(Notes Taken of Lectures.)
Ch. 4:21; 5:1-5.
THE passage ch. 4:21, to the end, is a very remarkable illustration of the point the Apostle is handling. He refers to the law as being, in principle, in existence four hundred years before the law was given. An early incident in the history of Abraham illustrates that on which the Apostle is insisting, namely, that the entrance of law into the family of faith, issued in such disturbance, that there was no peace in the house till the law was got rid of. In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis Abraham says to the Lord, “Behold to me thou hast given no seed, and lo, one born in mine house is mine heir. And behold the word of the Lord came unto him saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them, and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness.” Abraham believed that God could do that which Abraham could not do. It is this which the gospel presents to us, that which is impossible with men is possible with God. It is possible for God to make a sinner perfectly righteous, and the way in which He does this, and the ground of His doing it, is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that no question ought to agitate our minds as to complete justification. But there is an hereditary disease in the family of faith, even the disease of unbelief; and we see in the history of Abraham before us, an early exhibition of it. He had left his country and kindred at the call of God, but he must needs attempt to get by his own strength that blessing which God promised to bestow by His power and grace; hence, the giving of Hagar to Abraham by Sarah, and Abraham and Sarah endeavoring to obtain the promised seed through Hagar. (Gen. 16:2, 3, 42And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. 3And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. 4And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. (Genesis 16:2‑4).) This was, in fact, attempting to get the promised blessing in the way of law. The immediate result was, that Sarah was despised by Hagar; the moment we turn to the law we have contemptuous thoughts of grace. Sarah deals hardly with Hagar, and she flies from her presence; but God comes in and commands her to return and submit herself to her mistress. Yes; law must submit as it were to grace, even to that “grace which reigneth through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” The father of the faithful tried to get the promised heir by his own power, instead of leaving it to God; and he brought trouble into his house, for in reality he was acting on the principle of law―for law and grace can no more exist peaceably together, than Hagar and Sarah could dwell happily together in the same house. When we rest our souls on the work of Christ already accomplished, there is joy and peace; but when we bring in law, there is no peace; the two things cannot stand together. It is a believing legalist, or legal believer, which is regarded here. The moment we say, “except” we do this or that, we cannot be saved, we mar our own blessing. The new covenant is without any “if;” it runs thus, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins, and iniquities will I remember no more.”
Ver. 22, 23. “Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free-woman; but he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free-woman was by promise.” The word “flesh” here is used to denote man’s power. If you bring in man’s power and attempt to add it to God’s, there is confusion and trouble. “Flesh,” the power of man, is here contrasted with “promise,” with that which God Himself had undertaken to do. “Which things are an allegory.” These facts in the history of Abraham present to us great principles. We shall do well to study Genesis as a book of principles. We shall there find the germ of that which is fully manifested in the New Testament. Look even back to the garden of Eden, and see what a deeper truth was shadowed, when Adam said, “This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” “We are members of Christ’s body, we are of His flesh and of His bones.”
“These are the two covenants; the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, for this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”
The law in its spirit must always gender to bondage. Agar, in the presence of Sarah, could never forget that she was a bond-woman. The law could never lead any under it, to cry, “Abba, Father.” This is the result of accomplished redemption, and one of the richest gifts that comes down from above. True, we take our place as servants now; but it is as sons, even as the Son of God Himself took His place as a Servant here; and hence our very service is liberty. The whole Jewish system was necessarily one of bondage―Jerusalem which now is―Jerusalem not knowing redemption. But, through redemption, we are connected with another Jerusalem, the Jerusalem above, and which is free― “we are come to the Mount Zion, and to the heavenly Jerusalem”―and, therefore, have “the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness.”
The Apostle quotes Isa. 54:1,1Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. (Isaiah 54:1) as an illustration of the Jerusalem above, being the happy mother of free-born children. “Rejoice thou barren that bearest not (Sarah nor Agar); break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.” How blessedly does this follow immediately on the description of the sufferings of Christ, so graphically depicted in ch. 53! We should read the chapters together, to see even the present glory following those sufferings, in enabling “the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children.” This is a true type of grace. The law knew nothing of praise. Sarah’s child was the child which God gave. So it was with Hannah subsequently. The barren woman bearing, can only find utterance in praise. The greatness was with Ishmael, while Isaac was in obscurity; so it was with Esau, while Jacob was serving; but grace must be tasted ere praise can burst forth. When the work of Christ was finished on the cross, and presented as the object of faith; to those who saw it, and believed in it, nothing remained but praise.” Rejoice, O barren, that bearest not.”
Ver. 28, 29. “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But, as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.” There is nothing that man has more instinctive dislike of than grace; in his own thoughts man hates the grace more than the holiness of God. When Isaac, the child of promise, is weaned, Agar’s son is mocking at him, as despicable in himself. “Even so it is now.” Grace is despicable in the eyes of men. The more man glories in the development of his own powers, the greater will be the antagonism of man to the grace of the gospel. That which man esteems most in himself frets and kicks against grace. The unrelenting word comes to Abraham, “Cast out the bond-woman and her son: for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.” “Grievous,” indeed, was it to Abraham to cast them out; it went against his feelings and affections to do so; but it was not more “grievous” to Abraham to do so, than it is for us to turn the law out of doors; it cleaves to us, it seems so grievous to give up the works of our own hands, and renounce that in which we have most prided ourselves. But until Agar is gone, there is no peace in Abraham’s house; until the law, and all expectation from it, is thoroughly renounced, there is no peace in the soul. “Being justified by faith, we have peace.”
Neither does the thought of the dignity of being heirs of God possess the soul, till all expectation from the law is entirely abandoned. The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman. “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free.” No man has ever earned an inheritance from God. If we are heirs, it is because we are sons of the free-woman. But it is hard at all times to maintain the place of a son and an heir of God. The spirit of the age, which is the boastful spirit of the mighty resources of man, is peculiarly opposed to this. The character of profane Esau is remarkably stamped on the present age, ready to get present blessing, but despising the highest present blessing, even the birthright, the most precious privilege to those who are born of God, sons and heirs of God; but it carries with it nothing to satisfy the present craving; and therefore men say, “What good shall the birthright do me?”
Chap. 5:1. “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” “If,” says the Lord Himself, “the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” It is into the liberty of sons that Christ has brought us; although the glorious liberty of sons be that for which we wait, even to be manifested with Christ, the Son in glory; yet, even now, it is a glorious liberty to have access unto the Father with confidence by the Spirit of adoption, instead of having such a yoke of bondage as Peter complained of (Acts 15) imposed on us by those who would tempt God, by forcing the law upon us. The only one who is free from law, is he who can look at it, in all its condemning power, and knows deliverance from it by the Cross of Christ. (Rom. 7:4, 64Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. (Romans 7:4)
6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:6).) And he alone who is thus delivered from it, upholds the law in all its integrity, as “holy, just, and good.”
Ver. 2. “Behold I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.” Christ will not take the place of a helper, to the detriment of His place as a Saviour; any dependence on legal righteousness, whether moral or ceremonial, renders Christ profitless to us. The common phrase, “I can do nothing by myself,” means that I can save myself by Christ’s help. No; if you are looking partly to yourself and partly to Christ, “Christ shall profit you nothing.”
Ver. 3, 4, 5, 6. “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
“He that is circumcised is a debtor to do the whole law.” The holy majesty of the law, the rich grace of the gospel, and the glory of Christ, alike forbid the vain and senseless attempt to make our own partial obedience, together with Christ, the ground of our salvation. Such an attempt―and oh, how common it is! ―is to “fall from grace,” in the scriptural sense of the phrase; it is to abandon the firm rock of God’s grace in Christ Jesus for the sandy foundation of our own righteousness. Such an attempt makes Christ of no effect to the one who makes it; it nullifies the work of Christ on the cross, as though it were a needless work, and it bars from all the benefits of Christ’s propitiation. This language of the Apostle, strong as it is, is peculiarly applicable to the lax and erroneous doctrine, that by the work of Christ all are placed in a salvable position, and that by means of a certain measure of obedience, and certain observances, they may hope to be saved. But those who thus “fall from grace,” not only abandon the truth of the Gospel as to present justification before God by faith in Christ, but they surrender also the true Christian hope, by making the attainment of righteousness their hope, instead of making present righteousness, through faith in Jesus, the sure warrant for expecting glory. “We,” says the Apostle, in the name of all believers, wait not for righteousness, but the hope to which righteousness is entitled. If we tamper with the truth of present acceptance in the Beloved, we undermine the blessed hope for which, through the Spirit, we are entitled to wait—even glory. We see many real Christians looking to justification, as something in prospect, instead of seeing that they possess it now, and therefore rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. The Lord Jesus is our righteousness, and our hope is grounded on that righteousness; and what a glorious hope it is, even that those who are thus “righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father.” “Faith,”―the law knows not such a principle; it cannot command love; but faith is a living energetic principle, and worketh by love to God and to man.
Ver. 7-9. “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leavened) the whole lump.” It is “obedience to the truth,” as set forth by God, which is the great point: many make their very partial obedience to the law a positive hindrance to obeying the Gospel. It might appear a little matter but the Apostle discerned in this legal tendency that leaven which would corrupt the whole Gospel, and deprive it of its glory. When the truth of the Gospel is at stake the Apostle speaks with stern decision. It is a bad sign when there is not stern contention for the truth of the Gospel―when there is more sensitiveness about our own honor than the honor of Christ―the honor of His Cross and spotless righteousness.
Ver. 10-12. “I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would they were even cut off which trouble you.”
The Apostle knew that “the truth” he set forth would be responded to by the heart and conscience of those who had been quickened by the grace of God, however for a moment that truth had been overlaid by legalism. This was his confidence in them through the Lord. How little do legalists regard themselves as troublers of others, (Acts 15:2424Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment: (Acts 15:24))― troublers by means of “words,” or doctrine―and equally little do real Christians know that they are self-tormentors by indulging in legalism. But the Apostle will not spare the legalist teacher, be he who he may, he shall bear his judgment. Yea, hard as it may appear, uncharitable as men in our days would say, he hesitates not to say, I would that such were even cut off. The glory of God and His Christ are in question, as well as the salvation of a sinner; and such being the case soft words are not in season. The Apostle knew that the preaching of modified legalism, and modified grace, so as to mingle the two, would take away the offense of the Cross; but had it ceased? No; His Gospel was offensive to human righteousness, and to human wisdom―and it is still the same in the wide-spread Christianity of our day, which is but a copy of the Galatian error. The offense of the Cross still exists, when the Cross is set forth as the verdict of God against man’s righteousness, wisdom, and goodness, and the introduction of a new order of these things, even Christ and Him crucified, the wisdom and righteousness of God to those who believe. This is still the offense of the Cross.
Verses 13-15. “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”
When men hear us speak of freedom from condemnation, and our happy liberty, the thought rises in their minds, If I believed that, I should do just as I liked. The flesh would take advantage of God’s grace to go its own way. The flesh may even whisper to the believer, “You are safe, therefore take your ease.” But no; if set at liberty by Christ, we are made free in order to serve. Many Christians connect their warship and their service with their salvation. But the truth is, they are made free by Christ in order to worship, to serve God and to serve their brethren, yea, and to serve all men so far as they can. It is the law of liberty, the law of love. Real practical godliness is associated with the principle of liberty. Until the question of our individual acceptance is settled, we are not free to serve God. Legality leads us to speak of one another’s faults. A legal spirit is ever a faultfinding spirit; but when we see the grace in which we live and move, instead of judging we shall intercede for others. If we were more in the region of grace we should be less in the region of judgment; but the moment we become legal, we bite and devour one another, instead of ministering grace one to another, cheering one another onward, so as to enable us to tread with a lighter step the weary wilderness.