Galatians 3

Ga 3:1-29.

REPROOF OF THE

GALATIANS FOR

ABANDONING

FAITH FOR

LEGALISM.

JUSTIFICATION BY

FAITH

VINDICATED:

THE

LAW

SHOWN TO

BE

SUBSEQUENT TO THE

PROMISE:

BELIEVERS

ARE THE

SPIRITUAL

SEED OF

ABRAHAM,

WHO

WAS

JUSTIFIED BY

FAITH.

THE

LAW

WAS

OUR

SCHOOLMASTER TO

BRING

US TO

CHRIST, THAT

WE

MIGHT

BECOME

CHILDREN OF

GOD BY

FAITH.

1. that ye should not obey the truth--omitted in the oldest

manuscripts.

bewitched--fascinated you so that you have lost your wits.

THEMISTIUS

says the Galatians were naturally very acute in intellect. Hence, Paul

wonders they could be so misled in this case.

you--emphatical. "You, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been

graphically set forth (literally, in writing, namely, by vivid

portraiture in preaching) among you, crucified" (so the sense

and Greek order require rather than English Version). As

Christ was "crucified," so ye ought to have been by faith

"crucified with Christ," and so "dead to the law"

(Ga 2:19, 20).

Reference to the "eyes" is appropriate, as fascination was

supposed to be exercised through the eyes. The sight of Christ

crucified ought to have been enough to counteract all fascination.

2. "Was it by the works of the law that ye received the Spirit

(manifested by outward miracles,

Ga 3:5;

Mr 16:17;

Heb 2:4;

and by spiritual graces,

Ga 3:14;

Ga 4:5, 6;

Eph 1:13),

or by the hearing of faith?" The "only" implies, "I desire, omitting

other arguments, to rest the question on this alone"; I who was

your teacher, desire now to "learn" this one thing from you. The

epithet "Holy" is not prefixed to "Spirit" because that epithet is a

joyous one, whereas this Epistle is stern and reproving [BENGEL].

hearing of faith--Faith consists not in working, but in

receiving

(Ro 10:16, 17).

3. begun--the Christian life

(Php 1:6).

in the Spirit--Not merely was Christ crucified "graphically set

forth" in my preaching, but also "the Spirit" confirmed the word

preached, by imparting His spiritual gifts. "Having thus begun" with the

receiving His spiritual gifts, "are ye now being made perfect"

(so the Greek), that is, are ye seeking to be made perfect with

"fleshly" ordinances of the law? [ESTIUS]. Compare

Ro 2:28;

Php 3:3;

Heb 9:10.

Having begun in the Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit ruling your

spiritual life as its "essence and active principle" [ELLICOTT], in contrast to "the flesh," the element in

which the law works [ALFORD]. Having begun your

Christianity in the Spirit, that is, in the divine life that proceeds

from faith, are ye seeking after something higher still (the perfecting

of your Christianity) in the sensuous and the earthly, which cannot

possibly elevate the inner life of the Spirit, namely, outward

ceremonies? [NEANDER]. No doubt the Galatians

thought that they were going more deeply into the Spirit; for the flesh

may be easily mistaken for the Spirit, even by those who have made

progress, unless they continue to maintain a pure faith [BENGEL].

4. Have ye suffered so many things--namely, persecution from Jews and

from unbelieving fellow countrymen, incited by the Jews, at the time of

your conversion.

in vain--fruitlessly, needlessly, since ye might have avoided them

lose the reward promised for all your sufferings, so that they shall be

"in vain"

(Ga 4:11;

1Co 15:2, 17-19, 29-32;

2Th 1:5-7;

2Jo 8)?

yet--rather, "If it be really (or 'indeed') in vain"

[ELLICOTT].

"If, as it must be, what I have said, 'in vain,' is really the fact"

[ALFORD]. I prefer understanding it as a mitigation of the preceding

words. I hope better things of you, for I trust you will return from

legalism to grace; if so, as I confidently expect, you will not have

"suffered so many things in vain" [ESTIUS]. For "God has given you the

Spirit and has wrought mighty works among you"

(Ga 3:5;

Heb 10:32-36)

[BENGEL].

5. He . . . that ministereth--or "supplieth," God

(2Co 9:10).

He who supplied and supplies to you the Spirit still, to

the present time. These miracles do not prove grace to be in the heart

(Mr 9:38, 39).

He speaks of these miracles as a matter of unquestioned

notoriety among those addressed; an undesigned proof of their

genuineness (compare

1Co 12:1-31).

worketh miracles among you--rather, "IN you," as

Ga 2:8;

Mt 14:2;

Eph 2:2;

Php 2:13;

at your conversion and since [ALFORD].

doeth he it by the works of the law--that is, as a consequence

resulting from (so the Greek) the works of the law

(compare

Ga 3:2).

This cannot be because the law was then unknown to you when you

received those gifts of the Spirit.

6. The answer to the question in

Ga 3:5

is here taken for granted, It was by the hearing of faith:

following this up, he says, "Even as Abraham believed," &c.

(Ge 15:4-6;

Ro 4:3).

God supplies unto you the Spirit as the result of faith, not works,

just as Abraham obtained justification by faith, not by works

(Ga 3:6, 8, 16;

Ga 4:22, 26, 28).

Where justification is, there the Spirit is, so that if the former

comes by faith, the latter must also.

7. they which are of faith--as the source and starting-point of their

spiritual life. The same phrase is in the Greek of

Ro 3:26.

the same--these, and these alone, to the exclusion of all the

other descendants of Abraham.

children--Greek, "sons"

(Ga 3:29).

8. And--Greek, "Moreover."

foreseeing--One great excellency of Scripture is, that in it all

points liable ever to be controverted, are, with prescient wisdom,

decided in the most appropriate language.

would justify--rather, "justifieth." Present indicative. It is now,

and at all times, God's one way of justification.

the heathen--rather, "the Gentiles"; or "the nations," as the same

Greek is translated at the end of the verse. God justifieth the

Jews, too, "by faith, not by works." But he specifies the Gentiles in particular here, as it was their case that was in question, the

Galatians being Gentiles.

preached before the gospel--"announced beforehand the Gospel." For

the "promise" was substantially the Gospel by anticipation. Compare

Joh 8:56;

Heb 4:2.

A proof that "the old fathers did not look only for transitory

promises" [Article VII, Church of England]. Thus the Gospel, in its

essential germ, is older than the law though the full development of

the former is subsequent to the latter.

In thee--not "in thy seed," which is a point not here raised; but

strictly "in thee," as followers of thy faith, it having first shown the

way to justification before God [ALFORD]; or "in thee," as Father of the

promised seed, namely, Christ

(Ga 3:16),

who is the Object of faith

(Ge 22:18;

Ps 72:17),

and imitating thy faith (see on

Ga 3:9).

all nations--or as above, "all the Gentiles"

(Ge 12:3; 18:18; 22:18).

be blessed--an act of grace, not something earned by works. The

blessing of justification was to Abraham by faith in the promise, not by

works. So to those who follow Abraham, the father of the faithful, the

blessing, that is, justification, comes purely by faith in Him who is

the subject of the promise.

9. they--and they alone.

of faith--(See on

Ga 3:7,

beginning).

with--together with.

faithful--implying what it is in which they are "blessed together with

him," namely, faith, the prominent feature of his character, and of

which the result to all who like him have it, is justification.

10. Confirmation of

Ga 3:9.

They who depend on the works of the law cannot share the blessing, for

they are under the curse "written,"

De 27:26,

Septuagint. PERFECT obedience is

required by the words, "in all things." CONTINUAL

obedience by the word, "continueth." No man renders this

obedience (compare

Ro 3:19, 20).

It is observable, Paul quotes Scripture to the Jews who were conversant

with it, as in Epistle to the Hebrews, as said or spoken;

but to the Gentiles, as written. So Matthew, writing for Jews,

quotes it as "said," or "spoken"; Mark and Luke, writing for Gentiles,

as "written"

(Mt 1:22;

Mr 1:2;

Lu 2:22, 23)

[TOWNSON].

11. by the law--Greek, "IN the law."

Both in and by are included. The syllogism in this verse

and

Ga 3:12,

is, according to Scripture, "The just shall live by faith." But the law

is not of faith, but of doing, or works (that is, does not make faith,

but works, the conditional ground of justifying). Therefore "in," or

before men,

Ro 4:2)

--not even if he could, which he cannot, keep the law, because the

Scripture element and conditional mean of justification is

faith.

The just shall live by faith--

(Ro 1:17;

Hab 2:4).

Not as BENGEL and ALFORD, "He

who is just by faith shall live." The Greek supports English

Version. Also the contrast is between "live by faith"

(namely, as the ground and source of his justification), and "live

in them," namely, in his doings or works

(Ga 3:12),

as the conditional element wherein he is justified.

12. doeth--Many depended on the law although they did not keep it; but

without doing, saith Paul, it is of no use to them

(Ro 2:13, 17, 23; 10:5).

13. Abrupt exclamation, as he breaks away impatiently from those

who would involve us again in the curse of the law, by seeking

justification in it, to "Christ," who "has redeemed us from its

curse." The "us" refers primarily to the Jews, to whom the law

principally appertained, in contrast to "the Gentiles"

(Ga 3:14;

compare

Ga 4:3, 4).

But it is not restricted solely to the Jews, as ALFORD thinks; for these are the representative people of

the world at large, and their "law" is the embodiment of what God

requires of the whole world. The curse of its non-fulfilment affects

the Gentiles through the Jews; for the law represents that

righteousness which God requires of all, and which, since the Jews

failed to fulfil, the Gentiles are equally unable to fulfil.

Ga 3:10,

"As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse," refers

plainly, not to the Jews only, but to all, even Gentiles (as the

Galatians), who seek justification by the law. The Jews' law represents

the universal law which condemned the Gentiles, though with less clear

consciousness on their part

(Ro 2:1-29).

The revelation of God's "wrath" by the law of conscience, in some

degree prepared the Gentiles for appreciating redemption through Christ

when revealed. The curse had to be removed from off the heathen, too,

as well as the Jews, in order that the blessing, through Abraham, might

flow to them. Accordingly, the "we," in "that we might receive

the promise of the Spirit," plainly refers to both Jews and Gentiles.

redeemed us--bought us off from our former bondage

(Ga 4:5),

and "from the curse" under which all lie who trust to the law and the

works of the law for justification. The Gentile Galatians, by putting

themselves under the law, were involving themselves in the curse from

which Christ has redeemed the Jews primarily, and through them the

Gentiles. The ransom price He paid was His own precious blood

(1Pe 1:18, 19;

compare

Mt 20:28;

Ac 20:28;

1Co 6:20; 7:23;

1Ti 2:6;

2Pe 2:1;

Re 5:9).

being made--Greek, "having become."

a curse for us--Having become what we were, in our behalf, "a

curse," that we might cease to be a curse. Not merely accursed (in

the concrete), but a curse in the abstract,

bearing the universal curse of the whole human race. So

2Co 5:21,

"Sin for us," not sinful, but bearing the whole sin of our race,

regarded as one vast aggregate of sin. See Note there. "Anathema"

means "set apart to God," to His glory, but to the person's own

destruction. "Curse," an execration.

written--

(De 21:23).

Christ's bearing the particular curse of hanging on the tree, is

a sample of the "general" curse which He representatively bore. Not

that the Jews put to death malefactors by hanging; but after

having put them to death otherwise, in order to brand them with

peculiar ignominy, they hung the bodies on a tree, and such

malefactors were accursed by the law (compare

Ac 5:30; 10:39).

God's providence ordered it so that to fulfil the prophecy of the curse

and other prophecies, Jesus should be crucified, and so hang on

the tree, though that death was not a Jewish mode of execution. The

Jews accordingly, in contempt, call Him Tolvi, "the

hanged one," and Christians, "worshippers of the hanged one";

and make it their great objection that He died the accursed death

[TRYPHO, in Justin Martyr, p. 249]

(1Pe 2:24).

Hung between heaven and earth as though unworthy of either!

14. The intent of "Christ becoming a curse for us"; "To the end that

upon the Gentiles the blessing of Abraham (that is, promised to Abraham, namely, justification by faith) might come in Christ Jesus"

(compare

Ga 3:8).

that we might receive the promise of the Spirit--the promised Spirit

(Joe 2:28, 29;

Lu 24:49).

This clause follows not the clause immediately preceding (for our

receiving the Spirit is not the result of the blessing of

Abraham coming on the Gentiles), but "Christ hath redeemed us," &c.

through faith--not by works. Here he resumes the thought in

Ga 3:2.

"The Spirit from without, kindles within us some spark of faith Whereby

we lay hold of Christ, and even of the Spirit Himself, that He may

dwell within us" [FLACIUS].

15. I speak after the manner of men--I take an illustration from a

merely human transaction of everyday occurrence.

but a man's covenant--whose purpose it is far less important to

maintain.

if it be confirmed--when once it hath been ratified.

no man disannulleth--"none setteth aside," not even the author

himself, much less any second party. None does so who acts in common

equity. Much less would the righteous God do so. The law is here,

subsequent to, the promise of God. The promise is everlasting, and

more peculiarly belongs to God. The law is regarded as something

extraneous, afterwards introduced, exceptional and temporary

(Ga 3:17-19, 21-24).

addeth--None addeth new conditions "making" the covenant "of none

effect"

(Ga 3:17).

So legal Judaism could make no alteration in the fundamental relation

between God and man, already established by the promises to Abraham; it

could not add as a new condition the observance of the law, in which

case the fulfilment of the promise would be attached to a condition

impossible for man to perform. The "covenant" here is one of free

grace, a promise afterwards carried into effect in the

Gospel.

16. This verse is parenthetical. The covenant of promise was not

"spoken" (so Greek for "made") to Abraham alone, but "to Abraham and

his seed"; to the latter especially; and this means Christ (and that

which is inseparable from Him, the literal Israel, and

the spiritual, His body, the Church). Christ not having come when

the law was given, the covenant could not have been then fulfilled, but

awaited the coming of Him, the Seed, to whom it was spoken.

promises--plural, because the same promise was often repeated

(Ge 12:3, 7; 15:5, 18; 17:7; 22:18),

and because it involved many things; earthly blessings to the literal

children of Abraham in Canaan, and spiritual and heavenly blessings to

his spiritual children; but both promised to Christ, "the Seed" and

representative Head of the literal and spiritual Israel alike. In the

spiritual seed there is no distinction of Jew or Greek; but to

the literal seed, the promises still in part remain to be fulfilled

(Ro 11:26).

The covenant was not made with "many" seeds (which if there had been, a

pretext might exist for supposing there was one seed before the law,

another under the law; and that those sprung from one seed, say the

Jewish, are admitted on different terms, and with a higher degree of

acceptability, than those sprung from the Gentile seed), but with the

one seed; therefore, the promise that in Him "all the families of the

earth shall be blessed"

(Ge 12:3),

joins in this one Seed, Christ, Jew and Gentile, as fellow heirs on the

same terms of acceptability, namely, by grace through faith

(Ro 4:13);

not to some by promise, to others by the law, but to all alike,

circumcised and uncircumcised, constituting but one seed in Christ

(Ro 4:16).

The law, on the other hand, contemplates the Jews and Gentiles as

distinct seeds. God makes a covenant, but it is one of promise; whereas

the law is a covenant of works. Whereas the law brings in a mediator, a

third party

(Ga 3:19, 20),

God makes His covenant of promise with the one seed, Christ

(Ge 17:7),

and embraces others only as they are identified with, and represented

one . . . Christ--not in the exclusive sense, the man Christ

Jesus, but "Christ" (Jesus is not added, which would limit the meaning),

including His people who are part of Himself, the Second Adam,

and Head of redeemed humanity.

Ga 3:28, 29

prove this, "Ye are all ONE in Christ Jesus"

(Jesus is added here as the person is indicated). "And if ye be

Christ's, ye are Abraham's SEED, heirs according

to the promise."

17. this I say--"this is what I mean," by what I said in

Ga 3:15.

continued . . . of God--"ratified by God"

(Ga 3:15).

in Christ--rather, "unto Christ" (compare

Ga 3:16).

However, Vulgate and the old Italian versions translate as

English Version. But the oldest manuscripts omit the words

altogether.

the law which was--Greek, "which came into existence four hundred

thirty years after"

(Ex 12:40, 41).

He does not, as in the case of "the covenant," add "enacted by

God"

(Joh 1:17).

The dispensation of "the promise" began with the call of Abraham from

Ur into Canaan, and ended on the last night of his grandson Jacob's

sojourn in Canaan, the land of promise. The dispensation of the

law, which engenders bondage, was beginning to draw on from the time of

his entrance into Egypt, the land of bondage. It was to Christ in him,

as in his grandfather Abraham, and his father Isaac, not to him or them

as persons, the promise was spoken. On the day following the last

repetition of the promise orally

(Ge 46:1-6),

at Beer-sheba, Israel passed into Egypt. It is from the end, not from

the beginning of the dispensation of promise, that the interval of four

hundred thirty years between it and the law is to be counted. At

Beer-sheba, after the covenant with Abimelech, Abraham called on the

everlasting God, and the well was confirmed to him and his seed as an

everlasting possession. Here God appeared to Isaac. Here Jacob

received the promise of the blessing, for which God had called Abraham

out of Ur, repeated for the last time, on the last night of his sojourn

in the land of promise.

cannot--Greek, "doth not disannul."

make . . . of none effect--The promise would become

so, if the power of conferring the inheritance be transferred from it

to the law

(Ro 4:14).

18. the inheritance--all the blessings to be inherited by Abraham's

literal and spiritual children, according to the promise made to him and

to his Seed, Christ, justification and glorification

(Ga 4:7;

Ro 8:17;

1Co 6:9).

but God, &c.--The Greek order requires rather, "But to Abraham

it was by promise that God hath given it." The conclusion is,

Therefore the inheritance is not of, or from the law

(Ro 4:14).

19. "Wherefore then serveth the law?" as it is of no avail for

justification, is it either useless, or contrary to the covenant of God?

[CALVIN].

added--to the original covenant of promise. This is not

inconsistent with

Ga 3:15,

"No man addeth thereto"; for there the kind of addition meant,

and therefore denied, is one that would add new conditions,

inconsistent with the grace of the covenant of promise. The law, though

misunderstood by the Judaizers as doing so, was really added for a

different purpose, namely, "because of (or as the Greek, 'for

the sake of') the transgressions," that is, to bring out into clearer

view the transgressions of it

(Ro 7:7-9);

to make men more fully conscious of their "sins," by being perceived as

transgressions of the law, and so to make them long for the

promised Saviour. This accords with

Ga 3:23, 24;

Ro 4:15.

The meaning can hardly be "to check transgressions," for the law

rather stimulates the corrupt heart to disobey it

(Ro 5:20; 7:13).

till the seed--during the period up to the time when the seed

came. The law was a preparatory dispensation for the Jewish nation

(Ro 5:20;

Greek, "the law came in additionally and

incidentally"), intervening between the promise and its

fulfilment in Christ.

come--(Compare "faith came,"

Ga 3:23).

the promise--

(Ro 4:21).

ordained--Greek, "constituted" or "disposed."

[ALFORD] God

delegated the law to angels as something rather alien to Him and severe

(Ac 7:53;

Heb 2:2, 3;

compare

De 33:2,

"He came with ten thousands of saints," that is, angels,

Ps 68:17).

He reserved "the promise" to Himself and dispensed it according to His

own goodness.

in the hand of a mediator--namely, Moses.

De 5:5,

"I stood between the Lord and you": the very definition of a

mediator. Hence the phrase often recurs, "By the hand of Moses." In the

giving of the law, the "angels" were representatives of God; Moses, as

mediator, represented the people.

20. "Now a mediator cannot be of one (but must be of two parties

whom he mediates between);

but God is one" (not two: owing to His

essential unity not admitting of an intervening party between Him

and those to be blessed; but as the ONE Sovereign, His own

representative, giving the blessing directly by promise to

Abraham, and, in its fulfilment, to Christ, "the Seed," without new

condition, and without a mediator such as the law had). The conclusion

understood is, Therefore a mediator cannot appertain to God; and

consequently, the law, with its inseparable appendage of a mediator,

cannot be the normal way of dealing of God, the one, and unchangeable

God, who dealt with Abraham by direct promise, as a sovereign, not

as one forming a compact with another party, with conditions and a

mediator attached thereto. God would bring man into immediate communion

with Him, and not have man separated from Him by a mediator that keeps

back from access, as Moses and the legal priesthood did

(Ex 19:12, 13, 17, 21-24;

Heb 12:19-24).

The law that thus interposed a mediator and conditions between man and

God, was an exceptional state limited to the Jews, and parenthetically

preparatory to the Gospel, God's normal mode of dealing, as He dealt

with Abraham, namely, face to face directly; by promise

and grace, and not conditions; to all nations united by

faith in the one seed

(Eph 2:14, 16, 18),

and not to one people to the exclusion and severance from the ONE common Father, of all other nations. It is no

objection to this view, that the Gospel, too, has a mediator

(1Ti 2:5).

For Jesus is not a mediator separating the two parties in the covenant

of promise or grace, as Moses did, but ONE in both

nature and office with both God and man (compare "God in

Christ,"

Ga 3:17):

representing the whole universal manhood

(1Co 15:22, 45, 47),

and also bearing in Him "all the fulness of the Godhead." Even His

mediatorial office is to cease when its purpose of reconciling all

things to God shall have been accomplished

(1Co 15:24);

and God's ONENESS

(Zec 14:9),

as "all in all," shall be fully manifested. Compare

Joh 1:17,

where the two mediators--Moses, the severing mediator of legal

conditions, and Jesus, the uniting mediator of grace--are contrasted.

The Jews began their worship by reciting the Schemah, opening

thus, "Jehovah our God is ONE Jehovah"; which

words their Rabbis (as JARCHIUS) interpret as

teaching not only the unity of God, but the future universality of

His Kingdom on earth

(Zep 3:9).

Paul

(Ro 3:30)

infers the same truth from the ONENESS of God

(compare

Eph 4:4-6).

He, as being One, unites all believers, without distinction, to Himself

(Ga 3:8, 16, 28;

Eph 1:10; 2:14;

compare

Heb 2:11)

in direct communion. The unity of God involves the unity of the people

of God, and also His dealing directly without intervention of a

mediator.

21. "Is the law (which involves a mediator) against the promises

of God (which are without a mediator, and rest on God alone and

immediately)? God forbid."

life--The law, as an externally prescribed rule, can never internally

impart spiritual life to men naturally dead in sin, and change the

disposition. If the law had been a law capable of giving life, "verily (in very reality, and not in the mere fancy of legalists)

righteousness would have been by the law (for where life is, there

righteousness, its condition, must also be)." But the law does not

pretend to give life, and therefore not righteousness; so there is

no opposition between the law and the promise. Righteousness can only

come through the promise to Abraham, and through its fulfilment in the

Gospel of grace.

22. But--as the law cannot give life or righteousness

[ALFORD]. Or

the "But" means, So far is righteousness from being of the law, that

the knowledge of sin is rather what comes of the law [BENGEL].

the scripture--which began to be written after the time of the promise,

at the time when the law was given. The written letter was needed SO

as PERMANENTLY to convict man of disobedience to God's command.

Therefore he says, "the Scripture," not the "Law." Compare

Ga 3:8,

"Scripture," for "the God of the Scripture."

concluded--"shut up," under condemnation, as in a prison. Compare

Isa 24:22,

"As prisoners gathered in the pit and shut up in the prison."

Beautifully contrasted with "the liberty wherewith Christ makes free,"

which follows,

Ga 3:7, 9, 25, 26; 5:1;

Isa 61:1.

all--Greek neuter, "the universe of things": the whole

world, man, and all that appertains to him.

under sin--

(Ro 3:9, 19; 11:32).

the promise--the inheritance promised

(Ga 3:18).

might be given--The emphasis is on "given": that it might be a free

gift; not something earned by the works of the law

(Ro 6:23).

to them that believe--to them that have "the faith of (in) Jesus

Christ" just spoken of.

23. faith--namely, that just mentioned

(Ga 3:22),

of which Christ is the object.

kept--Greek, "kept in ward": the effect of the "shutting up"

(Ga 3:22;

Ga 4:2;

Ro 7:6).

unto--"with a view to the faith," &c. We were, in a manner, morally

forced to it, so that there remained to us no refuge but faith. Compare

the phrase,

Ps 78:50,

Margin;

Ps 31:8.

which should afterwards, &c.--"which was afterwards to be revealed."

24. "So that the law hath been (that is, hath

turned out to be) our schoolmaster

(or "tutor," literally, "pedagogue": this term, among the Greeks, meant

a faithful servant entrusted with the care of the boy from childhood to

puberty, to keep him from evil, physical and moral, and accompany him

to his amusements and studies) to guide us unto Christ," with whom we

are no longer "shut up" in bondage, but are freemen. "Children"

(literally, infants) need such tutoring

(Ga 4:3).

might be--rather, "that we may be justified by faith"; which we

could not be till Christ, the object of faith, had come. Meanwhile the

law, by outwardly checking the sinful propensity which was constantly

giving fresh proof of its refractoriness--as thus the consciousness of

the power of the sinful principle became more vivid, and hence the sense

of need both of forgiveness of sin and freedom from its bondage was

awakened--the law became a "schoolmaster to guide us unto Christ"

[NEANDER]. The moral law shows us what we ought to do, and so we

learn our inability to do it. In the ceremonial law we seek, by

animal sacrifices, to answer for our not having done it, but find dead

victims no satisfaction for the sins of living men, and that outward

purifying will not cleanse the soul; and that therefore we need an

infinitely better Sacrifice, the antitype of all the legal sacrifices.

Thus delivered up to the judicial law, we see how awful is the doom

we deserve: thus the law at last leads us to Christ, with whom we find

righteousness and peace. "Sin, sin! is the word heard again and

again in the Old Testament. Had it not there for centuries rung in the

ear, and fastened on the conscience, the joyful sound, "grace for

grace," would not have been the watchword of the New Testament. This was

the end of the whole system of sacrifices" [THOLUCK].

25. "But now that faith is come," &c. Moses the lawgiver cannot

bring us into the heavenly Canaan though he can bring us to the border

of it. At that point he is superseded by Joshua, the type of Jesus, who

leads the true Israel into their inheritance. The law leads us to

Christ, and there its office ceases.

26. children--Greek, "sons."

alike) are no longer "children" requiring a tutor, but SONS

emancipated and walking at liberty.

27. baptized into Christ--

(Ro 6:3).

have put on Christ--Ye did, in that very act of being

baptized into Christ, put on, or clothe yourselves with, Christ:

so the Greek expresses. Christ is to you the toga virilis

(the Roman garment of the full-grown man, assumed when ceasing to be a

child)

[BENGEL].

GATAKER defines a Christian, "One who has put on

Christ." The argument is, By baptism ye have put on Christ; and

therefore, He being the Son of God, ye become sons by adoption, by

virtue of His Sonship by generation. This proves that baptism, where

it answers to its ideal, is not a mere empty sign, but a means of

spiritual transference from the state of legal condemnation to that of

living union with Christ, and of sonship through Him in relation to God

(Ro 13:14).

Christ alone can, by baptizing with His Spirit, make the inward grace

correspond to the outward sign. But as He promises the blessing in the

faithful use of the means, the Church has rightly presumed, in charity,

that such is the case, nothing appearing to the contrary.

28. There is in this sonship by faith in Christ, no class privileged

above another, as the Jews under the law had been above the Gentiles

(Ro 10:12;

1Co 12:13;

Col 3:11).

bond nor free--Christ alike belongs to both by faith; whence he

puts "bond" before "free." Compare Note, see on

1Co 7:21, 22;

Eph 6:8.

neither male nor female--rather, as Greek, "there is

not male and female." There is no distinction into male

and female. Difference of sex makes no difference in Christian

privileges. But under the law the male sex had great privileges. Males

alone had in their body circumcision, the sign of the covenant

(contrast baptism applied to male and female alike); they alone

were capable of being kings and priests, whereas all of either sex are

now "kings and priests unto God"

(Re 1:6);

they had prior right to inheritances. In the resurrection the relation

of the sexes shall cease

(Lu 20:35).

one--Greek, "one man"; masculine, not neuter, namely "one new

man" in Christ

(Eph 2:15).

29. and heirs--The oldest manuscripts omit "and." Christ is "Abraham's

seed"

(Ga 3:16):

ye are "one in Christ"

(Ga 3:28),

and one with Christ, as having "put on Christ"

(Ga 3:27);

therefore YE are "Abraham's seed," which is

tantamount to saying (whence the "and" is omitted), ye are "heirs

according to the promise" (not "by the law,"

Ga 3:18);

for it was to Abraham's seed that the inheritance was promised

(Ga 3:16).

Thus he arrives at the same truth which he set out with

(Ga 3:7).

But one new "seed" of a righteous succession could be found. One single

faultless grain of human nature was found by God Himself, the source of

a new and imperishable seed: "the seed"

(Ps 22:30)

who receive from Him a new nature and name

(Ge 3:15;

Isa 53:10, 11;

Joh 12:24).

In Him the lineal descent from David becomes extinct. He died without

posterity. But He lives and shall reign on David's throne. No one has a

legal claim to sit upon it but Himself, He being the only living direct

representative

(Eze 21:27).

His spiritual seed derive their birth from the travail of His soul,

being born again of His word, which is the incorruptible seed

(Joh 1:12;

Ro 9:8;

1Pe 1:23).