The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 178

OhriBt Jesus. "For;" thnt iA, what is juet present life ie concerned, or the position nllirmed (vcr. 25) ie true, because ye ere which their birth had entitled them to; and " sane" nnd no longer " children." " Ye that it stands in contrast with their earlier arc;" in ver. 25 it ie "we nre." The whole position when children in years under a course of the arii:ument, however, shows thnt predagogus. The noun ul&s, son, itself, the persons rec1letl by ea.eh of the personal however, while it is never used as synony- pronouns are in effect the eamc, namely, the mous with vfJ,rws to describe one as a child people of God; otherwise this verso would in years, yet, like .,.,,,vov, child, does not ordi- not furnish proof, 88 by the " for" it pro- narily betoken more than simple relation- fesses to do, of the statement ofver. 25. The ship as the correlative with " father ; " for change from "we " to " ye " has by som!' which reason uM,(as well as -rl1<vov) is used in been explained 8B due to the writer's wish such phrases as "children of disobedience," to preclude the supposition that the "we " "of letael," "of light,"" of the day,"" of the in ver. 25 applied to Jewish b&Jievers only. devil," "of perdition." In Heh. xii. 6-8 vios A more so.tisfactory explanation is that he is applied in the case of one who is as yet wishes to give the statement in vers. 22-25, nnder the discipline of the rod; but even there which is genera.I, a niore ·trenchant force 88 u/J, of itself immediately designates his filial applying to those whose spiritual difficulties relation only. St. Paul never nses the word he is now dealing with. In 1 These. v. 5, ,rai, at all, thongh he has ,ra,ll,o: in 1 Cor. " Ye are all sons of light, and sons of the xiv. 20 for children in years, in place of the day : we are not of the night, nor of dark- word vf/'ITlos which he ordinarily employs ness," we have the converse transition. (Rom. ii. 20; 1 Cor. iii. l; xiii. 11 ; Eph. There likewise the persons recited are in iv. 14; Heh, v. 13), and which we find effect the same; and the change of person in presently after in vers. 1 and 3 of the next the pronoun, making the discourse, from chapter. The particular modific.ation of exhortation addressed to others, pass into a meaning in which the apostle here nsee the fonn of cohortation applying to all Christiane term is justified by the consideration which alike, including the writer himself, is dic- he presently pnts forward, tbat a son of even tated by the apostle's sympathetic kindness an opulent or high-born parent, while a mere for especially his Thessalonian converts, child, possesses no more freedom than if he "Ye;are." The fac;t that faith is the sole and were the child of auy other person ; his heir- sufficient ground of qualification eliminates ship or distinction of birth is for eo Jong all those distinctions by which the Law has more or less veiled; it is not until he passes heretofore fenced off Gentiles, pronouncing out of hie nonage that he appears in his them '' separated as nlione," " strangers to proper character. the covenants," and" without God" ( cf. Eph. Ver. 27.-For as many of you as have been ii. 12). In the sequel (vet. 28) tho apostle baptized into Christ (foo, 'Y"-P .Is x,,.,,.,.l,v passes on from the thought of this particular if3,11r-r /,rfhr-r•) ; for all ye who we-re baptized outward distinction of Jew and Gentile to into Christ. "For; " pointing back to the the thought of all other purely externa.l whole preceding verse, but especially to the distinctions. "In Christ J e~us." It is de- words," in Christ Jesus." "All ye who were bated whether this clause should he con- baptized;" more literally, "ye, as many a.a nected with "faith," as if it were ,r/(1'.,.,.,,, -riis were," etc. The rendering in our Authorized iv Xp11T-rqi 'l711Toii, the article being omitted, as Version, '' as many of you as have beeu in Ool. i. 4; Eph. i. 15, and often ; or witl1 baptized," allows of, if it does not sugge11t, the words, "ye are sons of God," with a the surmise that the apostle was aware of comma following the word "faith." Both there being those among tlle Christians he modes of conslruing find in the sentence at was writiug to who had not been " baptized last the same contents of thought; for each into Christ." But the context proves the of the two propositions thus severally formed fulla.cy of this surmise; for the baptism of a contains by implication the other. It pro- part of their body, whatever its consequences bably suits the connection best to take the to those particular individuals, would have apostle as at once affirming that it is in furnished no proof of the foregoing state- Christ Jesus that we are God's sons through ment, thnt "all" of those whom he was ad- faitli, rather than as leaving this to be in- dressing were "sons of God." The class ferred from the fact of our being sons through marked out by the 01To1 is clearly coextensive faith in Christ. "In Christ" is, with St. with the "ye all" of ver. 26. Th~ fact is Paul, a very favourito form of indicating the tha.t this 01To1 marks out a distinct olu~, not channel through which the gre11t blessings taken out from amongst Christians, but from of the gospel a1·e realized ( cf. Eph. i. 3, 6, 7, amongst mankind at large. As compared 11; ii. 6, 7, 10, 13, 21, 22; iii. 12, eto.). with o1-r,vu, which the a.postlo might huve "Sons of God." It is quite clear thut the written instead, it may be reg8l'deu a.s term "sons" ( ulol) denotes those who have affirmiog with greater positiveness tbnn come into the full enjoyment, eo for as the o1-r,vH would have <lone, that wh11t is predi- 144 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [cu. III, 1-20,