And, to bring them back to the truth of Christ, he shewed them, throughout this whole epistle, that sal- vation is by faith alone ; and that to attempt to build our hopes in any measure on the law of works, was to " pervert the Gospel," and, in fact, to introduce " another Gospel c." In confirmation of this senti- ment, he proves, at large, that salvation is by faith only : he proves it, I say,
1. In a way of argumentative discussion —
[In the beginning of the preceding chapter, after remind- ing them that through the preaching of faith, and not by any works of the law, they had obtained the miraculous influences of the Holy Spiritd, he reminds them of the way in which Abra- ham was justified. This was by faith, as the Gospel preached to Abraham had foretold, in relation both to himself and all his spiritual seed : and, consequently, we must be saved in
the same way as hee He then proves the same from
the very terms in which the Law and the Gospel are promulgated ; the one requiring obedience, and the other faith ; the one kill- ing, and the other giving life f He next adduces the end
for which Christ came into the world. This was not to give men an opportunity of saving themselves by the law ; but to redeem them, by his own death, from the curses of the law ; and to open a way for the blessing which had been promised to Abraham to descend upon them through the exercise of
faith g From thence he leads them to the contemplation
of the covenant in which all the blessings of salvation ivere con- tained. This covenant had been made with Abraham, four hundred and thirty years before the law was given to Moses ; and in it, all the believing seed of Abraham were interested. Now, this covenant could never be annulled, except by the consent of all the parties contained in it. But a very small part of those who were interested in that covenant were present when the law was given. That was only given to Abraham's children after the flesh : his spiritual children had nothing to do with it : and therefore to them is the covenant of grace as valid as ever ; the publication of the law having
made no difference in it whatever11 Here, supposing
naturally that his opponent would ask, " Of what use then the law was ? " he proceeds to shew, that it was not given in order to establish any thing in opposition to the Gospel, but to
c Gal. i. 6, 7. d Gal. hi. 2, 5.
e Gal. iii. 6 — 9. All the verses quoted from this chapter and the next should be cited at length.
f Gal. iii. 10—12. s Gal. iii. 13, 14. h Gal. iii. 15—18.