The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 311

outcome. Love to God and consequent love to men becomes the law of our lives. All that is lovely is thus evoked, and the system proves its moral magnificence and practical power. ' II. IT IB THE OHARAOTERIBTIO OF LEGALISM TO DEPRECIATE THE CROSS. (Ver. 11.) In n scheme of free grace the cross of Jesus Christ is central and all-important. How could S\!lfish hearts be emancipated from their selfishness, ha:d not the Holy Spirit the cross of Christ to move· them? The cross is the self-sacrifice of incarnate love, and the grandest appeal of all history for self-sacrifice in return. It is, moreover, a fact and not a ceremony; a fact which bears no repetition, and which stands in its moral grandeur alone. But legalism comes in to depreciate if possible its moral value. The insinuation is thrown out that circumcision is essential to the efficacy of the cros~ . .The cross is made out to be a mere adjunct to the Jewish ceremonial. Its offence ceases. It is no such instrument of self-sacrifice as it was intended to be. The brav" apostle who preaches "Christ crucified" as the only hope of salvation is persecuted for doing so, and the whole legal band arrays itself against him. It is thus that the legal spirit depreciates and dishonours the Crucified One. III. ALL THIS.IMPLIES IN THE LEGAL SPIRIT A FALL FROM GRACE. (Ver. 4.) This is the key of the present passage. The soul, which so depreciates the cross as to go away and to try to save itself by ceremonies, has fallen from a moral grandeur into deepest selfishness. Christ profits in nothing the soul who is bent on saving himself. The _righteousness of Chlist, whic_h is unto all and upon all them that believe, cannot consist with the self-seeking and self-confidence which self-righteousness implies. We must choose our saviour and adhere to him. If our saviour is to be ceremony, which is only another way of sayin!!: that our saviour is ourselves, then we may as well renounce all hope of.salvation by Christ. We sever ourselves from Christ when we seek to be justified by the .Law (Revised Version). We have descended in toe scale of motive; we. have taken up·the selfish plan; we have" fallen away from grace." IV. PAUL ANTICIPATES THAT HIS EXPOSURE OF LEGALISM WILL CURE THE GALATIANS OF IT. • (Ver. 10.) •He believes that legalism will be destroyed and rooted up by laying bare its real meaning. The leaven will not be allowed to spread. It is most important in the same way to be meditating constantly upon the magnificence of the gospel system a~ a moral system. Thus shall we prize it more and more, and never think of surrenderi~g· it for any rival and selfish system.-R. M. E. Vera. 13....!.15.-1?!e Uberty of .love. 'Having shown the magnificence of the gospel system, Patil no'? proceeds to define that freedom which it secures. It is not licence, but love, which it induces; .and love nqt only fulfils the Law, as legalism does not, but nlso prevents the bitter strife which l_egalism ensures. We have the following points suggested :- I. THE DIS'.l'IN,C'.J'ION BETWEEN LICENCE AND LIBERTY. (Ver. 13.) The grace which has freed us 'from the legal spirit lias not endowed us with a liberty to live licentiously. The liberty it gives is totally distinct from licence. Licence is liberty to please our- selves, to humour the flesh, to regard liberty as an end and not a means. But God in his gospel gives no such liberty. His liberty is a means and not an end; it is liberty to live as he pleases, liberty to love him and love men, liberty to serve one another by love. We must guard ourselves, th~n, from the confusion of mistaking licence for liberty. . H. LoVE IS THE REAL LinERTY. (Ver. 13.) As 11, matter of experience we never feel free until we have learned to love. When our hearts are going out to God in Christ, when wo have at his cross learned the lesson of philanthropy, wheu we have felt our obligation to God above and to mai;i below, then we are free as air and rejoice .in freedom. Then we refus~ licence as only freedom's counterfeit, for we have learne,l a more excellent way.. We cannot imagine a loveless spirit to be free. Ile may achieve an outlawry, but he is not, cannot be, free. III. LoVE rs THE REAL FULFIL\IIBNT OF THE LAW. (Ver. 14.) The lcgalists in their \ittle system o,f self-righteousness spent 'their strength upon the mint, the anise, and tfie cummin ; ,vhile the weightier matters of the Law-righteousness, judgment, and faith-,,-were nealected. Ceremonies and not morality became their concern. 'l'he tithing of pot-h~rbs would entitle them to Paradise. In contradt to all this, Paul shows 2T8 THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS, .[err. v. 1-:-:26.