The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 356

Ver. 11.-A :personal postscript. "Ye see In what large letters I write with mine mrn hand." There is a mystery about these large characters. It is conjectured that they may have been due to age, or to infirmity, or to weakness of eyes, or to the want of habit in writing Greek. But it is more interesting to see that, unlike other Epistles "·hich were written by an amanuensis, this one was written entirely 'With his o~ hand. 1 To SHOW ms LOVE FOR THE GAT,ATIANS. The autograph would be a preoious pos- ~~ssion to them. It is the largest Epistle he ever wrote with his own hand. IT. To PREVEl.'T IMPOSTURE. Letters were sometimes forged in his name (2 Thess. ii. 2; iii. 17). But his handwriting, being probably already·known to them, would prevent misunderstanding as to the authorship. III. To GIVE GREATER WEIGHT TO THE EPISTLE. It showed his profound anxiety on their account at a most critical moment. • - . Vers. 12, 13.-Exposure of t'he tactics of his advei·saries. The apostle recapitulates in a few sentences the contents of the Epistle and exhibits the falseness of his J\:idaistic • adversaries in a clear light. Mark- I. TREIB DOGMA TIO ATTN'UDE. They"desireto make a fair show in the flesh." They made a pretentious display of religion by a zeal for external rites-" the ~nrenewed nature cropping out under its more special aspect of·sensuousness and externalism.'' Yet all the while they affect:.ed a peculiar ooncem for God and religion. II. THEIR URGENT ZEAL, "They are cons training you to be circumcised;" their delusive flatteries (eh. iii. 1), their arguments, their example, having all :the stress of moral compulsion. The Judaizers had an immense and eager zeal for proselytism, and were sleepless in their efforts to undermine the gospel of liberty. • • III. THE TRUE MOTIVE OF THEIR OONDUCT. " Only lest they should ·suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.'' 1. Their conduct was cowai·dly. They would avoid pers~u- tion either by renouncing Christianity altogether or by shaping it into:Judaistio forms. The last was the course they took. They had no true love for the cause of religion when they insisted npon the indispensableness of circumcision, for their, real motive was to protect themselves from the :fierce anger of their countrymen. The cross of 'Obrist offered salvation without law of any kind, and welcomed the Gentiles' without- their becoming Jewish proselytes; but the Judaizers, by circumcising the Gentiies, desired to show their countrymen that, in attaching themselves to the gospel, they did not abandon the Mosaic Law or ritual 2. Their conduct was hypocritical. "For neith:er they themselves who are circumcised keep the Law." They placed a burden on their Gentile converts which they were not themselves willing to bear. " Indifferent them.: selves, they make capital out of you." They make· convenient selections out of; the precepts of the La.w; for they have no idea of obeying the whole Law, though it all rests upon Divine authority. 3. Their conduct was self-interested, "They -desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh." They wanted to swell., the importance of their sect by a large array of proselytes, who were to bear in the flesh· the mark of their instructions. • . , • .1 IV. IT WAS JUST Ah"D NECESSARY THAT THE APOSTLE SHOULD EXPOSE A POLicY 'so :MEAN, 60 :MEBCENABY, SO INSINCERE. Love may prompt the covering of 0. neighbourls 1 faults, but it is right to expose religious seducers of all sorts. • Ver. 14.-The true ground of the apostle's glorying. "But for me far- be it to ,glory,· &ave in the cross of onr Lord Jesns Christ." I. THE caoss OF CHRIST. L This is not, a, Romanists aay, the ·wooden cross. -'It• would be beneath the good sense of the apostle to say that he gloried in a piece of.wood. 2. It wa.6 =t the metaphorical cross bome by believer&-,,-<Ljfiictions. •· " If any man wm, cowe after me, let him deny himself,and take up his cross,and·follow me" (Matt. xvi.- 24 ). 3. It was tM atoning 1WJ,th of Christ. The apostle did not glory in this because of its moral influence upon his life, nor even because it was a manifestation of Divine justice and love, but because Christ, through his expiatory sufferings on the oross, pro- cured for us eternal life, which he applies by his Holy Spirit, II. THE ATTITUDE OF THE APOSTLE TOWARD THE onoss. He gloried in it. 1. n implied that h~ ha4 11,b!l,ndQne~ ihe wa1 of rightcou.s1:iess by the Law. 2. It implied· Ori. VI. 1-18.J THE EPISTLE TO 'rHE GALA'tUNS.