The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 35

their very inmost heart believe and feel that their circumcision ll.nd all their careful observan.:e of Mosaic ceremonies and rites-ceremonies and rites which were designed to separate them, as in fact they did markedly separate them, from other races-inferred, after all, in the new economy no real distinction, and that in Chriet Jesus there was neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither Jew nor Greek? With the large bulk of the Jewish brethren in J udrea this posture of feeling cannot be assumed to have existed : Pharisees they had many of them been before their conversion, and Pha.rieees in heart they continued still. Oircumstancesfavouring the spread of the leaven of Judaizing. And wherever they went they would be, of course, ready to propagate iu other Christian communities these noxious sentiments of theirs, and abundant opportunity would offer to them for doing this. The Jews in the then existing state of things were, as a people, espe9ially migratory in their habits, and moreover many of the Jewish believers had first heard the gospel through their having come from a perhaps far distant home to Jerusalem on a brief occasional visit. We must also bear in mind that throughout the provinces of the Roman empire it was the synagogue of each locality that commonly furnished the first nucleus of believers; and with respect to not a few of these first converts everywhere, similar obser- .ations would apply to those above made with particular reference to professedly believing Jews in Palestine. Now, it is obvious that, in a congregation of Gentile converts but lately sunk in the idolatry and religious ignorance of heathenism, a Christian Jew, as having been trained from infancy in the worship of the one true God and in the knowledge ,of those Holy Scriptures out of which the gospel itself sprang, especially ifhe came from Jerusalem the first cradle of the faith, where he had been in contact with those who had known the Lord Jesus himself upon earth, would be naturally felt entitled to especial considera- tion when speaking of matters relating to Judaism and Christianity. We canD.ot wonder, therefore, at finding that, far and wide among the ancient Churches of the Gentiles, Judaizing corruptions of the gospel were early broached, and but too readily found acceptance. The degree in which the statement of evangelical truth was vitiated, as also the degree in which the actual practice of Judaical observance;, was introduced, would vary in different localities ; but the tendency was showing itself in all directions, and, wherever it appeared, it would be the signal for.division and strife. The widespread and eager controversy ensuing thereupon. And the strife was just at this time at its fiercest. Judaizing corruptions of Christian faith and d~trine were on all sides confronting and being confronted by those who insisted upon the truth as it is in Jesus. These latter maintained that in no case, whether of Gentile or of Jew, had the observance of Levitical ordinances anything whatever to do with the sinner's justifi- cation before God ; and further-as a corollary of this general truth which was just now of essential importance-that not only was the Gentile believer free from the obligation of conforming in any respect to the ceremonial laws of the Jews in order to his justifi- cation before God, but that also this his complete justification before God through faith in Christ, apart from any such ceremonial observance, claimed to be openly and prac- tically recognized by Jewish believers, by the latter frankly and cordially fraternizing with the Gentile a.s standing, through their mutual union in Christ, on & perfectly equal footing with themselves of acceptableness and brotherhood. St. Paul the foremost asserter of Gentile f re,edom and equality. And the chief cham- pion of all, of evangelical orthodoxy, was St. Paul He it;was that had persistently grap- pled with the evil when first showing its front at Antioch and then at Jerusalem; not i,in~le•handed, &11 we ~ow, yet we cannot doul;,t the JD.ahi inspiring genius of tbe p-uth'11  DIS;:,ERTA'l'ION II. xlix