THE action of these Galatian Christians, who were Gentiles formerly, was a great grief to the Holy Spirit, and there is nothing sharper than the way in which He speaks to them here. Paul's gospel was taught him by the revelation of Jesus Christ. God revealed His Son in him to make His name known; there was no putting under the law there. It is the wonderful grace of God in saving the lost ones. He says in chapter 1., " Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed;" and here they were led away already by another preaching. No wonder that he says to them, " Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?"
It is a very important thing to learn, that if I am standing simply in grace, I am just where God wants me to be. If I get the idea of my own conduct as a thing which brings me to God, or anything that I can do, then I am bewitched. By making resolutions or vows in any way, I am showing I am bewitched. The Galatians got word from some Judaizers that they-must be circumcised, although they believed in Christ and were saved. Paul tells them it was giving up the whole Christian ground and going back to Judaism. He denies all these things. He says they are foolish and bewitched, and they have got another gospel.
Notice first of all, this, there was no Holy Spirit given to men under the law; you all know that. It is a very important fact. Men are now putting them-selves under the law. All the catechisms are full of the law, and there are church covenants; your " covenant obligations" are appealed to. It is as though we stood at Mount Sinai and heard all the thunderings. It is what you are going to do, instead of apprehending what has been done for you by God.
Here, " the ten commandments" is the law he is talking about. The Jews were put under that, Thou shalt, and thou shalt not." It was not the Holy Ghost here showing the things of Christ to men. Now he says, "You received the Spirit, in whom after ye believed, ye were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise." The Holy Spirit came on believing. When I hear the word of salvation to my soul, and believe it, I am indwelt by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost thus characterizes the present interval and not the former one. He says, " You received the Spirit then." The very question (ver. 2), that very fact, should be sufficient of itself. If men would only recognize the presence of the Holy Ghost to-day, there would be no Jewish ritual or the ten commandments. He came in to take the place of both; He has brought in His things, which are Christ's. The first question asked then is, "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit?" That is the essential fact of Christianity. Well, then, he says, " Having begun in the Spirit, are you going back into the old to be perfected?" The moment you say that a man must do anything, except trust in what Christ has done, you deny the whole matter of Christianity. If a man puts anything in the place of that, he is going wrong. When God came to Israel at first, it was all grace. God alway, begins in grace with a people. When He came to Israel in the third chapter of Exodus, He said, "I have seen the affliction of my people; I have come down to take them out of all this bondage and to bring them into the land." It is not a question of law. The miracles were wrought then. God came down and showed himself as the One who had power to do it, and, he brought them out with a mighty hand.
So it is now. God may give a law to a people whom He has already redeemed and taken to Himself, His mind as to how they may please Him, but His grace is the first action. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. All the righteousness of Abraham was believing in God. It was "justification by faith." Then he gives this principle, "Know ye therefore that as many as are of faith are the children of Abraham." What is meant by children? Partakers of the nature of Abraham, we are just like him? It is only believing, I simply believe God in what He tells me about Christ, then I believe on Him, and that is all. The child is like his father, the same nature. As many of you as are believers, are children of Abraham.
" Now the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith." God told Abraham the good news beforehand, that all nations should be blessed in him. That is, all the Gentiles, the Jews were His people. Here He is telling us that the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would bless the nations, He told Abraham that in his seed all nations should be blessed. Then we get this word, God is going to bless! Keep that directly before you; it is an important fact in this chapter. God's grand purpose is to bless all nations in his seed. Abraham got the blessing by faith. As many as are of the wells of the law get not the blessing, but the curse.
Here are two peoples, the Gentiles and Israel. Now God is going to bless both through Abraham and his seed. He takes up Israel after a certain time, and puts them under law, and that law says " curse," and that is the first time that the curse comes in. Before that time Abraham was told, "I will curse them that curse you;" but now the curse is attached to them. The law being put upon them, entails a curse. God had come with the distinct purpose of blessing, but here is a people, even His own people, that He puts under a curse. Do you not think God would be impatient to remove that? The moment a person gets under the law, he is under the curse. "Cursed is every one that continueth not," etc. God starts out with the principle of blessing, and yet here comes a curse. It stands in the way. How is he going to get out of it? Why did he put them under the law? They accepted it. They said, " All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." Then He came down and gave them the law. Now, set bounds. It is very remarkable, and I want you to notice that, that when God comes to Israel in Ex. 19, the relationship of God to the people is changed. Before that He said, "I bore von on eagle's wings, and brought you to Myself." Now He says, " Set bounds." You will find that all that take up the law as the principle of their life, have no sense of fellowship and nearness. They may sin°. everlastingly, " Nearer, my God, to Thee." People have an idea that singing is going to do something for them, but nothing does anything for us but Christ. We should get what God has done for us, and not put in something else. People have a sense of distance, and they want to get nearer, and that is the reason such things are written. He says, "I have borne you on eagle's wings, and brought you to Myself;" that is near enough. But when the law was given, if even so much as a beast came near the mountain it was thrust through with a dart. When they came to Mount Sinai, He put them under the law, and He says, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." God takes out this people all by themselves, and He leaves the others. God takes up a special party, and He says, "I will bless these first." But they put themselves under the law as Christians do now-days. Then they have a curse over their heads.
No man is justified by the law, for the just shall live by faith, and not by law. No man got to God by the law, for He went down to Egypt and brought them up. He saves you and me as lost sinners. It is an impertinence to do anything. " The just shall live by faith." Now He says, " Christ has redeemed us." He has taken away that curse by redemption. Christ redeemed those who were under the law, for " Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." The very curse He put upon Israel, He bore on the cross for those who believed. That delivered them from the law, and from condemnation.
What does He do it for? That the blessing that He before promised might come out to them. God stood here originally blessing, and He gives them a curse, but He takes it away by Christ. Where then is the law? People are teaching their children the ten commandments, to make them Christians, but where are the ten commandments? The only people that ever had the law upon them have it removed by Christ. Christ redeemed from the curse of the law. He took the curse upon Himself, that the blessing might come, the blessing promised Abraham before, through Jesus Christ, that they might receive the promise of the Spirit. The promise of the Spirit could not come while they were under the law. Here was a thing brought in four hundred years after a certain promise. That was blessing, and here comes cursing. But a general law cannot be annulled by a specific one. The general one still stands. As we say, "Every rule has an exception." Yes, but this exception is only for the time being. Blessing is. God's grand prerogative. Do you follow that? "Now, to Abraham and his seed was the promise'(of blessing) given." Then we get another fact, that this was to be carried out through one person, the "Seed." In Gen. 24 we get seed, and not seeds. " To Abraham and his seed, was the promise made " originally. Thy seed shall be as the sand of the sea," etc. But when we get to chapter 24. it is only one man. This is the chapter in which Isaac is raised from the dead. Isaac was delivered up on the altar, and he was raised up in a figure. The promise that He made them, four hundred years before the law, was actually in one individual. Therefore, when that one individual comes, that one person, the Seed-Christ—is the time when this temporary disability is removed. He removes the curse, and Christ stands out alone.
What do you know about God except in Christ? What business have you with the law? How came you to God, if not by Christ? The law was never on the Gentiles, but on the Jews, and it has been, removed from them. Why should we take it up then? No wonder he says, " Oh, foolish Galatians." No matter what religious people do now by repeating and teaching the law, God does not teach it to you. He is now talking of Christ after they are saved. Everybody says we are not justified by the law, but, they say, the law is a rule of life to Christians. It is wicked to put a Christian under the law. It is an invention of the enemy. Galatians is written to believers. He says, " You are not under the law any more than though it was never given."
Now let us follow the line of His statements here. You have received the Holy Ghost. There was no such thing as receiving the Holy Ghost when men were under the law. Of course a man is not justified by the law; the just man shall live by faith. Then he comes to speak about God's purpose to bless, and for awhile He put certain ones under the condition of cursing, but He was anxious to get it off through Christ soon as that Seed came, the law was gone. The law is removed as a principle of life, inasmuch as God promised blessing? The promise was made to the Seed, to the one Man, and the blessing was to follow through Him. The exceptional thing is the curse. It is not because the law is a curse in itself, but because man could not obey it. There is not a single promise of going into the land in the ten commandments. There is no promise of inheritance in it. Where did the inheritance come from? It was by promise-grace.
The question comes, then, what is the law for? Never was a Gentile put under the law, but the Jews were. Now if the Jews were under the law for a few hundred years, what was the law for? It was added for the sake of transgressions. God says He is going to bless every one through Abraham. He takes up a people, and He treats them as though they had not been sinning at all. I, standing there as a Gentile, might say, these people are treated better than any others. These people were treated as though they were not bad, and He now says, " I will prove you. Now He says, " Obey Me," and He puts the law to them. He includes all in unbelief. Those that are left, the Gentiles, are sinners, and the people He has taken out are proved sinners by being put under the law. What was the law given for then? To bring that out. When is the blessing then to take place? When the Seed comes. It was not a matter of goodness in them, but of pure grace in God. During that time He is demonstrating that they are as bad as any others. The law was added for the sake of transgressions. until the Seed should come. The Gentile and the Jew go on like two streams. One is proved to be as bad as the other, and when Christ comes they are both needing Him. The Gentile was counted bad, and the Jew is proven to be bad by having a law that he did not obey.
Now about the Mediator. In the matter of grace there is one party, God. In Ex. 20 two parties appear. The law was appointed when there were two parties, but now there is only one. Is the law against the promises of God? No; only the Seed had not come. The promise looked over to a certain One, and He had not come yet, and the law comes in until He comes, and it will be a means of restraining them or holding them in to make them behave themselves until. He comes. Then the law was their schoolmaster, like children under restraint. For how long? Up to Christ. It is not " to lead us to Christ." " Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster." You see he uses " you " and "we." " You" are the Gentile, " we" are the Jews. People read that and say, is not the law our schoolmaster? No. Well, does it not say so? No. What does it say? " The law was," at the time being. It is looking at the past. Whose schoolmaster? Why, the people who went to school, of course. I am not under any schoolmaster to-day, because my child goes to school. I say, " There is a schoolmaster, but I am not under him." Here is the brother of a boy who goes to school, and he goes a fishing, or anything else he pleases, because he is not under the schoolmaster. The law was here for a restraint, for a curb, to keep these people in for a certain period. Really it was a curse, because they did not behave themselves. For how long? Until Christ. The Scripture has included all men under sin. Why? That the promise of blessing in Jesus Christ might come in simply by believing. The promise was to Christ. Whoever believes in Him gets it, either the Jew or Gentile. And when Christ comes, the schoolmaster is dismissed; and they are out of that school.
How is °a Christian to act, to behave himself? He is in Christ; he is under Christ. Does Christ steal? No. Well, I am in Christ; I am under Christ and in Christ. If I steal, I am bringing Christ down to stealing. It is worse for me to steal than it would be for a sinner. I get back to this then, the law was the Jews' schoolmaster up to Christ. but when Christ, or faith came, they were no longer under a schoolmaster. The fact is, school was out, was broken up. The Jew got Christ, and the Gentile got Christ. We were under tutors, governors, until Christ came, and then we passed under Christ to keep us. Now are you going to put a new man under the law? It was made for the old man. What am I told to do? Reckon myself to have died. The new man is not under the law but under Christ. If you go out of the State of New York and go into California, you are under the laws of California. I have got out of the old place I was in, even if I were a Jew. I have been crucified out of it. I have risen into a new state. The law of New Jersey is binding on every Jerseyman to-night, but I am not there. There is a river between New Jersey and me. There is a river between the old condition of the law and me-the river of death.
You see what it is for school to be out, then. You are all children of God. I was a child of Adam before, or a child of Israel. He is speaking now to the Galatian Christians. He told them they were all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now go back to Abraham. He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. I believe God, and I am a righteous man before God. I am under Christ and in Christ.
Then you come to the next chapter, which tells you the difference between sonship and servantship. Now he says we were under tutors and governors until the time that Christ came. We were servants, but we are no more servants, but sons. He gives us three things. 1. We are not servants, but sons. 2. We have the spirit of sons, and not the spirit of servants. What is the spirit of a servant? Why, he gets his wages, and that is the end of it. If I do not like him I discharge him; I do not give him a hiss and say, " Thou art ever with me." If he does not do his work he is put out. 3. We have the hope of sons, not of servants. "If sons. heirs." Is a servant an heir? Why, Abraham knew that would not do (Gen. 15).
Now he calls us sons. The Galatians were sons, hut they were making themselves bond-sons, and he would not have that.. He wanted them to. be sons like Isaac, and not Ishmael. They might say Ishmael was a son of Abraham as much as Isaac. Yes, but his mother was a bondwoman. Isaac got his name because he filled the whole house with joy. Isaac means " laughter." You are a son that fills the heart of the Father with delight.
Then in the fifth chapter we come to this question, How are you going to make me behave myself if am not under the law? And he says, "If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." The law came and said, "You shall not murder, steal, covet, commit adultery," etc., but it never touched me; I would do it.—Now I am a new man, and the fruit of the Spirit comes in, love, joy, peace, etc. The fruit of the new man is just the opposite of the old man. The fruit of the new man is love, joy, gentleness, patience, against which there is no law. There is no law that says, " Thou shalt not have love, joy, peace, patience," etc.
But do not get the thought of license to do evil because we are not under the law. The principle of law still remains. See 1 Cor. 9:21. We are not lawless toward God, but " subject to Christ."
T.