The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 289

are not subjrd to tho Law of the old cove• his note on the present passage, '' They nout. The connection between the premiss are raised to a hei~ht far nbovc the Law's and tho conclusion ha.a been clearly shown injunction." But in the clcgrce in which by tbo apostle abovo (eh. iv. 5-7); it is they are not spiritual, but natural (fux11co/, this, that the possession of the Spirit of I Cor. ii. 14-16; Jncle Hl), in that degree adoption proves a man to be a "son" --one must they use the letter of the Law, in the who has attained his majority and is no New 'festament as well as the Old, as the longer subject to a pedagogue. This aphor- rule of their conduct. We, those who have ism of the apostle, that if they were led by been sacra.mentally brought into covenant the Spirit they were not under the Law, with God, cannot be left to ourselves; either suggests the inquiry-But how was it with we must be sweetly, persuasively, instinc- those Christians who were not led by the tively, swayed by the Spirit of God within, Spirit? Would the apostle teach, or would or else own the coercing dominion of the he allow us to say, that Gentile Christians written Law. In fact, the same individual (for it is to such that he is writing), and Christian may at different times be subject Jewish as well, if not guided by the Spirit, to alternation between thtse two di vtrse icere bound to obey the Law of the old phases of experience, pa.ssing over from one covenant? With reference to this point we to the other of them according to his fluctu- are to consider that the apostle has else- ating needs. Christians may, therefore, be where clearly stated, for example in Rom. broadly divided into three classes: (1) the xi., that the Church of God forms, in soli- spiritual (eh. vi. 1; Rom. viii. 1-4); (2) darity with Israel of old, one "Israel of tl::ose who are as yet in bondage to the God,'' as he speaks in the sixth chapter of letter; (3) those who are living after tlie this Epistle (ver. 16); Gentiles, being flesh-" carnal" (1 Cor. iii. 3). The above "graffed in" upon the original stock, have statement of the case. commends itself as in thus become brancbes(o-6/L,PvT01) having one acco!'dance with what the apostle writes i,1 common life and nature therewith ; or, in 1 Tim. i. 8-11, "We know that the Law is the language ofa.nother figure," fellow-heirs, good [ ,ca,\os : of. Rom. vii. 12] if a man use it and fellow-members of the body, and fellow- lawfully [vo/LI/Lws, according to the manner partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus," in which God has directed us to use it in his with those who originally were heirs and gospel (ver. 11)], knowing this [having hi8 forming the body and partners in the pro- eye upon this], that the Law is not made mised blessing (Eph. iii. 6). This leads us (o/, l<<<Ta,) for a righteous man, but for the to the view that God's Law, the revelation lawless and clisobe,lient, for, . . . according of his will relative to his people's conduct, to the gospel of the glory of the blessed given in successive developments-patri- God." In contrast with this Law, coercing arche.l, Mosaical, prophetical-is, with such impiety and immorality wherever it is found, modifications as have been made by the whether in the world or iu the Church, the crucifixion and the priesthood of Christ, and apostle has before in ver. 5 declared that its by the mission and work of the Holy Spirit, function is superseded in the case of the God's Law relative to his people's conduot spiritual believer: "The end of the com- still. The cross and pl'iestly work of Christ, mandment [see Alford] is charity, out of a as we aro tcrnght by this Epistle and t.he pure heart and a good conscience, and faith Epistle to the Hebrews, do fo1· all Christians unfeigned." The perpetual obligation of the eliminate from this Law its ceremonial pre• Law given under the old covenant, subject scriptions altogether; but its moral prescrip• to the qualifications noted above, appears to tions, more fully perfected by the morul be emphatically affirmed by our Lord: "I teaching of Jesus and his apostles, are still oamo not to destrny the Law, but to fulfil: incumbent upon them. Those Christian8 for verily I say unto you, till heaven aD<l who really give themselves up to the Spirit earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall to be taught and animated by him, who are in no wise pass aw,iy from the Law, till all ns St. Po.ul says (eh. vi. 1) "spiritual," these things be accomplishccl" (l\Iatt. v. 17, 18). use this Law (as Ce.lviu phrases it) as a Aud the recognition of this principle under- cloctrina liberalis; the Law of the Spirit of lies all his moral teuohing; as, for example, lifo within them leads aud enables them to iu the sermon on the mount; in his contro- recognize, and so to speak assimilate, the versies with the ,Jewidh rabbins; in snch kindred import of the Law embodiecl iu the passages 11s Mark x. l!); l\Iatt. xxii. 37--¼0. letter; which thus minfaters to their instruc- 'fhe moral Law given in the Old Testament tion and consolation (Rom. xv. 4; 2 Tim. amalgamates itself with that given in the iii. 16; 1 Oor. ix.10). The letter of the Law New, forming one whole. is now their helper, no longer their absolute Ver. 19.-Now the works of the flesh are rigid rule; o.s a rule it is superseded by the manifest (,Pavepa. 8e fO"Tt .,-a.e'p-ya,.,-ijs o-ap1<6s). law wl'itten in the heart (2 Cor. iii. 6-11; 'l'he apostle's purpose is here altogether on" lleb. viii. 8-11). As Chrysostom writes iu of practical e:s:hortntion, Having in vcr. 13  Z.56 THE EPIS'l'LE TO 'l'HE GALA'rIANS. [ell. V, 1-26.