this earth in the flesh, and
suffered all the ills and troubles that fall to the lot of “man that is
born of woman.” “The Word was made flesh.” Christ always designated
Himself as “the Son of man,” thus forever identifying Himself with the
whole human race. The bond of union can never be broken.

[Sidenote: “Born under the Law.”]

Being born of a woman, Christ was necessarily born under the law, for
such is the condition of all mankind, and “in all things it behooved Him
to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and
faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people.” Heb. 2:17. He takes everything on Himself.
“He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” “Himself took our
infirmities, and bare our disease.” Matt. 8:17, R. V. “All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” He redeems us by coming into
our place literally, and taking our load off our shoulders. “Him who
knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21, R. V. In the fullest sense of
the word, and to a degree that is seldom thought of when the expression
is used, He became man’s substitute. That is, He permeates our being,
identifying Himself so fully with us that everything that touches or
affects us touches and affects Him. He is not our substitute in the
sense that one man is a substitute for another, in the army, for
instance, the substitute being in one place, while the one for whom he
is substitute is somewhere else, engaged in some other service. No;
Christ’s substitution is far different. He is our substitute in that He
substitutes Himself for us, and we appear no more. We drop out entirely,
so that it is “not I, but Christ.” Thus we cast our cares on Him, not by
picking them up and with an effort throwing them on Him, but by humbling
ourselves into the nothingness that we are, so that we leave the burden
resting on Him alone. Thus we see already how it is that He came


               “To Redeem Them That Were under the Law.”


He does it in the most practical and real way. Whom does He
redeem?—“Them that were under the law.” We can not refrain from
referring for a moment to the idea that some have that this expression,
“to redeem them that were under the law,” has a mere local application.
They would have it that it means that Christ freed the Jews from the
necessity of offering sacrifices, or from any further obligation to keep
the commandments. Well, suppose we take it as referring only to the
Jews, and especially to those who lived at the time of His first advent;
what then?—Simply this, that we shut ourselves off from any place in the
plan of redemption. If it was only the Jews that were under the law,
then it was only the Jews that Christ came to redeem. Ah, we do not like
to be left out, when it comes to the matter of redemption! Then we must
acknowledge that we are, or were before we believed, “under the law;”
for Christ came to redeem none but those who were under the law. “Under
the law,” as we have already seen, means condemned by the law as
transgressors. Christ did “not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance.” But the law condemns none but those who are amenable to
it, and who ought to keep it. Therefore, since Christ redeems us from
the law, from its condemnation, it follows that He redeems us to a life
of obedience to it.

[Sidenote: “That We Might Receive the Adoption of Sons.”]

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” 1 John 3:2. “As many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on His name.” John 1:12. This is an altogether different state
from that described in the third verse as “children.” In that state we
were “a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear
the law of the Lord.” Isa. 30:9. Believing on Jesus, and receiving the
adoption of sons, we are described “as obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.” 1 Peter
1:14. Christ said, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is
within My heart.” Ps. 40:8. Therefore, since He becomes our substitute,
as described in the last paragraph but one, literally taking our place,
not instead of us, but coming into us, and living our life in us and for
us, it necessarily follows that the same law must be within our hearts
when we receive the adoption of sons.

[Sidenote: The Witness of the Spirit.]

“It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.” 1
John 5:6. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father,” or, Father, Father. Oh,
what joy and peace come with the entering of the Spirit into the heart
as a permanent resident; not as a guest merely, but as sole proprietor!
Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, so that we “joy in God,” rejoicing even in tribulations, having
hope that never disappoints, because “the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Rom. 5:1-5. Then
we can love even as God does; we have the same love, because we have the
Divine nature. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that
we are the children of God.” “He that believeth hath the witness in
himself.”

[Sidenote: “No More a Servant, but a Son.”]

“Thou art no more a servant, but a son.” It will be seen that as there
are two kinds of children, so there are two classes of servants. In the
first part of this chapter we have the word “children” used to designate
those who are not “of full age,” and have not their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil. Heb. 5:14. The promise is to them, even as
it is “to all that are afar off,” but it remains to be seen if they
will, by accepting it, become partakers of the divine nature, and so
sons of God indeed. While thus the children of wrath, men are servants
of sin, not servants of God. The Son of God is a servant, but a servant
in a far different sense from the servant here referred to. The
character of the servant depends on the master whom he serves. In this
chapter the word “servant” invariably applies, not to servants of God,
who are really sons, but to the bond-servants of sin. Between such a
servant and a son there is a vast difference. The slave can not possess
anything; he has no control over himself, and this is his distinguishing
characteristic. The free-born son, on the contrary, has dominion over
every created thing, as in the beginning, because he has the victory
over himself; for “he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty;
and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”

[Sidenote: “If a Son, Then an Heir.”]

When the prodigal son was wandering from the father’s house, he differed
nothing from a servant, because he was a servant, doing the most menial
drudgery. In that condition he came back to the old homestead, feeling
that he deserved no better place than that of a servant. But the father
saw him while he was yet a long way off, and ran and met him, and
received him as a son, and, therefore, as an heir, although he had
forfeited all right to heirship. So we have forfeited our right to be
called sons, and have squandered away the inheritance; yet God receives
us in Christ as sons indeed, and gives us the same rights and privileges
that Christ has. Although Christ is now in heaven at the right hand of
God, “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that
which is to come” (Eph. 1:20, 21), He has nothing that He does not share
with us; for “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened [made alive] us
together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 2:4-6). Christ is one with
us in our present suffering, that we may be one with Him in His present
glory. He “hath exalted them of low degree.” Even now “He raiseth up the
poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to
set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.” 1
Sam. 2:8. No king on earth has so great possessions, nor so much actual
power, as the poorest peasant who knows the Lord as his Father.

[Sidenote: Heathen Bondage.]

The apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said, “Ye know that ye
were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.”
1 Cor. 12:2. Even so it was with the Galatians. To them he wrote, “Not
knowing God, ye were in bondage to them which by nature are no gods.” If
this fact is borne in mind, it will save the reader from falling into
some very common errors in opinion concerning this Epistle. The
Galatians had been heathen, worshiping idols, and in bondage to the most
degrading superstitions. Bear in mind that this bondage is the same as
that which is spoken of in the preceding chapter,—they were “shut up”
under the law. It was the very same bondage in which all unconverted
persons are, for in the second and third chapters of Romans we are told
that “there is no difference; for all have sinned.” The Jews themselves,
who did not know the Lord by personal experience, were in the same
bondage,—the bondage of sin. “Every one that committeth sin is the
bond-servant of sin.” John 8:34, R. V. And “he that committeth sin is of
the devil.” 1 John 3:8. “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they
sacrifice to devils, and not to God.” 1 Cor. 10:20. If a man is not a
Christian, he is a heathen; there is no middle ground. If the Christian
apostatizes, he immediately becomes a heathen. We ourselves once walked
“according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience” (Eph. 2:2), and we “were aforetime foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,
hateful, hating one another” (Titus 3:3, R. V.). So we also were “in
bondage to them which by nature are no gods.” The meaner the master, the
worse the bondage. What language can depict the horror of being in
bondage to corruption itself?

[Sidenote: In Love with Bondage.]

“Now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known of God, how
turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye
desire to be in bondage over again?” Is it not strange that men should
be in love with chains? Christ has proclaimed “liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isa. 61:1),
saying to the prisoners, “Go forth,” and to them that are in darkness,
“Show yourselves” (Isa. 49:9); yet men who have heard these words, and
have come forth, and have seen the light of “the Sun of Righteousness,”
and have tasted the sweets of liberty, actually turn round and go back
into their prison, submit to be bound with their old chains, even
fondling them, and labor away at the hard treadmill of sin. Who has not
had something of that experience? It is no fancy picture. It is a fact
that men can come to love the most revolting things, even death itself;
for Wisdom says, “All they that hate Me love death.” Prov. 8:36. In the
Epistle to the Galatians we have a vivid picture of human experience.

[Sidenote: Observing Heathen Customs.]

“Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.” This was an
evidence of their bondage. “Ah,” says some one, “they had gone back to
the old Jewish Sabbath; that was the bondage against which Paul would
warn us!” How strange it is that men have such an insane hatred of the
Sabbath, which the Lord Himself gave to the Jews, in common with all
other people on the earth, that they will seize upon every word that
they think they can turn against it, although in order to do so they
must shut their eyes to all the words that are around it! Anybody who
reads the Epistle to the Galatians, and thinks as he reads, must know
that the Galatians were not Jews. They had been converted from
heathenism. Therefore, previous to their conversion they had never had
anything to do with any religious custom that was practised by the Jews.
They had nothing whatever in common with the Jews. Consequently, when
they turned again to the “weak and beggarly elements” to which they were
willing again to be in bondage, it is evident that they were not going
back to any Jewish practise. They were going back to their old heathen
customs. “But were not the men who were perverting them Jews?”—Yes, they
were. But remember this one thing, when you seek to turn a man away from
Christ to some substitute for Christ, you can not tell where he will
end. You can not make him stop just where you want him to. If a
converted drunkard loses faith in Christ, he will take up his drinking
habits as surely as he lives, even though the Lord may have taken the
appetite away from him. So when these “false brethren”—Jewish opposers
of “the truth of the Gospel” as it is in Christ—succeeded in seducing
the Galatians from Christ, they could not get them to stop with Jewish
ceremonies. No; they inevitably drifted back to their old heathen
superstitions.

[Sidenote: Forbidden Practises.]

Read the tenth verse again, and then read Deut. 18:10: “There shall not
be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or
an enchanter, or a witch.” Now read what the Lord says to the heathen
who would shield themselves from just judgment that is about to come
upon them: “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now
the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up,
and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.” Isa. 47:13.
Here we see that the very things to which the Galatians were returning,
were forbidden by the Lord when He brought Israel out of Egypt. Now we
might as well say that when God forbade these things He was warning the
Israelites against keeping the Sabbath, as to say that Paul was
upbraiding the Galatians for keeping it, or that he had any reference to
it whatever. God forbade these things at the very time when He gave the
commandment concerning Sabbath-keeping. So far back into their old ways
had the Galatians gone that Paul was afraid lest all his labor on them
had been in vain. They were forsaking God and returning to “the weak and
beggarly elements of the world,” which no reverent person can think of
as ever having had any connection with God. They were changing their
glory for “that which doth not profit” (Jer. 2:11); for “the customs of
the heathen are vain.”

There is just as much danger for us in this respect as there ever was
for any people. Whoever trusts in himself, having any confidence
whatever in the flesh, is worshiping the works of his own hands instead
of God, just as truly as does any one who makes and bows down to a
graven image. It is so easy for a man to trust to his own supposed
shrewdness, to his ability to “take care of himself,” and to forget that
the thoughts even of the wise are vain, and that there is no power but
of God. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the
mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches;
but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment,
and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith
the Lord.” Jer. 9:23, 24.

[Sidenote: The Messenger Not Personally Affronted.]

“He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.” John 3:34. The
apostle Paul was sent by God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and did not
speak his own words. He was a messenger, bearing a message from God, and
not from any man. The work was not his, nor any other man’s, but God’s,
and he was but the humble instrument, the earthen vessel, which God had
chosen as the means of carrying His glorious Gospel of grace. Therefore,
Paul did not feel affronted when his message was unheeded or even
rejected. “Ye have not injured me at all,” he says. He did not regret
the labor that he had bestowed upon the Galatians, on his own account,
as though it were so much of his time wasted; but he was fearful for
them, lest his labor had been in vain as far as they were concerned. The
man who from the heart can say, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but
unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy, and for Thy truth’s sake” (Ps.
115:1), can not feel personally injured if his message is not received.
Whoever becomes irritated or angry when his teaching is slighted or
ignored or scornfully rejected, shows either that he has forgotten that
it was God’s words that he was speaking, or else that he had mingled
with them or substituted for them words of his own. This is what has led
to all the persecution that has disgraced the professed Christian
church. Men have arisen speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after themselves, and when their sayings and customs were not heeded,
they have been offended, and have visited their vengeance on the
so-called heretics. No one in all the ages has ever suffered persecution
for failure to obey the commandments of God, but only for neglect of
human customs and traditions. It is a grand thing always to be zealous
in a good thing, but let the zeal be according to sanctified knowledge.
The zealous person should frequently ask himself, Whose servant am I? If
he is God’s servant, then he will be content with delivering the message
that God has given him, leaving vengeance to God, to whom it belongs.

[Sidenote: Power in Weakness.]

“Ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel
unto you the first time.” From the incidental statements in this Epistle
we can easily gather the history of the experience of the Galatian
brethren, and of Paul’s relation to it. Having been detained in Galatia
by physical weakness, he preached the Gospel “in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power,” so that the people saw Christ crucified among
them, and, accepting Him, were filled with the power and joy of the Holy
Ghost. Their joy and blessedness in the Lord was testified to publicly,
and they suffered much persecution in consequence; but this they counted
as nothing. Paul, in spite of his unsightly appearance (compare 1 Cor.
2:1-5; 2 Cor. 10:10), was received as God’s own messenger, because of
the joyful news that he brought. So highly did they appreciate the
riches of grace which he had opened up to them, that they would gladly
have given their own eyes to supply his deficiency. All this is referred
to in order that the Galatians may see from what they have fallen, as
they consider their present barrenness, and that they may know that the
apostle was disinterested in his solicitude for them. He told them the
truth once, and they rejoiced in it; it is not possible that he is
become their enemy because he continues to tell them the same truth.

But there is still more in these personal references. We must not
imagine that Paul was pleading for personal sympathy when he referred to
his afflictions, and to the great inconvenience under which he had
labored. Far from it. Not for a moment did he lose sight of the purpose
for which he was writing, namely, to show that “the flesh profiteth
nothing,” but that everything of good is from the Holy Spirit of God.
The Galatians had “begun in the Spirit.” Paul was naturally small of
stature, and weak in body, and was suffering special affliction when he
first met them; yet, in spite of his almost absolute helplessness, he
preached the Gospel with such mighty power that none could fail to see
that there was a real, although unseen, presence with him. The Gospel is
not of man, but of God. It was not made known to them by the flesh, and
they were not indebted to the flesh for any of the blessings that they
had received. What blindness, what infatuation, then, for them to think
to perfect by their own efforts that which nothing but the power of God
could begin! Have we learned this lesson?

[Sidenote: Where Is the Blessedness?]

Everybody who has ever had any acquaintance with the Lord, knows that in
accepting Him there is joy. It is always expected that a new convert
will have a beaming countenance, and a joyful testimony. So it had been
with the Galatians. But now their expressions of thanksgiving had given
place to bickering and strife. See Gal. 5:15. Is it not strange that
people do not expect that old Christians will have as much enthusiasm as
young converts? that it is taken for granted that the first joy, and the
warmth of the first love, will gradually die away? So it is, but so it
should not be. That which God has against His people is this, that they
have left their first love. Rev. 2:4. “The path of the just is as the
shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Prov.
4:18. Note that this is the path of the just, and the just are they who
live by faith. When men turn from the faith, or attempt to substitute
works for it, the light goes out. Jesus said, “These things have I
spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy
might be full.” John 15:11. He gives the oil of joy—the Holy Spirit—for
mourning, and that is abiding. The life is manifested that we might have
fulness of joy. 1 John 1:1-4. The fountain of life is never exhausted;
the supply is never diminished. If, therefore, our light grows dim, and
our joy gives place to a dull, monotonous grind, we may know that we
have turned aside out of the way of life.

[Sidenote: Desiring to Be under the Law.]

“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?”
After what we have already had, there will be no one to come with the
objection that to be under the law can not be a very deplorable
condition, else the Galatians would not have desired to be under it.
“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are
the ways of death.” Prov. 16:25. How many there are who love ways that
everybody except themselves can see are leading them direct to death;
yes, there are many who, with their eyes wide open to the consequences
of their course, will persist in it, deliberately choosing “the
pleasures of sin for a season,” rather than righteousness and length of
days. To be “under the law” of God is to be condemned by it as a sinner
chained and doomed to death, yet many millions besides the Galatians
have loved the condition, and still love it. Ah, if they would only hear
what it says! There is no reason why they should not hear it, for it
speaks in thunder tones. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

[Sidenote: “What Saith the Law?”]

It saith, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” It speaks
death to all who take pleasure in the beggarly elements of the world.
“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in, the book of the law to do them.” To what place shall the wicked
bond-servant be cast out?—“Into outer darkness; there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.” “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as
an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be
stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of
hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Therefore,
“Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in
Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.” Mal. 4:1, 4. All
who are under the law, whether they be called Jews or Gentiles,
Christians or Mohammedans, are in bondage to Satan,—in the bondage of
transgression and sin,—and are to be cast out. “Every one that
committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin. And the bond-servant abideth
not in the house forever; the son abideth forever.” Thank God, then, for
“the adoption of sons.”

[Sidenote: “Two Sons.”]

Those false teachers would persuade the brethren that in turning from
whole-hearted faith in Christ and trusting to works which they
themselves could do, they would become children of Abraham, and so heirs
of the promises. They forgot that Abraham had two sons. I myself have
talked with a Jew according to the flesh, who did not know that Abraham
had more than one son; and there are many Christians who seem to think
that to be descended from Abraham, after the flesh, is all-sufficient to
insure one a share in the promised inheritance. “They which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the
children of the promise are counted for the seed.” Rom. 9:8. Now of the
two sons of Abraham, one was born after the flesh, and the other was by
promise, born of the Spirit. “By faith even Sarah herself received power
to conceive seed when she was past age, since she counted Him faithful
who had promised.” Heb. 11:11, R. V. Hagar was an Egyptian slave. The
children of a slave woman are always slaves, even though their father be
a freeman; and so Hagar could bring forth children only to bondage. But
long before Ishmael was born, the Lord had plainly signified to Abraham,
who wished that his servant Eliezer might be his heir, that it was not a
bond-servant, even though born in his house, that He had promised him,
but a free-born son,—a son born of a freewoman. God has no slaves in His
kingdom.

[Sidenote: “These Are the Two Covenants.”]

What are the two covenants?—The two women, Hagar and Sarah; for we read
that Hagar is Mount Sinai, “which gendereth to bondage.” That is, just
as Hagar could not bring forth any other kind of children than slaves,
so the law, even the law that God spoke from Sinai, can not beget
freemen. It can do nothing but hold them in bondage. “The law worketh
wrath;” “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The same is true of
the covenant from Sinai, for it consisted merely of the promise of the
people to keep that law, and had, therefore, no more power to make them
free than the law itself had,—no more power than they already had in
their bondage. Nay, rather, it “gendered to bondage,” since their making
it was simply a promise to make themselves righteous by their own works,
and man in himself is “without strength.”

Consider the situation: The people were in the bondage of sin; they had
no power to break their chains; but the speaking of the law made no
change in their condition; it introduced no new feature. If a man is in
prison for crime, you can not release him by reading the statutes to
him. It was the law that put him there, and the reading of it to him
only makes his captivity more painful.

“Then did not God Himself lead them into bondage?”—Not by any means;
since He did not induce them to make that covenant at Sinai. Four
hundred and thirty years before that time He had made a covenant with
Abraham, which was sufficient for all purposes. That covenant was
confirmed in Christ, and, therefore, was a covenant from above. See John
8:23. It promised righteousness as a free gift of God through faith, and
it included all nations. All the miracles that God had wrought in
delivering the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage were but
demonstrations of His power to deliver them and us from the bondage of
sin. Yes, the deliverance from Egypt was itself a demonstration not only
of God’s power, but also of His desire to lead them from the bondage of
sin, that bondage in which the covenant from Sinai holds men, because
Hagar, who is the covenant from Sinai, was an Egyptian. So when the
people came to Sinai, God simply referred them to what He had already
done, and then said, “Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed,
and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above
all people; for all the earth is Mine.” Ex. 19:5. To what covenant did
He refer?—Evidently to the one already in existence, His covenant with
Abraham. If they would simply keep God’s covenant, that is, God’s
promise,—keep the faith,—they would be a peculiar treasure unto God, for
God, as the possessor of all the earth, was able to do with them all
that He had promised. The fact that they in their self-sufficiency
rashly took the whole responsibility upon themselves, does not prove
that God led them into making that covenant, but the contrary. He was
leading them out of bondage, not into it, and the apostle plainly tells
us that covenant from Sinai was nothing but bondage.

Further, if the children of Israel who came out of Egypt had but walked
“in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being
yet uncircumcised” (Rom. 4:12), the law would never have been spoken
from Sinai; “for the promise, that he should be the heir of the world,
was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the
righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). Faith justifies, makes righteous;
if the people had had Abraham’s faith, they would have had the
righteousness that he had; and then there would have been no occasion
for the entering of the law, which was “spoken because of
transgression.” The law would have been in their hearts, and they would
not have needed to be awakened by its thunders to a sense of their
condition. God never expected, and does not now expect, that any person
can get righteousness by the law proclaimed from Sinai; and everything
connected with Sinai shows it. Yet the law is truth, and must be kept.
God delivered the people from Egypt, “that they might observe His
statutes, and keep His laws.” Ps. 105:45. We do not get life by keeping
the commandments, but God gives us life in order that we may keep them.

[Sidenote: The Two Covenants Parallel.]

Note the statement which the apostle makes when speaking of the two
women, Hagar and Sarah: “These are the two covenants.” So then the two
covenants existed in every essential particular in the days of Abraham.
Even so they do to-day; for the Scripture says now as well as then,
“Cast out the bondwoman and her son.” We see then that the two covenants
are not matters of time, but of condition. Let no one flatter himself
that he can not be under the old covenant, because the time for that is
passed. The time for that is passed only in the sense that “the time
past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the
Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine,
revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.” 1 Peter 4:3.

[Sidenote: Difference Between the Two.]

The difference is just the difference between a freewoman and a slave.
Hagar’s children, no matter how many she might have had, would have been
slaves, while those of Sarah would necessarily be free. So the covenant
from Sinai holds all who adhere to it in bondage “under the law;” while
the covenant from above gives freedom, not freedom from obedience to the
law, but freedom from disobedience to it. The freedom is not found away
from the law, But in the law. Christ redeems from the curse, which is
the transgression of the law. He redeems us from the curse, that the
blessing may come on us; and the blessing is obedience to the law.
“Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.”
Ps. 119:1. This blessedness is freedom. “I will walk at liberty; for I
seek Thy precepts.” Ps. 119:45.

The difference between the two covenants may be put briefly thus: In the
covenant from Sinai we ourselves have to do with the law alone, while in
the covenant from above, we have the law in Christ. In the first
instance it is death to us, since the law is sharper than any two-edged
sword, and we are not able to handle it without fatal results; but in
the second instance we have the law “in the hand of a Mediator.” In the
one case it is what we can do; in the other case it is what the Spirit
of God can do. Bear in mind that there is not the slightest question in
the whole Epistle to the Galatians as to whether or not the law should
be kept. The only question is, How shall it be done? Is it to be our own
doing, so that the reward shall not be of grace but of debt? or is it to
be God working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure?

[Sidenote: Mount Sinai and Mount Zion.]

“This Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is
above is free, which is the mother of us all.” As there are the two
covenants, so there are two cities to which they pertain. Jerusalem
which now is pertains to the old covenant—to Mount Sinai. It will never
be free, but will be replaced by the city of God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, “which cometh down out of heaven.” Rev. 3:12; 21:1-5. It is
the city for which Abraham looked, the “city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God.” Heb. 11:10; Rev. 21:14. There are many
who build great hopes—all their hope—on Jerusalem which now is. For such
the veil remaineth “untaken away in the reading of the old testament.” 2
Cor. 3:14. They are in reality looking to Mount Sinai and the old
covenant for salvation, and it is not to be found there. “For ye are not
come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire,
nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a
trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them any more (for they could not
endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the
mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart; and so
terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake);
but ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the
general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood
of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Heb.
12:18-24.

Whoever looks to the present Jerusalem for blessings, is looking to the
old covenant, to Mount Sinai, to bondage; whoever worships with his face
toward the New Jerusalem, and who expects blessings only from it, is
looking to the new covenant, to Mount Zion, to freedom; for “Jerusalem
which is above is free.” From what is it free?—Free from sin; and since
it is our mother, it begets us anew, so that we also become free from
sin. Free from the law?—Yes, certainly, for the law has no condemnation
for them who are in Christ Jesus.

But do not let anybody deceive you with vain words, telling you that you
may now trample God’s law underfoot,—that law which He Himself
proclaimed in such awful majesty from Sinai. Coming to Mount Sion,—to
Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling,—we become free from sin,—from transgression of the law. The
basis of God’s throne in Zion is His law. From the throne proceed the
same “lightnings and thunderings and voices” (Rev. 4:5; 11:19) as from
Sinai, because the selfsame law is there. But it is “the throne of
grace,” and, therefore, in spite of the thunders, we come to it boldly,
assured that from God, the Judge of all, who sits upon the mercy-seat,
we shall obtain mercy. Nay, more, we shall also find grace to help in
time of need,—grace to help us in the hour of temptation to sin,—for out
of the midst of the throne, from the slain Lamb (Rev. 5:6), flows the
river of water of life, bringing to us from the heart of Christ “the law
of the Spirit of life.” We drink of it, we bathe in it, and we find
cleansing from all sin.

“Why didn’t the Lord bring the people directly to Mount Zion then, where
they could find the law as life, and not to Mount Sinai, where it was
only death?”

That is a very natural question, and one that is easily answered. It was
because of their unbelief. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, it was
His purpose to bring them to Mount Zion as directly as they could go.
When they had crossed the Red Sea, they sang an inspired song, of which
this was a part: “Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou
hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy
habitation.” “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain
of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for
Thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have
established.” Ex. 15:13, 17. If they had continued singing, they would
very soon have come to Zion; for the redeemed of the Lord “come with
singing unto Zion,” and everlasting joy is upon their heads. Isa. 35:10;
51:11. The dividing of the Red Sea was the proof of this. See verse 10.
But they soon forgot the Lord, and murmured in unbelief. Therefore “the
law was added because of transgressions.” It was their own fault—the
result of their sinful unbelief—that they came to Mount Sinai instead of
to Mount Zion.

Nevertheless, God did not leave Himself without witness of His
faithfulness. At Mount Sinai the law was in the hand of the same
Mediator, Jesus, to whom we come when we come to Zion; and from the Rock
in Horeb, which is Sinai, flowed the living stream, the water of life
from the heart of Christ. Ex. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4. There they had not
merely the picture, but the reality, of Mount Zion. Every soul whose
heart there turned to the Lord, would have beheld His unveiled glory,
even as Moses did, and, being transformed by it, would have found the
ministration of righteousness, instead of the ministration of
condemnation. “His mercy endureth forever;” and even upon the clouds of
wrath from which proceed the thunders and lightnings of the law, shines
the glorious face of the Sun of Righteousness, and forms the bow of
promise.

[Sidenote: “The Son Abideth Ever.”]

“Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall
not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” “The bond-servant abideth
not in the house forever; the son abideth forever.” John 8:35, R. V.
Here is comfort for every soul. You are a sinner, or, at best, “trying
to be a Christian,” and you tremble with terror at these words, as you
realize that you are in bondage,—that sin has a hold upon you, and you
are bound by the cords of evil habits. Ah, you must learn not to be
afraid when the Lord speaks, for He speaks peace, even though it be with
a voice of thunder! The more majestic the voice, the greater the peace
that He gives. Take courage! The son of the bondwoman is the flesh and
its works. “Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God; neither
doth corruption inherit incorruption.” But God says, “Cast out the
bondwoman and her son,” and if you are willing that His will shall be
done in you as it is done in heaven, He will see that the flesh and its
works are cast out from you, and you will be “delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” That
command which so frightened you is simply the voice commanding the evil
spirit to depart, and to come no more into you. It speaks to you victory
over every sin. Receive Christ by faith, and you have the power to
become the son of God, heir of a kingdom which can not be moved, but
which, with all its people, abideth forever.

[Sidenote: “Stand Fast, Therefore.”]

Where shall we stand?—“In the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free.” And what freedom is that?—It is the freedom of Christ Himself,
whose delight was in the law of the Lord, because it was in His heart.
Ps. 40:8. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me
free from the law of sin and death.” Rom. 8:2. We stand only by faith.

In this freedom there is no trace of bondage. It is perfect liberty. It
is liberty of soul, liberty of thought, as well as liberty of action. It
is not that we are simply given the ability to keep the law, but we are
given the mind that finds delight in doing it. It is not that we comply
with the law because we see no other way of escape from punishment; that
would be galling bondage. It is from such bondage that God’s covenant
releases us. No; the promise of God, when accepted, puts the mind of the
Spirit into us, so that we find the highest pleasure in obedience to all
the precepts of God’s Word. The soul is as free as a bird soaring above
the mountain-tops. It is the glorious liberty of the children of God,
who have the full range of “the breadth, and length, and depth, and
height” of God’s universe. It is the liberty of those who do not have to
be watched, but who can be trusted anywhere, since their every step is
but the movement of God’s own holy law. Why be content with bondage,
when such limitless freedom is yours? The prison doors are open; walk
out into God’s freedom.

                 “Out of my shameful failure and loss,
                   Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come.
                 Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
                   Jesus, I come to Thee.
                 Out of earth’s sorrows, into Thy balm,
                   Out of life’s storm, and into Thy calm,
                 Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
                   Jesus, I come to Thee.

                 “Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
                   Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come.
                 Into Thy blessed will to abide,
                   Jesus, I come to Thee.
                 Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
                   Out of despair into raptures above,
                 Upward for aye on wings like a dove,
                   Jesus, I come to Thee.”



                               CHAPTER V.
                   The Spirit’s Power over the Flesh.


With freedom did Christ set us free; stand fast therefore, and be not
entangled again in a yoke of bondage.

“Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ
will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that
receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Ye are
severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen
away from grace. For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of
righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love. Ye were
running well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This
persuasion came not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. I have confidence to you-ward in the Lord, that ye will
be none otherwise minded; but he that troubleth you shall bear his
judgment, whosoever he be. But I, brethren, if I still preach
circumcision, why am I still persecuted? then hath the stumbling-block
of the cross been done away. I would that they which unsettle you would
even cut themselves off.

“For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom
for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to
another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one
another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

“But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the
flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not
do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not
under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities,
strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envyings,
drunkenness, revelings, and such like; of the which I forewarn you, even
as I did forewarn you; that they which practise such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness,
temperance; against such there is no law. And they that are of Christ
Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.

“If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not be
vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.” Galatians 5,
R. V.

                  *       *       *       *       *

The connection between the fourth and fifth chapters of Galatians is
closer than between any other two, so much so that it is difficult to
see how anybody could ever have hit upon the idea of making a chapter
division. One can not possibly close his reading of the fourth chapter
with the thirty-first verse, but must take in the first verse of the
fifth chapter, as we have done. But we have not by any means learned all
from that verse that we may, and we therefore dwell upon it longer.

[Sidenote: The Freedom That Christ Gives.]

When Christ was manifest in the flesh, His work was to proclaim
“deliverance to the captives,” and “to set at liberty them that are
bruised.” The miracles that He performed were practical illustrations of
this work, and one of the most striking may well be considered at this
stage of our study.

“And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And,
behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen
years, and was bowed together, and could in nowise lift up herself. And
when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou
art loosed from thine infirmity. And He laid His hands on her; and
immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” Luke 13:10-13.

Then when the hypocritical ruler of the synagogue complained because
Jesus did this miracle on the Sabbath, He referred to how each one would
loose his ox or ass from the stall, and lead him to water, and then
said:—

“And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath
bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath
day?”

Two features in this case are worthy of special note: The woman was
bound by Satan, and she had a spirit of infirmity, or absence of
strength.

Now note how accurately this describes our condition before we meet
Christ.

1. We are bound by Satan, “taken captive by him at his will.” “Every one
that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin” (John 8:34), and “he
that committeth sin is of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “His own iniquities
shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of
his sins.” Prov. 5:22. Sin is the cord with which Satan binds us.

2. We have a spirit of infirmity, and can in nowise lift ourselves up,
or free ourselves from the chains that bind us. It was when we were
“without strength” that Christ died for us. Rom. 5:6. Now these two
words, “without strength,” are translated from the very same word that
is rendered “infirmity” in the account of the woman whom Jesus healed.
She was “without strength.” To be without strength means to have no
strength at all. That is our condition.

[Sidenote: What Jesus Does for Us.]

What now does Jesus do for us?—He takes the weakness, and gives us in
return His strength. “We have not an High Priest which can not be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” Heb. 4:15. “Himself took
our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Matt. 8:17. He becomes all
that we are, in order that we may become all that He is. He was “born
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” He hath
delivered us from the curse, being made a curse for us, that the
blessing might come to us. Although He knew no sin, He was made to be
sin for us, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2
Cor 5:21.

[Sidenote: Why He Does It.]

Why did Jesus make that woman free from her infirmity?—In order that she
might walk at liberty. Certainly it was not in order that she might
continue of her own free will to do that which before she was obliged to
do. And why does He make us free from sin?—In order that we may live
free from sin. On account of the weakness of our flesh, we are unable to
do the righteousness of the law; therefore Christ, who is come in the
flesh, and who has power over all flesh, strengthens us with might by
His Spirit in the inner man, that the righteousness of the law may be
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. We
can not tell how He does it; He alone knows how it is done, because He
alone has the power; but we may know the reality of it.

[Sidenote: Present Freedom.]

Pay special attention to the words of Jesus to the woman, uttered while
she was yet bound down, and unable to lift herself up: “Thou art loosed
from thine infirmity.” “Thou art loosed,” present tense. That is just
what He says to us. To every captive He has proclaimed deliverance. The
woman “could in nowise lift up herself;” yet at the word of Christ she
at once stood erect. She could not do it, yet she did. The things that
are impossible for men are possible for God. “The Lord upholdeth all
that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.” Ps. 145:14.
Faith does not make facts; it only lays hold of them. There is not a
single soul that is bowed down with the weight of sin which Satan hath
bound on him, whom Christ does not lift up. Freedom is his; he has only
to make use of it. Let the message be sounded far and wide. Let every
soul hear it, that Christ has given deliverance to every captive.
Thousands will rejoice at the news.

Christ came to restore that which was lost; He redeems us from the
curse; He hath redeemed us; therefore the liberty wherewith He makes us
free is the liberty that existed before the curse came. Man was made a
king. It was not merely the one individual first created who was made
king, but all mankind. “In the day that God created man, in the likeness
of God made He him; male and female created He them; and blessed them,
and called their name Adam,” that is, man. Gen. 5:1, 2. “And God said,
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in
the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And
God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and
replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion,” etc. The
dominion, we see, was given to every human being, male and female.

This dominion was universal. When God made man, He “put all things in
subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under
him, He left nothing that is not put under him.” Heb. 2:8. The dominion
was not confined to this planet; for when God crowned man with glory and
honor, He set him over the works of His hands (Heb. 2:7), and we read,
“Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and
the heavens are the works of Thine hands” (Heb. 1:10). This shows how
free man was before the curse came; for it is self-evident that a ruler
must have absolute freedom, at least as far as his dominion extends,
else he is not ruler.

It is true that now we do not see all things put under man; “but we
behold Him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even
Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor,
that by the grace of God He should taste death for every man” (Heb. 2:9,
R. V.), and thus redeem every man from the curse of the lost dominion.
“Crowned with glory and honor.” A crown implies kingship, and Christ’s
crown is that which man had when he was set over the works of God’s
hands. Accordingly, Christ (as man, mind you, in the flesh), just as He
was about to ascend to heaven after the resurrection, said: “All power
is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore.” Matt. 28:18,
19. This indicates that the same power is given to us in Him; and this
is made certain by the inspired prayer that we might know the exceeding
greatness of God’s power in us who believe, “according to the working of
His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from
the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far
above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to
come; and hath put all things under His feet;” and this prayer is
followed by the statement that God has made us alive in Christ, and
“raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus.” Eph. 1:18-22; 2:1-6.

Christ has tasted death for us as man, and through the cross has
redeemed us from the curse. If we are crucified with Him, we are also
risen with Him, and made to sit together with Him in the heavenly
places, with all things under our feet. If we do not know this, it is
only because we have not allowed the Spirit to reveal it to us. The eyes
of our heart need to be enlightened by the Spirit, that we may know what
is “the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints.” The exhortation to those who are dead and
risen with Christ is, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Rom. 6:12. That shows that
we are masters. We have authority over sin, that it shall have no
dominion over us.

We have redemption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of
sin (Eph. 1:7); and when He “washed us from our sins in His own blood,”
He “made us kings and priests unto God and His Father.” Rev. 1:5, 6.
Glorious dominion! Glorious freedom! Freedom from the power of the
curse, even while surrounded by it; freedom from “this present evil
world,”—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life! The freedom of the universe (power in heaven and on earth), so
that neither “the prince of the power of the air” nor the “rulers of the
darkness of this world” can have any dominion over us! It is the freedom
and authority that Christ had when He said, “Get thee hence, Satan.” And
the devil immediately left Him. It is authority “over all the power of
the enemy.” Luke 10:19. It is such freedom that nothing in heaven or
earth can coerce us, to make us do anything against our will. God will
not attempt it, for we hold our freedom from Him; and no one else can do
it. It is power over the elements, so that they will serve us, instead
of controlling us. We shall learn to recognize Christ and His cross in
everything, so that the curse will be powerless over us, and our minds
and bodies will not be subject to every change in the weather. Our
health will spring forth speedily; for the life of Jesus will be
manifest in our mortal flesh. Such glorious liberty no tongue or pen can
describe. Believe in it as the Holy Spirit makes it known, accept it,
and stand fast in it; yea, stand fast!

[Sidenote: “Stand Fast.”]

“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them
by the breath of His mouth.” “He spake, and it was done; He commanded,
and it stood fast.” Ps. 33:6, 9. The same word that created the starry
host, speaks to us, “Stand fast!” It is not a command that leaves us as
helpless as before, but one which carries the performance of the act
with it. Recall the cases of the lame men who were healed. John 5:5-9;
Acts 3:2-8; 14:8-10. The command does the thing commanded. The heavens
did not create themselves, but were brought into existence by the word
of the Lord. Then let them be your teachers. “Lift up your eyes on high,
and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number;
He calleth them all by name; by the greatness of His might, and for that
He is strong in power, not one is lacking.” Isa. 40:26, R. V. “He giveth
power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth
strength.” Isa. 40:29. Listen to the words, “Stand fast!”

[Sidenote: A Question of Profit.]

“If ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.” It should
be understood that much more is involved than the mere rite of
circumcision. The proof of this is found in the fact that this Epistle,
which has so much to say about circumcision, has been preserved by the
Lord for us, and contains the Gospel message for all time; yet
circumcision as a rite is not a burning, living question now. Nobody is
seeking to have Christians submit to the rite of circumcision in the
flesh.

The question under consideration is how to obtain
righteousness—salvation from sin—and the inheritance of righteousness.
The fact is that it can be obtained only by faith—by receiving Christ
into the heart, and allowing Him to live His life in us. Abraham had
this righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ, and God gave Him
circumcision as a sign of that fact. It had a peculiar significance to
Abraham, serving continually to remind him of his failure, when he
tried, by means of the flesh, to fulfil God’s promise. The record of it
serves the same purpose for us. It signifies that “the flesh profiteth
nothing,” and is not, therefore, to be depended on. The mere fact of
being circumcised did not make Christ of no avail, for Paul was himself
circumcised, and as a matter of expediency he had Timothy circumcised.
Acts 16:1-3. But Paul did not count his circumcision nor any other
external thing of any value (Phil. 3:4-7), and when it was proposed to
circumcise Titus, as a thing necessary to salvation, he would not allow
it (Gal 2:3-5).

That which was to be only the sign of an already-existing fact, was
taken by subsequent generations as the means of establishing the fact.
Circumcision, therefore, stands in this Epistle as the representative of
all kinds of work done by men with a view of obtaining righteousness.
Outward circumcision, in the flesh, which was what Judaizing teachers
were seeking to impose on believers from among the Gentiles as the great
means of salvation (see Acts 15:1), stands for the works of the flesh,
as opposed to the Spirit.

Now the truth is stated that if a person does anything with the
expectation of being saved by it, that is, of getting salvation by his
own work, Christ profits him nothing. If Christ be not accepted as a
complete Redeemer, He is not accepted at all. That is to say, if Christ
be not accepted for what He is, He is rejected. He can not be other than
what He is. Christ is not divided; and He does not share with any other
person or thing the honor of being Saviour. Therefore it is easy to see
that if any one were circumcised with a view to receiving salvation
thereby, that would show absence of faith in Christ as the
all-sufficient and only Saviour of mankind.

God gave circumcision as a sign of faith in Christ; the Jews perverted
it into a substitute for faith. So when a Jew boasted in his
circumcision, he was boasting of his own righteousness. This is shown by
verse 4: “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are
justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” This is no
disparagement of the law, but of man’s ability to keep the law. It is
the glory of the law that it is so holy, and its requirements are so
great, that no man is able to attain to the perfection of it. Only in
Christ is the righteousness of the law ours; and true circumcision is to
worship God in Spirit, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to put no
confidence in the flesh. Phil. 3:3.

[Sidenote: In Debt to the Law.]

“I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor
to do the whole law.”

“There!” exclaims some one, “that shows that the law is a thing to be
avoided; for Paul says that those who are circumcised have got to do the
whole law; and he warns them not to be circumcised.”

Not quite so hasty, my friend. Stick a little more closely to the text.
Read it again, and you will see that the bad thing is not the law, nor
the doing of the law, but that the thing to be avoided is being a debtor
to the law. Is there not a vast difference? It is a good thing to have
food to eat and clothes to wear, but it is a sorrowful thing to be in
debt for these necessary things. Sadder yet is it to be in debt for
them, and yet to lack them.

A debtor is one who owes something. He who is in debt to the law, owes
what the law demands, namely, righteousness. Therefore, whoever is in
debt to the law is under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is every
one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of
the law to do them.” So to attempt to get righteousness by any other
means than by faith in Christ is to incur the curse of eternal debt. He
is eternally in debt, for he has nothing wherewith to pay; yet the fact
that he is in debt to the law,—debtor to do the whole law,—shows that he
ought to do it all. How shall he do it?—“This is the work of God, that
ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” John 6:29. Let him cease trusting
in himself, and receive and confess Christ in his flesh, and then the
righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in him, because he will not
walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

[Sidenote: “The Hope of Righteousness by Faith.”]

“For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”
Don’t pass this verse by without reading it more than once, or you will
think that it says something that it does not say. And as you read it,
think of what you have already learned about the promise of the Spirit.

Don’t imagine that this verse teaches that, having the Spirit, we must
wait for righteousness. Not by any means; the Spirit brings
righteousness. “The Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Rom. 8:10.
When He is come, He will convince the world of sin and of righteousness.
John 16:8. Whoever, therefore, receives the Spirit, has the conviction
of sin, and has also the righteousness which the Spirit shows him that
he lacks, and which the Spirit alone can bring.

What is the righteousness which the Spirit brings?—It is the
righteousness of the law; this we know, “for we know that the law is
spiritual.” Rom. 7:14.

What, then, about the “hope of righteousness,” for which we wait through
the Spirit? Notice that it does not say that we through the Spirit hope
for righteousness, but that we wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith, that is, the hope which the possession of righteousness brings.
Let us briefly go over this matter in detail. It will not take long, for
we have already studied it, and all that we have to do is to refresh our
minds.

1. The Spirit of God is “the Holy Spirit of promise.” Not the Spirit
promised, but the Spirit the possession of whom insures to us the
promise of God.

2. That which God has promised to us, as children of Abraham, is an
inheritance. The Holy Spirit is the earnest or pledge of this
inheritance, until the purchased possession is redeemed and bestowed
upon us. Eph. 1:13, 14.

3. This inheritance that is promised is the new heavens and the new
earth, “wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13.

4. The Spirit brings righteousness; for the Spirit is Christ’s
representative, the means by which Christ Himself, who is our
righteousness, comes to dwell in our hearts. John 14:16-18.

5. Therefore the hope which the Spirit brings is the hope which the
possession of righteousness brings, namely, the hope of an inheritance
in the kingdom of God, the earth made new.

6. The righteousness which the Spirit brings to us is the righteousness
of the law of God, which by the Spirit is written in our hearts, instead
of on tables of stone. Rom. 2:29; 2 Cor. 3:3.

7. The sum of the whole matter, therefore, is this, that if we will
wholly distrust ourselves, and will acknowledge that in us there
dwelleth no good thing, and that consequently no good thing can come
from us; and so, instead of thinking ourselves so powerful that we can
do the law, will allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, that thus we may be
filled with the righteousness of the law, we shall have living hope
dwelling in us. The hope of the Spirit—the hope of righteousness by
faith—has no element of uncertainty in it; it is positive assurance. But
in nothing else is there any hope. He who has not “the righteousness
which is of God by faith,” has no hope whatever. Only Christ in us is
“the hope of glory.”

[Sidenote: No Power Except in Faith.]

“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” The word here rendered
“availeth” is the same word that is rendered “able” in Luke 13:24; Acts
15:10; 6:10. In Phil. 4:13 it is rendered “can do.” The statement,
therefore, amounts to this: Circumcision is not able to do anything,
neither is uncircumcision; but faith alone, which works by love, can do
anything. This faith which works by love is found only in Christ Jesus.

But what is it that there is talk about doing?—Nothing else than the law
of God. No man can do it, whatever his state or condition. The
uncircumcised man has no power to keep the law, and circumcision has no
power to enable him to do it. One may boast of his circumcision, and
another may boast of his uncircumcision, but both are alike vain. By the
law of faith boasting is excluded (Rom. 3:27); for since the faith of
Christ alone can keep the righteousness of the law, there is no chance
for us to tell what we have done.


                         “All to Christ I owe.”


[Sidenote: Hindered.]

The Galatian brethren had started well, for they had “begun in the
Spirit;” but somebody had hindered them in the way. The question is,
“Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” God’s law is the
truth (Ps. 119:142), and the Galatian brethren had started out to obey
it; they had succeeded in the beginning, but later on had been hindered
in their progress. Why?—“Because they sought it not by faith, but as it
were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that
stumbling-stone.” Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life, and
there is no stumbling in Him. He is made unto us righteousness; the
perfection of the law is in Him, for His life is the law.

[Sidenote: “The Offense of the Cross.”]

The cross is and always has been a symbol of disgrace. To be crucified
was to be subjected to the most ignominious death known. The apostle
said that if he preached circumcision, that is, righteousness by works,
the offense of the cross would cease. The offense of the cross is that
it is a confession of human frailty and sin, and of inability to do any
good thing. To take the cross of Christ means to depend solely on Him
for everything, and this is the abasement of all human pride. Men love
to fancy themselves independent. They have no objection to any goodness
that they themselves can do. One might preach “morality” to a band of
robbers, or to any heathen, and it would be well received, so long as
they were exhorted to get it by their own efforts. Indeed, they would
feel flattered, rather than otherwise, for such, preaching would imply
that they were already righteous in themselves. But let the cross be
preached; let it be made known that in man dwelleth no good thing, and
that all must be received as a gift, and straightway somebody is
offended.

[Sidenote: Liberty to Serve, Not to Sin.]

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh; but by love serve one another.” The two
preceding chapters tell about bondage, imprisonment. Before faith comes,
we are shut up under sin, debtors to the law. The faith of Christ sets
us free, but as we are set at liberty, the admonition is given us, “Go,
and sin no more.” We have been set at liberty from sin, not at liberty
to sin. How many make a mistake here! Many sincere people imagine that
in Christ we are at liberty to ignore the law, and to set it at
defiance, forgetting that the transgression of the law is sin. 1 John
3:4. To serve the flesh is to commit sin, “because the carnal mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. So when the apostle exhorts us not to use our
liberty for an occasion of the flesh, he simply warns us not to misuse
the liberty which Christ gives us, and to bring ourselves into bondage
again by transgressing the law. Instead of this, we should by love serve
one another; for love is the fulfilling of the law.

Recall what has been said in this chapter concerning the liberty
wherewith Christ makes us free. He gives us the liberty of the first
dominion. But remember that God gave the dominion to mankind, and that
in Christ all are made kings. This shows that the only human being over
whom any Christian has the right to rule is himself. The great man in
Christ’s kingdom is he who rules his own spirit. As kings, our subjects
are found in the lower orders of created beings, in the elements, and in
our own flesh, but not in our fellow-men. We are to serve them. We are
to have in us the mind that was in Christ while He was still in the
royal court in heaven, “in the form of God,” which led Him to take “the
form of a servant.” Phil. 2:5-7. He did not change His nature in coming
to this earth, but only His form; therefore, as Anointed King in Zion,
He was a servant. This is further seen by the fact that He washed the
feet of the disciples, with full consciousness of the fact that He was
their Master and Lord, and that He came from God and went to God. John
13:3-13. Moreover, when all the redeemed saints appear in glory, Christ
Himself “shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will
come forth and serve them.” Luke 12:37. The greatest freedom is found in
service—in service rendered to our fellows in the name of Jesus. He who
does the greatest service—not greatest as men reckon, but what they
would call lowest—is the greatest. This we learn from Christ, who is
King of kings and Lord of lords, because He is servant of all,
performing service that nobody else would or could do. God’s servants
are all kings.

[Sidenote: Love Fulfils the Law.]

Love is not a substitute for the keeping of the law, but is the
perfection of it. Just here it would be well to read 1 Cor. 13. “Love
worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the
law.” Rom. 13:10. “If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother,
he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how
can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20. If, therefore, a
man loves his neighbor it must be that he loves God. “Love is of God,”
for “God is love.” Therefore love is the life of God. If that life be in
us, and be given free course, the law will necessarily be in us, for
God’s life is the law for all creation. That life of love was manifested
in the gift of Himself for the world. “Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren.”

[Sidenote: Love Is Unselfishness.]

This follows from the foregoing; for since love means service, and
service means the doing of something for others, it is evident that love
takes no thought of itself, and that he who loves has no thought but of
how he may bless others. So we read, “Love suffereth long, and is kind;
love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not
account of evil.” 1 Cor. 13:4, 5, R. V.

It is just on this vital point that everybody in the world is making or
has made a mistake. Happy are they who have found out their mistake, and
have come to the understanding and practise of true love. “Love seeketh
not her own.” Therefore self-love is not love at all, in the right sense
of the word. It is only a base counterfeit. Yet the most of that which
in the world is called love, is not really love for another, but is love
of self. Even that which should be the highest form of love known on
earth, the love which is used by the Lord as a representation of His
love for His people,—the love of husband and wife,—is more often
selfishness than real love. Leaving out of the question, as unworthy of
notice, marriages that are formed for the purpose of gaining wealth or
position in society, it is a fact, which all will recognize when their
attention is called to it, that in nearly every case the parties to a
marriage are thinking more of their own individual happiness than of the
happiness of the other. Of course this condition of things exists in
varying degrees, and in proportion as real, unselfish love exists, is
there real happiness; for it is a lesson that the world is slow to
learn, that true happiness is found only when one ceases to seek for it,
and sets about making it for others.

[Sidenote: “Love Never Faileth.”]

Here again is a test which shows that much that is called love is not
love. Love never ceases. The statement is absolute, never. There is no
exception, and no allowance made for circumstances. Love is not affected
by circumstances. We often hear about one’s love growing cold, but that
is something that can never happen. Love is always warm, always flowing;
nothing can freeze the fountain of love. Love is absolutely endless and
unchangeable, simply because it is the life of God. There is no other
love than the love of God, therefore the only possibility for true love
to be manifested among mankind is for the love of God to be shed abroad
in the heart by the Holy Spirit.

[Sidenote: Why Love?]

Sometimes when a declaration of love is made, the loved one asks, “Why
do you love me?” Just as if anybody could give a reason for love! Love
is its own reason. If the lover can tell just why he loves another, then
that very answer shows that he does not really love. Whatever object he
names as a reason for love, may sometime cease to exist, and then his
supposed love ceases to exist; but “love never faileth.” Therefore love
can not depend upon circumstances. So the only answer that can be given
to the question as to why one loves, is “because,” because of love. Love
loves, simply because it is love. Love is the quality of the individual
who loves, and he loves because he has love, irrespective of the
character of the object. The truth of this is seen when we go back to
God, the Fountain of love. He is love; love is His life; but no
explanation of His existence can be given. The highest human conception
of love is to love because we are loved, or because the object of our
love is lovable. But God loves the unlovely, and those who hate Him. “We
also were aforetime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and His love toward man,
appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves,
but according to His mercy He saved us.” Titus 3:3, 4, R. V. “If ye love
them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the
same?” “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect.” Matt. 5:46, 48.

[Sidenote: Working no Ill.]

“Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.” The word “neighbor” means whoever
dwells near. Love, therefore, extends to everything with which it comes
in contact. He who loves must necessarily love everybody. It may be
objected that love does make distinctions, and the case of husband and
wife, or of any of the members of a family, may be cited. But the
objection does not hold, for the family relation, rightly understood,
was instituted in order that by a union love might the more effectually
be manifested to others. On the principle that strength is not merely
doubled, but increased tenfold, by union, as shown by the statement that
“one shall chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight,” union
multiplies the working value of love. If two persons, each of whom has
this unselfish love to all mankind, unite in love, then their union
makes them ten times better able to serve others. If any one thinks this
is too high a standard, let him remember that we are considering a very
high thing—the highest thing in the universe. We are talking of love,
absolute and unqualified, as it comes from heaven, and not that which
has been dragged through the mire of earth. Poor, frail human beings
certainly need the very best.

Since love worketh no ill to his neighbor, it obviously follows that
Christian love,—and there is really no other love, as we have seen,—does
not admit of wars and fightings. No philosophy can ever make it appear
that it does a man any good to kill him. When the soldiers asked John
the Baptist what they should do, as followers of the Lamb of God, to
whom he pointed, he replied, “Do violence to no man.” Luke 3:14. Those
who asked were “soldiers on service,” as we see from the margin of the
Revised Version. And the margin also gives as the alternative rendering
of John’s answer, “Put no man in fear.” It would be a very mild war in
which this command was followed. If an army were composed of
Christians,—true followers of Christ,—when they came in contact with the
enemy, instead of shooting them, they would find out what they needed,
and supply their wants. “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst,
give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his
head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Rom. 12:
20, 21.

[Sidenote: “Take Heed.”]

“But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not
consumed one of another.” See into what danger the Galatians had run by
following evil counsel. By departing from the simplicity of the faith,
they were bringing themselves under the curse, and in danger of hell
fire. For “the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue
among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire
the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” James 3:6. The
tongue has devoured more than the sword, for the sword would never be
drawn if it were not for the unruly tongue. No man can tame it, but God
can. He had done it in the case of the Galatians, when their mouths were
filled with blessing and praise; but what a change had again taken
place! As the result of their later instruction, they had descended from
blessing to bickering, and instead of talking to edification, were about
to devour one another.

[Sidenote: “The Leaven of Malice and Wickedness.”]

Verses 8 and 9, following the question, “Who did hinder you that ye
should not obey the truth?” manifestly apply here as well as there,
since biting and devouring are very strong evidences of not obeying the
truth. “This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you.” God is the
God of peace. Of Christ, the Prince of peace, it was said, “He shall not
strive” (Matt. 12:19); therefore “the servant of the Lord must not
strive” (2 Tim. 2:24). The Gospel of Jesus Christ is “the Gospel of
peace.” Eph. 6:15. When there is bickering and strife in the church, be
sure that the Gospel has been sadly perverted. Let no one flatter
himself on his orthodoxy, or his soundness in the faith, while he has a
quarrelsome disposition, or can be provoked to quarrel. Dissension and
strife are the marks of departure from the faith, if one was ever in it;
for, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1. We are not merely at peace with God, but we
have peace with Him—His peace. So this new persuasion, which led to
strife and the devouring of one another with the tongue of unholy fire,
did not come from God, who had called them into the Gospel. Only a step
aside often leads to a wide divergence. Two lines of railway may seem to
lie parallel, yet insensibly they diverge until they lead in opposite
directions. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” A seemingly
“little error,” no matter what it be, has in it the germ of all
wickedness. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one
point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. A single false principle
adhered to, will wreck the whole life and character. The little foxes
spoil the vines.

[Sidenote: The Works of the Flesh.]

What are the works of the flesh?—Here is a sample list of them:
“Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings.” Not a
pleasant-sounding list, is it? But it is not all of them, for the
apostle adds, “and such like.” There is a good deal to think about in
this list, taken in connection with the statement that “they which do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Compare this list
with that given by the Lord in Mark 7:21-23, as the things that come
from within, from the heart of man. They are the very life of the
natural man. They belong to man by nature. Compare both these lists with
the list given in Rom. 1:28-32, as the things done by the heathen, who
did not like to retain God in their knowledge. They are the things that
are done by all who do not know the Lord.

Then compare these lists of sins with the list given by the apostle Paul
in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, of things that will be done in the last days by those
who even have a form of godliness. It will be noticed that all these
lists are essentially the same. When men turn from “the truth of the
Gospel,” which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth, they inevitably fall under the power of these sins.

[Sidenote: “There Is No Difference.”]

There is only one flesh of man (1 Cor. 15:39), since all the inhabitants
of the earth are descendants of the one pair—Adam and Eve. “By one man
sin entered into the world” (Rom. 5:12), so that whatever sin there is
in the world is common to all flesh. Therefore it is that in the plan of
salvation “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the
same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.” Rom. 10:12. See
also Rom. 3:21-24. No person on earth can boast over another, or has any
right to despise another because of his sinful, degraded condition. The
sight or knowledge of low vices in any people, instead of making us feel
complacent over our superior morality, ought, on the contrary, to fill
us with sorrow and shame; for it is but a reminder to us of what our
human nature is. The works that manifest themselves in that murderer,
that drunkard, or that libertine, are simply the works of our flesh. The
flesh of mankind has nothing else in its power but just such works as
are described in this chapter.

[Sidenote: “And Such Like.”]

Read again that list of the works of the flesh. Some of them are
generally recognized as very bad, or, at any rate, as not respectable;
but others are commonly regarded as venial sins, if not absolute
virtues. Notice, however, the words “and such like,” which indicate that
all the things here named are identical in character. The Scripture
tells us that hatred is murder. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a
murderer.” 1 John 3:15. Moreover, anger is also murder, as shown by the
Saviour in Matt. 5:21, 22. Envy, which is so common, also contains
murder in it. But who regards emulation as sinful? Isn’t emulation
encouraged everywhere? Are not children from their infancy taught to
strive to surpass somebody else? Is not emulation fostered, not only in
schools of all kinds, but also in the home and in the church? In the
Sabbath-school, emulation is fostered by the records that are often read
out. So far from being regarded as sinful in the extreme, it is
cultivated. And yet the Word of God assures us that it is of the same
kind as adultery, fornication, murder, and drunkenness, and that they
which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Is it not a
fearful thing?

                  *       *       *       *       *

The love of self, the desire for the supremacy, is the source of all the
other sins that are mentioned. Out of that have grown innumerable
murders; and yet many mothers are unconsciously training their children
in that very evil, even while striving to bring them up properly, by
saying: “Now see if you can behave better than so and so.” “See if you
can not learn to read or play better than such an one.” “See if you can
not keep your clothes looking as nice as that one.” All such
expressions, which are everyday words in thousands of households, are
teaching emulation, setting a false standard. The child is not taught to
distinguish between the right and the wrong, and to love the right, but
is simply trained to appear better than somebody else. That leads to
self-deception and Pharisaism, for all that is thought necessary is to
present a better appearance than others, while the heart is corrupt.
Those others may not be of very high character, and so the emulator is
satisfied, even in this faulty exertion, with simply appearing better
than some one who is himself very bad. Go through the entire list, and
study each word carefully. Ah, the abominable works of the flesh are
lurking where many least suspect them! They are wherever human flesh is,
and are manifest in some form or other wherever the flesh is not
crucified. Sin coucheth at the door.

[Sidenote: The Flesh and the Spirit in Conflict.]

The flesh and the Spirit of God have nothing in common. They are
“contrary the one to the other,” that is, they lie over against each
other, like two active foes, each eagerly watching the opportunity to
crush the other. The flesh is corruption; it can not inherit the kingdom
of God, because corruption doth not inherit incorruption. 1 Cor. 15:50.
The flesh can not be converted; it must be destroyed. The carnal
(fleshly) mind “is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh can
not please God.” Rom. 8:7, 8. Here is the secret of the backsliding of
the Galatians, and of the trouble which so many find in living the
Christian life. The Galatians began in the Spirit, but thought to attain
to perfection by the flesh (chapter 3:3), a thing as impossible as to
reach the stars by delving in the earth. So many people desire to do
right, but, not having definitely and fully yielded to the Spirit, they
can not do the things that they would. The Spirit strives with them, and
has partial control, or is at times quite fully yielded to, and they
have a rich experience; then the Spirit is grieved, the flesh asserts
itself, and they seem like other persons. They are swayed at times by
the mind of the Spirit, and at times by the mind of the flesh (Rom.
8:6), and so, being double-minded, they are unstable in all their ways
(James 1:8). It is a most unsatisfactory position in which to be.

[Sidenote: The Spirit and the Law.]

“If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” “For we know
that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Rom. 7:14.
The flesh and the Spirit are in opposition; but against the fruits of
the Spirit there is no law. Gal. 5:22, 23. Therefore the law is against
the works of the flesh. The carnal mind is “not subject to the law of
God.” So those who are in the flesh can not please God, but are “under
the law.” This is another clear proof of the fact that to be “under the
law” is to be a transgressor of it. “The law is spiritual;” therefore
all who are led by the Spirit are in full harmony with the law, and so
they are not under it.

Here again we see that the controversy was not whether or not the law
should be kept; that never at that time came into the mind of anybody
professing godliness. But the question was concerning how it could be
fulfilled. The Galatians were being led astray by the flattering
teaching that they themselves had power to do it, while the heaven-sent
apostle strenuously maintained that only through the Spirit could it be
kept. This he showed from the Scriptures, from the history of Abraham,
and from the experience of the Galatians themselves. They began in the
Spirit, and as long as they continued in the Spirit, they ran well; but
when they substituted themselves for the Spirit, immediately the works
began to manifest themselves, which were wholly contrary to the law. The
Holy Spirit is the life of God; God is love; love is the fulfilling of
the law; the law is spiritual. Therefore whoever would be spiritual must
submit to the righteousness of God, which is witnessed to by the law,
but is gained only through the faith of Jesus Christ. Whoever is led by
the Spirit must keep the law, not as a condition of receiving the
Spirit, but as the necessary result.

We often find people who profess to be so spiritual, so wholly led by
the Spirit, that they do not need to keep the law. They admit that they
do not keep the law, but say that it is the Spirit that leads them to do
as they do, and that, therefore, it can not be sin, even though opposed
to the law. Such persons make the terrible mistake of substituting their
own carnal mind for the mind of the Spirit. They have confounded the
flesh with the Spirit, and have thus put themselves in the place of God.
That is the very worst kind of popery. To speak against the law of God,
is to speak against the Spirit. They are terribly blinded, and should
pray, “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy
law.”

[Sidenote: The Fruit of the Spirit.]

The first-fruit of the Spirit is love, and “love is the fulfilling of
the law.” Joy and peace come next, for, “being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “And not only so,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1, 11.
Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost (Acts 10:38), or, as stated in
another place, “with the oil of gladness” (Heb. 1:9). The service of God
is a joyful service. The kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14:17. He who is not glad, not
occasionally merely, but all the time,—glad in adversity as well as in
prosperity,—does not yet know the Lord as he should. The words of Christ
lead to fulness of joy. John 15:11.

Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance, must come forth spontaneously from the heart of the true
follower of Christ. They can not be forced. But they do not dwell
naturally in us. It is natural for us to be angry and exasperated,
instead of gentle and long-suffering, when opposed. Note the contrast
between the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit. The first
come naturally; therefore, in order for the good fruit to be borne, we
must be made completely over into new creatures. “A good man out of the
good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good.” Luke
6:45. Goodness comes not from any man, but from the Spirit of Christ
continually dwelling in him.

[Sidenote: Christ’s by Crucifixion.]

“They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the passions and
lusts.” It is by death that we become joined to Christ. As many as are
baptized into Christ, have put on Christ (Gal. 5:27), and as many as
have been baptized into Christ, have been baptized into His death (Rom.
6:3). “Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead
is freed from sin.” Rom. 6:6, 7. “I am crucified with Christ;
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. This is the experience of
every true child of God. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature.” 2 Cor. 5:17. He still lives in the flesh, to all outward
appearance the same as other men, yet he is in the Spirit, and not in
the flesh. Rom. 8:9. He lives in the flesh a life that is not of the
flesh, and the flesh has no power over him, but, so far as its works are
concerned, is dead. “The body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is
life because of righteousness.”

[Sidenote: Walking in the Spirit.]

“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Is there any
doubt as to whether or not we live in the Spirit?—Not the slightest, nor
is there any implied. Because we live in the Spirit, we are in duty
bound to submit to the Spirit. Only by the Spirit’s power—the same
Spirit that in the beginning hovered over the face of the deep and
brought order out of chaos—can any person live. “The Spirit of God hath
made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Job 33:4.
By the same breath were the heavens made. Ps. 33:6. The Spirit of God is
the life of the universe. The Spirit of God in our nostrils (Job 27:3)
keeps us in life. The Spirit is the universal presence of God, in whom
“we live, and move, and have our being.” We are dependent on the Spirit
for life, and therefore should walk according to, or be guided by, the
Spirit. This is our “reasonable service.”

What a wondrous possibility is here set forth! To live in the flesh as
though the flesh were spirit. “There is a natural body, and there is a
spiritual body.” “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural; and afterwards that which is spiritual.” 1 Cor.
15:44, 46. The natural body we now have; the spiritual body all the true
followers of Christ will receive at the resurrection. See 1 Cor.
15:42-44, 50-53. Yet in this life, in the natural body, men are to be
spiritual,—to live just as they will in the future spiritual body. “Ye
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you.” Rom. 8:9. “The natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he
know them; because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is
spiritual judgeth all things.” 1 Cor. 2:14, 15.

“Except a man be born again [from above], he can not see the kingdom of
God.” “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:3, 6. By our natural birth we inherit
all the evils enumerated in this fifth chapter of Galatians, “and such
like.” We are fleshly; corruption rules in us. By the new birth we
inherit the fulness of God, being made “partakers of the Divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2
Peter 1:4. “The old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful
lusts” (Eph. 4:22), is crucified, and “put off,” “that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:6).
Abiding in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, the flesh with its lusts
has no more power over us than if we were actually dead and in our
graves. It is then the Spirit of God alone that animates the body. The
Spirit uses the flesh as an instrument of righteousness. The flesh is
still corruptible, still full of lusts, still ready to rebel against the
Spirit, but as long as we yield our wills to God, the Spirit holds the
flesh in check. If we waver, if we in our hearts turn back to Egypt, or
if we become self-confident, and so relax our dependence on the Spirit,
then we build again the things that we destroyed, and again make
ourselves transgressors. But this need not be. Christ has “power over
all flesh,” and He has demonstrated His ability to live a spiritual life
in human flesh.

This is the Word made flesh, God manifest in the flesh. It is the
revelation of “the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we
might be filled with all the fulness of God.” With this Spirit of love
and meekness ruling us, we shall not be desirous of vainglory, provoking
one another, envying one another. All things will be of God, and this
will be acknowledged, so that none will have any disposition to boast
over another.

This Spirit of life in Christ—the life of Christ—is given freely to all.
“Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” “For the Life
was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you
that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us.” “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.”



                              CHAPTER VI.
                        The Glory of the Cross.


In the last part of the fifth chapter, and in the sixth, we learn the
practical character of the entire Epistle. Hasty readers are likely to
think that there is a division in it, and that the latter part treats of
practical, spiritual life, while the first part is devoted to
theoretical doctrines. This is a great error. No part of the Bible is
theory; it is all fact. There is no part of the Bible that is not
spiritual and practical. Moreover, it is all doctrine. Doctrine means
teaching. Christ’s talk to the multitudes on the mount is called
doctrine, because “He opened His mouth and taught them.” Some people
express a sort of contempt for doctrine; they speak slightingly of it,
as though it belonged to the realm of abstruse theology, and not to
practical, every-day life. Such ones unconsciously do dishonor to the
preaching of Christ, which was nothing else but doctrine. That is to
say, He always taught the people. All true doctrine is intensely
practical; it is given to men for no other purpose than to be practised.

[Sidenote: Sermonizing Not Doctrine.]

People are led into this error by a wrong use of words. That which they
call doctrine, and which they speak of as impractical, is not doctrine,
but sermonizing. That is impractical, and has no place in the Gospel. No
preacher of the Gospel ever “delivers a sermon.” If he does, it is
because he chooses for a time to do something else besides preach the
Gospel. Christ never delivered a sermon. Instead of that, He gave the
people doctrine; that is to say, He taught them. He was “a Teacher sent
from God.” So the Gospel is all doctrine; it is instruction in the life
of Christ.

The object of this Epistle is clearly seen in this closing portion. It
is not to furnish ground for controversy, but to silence it by leading
the readers to submit themselves to the Spirit, whose fruits are love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness. Its purpose is to
reclaim those who are sinning against God by “trying to serve” Him in
their “own weak way,” and to lead them to serve indeed “in newness of
Spirit.” All the so-called argument of the preceding portion of the
Epistle is simply the demonstration of the fact that “the works of the
flesh,” which are sin, can be escaped only by the circumcision of the
cross of Christ,—by serving God in Spirit, and having no confidence in
the flesh.

                  *       *       *       *       *

“Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye which are
spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of meekness; looking to
thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and
so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man thinketh himself to be
something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let each man
prove his own work, and then shall he have his glorying in regard of
himself alone, and not of his neighbor. For each man shall bear his own
burden.

“But let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that
teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth
unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that
soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us
not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint
not. So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good
toward all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of
the faith.

“See with how large letters I have written unto you with mine own hand.
As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they compel you to
be circumcised; only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of
Christ. For not even they who receive circumcision do themselves keep
the law; but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in
your flesh. But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me,
and I unto the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as shall walk by this
rule, peace be unto them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

“From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body
the marks of Jesus.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren.
Amen.” Galatians 6, R. V.

[Sidenote: A Radical Change.]

When men set out to make themselves righteous, pride, emulation,
vainglory, boasting, criticism, fault-finding, and backbiting, leading
to open quarrels, are the result. So it was with the Galatians, and so
it will ever be. It can not be otherwise. Each individual has his own
conception of the law,—for, having determined to be justified by the
law, he reduces it to the level of his own mind, so that he may be
judge,—and can not resist examining his brethren, as well as himself, to
see if they are up to his measure. If his critical eye detects one who
is not walking according to his rule, he at once proceeds to “deal with
the offender,” who, if humble submission—not to God, but to his
judges—be not tendered, must be turned out of the church, lest the robes
of “our righteousness” be defiled by contact with him. The
self-righteous ones constitute themselves their brother’s keeper, to the
extent of keeping him out of their company, lest they should be
disgraced. In marked contrast with this spirit, which is all too common
in the church, is the exhortation with which this chapter opens. Instead
of hunting for faults, that we may condemn them, we are to hunt for
sinners, that we may save them.

[Sidenote: “Sin Coucheth at the Door.”]

To Cain God said, “If thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door; and
unto thee is its desire, but thou shouldest rule over it.” Gen. 4:7, R.
V., margin. Sin is a venomous beast, lurking in secret, watching every
opportunity to spring upon and overcome the unwary. Its desire is to
ensnare us, but power has been given us to rule over it. “Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body.” Nevertheless it is possible (not
necessary) for the most zealous ones to be overtaken. “These things
write I unto you, that ye may sin not. And if any man sin, we have a
Comforter with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He is the
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole
world.” 1 John 2:1, 2, R. V., margin. So, even though a man be overtaken
in any trespass, he is to be restored, and not thrust further away.

[Sidenote: The Gospel Means Restoration.]

“For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye?
if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he
not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh
that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say
unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine
which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father which
is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” Matt.
18:11-14. Christ is now in the heavens “until the times of restoration
of all things.”

[Sidenote: Save the One.]

The Lord represents His work by the case of the shepherd who seeks after
the one sheep that has gone astray. The work of the Gospel is an
individual work. Even though under the preaching of the Gospel thousands
accept it in one day, as the result of one discourse, it is because of
its effect on each individual heart. When the preacher, in speaking to
thousands, addresses each one individually, then he is doing the work of
Christ. So if a man be overtaken in a fault, restore such an one, in the
spirit of meekness. No man’s time is so precious that it is wasted when
devoted to the salvation of one single person. Some of the most
important and glorious truths that we have on record as uttered by
Christ, were addressed to only one listener. He who looks after and
cares for the single lambs of the flock, is a good shepherd.

[Sidenote: The Ministry of Reconciliation.]

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto [put into] us the
word of reconciliation.” 2 Cor. 5:19. He “His own self bare our sins in
His own body.” 1 Peter 2:24. He did not impute our trespasses to us, but
took them all on Himself. “A soft answer turneth away wrath.” Christ
comes to us with gentle words, not harshly chiding us, in order that He
may win us. He calls us to come to Him and find rest; to exchange our
galling yoke of bondage, and heavy burden, for His easy yoke and light
burden.

[Sidenote: In Christ’s Stead.]

All Christians are one in Christ. There is but one seed—all are embraced
in Christ, the Representative Man. Therefore “as He is, so are we in
this world.” 1 John 4:17. Christ was in this world as an example of what
men ought to be, and of what His true followers will be when wholly
consecrated to Him. To His disciples He says, “As My Father hath sent
Me, even so send I you,” and to this end He clothes them with His own
power through the Spirit. “God sent not His Son into the world to
condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” John
3:17. Therefore we are not sent to condemn, but to save. Hence the
injunction, “If a man be overtaken in a fault, ... restore such an one.”
This is not to be limited to those who are associated with us in church
capacity. We are sent as ambassadors for Christ, to beseech men, in
Christ’s stead, to be reconciled to God. 2 Cor. 5:20. The whole universe
provides no greater work; no higher office can be found in heaven or
earth than that of ambassador for Christ, which is the office of even
the lowliest and most despised soul that is reconciled to God.

[Sidenote: “Ye Which Are Spiritual.”]

Only such ones are called upon to restore the erring; none others can do
it. The Holy Spirit alone must speak through those who would reprove and
rebuke. It is Christ’s own work that is to be done, and only by the
power of the Spirit can anybody be a witness to Him. But would it, then,
not be great presumption for anybody to go to restore a brother? Would
it not be as much as claiming that he himself is spiritual? It is indeed
no light matter to stand in Christ’s place to any fallen man; and the
design of God is that each one should take heed to himself, “considering
thyself lest thou also be tempted.” It is plain that the rule here laid
down is calculated to work a revival in the church. As soon as a man is
overtaken in a fault, the duty of each one is—not straightway to talk to
somebody about him, nor even to go directly to the erring one himself,
but—to ask himself, How do I stand? Am I not guilty, if not of the same
thing, of something equally bad? May it not even be that some fault in
me has led to his fall? Am I walking in the Spirit, so that I could
restore him, and not drive him further away? This would result in a
complete reformation in the church, and it might well be that by the
time the others had got into condition to go to the faulty one, he might
also have recovered himself from the snare of the devil.

[Sidenote: Bound in Heaven.]

In giving directions how to deal with one who has committed a trespass
(Matt. 18:10-18), the Saviour said, “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever
ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Does this mean that God
pledges Himself to be bound by any decision that any company of men
calling themselves His church may make?—Certainly not. Nothing that is
done on earth can change God’s will. The history of the church, as we
have it for nearly eighteen hundred years, is a record of mistakes and
errors, of self-aggrandizement, and of putting self in the place of God.
Who can read the history of the councils of the church, and say that God
was in any of them, or that He either prompted or sanctioned any of
their decrees?

What, then, did Christ mean?—Just what He said. His instruction shows
that He meant that the church should be spiritual,—filled with the
spirit of meekness,—and that every one who spoke should “speak as the
oracles of God.” Only the Word of Christ should be in the heart and
mouth of all who deal with a trespasser. When this is the case, it
follows, since God’s Word is settled forever in heaven, that whatever is
bound on earth must necessarily be bound in heaven. But this will not be
the case unless the Scriptures are strictly followed in letter and in
spirit.

[Sidenote: “The Law of Christ.”]

This is fulfilled by bearing one another’s burdens, because the law of
Christ’s life is to bear burdens. “All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.” Isa. 53:6. “Surely He hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows.” Whoever would fulfil His law must have His
life in him, still doing the same work for the strayed and fallen.

“In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that
He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He
Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are
tempted.” Heb. 2:17, 18. He knows what it is to be sorely tempted, and
He knows how to overcome. Yea, although He “knew no sin,” He was made
even to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
Him. 2 Cor. 5:21. He took every one of our sins, and confessed them
before God as His own. Even so He comes to us. Instead of upbraiding us
for our sin, He opens His heart to us, and tells us how He has suffered
with the same infirmity, and that He knows all the hardship, the pain,
the sorrow, and the shame. Thus He draws us to Himself, and wins our
confidence. Knowing that He has passed through the same experience, that
He has been down into the very depths, we are ready to listen to Him
when He talks about the way of escape. We know that He is talking from
experience.

The greatest part, therefore, of the work of saving sinners is to show
ourselves one with them. That is to say, it is in the confession of our
own faults that we save others. The man who feels himself without sin,
is not the man to restore the sinful. He who goes to one who is
overtaken in any trespass, and says, “How in the world could you ever do
such a thing? I never did a thing like that in my life, and I can’t see
how anybody with any sense of self-respect could do so,” might far
better stay at home. God chose one Pharisee, and only one, to be an
apostle, but he was not sent forth until he could acknowledge himself to
be the chief of sinners. 1 Tim. 1:15. It is humiliating to confess sin.
That is true, but the way of salvation is the way of the cross. It was
only by the cross that Christ could be the Saviour of sinners. Therefore
if we would share His joy, we must with Him endure the cross, despising
the shame. Remember this fact: It is only by confessing our own sins
that we can save others from their sins. Only thus can we show them the
way of salvation; for it is he who confesses his sins that obtains
cleansing from them, and so can lead others to the fountain.

[Sidenote: Man Is Nothing.]

“If a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing, he
deceiveth himself.” Mark those words, “when he is nothing.” It does not
say that we should not think ourselves to be something until we are
something. No; it is a statement of the fact that we are nothing. Not
merely a single individual, but all nations, are nothing before the
Lord. If we ever at any time think ourselves to be something, we deceive
ourselves. And we often do deceive ourselves, and thus mar the work of
the Lord. Remember the law of Christ. Although He was everything, He
emptied Himself. He obliterated Himself, that the work of God might be
done. “The servant is not greater than his lord.” God alone is great;
“every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” God alone is true,
but every man a liar. When we acknowledge this, and live in
consciousness of it, then we are where the Spirit of God can fill us,
and then God can work through us. The “man of sin” is he that exalteth
himself. 2 Thess. 2:3, 4. The child of God is the one who humbles
himself.

[Sidenote: Bear Your Own Burdens.]

“For every man shall bear his own burden.” Is this a contradiction of
verse 2?—By no means. When the Scripture tells us to bear one another’s
burdens, it does not tell us to throw our burdens on one another. Each
one is to cast his burden on the Lord. Ps. 55:22. He bears the burden of
the whole world, of all mankind, not in mass, but for each individual.
We cast our burdens on Him, not by gathering them up in our hands, or
with our mind, and hurling them from ourselves to one who is at a
distance. That can never be done. Many have tried to get rid of their
burden of sin and pain and care and sorrow, but have failed, and have
felt it roll back upon their own heads heavier than ever, until they
have well-nigh sunk in despair. What was the trouble?—Simply this: they
regarded Christ as at a distance from them, and they felt that they
themselves must bridge the gulf. It is impossible. The man who is
“without strength” can not cast his burden the length of his arm, and as
long as we keep the Lord at arm’s length, we shall not know rest from
the weary load. It is when we recognize and confess Him in us, as our
sole support, our life, the One whose power it is that makes every
motion, and so confess that we are nothing, and sink out of sight, no
longer deceiving ourselves, that we leave the burden resting on Christ.
He knows what to do with it, and yoking up with Him we learn of Him how
to bear the burdens of others.

Then how about bearing our own burden?—Ah, it is the Divine “power that
worketh in us” that bears it! “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless
I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” It is I, and yet it is not
I, but Christ. Now I have learned the secret. I will not weary somebody
else with the story of my burden, but will bear it myself, yet not I,
but Christ in me. There are people enough in the world who have not yet
learned this lesson of Christ, so that every child of God will always
find work to do in bearing burdens for others; his own he will intrust
to the Lord, to find whom he has no further to go than to his own heart.
Is it not blessed to have “One who is mighty” always under the burden
which falls upon our shoulders?

This lesson we learn from the life of Christ. He went about doing good,
for God was with Him. He comforted the mourners, He bound up the
broken-hearted, He healed all that were oppressed of the devil. Not one
who came to him with a tale of sorrow or a distressing malady was turned
away without relief; “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by
Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our
sicknesses.” Matt. 8:17. And then when night sent the multitude to their
beds, He sought the mountain or the forest, that in communion with the
Father, by whom He lived, He might find a fresh supply of life and
strength for His own soul. “Let every man prove his own work.” “Examine
yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates?” 2 Cor. 13:5. “Though He was crucified through weakness, yet
He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak with Him, but we
shall live with Him by the power of God.” Verse 4, margin. So if our
faith proves to us that Christ is in us,—and faith proves to us the
reality of the fact,—we have rejoicing in ourselves alone, and not in
another. We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and our joy does
not depend upon any other person in the world. Though all should fail
and be discouraged, we can stand, for the foundation of
God—Christ—standeth sure.

Therefore let no one who calls himself a Christian be content to lean on
somebody else, but let him, though he be the weakest of the weak, be a
burden-bearer,—a worker together with God,—in Christ bearing quietly and
uncomplainingly his own burdens, and those of his neighbors also. He can
discover some of the burdens of his uncomplaining brother, and bear
them, and the other will do likewise. So the rejoicing of the weak will
be, “The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my
salvation.”

[Sidenote: Communicating Good Things.]

“Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth
in all good things.” There can be no doubt but that this refers
primarily to temporal support. “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” If a
man gives himself wholly to the ministry of the Word, it is evident that
the things necessary for his sustenance must come from those who are
taught. But this by no means exhausts the meaning of the injunction. The
one who is taught in the Word must communicate to the teacher “in all
good things.” Mutual help is the burden of this chapter. “Bear ye one
another’s burdens.” Even the teacher who is supported by those who are
taught, is to assist others pecuniarily. Christ and the apostles, who
had nothing of their own—for Christ was the poorest of the poor, and the
disciples had left all to follow Him—nevertheless distributed to the
poor out of their little store. See John 13:29.

When the disciples told Jesus to send the hungry multitudes away, that
they might buy themselves victuals, He said, “They need not depart; give
ye them to eat.” Matt. 14:16. He was not trifling with them; He meant
what He said. He knew that they had nothing to give the people, but they
had as much as He had. They did not perceive the power of His words, so
He Himself took the few loaves and dealt out to the disciples, and thus
they did really feed the hungry people. But His words to them meant that
they should do just what He did. How many times our own lack of faith in
Christ’s Word has hindered us from doing good and communicating (Heb.
13:16), the sacrifices which please God.

As the teachers contribute not only the Word but temporal support as
well, so those who are taught in the Word should not confine their
liberality merely to temporal t hings. It is a mistake to suppose that
ministers of the Gospel never stand in need of spiritual refreshment, or
that they can not receive it from the weakest in the flock. No one can
ever tell how much the souls of teachers are encouraged by the
testimonies of faith and joy in the Lord, which come from the mouths of
those who have heard the Word. It is not simply that the teacher sees
that his labor is not in vain. The testimony may have no reference
whatever to anything that he has done; but a humble soul’s joyful
testimony to what God has done for him, will often, through the
refreshment it gives the teacher of the Word, be the means of
strengthening the souls of hundreds.

[Sidenote: Sowing and Reaping.]

“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” A simple statement
of fact, that can not be made plainer by any amount of talk. The
harvest, which is the end of the world, will reveal what the sowing has
been, whether wheat or tares. “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the
flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the
Spirit reap life everlasting.” “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap
in mercy; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord,
till He come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12. “He that
trusteth in his own heart is a fool,” and equally foolish is he who
trusts in other men, as is seen from the next verse: “Ye have plowed
wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies;
because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty
men.” “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his
arm,” whether it be his own flesh or that of some other man. “Blessed is
the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” Jer.
17:5, 7.

Everything enduring comes from the Spirit. The flesh is corrupt, and it
corrupts. He who consults only his own pleasure,—fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind,—will reap a harvest of corruption and
death. But “the Spirit is life because of righteousness,” and he who
consults only the mind of the Spirit, will reap everlasting glory; for
“if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” “For if ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, ye shall live.” Rom. 8:11, 13. Wonderful! If we live, we
die; if we die, we live! This is the testimony of Jesus: “Whosoever will
save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My
sake shall find it.” Matt. 16:25.

This does not mean the loss of all joy in this present time. It does not
mean undergoing a continual deprivation and penance, going without
something that we long for, for the sake of getting something else by
and by. It does not mean that life in this present time shall be a
living death, a long-drawn-out agony. Far from it. That is a crude and
false idea of the Christian life—the life that is found in death. No;
whoever comes to Christ and drinks of the Spirit, has in himself “a well
of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14. The joy of
eternity is his now. His joy is full day by day. He is abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of God’s house, drinking of the river of
God’s own pleasure. He has all that he longs for, because his heart and
his flesh cry out only for God, in whom is all fulness. Once he thought
he was “seeing life,” but now he knows that he was then but gazing into
the grave, the pit of corruption. Now he begins really to live, and the
joy of the new life is “unspeakable, and full of glory.” So he sings:—

                  “Now none but Christ can satisfy,
                    None other name for me;
                  There’s love, and life, and lasting joy,
                    Lord Jesus, found in Thee.”

A shrewd general always seeks to seize upon the strongest positions; so
wherever there is a rich promise to believers, Satan tries to distort
it, so as to make it a source of discouragement. Accordingly, he has
made many believe that the words, “He that soweth to his flesh shall of
the flesh reap corruption,” mean that they must all their lives, even
after being born of the Spirit, suffer the consequences of their former
life of sin. Some have supposed that even in eternity they would have to
bear the scars of their old sins, saying, “I can never hope to be what I
should have been if I had never sinned.”

What a libel on God’s mercy, and the redemption that is in Christ Jesus!
That is not the freedom wherewith Christ makes us free. The exhortation
is, “As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to
iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to
righteousness unto holiness;” but if the one who thus yields himself to
righteousness must always be handicapped by his former bad habits, that
would prove that the power of righteousness is less than that of sin.
But that is not so. Grace abounds over sin, and is as mighty as the
heavens.

Here is a man who for gross crimes has been condemned to imprisonment
for life. After a few years’ imprisonment he receives a free pardon, and
is set at liberty. Some time afterward we meet him, and see a
fifty-pound cannon-ball attached to his leg by a huge chain, so that he
can move about only with the greatest difficulty. “Why, how is this?” we
ask in surprise. “Were you not given your freedom?” “Oh, yes,” he
replies, “I am free; but I have to wear this ball and chain as a
reminder of my former crimes.” One would not think such “freedom” as
that very desirable.

Every prayer inspired by the Holy Ghost is a promise of God; and one of
the most gracious of these is this: “Remember not the sins of my youth,
nor my transgressions; according to Thy mercy remember Thou me for Thy
goodness’ sake, O Lord.” Ps. 25:7. When God forgives our sins, and
forgets them, He gives us such power to escape from them that we shall
be as though we had never sinned. By the “exceeding great and precious
promises,” we are made “partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust.” 2 Peter 1:4. Man fell
by partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; the Gospel
presents such a redemption from the fall, that all the black memories of
sin are effaced, and the redeemed ones come to know only the good, like
Christ, “who knew no sin.”

Yes; they that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, as
we have all proved in ourselves. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in
the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” The Spirit
has power to free us from the sins of the flesh, and from all their
consequences. Christ “loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word,
that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot,
or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish.” Eph. 5:25-27. “By His stripes we are healed.” The memory of
sin,—not of individual sins,—will be perpetuated in eternity only by the
scars in the hands and feet and side of Christ, which are the seal of
our perfect redemption.

[Sidenote: Be Not Weary.]

How naturally the exhortation follows, “Let us not be weary in
well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” It is so
easy for us to get tired doing good, that is, when we are not looking to
Jesus. We like to have little intermissions, because constant doing good
seems too much of a strain. But that is only when we have not fully
learned the joy of the Lord, which is the strength that enables us to
keep from getting weary. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and
not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” Isa. 40:31.

But that which is especially referred to here, as the context shows, is
not simply the resisting of temptation in our own flesh, but the helping
of others. Here we need to learn a lesson from Christ, who “shall not
fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment in the earth.” Though
nine out of ten whom He relieved never showed the least sign of
appreciation, it made no difference with Him. He came to do good, and
not to be appreciated. Therefore, “in the morning sow thy seed, and in
the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall
prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.”
Eccl. 11:6. We can not tell how much we shall reap, nor from which of
the seed that we sow. Some may fall by the wayside, and be snatched away
before it has time to take root, and other may fall on stony ground,
where it will wither, and still other may fall among thorns, and be
choked; but one thing is certain, and that is that we shall reap. We do
not know whether the morning sowing or the evening sowing will prosper,
or whether both shall alike be good; but there is no possibility that
both can be bad. One or the other alone may prosper, or else both may be
good. Isn’t that encouragement enough for us not to be weary in
well-doing? The ground may seem poor, and the season may not be
favorable, so that the prospect for a crop may be most unpromising, and
we may be tempted to think that all our labor is wasted. Not so; “in due
season we shall reap, if we faint not.” “Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Cor.
15:58.

[Sidenote: Make No Difference.]

“As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” In this we see
that the apostle speaks of temporal help, for it needs no special
exhortation to preach the Word to those who are not of the household of
faith; they are the ones to whom it is specially to be preached; but
there is a natural tendency—natural, I say, not spiritual—to limit
charities to those who are called “deserving.” We hear much about “the
worthy poor.” But we are all unworthy of the least of God’s blessings,
yet He showers them upon us continually. “If ye do good to them which do
good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And
if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for
sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your
enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your
reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for
He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”

[Sidenote: Seek the Opportunity.]

Note especially the beginning of the tenth verse. “As we have therefore
opportunity,” let us do good unto all men. Doing good to others is to be
considered a privilege to be enjoyed, and not an irksome duty to be
discharged. Men do not speak of disagreeable things as opportunities. No
one says that he had an opportunity to injure himself, or that he had an
opportunity to lose some money. On the contrary, a man will speak of an
opportunity to make some money, or to escape from some threatened
danger. It is thus that we are to consider doing good to the needy. But
opportunities are always sought for. Men are always on the lookout for
an opportunity to get gain. So the apostle teaches us that we should be
seeking opportunities to help some one. This Christ did. He “went about
doing good.” He traveled about the country on foot, searching
opportunities to do somebody some good, and He found them. He did good,
“for God was with Him.” His name is Immanuel, which means, “God with
us.” Now, as He is with us all the days, even to the end of the world,
so God is with us, doing good to us, that we also may do good. “We then,
as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the
grace of God in vain.” To this end, “receive ye the Holy Ghost.”

[Sidenote: Closing Words.]

We come now to the close of this most wonderful letter. Even as the
whole of the Gospel is contained in the greeting, so we find it in the
end. The apostle literally knew nothing else save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He could not greet his friends without mentioning it. In
every chapter of this Epistle, but especially in the last two, do we see
how directly it is addressed to us. Everybody uses verses 1, 7-10 as
applicable now, without any thought of the Galatians; but just as surely
as these verses mean us, just the same as though the Galatians had never
lived, so does the entire Epistle.

The consuming zeal of the apostle Paul in writing it is seen in the fact
that, contrary to his usual custom, he seized the pen and wrote the
Epistle with his own hand. Verse 11. As intimated in chapter 4, the
apostle suffered from weak eyes, which hindered him much in his work, or
would have hindered him but for the power of God resting on him; so that
it was necessary for him always to have some one with him, to minister
unto him, and to serve as amanuensis. From the Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians (chapter 2:2) we learn that some took advantage of this
fact to write letters to the churches in Paul’s name, which troubled the
brethren; but in the close of that Epistle (chapter 3:16-18) Paul
indicated to them how they might know an epistle that came from him. No
matter by whom the body of it was written, he wrote the salutation and
the signature with his own hand. So great was the urgency in this case,
however, that he wrote the entire Epistle himself.

[Sidenote: Only a Show.]

We can not deceive God, and it is useless to deceive ourselves or
others. “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” 1 Sam. 16:7. The
circumcision in which the “false brethren” were seeking to induce the
Galatians to trust, meant self-righteousness, instead of righteousness
by faith. They had the law only as “the form of righteousness and of
truth.” With their works they could make “a fair show in the flesh,” but
it was only an empty show; there was no reality in it. They could seem
righteous without suffering persecution for the cross of Christ.

They did not indeed keep the law; not by any means; for the flesh is
opposed to the law of the Spirit, and “they that are in the flesh can
not please God.” But they desired converts to “our faith,” as so many
call the particular theories which they hold. Christ said, “Woe unto
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to
make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the
child of hell than yourselves.” Matt. 23:15. Such teachers glory in the
flesh of their “converts.” If they can count so many as belonging to
“our denomination,” so much “gain” in the past year, they feel
virtuously happy. Numbers and appearances count for much with men, but
for nothing with God.

[Sidenote: Real and Lasting Glory.]

“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Why glory in the cross?—Because by it the world is crucified to
us, and we to the world. The Epistle ends where it begins,—with
deliverance from “this present evil world,” and it is the cross alone
that accomplishes the deliverance. The cross is the symbol of
humiliation, therefore we glory in it, because in humility is
exaltation.

[Sidenote: God Revealed in the Cross.]

Read the words of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah: “Let not the wise
man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might,
let not the rich man glory in his riches.” Jer. 9:23.

Why should not the wise man glory in his wisdom?—Because so far as it is
his own wisdom, it is foolishness. “The wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God.” “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that
they are vain.” 1 Cor. 3:19, 20. No man has any wisdom in which to
glory, for his own wisdom is foolishness, and wisdom which God gives is
something to cause humility instead of pride.

What about might? “All flesh is grass,” Isa. 40:6. “Every man at his
best state is altogether vanity.” Ps. 39:5. “Men of low degree are
vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance,
they are altogether lighter than vanity.” But “power belongeth unto
God.” Ps. 62:9, 11.

As to riches, they are “uncertain.” 1 Tim. 6:17. Man “heapeth up riches,
and knoweth not who shall gather them.” “Riches certainly make
themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” Prov. 23:5.
Only in Christ are found unsearchable and abiding riches.

Man, therefore, has absolutely nothing in which to boast, for what is
there left of a man when he has nothing that can be called wealth, no
wisdom whatever, and absolutely no strength? Everything that man is or
has comes from the Lord. Therefore it is that he that glorieth is to
glory in the Lord. 1 Cor. 1:31.

Now put this text with Gal. 6:14. The same Spirit inspired them both, so
that there is no contradiction. One text says that we are to glory only
in the knowledge of the Lord; the other says that there is nothing in
which to glory save the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The conclusion,
therefore, is that in the cross we find the knowledge of God. To know
God is eternal life, and there is no life for mankind except through the
cross of Christ. So again we see most clearly that all that may be known
of God is revealed in the cross. Aside from the cross, there is no
knowledge of God.

This shows us again that the cross is seen in all creation, for the
everlasting power and divinity of God, even all that may be known of
Him, are seen in the things that He has made. The power of God is seen
in the things that are made, and the cross is the power of God. 1 Cor.
1:18. Out of weakness God brings strength; He saves men by death, so
that even the dead may rest in hope. No man can be so poor, so weak and
sinful, so degraded and despised, that he may not glory in the cross.
The cross takes him just where he is, for it is the symbol of shame and
degradation, and reveals the power of God in him, and in that there is
ground for everlasting glory.

[Sidenote: The Cross Crucifies.]

The cross cuts us off from the world. Glory! for then it unites us to
God, because the friendship of the world is enmity with God; “whosoever
therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4.
Through His cross Christ has destroyed the enmity. Eph. 2:15, 16. “And
the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will
of God abideth forever.” Then let the world pass away.

                       “Fade, fade, each earthly joy,
                         Jesus is mine;
                       Break every tender tie,
                         Jesus is mine.
                       Dark is the wilderness;
                       Earth has no resting-place;
                       Jesus alone can bless;
                         Jesus is mine.”

[Sidenote: The Cross Elevates.]

Jesus said, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
Me.” This He said signifying what death He should die, namely, the death
of the cross. He humbled Himself to death, even the death of the cross;
“wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which
is above every name.” Phil. 2:8, 9. He descended “first into the lower
parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up
far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.” Eph. 4:9, 10. It
was through death that He ascended to the right hand of the Majesty in
the heavens. It was the cross that lifted Him up from earth to heaven.
Therefore it is the cross alone that brings us glory, and so it is the
only thing in which to glory. The cross, which means derision and shame
from the world, lifts us away from this world, and sets us with Christ
in the heavenly places; and the power by which it does this is “the
power that worketh in us,” even the power that works in and upholds all
things in the universe.

[Sidenote: The Cross Creates.]

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creature.” That is, neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision has any power. Salvation does not come from man, whatever
his state or condition, or whatever he may do. In an uncircumcised state
he is lost, and if he be circumcised he is no nearer salvation. Only the
cross has power to save. The only thing that is of any value is a new
creature, or, as indicated in the margin of the Revision, “a new
creation.” “If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation;” and it is
only through death that we become joined to Him. Rom. 6:3.

                       “Nothing in my hand I bring;
                       Simply to Thy cross I cling.”

The cross makes a new creation, so that here again we see a reason for
glorying in it; for when the new creation came from the hand of God in
the beginning, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God
shouted for joy.” Job 38:7.

[Sidenote: The Sign of the Cross.]

Put together all the texts that we have read, which show: (1) That the
cross of Christ is the only thing in which to glory; (2) that whoever
glories must glory only in the knowledge of God; (3) that God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, so that none
might glory save in Him; and, (4) that God is revealed in the things
that He has made, and that creation, which manifests God’s power, also
presents the cross, because the cross of Christ is the power of God, and
God is made known by it. What have we?—This, that the power that it took
to create the world, and all things that are in it,—the power that is
exerted to keep all things in existence,—is the power that saves those
who trust in it. This is the power of the cross.

So the power of the cross, by which alone salvation comes, is the power
that creates, and that continues to work in all creation. But when God
creates a thing, it is “very good;” so in Christ, in His cross, there is
“a new creation.” “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.” Eph.
2:10, R. V. It is in the cross that this new creation is wrought, for
its power is the power by which “in the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.” This is the power that keeps the earth from
utter destruction under the curse; which brings about the changing
seasons,—seed-time and harvest,—and that will at last renew the face of
the earth, so that “it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with
joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the
excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord,
and the excellency of our God.”

“The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious; and His
righteousness endureth forever. He hath made His wonderful works to be
remembered; the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.” Ps. 111:2-4.

Here we see that the wonderful works of God reveal His righteousness,
and His grace and compassion as well. This is another evidence that His
works reveal the cross of Christ, in which infinite love and mercy are
centered.

But “He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered;” or, “He hath
made a memorial for His wonderful works.” Why does He wish men to
remember and declare His mighty acts?—In order that they may not forget,
but may trust in, His salvation. He would have men continually meditate
on His works, that they may know the power of the cross. It is in the
works of His hands that we triumph. Ps. 92:4. So when God had made the
heavens and earth, and all their host, in six days, “He rested on the
seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the
seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from
all His work which God created and made.” Gen. 2:2, 3.

The cross conveys to us the knowledge of God, because it shows us His
power as Creator. Through the cross we are crucified unto the world, and
the world unto us; that is, by the cross we are sanctified. But
sanctification is the work of God, not of man. Only His divine power can
accomplish the great work. In the beginning God sanctified the Sabbath,
as the crown of His creative work—the evidence that His work was
finished, the seal of perfection, and therefore He says, “Moreover also
I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they
might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Eze. 20:12.

So we see that the Sabbath—the seventh day—is the true sign of the
cross. It is the memorial of creation, and redemption is
creation,—creation through the cross. In the cross we find the complete
and perfect works of God, and are clothed with them. Crucified with
Christ means the utter giving up of self, acknowledging that we are
nothing, and trusting absolutely in Christ. In Him we rest; in Him we
find the Sabbath. The cross takes us back to the beginning, into “that
which was from the beginning.” The resting upon the seventh day of the
week is but the sign of the fact that in the perfect work of God, as
seen in creation,—in the cross,—we find rest from sin.

“But it is difficult to keep the Sabbath; my business will suffer;” “I
couldn’t make a living and keep the Sabbath;” “It is so unpopular.” Oh,
yes; nobody ever said that it was a specially pleasing thing to be
crucified! “Even Christ pleased not Himself.” Read the fifty-third
chapter of Isaiah. Christ was not very popular, and least so of all when
He was crucified. The cross means death; but it means also the entrance
into life. There is healing in Christ’s wounds, blessing in the curse
that He bore, life in the death that He suffered. Who dare say that he
trusts Christ for everlasting life if he dare not trust Him for a few
years or months or days of life in this world? Accept the Sabbath of the
Lord, and you will find that it means the cross to a degree that you
never before dreamed of, and therefore “a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory.”

Now say once more, and say it from the heart: “Far be it from me to
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the
world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” If you can say
that in truth, you will find tribulations and afflictions so easy that
you can glory in them.

                       “Hallelujah, what a Saviour!”

[Sidenote: The Glory.]

It is by the cross that everything is sustained, for “in Him all things
hold together,” and He does not exist in any other form than that of the
crucified One. But for the cross, there would be universal death. Not a
man could breathe, not a plant could grow, not a ray of light could
shine from heaven, if it were not for the cross. Now “the heavens
declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Ps.
19:1. They are some of the things that God has made. No pen can describe
and no artist’s brush can depict the wondrous glory of the heavens; yet
that glory is but the glory of the cross of Christ. This follows from
the facts already learned, that the power of God is seen in the things
that are made, and that the cross is the power of God. The glory of God
is His power, for “the exceeding greatness of His power to usward” is
seen in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (Eph. 1:19, 20),
and “Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father”
(Rom. 6:4). It was for the suffering of death that Jesus was crowned
with glory and honor. Heb. 2:9. So we see that all the glory of the
innumerable stars, with their various colors, all the glory of the
rainbow, the glory of the clouds gilded by the setting sun, the glory of
the sea, and of blooming fields and green meadows, the glory of the
spring-time and of the ripened harvest, the glory of the opening bud and
the perfect fruit,—yea, all the glory that Christ has in heaven, as well
as the glory that will be revealed in His saints when they shall “shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father,” even “as the stars
forever and ever,”—is the glory of the cross. How can we ever think of
glorying in anything else?

[Sidenote: The Israel of God.]

“As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy,
and upon the Israel of God.” The rule of glory! what a grand rule to
walk by! Are there two classes here mentioned?—No; that can not be, for
the Epistle has been devoted to showing that all are one in Christ
Jesus. “And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all
principality and power; in whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of
the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism,
wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of
God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with
Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Col. 2:10-13. “We are the
circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Phil. 3:3. This
circumcision constitutes us all the true Israel of God, for this is the
victory over sin, and “Israel” means an overcomer. No longer are we
“aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” “no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of
God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone.” Eph. 2:12, 19, 20.
So we shall join the throng that “shall come from the east and west, and
shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven.”

[Sidenote: The Marks of Christ.]

“From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the marks
of the Lord Jesus.” The Greek word rendered “marks” is the plural of
“stigma,” which we have incorporated into our own language. It signifies
shame and disgrace, even as of old it meant a mark branded into the body
of a culprit, or of a recaptured runaway slave, to show to whom he
belonged. Such are the marks of the cross of Christ. The marks of the
cross were upon Paul. He had been crucified with Christ, and he carried
the nail-prints. They were branded on his body. They marked him as the
bond-servant, the slave of the Lord Jesus. Let no one, then, interfere
with him; he was not the servant of men. He owed allegiance to Christ
alone, who had bought him. Let no one seek to get him to serve man or
the flesh, because Jesus had branded him with His mark, and he could
serve no other. Moreover, let men beware how they sought to interfere
with his liberty in Christ, or how they treated him, for his Master
would surely protect His own. Have you those marks? Then you may glory
in them, for such boasting is not vain, and will not make you vain.

Ah, what glory there is in the cross! All the glory of heaven is in that
despised thing. Not in the figure of the cross, but in the cross itself.
The world does not reckon it glory, but then it did not know the Son of
God, and it does not know the Holy Spirit, because it can not see Him.
May God open our eyes to see the glory, so that we may reckon things at
their true value. May we consent to be crucified with Christ, that the
cross may glorify us. In the cross of Christ there is salvation. In it
is the power of God to keep us from falling, for it lifts us up from
earth to heaven. In the cross there is the new creation, which God
Himself pronounces “very good.” In it is all the glory of the Father,
and all the glory of the eternal ages. Therefore God forbid that we
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the
world is crucified to us, and we unto the world.

                    “In the cross of Christ I glory,
                      Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
                    All the light of sacred story
                      Gathers round its head sublime.”

Therefore—

                  “Since I, who was undone and lost,
                    Have pardon through His name and Word;
                  Forbid it, then, that I should boast,
                    Save in the cross of Christ, my Lord.”

                      “Where’er I go, I’ll tell the story
                        Of the cross, of the cross;
                      In nothing else my soul shall glory,
                        Save the cross, save the cross;
                      And this my constant theme shall be,
                      Through time and in eternity,
                      That Jesus tasted death for me,
                        On the cross, on the cross.”



                        BIBLE STUDENTS’ LIBRARY.


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  27 The Bible                                      25        “        ”

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  51 Is Man Immortal?                               50        “        ”

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  68 The Old Testament in the New                   25        “        ”
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  73 Can We Keep the Sabbath?                       25       25       03

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  76 Bible Questions and Answers Concerning         25        “        ”
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  77 The Talents                                    25        “        ”

  79 Baptism: Its Significance                      25        “        ”

  80 Sunday: Origin of Its Observance in the        10     1 50       08
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  81 God’s Message for To-day                       50       25       03

  83 Angels: Their Nature and Ministry               5     1 00       10

  85 Twofold Evidence of Acceptance with God        50       25       03

  86 Justification, Regeneration,                   25        “        ”
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  90 The Bible Doctrine of the Trinity              25        “        ”

  95 From Sabbath to Sunday                         50        “        ”

  97 The Sun of Righteousness                       10     1 00       08

  99 Prediction, Interpretation, Fulfilment         25       25       03

 100 The Rest That Remains for the People of        50        “        ”
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 103 Should Christians Be Members of Secret         25       38       05
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 104 Justified by Faith. By Mrs. E. G. White        25       25       03

 105 The Way to Christ. By Mrs. E. G. White         25        “        ”

 107 Who Changed the Sabbath?                       25       38       05

 108 Life: Its Source and Purpose                   10     1 00        “

 110 Appeal to Methodists                           50       25       03

 111 Tormented Forever and Ever                     25        ”        “

 112 Spiritualism: Its Source and Character         25        ”        “

 114 The Identical Seventh Day                      25        ”        “

 115 Waymarks to the Holy City                      25        ”        “

 117 Prophetic Lights; Illustrated                   5     2 50       19

 118 Christ Tempted as We Are                       25       25       03

 119 The Kingdom of Christ: Its Nature and          25        ”        “
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 121 The Temporal Millennium                        25       38       05

 122 Perfection of the Law of God                   25        ”        “

 124 Manner of Christ’s Coming                      25     0 25     0 03

 125 The Privilege of Prayer                        25        ”        “

 127 Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King            25        ”        “

 128 Christ Our Advocate. _Illustrated_             10     1 00       07

 130 The Seal of God and the Mark of the            25       50       05
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 131 The Sure Word of Prophecy. _Illustrated_       10     1 00        ”

 133 Righteousness                                  25       25       03

 134 The Lord’s Day                                 10     1 50       06

 135 Honor Due to God                               10     1 00        “

 136 The Millennial Age                             25       03

 137 New Testament Sabbath                          25        ”        “

 138 America’s Crisis. _Illustrated_                25       50       05

 140 The Saints’ Inheritance                        10     1 00       07

 143 Truth for the Times                            25       25       03

 144 The Eastern Question                           25        ”        “

 145 Will a Man Rob God?                            10     1 00       08

 146 Rich Man and Lazarus                           25       25       03

 147 Home Missionary Work                           25       50       05

 148 The Sabbath in Prophecy                        25        ”        “

 149 From Glory to Glory                            25       38        ”

 150 Rome’s Arraignment of Sabbath Breakers         25       25       03

 152 The Alarm of War                               25       50       05

 153 The Arming of the Nations                      25     2 50       12

 154 Sabbath in the Greek                           50       25       03

 155 Wonders of the 19th Century                    25       50       05

 156 Spiritual Gifts                                25       62       06

 157 Seal of God and Its Counterfeit                25       50       05

 158 Natural Food of Man                            10     2 50       07

 159 Christian Patriotism                           10     1 50       11

 160 Labor and Money Power                          25       50       05

 161 Marshaling of Nations                          10     1 00       06

 162 The Glad Tidings                                5     1 25



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  30 Knowing and Obeying the Lord                  100        “        ”

  31 Why the Earth Was Made                         50        “        ”

  32 Trine Immersion                                50        “        ”

  33 Scriptural Answers to Worldly Objections      100        “        ”

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  35 The Hope Set before Us                         50        “        ”

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  38 Who Are the Saints?                            50        “        ”

  39 The Seventh, or One-Seventh                    50        “        ”

  40 Coming of the Lord                             50        “        ”

  41 Foreknowledge and Foreordination               50        “        ”

  42 Jesus and the Resurrection                     50        “        ”

  44 Back to the “Old Paths”                        25        “        ”

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  47 The Great Threefold Message                    25        “        ”

  48 “Try The Spirits”                              50        “        ”

  49 Kept by the Power of God                      100        “        ”

  50 Day of the Sabbath                             25        “        ”

  51 Heralds of His Coming                          25       38        “

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  54 Unawares—Ye Did It unto Me                     50        “        ”

  55 Twelve Principles of Holy Living               50        “        ”

  56 There Is Help in God                           50        “        ”

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  59 The Earnest of Our Inheritance                 50        “        ”

  60 A Living Saviour                               50        “        ”

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  62 Return of the Jews                             25       50        “

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                             Thoughts from the
                             Mount of Blessing

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE


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 ● Transcriber’s Notes:
    ○ Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
    ○ Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only
      when a predominant form was found in this book.
    ○ Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
    ○ Notes printed in the margin of the book have been moved into the
      paragraphs near where they appear, contained in square brackets,
      and begun with the word "Sidenote".





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