The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 100

Vers. 3, 4.-CJhrist's sacrifice for our deliverance. The salutation is more than a kinr1ly expression of good will; it is a. true benediction based on the grand assurance of ::;race and peace that grows out of a right understanding of the sacrifice of Christ. St. ran! describes the bearings of that wonderful sacrifice in order to give support to his benediction. But it is clear that he does this with great fulness and distinctness for a further purpose. He wishes at the outset to set forth the fundamental principles of that gospel which the Galatians a.re forsaking for "a different gospel, which is not another gospel." Vi.Te have here, then, St. Paul's compendium of the gospel which, for force and terseness, will even bear comparison with St. John's-the most perfect of all com- pendiums of the gospel (John iii 16). The two do not cover exactly the same ground, for the gospel is so large that no sentence can comprehend even its leading trnths, and so many-sided that no two minds can see it in the same light. Consider the main points of the one now before us. L CRB.IST VOLUNTARILY BACBIFICED Bn,:SELF, In the passage just referred to St. John tells us how God gave his only begotten Son on our behalf. Now St. Paul reminds us that Christ also freely gave himself. It was of his own will, subject also to the will of his Father, that he lived a life of humiliation, He could have escaped the cross by abandoning his mission. He went right on to death clearly knowing what was before him, able to deliver himself at the last by calling legions of angels to his aid (Matt. xxvi 53), yet willingly submitting to death. The self-sacrifice of Christ was distinct from suicide in the fa.et that he did not seek death, and only met it in the course necessary for the carrying out of his life's mission. It is important to bear in mind that the essence of the sacrifice of Christ lies in this conscious, willing surrender of himself. It is not the mere tortures he suffered, nor the bare fact of his death that gives a value to his endurance. If he had died of a nat~r~l disease ~fter bearing wors! pain he could have made no atonement thereby. The w1lhng "obedience unto death o-ives a sacrificial value to his death. 1. This only could be a." satisfaction" to God. 2. This only could be a claim upon our faith and love. II. THE OCCABION OF THE SACRIFICE WAB OUR BINS, We cannot say that God would not have become incarnate if man had not fallen. But if the happy event at Bethlehem wollld still have taken place, the awful tragedy at Calvary would have been spared. It is not only that the sin of the world directly ea.used _the rejection and killing of Christ; his submission to death was occasioned by sin; 1t was to save us from the power and curse of sin. 1. Sin alienated us from God and occasioned the need of a reconciling srwrifir:.e, 2. Sin cast us into bondage and created the necessity for a ruueming ransom. fil THE OBJECT OF THE SACRIFICE WAS TO DELIVEB 118 FBOM THE PRESENT EVIL wonLD, 1. It was not to deliver 'Q.S from God, as fa,lse 11otions of the atooe1uc11t h11,vu OH. L 1-24.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 65