Lectures on the Epistle to the Galatians [Hardback]

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Paul does not ask that they might feel the thunders of that law under which they desired to put themselves, but that "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ should be with their spirit".

Excerpt- Now it is plain, from a very cursory glance, that the object of the epistle was not so much the assertion of the truth of justification by faith in contrast with works of law, as the vindicating it against the efforts of the enemy to merge it under ordinances and human authority-in a word, the Judaizing efforts of those who professed the name of the Lord. In Romans, it is more the bringing out of positive truth; in Galatians, the recovery of the truth after it had been taught and received, the enemy seeking to swamp it by bringing in the law as the conjoint means of justification. The Holy Ghost sets Himself, by the Apostle Paul, thoroughly to nullify all this force of Satan: and this gives a peculiar tone to the epistle. As usual, the first few verses bear the stamp of the whole, and show what the Holy Ghost was about to bring out in every part. We have, of course, the choicest collection of words, and the avoiding of irrelevant topics, so as to reveal in short compass the mind of God as to the state of things among the churches in Galatia. This accounts for the comparative coldness of the tone of the epistle—the reserve, we may say, with which the apostle speaks to them. I think it is unexampled in any other part of the New Testament. And the reason was this: the bad state into which the Galatians had fallen was not so much arising from ignorance; it was unfaithfulness; and there is a great difference. God is most patient towards mere want of light; but God is intolerant of His saints trifling with the light He has given them. The apostle was imbued with the mind of God; and has given it to us in a written form, without the slightest admixture of human error. He has given us, not only the mind, but the feelings of God. Now man reserves his bitter censure for that which is immoral—for a man guilty of cheating or intoxication, or any other grossness. Every correct person would feel those. But the very same persons who are alive to the moral scandal may be dead to the evil that is a thousand times worse in the sight of God. Most people are sure to feel moral evil, partly because it affects themselves; whereas, in what touches the Lord, they always need to be exhorted strenuously, and have the light of God brought to bear strongly upon it. Satan is not apt to serve up naked and bare error, but generally garnishes it with more or less of truth, attractive to the mind. Thus he entices persons to refuse what is good, and choose what is evil. We learn from God how we ought to feel about evil doctrine. Take the epistle to Galatians, as compared with the Corinthians, in proof of what I am asserting. There you would have seen, if you went into a meeting at Corinth, a number of people, very proud of their gifts. They were fleshly, making a display of the power with which the Spirit of God had wrought. For one may have a real gift of God used in a very carnal manner. At Corinth there was also a great deal that was openly scandalous. In the early Christian times it was usual to have what is called a love-feast, which was really a social meal or supper, when men had done their work, or before it, and they could come together. And they united this ordinary meal along with the supper of the Lord; and one can understand that they might easily get excited; for we must remember that these believers had only just emerged from the grossness and darkness of heathenism. Drunkenness was most common among the heathen; they even made it a point of honor to get drunk in honor of their gods. These Corinthian saints must not be judged of by the light that persons afterward received; and, indeed, it is in great measure through the slips of the early believers that we have learned what Christian morality ought to be. They were like babes coming out of the nursery, and their steps were feeble and faltering. There were these ebullitions of nature that showed themselves among the heathen; and there were, besides, parties among them. Some were ranging themselves under one banner; some under another. They had their different favorites that they followed. Some had even fallen into most flagrant evil, and others, again, were standing up for their rights, and going to law one with another. There was looseness of every kind in their walk. All these things came out in their midst. There was a low moral order of things. Had we not the writing of an apostle to such people, we should have considered that it was impossible for them to be Christians at all. Whereas, though there is the most holy tone and condemnation of their sin throughout the epistle, yet the apostle begins in a manner that would startle you the more you think of it, and bear in mind the state of the Corinthian believers. He begins by telling them that they were sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints. He speaks to them, too, of God's faithfulness, by whom they were “called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” What a contrast with the natural impulse of our minds. We might have been disposed to doubt that any, save a very few of them, could have been converted. But observe the course with the Galatians. Now, why is it that to the disorderly Corinthians there were such strong expressions of affection, and none to the Galatians? In the Corinthians he calls them the church of God. “Paul, called to be an apostle.... unto the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in everything ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming (revelation) of our Lord Jesus Christ,” &e. And then he begins to touch upon what was wrong, and continues it throughout.

Table of Contents

1. Galatians 1:1-5

2. Galatians 1:6-24

3. Galatians 2

4. Galatians 3:1-14

5. Galatians 3:15-29

6. Galatians 4:1-12

7. Galatians 4:12-31

8. Galatians 5:1-12

9. Galatians 5:12-26

10. Galatians 6:1-10

11. Galatians 6:11-18