for refnge to Jesus as our Hope, we tum round like Peter to rebuild the edifice of self- righteousness and legalism, we are simply making ourselves transgressors. We are forfeiting our liberty and piling up fresh sin. Hence it is of the utmost moment that we should clearly and constantly recognize the sinfulness of the legal spirit. It robs Jesus of hie rightful position as Saviour of mankind. It casts away the gospel and goes back for salvation to tbe Law, which can only condemn us; it makes the sacrifice of Jesus vain and only increases sin. Against all legalism, consequently, we must wage incessant war. Nothing is so derogatory to Jesus or destructive of men's souls. It is another gospel, but an utterly fallacious one. Unless Jesus has the whole credit of salvation, he will not be our Saviour. He must be all or nothing. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."-R. M. E. Vera. 19-21.-The death of legal hope the life of evangeUcal obedien~. Paul pro- ceeds in the exposition of Peter's mistake to show that it is only when through the Law we die to all legal hope, we can live ll!lto God. When legal hope has died within us, Christ has room to live and be the source of our spiritual energy. I. CONSIDER THE DEATH OF LE0ALISM. (Vers. 19, 20.) The idea of self-righteous- ness or Pharisaism was and is that we can live through the Law.. But the more careful analysis of sin leads us to see that the Law can only condemn and slay us. The same experience became our Lord's when he became our Representative. Though obeying the Law in every particular, he found that, in consequence of our sin, for which he bad made himself responsible, the Law demanded his death in addition to his obedience, or rather " his obedience even unto death." Not until he was crucified had he satisfied the demands of Law. In his crucifixion, therefore, he died to the Law. It had after that no more claim upon him. When he said on the cross, " It is finished," he died to the Law. Now, it is only when we enter iuto this purpose of the crucifixion, and die to all hope from the Law, that we are in a position to live unto God. "The death of legal hope" is "the life of evangelical obedience." The legalism must die within us before we get into the large place of new obedience. Among the many purposes of our Lord's death upon the cross, this w&s a prime one, viz. to wean us away from all idea of winning life by law-keepin~, that we may gratefully receive it as the gift of free grace. II. CONSIDER THE LIFE UNTO Gon. (Vera. 19, 20.) Though legal hope bas died, so that Paul is" dead to the Law" like Christ in Josepb's tomb, he is at the same time enabled to " live unto God." In truth it is then that the life unto God begins. For life by the Law is life for self; wherea,s when we die to all legal hope, we are delivered from the self-life, and enabled to live the life of consecration to God. And when does this life of consecration to God come? By inspiration Christ comtls and lives literally within us by his Spirit, so that we become in a real sense inspired persons. Conse- quently, P&ul dccl.ares that it is not he himself who lives the consecrated life, but "Christ liveth in me." He abandoned himself to the Spirit of Christ, and thus made way for the life of consecration. Nothing is more important, then, than this self- &bandonment to the Spirit of Christ, who is the Spirit of consecration. This is the holocaust of the Christian life, the abandonment of every faculty and power to the Divine fire, that all may rise in sublimity to heaven. III. CoNBIDER THE LAW OF THE NEW LIFE. (Ver. 20.) Paul has abandoned himself to the Spirit of Christ. His life becomes in consequence one of simple dep6'Tldence upon the Son of God, or, as it is here put," The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God;" or, as the Revised Version has it," A.nd that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God." The self- abandoned life is the life of constant dependence upon the Son of God. But this being so, the law of Christ's life necessarily becomes the law of the life of consecration. What, then, is the law of Christ's life? It is the law of love leading to self-sacrifice; for of thCl Son of God it is here said by Paul, "Who loved me, and gave himself for me." Christ, in consecrating himself to God, dedicated himself to our salvation. He became the voluntary victim; he died that we might be redeemed. Hence self-sacrifice is the law of the new life. Now, no other system but Christianity secures such self-abandonment and self-abneaation. The Hindu self-abandonment to Brahma, for example, is aban- donment to ~ desireless condition. "He remains," it has been said, "stupidly still (immobile), his nrms in &ir. Brahma is his death, and not his life." Again, Moham- 10(1 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, [an. u. 1-21.
rnedan ~elf-ab:mdonmcnt is crude fanaticism. "It is true," says the same writer, "t11at Allah does not kill all the faculties of the soul as Brahma. does, but h~ renders them fatalistic, fanatic, and sanguinary. He is for his adorers the fire which consumes them, and not tl1eir life." 'l'hc Jesuit, again, has a self-abandonment to the chief of his order at Home; but in renouncing jungmcut, affections will and conscience :o his sup_e1:ior, he .allows his true life to be killed, and ,his obedie~ce i; only the gah·amsm of spmtual death.1 It thus turns out that all other self-abandonments but that to Christ arc cou!ltcrfeits, and bis only stands the test of experionce. H~ rouses us to action, to intelligent seH-sacrifice. He teaches us t-0 "live not unto ourselves, hut unto him who <lied for us, and rose again" (2 Cor. v. 15). IV. IN THIS ARRANGE)!E~T THERE IS NO FRUSTRATION, BUT A MAGNIFYING OF THE GRACE OF Goo. (Yer. 21.) If righteousness came by ceremonialism, if ceremony were the secret of salrntion, then assuredly the grace of God would be frustrated, and Christ have died in \·ain. If legal hopes are still legitimate, then the crucifixion of Christ was a mere martyrdom by mistake. On the other hand, when we have seen clearly, as Paul did, that the Law cannot save us, but must be given up as a ground· of hope, then we 11:ather round the cross of Christ, and we adore the devotion which thereby secured. our salvation, and we magnify the grace of God. Legalism is the antithesis and frustration of Divine grace; whereas the life of consecration, which the death of all· legalism· secures, is the true exaltation of God's grace manifested in a crucified Saviour. Let us· make sure, then, of the crucifixion of the legal spirit within us, _and ·then the conse~ crated life which the contemplation of Christ CDICified inspires shall be found to be the true ~rny of ma,,,"llifying the grace of God.-R. M. E, • • • I 1, I