be justified by Christ, we our-life which I now live in the selves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build, again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the general. "If, while we seek to be justified by the faith of Christ, even we ourselves are found sinners, by practising the rites of the law of Moses as necessary to salvation, contrary to our conscience, will Christ promote such iniquity, by justifying teachers who delude others in a matter of so much importance? By no means." Macknight. ye CHAPTER III. FOOLISH Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that should not obey the truth, observe not the Mosaical law, and I, by being a Christian, have been made a partaker of this fruit of Christ's death, and so am also dead to the law; and now I am no longer the man I was, that is, a Jew, but a Christian, and am now bound to no other observations but those which Christ requireth of me, to whom I am obliged by all the bonds of love and duty, having given his own life for me to free me from the Mosaical law, among other things."-Hammond. 18. I make myself a transgressor. Having renounced the law as ineffectual to justification, and as not binding even on a Jewish convert to Chris21. I do not frustrate, &c. I rather tianity, if I now seek to bring the magnify the divine grace which beGentiles, who were born free, under stows that justification which cannot bondage to that law, by pretending be obtained through the law. "If that it has power even over me, I am righteousness came by the law," then surely a transgressor. I make my-the gospel was unnecessary, and Christ self such by my own act. Christ is not "the minister of sin," for he has not required this at my hands; on the contrary, he hath forbidden it. need not have proclaimed it, at the sacrifice of his life. It was Peter, and not Paul, who frustrated the grace of God, or represented it as superfluous, by insisting on conformity to the Mosaic ritual in order to obtain justification. CHAPTER III. 19. For I through the law, &c. "The more I consider its nature and tenor, the more I am convinced that it is absolutely impossible that I or any man living should be justified by it, and therefore I give up all such expectations, and yet the effect of it is, In this chapter, Paul addresses the not my being a lawless, licentious Galatians directly upon the same subcreature, but quite the contrary: it is,ject which he had previously discussed that I might live to God, in a state of with Peter, the subject, namely, of favor and acceptance with him." justification through faith, not by - Doddridge. works. 20. I am crucified with Christ, &c. 1. O foolish Galatians. The word "Christ by his death hath abolished here rendered foolish "properly signifies the Mosaical law, Eph. ii. 14; that is, persons void of understanding; also perhath taken away the discrimination be- sons who, though they have understandtwixt Jew and Gentile, brought justifi-ing, do not form right judgments of cation into the world for those that things, through want of consideration." before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? - Macknight. See Luke xxiv. 25. Who hath bewitched you, &c. Who hath deceived or fascinated you, that you should forsake the true doctrine of grace, and attempt to attain justification by works? Before whose eyes, &c. The life, the teachings, and the death, of Christ had been so clearly and distinctly taught to the Galatian church, that it was as if Christ had actually lived, and taught, and been crucified, among them, or in their pres ence. 2. 4 Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 6 Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. placing your necks under the yoke of 4. Have ye suffered, &c. "Like all newly founded churches, the Galatians had been forced to endure much, both from Gentiles and Jews, in the way of insult and persecution. Paul reminds them of it, with the question whether they intend to endure all this without aim and result. For if they fell away altogether from the faith, and lost Christ, then it was all in vain."— Olshausen. This only would I learn of you. "I would ask this of you; retaining still the language of severe reproof. The design here, and in the following verses, is to prove to them that the views which they had at first embraced were correct, and that the views which 5. He therefore that ministered, &c. they now cherished were false. To Some suppose the apostle refers to the show them this, he asks them the sim- Giver of "every good gift and every ple question, by what means they had perfect gift," as ministering or comobtained the exalted privileges which municating the Spirit through faith; they enjoyed. Whether they had ob- others, that he refers to himself, and tained them by the simple gospel, or that he ascribes all his spiritual gifts whether by the observance of the law?" and power to the grace of God appre-Barnes. Received ye the Spirit, &c. hended through faith in the gospel, and See Acts x. 44; xi. 17. In the apos- not to his punctilious observance of the tolic age, spiritual gifts were bestowed Mosaic law before he became a Chrisupon believers, enabling some to per- tian. Acts xxii. 3; xxvi. 5. Not only form miracles, some to perceive and so, but he had communicated spiritual communicate the truth, some to speak gifts to the Galatians, while they exwith tongues, some to interpret; these ercised faith in the gospel of grace, and other gifts were bestowed by "the and not while they were yielding conself-same Spirit," and those who re-formity to the law, through fear of the ceived them were said to receive the Spirit. See 1 Cor. xii. 4-11. 3. Having begun in the Spirit, &c. Having received these gifts through faith in Christ and in the gospel of the grace of God, do you expect to become perfect by returning "to the weak and beggarly elements of the law, and Jews. 6. Even as Abraham believed God, &c. Even the Patriarch, whom all the Jews reverenced, was justified by faith, not by works. He believed God and was accounted righteous before the law was given. Conformity to the law, therefore, was not indis 7 Know ye therefore that they works of the law are under the which are of faith, the same curse: for it is written, Cursed are the children of Abraham. is every one that continueth not 8 And the Scripture, foresee-in all things which are written in ing that God would justify the the book of the law to do them. heathen through faith, preached 11 But that no man is justibefore the gospel unto Abra-fied by the law in the sight of ham, saying, In thee shall all God, it is evident: for, The nations be blessed. just shall live by faith. 9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. 10 For as many as are of the 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ hath redeemed us cised. TShall all nations be blessed. See notes on Matt. i. 21; Acts iii. 25. 9. Are blessed with faithful Abraham. Faith in the promises of God shall have the same effect on others as on Abraham; see ver. 6. They shall be blessed with that justification which none can attain by the law, ver. 10, 11. pensable to righteousness. See notes on Rom. iv. 3. "Abraham having been thus accepted and rewarded as a righteous person on account of his faith, and not on account of his circumcision, the Jews had no reason to find fault with the apostle's doctrine of justification by faith without the works of the law of Moses, as a strange 10. As many as are of the works of the or novel doctrine. It was the very law. As many as seek justification on method in which their father Abraham the ground of obedience to the law. was justified, and in which, according T Åre under the curse. Under the to God's covenant with him, all his penalty denounced against disobespiritual seed or sons are to be jus-dience. For it is written, &c. See tified."- Macknight. Deut. xxvii. 26. As all transgressed, all became liable to the punishment or curse. 7. Know ye therefore, &c. "This is the general argument and whole disputation of Paul against the Jews, that they which believe are the children of Abraham, and not they which are born of his flesh and his blood. This disputation Paul vehemently prosecuteth in this place and in the fourth and ninth chapters to the Romans."- Luther. See Luke iii. 8; John viii. 39-40. 11. No man is justified, &c. No mere man ever yielded perfect obedience to the law; but nothing short of perfect obedience would justify men under the law. The just shall live by faith. See note on Rom. i. 17. "The meaning is not, I apprehend, that the man who is justified by faith shall live; but that life is promised, and 8. The Scripture. The Old Tes-exists only in connection with faith, tament. The New Testament was not yet written. ¶ Foreseeing, &c. "That is, this doctrine is contained in the Old Testament. It was foreseen and predicted that the heathen would be justified by faith, and not by the works of the law."- Barnes. That God would justify, &c. See note on Rom. v. 1. Preached before the gospel. "Showed beforehand glad tidings unto Abraham."- Tyndale. The promise was given long before mankind received any written law, ver. 17, even before Abraham himself was circum and that the just or righteous man ob- 12. And the law is not of faith. It 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. 16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot drawn from human affairs or human language. Compare Rom. iii. 5, and 1 Cor. xv. 32."- Conybeare. T No man dissannulleth, &c. Even a covenant between man and man cannot be set aside without their mutual consent, if properly confirmed or ratified; much more, the argument implies, the covenant which God made with Abraham, and confirmed with an oath, cannot be abrogated. curse of the law. Hath set us free from the curse; hath delivered us from bon dage to the law, and from subjection to its penalty. Being made a curse for us. To deliver mankind from the curse of the law, as well as from all manner of sinfulness, Christ endured persecution and death, even death on the cross, which was regarded by the Jews as accursed. Deut. xxi. 23. The idea once prevalent, that for our sakes Jesus became guilty, the object of God's 16. To Abraham and his seed. The wrath, and the victim of the proper promise was made for the benefit of punishment of sin, is generally aban- Abraham's posterity, as being among doned, and should not be entertained" all nations," ver. 8; but not to his for a moment by any Christian. He was "holy, harmless, undefiled." Heb. vii. 26. "The sense of the passage before us is, therefore, that Jesus was subjected to what was regarded as an accursed death. He was treated in his death as if he had been a criminal. It does not mean that he was guilty, nor that he was not the object of the approbation and love of God, but that his death was the same that it would have been if he had been the vilest of malefactors, and that that death was regarded by the law as accursed." -Barnes. 14. That the blessing of Abraham. Namely, justification through faith. Might come on the Gentiles. Abraham was justified through faith before he was circumcised, and before the Mosaic law was promulgated. In like manner, might the Gentiles be justified, without circumcision or conformity to the law of Moses. 15. I speak after the manner of men. This phrase "in St. Paul's style, seems always to mean, I use a comparison posterity, except the single individual specified by the apostle. All nations should be blessed through faith in Jesus Christ and in the gospel of grace proclaimed by him. This blessing was assured by promise to Abraham and to his "seed, which is Christ." 17. The covenant. The promise of justification through faith. ¶ That was confirmed before of God. That is, by his oath. Heb. vi. 13-18. ¶ The law. The Mosaic code. ¶ Which was four hundred and thirty years after. This period is generally understood to be computed from the time when Abraham was first called, at the age of seventyfive years. ¶ Cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. God had promised, with an oath, to bless mankind in his Son Jesus Christ. He surely would not afterwards give a law which should make his promise void. However impossible it may be to attain perfect righteousness by the law, inasmuch as from natural infirmity all have violated its requirements, and however severe may be the penal disannul, that it should make | should come to whom the promthe promise of none effect. 18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. 19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed 66 ise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid for if there had been a law ties attached to such violations, still it justification may be obtained, what is remains true that God hath promised, its use? It was added because of and hath sworn by himself, to bless the transgressions. "To make them known, human family in his Son Jesus Christ. Rom. iii. 20 and vii. 7, and to conSee note on Acts iii. 25-26. The law vince men thereof; to discover the had its use, as is explained in ver. 19- heinousness of sin, and to seal the con25; but it surely never was designed demnation thereof; thus to drive men to "disannul" the promise of God. to seek for the remedy of grace in the The apostle's argument proceeds on promised Messiah." Assemb. Annot. this undeniable principle of justice, The law was not designed to justithat a covenant made by two parties fy men, but to lead them to him who cannot, after it is ratified, be altered came to "save his people from their or cancelled, except with the consent sins." Ver. 24; Matt. i. 21. ¶ Orof both the parties, who in the present dained by angels, &c. "Being spoken case were, on the one hand, God, and on by angels, who put it in the hand of the other, Abraham and his seed Christ. Moses, as a mediator between God and Therefore, as neither Abraham nor his the people."- Macknight. See Acts seed Christ were present, at the mak-vii. 38, 53. "Moses is called the ing of the Sinaitic covenant, nothing mediator by the Rabbinical writers." in it can alter or set aside the covenant Conybeare. with Abraham, concerning the bless20. Is not a mediator of one, &c. ing of the nations in Christ." Mac-"A mediator always supposes two parknight. Most commentators concur in ties, and the reference to the mediator, this exposition. For myself, I think alike in the promise to Abraham and the veracity of God affords sufficient in the giving of the law, supposes that assurance that he will fulfil his prom- there were two parties. God is one ises. See Isa. xlv. 22-24. Even Ba-party, the same unchanging God in all laam understood as much as this, when he was tempted by Balak to curse Israel, and refused, saying, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? 21. Is the law then against the or hath he spoken, and shall he not promises of God? Because the law make it good? Behold, I have re-exhibits the exceeding sinfulness of ceived commandment to bless; and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it." Numb. xxiii. 19-20. 18. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. And therefore it could not be by the law. The law proposed rewards for obedience; the promise gave assurance of a gift by grace. 19. Wherefore then serveth the law? If it do not provide a way in which the forms of the promise and of the law. In this case, it is impossible that the law should clash with the promise, or that it should supersede or modify it."- Barnes. sin, does it therefore prevent justification by faith, or salvation by grace manifested in Jesus Christ? God forbid. On the contrary, it discloses the need of grace, and leads men to seek for it. Ver. 24. ¶ Righteousness should have been by the law. The law was good; and perfect obedience to this law would have made men righteous, if obedience to any law could secure |