The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 345

(Bee abo-ve, oh I. 4, and note.) ''Throngh bnt, since Christ died on II crose, true abso- whloh: " in vnrious ways was the cross of lutely, that for salvation neither circumcision Ollrist the me11ne of effecting this mutaal WBB aught, nor uncircnmcisioa, but only 11 druoifl:don between the apostle and the new oreatare, For the discussion of the world. It is apparent, from the whole tenor tel'IIIJI of the aphorism as here stated, BB com- of bis Epistles, that Obrist crocified, as pared with its form in eh. v. 6 and in l Cor. maniresting both Christ's love to sinful men vii. 19, the reader is referred to the notes on in general, and to hie own self in particular, oh. v. 6. The words Ka•in, rcT!.,,. mo.y mean "the chief of &inners," ond likewise the either " a new creature," or " a new act of love of God bis Father, wrought with so creation making a man a new creature." It mighty an attraction upon his whole eoul- is hardly admissible to take KTl<Tu as "cre- intellect,con•cience,afl'ectione-that all other ation" in a collective sense, as in Rom. viii. objects which were only not connected with ~9; though this may, perhaps, be its meaning tliis one lost to him their whole zest and m 2 Cor. v. 17, "If any man is in Christ, interest, · while all other objects which there ie a new creation," that is (perhaps), clli.shed with the moral and spiritual in- he finds himself, as it were, in a new heaven fluence of this became absolutely distasteful and a new earth. Christians as such are and repulsive. And, on the other hand, elsewhere described by the apostle BB the the world at large met the man who was product of God's creative hand; thus in Eph. animated with this absorbing devotion to ii 10, "For we are his workmanship ( 1roi11 µ.a.), God as manifested in a crucified Christ, created (,cT1(1'8EVTH) in Christ Jesae for good with just tho.t eetrangedness and aversion work&" As "begotten again" (1 Pet. i. 23, which might have been anticipated. The l&va."Y•"Y""'"71/l-•vo,), or" bom anew" (John iii. influence exercised by the cross in crucifying 9, "Y.,,,,,,aol'Tu livwa,.,), subjects of a '' re- the world and the apostle to each other was generation" (..-a>.ryy,.,,.,/a, Titus iii. 5), they intensified by the especial be11ring which, must, of course, be the products of a new act in the apostle's view, the cross had towards of creation. In 2 Cor. v. 14-18 the sentence, Jewish ceremonialism (see eh. ii. 19, 20, " H any man is in Christ, there is a new and notes). The vivid, intense manner in creation," or "he is a new creature," lies which the apostle proclaimed such sen- embedded in a passage which describes in timents alienated from him the adherents language of remarkable intenseneBB the and champions of Judo.ism, and made him transforming inflnence of Christ's death, of all Christiane the one who was to them wherever by faith it baa been fully grBBped. the most obnoxious. And how this affected That passage, occurring as it does iu an his standing, even in the Gentile world, Epistle written nearly at the same time as there have been above repeated occasions the Epistle to the Galatians, leaves no doubt for noting. • as to the ideas which in the apostle's mind Ver. 15.-For in Christ l e111111 neither oir- clllSter round the term" new creation," men- oumoision availeth anything, nor unoircum- tioned, here too as in e:ffect there, in close oision, but a new oreatnre (06-r-1 "Yo.p 1r,p,Toµ../i connection with the cross of Christ, his sole TI f.,T,., ollTe li.rcpofjv.,Tlci; l,.,\Ao. 1ea111¾, 1<Tlrns); supreme glory. It points to the state of a. for neither is circumcision anything, nor un- sinner conscioasly reconciled to God by the circumcision, but a new creature (or, creation). dsath of Christ, and finding himself thus The reading of the Text us Receptus, followed translated into the midst of new perceptions, in our Authorized Vereioll, is this: ;., "Yll.p new joys, new habits oflife, new expectations. Xp1(1'T<f 'h7"oii olln -n,p1Toµ.-q T& lo-x6,,, ollT~ "The old things are passe<l away "-guilt, l,.,cpofjv.,T{a, Ii.Mo. ,caw¾, 1CT(.,ar. But by almost the overmastering power of sin, laborious all recent editors this reading is replaced effort after goodness frustrated after all and by the one given above. That frnv is the inelfoctual, the servile routine of a dead true reading, and not 1.,x6e,, all are agreed unquickening ceremonialiem: "behold, all in thinking: lo-xJ,. being regarded as a cor- things are become new, o.nd all things are of rection imported from eh. v; 6. The evidence God, who bath reconciled us to himself for the rejection of Iv Xp,.,Tqi '111.,oii, which tlj.rough Christ." The phrase, " a new is found in e.11 the uncial manuscripts except oreaturn," appears to have been used by the the Vatica.n, is by no means equally decisive. Jews to describe the change resulting in the The pl'eeence of those words in eh. v. 6, case of a heathen becoming a proselyte. where they 11re very suitable to the context, That wos no doubt a great change : but for baa with great probability beeu supposed to grellter seemed to the apostle to be the trans- e1:phlin their being also found here, being formation in the case of one translated fro111 introduced, like '"X 6u from the former pass- the bondage and darkness of the " letter" age, by the copyists: but here the qualifica- into the" newness of the Spirit" (Rom. vii. tion made by LIJ em is not so certainly required. 6). He had himself experienced how mM- The apostle folt it to be not merely true vellously great as well as how blessed the ,,Zativel11, thu.t is, for those" ill Ohri&t Jeaua.," tmD11itio11 WBII ; and he bas desc:ibed i~ in  812 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE GALA'l'IAN". [olt. VI, 1-18,