It is in this liberty, the liberty of Christ, alluding to the free woman
and Jerusalem above, that they were to stand fast, and not put themselves
again under the yoke of the law. If they took that ground they made
themselves responsible to keep it personally and wholly, and Christ was of
no effect to them. They could not rest upon the work of Christ for
righteousness, and then hold themselves responsible to fulfil righteousness
themselves according to the law. The two things contradict each other.
Hence too it would be no longer grace on which they stood. They forsook
grace, in order to satisfy the requirements of the law. This is not the
Christian's position.
Here is the Christian's position. He does not seek for righteousness before
God as a man who does not possess it; he is the righteousness of God in
Christ, and Christ Himself is the measure of that righteousness. The Holy
Ghost dwells in him. Faith rests in this righteousness, even as God rests
in it, and this faith is sustained by the Holy Ghost, who turns the heart
that is established in that righteousness towards the glory that is its
recompense-a recompense which Christ enjoys already, so that we know what
that righteousness deserves. Christ is in the glory due to righteousness,
to the work which He accomplished. We know this righteousness in virtue of
that which He has wrought, because God has owned His work and set Him at
His right hand on high. The glory in which He is is His just reward, and
the proof of that righteousness. The Spirit reveals the glory, and seals to
us that righteousness on which faith builds. It is thus that the apostle
expresses it: "We, through the Spirit, wait for the hope [the hoped-for
glory] of righteousness by faith." To us it is faith, for we have not yet
the thing hoped for-the glory due to that righteousness which is ours.
Christ possesses it, so that we know what we hope for. It is by the Spirit
that we know it, and that we have the assurance of the righteousness which
gives us the title to possess it. It is not righteousness we wait for, but,
by the Spirit in faith, the hope that belongs to it. It is by faith; for in
Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith
working by love. There must be a moral reality.
The apostle's heart is oppressed at the thought of what they were
rejecting, and the mischief this doctrine was doing. It overflows. In the
midst of his argument he interrupts himself. "Ye did run well: who has
hindered you from obeying the truth?" To be so easily persuaded of this
Judaising doctrine, which was but a fatal error, was not the work of Him
who had called them. It was not thus that through grace they had become
Christians. A little leaven corrupted the whole.
Nevertheless the apostle regains his confidence by looking higher. By
resting on the grace which is in Christ towards His own, he can re-assure
himself with regard to the Galatians. He stood in doubt when he thought of
them; he had confidence when he thought of Christ, that they would surely
not be otherwise minded. Thus delivered from the evil by grace, as in the
moral case of the Corinthians, he was ready to punish all disobedience,
when all that knew how to obey had been brought fully back to obedience; so
here also, every heart that was susceptible of the influence of the truth
would be brought back to the power of the truth of Christ; and those who,
active in evil, troubled them by false doctrine, those whose will was
engaged in propagating error, should bear their burden. It is very
beautiful to see the apostle's uneasiness, when he thinks of men-the fruit
moreover of his love for them-and the confidence which he regains as soon
as he lifts up his heart to the Lord. But his abrupt style, his broken and
unconnected words, shew how deeply his heart was engaged. The error that
separated the soul from Christ was to him more terrible than the said
fruits of practical separation. We do not find the same marks of agitation
in the epistle to the Corinthians; here the foundation of everything was in
question. In the case of the Galatians the glory of Christ the Saviour was
at stake, the only thing that could bring a soul into connection with God;
and on the other hand it was a systematic work of Satan to overthrow the
gospel of Christ as needed for the salvation of men.
Here, interrupting himself, he adds, "And I, if I preach circumcision, why
am I persecuted?" It will in fact be seen that the Jews were habitually the
instigators of the persecution which the apostle suffered from the
Gentiles. The spirit of Judaism, as has been the case in all ages, the
religious spirit of the natural man, has been Satan's great instrument in
his opposition to the gospel. If Christ would put His sanction on the
flesh, the world would come to terms and be as religious as you please, and
would value itself upon its devotion. But in that case it would not be the
true Christ. Christ came, a witness that the natural man is lost, wicked,
and without hope, dead in his trespasses and sins; that redemption is
necessary, and a new man. He came in grace, but it was because man was
incapable of being restored; and consequently all must be pure grace and
emanate from God. If Christ would have to do with the old man, all would be
well; but, I repeat, He would no longer be Christ. The world then, the old
man, does not endure Him. But there is a conscience, there is a felt need
of religion, there is the prestige of an ancient religion held from one's
fathers; true perhaps in its original foundations, although perverted. Thus
the prince of the world will use carnal religion to excite the flesh, the
ready enemy, when once awakened, of the spiritual religion which pronounces
sentence upon it.
It is only to add something to Christ. But what? If it is not Christ and
the new man, it is the old man, it is sinful man; and, instead of a needed
and accomplished redemption, and an entirely new life from above, you have
a testimony that agreement between the two is possible; that grace is not
necessary, except at most as a little help; that man is not already lost
and dead in his trespasses and sins, that the flesh is not essentially and
absolutely evil. Thus the name of Christ is made subservient to the flesh,
which willingly adorns itself with the credit of His name, in order to
destroy the gospel from its very foundations. Only preach circumcision,
accept the religion of the flesh, and all difficulty will cease; the world
will accept your gospel, but it will not be the gospel of Christ. The cross
in itself (that is, the total ruin of man-man proved to be the enemy of
God), and perfect finished redemption by grace, will always be a
stumbling-block to one who desires to maintain some credit for the flesh.
"Would to God," says the apostle-for he sees the whole gospel falling into
ruin before this device, and souls destroyed-"would to God that they who
trouble you were cut off!" What have we seen since then? Where is the holy
indignation of the apostle?
He then touches on the point of the practical consequences of this
doctrine, and explains how the doctrine of perfect grace was connected,
without the law, with a walk worthy of the people of God. Ye have then been
called, he says, unto liberty: only use not your liberty for an occasion to
the flesh-which the flesh would readily do. God gave the law to convince of
sin; the flesh would use it to work out righteousness. He acts in grace,
that we may be above sin and outside its dominion: the flesh would use
grace as an occasion to sin without restraint. The Christian, truly free
from the yoke of sin, as well as from its condemnation (for Christ risen is
his life as well as his righteousness, and the Spirit is the power and
guide of his walk towards glory, and according to Christ), instead of
serving his lusts, seeks to serve others, as free to do it in love. Thus
the law itself is fulfilled, without our being under its yoke: for the
whole practical law is summed up in this word: "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself."
If, yielding to the flesh, and attacking those who were not circumcised,
they devoured one another, they were to take heed that they were not
consumed one of another. But the apostle would give something more
positive. "This I say then," he continues, after the interruption of his
subject, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the
flesh." It is not by putting oneself under the law that one has power
against sin. It is the Spirit (given in virtue of the ascension of Christ
our righteousness, to the right hand of God) who is the Christian's
strength. Now the two powers, the flesh and the Spirit, are antagonistic.
The flesh strives to hinder us when we would walk according to the Spirit,
and the Spirit resists the working of the flesh to prevent it from
accomplishing its will.[see note #5]
But if we are led of the Spirit, we are not under the law. Holiness, true
holiness, is accomplished without the law, even as righteousness is not
founded on it. 'Nor is there any difficulty in judging between what is of
the flesh and what is of the Spirit; the apostle enumerates the sad fruits
of the former, adding the sure testimony that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The fruits of the Spirit are equally
evident in their character, and assuredly against such things there was no
law. If we walk according to the Spirit, the law will find nothing to
condemn in us. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh and its
lusts. This is what they are, inasmuch as they are Christians; it is that
which distinguishes them. If these Galatians really lived, it was in the
Spirit: let them then walk in the Spirit.
