The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 268

Ver. 7.-Theson and the slave. The Christian is compared to the son, the Jew to the slave. The gospel bring~ sonship, Law inflicts bondage. The sonship of the new order involves liberty and heirship. Consider some of the privileges herein implied.· I. h"'I'ELLIGE::\'.T PRINCIPLES SUBSTITUTED FOR SPECIFIC COMMANDMENTS. 'l.'he slave is ordered to do this or that without his master condescending to tell him the reason for his mandates. He is bound to a blind, implicit obedience. Nothing is done to develop his understanding and to help him to choose and decide on his own juclo-ment. But the son is admitted to his father's counsels, and educated so as to reason for himself and to act on the dictates of his own conscience. The Law keeps men as slaves. It commands, it does not explain. Christianity (1) enlightens so that we see the prin- ciples of righteousness, understand their inherent rightness and discern their appli- cability to specific cases ; (2) liberaWJ by allowing us treedom to apply these principles according to our own conscientious convictions, instead of forcing upon us a rigid course d~~ . . JI. LoVE AS A MOTIVE INSTEAD OF COMPULSION. The slave may hate his master' and only obey in fear of the lash. The true son is above this abject, servile obedience. He has learnt to love his father, and from love to seek to anticipate his father's wishes and willingly to endeavour to please him. The Law commands, threatens, drives, compels. 'l.'he gospel persuades and attracts. The Christian obeys God because he first loves God. The secret is that Law cannot change our. hearts,:while the gospel does "create a new heart within" us, so that we no loriger need the restraints of Law, but earnestly desire to please God. Ill. FAMILY FELLOWSHIP IN PLACE OF SERVILE INFERIORl'l'Y. The slave is kept at a distance from his master, holds an inferior position, and is excluded from familiar intercourse. The son lives at home in the presence of his father and enjoys close companionship with him. Law keeps us at a distance from God. Jews were made to feel a sense of separation caused by their Levitical system. Christians are brought near through Christ and belong to the family of God. IV. A RICH Th'HERITANCE IN EXCHANGE FOR HELPLESS POVERTY. The slave can own nothing. All he earns and his very person are the property of his master. Sons are heirs. Law allows us to gain nothing-it is a hard master; but the gospel offets the richest gifts. Christians, being God's sons, become fellow-heirs with Christ.- W. F. A. Vers. 8, 9.-" Beggarly rudiments." I. THE OLD HEATHENDOM. St. Paul needs to remind tbe Galatians of the evils of the condition from which they have been liberated. We are all inclined to gild the past with false glories, looking back with fond regret to its lost delights, while we forget the things thatltroubled it. Note three characteristics of this evil past., 1. Ignorance of God. The heathen were without the light, the joy, the guidance, and the help that come with the true knowledge of God. All men who are spiritually dead to God are thus heathen at heart. The heatheniHm that waR congenital was some excuse for moral failure; for men cannot serve the God they do not know. Conduct which is pardonable in the ignorant, however, is inexcusa?le in those who k!1?w God. 2. '!'he worship of those who are no gods. Man must worship. The monstros1t1es of ~eathemsm are a pathetic witness to our religious nature, which, if it has not light for its healthy ,Ievelopment, will exercise itself in the most distorted manner rather than be suppress~d. But such relic,ion is based on a delusion. The worshipper prays to what does not exist. So do all whe° erect their own notions of divinity and do homage to them instead ol learning to serve the God of revelation. 3. Spiritual bondage. The Galatians seem to have been entangled in the toils of a mongrel religion, which combined the terrible OH, IV, 1-31.] THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. 235