The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 195

ing Law's lesson and being "shut up to faith," they mistook the lesson altogether and sbut t.bem~clves up to ceremony. The Law was meant to defuat self-righteousness; the pupil_s all~wed it to minister to self-righteousness. Instead of being shut up to fe.ith, they reme.med m the school of Law for ever and never got home. Now, every well-conduoted school impresses upon its pupils the desirability of their getting beyond its lessons e.nd its confinement. 'l'he broad liberty of manhood and of home lies in supposed sunlicrht beyond it, and the school training encot1rages the vision. So with God's Law • it is designed to create a longing for the liberty in Christ and the larger opportunitie~ that liberty implies. Ill THE HOME-COMING. (Vers. 25, 26.) If we learn the true lesson from the Law we are carried by it to the feet of Christ, and we seek justifice.tion by trusting him: Faith is thus the home-coming of the soul ; and undoubtedly no schoolboy ever co.me whistling so joyfully home, even when his home-coming was the final one, as the soul does which has learned to trust and love Christ. Then the sense of imprisonment and confinement gives place to a sense of freedom. AB children of God in Christ Jesus we rejoice in the abundant liberty of home. Our education is so fer finished when w~ have learned to hope in our elder Brother only. Then do we know what it is to be "at home" with God. The prodigal son enjoyed himself greatly at the father's banquet, and so do all of us; for we are all prodigals by nature, when by faith and repentance we come home to God. IV. U1-."ITY IN CHRIST. (Vers. 27, 28.) The home-coming is attended by the enter- tainment of the Christian spirit. By that spirit all caste-distinctions die. Havincr put on Christ, we do not look contemptuously on any, but hopefully on a.II. The Je; and the Greek forget their national differences and separations ; the bond and the free do not dwell despairingly or proudly on the accident of birth; the man does not tyrannize over the woman, and neither will the Christian woman, when she secures her rights, t_,rannize over the man ; but each and all will rejoice in their unity in Christ. Christ thus proves himself to be the unifying element in the human race. Coming near to each, he brings ea.eh near to all, and establishes around his person the brotherhood of man. V. FAITH ALSO INTRODUCES SOULS TO THE PRIVILEGES OF THE AllRARAMIO FAMILY, (Ver. 29.) Unquestionably the Jews were the heirs of magnificent promises. But is it carnal Jews that are to get them? is it men who a.re only descended from Abraham according to the :flesh? :Nay; Abraham has a spiritual seed, and all who a.re Christ's through faith become children of Abraham. Paul thus proclaims a chosen generation, whose fellowship may be entered by faith and not by circumcision, by the Christian spirit and not by Jewish ceremony. This is better than converting the world to Judaism, to convert it to Christ, and through relationship to Christ to count kindred with Abraham. " We are the circumcision," as be says to the Philippian converts, "who worship God in the spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the :flesh" (Phil iii. 3). '.!.'he Law teaches us a precious lesson if it sends us for salvation to Christ, and enables us to find in fellowship with our Lord the privileges of the chosen people becoming ours.-R. M. E. Vers.1-14.-Appeal to experienc,e and Scriptwre. I. FooLISRNEBB OF THE GALATIANS aHOWN FBOK TREIB OWN EXPERIENCE. 1. Expression of astonishment in view of their first impressions of the cross. "0 foolish Galatians, who <lid bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified ? " Paul's address to Peter concluded with his presenting the dreadful supposition of Christ having died for nought. He with that turns to the Galatians, and calls to their recollection the memorable impression which the first presentation of Christ crucified had made on their; minds. There had been, as it were, a localization of the cross among them. Christ had been so presented to them that preacher and time and place were all forgotten. There on Galstian soil was the cross erected; there was the Holy One and the Just taken and nailed to the tree ; there his blood flowed forth for the remission of sins. And they were deeply affected, as if the crucifixion scene had passed before their eyes. It is a blessed fa.et that the evil of our nature is not insuperable-that there is in the cross what can act on it like a spell. Even the greatest sinners have been arrested and entra.uced by the eye of the Cruci.Jied One. It is, on the other hand, a serious fact that OR. III, 1-2!),] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 181