The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 88

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-5.-The gospd, of sd,f-sacrijiu. In sending an Epistle to an apostate people, Paul does not indulge in unmeaning compliments. These Celts in Asia. had been showing some of their proverbial fickleness, and going back from the doctrine of justification by faith to a rit'll,(1,lism whose development must be self-righteousness, It is needful for their recovery from apostasy that the authority of the apostle and the truth of the gospel should be put before them in unmistakable terms. Hence we find Paul plunging at once into the needful expositions of his own apostleship and of the .gospel of Christ with which NI an apostle he was charged. In this salutation we have the following lessons distinctly taught:- _ I. PAUL'S Al'OSTLESHIP WAS RECEIVED DIRECTLY FROM JESUS Cim1sT. (Ver. 1.) :Doubtless he had merely human hands laid upon his bead at Antioch (Acts xiii. 3), ! but the imposition of the hands of the brethren was not the conveyance of authority, 1 but simply the recognition of authority as already conveyed. The "ordination" at Antioch was the recognition by the Church of authority and mission already conveyed by the Lord to the apostle. Accordingly in this instance before us Paul claims an apostleship directly from the hands of Christ. He was an apostle "not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead" (Revised Version). No intermediate hands conveyed the authority to him ; he was conscious of having received it directly from the fountain-head. This gave him confidence consequently in dealing with the Judaizing teachers. It mattered not to him what parade of authority these teachers made ; he stood as a rock upon his own commission with all its hallowed associations. And should this not instruct every true teacher as to the source of his authority? It is a mistake to imagine that men can do more than recognize God-given authority. It is from Christ directly we must each receive our office. Church officers, in putting their imprimatur upon any of us, merely recognize a Divine work which they believe on due evidence to be already there. II. THE DESmE OP THE A.POSTLE FOB THE GALATIANS' WELFARE. (Vers. 2, 3.) The deep longing of Paul and those associated with him in his captivity for these apostate Galatians waa that grace and peace from God the Father and from Christ might be theirs. " Grace," the gratuitous, undeserved favour which wells forth from the Divine heart, when it is received into the sinner's soul, produces " peace which passeth all understanding." It was this blessed experience Paul desired for the Galatians. They may have traduced his office and his character, but this did not prevent him entertaining the deep desire that into "paths of peace" they, like himself, should be led. And indeed we cannot wish people better than that grace and peace from heaven should be theirs. To live in the felt favour of God, to realize that it i~ at the same time quite undeserved, produces a peace and a humility of spirit beyond all price! Ill. THE GOSPEL PAUL PREACHED WAS THAT OP THE RELF-SAORIFIOE OF CHRIST. (Ver. 4.) Jesus, he asserts," gave himself for our sins." The foundation of the gospel is self-sacrifice. But we must •always remember that self-sacrifice, if for the merest trifle, may be moral madness. In self-sacrifice as such there is no necessary virtue. A man may lose bis life in an utterly unworthy cause. Hence the necessity for the Belf-sacrifice of Christ mUJ1t be made out before its real virtue is established. This necessity appears when we consider that it was "for our sins" he gave himself. For if our sins had been removed at some meaner cost than the blood of the Son of God, we should be disposed to say that sin is after all a light thing in God's sight, a mere bagatelle to him. But inasmuch as it required such a sacrifice to take away sin, its OIi, I, 1-24,] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 53