Class _J3S2M.r 
 Rnnk '■ 35 
 
 Gopiglit^i" „ 
 
 COPVRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 A NEW AND CONCISE COMMENTARY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 EPISTLE 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. GEORGE SAYLES BISHOP, D.D. 
 
 Pastor Emeritus of the First Reformed Church of Orange, N. J. 
 
 Author of "The Doctrines of Grace," ** Shut up to Faith," 
 " The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit," etc. 
 
 GOSPEL PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 BIBLE SCHOOL PARK, NEW YORK 
 1912 
 
^^ 
 
 ^fo«>^ 
 
 -^^ 
 
 Copyright, 1912, by 
 GOSPEL PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
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 ©C1.A346675 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The Epistle to the Galatians speaks most em- 
 phatically to the ^^ Drift of the Times." The 
 Hammer of the Reformation — the grand 
 Breakwater against the apostatizing spirit of 
 the Apostolic Era, it again sounds to us and 
 to the twentieth century, as with a clarion 
 voice, the note of warning and alarm: '^Let him 
 that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. ' * 
 
 The point of the Epistle is Disloyalty to 
 truth already known. A worse thing this, 
 than immorality and license, since it is the evil 
 spring of both. The contrast here is empha- 
 sized by the Epistles to the Corinthians, a 
 church where lawlessness prevailed, incest had 
 been condoned and strifes and divisions were 
 in evidence. The Corinthians had gone the 
 length of profaning the Holy Communion by 
 eating as if the Bread were common bread and 
 by drinking to intoxication from the sacred Cup. 
 They had altogether failed to discern the 
 Lord's Body in its mystical and spiritual man- 
 ifestation and communication to their souls; 
 yet, in spite of all this disorder and lawless- 
 ness, St. Paul addresses them in terms of con- 
 fidence and tender affection as ^^ Sanctified in 
 Christ''— as '^called unto the fellowship of His 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 Son Jesus Christ" — as *^ standing fast in the 
 Gospel." 
 
 Here, however, there is nothing of the sort. 
 The apostle speaks with a coldness and reserve 
 nowhere else to be found in all his epistles. 
 God is patient with ignorance, but not with dis- 
 loyalty. He can be lenient to a licentious 
 Corinthian only just emancipated from terri- 
 ble moral conditions — one who holds the truth 
 so far as he has received it, but with much 
 inconsistency of character and conduct. On 
 the other hand. He cannot and He will not tol- 
 erate a set and determined departure from the 
 ''faith once for all (hapax), delivered unto the 
 saints." The renunciation of the true doctrine 
 once known and received, is rife with every 
 fatal consequence. God is patient with the 
 want of light but not with trifling with the light 
 once given. 
 
 The Epistle to the Galatians is a recall. 
 The Church must go back to the Old Gospel. 
 She must cease tampering with the Word of 
 God. She must cease from ''Revisions" which 
 mean excisions, and from renderings which ob- 
 scure and falsify the text. She must refuse to 
 follow the lacunae of the Vatican MS., and 
 the corruptions of the Latin Vulgate, incor- 
 porated by interested men in new editions of 
 the Sacred Scriptures undertaken as financial 
 ventures bidding for the favor of all denom- 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 inations whether orthodox or not. The hour 
 and moment have come for a halt — for a reecho 
 of the prophetic admonition: ^^Thns saith the 
 Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask 
 for the old paths where is the good way and 
 walk therein and ye shall find rest for your 
 sonls." The nnrest, fever, superficiality and 
 headlong reckless haste of the present '^down 
 grade" in religion can only he met and checked 
 by a powerful restatement, with a burning con- 
 viction behind it, of those twin and fundamen- 
 tal truths : The bottomless depravity and help- 
 lessness of fallen man; and the absoluteness of 
 the sovereignty in grace that saves him. 
 
 The Church must go back to the Old Gospel. 
 This is the challenge of God to the generation 
 in which we now live. The Church must go 
 back: she must say once more, **God forbid that 
 I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ!" She must hold up again the 
 Eighteousness of Christ as the only covering, 
 shelter, and refuge of a naked, guilty, shelter- 
 less, despairing soul. 
 
 '^The clearness of the testimony is spoiled," 
 says Spurgeon, *'when doubtful voices are 
 scattered among the people, and those who 
 ought to preach the truth, the whole truth, and 
 nothing but the truth, are telling out for doc- 
 trines the imaginations of men, and the inven- 
 tions of the age. Instead of revelation, we 
 
PREFACE 
 
 have philosophy falsely so-called; instead of 
 Divine infallibility we have surmises and larger 
 hopes. The Gospel of Jesus Christ which is 
 the same yesterday, to-day and forever, is 
 taught as the production of progress, a growth, 
 a thing to be corrected and amended year by 
 year. It is a time of liberality — of broad 
 views — of boundless Catholicity — of rapid 
 drifting from the settled and the true. Let us 
 cease, say men, to wait for a new birth: it is 
 too long a process. Let us abolish the separa- 
 tion between the regenerate and the unregen- 
 erate — between the flesh and the spirit. Come 
 into the Church, all of you, converted or un- 
 converted. You have good wishes and resolu- 
 tions ; that will do : do not trouble about more. 
 It is true you do not believe the gospel but 
 neither do we. Come along. You believe 
 something or other; if you do not believe any- 
 thing, it is no great matter. Conduct is better 
 than creed. Your honest doubt is better far 
 than faith in words spoken from heaven." 
 
 '*If the world will not come to Jesus, says 
 the modern thought, then let Jesus tone down 
 His teachings to the world. To this end let 
 us modify our doctrines. Some of them are 
 old-fashioned, grim, severe, unpopular; let us 
 drop them out. We can use the old phrases 
 so as to please the obstinately orthodox but we 
 can also dress them in new meanings so as to 
 
PREFACE 
 
 neutralize their force and make tliem palatable 
 to the natural man. The times are altered and 
 the spirit of the age suggests the wise aban- 
 donment of everything that is too severely 
 righteous and too surely of God." 
 
 These words of the great preacher present, 
 without caricature and in most solemn colors, 
 a true picture of the attitude of many and many 
 a pulpit and of many and many a self-styled 
 Evangelical Communion. To such — to one and 
 all, the Epistle to the Galatians voices again 
 the exhortation: Return, return! Resume the 
 platform of Grace. Back to the Word of God 
 and to Prayer : these, these alone are the power 
 of God and His infallible method unto salva- 
 tion. Semi-dramatic performances, musical 
 displays, political harangues, rhetorical essays, 
 sentimental appeals, the discussion of social 
 conditions, these are neither the power nor the 
 method: they are the accompaniments and 
 proper badges of ** another gospel." *'But 
 though we," cries the intense and the awaken- 
 ing Apostle, *^But though we or an angel from 
 heaven preach any other gospel unto you than 
 that which we have preached unto you, anath- 
 ema esto, let him be accursed." 
 
 It may be proper, in connection with the 
 above to state that the substance of the follow- 
 ing commentary was given in Bible Readings on 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 Sunday afternoons to an adult class numbering 
 over seventy names on its roll. To tMs class, 
 the book is especially 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 with grateful acknowledgment of their increas- 
 ing and enthusiastic interest, and with heartiest 
 thanksgiving to that glorious Saviour whose is 
 our only and our all sufficient righteousness — a 
 righteousness in which we have no shred or 
 finger of our own. 
 
INTEODIJCTION 
 
 The object of the Epistle to the Galatians 
 was to restore among them the pure Gospel 
 which they had received, but which they had so 
 mingled with human works and ceremonies and 
 a notion of their own free will and merits, as 
 to have well nigh lost it. St. Paul, first claim- 
 ing his prerogative as an Apostle and infallible 
 Teacher of the Church, denounces every other 
 gospel than that which is founded on the Doc- 
 trine of Grace (chap. I: 1-10). He then (chap. 
 I: 10 to II: 21) gives a short sketch of his own 
 life, conversion and ministry, ending with his 
 celebrated rebuke of St. Peter at Antioch. 
 Then, in the III and IV chapters he proceeds 
 with a line of arguments in favor of justifica- 
 tion simply and only by faith in the merit and 
 righteousness of Another — i. e. the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. He warns the Galatians against every 
 temptation to mingle something with Christ as 
 a ground of acceptance with God and ends this 
 part of the Epistle with a splendid explanation 
 of the Allegory of Sarah and Hagar. The V 
 and VI chapters are a practical application of 
 the whole subject, and the Epistle ends with the 
 sublime conclusion, ''God forbid that I should 
 glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
THE GALATIAN APOSTASY 
 ^'ANOTHER GOSPEL" 
 
'* ANOTHER GOSPEL" 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Introduction: Galatia, from Gallo-Grecia, 
 embraced a colony of Gauls or Celts who had 
 settled in Asia Minor. They inherited the 
 mercurial character of their race and were 
 easily influenced in one direction or another. 
 These Galatians had been evangelized by St. 
 Paul in his first missionary journey, but among 
 them dwelt many Jews who opposed the Apos- 
 tle and taught that something more than simple 
 faith in Jesus Christ was necessary to salva- 
 tion. St. Paul plants himself in direct contrast 
 to these Judaizing teachers and opens thus di- 
 rectly. 
 
 Vs. 1. Paul^ an apostle (not of men, neither hy 
 man, hut hy Jesus Christ, and God the Father, 
 who raised Him from the dead) : Those who 
 opposed St. Paul claimed that they had a higher 
 right to speak tly&pi had he, for they were the 
 disciples of the first 12 apostles and he was an 
 outsider who came in afterward and with no 
 original apostolical commission. To this St. 
 Paul replies: I am an apostle for my calling 
 is superior to that of those who are the disciples 
 of any man. I received this office not through 
 
2 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 men, i. e. ecclesiastical order — nor hy man, i. e. 
 by any human means or instrument, bnt directly 
 from Jesns Christ who appeared to me from 
 heaven on the way to Damascus. — (Acts 9: 3-5; 
 Acts 22: 6; Acts 26: 13, 14; I Cor. 11-23, 1 Cor. 
 15:8,9!) 
 
 ''But hy Jesus Christ and God the Father 
 who raised Him from the dead,'' This is very 
 emphatic because it at once sets forth the right- 
 eousness of Christ. He does not say God the 
 Father ^*who made heaven and earth, '^ or *^who 
 is Lord of angels," or '*who called Abraham," 
 but '*who raised Christ from the dead" for our 
 perfect justification. — Eom. 4 : 25. 
 
 Vs. 2. And all the brethren which are with 
 me, St. Paul, when speaking of the brethren, 
 speaks of them as subordinates. They are 
 with him but he alone is an apostle. — I Cor. 
 12: 28, 29, Eph. 4: 11. 
 
 Unto the churches of Galatia. He does not 
 say, *^The Church of Galatia," but he speaks 
 of the invisible Church wherever there was a 
 collection of its true members, even though some 
 heresy were working within. 
 
 Vs. 3. Grace he to you and peace, Grace 
 the source of every blessing; peace the result 
 of all. Grace which cancels sin, and peace 
 which gives a quiet conscience. There can be 
 no rest for any man until he hears the word of 
 grace, receives it and boldly stands in it as his 
 
THE GALATIAN APOSTASY 3 
 
 salvation. Then he has peace — not the peace 
 of this world but a heavenly peace. Kom. 5:1; 
 Phil. 4:7; John 14: 27; John 16: 33; Heb. 10: 
 19-22. 
 
 From God the Father and from our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, A splendid argument for the 
 Deity of Christ who, in this salutation is made 
 one with the Father. To give grace and peace 
 is not the work of any creature. 
 
 Vs. 4. Who gave himself for our sins: Not 
 for onr righteousness — ^not for onr fitness, our 
 merits, our repentances, our tears, our fast- 
 ings, our promises of reformation and of fu- 
 ture obedience to law; but for our sins — our 
 worst sins, our sensual and devilish sins, and 
 for the whole of our sins past, present and to 
 come. He gave Himself for them. He does 
 not ask us to give ourselves in self denials for 
 them. Putting Himself as their substitute He 
 justifies the ungodly and does not ask them to 
 be godly first. — Rom. 4: 5; I Tim. 1: 15; Isa. 
 45: 22; Acts 13: 39. 
 
 **For our sins." Notice especially the 
 ''our/' for religion lies in the personal pro- 
 nouns. It is easy to say He gave Himself for 
 others, but to say He gave Himself for me and 
 to believe it, is the great triumph of faith. He 
 gave Himself for my sins and they are gone. 
 
 ''That He might deliver us from this present 
 evil world/' Man says, *^It is a beautiful 
 
4 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 world''; *4t is the best of all worlds"; ^4t is a 
 good enough world." '^No!" says the Bible. 
 ^*It is an 'eviP world; a world of disappoint- 
 ments — of charming dissolutions, a world 
 * whose god is the devil and whose end is to be 
 burned up.' Out of its snares, pollutions, and 
 final destruction, Christ has delivered us." Heb. 
 2: 14, 15; II Cor. 1: 10; II Pet. 2: 7-9; I John 
 5:19. 
 
 According to the will of God and our Father: 
 According to His purpose. According to the 
 election of grace. According to the covenant 
 made with Christ as standing for His people 
 before the world began. — Isa. 53: 10; Rom. 8: 
 30; Eph. 1: 4; I Cor. 1: 26-28. How could we 
 ever have been delivered from the present evil 
 world if it had not been according to the will 
 and choice, the purpose and predestination of 
 God and our Father? Left to ourselves would 
 we ever have chosen Him? Could we ever 
 have done it? The mighty tug of a resolution 
 strong enough to tear us from the world, are 
 we capable of this? Bound up, as fallen with 
 the ruins of a fallen world, can we put ourselves 
 back where Adam was unf alien in Eden ? Who 
 cannot see that conversion is an object of Al- 
 mighty Grace, and must be in the line of an 
 eternal purpose? 
 
 Vs. 5. To whom he glory forever and ever. 
 Everything that is not bad in us must be re- 
 
THE GALATIAN APOSTASY 5 
 
 f erred to God alone. — Ps. 115: 1; Jer. 13: 16; 
 I Cor. 4: 7. Amen! The apostle seals what 
 he has now said with a certainty. Amen means 
 something planted to stand. 
 
 Vs. 6. ^^I marvel/' *^I wonder." It is an 
 amazing wonder that having snch a free and 
 glorions Gospel they should be tempted to ex- 
 change it for a poor device to save or help to 
 save themselves; as if the work of Christ for 
 them were not done or were badly done when 
 He cried, **It is finished!'' 
 
 ^'7 wonder!'' It is the strongest kind of re- 
 proof clothed in the mildest expression. The 
 apostle does not tannt them; he does not up- 
 braid them; he does not speak harshly. He 
 simply says: ^^I wonder/' *^I wonder." 
 
 ^^That ye are so soon removed." That you 
 conld stand so boldly yesterday for what you 
 repudiate to-day. The Galatians were a fickle 
 people. Human nature is fickle; it is always 
 inconstant and inconsistent. Staying power is 
 only with God with whom is no variableness 
 neither shadow of turning. ^^Some men are 
 like mirrors which having no light themselves 
 equally reflect what is before them for the mo- 
 ment." 
 
 Vs. 8, 9. But though we, or an angel from 
 heaven. Here he stresses the tremendous con- 
 trast. *^But though we, or an angel from 
 heaven, preach anything other than I have 
 
6 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 preached or than yon have received ; twice over 
 
 I say it, LET HIM BE ACCTJESED." 
 
 Vs. 10. ''For do I now persuade men or 
 God? or do I seeJc to please men?" Am I now 
 responsible to a human tribunal or do I seek to 
 cater to a human sentiment and win applause 
 from men? If so I am no longer the official 
 servant and ambassador of Christ. 
 
 The point which St. Paul makes is that we are 
 justified before God by a righteousness outside 
 of and wholly apart from ourselves. Luther, 
 using this epistle as the hammer of the Reforma- 
 tion, laid down the proposition that ^* Justifi- 
 cation by faith in the imputed righteousness of 
 Christ is the one article by which the church is 
 to be tested; and by it she either stands or 
 falls.'' 
 
ST. PAUL'S APOLOGY 
 
 AND 
 
 APOSTOLIC VINDICATION 
 
ST. PAUL'S APOLOGY 
 
 GALATiANs I — (Continued,) 
 
 We have seen tliat false teachers had im- 
 posed upon the Galatians by pretending that 
 they had received their commission from the 
 apostles. On the other hand they asserted of 
 St. Paul that he was no apostle — that he was 
 not one of the original twelve, nor had he ever 
 been acknowledged by them, nor did he prop- 
 erly report their doctrine. To this, St. Paul 
 replies with boldness that his apostleship was 
 directly from heaven and therefore it was far 
 more illustrious than it would have been, had 
 he received it from Christ while Christ was still 
 on the earth and mortal, i. e., before His resur- 
 rection. 
 
 Nor does the apostle content himself with the 
 mere assertion. He goes on to prove what he 
 says by an appeal to facts, and he does this 
 with the greater earnestness because the ques- 
 tion touches the validity of his testimony in all 
 future ages. He foresaw that the fiercest at- 
 tacks upon Christianity would be made upon 
 the Pauline doctrine. He therefore labors to 
 show that, what he says, Christ says, since 
 Christ is speaking through him. 
 
 9 
 
10 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 '*It is not strange," says Spurgeon, **to hear 
 certain dubious people assert — ^I do not agree 
 with St. Paul.' I remember the first time that 
 I heard this expression I looked at the individ- 
 ual with astonishment. I was amazed that such 
 a pigmy should say this of the great apostle. 
 It seemed like a cheese-mite differing from a 
 cherub, or a handful of chaff discussing the ver- 
 dict of the fire.'' 
 
 Vs. 11. **But I certify you, brethren that the 
 Gospel which was preached of me was not after 
 man,'* The notion that we are to be saved by 
 something wholly outside of ourselves, with 
 which we have nothing to do, is a notion that 
 never was taught or conceived by the natural 
 man. It is not only beyond him, but it is so ab- 
 solutely opposed to his every instinct as a fallen 
 creature that he cannot receive it. His first and 
 final thought in life and death, is that he must do 
 something — show something done on his own 
 part — toward his salvation. A righteousness 
 wrought out by Another and made over to him 
 as a gratuity, is a mystery which he cannot un- 
 derstand. He can only wonder at, despise and 
 reject it. God's ways are not his ways nor are 
 God's thoughts his thoughts. 
 
 It is a very popular suggestion just now that 
 there are glimpses of the true light in all re- 
 ligions and that these glimpses are indigenous 
 to man. The exact fact is that whatever 
 
ST. PAUL'S APOLOGY 11 
 
 '* glimpses" there may be in other religions than 
 the true, these are all but broken and uncertain 
 relics of a Revelation once possessed, in Noah's 
 time, by the whole world, and lost. Nor in any 
 of these religions is there the most distant no- 
 tion of St. Paul's doctrine of Election by the 
 Father ; the Redemption of the elect by the Son 
 and their Regeneration by the Holy Ghost. 
 Such a teaching is not ' * after man. " It is not 
 common to nor agreeable with human opinion 
 or thought. I Cor. 2 : 14 ; Isa. 55 : 8, 9 ; John 1 : 5. 
 
 Vs. 12. For I neither received it from man, 
 neither was I taught it. St. Paul did not re- 
 ceive the Gospel from man. He did not learn 
 it from his parents who did not know it; nor 
 from Gamaliel, from whom he got only prej- 
 udices against it. Nor did he get it from the 
 other apostles, for he did not know them and had 
 not seen them. St. Paul's testimony was 
 unique. While he did not differ from the other 
 apostles, he was far beyond them. He learned 
 nothing from them; they learned from him 
 things which filled them with wonder. Gal. 2:6; 
 IlPet. 3:15, 16. 
 
 But by revelation of Jesus Christ. Justifica- 
 tion by the obedience of Another, is so far above 
 nature that we can neither see it, nor hold it but 
 by a Divine revelation. Even once seen, so pow- 
 erfully do doubt, distrust, anxiety and fears; 
 the terrors of conscience and the dread of death 
 
12 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 contend against it, that we forget and lose sigM 
 of it unless it be again and again brought back 
 to ns by the Spirit of God who alone can illu- 
 mine the dark abyss of the soul. Matt. 16 : 17 ; 
 John 3:3; I Cor. 12:3; II Cor. 12:1-4; Acts 
 22: 17; Luke 10: 21, 22. 
 
 Vs. 13. For ye have heard of my conversa- 
 tion in time past in the Jew's religion, how that 
 'beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God 
 and wasted it. St. Paul here employs a tre- 
 mendous argument for his trustworthiness. 
 '*No man ever opposed Christianity as I did. 
 I voted in the Sanhedrim for the stoning of Ste- 
 phen. I stood by as a witness. I spattered 
 myself with the blood of believers in Christ. 
 All at once, I was changed. Was that my 
 work? Ponder the fact and judge for your- 
 selves. ' ' Acts 9:1,2; Acts 22 : 4 ; Acts 26:11; 
 I Cor. 15:9. 
 
 Vs. 14. And profited in the Jew's religion 
 above many my equals — *'my fellow students 
 and my later co-religionists." St. Paul was no 
 proselyte of the gate. He was born *^an He- 
 brew of the Hebrews"; he could trace his pedi- 
 gree both on the father's and the mother's side, 
 back to Abraham. He was brought up at the 
 feet of Gamaliel, the head master of all the Jew- 
 ish universities. He knew the Scriptures bet- 
 ter than the brightest Arab boy Imows the Ko- 
 ran. He had them grained into the very fibres 
 
ST. PAUL'S APOLOGY 13 
 
 of his memory. St. Paul knew the religion of 
 works through and through. He could say with 
 Luther, *^I punished my poor body with fasting, 
 watching and praying far more than ever they 
 have done, who find fault with me for preach- 
 ing that we are justified by faith without the 
 deeds of the law.'' St. Paul knew all about 
 free will and merits, for afterward he writes 
 with deepest feeling: *^So then it is not of him 
 that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of 
 God that sheweth mercy." Phil. 3:4-7; Phil. 
 3: 8, 9; Eom. 10: 3, 4; Eom. 1: 16, 17; Gal. 3: 10, 
 ll;Eom. 3:28. 
 
 Vs. 15. But when it pleased God. Not, 
 when it pleased me— not when I got good and 
 ready — ^not when / chose, but when God chose 
 who was beforehand with me. 
 
 Who separated me from my mother's womh, 
 and called me hy His grace. Salvation is from 
 long before the cradle. '^Calling" is the effect 
 of a Divine predestination. St. Paul's career 
 of sin and of apostleship was all foreseen and 
 foreordained before he was born — ^before he 
 himself could either think any good thing, or 
 do it. John 15:16; Eom. 8:30; Eph. 1:3, 4; 
 Eph. 1:11; II Thess. 2:13, 14; I Pet. 1:2; 
 I Cor. 1:26; H Tim. 1:9. 
 
 Vs. 16. To reveal His Son within me. The 
 light was shot into the camera of his soul. 
 Christ was photographed within him. Some- 
 
14 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 thing was infused into Paul wMch never was 
 in him before and never again will be absent. 
 It was grace — a substantial, eternal reality. 
 I Cor. 15:10; Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20; Gal. 5:17; 
 I John 3:9. 
 
 To reveal His Son. Christ did not come to 
 set forth a new law, but to set forth Himself, 
 in contrast to all law-keeping, as our one and 
 whole and only salvation. Gal. 3:22; Gal. 
 3:24, 25. 
 
 Immediately I conferred not with flesh and 
 hlood. He did not need to — ^he had the as- 
 surance and the satisfaction in himself. A 
 man before he is converted is always asking, 
 **What do my neighbors think? What do they 
 think of me?" A man who once has Christ and 
 knows it, measures himself no longer against 
 other men. He has only Christ in his eye, Who 
 stands for him for everything, and Who has 
 set him free. I Cor. 2 : 15. 
 
 Vs. 17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to 
 them which were apostles before me. He had 
 no desire to compare notes with others, even 
 the apostles. What he wanted was solitude — 
 a chance to think it all over and take the joy, 
 the liberty, the glory of it, in. 
 
 But I went into Arabia. Three men, Moses, 
 Elijah and Paul, were taken to Sinai, there to 
 have visions of God. Think of St. Paul at 
 Horeb, at *^the backside of the desert." Think 
 
ST. PAUL'S APOLOGY 15 
 
 of Mm climbing the steeps of Sinai there to 
 learn how Israel broke down beneath a broken 
 law. Then how God rewrote the law a second 
 time upon new tables and laid these up within 
 that true Ark, the Bosom of Christ, never again 
 to be broken, but to be kept for us, our answer 
 and our righteousness at God's right hand for- 
 ever and ever. Think of those three years in 
 Arabia ! The Epistle of the Hebrews was con- 
 ceived at Sinai. Oh, how glorious! Never be 
 impatient of solitude. '^Paul went into Arabia 
 with Moses and the Prophets in his knapsack 
 and returned to Damascus with the Romans 
 and Galatians in his heart." 
 
ST. PAUL AND TITUS 
 THE QUESTION OF CIRCUMCISION 
 
ST. PAUL AND TITUS 
 
 GALATIANS I AND H 
 
 The Point wMch St. Paul is making in the 
 Galatians is that we are saved out and out at 
 once and wholly, by what the Lord Jesus Christ 
 has done, without ourselves having a hand in 
 it. Outside of us is the Blood that cleanses 
 from all sin. Outside of us is the Obedience 
 which fulfils the law, earns our salvation and 
 cries '^It is finished!" Outside! we have only 
 to looh and be saved — ^we have only to risk it 
 on Christ and life eternal is ours. 
 
 From the moment we believe, God sees us in 
 Christ. He counts Christ's work as ours — His 
 life-record as ours. What Christ has done 
 stands therefore as our only righteousness be- 
 fore God. That righteousness covers us. It 
 shields us. ^^It is a robe which our best deeds 
 cannot mend and which our worst deeds can- 
 not mar." Christ for us and in our stead is 
 the simple answer to all things. Eom. 1 : 16, 
 17; Ps. 84:9; Ps. 32:1; Isa. 61:10; II Cor. 
 5:21; Jer. 23:6; Ps. 71:16; Phil. 3:8, 9. 
 
 The Gospel teaches, not what we are to do 
 for God but wTiat God has done for us; and 
 this knowledge is so glorious that it transcends 
 all thought of flesh and blood. * ' The heavens, ' ^ 
 
 19 
 
20 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 we read, '^drop down and pour down right- 
 eousness," — (Isa. 45:8); as helpless as is the 
 earth to procure the rain that falls upon it, so 
 helpless is the soul to procure this free gift of 
 God, the righteousness of Christ, to cover and 
 to cheer and make it fruitful. Who cannot, 
 therefore, see that faith is a tremendous victory 
 over sin, death, douhts and fear of hell and all 
 this evil world — and that the faith which thus 
 takes hold of righteousness outside of it to 
 save it, is and must be the free gift of God 
 Who alone creates such a faith and keeps its 
 eye fixed on Christ and preserves and renews 
 it within us I 
 
 Vs. 18, 19. Then after three years I ivent up 
 to Jerusalem to see Peter ^ and abode with him 
 fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I 
 none save James, the Lord's brother. St. Paul 
 was in Arabia three years then; when he re- 
 turned, he went up for the first time to Jerusa- 
 lem to see Peter. To see him, not to learn any- 
 thing from him, for his doctrine had been al- 
 reSSSy systematized amid the solitudes of Mt. 
 Sinai. So far as theology was concerned Peter 
 could teach him nothing. Gal. 2 ; 6 ; II Pet. 
 3:16. 
 
 Vs. 20. Now the things which I tvrite unto 
 you, behold, before God I lie not. Why should 
 he swear that he had not seen Peter or James 
 or any of the other apostles before? Simply 
 
ST. PAUL AND TITUS 21 
 
 because the question between the Galatians and! 
 bimself was one of life and death. If Paul 
 was not a genuine and independent apostle — 
 if he did not take the place of Judas — if he did 
 not get his commission from Christ directly — 
 and from Christ in glory — then his testimony is 
 valueless ; then one-half of the New Testament 
 written by him goes for nothing. He takes his 
 solemn oath, therefore, that he had no collusion 
 with other apostles — that he got all from Christ 
 and nothing from them. 
 
 Vs. 21. Afterwards I came into the regions 
 of Syria and Cilicia, That is as far as pos- 
 sible from collusion with the other apos- 
 tles. 
 
 Vs. 22, 23. And was unknown hy face unto 
 the churches of Judea. But they had heard. 
 Even remote as were St. Paul's labors the ru- 
 mor of them went through all Palestine and 
 penetrated to the very regions where the other 
 eleven apostles were. If the churches of Judea, 
 from mere report alone had been led to glorify 
 God for what He had wrought in St. Paul, how 
 disgraceful was it, in the contrast, for those 
 who had the man and facts before them, to 
 refuse to do so. 
 
 Vs. 24. And they glorified God in me. 
 '* Judea and Jerusalem itself glorified God in 
 me — recognized His mighty power and Divine 
 commission in me. Who then are these ob- 
 
22 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 scure men in Galatia that they should subvert 
 my teachings and vilify me?" 
 
 They glorified God in me. As the snn in a 
 mirror they saw the marvels of God's grace 
 reflected in St. Paul. Ps. 50: 15; I Cor. 6: 20; 
 Matt. 5:16; Eom. 15:6; Kom. 15:9. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Vs. 1. Then fourteen years after I went up 
 again to Jerusalem, This refers to the occa- 
 sion of the great contention at Antioch with 
 reference to circumcision. Turning to Acts 
 XV, we learn that this contention was a very 
 sharp one and threatened to make shipwreck of 
 the Church. It was therefore determined to 
 refer the vexed question to a Council or Synod 
 of the Apostles and Elders to be held in Jeru- 
 salem. The question was not of circumcision 
 alone. It ran deeper. It was the question, 
 whether anything in the way of law-keeping is 
 necessary to justification or not; or whether 
 so far as his justification is concerned, the law 
 is dead to the Christian and the Christian dead 
 to the law. Gal. 2: 19; Kom. 7:6. (See mar- 
 gin for proper reading **We being dead to that 
 wherein we were held — that is the law.") 
 
 I went up with Barnabas and tooJc Titus with 
 me. He took Barnabas as a witness to con- 
 firm what he had to say, and Titus as an ex- 
 ample of those Gentile Christians to whom, al- 
 though uncircumcised and although they did 
 
ST. PAUL AND TITUS 23 
 
 not keep the law, the Holy Ghost had been 
 given. The Holy Ghost never came down npon 
 men under the preaching of rites and cere- 
 monies and merits and circumcision as neces- 
 sary to justification, but He did come down un- 
 der the preaching of Salvation by the work of 
 Christ alone. Gal. 5:6; Gal. 5:2; Col. 3 : 11 ; 
 Gal. 3:10, 11; Eom. 4:9, 10; Gal. 6:15; Acts 
 10:44, 45; Acts 15:7-11. 
 
 Vs. 2. And I went up by revelation. He 
 did not go because the apostles commanded 
 him, but he went because he had a positive in- 
 timation from heaven. God called him to go, 
 or he would never have gone. 
 
 And communicated unto them privately, St. 
 Paul felt that he must carry his point or else 
 what he had done and what he hoped to do 
 would come to nothing. It would appear that 
 he had been running in vain and would so run 
 in the future. In that case his career would 
 be ended. Prov. 24:27; Prov. 22:3; 27:12; 
 Ps. 37:5. 
 
 Vs. 3. But neither Titus, being a Greek, was 
 compelled to be circumcised. When St. Paul 
 arrived at Jerusalem, every pressure was 
 brought to bear to compel him to surrender his 
 principle by consenting to circumcise Titus. 
 
 Vs. 4. And that because of false brethren 
 unawares brought in, who came in privily to 
 spy out our liberty, that they might bring us 
 
24 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 into bondage. The Gospel is always above 
 board. Its doctrine is plain — its methods are 
 open and in evidence. The men who contended 
 with Panl could not meet him in argument; 
 they therefore had recourse to subterfuge. 
 Ps. 125 : 5 ; Prov. 11 : 18 ; II Cor. 11 : 13, 14. 
 
 Vs. 5. To whom we gave place by subjection 
 no, not for an hour. '* Truth,'' says Bengel, 
 *^ precise, unaccommodating, abandons nothing 
 that belongs to itself, admits nothing that is 
 inconsistent with it." A deadly snare had 
 been laid for the apostle. Had he fallen into 
 it and compromised the truth, by admitting cir- 
 cumcision to be necessary to salvation and by 
 actually circumcising Titus, he would have rung 
 the death-knell of the Gospel. He knew this. 
 He therefore met the situation boldly — carried 
 the whole Synod with him — shamed his op- 
 ponents and went back to Antioch with the 
 glory of a complete vindication for all time, 
 and the endorsement of those very apostles 
 whom his false accusers had cited against 
 him. 
 
 That the truth of the Gospel (or the true Gos- 
 pel) might continue with you. The true Gos- 
 pel is that our righteousness is that of Christ 
 alone with no mixture. The false gospel says 
 you must have something else in addition — 
 feelings or promises or works. This throws 
 a man back from Christ upon himself, and into 
 
ST. PAUL AND TITUS 25 
 
 suspense, perplexity and misery. Gal. 5:3; 
 Kom. 4:14; Gal. 3:22; Kom. 11:6. 
 
 Vs. 9. And when James, Cephas and John 
 who seemed to he pillars, perceived the grace 
 that was given unto me they gave the right 
 hands of fellowship. So magnificently did St. 
 Panl receive the whole Chnrch's endorsement 
 — so clearly was it manifest that there is but 
 one only true Gospel. 
 
 ** Complete atonement Christ has made, 
 And to the utmost farthing paid 
 
 Whate'er His people owed; 
 How then can wrath on me take place 
 If shelter 'd in His righteousness, 
 
 And sprinkled with His blood T' 
 
THE EEPEOOF OF PETER 
 
 AT 
 
 ANTIOCH 
 
THE EEPEOOF OF PETER 
 
 GALATiANs II — (Continued.) 
 
 We now approach the heart of this Epistle 
 which, concise as it is, we may regard as the 
 Keystone of the New Testament, for in it is 
 most conspicuously set forth and defended the 
 right answer to the question, fundamental to 
 all others, ^^How shall a man be justified before 
 God?" The entire scope of Revelation comes 
 to a point in the answer. This gives to the 
 Reproof at Antioch a supreme significance. 
 No issue could be more tremendous, for on it 
 was suspended the survival or the early ship- 
 wreck of the Church. 
 
 One figure stands apart, superb, colossal. It 
 is that of the great apostle to the Gentiles. 
 The crisis called for a man, and the man, in 
 God's providence, was there. As in the case 
 of Joseph, of Moses, of Samuel, of David, of 
 Elijah, of Daniel, the situation depended on one 
 individual. God has but small use for commit- 
 tees and corporations ; His greatest works from 
 the Cross downward have been wrought by sin- 
 gle men, single eyed and nerved for the emer- 
 gency — '*I called Abraham alone and I blessed 
 him." St. Paul was called ** alone"; no cap- 
 ital was behind him, no society, or party was 
 
 29 
 
30 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 behind him; no apostle was behind him; even 
 [Barnabas deserted him. Like Athanasius and 
 like Lnther at a later time, he stood alone. 
 Isa. 51 : 2 ; Eccl. 9 : 15 ; Jer. 1 : 6, 7 ; Jndg. 6 : 34. 
 
 What did he stand for? Christ and Christ 
 only as the sinner's justification: Christ and 
 Christ only as over against and in the sharpest 
 contrast to everything outside of Christ. It 
 was either Cheist or nothing. He must be all 
 in all in salvation. *^ There is no such thing 
 as Christ's doing His part to save us and our 
 doing our part. We have no part save that 
 of the beggar who, empty handed, takes a 
 gratuitous alms." — So thunders St. Paul. 
 
 Vs. 11. But when Peter was come to An- 
 iioch. This was after the council held at Je- 
 rusalem had recorded the unanimous decision 
 that the Gentiles were not to be troubled with 
 any question of circumcision or of law-keeping 
 for salvation, but were to be pointed only to 
 **the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 
 15:19. 
 
 1 withstood him to the face, because he was 
 to be blamed, St. Peter had become a reaction- 
 ary. The rock man was again on the wave. 
 His willingness to please the Jewish members 
 of the Church in Antioch, led him to withdraw 
 from the Gentile believers with whom he had 
 previously been in communion and to place him- 
 self as it were in protest against them. 
 
THE EEPROOF OF PETER 31 
 
 Vs. 12, 13. For before that certain came 
 from James, he did eat with the Gentiles . . . 
 and the other Jews dissembled likewise with 
 him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried 
 away with their dissimulation, St. Peter was 
 not ignorant here, for he ^^ dissembled" and if 
 so, he knew what he was doing, but his desire 
 to stand well with the Judaizing party in the 
 Church, which was the more influential, led him 
 to compromise the truth and so to split a bot- 
 tomless chasm between himself and St. Faul. 
 For, says Luther, *^This fall of St. Peter was 
 so sudden and so great as if it had been from 
 heaven above even down into hell." For St. 
 Peter, in contradiction to himself (see Acts 
 10: 43; 15: 10, 11), was now teaching that men 
 are saved by the law and gospel together, 
 whereas, **as many as are of the works of the 
 law" — as many as are having to do with the 
 law, in any respect for salvation — **are under 
 the curse." 
 
 For before that certain came. See how weak 
 and vacillating a thing is grace, even in the 
 strongest of saints. One would think that after 
 having witnessed the conversion of Cornelius, 
 after having baptized him, though uncircum- 
 cised, and after having defended this action in 
 the Jerusalem Council, St. Peter would have 
 shown himself immovably consistent. Expe- 
 rience, however, proves that no man is im- 
 
32 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 movably consistent, and that, however clear 
 may be our vision of Christ outside of ns for 
 US, the instant Satan and temptation come, 
 and unbelief sets in, Christ becomes clouded 
 and we find ourselves looking inside instead of 
 outside and fixing our eyes on our record, our 
 merits, our resolutions, our failures, and Christ 
 is lost from our view and we are in the mixed 
 condition of Peter and Barnabas. 
 
 Vs. 14. But when I saw that they walked 
 not uprightly according to the truth of the Gos- 
 pel, The truth of the Gospel is the true Gospel, 
 in which there is not an atom of law, for the 
 law and the Gospel are as diverse as, in the 
 question of food, is a stone and an apple. A 
 stone is good in its place to build a wall with, 
 but for food it is death and so is the law good 
 for morality, but not for salvation. '^Ohl put 
 in a little law," say some. Well: glass is good 
 but not for food, nor does powdered glass even 
 a very '^little'' mixed with pure food contribute 
 anything but death in agony. 
 
 I said unto Peter before them all, If thou 
 being a Jew . . . ^* If you though circumcised 
 have yet, as in the case of Cornelius and here 
 again in Antioch, thrown circumcision away, 
 why do you oblige uncircumcised men to be 
 circumcised?" 
 
 Vs. 15, 16. We . . . knowing that a man is 
 not justified hy the works of the law, hut by the 
 
THE EEPEOOF OF PETER 33 
 
 faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed for 
 that kind of justification: for hy the works of 
 the law shall no flesh he justified. 
 
 Vs. 17. But if while we seeh to he justified 
 hy Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, 
 is therefore Christ the minister/' or the occa- 
 sion, '^of sinf He is, because He says *^ Trust 
 Me!" and right after He says **But that is not 
 enough — you are not saved by that alone. You 
 are still sinners unless you fulfil the demands 
 of the law." In such a case, he who teaches 
 men to trust Christ out and out, is himself a 
 sinner and makes them sinners and deceives 
 them for then that is not enough! 
 
 Vs. 18. For if I huild again the things which 
 I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor, St. 
 Peter had done this. He had built the house 
 of Cornelius and others upon the rock of sim- 
 ple faith. Now he comes and throws down that 
 house, builds another and makes himself a glar- 
 ing contradiction. 
 
 Vs. 19. For I through the law am dead unto 
 the law. The law slays its votaries. 
 
 ''Since to convince and to condemn, 
 Is all the law can do." 
 
 Ask a man with the smallpox to look into a 
 looking-glass. What will that do? Cause him 
 surprise and pain and distress. Can the look- 
 jng-glass take tjje §cars from his face? The 
 
34 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 more he looks into it the worse he feels. That 
 is salvation by law. ^^I have had enough of it; 
 I am dead to it," says St. Paul. 
 
 That I might live unto God. Because I am 
 dead, have I lost my life? By no means, for I 
 have a new life — I am raised with Christ and 
 live in Him nnto God. To live nnto the law 
 then, is to die unto God; and to die unto the 
 law is to live unto God. For nothing is re- 
 quired of us but faith in Christ alone. 
 
 Vs. 20. I am crucified with Christ, How? 
 By ^^ walking in His steps" — ^by imitation and 
 by example? No, but by being one with Him 
 as my Substitute. What He did, I did, for He 
 did it for me. 
 
 Nevertheless I live; yet not I. It is not the 
 old I. It is no longer Saul of Tarsus, but Paul 
 the ^* chosen vessel," the *^new creature." 
 *^He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." 
 
 But Christ liveth in me, Christ looks 
 through my eyes; hears through my ears and 
 speaks through my mouth. I am not any 
 longer an ^^evil tree" bringing forth the evil 
 fruits of works and resolutions and a blinded 
 conscience, under the law; but I am a ^^good 
 tree" bringing forth the good fruits of grace; 
 of Christ dwelling in me. Gal. 5 : 22, 23. 
 
 ^And the life which I now live in the flesh, I 
 live hy the faith of the Son of God, i. e. sus- 
 pended on the Son of God — to the world, a 
 
 IIHI 
 
THE EEPROOF OF PETER 35 
 
 mystery, but to me the sublimest reality. 
 
 Who loved me, and gave Himself for me. 
 Not that I loved Him and gave myself in fast- 
 ings, tears and painful sufferings for Him, but 
 He for me. He loved me or I had never loved 
 Him. His love eternally antedates mine. 
 
 Vs. 21. I do not frustrate the grace of God, 
 Grace is frustrated if it be mixed with anything 
 but itself. ^^If it be of works, then, it is no 
 more grace." One drop of vinegar in a glass, 
 of milk sours it. 
 
 For if righteousness come hy the law, then 
 is Christ dead in vain. If He is not dead in 
 vain, but in perfect fulfilment of the law for our 
 justification, then there is no room any longer 
 for law work. If there still is room for law 
 work then He died in vain and the Gospel is a 
 fraud and a fable. 
 
 *'Thy works, not mine, Christ, 
 Speak gladness to this heart ; 
 They tell me all is done; 
 They bid my fear depart. 
 
 What Jesus is, and that alone, 
 
 Is faith's delightful plea; 
 It never deals with sinful self 
 
 Nor righteous self, in me." 
 
SEVEN IMPEEIAIi 
 
 ARGUMENTS 
 
 FOR 
 
 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH 
 
BMnHHiimiliM 
 
SEVEN IMPERIAL ARGUMENTS FOR 
 JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH 
 
 GALATIANS III 
 
 After reviewing the scene at Antioch where 
 he rebuked St. Peter for his dissembling, St. 
 Paul now advances to a formal defence of the 
 doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone, in 
 seven supreme and magnificent arguments. 
 These arguments he makes more direct and 
 incisive by resuming the language of personal 
 address. 
 
 Vs. i. Foolish Galatians, It is not so 
 much * thoughtless, " * Volatile'' Galatians. 
 St. Paul is not just here alluding to their na- 
 tional characteristic of changeableness ; what 
 he emphasizes is their '^anoety'^ — the stupidity 
 of their minds: their inability to take in the 
 terrible consequences of their apostasy. 
 
 Who hath bewitched you? The seductive in- 
 fluences which have led you away, have a cause 
 back of the human instrumentality. Satan is 
 behind these false emissaries who seek to un- 
 dermine my work. They charm; they fasci- 
 nate; they promise to lead you into broader 
 and more advanced views. They tempt you 
 to abandon your orthodoxy that they may make 
 shipwreck of your souls. The Church is al- 
 ways in danger of being bewitched — Ritualism, 
 
 39 
 
40 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 Gnosticism; Arins, Pelagius, Arminius repeat 
 themselves in every age. There is witchery 
 in the very air at the present time, Socialism, 
 Spiritualism, Christian Science, Necromancy 
 or intercourse with the dead. Men, as a rule, 
 worship humbug. 
 
 That ye should not obey the truth. Literally, 
 that ye should not be confidently persuaded of 
 and stand fast in the truth. 
 
 "What is the Truth? The apostle has already 
 and in the preceding verses declared it : A man 
 is not justified by the works of the law, but by 
 faith in Christ only. 
 
 ** Except ye be circumcised ye cannot be 
 saved'': said the seducers. Acts 15:1. 
 
 **If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit 
 you nothing": says St. Paul. Gal. 5:2. 
 
 It is a sharp antithesis — a diametrical op- 
 posite. You must take your choice, — Be cir- 
 cumcised and lose Christ, or Trust Him and 
 stand against every addition to His atonement. 
 *^For, if we are justified by Christ," says St. 
 Paul, ^^we are justified perfectly;" but, if so, 
 what has circumcision or law work of any kind 
 to do with us? Nothing. If we are not per- 
 fectly justified by Christ, then we are justified 
 imperfectly — then, not at all, for what is the 
 good of an imperfect justification? In that 
 case Christ is profitless — He dies in vain. 
 
 But we are justified by Christ only — by what 
 
SEVEN IMPEEIAL AEGUMENTS 41 
 
 He is, hy what He has done and hy what He 
 has suffered in our stead, as our Substitute — 
 hy that only, 
 
 ARGUMENT I 
 
 CHKIST IS SEEN BY FAITH ONLY 
 
 Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath teen 
 evidently set forth, crucified among you. The 
 first object presented to you in your uncon- 
 verted state was Christ — Christ only, Christ 
 crucified — Christ your Substitute. He was put 
 before you evidently — ^painted, proegraphe — 
 hung up like a Great Poster on a wall — Christ, 
 the Alpha and Omega in religion — the Begin- 
 ning, Middle, End — ^the All in All. Some 
 preach a vague and indistinct Christ — a Christ 
 who did something or other, no one knows what 
 or just to what purpose. No such a preacher 
 had been St. Paul. II Cor. 1:2; Eom. 10:4; 
 I Cor. 1: 23, 24; Gal. 6: 14. If you wish to be 
 right in religion, get the right thing before you. 
 We are saved by two things, 1st, Christ obeying 
 the law for us; 2d, Christ washing away our 
 sins in His Blood — In other words: by Christ 
 our Substitute. When it comes to Salvation, 
 there is nothing but Christ only. We need 
 not only to have this '* before our eyes" but to 
 have our eyes opened. 
 
 ARGUMENT II 
 
 THE SPIEIT IS GIVEN WITH FAITH ONLY 
 
 Vs. 2-5. Received ye the Spirit hy the worlds 
 
42 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 of the law, or hy the hearing of faith? Here 
 he again appeals to their experience. How, 
 and when did the Holy Ghost come to you? Not 
 by the preaching of circumcision and the law 
 — of sacraments and ceremonies and efforts 
 and feelings. The Holy Ghost never came in 
 that way. He comes, as He came to Cornelius, 
 by the *^ hearing" or preaching of faith. That 
 is the only preaching that the Spirit of God 
 will endorse, and He endorsed it among you. 
 You were saved by your ears; not by your 
 hands or the will-work of your resolves and 
 your efforts, but by dropping self out of sight 
 and simply drinking in Christ by the Word of 
 the Gospel. Eom. 10:17; Acts 11:14; Eph. 
 1:12, 13; John 7:38, 39; Acts 5:31, 32. 
 AEGUMENT III 
 
 ABEAHAM, THE FATHEE OF BELIEVEES, WAS JUSTI- 
 FIED BY FAITH ONLY 
 
 Vs. 6-9. Even as Abraham believed God and 
 it was accounted to him for righteousness. 
 The Galatians would wish to be justified as 
 was Abraham. No man will go wrong who is 
 justified as was the father of the faithful. But 
 how was Abraham justified ? By faith and not 
 at all by works which had nothing to do with 
 his justification. 
 
 But was not Abraham justified before God by 
 the offering up of Isaac? Never; for he was 
 justified 25 years before Isaac was born. He 
 
SEVEN IMPERIAL AEGUMENTS 43 
 
 was justified 10 years before he was circum- 
 cised. Abraham's faith was justified before 
 men by the offering up of Isaac, as says St. 
 James, but the offering up of Isaac did not 
 justify Abraham before God. No works of 
 fallen man can do that for a moment. Gen. 
 15:6; Rom. 4:2; Rom. 4:9, 10; Rom. 4:13; 
 Rom. 4:20-25. 
 
 ARGUMENT IV 
 
 THOSE WHO DEAL WITH THE LAW, AEE UNDER THE 
 
 CURSE 
 
 Vs. 10. For as many as are of the works of 
 the law are under the Curse. You cannot be 
 justified by the law or have to do with it in any 
 way for justification without getting a curse, 
 for the law can only condemn you. *^Am I 
 seeking or vowing to obey God in order to get 
 a blessing from Him? I only earn a curse. I 
 ought to obey; but being a sinner, the effect 
 of the law is to bring out my sin and to curse 
 me.'' Rom. 7:9, 10. 
 
 For it is written, cursed is every one that 
 continueth not in all things which are written 
 in the hooJc of the law to do them. If I start 
 to make a record, I must keep on to the end 
 and make a perfect, flawless record — the record 
 of an angel. Since this is impossible, I had 
 better drop the law as I would a hot iron. 
 **But, has the law no place, or value?" Surely 
 it has, for it is written *^ Trust and do good." 
 
44 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 But trust comes first and saves. Then, saved, 
 we do good: for after justifying, faith is not 
 idle. Gal. 5 : 6 ; II Pet. 1:5; James 2 : 17. 
 AEGUMENT V 
 
 LIFE IS, ABOVE THE LAW, BY FAITH 
 
 Vs. 11. But that, no man is justified hy the 
 law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the 
 just shall live hy faith. The jnst, or the justi- 
 fied shall live by faith: if they are going to 
 live so, they must begin so. In other words 
 the whole progress from conversion to the 
 grave is from faith to faith — from one degree 
 of faith to another. He who is righteous, is 
 righteous, not by his own works, but by the 
 obedience of Christ. If so he does not live by 
 any law-work whatever. This text is found 
 four times in the Bible. Habakkuk 2:4; Eom. 
 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38. 
 
 AEGUMENT VI 
 
 CHKIST HAS PUT AN" END TO THE LAW BY MEETING 
 ALL ITS CLAIMS 
 
 Vs. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the 
 curse of the law, being made a curse for us: 
 for it is written, Cursed is every one that hang- 
 eth on a tree. The Spotless One was put into 
 the sinner's place: yes, into the place of all who 
 ever shall be saved, and all their sins were laid 
 upon Him. All the sins of Mary Magdalene 
 — all the murders of Saul of Tarsus and de- 
 nials of Peter. '* Whatsoever sins, I, thou andi 
 
SEVEN IMPEEIAL AEGUMENTS 45 
 
 we all have done or shall do hereafter," says 
 Luther, ^*they, by imputation were made 
 Christ's own sins, as truly as if He had done 
 them, and His righteousness in return is made 
 ours as truly as if we had never sinned but had 
 always been as righteous as Christ was.'* II 
 Cor. 5:21; Isa. 53:5, 6. For this reason He 
 was hanged, i. e., suspended between heaven and 
 earth as not fit for either — ^being rejected of 
 men and forsaken of God. A curse is more 
 than a threatening ; it is a downright execution. 
 There is no other Gospel than this: You must 
 either be cursed for God forever, or see Christ 
 a curse for you. 
 
 AEGUMENT VII 
 
 GOD PEOMISES EVERYTHING TO T'AITH 
 
 Vs. 15. Though it he hut a man's covenant, 
 yet if it he confirmed, no man disannuleth or 
 addeth thereto. You cannot change even a 
 man's promise once it is sworn to; how much 
 less can you change the promises of God. 
 
 Now to Ahraham and his seed, i. e., to all 
 who believe upon Christ who is Abraham's seed, 
 were the promises made. Promises are bless- 
 ings without a condition. 
 
 Vs. 17. And this I say that the Covenant 
 which was confirmed hefore of God in Christ, 
 the law, which was 430 years after, cannot dis- 
 annul that it should make the promise of none 
 effect. If a man earns something under con- 
 
46 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 ditions he brings me into Ms debt. But, if I 
 give something to him, there is no law work. 
 If I say, '^I give yon that ten acre lot without 
 a condition, ' ' and then, six months after, I say, 
 *^You must pay me $500,'' I make my former 
 word of none effect. So here: The promises 
 are made by God Who cannot bargain and Who 
 cannot lie. Titus 1:2; Heb. 6 : 18 ; I John 2 : 25. 
 
 **How long beneath the law I lay, 
 In bondage and distress! 
 I toiled the precept to obey, 
 But toiled without success. 
 
 Then all my servile works were done, 
 
 A righteousness to raise; 
 Now, freely chosen in the Son, 
 
 I freely choose His ways. 
 
 To see the law by Christ fulfilled, 
 And hear His pardoning voice, 
 
 ^ill change a slave into a child. 
 And duty into choice. '* 
 
THE PLACE AND OFFICE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LAW 
 
mmm 
 
PLACE AND OFFICE OF THE LAW 
 GALATiANS III — (Continued,) 
 
 St. Paul closes Ms Seven great arguments 
 for justification by faith, with the assertion, 
 '^God gave it to Abraham hy promise/' 
 *^GoD GAVE it''; there is every difference be- 
 tween earning a thing and receiving that thing 
 as a gift. One thing and only one thing we 
 can earn and claim, for the earning, our wages, 
 and that thing is death: *^The wages of sin 
 is death.'' The opposite to this is gift — the 
 GIFT of God which is eternal life. It is one 
 thing to earn, another thing to take. It is one 
 thing to inherit a fortune and another thing 
 to be the architect of one's own fortune — so 
 says St. Paul. Eom. 6:23; Acts 8 : 20 ; II Cor. 
 9:15; John 4:10; Eom. 5:18. 
 
 Vs. 18. For if the inheritance he of the law, 
 it is no more of promise: hut God gave it to 
 Ahraham hy promise. We are saved then, as 
 Abraham was, simply and only by hanging sus- 
 pended on the naked Word of God. For these 
 three things make up salvation; Grace, Prom- 
 ise, Faith. Grace brings it, Titus 2 : 11. 
 Promise pledges it, Titus 1 : 2. Faith receives 
 it, Rom. 10 : 11. The man is thus ^aved at once 
 and forever beyond all scope and power of law. 
 
 49 
 
50 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 If so, there starts at once tlie question put in 
 Vs. 19. Wherefore then serveth the law? 
 **Wliat is the good of it, Paul? You make void 
 the law, you remove, you destroy it ! ' ' 
 
 I do not destroy it, answers St. Paul, simply 
 because I deny that it justifies. The law has 
 its place although it cannot save or help to save 
 any man. Bank notes do not make a man 
 righteous, have bank notes therefore no place; 
 are they therefore no good? A man cannot eat 
 glass, has glass therefore no value; is it no 
 good? Even so the law is good in its place, 
 ^4f a man use it lawfully" — i. e., according to 
 its proper design and intention. 
 
 Vs. 19. ^'Wherefore then serveth the law? 
 It was added because of transgressions : i. e., it 
 serves two great purposes, one social, the other 
 spiritual. 
 
 1. Social. The laws of God and man re- 
 strain sin and sinners. What the world would 
 be without law, who can imagine? Law re- 
 strains. The penalty of the gallows holds men 
 back from murder; the fear of hell stays the 
 hand of the suicide. Eom. 13 : 3, 4 ; I Pet. 2 : 13, 
 14; Eccl. 8:5. 
 
 2. Spiritual. The law serves the necessary 
 purpose of showing what sin is, and the impos- 
 sibility of fallen man's obedience. It was 
 added (charin), for the sake of transgressions 
 — i. e., in order to bring sin to light and con- 
 
PLACE AND OFFICE OF THE LAW 51 
 
 dignly condemn it. And this second purpose 
 of the law is far more important, for fallen man 
 is determined to justify himself and prove to 
 God his merits: and, if he does not break the 
 laws of the State or of society, he claims that 
 he is innocent not only, but praiseworthy. So 
 that the more moral he is, the more self right- 
 eous he is ; the more painstaking he is, the more 
 self willed and obstinate he is ; the better he is 
 in his own sight and that of his neighbors', the 
 worse he is and the more abominable in the 
 sight of God; the harder he works for salva- 
 tion, the more surely he damns himself. The 
 law then comes in like a hammer and knocks 
 this snake on the head. He is a very smooth 
 and straight and decent and well behaved and 
 respectable snake. He does not wriggle and he 
 does not bite — all the same he is the more ven- 
 omous. He grows apace. He lifts himself on 
 his tail. He is a cobra. 
 
 The law smites the doer of the law for right- 
 eousness whether it be doing in whole or in 
 part; whether it be trusting in Christ and fill- 
 ing out something by merit, or whether it be 
 fiilling out merit without Christ at all. Luther 
 puts it with tremendous emphasis when he says : 
 ''If any man be not a murderer, an adulterer, 
 a thief and outwardly refrain from sin, as the 
 Pharisee did who is mentioned in the Gospel, 
 he will swear that he is righteous and presume 
 
52 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 on his good worts and merits. Such an one 
 God cannot otherwise mollify and humble, that 
 he may acknowledge his misery and his damna- 
 tion but by the law; for that is the hammer of 
 death and the thundering of hell and the light- 
 ning of God's wrath to beat to powder obstinate 
 and senseless hypocrites." The ugliest thing 
 in all the universe is proud and self complacent 
 self righteousness. God infinitely hates it and 
 even man, when he detects it, abhors it. Job 
 15:14; Job 15:16; Job 9:30; Prov. 30:12; 
 Prov. 20:9; Prov. 16:5. 
 
 The law was added because of transgressions. 
 But for how long? How long must a man be 
 under conviction, and suffer the strokes of the 
 law and lie slain a dead man? Forever? By 
 no means: 
 
 Till the Seed should come to Whom the prom- 
 ise was made. The Seed, we are told, in verse 
 16, is Christ. When Christ comes ; jvhen He is 
 revealed to the soul as the perfect Fulfiller of 
 law, the law's work is over. Oh! the joy be- 
 yond all joy of angels which then fills and floods 
 the emancipated soul. Eom. 5:8-11; Gal. 
 4:4, 5. 
 
 *'Now freed from guilt, I walk at large. 
 My Saviour's Blood my full discharge. 
 Wholly absolved by Christ I am. 
 From sin's tremendous curse and blame." 
 
PLACE AND OFFICE OF THE LAW 53 
 
 Vs. 19, 20. And it was ordained hy angels in 
 the hands of a mediator. Now a mediator is 
 not of one hut God is one. The Law is stead- 
 fast and immutable, given as it was by angels ; 
 but it calls for a mediator, one to stand between 
 the guilty sinner and his God. There are two 
 parties then, one of which parties is God. God 
 therefore must appoint the mediator for we 
 cannot find one. 
 
 Vs. 21. 75 the law th^en against the promises 
 of God? God forbid. Do law and promise mu- 
 tually destroy one another? Not at all. The 
 law demands obedience: the promise brings 
 in Christ's obedience. The law damns the man 
 who is not perfect ; the promise points to Christ 
 who is perfection in our place and as our sub- 
 stitute. The agreement therefore between what 
 the law requires and what the promise provides 
 is absolute and all-harmonious. The law locks 
 the door on the sinner ; Christ unlocks the door 
 and sets it wide open. The law kills Lazarus 
 and rolls a stone upon him; Christ cries, *^Koll 
 away the stone: Lazarus come forth!'' John 
 8:36; John 10:9. 
 
 For if there had been a law given which could 
 have given life, verily righteousness should 
 have been hy the law. If a fallen helpless 
 creature could keep any law perfectly, the per- 
 fect law of God would be the one to keep. But 
 fallen and dead as he is, in trespasses and sins. 
 
54 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 lie cannot keep it. If he conld keep it in the 
 future what becomes of his past? But he can- 
 not keep it in the future for the same tempta- 
 tions are in the future that were in the past and 
 the same depraved fallen nature. Besides 
 obedience must be flawless — that of an angel, 
 that of Christ Himself: '^for whosoever shall 
 keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, 
 he is guilty of all.'' James 2: 10; Ps. 119: 96. 
 
 Vs. 22, 23. But the Scripture hath concluded 
 all under sin, that the promise hy faith of Jesus 
 Christ might he given to them that believe. 
 The law like a great scythe has cut us down and 
 laid us low. We are by it *^shut up" in the 
 prison of Giant Despair and no help for us save 
 in the key of promise. 
 
 Vs. 24. Wherefore the law was our School- 
 master to bring us unto Christ, First to show 
 us our sins and secondly to lead us — as the an- 
 cient '^ pedagogue" was wont to lead the little 
 children by the hand to a better Instructor — to 
 One who will take us in hand for salvation. 
 The law can teach and whip but cannot comfort. 
 Only Christ can do that. 
 
 Vs. 25. But after that faith is come, we are 
 no longer under a schoolmaster, i. e., for disci- 
 pline, for penalty. It does not mean for pre- 
 cept. It does not mean that the Ten Command- 
 ments are abolished. It simply says: You are 
 not saved by keeping the commandments, nor 
 
PLACE AND OFFICE OF THE LAW 55 
 
 are you lost if you fail. It is Christ wlio has 
 saved you and you cannot be lost. Now you 
 will obey from the instinct of the new nature 
 and from gratitude, for these are holiness. 
 
 Vs. 26. For ye are all the children of God 
 hy faith in Christ Jesus. This is how a man 
 becomes a child of God — not by keeping the 
 law, nor by trying to keep it, but by simply be- 
 lieving on Christ. 
 
 * * There is life for a look at the Cmeified One, 
 There is life at this moment for thee ; 
 Then look only look unto Him and be saved, 
 Unto Him who was nailed to the tree. 
 
 It is not thy tears of repentance and prayers. 
 But the BLOOD that atones for the soul, 
 
 On Him then who shed it, thou mayst at once 
 Thy weight of iniquities roll. ' ' 
 
THE SPIRIT 
 
 OF 
 
 SONSHIP 
 
THE SPIRIT OF SONSHIP 
 
 GALATIANS IV 
 
 Vs. 1, 2. Now I say. That the heir, as long 
 as he is a child, differeth nothing from a serv- 
 ant, though he be lord of all; hut is under tutors 
 and governors. . . . The apostle speaking of 
 tlie pedagogue (Ch. 111:24), is led to empha- 
 size the condition of the child, or minor who is 
 under his tutelage. This child is one day to 
 reach his majority and come into his fortune. 
 Meanwhile he is under as complete a subjection 
 as any slave. He is in bondage to the peda- 
 gogue who teaches him his obligations and, 
 when he is refractory, lays on him the whip. 
 The pedagogue is ^^ armed with penalties, but 
 devoid of sympathies. '^ He says: *^Do this; 
 do that, or be punished."' 
 
 This pedagogue represents the law and the 
 dealing of the law with the soul, in which deal- 
 ing, it is called ^^The letter that killeth,'' (II 
 Cor. 3:6)— ''the strength of sin," (I Cor. 
 15:56), and ^Hhe ministry of death," (II Cor. 
 3:7). So far as salvation is concerned, the law 
 can do nothing but accuse, terrify, condemn and 
 kill. The condition of the child or slave under 
 the pedagogue, therefore, was abject. But even 
 
 59 
 
60 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 so, must lie despair? Yes, of himself and his 
 present condition, but not of a future in which 
 he shall be freed from the bondage and penal- 
 ties of the law and be lifted from the condition 
 of a servant to that of a son and heir. ^'The 
 elect," says Calvin, ^ though they are the chil- 
 dren of God from the womb, yet until by faith 
 they come to the possession of freedom, they 
 remain like slaves under the law, but from the 
 moment they know Christ, they remain no 
 longer under this bondage." The fixing of that 
 moment is the prerogative of God : the bondage 
 must continue. 
 
 Until the time appointed of the Father. The 
 time appointed for the coming of Christ into 
 the world was just right, as regards the con- 
 dition of the Jewish Church and of the world 
 at large. The great clock struck the hour. It 
 was neither too soon nor too late. It was the 
 fulness or ripeness of time. Precisely so with 
 the coming of Christ in conversion. It is at 
 the time appointed by the Father. It is the 
 effect of sovereign grace. Gal. 1 : 15, 16 ; Ezek. 
 16: 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14; Isa. 42: 16. 
 
 Vs. 3. ^^Even so we, when we were children, 
 were in bondage under the elements of the 
 world/' We were governed and controlled by 
 the world which lieth in wickedness and of 
 which we were a part. We walked ^^ according 
 to the course of this world" — according to its 
 
THE SPIRIT OF SONSHIP 61 
 
 spirit and maxims, *'and were by nature the 
 children of wrath even as others." Eph. 2 : 1, 2. 
 
 Vs. 4. But when the fulness of the time was 
 come, God sent forth His Son. This is the 
 Church's experience. It is the souPs expe- 
 rience. God makes the first movement. We do 
 not send for Christ, but Grod sends Christ to 
 us. Isa. 59:16; 63:5; IJohn 4:10. 
 
 God sent forth His Son. He must have had 
 a Son to send or He could not have sent him. 
 Christ therefore was in existence and had been 
 from eternity. He was Son not because born 
 of Mary, but '^because of His eternal relation- 
 ship of wondrous divine existence to the 
 Father." The word *^Son" expresses same- 
 ness of substance, essence and nature. A man's 
 son shares his nature and is his equal. So 
 Christ shares the Godhead and is equal with the 
 Father both in power and glory. John 10 : 30. 
 
 Made of a woman. He does not say ^^Made 
 of a Virgin," because the reference here is to 
 our broad humanity. He was ex substantia 
 matris — *^out of the substance of His mother" 
 — as much Mary's child as any child is his 
 mother's. 
 
 Made under the law, to redeem them that 
 were under the law. He did not need Himself 
 to be under the law, for He was already holy, 
 harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners; 
 but for 33 years, the life of a generation — a full 
 
62 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 human life — He was made tinder it, to fulM it, 
 not for Himself but for us. *^From tlie begin- 
 ning of His incarnation to the end of His life 
 upon earth" He was making for us a perfect 
 record — a record which will stand opposite our 
 names at the judgment as the reason why we 
 should enter heaven. God has said: **If thou 
 wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." 
 We cannot keep them. Christ therefore has 
 kept them for us and they now appear as Jcept 
 hy us because kept hy him, our Substitute 
 
 ''That perfect Man, Who came, the Eternal Son, 
 To earn salvation for the sons of men. ' ' 
 
 By His blood He cancels the law's penalty; 
 by His obedience He brings in the law's fulfil- 
 ment. He thus becomes '^the end of the law," 
 i. e., its abolition for justification, ''to every 
 one that believeth. ' ' Rom. 5 ; 19 ; II Cor. 5:21; 
 Rom. 10:4; Acts 13:39. 
 
 That we mAght receive the adoption of sons. 
 If Christ is our Substitute and takes our place, 
 then, by blessed transfer and exchange, we for- 
 ever take His place and are no longer seen in 
 ourselves but in Him — sons in the Eternal Son. 
 
 "By nature and by practice far^ — 
 How very far! — from God; 
 Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him 
 Through faith in Jesus' blood. 
 
THE SPIEIT OF SONSHIP 63 
 
 So nigh, so very nigh, to God, 
 
 Nearer, I cannot be ; 
 For in the Person of His Son 
 
 I am as near as He." 
 
 Any one can adopt children, but an adopted 
 child is not one's own child. The word adop- 
 tion in the Greek is huiothesian, ^^son-placing" 
 or ^^Son making" — i. e., by the actual imparta- 
 tion of a Divine life. 
 
 ^^Oh, what a vast thing," says one, ^'wbat a 
 snblime thing, to be born of God! God could 
 have made anything more easily than to beget 
 children. He could make stars, worlds, uni- 
 verses — ^but to make something, which was not 
 His, His own; that was the problem solved in 
 giving us life in Christ — ^sonship in the Eter- 
 nal Son." 
 
 Vs. 6. And because ye are sons, God hath 
 sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your 
 hearts, crying, Abba, Father, Your relation to 
 God is no longer servile but filial. It is no 
 longer that of a miserable sinner crying for 
 mercy; it is that of one who *^has now obtained 
 mercy," (I Pet. 2:10). It is that of one who 
 has boldness of access with confidence — of one 
 who draws near in full assurance of faith. 
 Eom. 8 : 15. 
 
 ^^And because ye are sons/' The doctrine 
 of Universal Fatherhood which is so popular 
 at present, is a downright lie. God is not the 
 
64 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 Father of fallen and condemned creatures who 
 are under His curse. God is not the Father of 
 wicked men and devils; nor can any one who 
 is in hell look up and call Him *' Father." 
 God is the Father only of His spiritual chil- 
 dren and **we are all the children of God hy 
 faith in Christ Jesus/' and in no other way. 
 The Christian is an actual child of God because 
 he has been '^begotten of God" — ^because he 
 has a new nature — a ^^ divine nature"; a nature 
 which owns God as its source and responds to 
 Him as its Father. John 1:12, 13 ; James 
 1:18; I John 5:18; I John 3:12: John 8:38. 
 God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son 
 into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. No- 
 tice : It is not we who cry, it is the Spirit who 
 cries. It is a cry — a sharp, piercing and sur- 
 mounting, overcoming cry; a cry which stops 
 all other cries in heaven, earth or hell that are 
 against us. There are without us and within 
 us many and terrible cries. The law cries; 
 the devil cries; conscience cries; our record 
 cries ; death cries. Now among these dreadful 
 and intolerable cries, another cry goes up — a 
 cry from the profounds within us. It is not 
 our own cry. We cannot even hear the cry 
 though there may be, at times, the stirring of 
 a consciousness of it. St. Paul says, **It is a 
 groaning that cannot be uttered," — (Eom. 
 8 : 26) — a groaning that we cannot groan — a 
 
THE SPIRIT OF SONSHIP 65 
 
 sighing that we cannot cry. It is a looking 
 unto God in Christ in spite of all. The Spirit 
 helpeth onr infirmities. The Spirit strength- 
 ens "Qs, in spite of all, to pant, to breathe, to 
 whisper those simplest and most elemental of 
 all syllables Ah-ha, Father, and we say, 
 
 * ^ In us, for us intercede, 
 And with voiceless groaning plead 
 Our unutterable need, 
 Comforter Divine ! 
 In us, Abba, Father cry, 
 Earnest of our bliss on high 
 Seal of immortality. 
 Comforter Divine." 
 
 In all onr soul conflicts we are to utterly ig- 
 nore the law and banish it out of our sight, and 
 look to Christ only. We are to refuse to think 
 of anything or know anything at all but Christ 
 alone and only. To say this is easy, but in the 
 time of temptation, when Satan brings up one's 
 record and the law accuses him and conscience 
 condemns him, and he has death before him — 
 then, to ignore all these and trust in Christ 
 alone and fly for hiding to His wounds alone, 
 is not so easy. It is the triumph of faith, in 
 densest darkness to see nothing, hear nothing, 
 trust nothing but Jesus only. Here the Spirit 
 helps us, still within us crying **Abba" — 
 *^ Father." Isa. 50:10. 
 
66 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 Vs. 8, 9. Howheit then, when ye knew not 
 God, ye did service unto them which by nature 
 are no gods. But now after that ye have 
 known God, or rather are known of God, how 
 turn ye again to the weak and beggarly ele- 
 ments whereunto ye desire again to be in bond- 
 age? As idolaters, they had been addicted to 
 images and ceremonies. Now they wish to go 
 back, in principle, to these things. When the 
 heart grows cold, it calls for a picture, a help 
 — for music, for decorations, for ceremonies 
 and for vestments. The more nearly frozen a 
 man is the more clothes he requires; so here 
 the Galatians; they will dress up a corpse. 
 
 Vs. 10, 11. Ye observe days, and months, 
 and times, and years. I am afraid of you. 
 Eitualism is a menace. They were on the down 
 grade. 
 
 Vs. 12. Brethren, I beseech you be as I am; 
 ye have not injured me at all. What you have 
 injured is the Gospel which you have perverted 
 and thrown away. 
 
 Vs. 15. Where is then the blessedness ye 
 spake off It is gone. The joy of God's sal- 
 vation has departed. First love is lost; the 
 Shekinah has vanished from the ^' Holiest, *' 
 and your religion has become a dry and heart- 
 less mechanical routine. 
 
 ** Where is the blessedness I knew, 
 When first I saw the Lord? 
 
THE SPIRIT OF SONSHIP 67 
 
 Where is the soul-refreshing view 
 Of Jesus and His word? 
 
 What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, 
 How sweet their memory still! 
 
 But they have left an aching void, 
 The world can never fill.'' 
 
SAEAH AND HAGAR 
 
 OR THE 
 
 TWO COVENANTS 
 
SAEAH AND HAGAR 
 
 GAiATiANS rv — (Continued,) 
 Saeah and Hagab or the Two Covenants 
 
 The apostle having established the doctrine 
 of Justification by Faith; and having shown 
 the place and office of the law in shutting men 
 up to that justification, that thus escaping from 
 a cruel and a fruitless bondage, they may come 
 to the freedom of sonship; now proceeds to 
 deeper teaching still in bringing in the Doc- 
 trine of the Covenants. 
 
 This Doctrine lies at the very heart of the 
 Gospel and is so important that he who grasps 
 and understands it, is a master in divinity, 
 while he who does not properly distinguish 
 here remains in doubt and in perplexity and 
 walks in darkness knowing not at what he 
 stumbles. One of the most difficult things in 
 the world is to see the difference between Law 
 and Grace — between my doing for salvation and 
 the doing of Another in my place, for my sal- 
 vation: and even the clearest sighted and the 
 most experienced believer finds in himself a 
 tendency to fall back from this contrast; to be- 
 come clouded again and to confound together 
 things which are as opposite as black and 
 
 71 
 
72 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 white — death and life — curse and blessing — 
 midnight and noontide. 
 
 God deals with man only by Covenant. 
 What is a covenant I It is a promise made 
 upon conditions to be fulfilled. This being so, 
 it is clear that there can be but two and only 
 two covenants possible between God and man — 
 a covenant founded upon what man shall do 
 for salvation ; and a covenant founded on what 
 God shall do for him, to save him; in other 
 words, A Covenant of Works and one of Grace. 
 Eom. 9:4; Eph. 2 : 12. The Scripture plainly 
 teaches these two covenants, and 
 
 I. The CovEiTANT of Woeks 
 
 The Covenant of Works was an agreement 
 between God and Adam, including Adam's 
 whole posterity, in which God promised him 
 and them eternal life and happiness, on condi- 
 tion that he should perfectly keep God's com- 
 mandments, with the alternative of death if he 
 should break them. In other words, the Cove- 
 nant said, '^Do this and thou shalt live; if not, 
 then dying thou shalt die. ' ' Matt. 19 : 1 7 ; Luke 
 10; 28. 
 
 II. The Covenant of Geace 
 
 The Covenant of Grace was an agreement 
 made between God the Father and God the Son 
 
SAEAH AND HAGAB 73 
 
 from all eternity: in which, in foresight of the 
 fall of man, God the Father said: My Son if 
 Thon wilt pour ont Thy sonl as an offering for 
 sin and sinners, I will give to Thee a seed 
 among them — a multitude which no man can 
 number. Isa. 53 : 10 ; Heb. 8 : 6. 
 
 The Covenant of Works stood between God 
 and Adam and Adam fell and it now lies hope- 
 lessly broken. The Covenant of Grace stood 
 between God and Christ and Christ has ful- 
 filled it and it stands established forever. The 
 Covenant of Works said: '^Do man or die." 
 The Covenant of Grace says : ' * Christ has done 
 it for thee, man, that thou mayst never die." 
 That the apostle, in this chapter speaks of these 
 two covenants appears: 
 
 1. From the two Principles — Bondage and 
 
 Freedom. 
 
 2. From the two Sons — Ishmael and Isaac. 
 
 3. From the two Mothers — Hagar and 
 
 Sarah. 
 
 4. From the two Mountains — Sinai and Sion. 
 
 5. From the asserted Fact of the Covenants. 
 
 1. Feom the Two Pkinciples — Bondage and 
 Fkeedom 
 
 Vs. 21. '^Tell me ye that desire to he under 
 the law, do ye not hear the lawf^' This is in 
 reality an appeal to all that he has said before. 
 He is again making the same contrast and dis- 
 
74 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 tinction. *^Tell me, Do ye not hear the law? 
 What does it speak to you?" Bondage. 
 **Wliat is the contrast to this?'' Freedom 
 from bondage. '^How?'' By One who breaks 
 your chain. Do you not see that the law is 
 exaction^ and only exaction, and that you can- 
 not meet the exaction and therefore must be 
 saved in some other way? Rom. 3:19, 20. 
 
 2. From the Two Sons — Ishmael, Isaac 
 
 Vs. 22. For it is written, that Abraham had 
 two sons, the one hy a bondmaid, the other by 
 a free woman. Of course, the son of a bond 
 woman was born in bondage. That was his 
 natural condition, nor could he, by any effort 
 of his own make it anything else. Never would 
 it be true that he was legitimate. Let him do 
 what he would, there would be on him a stain. 
 Ishmael was born of the ^^ flesh,'' i. e., in a nat- 
 ural way. There was nothing supernatural 
 about his birth. God had not promised him. 
 Abraham's unbelief and Sarah's precipitancy 
 were his origin. In contrast to this is the son 
 of the free woman; born of the Spirit; born 
 supernaturally ; born in fulfilment of a definite 
 promise. There was nothing of nature about 
 Isaac, for nature in Abraham was dead, and 
 Sarah barren. Isaac therefore was a miracle 
 — a child of grace. Here is the contrast of 
 
SARAH AND HAGAR 75 
 
 the ** flesh'' and ^^ spirit"; and these two ele- 
 ments contend with one another as we read be- 
 low in verse 29. ^^He that was born after the 
 flesh persecuted him that was born after the 
 Spirit." The two things were not only in con- 
 trast but in bitter antagonism and feud. It 
 was a perpetual quarrel between them — ^the boy 
 under the law could not endure the child of 
 free grace. It was a fight to the death of one 
 or the other, and so finally the sentence came, 
 '*Cast out the bond-woman and her son for the 
 son of the hond-woman shall not be heir with 
 the son of the free woman,' ^ 
 
 3. From the Two Mothers — ^Hagar, Sarah 
 
 Vs. 23. But he who was of the hond-woman 
 was horn after the flesh; hut he of the free 
 woman was hy promise. While Hagar had the 
 first son, Sarah was married and Isaac had been 
 promised before Hagar ever was heard of. 
 Sarah was with Abraham in Ur of Chaldees; 
 Hagar had but recently been brought up out 
 of Egypt. Sarah was the true wife; Hagar 
 was not; she should never have been anything 
 but an handmaid to Sarah. Kept in her place, 
 she was well. Keep the law in its place — ^let 
 it keep pointing a way to Christ, ^'as the eyes 
 of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress" and 
 all will be well. But when Hagar points to 
 
76 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 herself and prides herself on her achievements 
 and despises free grace in the person of Sarah, 
 she is only to be banished and put an end to. 
 Again Hagar never was a free woman ; she was 
 always nnder the law, but Sarah was never un- 
 der law ; she was always at liberty and at home 
 with her husband. Isaac was not under the 
 law as Ishmael was ; he was the heir and lord 
 of all. Even so, ^'We are not nnder law but 
 nnder grace." Rom. 6:14; Gal. 2:19; Rom. 
 7:2, 4; Gal. 5:18; Rom. 7:6. The law is nn- 
 der ns as Hagar was nnder Sarah. The law 
 is no longer above ns to threaten — ^bnt nnder ns 
 to serve. I Cor. 9 : 21 ; Rom. 3 : 31. Once 
 more: Hagar was cast out, but Sarah never 
 was. The Covenant of Works is gone; it is 
 banished — Hagar is dead in the wilderness. 
 But Sarah remains in the tent to the end, and 
 she lies to-day side by side with her husband 
 in the cave of Machpelah. The free wife is a 
 wife forever. The Covenant she represents 
 will never be annulled. 
 
 4. From the Two Mountains — Sinai and Sion 
 
 Vs. 24. Which things are an allegory. St. 
 Paul did not invent this allegory. It was not a 
 figment of his imagination. He found it in 
 Genesis. It was revealed to him at Sinai. 
 We should never have known that God in the 
 history had prefigured a mystery, if the apostle 
 
. SAEAH AND HAGAR 77 
 
 had not told ns so. He, in the solitudes of 
 Arahia where Hagar went away to die, was 
 able to see the contrast between Sinai (the 
 Mount of thorns), bondage under the law, and 
 Mt. Sion which is free and ^'from above," the 
 city of the living God into which, by faith, we 
 enter. Two mountains! One, the law, which 
 smokes and flashes lire; the other, sun lighted 
 Sion, the Church of promise — the Church in- 
 visible and heavenly composed of all believers. 
 
 5. From the Fact of Two Coveitants 
 
 Vs. 24-26. For these are the two covenants: 
 the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to 
 bondage which is Agar. For this Agar is 
 Mount Sinai in Arahia and answereth to Je- 
 rusalem which now is and is in bondage with 
 her children. But Jerusalem which is above is 
 free, which is the mother of us all. St. Paul 
 says : These are the Two Covenants ; there are, 
 there can be only two, one based on our doing ; 
 the other on a free, unconditional promise. 
 One which says: *'Do and I will save you!" 
 The other which says: Believe on Christ Who 
 has done it, and you are saved. The covenant 
 made with Adam and broken by him, is men- 
 tioned in Hosea 6:7. *^They have broken as 
 Adam" (k'Adam, see margin), ^Hhe covenant." 
 The Covenant of Grace is described in Ps. 
 89:3,4;Ps. 89:19, 27, 28. 
 
78 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 ''With David's Lord and ours, 
 A covenant once v^as made, 
 Whose bonds are firm and sure, 
 Whose glories ne'er shall fade; 
 Signed by the sacred Three in One 
 In mutual love ere time begun. 
 
 Firm as the lasting hills 
 
 This covenant shall endure, 
 Whose potent shalls and wills 
 
 Make every blessing sure; 
 When ruin shakes all nature's frame 
 
 Its jots and tittles stand the same." 
 
 Vs. 27. For it is ivritten, Rejoice thou bar- 
 ren that hearest not; hreaJc forth and cry, thou 
 that travailest not; for the desolate hath many 
 more children than she which hath an husband. 
 The apostle here states the paradox which has 
 been a surprise in every age of the world: the 
 man of freewill boasts the merit of works but 
 does not produce them; the man of free grace 
 denies the merit of works, but his preaching 
 is everywhere followed by a seriousness and 
 punctilio which men call ''Puritanic." The 
 doctrine which the world considers so barren 
 brings forth children to God. The grieved and 
 discarded and desolate Sarah hath many more 
 children than she who is married to the law, 
 that ' ' dead husband. ' ' Eom. 7:5; James 1 : 15. 
 
 Vs. 28. Notv we brethren, as Isaac was, are 
 
SAEAH AND HAGAE 79 
 
 the children of promise. That is, we have con- 
 sented to be saved on the ground of God's sim- 
 ple promise, all conditions having been fulfilled 
 for US by Christ. It is not that we merit any- 
 thing, or ever can merit, but that God has 
 promised us eternal life if we trust in Jesus; 
 that and that only is the ground of our hope. 
 We are saved by promise: for the ^^ climax of 
 all virtue'' is to trust the naked word of God. 
 
 Vs. 29. But as then he that was horn after 
 the flesh persecuted him that was horn of the 
 Spirit, even so is it now. Self righteousness is 
 proud and arrogant. The man who is pluming 
 himself on doing his duty sets himself up as a 
 standard of other men's duty. Duty is self- 
 righteous and duty is cruel — as one has truly 
 said: ^^The most horrible deeds the world has 
 ever known have been done by those whose ex- 
 cuse was * their duty.' " So parents have de- 
 prived their children of all childhood's rights 
 and pleasures — so inquisitors like Torquemada 
 have tortured helpless innocence — so Saul of 
 Tarsus verily thought that in slaughtering the 
 saints he was doing God service. Acts 26:9. 
 The religion of efforts, duty, works and striv- 
 ings, hates, while at the same time it envies, the 
 religion of the man who rests satisfied and 
 quiet in the promise of God's Word. 
 
 Vs. 30. Nevertheless ivhat saith the Scrip- 
 ture^ Cast out the bond woman and her son: 
 
80 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 for the son of the bond woman shall not he heir 
 with the son of the free woman. He who trusts 
 to be saved by his merits, or partly by Christ 
 and partly by his merits, will find himself cast 
 out. On the other hand there is no falling from 
 grace. ^^The Holy Ghost will not leave His 
 living temple to become a habitation of devils'' 
 nor will Christ lose one of the sheep which have 
 been given to Him by the Father. John 
 10:27-30. Another golden text is Jer. 32:40: 
 ^^I will not turn away from them and they shall 
 not depart from Me." I will not — they shall 
 not. No such promise was ever in the Cove- 
 nant of Works — God never said of Adam, even 
 of innocent Adam, *^He shall not depart from 
 Me." It is only the Covenant of Grace which 
 says : ^^The mountains shall depart and the hills 
 be removed : but my kindness shall not depart 
 from thee, neither shall the Covenaitt of My 
 Peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath 
 mercy on thee." ^^I will never leave thee nor 
 forsake." Isa. 54:10; Heb. 13:5. 
 
 ''The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose 
 I will not, I will not desert to its foes. 
 That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, 
 I'll never, no never, no never forsake/' 
 
 Vs. 31. So then brethren^ we are not children 
 of the bond woman hut of the free. The apos- 
 tle boldly asserts it. We are, not we may be, 
 
SAEAH AND HAGAE 81 
 
 not we hope to be, but we aee the children of 
 the free. The apostle stands in full assurance. 
 We who believe ought also to stand in full as- 
 surance. As Luther says: ^^Let every one so 
 practice with himself that his conscience may 
 be fully assured that he is under grace. And 
 if he feel any doubt or wavering let him wrestle 
 against it, for it behooveth us to overcome all 
 doubting and to stand in the persuasion and 
 certainty of God's favor, rooting out of our 
 hearts this cursed opinion that a man ought to 
 doubt the record which God has given of His 
 Son; ^^And this is the record, that God hath 
 given to us eternal life and this life is in His 
 Son. IJohn5:ll. 
 
 '' 'Tis he who hath the Son hath life, 
 Though dead in sins before. 
 And nothing of the wrath of God 
 Shall ever reach him more." 
 
 ''My God, the Covenant of Thy love 
 Abides forever sure; 
 And in its matchless grace I feel 
 My happiness secure. 
 
 *'Thy Covenant the last accent claims 
 Of this poor faltering tongue, 
 And shall the earliest notes employ 
 Of my celestial song." 
 
 The Covenant of Grace is founded on the sim- 
 
82 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 pie promise, ** Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
 and thou shalt he saved." 'We are to eye this 
 promise and act upon it and to know that we 
 cannot triast it too ahsolutely nor too far. 
 *^The promise of God," says Spurgeon, **is 
 our best ground of assuranJ^e: it is far more 
 sure than dreams or visions and fancied revela- 
 tions ; and is far more to he trusted than feel- 
 ings either of joy or sorrow. It is written, He 
 that believeth on Him is not condemned. I be- 
 lieve on Jesus, therefore I am not condemned. 
 This is good reasoning and the conclusion is 
 certain." 
 
 And what I trust for in the promise and take 
 in the prom^e is my salvation. If I do not 
 believe that I sh.2R,])e^aved, I do not believe 
 anything worth the believing; my faith is a 
 bridge having only one end to it — this end. 
 The faith which saves goes all the way across. 
 It is not ^^ Christ will keep me if I keep my- 
 self," but it is, *^ Christ Will Keep Me.'' 
 
STEADFASTNESS 
 FALLING FEOM GRACE 
 
STEADFASTNESS— FALLING FROM 
 GRACE 
 
 GALATIANS V 
 
 The Epistle to the Galatians, like most of 
 St. Paul's epistles, falls into three divisions. 
 The first two chapters are introductory; the 
 next two doctrinal; the last two hortatory and 
 experimental. 
 
 Drawing near to the close of the epistle and 
 entering its third division, the apostle becomes 
 more vehement in defence of Salvation by Faith 
 alone ; and in exhorting the Galatians to main- 
 tain the freedom wherewith Christ had made 
 them free. 
 
 It is, no doubt, a difficult thing to arrive at 
 the fact and simplicity of the Gospel — to come 
 to see Christ as our Substitute standing for us 
 forever, for everything, from the moment we 
 consent to risk ourselves on Him and trust 
 Him. But it is no less difficult, to hold fast to 
 salvation in Christ when once we possess it. 
 In times of soul distress and awful despair, 
 when, driven completely out of ourselves and 
 made to feel our utter helplessness, we cast 
 ourselves on Christ to save us, joy unspeakable 
 at once fills the soul. But when distress is 
 gone and despair has been removed, and we 
 
 85 
 
86 GBACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 stand in all the conscions bliss of freedom, then 
 Satan comes in again to tempt us and cause us 
 to doubt — to seduce and allure, if not to drag 
 us away from the solid ground of God's prom- 
 ise and down into the bogs and quagmires of 
 an evil questioning where reason flounders and 
 where faith makes shipwreck. I Pet. 5:8, 9 ; 
 I Cor. 15:58; II Pet. 3:17; Heb. 3:6; 10:35. 
 
 The Ground, the only ground of salvation is 
 the merit of Christ. That I look at; that I 
 trust and nothing besides it, and so long as I 
 keep looking and keep trusting, I have peace 
 which passes understanding; but that peace, 
 the devil and his emissaries — the false apostles 
 who abound in every age — will, if possible, by 
 every means filch away. How needful then for 
 me, as for the Galatians of old, the Apostolic 
 injunction, — 
 
 Vs. 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty 
 wherewith Christ hath made us free, ^^ Stand 
 fast!" How needful this injunction, the 
 apostasies of every age, from Galatia to Rome 
 and from Eome to Geneva, unite to emphasize. 
 Yea, we ourselves have seen men espouse a 
 certain principle and assert it with surprising 
 earnestness, only as quickly to renounce the 
 same principle and to exhibit the glaring and 
 pitiful spectacle of a self contradiction. Gal. 
 2:18; Titus 3:10, 11. 
 
 Stand fast! We go not from faith to un- 
 
STEADFASTNESS 87 
 
 faitli, but from faith to faith. It is a contin- 
 ual eyeing of Christ and following hard after 
 Christ. ^^ Godliness," says one, ^4s a life-long 
 business. It is hard to keep on, but it is 
 harder still to heep on keeping on, and the dif- 
 ference between the spurious and real Christian 
 lies in this staying power." Matt. 13:21; 
 Matt. 10 : 22 ; James 1 : 12 ; Heb. 3 : 14. 
 
 Stand fast in the liberty: What liberty? 
 Liberty from the wrath of God, the penalty of 
 sin, the fear of death, the deviPs power and 
 accusations. "We are freed from all these evils 
 because Christ, the Son of God, has been set 
 between us and them, as our screen and our 
 Substitute. His Blood is between us and hell ; 
 His Eighteousness is our passport to heaven. 
 By the one we have escaped and by the other 
 we enter. 
 
 *'0 love! thou bottomless abyss! 
 
 My sins are swallowed up in thee; 
 Covered is my unrighteousness, 
 
 From condemnation I am free; 
 While Jesu's Blood, through earth and skies 
 
 Mercy, free, boundless mercy cries ! ' ' 
 
 And he not entangled again with the yoJce of 
 bondage. *^The reference here," says Luther, 
 *4s to oxen which draw in the yoke with great 
 toil, receiving nothing thereby but forage and 
 pasture, and when they are able to draw the 
 
88 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 yoke no more they are appointed to slaugh- 
 ter." So it is with those who fall back from 
 the freedom of Christ and become occupied 
 with their own doings. They become entan- 
 gled with the yoke of the law — they do not 
 know when they have done enough ; they do not 
 know whether they have done the right thing; 
 after all, what is their doing good for? When 
 they have tired themselves out, they have only 
 death for the end of it. Those who doubt their 
 salvation are always in the fear of death and 
 may be called the ^^deviPs martyrs,'^ for they 
 work hard for merit and, when they die, merit 
 only damnation. Jer. 31 : 18 ; Matt. 23 : 14. 
 
 Vs. 2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if 
 ye he circumcised, Christ shall profit you noth- 
 ing. So far St. Paul has spoken as in light- 
 ning flashes; now he speaks in thunder bolts. 
 *^I, as God's ambassador declare that if ye be 
 circumcised Christ shall peofit you nothing." 
 This is something tremendous. *^ Christ shall 
 profit you NOTHING — you lose Christ and all 
 your interest in Christ and His in you, the mo- 
 ment when in act or thought you add anything 
 to what He has done to save you." If I con- 
 tend that circumcision or anything else helps 
 toward my justification before God in the way 
 of merit, then I have some merit, then I can 
 never be left out of heaven because I have some 
 merit. Then I do not need Christ any more: 
 
STEADFASTNESS 89 
 
 He is unprofitable for me; I get into heaven 
 without him : I evacuate Christ. The man who 
 reasons so becomes first an Arminian, then a 
 Unitarian, then a mere moralist or an immor- 
 alist; he drops Christ out of his scheme alto- 
 gether. 
 
 Vs. 3. For I testify to every man that is 
 circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole 
 law. There is an anadiplosis, or solemn repe- 
 tition here. If you fall back, in any degree, 
 from Christ to the law, then you are bound to 
 keep the whole law, i. e., to be as holy as Christ 
 was. You are thus impaled on the two horns 
 of a moral dilemma, — ^you lose Christ, and you 
 lose all your merits because they are none of 
 them perfect but imperfect — and so, you are 
 damned ! Gal. 3 : 10 ; James 2 : 10. 
 
 Vs. 4. Christ is become of none effect unto 
 you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, 
 ye are fallen from grace. Ye are fallen from 
 grace: not out of grace, as if grace were not 
 real — as if grace were not permanent — as if 
 eternal life could die. It is not such a falling 
 as is mentioned in Heb. 6 : 6, where the word is 
 parapiptein, to fall outside of a thing and com- 
 pletely ^^away"; but here the word is eJcpiptein, 
 a falling inside, or a dislocation as of a bone 
 which needs to be replaced. Those to whom 
 St. Paul speaks in the Hebrews never were in 
 grace. They fell from a mere temporary *^en- 
 
90 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 ligMenment, ' ' not from the things which belong 
 to, or ^' accompany '* salvation (Heb. 6:9). 
 *^Ye are fallen from grace'' means, yon have 
 abandoned your platform: yon have dropped 
 upon a lower level : yon have left the high and! 
 cloudless and out and out position of justifi- 
 cation by the Merits, Blood and Kighteousness 
 of Christ alone: your ritualism — your religion 
 of ceremonies and the ^ ^ observance of days and 
 months and times and years" is a lapse. Ee- 
 gain, recover your former position or Christ is 
 lost to you; He is of *^none effect"; '^unprofit- 
 able"; worthless. The apostle's word is a 
 Caveat, a warning, a protest. Had there been 
 no recovery for these Galatians — ^had it been 
 * impossible," as in the case of the Hebrews, 
 'Ho renew them again unto repentance" — the 
 apostle would never have written to them at 
 all. Jer. 3:22; I Kings 8:46-51; Jer. 4:1; 
 Hosea 5 : 15. 
 
 Vs. 5. For we through the Spirit wait for 
 the hope of righteousness by faith. We have 
 righteousness by faith; then hope founded upon 
 that righteousness. Faith is in the understand- 
 ing; hope in the affections and will. Faith 
 rests in what is done already; hope runs for- 
 ward to what will be. Hope then, desires and 
 expects. Once we are assured of our interest 
 in Christ which is the work of faith, the feel- 
 ings of desire and expectation are awakened 
 
STEADFASTNESS 91 
 
 and these have their ground and firm founda- 
 tion in righteousness, and 
 
 1. In the righteousness of God who saves 
 us by justice as well as by mercy: for if Christ's 
 obedience and sacrifice are accepted in my be- 
 half, God cannot punish me, He cannot demand 
 satisfaction 
 
 ''First at my Bleeding Surety's hand 
 And then again, at mine/' 
 
 2. In the righteousness of Christ who has 
 obeyed the law for me. ''Our hope of right- 
 eousness," says one, "is a hope arising out of 
 the fact that we are righteous before God and 
 therefore that God will treat us as being so. 
 Strange hope, since we are guilty! Yes, but 
 we stand not in our own, nor in the righteous- 
 ness of any other man, but only in the doings 
 and the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ which 
 together make up for us a 'wedding dress' — a 
 'robe of righteousness' more glorious than hu- 
 man merit could have spun even if unfallen 
 Adam had been the spinner." 
 
 With His spotless vesture on 
 I'm holy in the Holy One. 
 
 Eom. 5:19; II Cor. 5:21. 
 
 We are waiting. Would it not have been 
 
 better to say, we are working. No, it would 
 
 have spoiled the sense altogether. To com- 
 
92 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 plete our hope of rigMeonsness by faith, we 
 have nothing to do except wait — to make our 
 crown more secure we have to do nothing. 
 Has not Jesus said, *^It is finished"? So far 
 as justification is concerned, we are as right- 
 eous now as we shall be when robed in light, 
 we cast our crowns before the throne. We are 
 now at rest ; we wait. It is true we are work- 
 ing for other reasons, but not to be saved ; and 
 we rest and wait while we work. Were it not 
 for witness bearing we might be taken to heaven 
 this moment — we are as fit as we shall ever be 
 — as meet as we shall ever be, for '^He hath 
 made us meet." Col. 1:12. 
 
 We ivait for the hope. We hope, and hope 
 fluctuates. Here again comes the devil and 
 strives to dislodge me and cloud me and shut 
 away Christ's righteousness, my merit, by 
 eclipse of faith ; but hope springs up, a phoenix 
 from the smoking flax, and soars away and 
 clutches with her talons and lays hold upon 
 eternal life and will not let it go. Heb. 6 : 18, 19. 
 
 *'My hope is built on nothing less 
 
 Than Jesu's Blood and Righteousness 
 I dare not trust the sweetest frame, 
 But wholly lean on Jesu's name. 
 On Christ the solid rock I stand, 
 All other ground is sinking sand." 
 
A WOEKING FAITH 
 
A WOEKINa FAITH 
 GAiATiANS V — (Continued.) 
 
 The pre-eminent point and centre of his 
 whole teaching to which St. Paul continually 
 returns and with new emphasis, is Justifica- 
 tion by the Kighteousness of Christ alone, re- 
 ceived and rested in by faith. Faith, according 
 to the apostle, is a naked empty hand which 
 simply takes salvation with all that salvation 
 means, as a free gift in Christ. The moment 
 then when a sinner acts faith, having nothing 
 in his eye but Christ's righteousness only, he 
 passes from death unto life : that is, the moment 
 he consents to be saved by Christ's merits 
 alone outside of himself and irrespective of 
 any qualifications, he is a saved man, whereas 
 the moment before he was not. And he is 
 saved as a sinner, as ungodly, without any qual- 
 ifications ; for, while Christ is well qualified for 
 us, no sinner before he believes has any quali- 
 fication for Christ except the sin in which he is 
 perishing. Eom. 4:5; Matt. 9 : 13 ; Ezek. 
 86 : 32 ; Zech. 3 : 1-4. So then nothing can help 
 us in the affair of salvation but faith. 
 
 Vs. 6. For in Jesus Christ neither circum- 
 cision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; 
 l)ut faith which worketh hy love. The outward 
 
 95 
 
96 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 whether ceremonial or simple — ^whether ritual 
 or mortal — whether profession or conduct, 
 helps one not a jot. Sacraments alone are 
 empty symbols — a thousand baptisms, ten thou- 
 sand communions leave the man the same old 
 Adam, the *^ natural' ' which cannot receive nor 
 apprehend the spiritual. There must be the 
 new creature; that which is fed from Christ 
 must be in Christ, as the branch in the vine. 
 There must be the thing born of God, and '^who 
 is he that is born of God but he that believeth 
 that Jesus is the Christ''? John 15: 5, 6; I 
 John 5 : 1. Faith then makes the difference. 
 Faith is the great necessity. Faith is the in- 
 strument which saves. Luke 7 : 50 ; Gal. 6 : 15 ; 
 Luke 18:11-13; Eph. 2:8; II Cor. 5:17. 
 
 But faith which worketh hy love. We are 
 justified by faith alone but not by faith which 
 is alone. It is not a dead principle: a seed 
 dropped into the heart, it generates and pushes 
 into light and shoots the blade and sprouts. 
 Faith is a dynamo within the soul — a new and 
 supernatural, infused and living power which 
 cannot slumber or be idle, but must work. A 
 locomotive which stands still, which carries 
 neither fire nor steam inside, is nothing better 
 than a pile of old iron — a rubbish heap. The 
 locomotive which fulfils the function of a loco- 
 motive, works. It draws the cars and yet the 
 cars are not the locomotive, and men do not 
 
A WOEKING FAITH 97 
 
 push the carSy without, or with the locomotive 
 for the locomotive is the only power. The 
 business then, in running the train is to feed 
 the locomotive and to keep the hand upon the 
 throttle of the locomotive. Faith is the loco- 
 motive and, for motion, everything depends on 
 faith; not one half mile and not one rod and 
 not one foot and not one inch and not one 
 hair's breadth without it. Eom. 1:16, 17; 
 Luke 17:5; Col. 2:6, 7; I John 5:4; Jude 20; 
 Heb. 10 : 23 ; II Tim. 4 : 7. Faith works by love. 
 To trust the Lamb of God and not to love him 
 is a sheer impossibility. Born of the vision of 
 a Bleeding Christ, is an adoring love. Faith 
 quickens love as sunshine breeds the flowers. 
 You cannot have the bulb of faith without the 
 hyacinth of love. 
 
 Vs. 7. Ye did run well; who did hinder you 
 that ye should not obey the truth? The loco- 
 motive carried you along and you were making 
 noble progress. The Christian life is here 
 likened to a track. The Galatians were run- 
 ning well while they remained sound in the 
 doctrine, steadfast and unmoved. This seems 
 a paradox — *^ stand fast for when you stand, 
 you run." Movement is not always progress. 
 In the case of the Galatians movement was 
 retrogression. On the other hand, we may be 
 running when our lives seem to ourselves to be 
 but a snail's pace, — a slow creeping. ^'They 
 
98 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 that wait on the Lord shall mount up with 
 wings as eagles.'' They wait and seem to do 
 nothing. Yet they are steadily rising toward 
 heaven. They are like trees planted by the 
 rivers of water. They remain where they were 
 but they bring forth their fruit in its season. 
 Thus it is possible to ^^ stand fast^' and yet to 
 be ''running^' in the sight of God. Isa. 40 : 31 ; 
 Ps. 1:3; Ps. 92:12-15. 
 
 Who did hinder you that ye should not obey 
 the truths Who came in a stranger to destroy 
 your peace and to ruin your paradise, as the 
 serpent came into the garden to interrupt the 
 happiness of our first parents and turn poor 
 Eve — who gave a flattering fiend the confidence 
 she would not give her God — into a beggared 
 outcast. John 10 : 5 ; II Cor. 11 : 3. 
 
 Vs. 8. This persuasion cometh not of Him 
 that calleth you. However soft and sweet and 
 musical the voice, it is the hum and hiss and 
 whisper of the lurking serpent. Beware of the 
 doctrine of works for justification in any pos- 
 sible form. Beware of taking Christ in any 
 other way than these two: First, as the Gift 
 of Salvation, and Secondly, as an example to 
 show us our defects — a mirror of what we 
 ought to be and are not. Looking into the 
 mirror drives us back of it to Christ Himself, 
 our Sacrifice and our Perfection. His right- 
 eousness alone, not ours, we see in the glass 
 
A WORKING FAITH 99 
 
 of the Word and on it our fixed gaze is sus- 
 pended. 
 
 Vs. 9. A little leaven leaveneth the tvhole 
 lump. Leaven in the Scripture, without a sin- 
 gle exception, means corruption. A little 
 leaven hidden by the false woman in three meas- 
 ures of pure Gospel meal destroys them (Matt. 
 13: 33). So we are told to ^ Spurge out the old 
 leaven'' — bad, unsound doctrine, fermentation 
 and rottenness at the centre is leaven. So in 
 the Lord's Supper we are to keep the feast, 
 *^not with the old leaven, neither with the 
 leaven of malice and of wickedness; but with 
 the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." 
 Sincerity and cleaving to the Gospel doctrine 
 are the tests of the unleavened condition. 
 Exod. 13:7; Amos 4:4, 5; Matt. 16:6, 12; I 
 Cor. 5:6-8. 
 
 Vs. 10. I have confidence in you through the 
 Lord that ye will he none otherwise minded: 
 hut he that trouhleth you shall bear his judg- 
 ment whosoever he he. St. Paul believes that 
 the root of the matter is, after all, in these 
 Galatians and that they will be restored, not 
 by any self recovery but ^^ through the Lord." 
 He has confidence that He who has begun a 
 good work within them will carry it on unto 
 the day of the Lord Jesus (Phil. 1:6), and that, 
 in spite of all their arts and wiles and sophis- 
 tries and machinations, the false teachers who 
 
100 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 have led them astray will be unmasked and 
 punished. Where there is real grace, it can 
 neither be overcome by assaults nor seduction. 
 Hosea 14:4; Matt. 24:24; Luke 22:32; I Pet. 
 1:5; Jer. 3 : 12, 13. 
 
 Vs. 11. And I, brethren, if I yet preach cir- 
 cumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution^ 
 I do suffer persecution, therefore it is per- 
 fectly clear that I oppose circumcision or any- 
 thing else pertaining to law in the matter of 
 justification. My doctrine and that of your se- 
 ducers will no more agree than fire and water, 
 vinegar with nitre. But should we agree, 
 
 Then is the offense of the cross ceased. For 
 the cross is the precise opposite and denial of 
 all human ethics and merit. Let me cease to 
 preach the cross and I no longer oppose human 
 merit. Then I am popular, I suffer no persecu- 
 tion for I allow men to believe that if they do 
 the best they can, God will save them irre- 
 spective of the righteousness of Christ. The 
 cross denies this and cuts up by the roots every 
 doctrine of works and every human opinion, and 
 eaves us Christ only. I Cor. 2:2; Gal. 6 : 13, 14. 
 
 ** Works of man when made his plea, 
 Never shall accepted be ; 
 Fruits of pride (vain- glorious worm!) 
 Are the best he can perform. 
 
A WORKING FAITH 101 
 
 Banish every vain pretence 
 
 Based on human excellence; 
 Perish everything in man, 
 
 But the grace that never can." 
 
LIBERTY AND LAW 
 
LIBERTY AND LAW 
 
 GAiiATiANS V — ( Cofitifiu ed. ) 
 
 Vs. 13. For, brethren, ye have teen called 
 unto liberty: only use not liberty for an occa- 
 sion to the flesh. The apostle here emphasizes 
 a danger. The believer, before believing, re- 
 lied upon his works to save him. After be- 
 lieving, seeing he is in no way saved by his 
 works, he is in danger of despising good works 
 and minifying their value. At first he was an 
 Arminian, living by law; now he is in danger 
 of becoming an Antinomian and flinging away 
 the law altogether. 
 
 But the law is holy and the commandment 
 holy and just and good. It is God's standard 
 — the eternal Norm. Fulfilled by Christ for 
 us, it still remains the swerveless and unerring 
 rule of righteousness. We are without the law 
 for salvation but not without the law for obe- 
 dience. Even Christ Himself, made under the 
 law in His human nature, is still — in that hu- 
 man nature which is a creature, the first sub- 
 ject of the heavenly kingdom and so forever 
 under the law. (I Cor. 15:28.) Angels are 
 under the law, ** doing God's commandments, 
 hearkening unto the voice of His word." 
 
 105 
 
106 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 (Ps. 103: 20.) The law then is immutable— its 
 reign universal and without exception. The 
 Law! It is the transcript of the Divine per- 
 fections: the standard of eternal justice: the 
 joy and rapture of all holy beings. The Law! 
 We are above it for salvation, but nnder it or 
 rather in it and it in ns, ennomos, as a principle 
 of holiness. I Cor. 9:21. (See the Greek.) 
 Suppose a straight rail track from Denver to 
 New York and suppose there is no other way. 
 A man living in Denver proposes to walk that 
 track but he is sick, an invalid, and after a mile 
 or two he sinks down. He rises with great dif- 
 jBculty and sets out again, the sooner to break 
 down. Oh, but he has a strong will — ^what he 
 calls a *^free will." He can walk it, if he will, 
 and walk it he will. After repeated and ex- 
 haustive effort, he gives up, convinced at last 
 that he is helpless, and sinks down beside the 
 track and lies there like a dead man. In that 
 condition, an express train comes along. The 
 sharp eye of the engine driver discovers the 
 man. The train is halted and the man lifted 
 aboard. Now what? The man can never get 
 to New York by walking the track, but is the 
 track torn up and destroyed because he cannot 
 walk it? Not at all. The track remains more 
 needful and more important than ever and the 
 locomotive that carries the man must run on 
 that track and cannot shunt to one side or the 
 
LIBERTY AND LAW 107 
 
 other. The track runs straight through, only 
 the man is not trying to walk it any more. He 
 is being moved and carried by a new principle : 
 the principle which says: ^^A new heart also 
 will I give you, and a new spirit will I put 
 within you'' — ^^and cause you to walk in My 
 statutes and ye shall keep My judgments and 
 do them." Ezek. 36: 26, 27. ^^For this is the 
 covenant that I will make, saith the Lord; I 
 will put My laws into their mind and write them 
 in their hearts and I will be to them a God and 
 they shall be to Me a people." (Heb. 8: 10.) 
 The law then, as a rule, a standard, a principle 
 of life is fully binding upon all believers. They 
 are not saved by it, and they are not punished 
 if through weakness of the flesh they fail and 
 break it, but they are bound to it as is the loco- 
 motive to the unswerving track and, rejoicing 
 at each mile of progress heavenward — at each 
 station passed by growth in grace, they can ex- 
 ulting cry, '*0 how love I Thy law! it is my 
 meditation all the day. I delight to do Thy 
 will, my God! I will run the way of Thy 
 commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my 
 heart." Ps. 119:97; Ps. 40:8; Ps. 119:32. 
 *'Do we then make void the law through faith?" 
 Do we remove the binding metals of the 
 Ten Commandments? God forbid, yea we 
 strengthen the track — *'we establish the law." 
 Rom. 3:3L 
 
108 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 Only use not liberty for an occasion to the 
 ■flesh. In these words we have a new proof that 
 the doctrine which we preach is the true one. 
 There were those in St. PanPs day who ob- 
 jected: ^'If the law is fulfilled and we saved 
 already, we may go on to sin because grace 
 abounds!'' *^Do you reason in that way?'' 
 says the apostle, ^Hhen your damnation is 
 just" (Eom. 3:8). There is no gratitude in 
 you and no virtue or life principle — you ^*turn 
 the grace of God into lasciviousness." (Jude 
 4.) Spurgeon once put it to such an objector: 
 '^Man, you talk like that because you are not 
 born again." It is indeed a ^^beast-like argu- 
 ment," that because God is good, I may act 
 like a devil — that because He saves me at in- 
 finite cost to Himself I may feel I owe Him 
 nothing — that chosen from all eternity in Jesus 
 Christ to be holy, I should live as if going to 
 hell — that being born again I should show no 
 spiritual breeding — ^no Noblesse oblige. The 
 very statement of such propositions is appall- 
 ing and only goes to emphasize what depths of 
 depravity are in the unchanged heart of fallen 
 man. This same apostle in another place gives 
 the antidote when he says: **We thus judge, 
 that if One died for all, then were all dead : and 
 that He died for all, that they which live should 
 not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto 
 Him Who died for them and rose again." 
 
LIBEETY AND LAW 109 
 
 But hy love serve one another. Here tlie law 
 is brought in as a service. ^ ^ I am among you, ' ' 
 said Jesus, as one that serveth — ^4f ye love Me 
 keep my commandments J' The New Testa- 
 ment repeats and enforces all the Ten Com- 
 mandments. They were given to be kept and 
 kept they shall be. Matt. 5 : 19. 
 
 Vs. 14. For all the law is fulfilled in one 
 word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bor as thyself. **The law is fulfilled:" the law 
 was given to be fulfilled not only for us, but in 
 us who walk not after the flesh but after the 
 Spirit. There is danger here of a mistake on 
 either side — for if we do not preach faith alone 
 for salvation, no one is saved ; but if we preach 
 a faith which does not obey, we preach that 
 which nullifies the faith which saves us. And 
 this is no fanciful danger, for the tendency 
 with us when assured of salvation, is to relax 
 and become cold and neglectful, and if it were 
 not for trials and temptations and chastise- 
 ments and sore adversities, the best of Chris- 
 tians would soon sink down in carnal sloth and 
 security. The law then is to be fulfilled by us 
 — ^we are to be *^ zealous of good works" — ^we 
 are to ^^be careful to maintain them for neces- 
 sary uses." Good works are also to be per- 
 formed with regard to the reward which is 
 promised; for while they cannot be rewarded 
 for any merit since they are only our duty and 
 
110 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 since grace works them in ns and not we our- 
 selves (Tsa. 26: 12), yet they will be and must 
 be rewarded for the sake of the promise, i. e., 
 because God has promised to reward what He 
 Himself does by our hands as if we had done 
 it, and we are bound upon the ground of that 
 free promise to look for *Hhe recompense of 
 the reward'' (Heb. 11:26), and if we do not 
 look for it we do God dishonor and sin against 
 our own fruitfulness. Titus 3:8; Eph. 2 : 10 ; 
 I Tim. 2:10; I Tim. 6:18; Titus 2:7; Titus 
 2:14; I Pet. 2:12; James 2:20. 
 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
 ^*Let no man think he understands this com- 
 mandment," says Luther, and well does he say 
 it, for it is much easier to observe the external 
 forms and duties of religion, than it is to feel 
 and act as one ought toward his fellow. A man 
 may apparently be very pious and yet secretly 
 he may be a defrauder — a falsifier of trusts — 
 a greedy, hard and grinding creditor — a cheat 
 in trade — a mean Satanic and insinuating slan- 
 derer — a very serpent in malice, envious and 
 jealous of his neighbor and hating him to the 
 very death. There is no such test of religion 
 as is temper — as are the secret feelings. Do I 
 love my neighbor? — 
 
 As thyself: How do I love myself? There 
 is my standard. — How do I feel when I myself 
 have been slandered or set aside, or imposed 
 
LIBEETY AND LAW 111 
 
 upon, or made the fool or the victim of some 
 practical joke? How would I like it? Do we 
 want a standard, a model, a copy for conduct? 
 ''As thyself meets the case. 
 
 Vs. 15. But if ye lite and devour one an- 
 other, **When dogs and wolves bite one an- 
 other,'' says a quaint writer, ^Hhat is accord- 
 ing to their nature, but it is sad indeed when 
 sheep take to biting one another. I would 
 rather be bitten by a dog outside the fold, than 
 by a sheep in it. The bite of a fellow Christian 
 is sharper than any other. ' ' 
 
 TaUe heed that ye he not consumed one of 
 another. Strife, contention, bickering, detrac- 
 tion and the biting of hard, unjust exasperating 
 words will rend a church in pieces quicker than 
 all the assaults of men and devils from outside. 
 
 **How sweet and heavenly is the sight 
 When those who love the Lord, 
 In one another's peace unite 
 And so fulfill His word; — 
 
 When each can feel his brother's sigh. 
 
 And with him bear a part, 
 When sorrows flow from eye to eye, 
 
 And joy from heart to heart. 
 
 Love is the golden chain that binds 
 
 The happy souls above; 
 And he's an heir of heaven who finds 
 
 His bosom glow with love." 
 
WOEKS OF THE FLESH 
 'FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT 
 
WOEKS OF THE FLESH— FRUITS OF 
 THE SPIRIT 
 
 GALATiANs V — (Continued,) 
 
 The apostle having spoken of the law as still 
 immutable and binding and of the necessity of 
 its fulfilment, and having shown that this fulfil- 
 ment is, in a single word, reducible to love ; now 
 goes on to show how such a love can be devel- 
 oped — how such a fulfilment can be accom- 
 plished. The law remains a principle and 
 while, in one sense it may be said to be over us 
 because it rules everywhere and because no al- 
 lowance can be made for its breaking, yet in 
 another and transcendent sense, the law is un- 
 der us and not we under the law — i. e., the 
 Spirit which has entered into and controls us, 
 so rises above the letter that the letter is lost 
 out of sight while a nobler Object replaces it. 
 We fulfil the law not by looking at the law but 
 at Christ. Heb. 12:2; Phil. 3:12, 13, 14. 
 
 When Blondin walked upon a tight rope 
 across the Genesee just in front of the falls, a 
 star was placed at the end of the rope and on 
 that star Blondin fia:ed his eyes and walked suc- 
 cessfully. Had he once looked down at his feet 
 and at the rope beneath him he would have 
 fallen 120 feet into the chasm. So the apostle 
 says: The law is to be fulfilled but the law is 
 
 115 
 
116 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 not the thing you look at — ^you look at Christ 
 who has fulfilled it for you — Christ is the Star 
 at the end of the rope. Eom. 6 : 15 ; I Cor. 
 9:20; Gal. 3:25; Gal. 5:18; Col. 3:1-3; Eom. 
 7:6. 
 
 Vs. 16. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit. 
 He does not say Walk in the law, yet he would 
 have said so were the law the means and power 
 of holiness. On the contrary, ^Hhe letter kill- 
 eth'^ — looking at the law and living by the law 
 means nothing but condemnation and failure 
 and death. What is wanted is life — '^the Spirit 
 giveth life," (II Cor. 3:6). The Holy Ghost 
 is the power. Do not disturb the rail track, the 
 law; run on wheels above it, armed with faith 
 and winged by love. 
 
 Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the 
 lusts of the flesh. Here is brought into sharp 
 contrast the two natures in the believer : the old 
 nature which we brought into the world with 
 us, which is only depravity and corruption ; and 
 the new nature which cannot sin because it is 
 born of God (I John 3:9). The presence of 
 these two natures obliges a strife which the nat- 
 ural man does not know — an internecine war. 
 Ishmael is at peace in the tent until Isaac comes 
 in, but from that moment Isaac grows until he 
 gets the upper hand, and by and by the tent of 
 mortality falls and Ishmael is forever cast out. 
 Eom. 6:11; Col. 3:5. 
 
WOEKS OF THE FLESH 117 
 
 Our inbred sin requires 
 
 Our flesh to see the dust; 
 Yet since the Lord our Saviour lives 
 
 So all His members must. 
 
 Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. You 
 have them. The flesh is in the believer, al- 
 though the believer is not in the flesh (Eom. 
 8:9), and the flesh in the believer is quite as 
 bad as any other flesh — ^not an atom of good- 
 ness is in it nor possibility of goodness. Born 
 of the old serpent, onr father the devil, the 
 fallen nature in us is nothing but a writhing 
 serpent capable of nothing but venom and a 
 crook. Nothing but what is evil can come from 
 man. All spiritual good must come from the 
 Spirit. * ' Where then, ' ' says Calvin, * ^ shall we 
 find a drop of goodness in man's free will; un- 
 less we call that good which God calls evil, for 
 the carnal mind is enmity against God." It is 
 enmity and only enmity and enmity in quint- 
 essence. And although there have appeared in 
 unrenewed men instances of gentleness, integ- 
 rity and generosity, it is certain that they were 
 only * * specious disguises ' ' like the brilliant col- 
 ors of a snake which in themselves are beauti- 
 ful but which are all the more horrible from 
 their inseparable connection with the reptile 
 who shows them. Heb. 11 : 6 ; Eom. 14 : 23. 
 
 Ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. The 
 
118 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 apostle does not say there is no flesh in them — 
 no lust, nor that they shall do no sinful action 
 — both which are true only of Christ, but that 
 they shall not give up to the flesh to be under it, 
 or to lusts as an impulse, a power. ^^Not that 
 they do not sin,'' says Dr. Gill, '^but that they 
 do not make a trade of it. ' ' 
 
 Vs. 17. For the -flesh lusteth against the 
 Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh: and these 
 are contrary the one to the other so that ye can- 
 not (or rather so that ye may not) do the things 
 that ye would. That which is born of the flesh 
 is flesh and wills in one direction. That which 
 is born of the Spirit is spirit and wills in the 
 counter direction in order that the believer may 
 not do the things which he would do, if left to 
 himself. See here the Greek, hina me ha an 
 thelete. 
 
 Vs. 18. But if ye he led of the Spirit ye are 
 not under the law. Whatever our success in 
 battling with our depraved inclinations, it is 
 never absolute and perfect. We cannot per- 
 fectly keep the law; our recourse then is to be 
 led of the Spirit which animates us above the 
 mere letter so that we are not under the law, 
 but walk — so to say — above it, free from a con- 
 demning conscience. And this, since God ac- 
 cepts our imperfect and defective obedience as 
 if it were perfect and without a flaw, being cov- 
 ered as it is and hidden under the white and 
 shining righteousness of Christ, which like a 
 
WORKS OF THE FLESH 119 
 
 clond, covers God's people as the broadly ex- 
 panding ''pillar" covered the entire camp of 
 Israel. The snn could not smite Israel because 
 of the cloud, and the justice of God cannot smite 
 us because of the interposed screen of Christ's 
 righteousness. 
 
 Vs. 19. Now the worhs of the flesh. The 
 ''flesh" does not mean the body, although it 
 uses the body, but the flesh means the fallen na- 
 ture of man — all that he is and brings with him 
 into the world. It includes then all his facul- 
 ties higher and lower — ^intellect, affections, con- 
 science and will which are tainted with sin. 
 The apostle describes it in Romans VIII : 7 as 
 the carnal mind which will not and the enmity 
 which cannot please God. It is the "old 
 Adam" in whom is no atom nor scintilla of 
 goodness. 
 
 Noiv the works of the flesh are manifest. 
 The flesh shows what it is by its works. Lovely 
 as the Belladonna, it is still rank poison. The 
 catalogue appended is inclusive of all the flesh 
 can be or do. 
 
 Which are these: Adultery, fornication, un- 
 cleanness, lasciviousness. He begins with sen- 
 sual sins, then he proceeds to the intellectual. 
 The disease of fallen nature betrays itself in 
 restlessness. It is never content with what it 
 at present possesses, wife, or lover, purity or 
 proper enjoyment. 
 
120 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 *'The things forbidden we always desire, 
 And things most denied we seek to acquire." 
 
 Vs. 20. Idolatry J witchcraft. With wanton- 
 ness always goes profanity. The vision of God 
 is lost to the impure. They seek help else- 
 where than from God — from the occult, from 
 philtres, from charms, from mediums, magic 
 and demons. The devil is an ** unclean spirit" 
 and the unclean associate with him. 
 
 Vs. 21. Hatred, variance, wrath, seditions. 
 The two extremes of nature are sensuality and 
 murder. The pendulum swings between these. 
 **The worship of the beautiful ends in an orgy." 
 Shechem admires Dinah and defiles her. Am- 
 non ruins Tamar and drives her from his house 
 in anger. 
 
 Heresies, These are the result of a miserable 
 self conceit which sets itself up a critic and 
 judge of Divine revelation. 
 
 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings. 
 Envy is the effect of that mad ambition which, 
 instead of submitting itself to the will of God 
 and looking only to the glory of God, must al- 
 ways run a rivalship with others and be grieved 
 by every excellence except its own. It is a 
 dreadful picture but it covers all the possibili- 
 ties of fallen man — of all his works under the 
 law. 
 
 Vs. 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, 
 joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 
WORKS OF THE FLESH 121 
 
 faith, meekness, temperance. Here is the 
 blessed contrast. There are nine grapes in this 
 heavenly cluster. Three toward God: Love, 
 Joy, Peace. Three toward my neighbor : Long 
 suffering, Gentleness, Goodness. Three as re- 
 gards myself: Faith, Meekness, Temperance or 
 self-control. And to show that these all, are 
 but varied expressions of the one Love which 
 fulfils the law, we may say as has been said 
 that Joy is love exulting; Peace is love in re- 
 pose; Long suffering is love on trial; Gentle- 
 ness is love in society; Goodness is love in ac- 
 tion; Faith is love in endurance; Meekness is 
 love at school; and Temperance is love in dis- 
 cipline and training — so then it is Love in all 
 the cluster and the circle of the Christian 
 graces. 
 
 Against such there is no law. Against the 
 others — ^*the works of the flesh," there is a 
 law. **They which do such things shall not in- 
 herit the kingdom of God!'^ But against these 
 fruits and those who do them there is no longer 
 any law. They walk at liberty and rejoice in 
 hope of the glory of God. 
 
 ''Guide me Thou great Jehovah, 
 
 Pilgrim through this barren land; 
 I am weak, but Thou art mighty, 
 Hold me with Thy powerful hand ; 
 Bread of heaven 
 Peed me, till I want no more. 
 
122 ORACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 ''Open now the crystal Fountain, 
 
 Whence the healing streams do flow; 
 Let the fiery cloudy pillar 
 
 Lead me all my journey through; 
 Strong Deliverer 
 Be Thou still my strength and shield." 
 
SOWING AND EEAPINa 
 
SOWING AND EEAPINa 
 
 GALATIANS VI 
 
 From errors of doctrine, the apostle in the 
 epistle, proceeds to faults of life. Having 
 enumerated the works of the flesh and having 
 shown that the flesh contends with the indwell- 
 ing Spirit and at times overcomes it, he en- 
 joins upon the Galatians a gentle and tender 
 treatment of those, their fellow Christians who 
 may be overtaken in a fault — i. e., beguiled and 
 cheated by Satan and their carnal passions into 
 conduct unbecoming their high and heavenly 
 calling ; and this he does more naturally in con- 
 nection with the caution in the last verse of the 
 preceding chapter against **vain glory," or the 
 disposition inherent in every man to wish to be 
 something or somebody, and so to set himself 
 up over others and plume himself as being 
 something superior in conduct or in moral prin- 
 ciple to others. 
 
 Vs. 1. Brethren, if a man he overtaken in a 
 fault; if it come as a surprise and he be seized 
 or ever he is aware, and carried away by temp- 
 tation — a thing not at all impossible — as wit- 
 ness James 3:2; I Kings 8:46; Eccl. 7:20; 
 Prov. 24:16-18. 
 
 Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one 
 
 125 
 
126 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 in the spirit of meekness: ''A sentence full of 
 heavenly comfort is this," says Luther, ** which 
 once delivered me, when in terrible trouble, 
 from death. For since the saints in this life do 
 not only live in the flesh, but now and then also 
 fulfil the lusts of the flesh by falling into impa- 
 tience and error and wrath and envy and doubt- 
 ing and such like and other grievous sins, St. 
 Paul teaches how such men, when they have 
 fallen should be dealt with — ^viz. : in the spirit 
 of meekness/' That does not mean, of course, 
 that their fault should be condoned, but that 
 they should be led to see their fault and deplore 
 it and when seen to be sorry for their offences, 
 restored to confidence. (II Cor. 2:7). The 
 restoration here, katartizete, refers to the care- 
 ful replacing of a dislocated bone bringing it 
 back to its normal condition. 
 
 Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one. 
 The closer a man walks with God himself, the 
 more fit is he to deal with sinners because he 
 has a tender and a pitiful conscience. Those 
 who are themselves guilty are always hardest 
 upon like offenders, and always readiest to cast 
 a stone. John 8 : 3, 4 ; 7-8. 
 
 Considering thyself, lest thou also he tempted. 
 There is no sin that ever was committed that 
 was not due to my fallen nature and that I, 
 having that nature, might not commit if left a 
 moment to myself. ^^He fell yesterday," said 
 
SOWING AND REAPING 127 
 
 one of the Fathers, *^I may fall to-day.'' Read 
 the Psalms of David and they translate you to 
 heaven. Mark David himself and you will hear 
 him cry: *^ Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, 
 God, Thou God of my salvation. ' ' Oh how gen- 
 tle, oh how pitiful, oh how tender in his spirit 
 should he be, who is called to deal with souls 
 sore tempted and betrayed, the prey of their 
 ' ' deceitful lusts. ' ' Eph. 4 : 22. 
 
 Vs. 2. Bear ye one another's burdens. Take 
 one another's sorrows, griefs, afflictions and 
 hardships to heart. This has been beautifully 
 expressed in the lines of that hymn so precious 
 in its hallowed recollections, 
 
 ''Blest be the tie that binds 
 
 Our hearts in Christian love ; 
 The fellowship of kindred minds, 
 Is like to that above. 
 
 We share our mutual woes. 
 
 Our mutual burdens bear, 
 And often for each other flows 
 
 The sympathizing tear. ' ' 
 
 And so fulfil the law of Christ. Are you 
 talking about law? That is the law fulfiled; 
 for Love is the fulfiling of the law. Gal. 5 : 14. 
 
 Vs. 3, 4. For if a man think himself to he 
 something y when he is nothing y he deceiveth him- 
 self. But let every man prove his own work 
 
128 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 and then shall he have rejoicing in himself y 
 alone and not in another. In other words, Let 
 every man mind his own business without med- 
 dling with the business of his neighbor and 
 then he shall have satisfaction in what he has 
 himself been enabled to accomplish without 
 crowing over his neighbor. 
 
 Vs. 5. For every man shall hear his own bur- 
 den, — ^i. e., his own responsibility before God. 
 
 Vs. 6, 7. Let him that is taught in the Word 
 communicate unto him that teacheth in all good 
 things. Be not deceived; God is not mocJced: 
 for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also 
 reap. In another place (II Cor. 9:6), speaking 
 to the same point he says: **He that soweth 
 sparingly shall reap also sparingly." St. Paul 
 thus lays it down as a principle that spiritual 
 benefits demand a quid pro quo, **Let him that 
 is taught in the Word, communicate." Not 
 that any price can be put upon the transcendent 
 truths of the Gospel, but that men set apart 
 to preach the Gospel have a just and righteous 
 claim on those to whom they preach it, for gen- 
 erous compensation and support. And that, 
 not in the way of donation parties and excep- 
 tional gratuities, but as a sacred deht — a debt 
 which men refuse to discharge at the peril of 
 their souls. For let us not be deceived, God 
 is not mocked. A man may keep back the 
 tenth of his income and give almost nothing 
 
SOWING AND KEAPING 129 
 
 for the support of the Gospel, and no man may 
 know of his meanness or of his disregard of 
 God's ministers and of their office; but God 
 Himself is not deceived in the matter. His eye 
 rims down the columns of every man's ledger 
 and ciphers out to the figure every man's earn- 
 ings, and the day will come when that ledger 
 will flash fire in the eyes of the defrauder and 
 hypocrite and the cheaper he has made the Gos- 
 pel the lighter will he weigh in Eternity's 
 scales. It is of no use to say: *^I love the Gos- 
 pel," and ^*I love the ministers of Christ," if 
 I can look with complacency upon fields desti- 
 tute of the Gospel and allow Christ's uncom- 
 plaining servants to go suffering and thread- 
 bare. **0h," says one, *Hhey don't need it." 
 Yes but you need it and God requires it and 
 spend your income on yourself alone, if you 
 dare. I Cor. 9 : 14, 15. 
 
 Vs. 8. For he that soweth to his flesh shall 
 of the flesh reap corruption: The apostle here 
 broadens the sowing from contributions to sup- 
 port the Gospel to all other obligations and 
 solemnities of life. '*He that soweth to his 
 flesh:" We recognize it as a law of the nat- 
 ural world that whatever seed a man sows, he 
 must expect a return in kind. If he sows po- 
 tatoes he does not look for cabbages, and if he 
 sows tares he does not look for wheat. He will 
 get what he sows and he knows he can count 
 
130 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 upon this. Precisely so is it in the spiritual 
 world. If a man sows covetousness he will end 
 in pilfering and theft. If a man sows dissipa- 
 tion he will reap disease and early death. If 
 he sows the neglect of Church attendance, he 
 and his family will end in moral shipwreck and 
 ruin. If he sows fault finding with the Bible 
 he will end in being an atheist. And further, 
 — he will reap more than he sows. He sows 
 grains, he reaps bushels. He sows a handful 
 of wild oats at 17 and it is acres at 25, and a 
 continent at 50. A man's conduct comes home 
 to him. Jacob deceives his father Isaac and is 
 himself deceived in Leah. David sins with 
 Bathsheba and his whole palace from that hour 
 becomes a moral pest house. Incest, murder, 
 wholesale adultery under the light of the noon- 
 day sun follow one another in awful tragedies 
 of horror. ^'The Curse of Cumberland" fol- 
 lows the assassin's stab in each succeeding age. 
 But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the 
 Spirit reap life everlasting. Here is the blessed 
 contrast. Sowing to the Spirit! That is a 
 quiet work. *^ Blessed is he that soweth beside 
 all waters" : he moves along beside the smoothly 
 flowing streams that irrigate the soil. To 
 change the figure, ^^His delight is in the law of 
 the Lord ; and in His law doth he meditate day 
 and night. And he shall be like a tree planted 
 by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his 
 
SOWING AND EEAPING 131 
 
 fruit in his season: his leaf also shall not 
 wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall pros- 
 per. ' ' The Bible, meditation and prayer — here 
 is the secret of a useful life and an enlarged 
 eternity. Sow to yourselves in righteousness, 
 i. e., in a clearer knowledge of the righteousness 
 of Christ. Begin with Christ. Keep Christ 
 before you. Keep in communion with Christ. 
 Make Him the Finisher, as He is the Author of 
 faith. — Begin with broken-heartedness and a 
 profound humility. ^^Sow to yourselves in 
 righteousness, reap in mercy,'' (Hosea 10: 
 12). ^^In mercy," for it is mercy that bestows 
 the grace which fructifies the soul. 
 
 Vs. 9. And let us not he weary in well do-\/^^ 
 ing: for in due season we shall reap if ive faint' 
 not. Ps. 126:5, 6. 
 
 **Let him who sows in sadness wait 
 Till the fair harvest come; 
 He shall confess his sheaves are great, 
 And shout the harvest home ! ' ' 
 
THE CEOSS ALONE 
 THE GLOEY 
 
THE CEOSS ALONE THE GLORY 
 
 GALATIAN^S VI 
 
 The apostle having spoken in the previous 
 verses of this chapter of the relation which a 
 Christian bears to his fellows, nrges npon the 
 Galatians the duty of the widest benevolence. 
 
 Vs. 10. As we have therefore opportunity, 
 let us do good unto all men; The word ' there- 
 fore'' emphasizes two great and pressing mo- 
 tives — one, Because the reward is certain — the 
 other, Because the opportunity is short. 
 
 L The Eeward is certain — **In due season 
 we shall reap, if we faint not." This does not 
 mean that we are justified by works or that 
 good works can have any possible merit before 
 God. They cannot have, for 
 
 1. No creature can merit, since when he has 
 done his utmost, he has done nothing more than 
 what, as a creature, he is bound to do. In this 
 respect a worm can merit as truly as can an 
 Archangel. 
 
 2. No fallen creature can merit for 
 
 (1) He can do nothing good but by grace — 
 if grace does it in him, how can he lay any 
 claim as having done it himself? Isa. 26:12. 
 
 (2) No fallen creature can merit, for his 
 works at the best are imperfect. But the law 
 
 135 
 
136 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 demands perfection and God can call nothing 
 that is imperfect, perfect. The best thing 
 therefore that any fallen creature can think, 
 feel, or perform is damnable because it falls 
 short of perfection and is stained with sin. 
 
 (3) If a fallen creature's works were per- 
 fect, yet that is only his duty, and, to merit, 
 one must outrun mere duty and bring God into 
 his debt. ^ ' Duty will be merit, ' ' says Melville, 
 *^when debt is donation." The Eeward there- 
 fore is ours not because we have earned it, but 
 because God as a mere gratuity has promised 
 that in due season we shall reap if we faint not. 
 
 II. Let us do good because the Opportunity 
 is short. We have it now but shall not always 
 have it. We have the light now but may here- 
 after be clouded — the strength now but here- 
 after may be inJ&rm. 
 
 Especially unto them who are of the house- 
 hold of faith. The apostle here recognizes a 
 relationship more sacred than any of the other 
 relationships of life — a family above all other 
 families — '^the household of faith." 
 
 Vs. 11. Ye see in ivhat large letters I have 
 written unto you with mine own hand, St. 
 Paul here stresses with peculiar emphasis the 
 admonitions given to the Galatian saints. In 
 their case he makes a singular exception. He 
 writes this epistle himself. Other epistles, as 
 we learn from their subscriptions, were written 
 
THE CEOSS ALONE THE GLOEY 137 
 
 by an amanuensis as for example Tertins, 
 Stephanas, Titns and others. But this epistle 
 he writes himself and referring perhaps to his 
 blindness as in chapter IV: 13-15 — Acts 22:11 
 (a chronic weakness of the eyes as the result 
 of the heavenly vision), he adds : I have written 
 pehJcois grammatois, in large and uncouth char- 
 acters which betray the intensity of my earnest- 
 ness despite my infirmity. In no epistle is the 
 apostle so vehement. The Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians is the death blow to every system of rit- 
 ual, ceremony, merits and works. 
 
 Vs. 12. As many as desire to mahe a fair 
 show in the fleshy they constrain you to he cir- 
 cumcised; only lest they should suffer persecu- 
 tion for the cross of Christ. The doctrines of 
 Grace do certainly separate those who preach 
 and hold them from the great body of the nom- 
 inal, professing and popular Church. To boldly 
 proclaim and defend these doctrines means sin- 
 gularity and singularity means ostracism and 
 this the flesh-pleasing flatterers of the Gala- 
 tians would by all means avoid. They there- 
 fore labored to relax the doctrine and to oblit- 
 erate as much as possible the sharp outlines of 
 demarkation which the preaching of Christ cru- 
 cified inevitably draws between the Church and 
 the world. 
 
 Vs. 13. For neither they themselves who are 
 circumcised keep the law. This is notoriously 
 
138 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 true of the ceremonialist and ritualist. He is 
 never a Puritan. "Witness the morale of Eus- 
 sia, of Italy, of Spain. *^ These courtly pseudo 
 apostles,'* says Calvin, ** pronounce that the de- 
 crees of Holy Church must be observed with 
 reverence. Yet what is their practice? They 
 pay no more regard to any decisions of the 
 Eoman See than to the braying of an ass, pro- 
 vided they run no personal risks in their self 
 pleasing." 
 
 But desire to have you circumcised that they 
 may glory in your flesh, i. e., that they may 
 point to you as their recruits and proselytes — 
 that they may boast their large congregations 
 and their millionaire members: their splendid 
 pageantry; their multiplied activities; their 
 growing influence as over against the sound doc- 
 trine, the simple service and the Scriptural 
 methods which everywhere and always are the 
 accompaniment of a pure Gospel. 
 
 Vs. 14. But God forbid that I should glory, 
 save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 St. Paul found nothing in himself, his suffer- 
 ings, his visions, his record, in which to glory. 
 But one Object stood before him — the Cross of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. This, to the apostle, 
 was the highest marvel of God — the miracle of 
 the universe — the concentration of eternal 
 thought — the focus of infinite decree — the out- 
 pouring of infinite love — the hinge of two des- 
 
THE CROSS ALONE THE GLORY 139 
 
 tinies — ^the pivot on which hangs the ages. Any- 
 other glorying than in the cross he holds to be 
 the worst of crimes. **God forbid!" he cries. 
 Imagine a poor lost and sinful creature stand- 
 ing up in front of the crucified Son of God and 
 boasting his merits — ^what he himself is and 
 what he has done! Could pride be more 
 Satanic? Could blasphemy be more appalling? 
 The cross it is — Not the incarnation; not the 
 resurrection; not the Lamb enthroned. What 
 chains the apostle — ^what rivets all his gaze is 
 Substitution". He dies that I may live; He 
 takes my place in condemnation, that I may 
 take His place in acquittal and glory. By sim- 
 ple faith in Him, I, who deserve to die eternally, 
 pass from death unto life. fact incompre- 
 hensible but real. revelation overwhelming 
 and sublime. 
 
 '* Calvary's wonders let us trace, 
 Justice magnified in grace ; 
 Mark those purple streams and say, 
 There my sins were washed away." 
 
 By whom the world is crucified unto me and I 
 unto the world, St. Paul distinguishes this epis- 
 tle by signalizing it in his four crucifixion^s : 
 
 1. He is crucified to the law — dead to it by 
 the body of Christ. He has paid the law's pen- 
 alty in his Substitute. Gal. II : 19 and 20. See 
 also Rom. 7 : 6, where the proper rendering is, 
 
140 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 •we are delivered from the law, heing dead to 
 that wherein we were held. (See also the raar- 
 gin.) 
 
 2. He has crucified the flesh — hung it up, by- 
 faith, upon the cross, so that, although the flesh 
 is in him, he is not in the flesh but is out of it 
 and has left it — the old nature, behind him on 
 the cross, while he, in practice and in thought 
 lives in the Spirit and in resurrection. Gal. 
 5:24; Eom. 6:14. 
 
 3. The World is crucified to him. If my 
 dearest friend were lying dead in the parlor, 
 struck down by the knife of an assassin, could 
 I enjoy that parlor or the thought of that as- 
 sassin? So did the world which had done his 
 Saviour to death, seem to St. Paul. So to him 
 seemed the entire scene of the present exist- 
 ence. 
 
 4. He is crucified to the world. He has 
 done with its hopes, its ambitions, its rivalries, 
 its pleasures, its honors — he can say 
 
 '*I thirst, but not as once I did, 
 
 The vain delights of earth to share; 
 Thy wounds, Immanuel, all forbid 
 That I should find my pleasures there. 
 
 It was the sight of Thy dear Cross 
 
 First weaned my soul from earthly things, 
 
 And taught me to esteem as dross 
 
 The mirth of fools, the pomp of kings/' 
 
THE CEOSS ALONE THE GLOEY 141 
 
 15. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision 
 availeth anything nor uncircumcisio:yi, 'hut a 
 new creature. That is the point, the "^^new 
 creature'' — Ye must be born again. No show 
 of an outward performance can take the place 
 of this. John 3 : 3, 6, 7 ; II Cor. 5 : 17. 
 
 Vs. 16. And as many as walk according to 
 this rule: i. e., the rule of the new creature — 
 above the law and justified by faith. 
 
 Peace he on them and mercy and on the Israel 
 of God, i. e., upon the true Israel as distin- 
 guished from the circumcised and ecclesiastical 
 Israel — the church invisible as distinguished 
 from the system which is seen. 
 
 Vs. 17. From henceforth let no man trouhle 
 me — throw hindrances in my way — for I hear 
 in my hody the marks of the Lord Jesus. Not 
 the stigmata of St. Francis Assisi — but the evi- 
 dent tokens, in the revelations made him and 
 in his trials and victories, of the ownership and 
 approval of Christ. 
 
 Vs. 18. Brethren the grace of our Lord Je- 
 sus Christ he with your spirit. Amen. He 
 ends the epistle as he began it, with '* grace." 
 
 ^^Be with your spirit.'^ *'His prayer is,'' 
 says Calvin, ^^not only that God may bestow 
 upon them His grace in large measure, but that 
 they may have a proper feeling of it in their 
 hearts. Then only is it truly enjoyed by us 
 when it comes to our spirit,'* 
 
142 GRACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 *'Our blest Redeemer ere He breathed 
 His tender last farewell, 
 A Guide, a comforter bequeathed 
 With us to dwell. 
 
 Spirit of purity and grace 
 
 Our weakness pitying see; 
 Oh make our hearts Thy dwelling place 
 And meet for thee ! ' ' Amen. 
 
 SOLI DEO GLORIA! 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 1 Judas and St. Paul, The substitute for Ju- 
 das — the one who takes his vacant 
 place is St. Paul. Not Matthias. 
 Matthias was the suggestion of Peter 
 and Peter made mistakes. He made 
 a mistake when he said **Be it far 
 from Thee, Lord. ' ' He made a mis- 
 take when he denied his Master. 
 He made a mistake at Antioch when 
 he overturned the Gospel and taught 
 circumcision: building again the 
 things which he had destroyed. '^I 
 withstood him to the face/' says St. 
 Paul, * * because he was to be blamed. ' ' 
 Impetuous Peter steps forward to 
 make an Apostle. He gives the 
 Lord, so to say, a choice between 
 two, Matthias and Justus. The lot 
 falls on Matthias and they number 
 him with the twelve and that is all 
 that is ever heard of him. For 
 Matthias no Divine call or sanction 
 anywhere appears. Nowhere is it 
 written: ''The Holy Ghost said, Sep- 
 arate unto Me Matthias.'' No- 
 where is it said of Matthias ''He 
 chose 12 of whom He named apos- 
 
146 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 ties." This is distinctively said of 
 St. Paul. 
 
 As for the affair of Matthias, the 
 Lord keeps silent. By and by He 
 comes down from heaven and Him- 
 self in Person calls, and adds to the 
 original eleven, another twelfth 
 'apostle, ^*one born out of due time." 
 The twelfth name on the *^ twelve 
 foundations of the New Jerusalem" 
 will not be that of Matthias but of 
 St. Paul not only an apostle but 
 *^not a whit behind the very Chief- 
 est Apostles" though in himself, 
 nothing. 
 
 That the vacancy in the Apostolate 
 was thus held waiting for Paul is 
 evident from the fact that the Lord 
 Jesus after His resurrection shewed 
 Himself to the eleven, and that, on 
 this very occasion, in giving the 
 names of the apostles present in the 
 '^ upper room," the names of eleven 
 only are given, as if expressly to ex- 
 clude Matthias. Not a hint is given 
 anywhere of the Lord's commission- 
 ing or recognizing or especially 
 using Matthias. He wrote no epis- 
 tle. About one-half of the New 
 Testament was written by St. Paul. 
 
APPENDIX 147 
 
 ''But does not St. Paul himself, 
 afterward in I Cor. 15:5, say: 'He 
 was seen of Cephas, then of the 
 twelve'? What twelve, if not Mat- 
 thias!" The answer is easy. St. 
 Paul speaks in general terms. 
 ''The apostles collectively after the 
 apostasy of Jndas," says Dr. Hodge 
 (see Commentary), are spoken of 
 as the twelve according to a common 
 usage, although at the time there 
 were only eleven." At the time re- 
 ferred to in I Cor. 15:5 (see John 
 20:19), Matthias was not even 
 dreamed of. The emphasis which 
 St. Paul puts upon his claim to be 
 one of the 12 apostles is due to the 
 necessity of , asserting and main- 
 taining his full apostolic authority 
 and commission as an infallible 
 teacher and organizer of the Church. 
 2 Eighteousness with St. Paul has two mean- 
 ings 
 
 1 The Rectitude of God. 
 
 2 Much more frequently, Perfect Con- 
 
 formity to law: diJcaioma means law- 
 obedience. 
 
 3 Justice with St. Paul is suum cuique 
 
 trihiiere: to render to each exactly 
 his deserts. 
 
148 GEACE IN GALATIANS 
 
 4 **The wages of sin/' i. e., its exact and 
 
 necessary deserts, '4s death." 
 
 5 To ' 'justify" is to declare a sinner 
 
 righteous, on the ground of the right- 
 eousness of Christ or His perfect 
 conformity to law, imputed to that 
 sinner and regarded as his own. 
 
 6 If Christ's obedience is regarded as 
 
 my obedience, then justice requires 
 that I shall get the deserts due to 
 Christ, in exchange for His having 
 suffered the deserts due to me. 
 
 7 We are justified, actually by Christ's 
 
 obedience or righteousness; instru- 
 mentally by faith. The expression 
 is ek pisteos, or dia pisteos, or sim- 
 ply pisteoSj the genitive, ^^hy^' faith: 
 never ''on the account of faith" 
 which would compel the accusation, 
 dia pistin. 
 
THE DOCTKINES OF GEACE 
 
 BY 
 
 George Sayles Bishop, D. D. 
 
 Cloth $1.00 net. 
 
 (Opinions of the Press and Eminent Men) 
 
 The Eomiletic Review says of it: "The scholarship of this 
 book is that of a deep student of the text of Scripture and a 
 scholastic and metaphysical theologian. He gives us a compre- 
 hensive apologetic of Calvinism — not the modified kind of the 
 modern man, but the Calvinism of Calvin and Edwards. Not 
 since the days of the Puritan writers of New England or the 
 days of Old-School-New-School controversies has so scholarly 
 and thorough a work in defence of Calvinism appeared. To 
 many it will seem preferable to the diluted and inconsistent 
 theology which is often unfairly exploited under Calvin's 
 name." 
 
 The Chrjstian Union Herald (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania) 
 says: "The author is not afraid to proclaim the old Calvin- 
 istic doctrine, yet his manner of presentation is free from 
 harshness and severity. He shows most conclusively that if 
 the salvation of the individual does not originate in the heart 
 of God it will never originate. A thorough heart study of 
 these doctrines will put iron into your moral and spiritual 
 fibre." 
 
 The Alabama Baptist says: "Dr. Bishop believes divine 
 Election underlies religion as it underlies revelation. With 
 Toplady he believes it is the golden thread which runs through 
 the whole Christian system. If you have been swimming 
 around in the shallow pool of the new theology it will benefit 
 you to take a plunge into the depths of the old theology." 
 
 The Sword and Trowel, Spurgeon's Magazine, says of it: 
 "So long as America can produce this kind of preaching she 
 will be a witness to the world in these degenerate times. Dr. 
 Bishop simply exults in enforcing the truth loved of Calvin, 
 Whitfield and Spurgeon and declares it with no bated breath. 
 
 The Christian Nation, Organ of the Covenanters, says: 
 "The author of this magnificent book builds as high as can be 
 reached by God's grace. His testimony to the true and un- 
 changing character of the Scriptures is inspiring and carries 
 conviction with every point he makes." 
 
 "One does not often, in these days, come on a book which 
 
contains so many vital themes and treats of the Doctrines of 
 Grace in such an uncompromising way. It is worth its price 
 many times over." 
 
 The Independent says of it: "Dr. Bishop is the ablest and 
 most brilliant of all the preachers who cling to the extreme 
 doctrines of Augustine, Anselm and Calvin. With him, salva- 
 tion comes wholly by free grace with no admixture of free 
 will." 
 
 Record of Christian Work. — ^Northfleld, Mass. — "These ser- 
 mons are an out and out exposition of a theological position 
 that is not often met with in these days. The reader will 
 concede that these sermons are not froth nor sentiment but 
 logical, doctrinal and unmistakable in their theology. The 
 conceptions of God seem a little overawing to the average 
 Christian of to-day." 
 
 Christian Intelligencer. — "It will cheer and encourage many 
 a Christian to perceive the wholeheartedness and implicit faith 
 with which the Doctor receives and defends the 'old-fashioned* 
 but ever new and true doctrines of the Divine grace and 
 mercy." 
 
 SBUT UP TO FAITH 
 
 BY 
 
 George Sayles Bishop, D. D. 
 A venerable minister came to me one day and said: "I owe 
 you, under God, a debt of gratitude. I have a son who long 
 has lived an unconverted life and been a burden on my heart. 
 He would not come to hear me preach, but was utterly care- 
 less. One Sabbath night I said to him: 'Do come to church 
 to-night.' *No, father,' was the answer, 'not to-night.' 'Well, 
 my dear son,' said I, 'if not, do promise me to read this ser- 
 mon' — ^handing him the above. Said the son, 'I will.' " When 
 the father returned from service the son came to the door and 
 met him, saying: "Father, I have surrendered to Jesus. / am 
 shut up to faith." 
 
 THE PERSON AND WORK 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 BY 
 
 George Sayles Bishop, D. D, 
 (Published by the Christian and Missionary Alliance) 
 
MAY Vi !91S 
 
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