£hat he trusted in the atoning death of Christ for salvation. 3. It implied tne exclu- sion of all 'otbe~ elements ttt· which erto1•ists mignt trust as grounds of salvation. III. 'rJ-IE EFFE0TB OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST, " By which the world has been crucified to me, and I unto the world." It is not· material whether the double crucifixion .here described is·¥eferrccl to Christ or to his crossf· for as it is only Christ crucified whom the apostle p1·eached, it is through him the be iever is crucified to the world. Christ'S' c!ross has sundered tho relationship between Paul an:d the world. They are dead to each other. Luther says, "The world and I are well agreed. The world cares not a pin for me, and I, to cry_quittance with it, care as little for the world." Consider: 1. What is the world? It• is that sphere of things in which the lust of the flesh, th-:i lust of the eye, and the pride of life find their natural development. It is the world as -op·posed to God; "The friendship of this world is_ enmity with God" (Jas. iv. 4). 2. Eow''ir'the world, crucified to the apostle 1 It Is not that the apostle regards (1) the world-3:s UHeless. (~) Nor as a pface to be abandoned, in a spirit of monkish austerity. Lutber·'s~y's;, "'The monks dreamed that the world was crucified to them when they enterea 'iii.to their monasteries; but by' this means Christ is crucified, and not the world. Yea, the world is delivered from crucifying." (3) Nor as a scene upon which he is to :wrea~ hi~ morbid spite or bitter misanthropy. But (4) it implies that the world liad lost its attrac'tfons'for him, its power over him, its influence to lead him astray. '!'here.was~ time 'l'l'hen he was not so crucified-he was "alive once;" but death in Christ arid with Christ was' liis death to the world and the death of that world to him. 3'~: Hoi.lJ is 'lie 'cru,:,ji,ed to' the wdrld 1 The ·world regards him as a dead man, who has ri6 fonger'any a:frractionhhat it should· ..desire•him. It regards him no lon'.!er as its· own, and therefot$ hates'h'im to. the point of persecution. This inter-crucifixion came o'.hout througli,'h(e·uttion ·with Christ, and that union was effected by the cross. Well, therefore,·1might the ·apostle glory .,,:,,) . . . in the cross I Ver. 15.-Thefundamentalfact in Christian life. This is regeneration. The Jew mjght find, it in, c;:jrcumpis~on; the Gentile, in liberty; but "in Jesus Christ neither dircumc\sion aviiiletb anything, nor uncircrimcision, but a new creation." Consider--'- I. THAT CimisT OBLITERA'I'ES THE MO~T mGnLY VALUED DISTINCTIONS. 1. In him tf1.e old. separating,4fstinctions are no longer in force. They have ceased to be. Jews arid'Gentiles ate ni\l,de one in Christ. 'l'hey-_are fellow-citizens, of the same oody, of the honsehqld }?f G'od (Epp.: ii. 19). '.['hey are made "one new man." 2. In him tl,,. old ser:afa'r:fng -disti'nUibns have Zost all the(r value. Neither circumcision 11or uncir- c1mcision eyer availed ~nytb'.fo.g for'Justification. ', 'The Jew- might be ready enough to concede 'the point as to uilcircil.mcis1on, but he \'V'ould be offended to bear that his cir- cumcision availed· ·nothing~' • •The sentence of·the apostle outs np by the .oots all the ritualism of the Churches. Ea.ting of meats, celibacy, holidays, are nothing; we- are no better for abstaining nor are we the worse for eating. Il. 'fHAT THE FUNDAMENTAL FACT IN CHRISTIANITY IS REGENERATION. 1. This constitutes it an entirely .spiritual systern,il1. which the outer is. nothing, the inward is everythi.r:i~- It ,is not ,a mere change of.opinion, or of party, or of outward life. ~(is 'not9f ." o_ld~~ \,"-men maybe noble ·by birth, b_11t they ca~not be hol:r by birth ; "not of the will of man," as many a godly father· knnws by bitter expenence as he motii'ns over the waywatdness of ungodly children. 2. The new life originates in Ohri&t,. ''. If any n'lan be in Christ, ha 'i's a, new creattue" (2 Cor. v. 17). The spiritual renewal ~prings from union· with Christ. It· is *l!iot o! the will of man," for man cannot change his own heart. Christ is our very Life (eh. ii. 20). ,3. It is a new life; for it pas new thoughts; n~~ desii·~s1 new ~rinciples,' n~w 'affections; and stands in everlasting relation to the new na;il:J.e, the 11ew song, the new Jei:usnlem, the new heavens, and the n~w 'earth. The' new birth, in a. word, has ushered the believer into a new world.
Ver. l6.~77ie apostolic 'blessing. This taklls its colour from the tenor of 'the Epistle. Consider::-;-' ' · ;. • • : • I. THE AUTHoniTA'rlVE RULE FOR C~'l'I'AN GUIDANCE. •• As many •as walk accordiii" to this rule'," l. Christians are 'not lawless 1,"n their obedience. They wal!r accordib~ _tu rule, and ar~ never' so free as witbin the limits of rule. 2. The rule i~ ~videnelv that" BXJ>resseq, in the previollS verse-that what is outward in religion is SU THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS. [ou, VL 1-18.
nothing, and what is inward is everything; that the new creation la the whole of religion. If this position were rightly recognized, to be a Jew would be no privilege to be a Gentile would be no barrier. ' Il. THE BENEDICTION. "Pesce be on them, and mercy." 'l.'he two !Zreateat blessings of the covenant. Peace is the distinctive theocratic gift--" Peace shallbe upon Israel" (Ps. cxxv. 5); mercy is the blessing in which peace finds at once its origin and support. III. THE OBJECTS OF THE BLESSING. Those " who walk according to this rule" and "the Israel of God." 'l.'he first class was not Gentile believers as such, and the second Je~h believers as such. The blessing is for the entire number who walk according to thIS rule, but the apostle finds among them a class whom he describes with a tender aud suggestive fitness as "the Israel of God." He had been all along proving that the true Israel was "of faith," but he evidently thinks of his countrymen as standing apart from their Judaistic perverters in the glorious eminence of "the Israel of God." 1t is a peculiar expression, still more distinctive even than " Israel after the Spirit" and ~mphasize_s _the Divin_e _ow~ership _in those who are" the circumcision, who worshlp God m the Sp1nt, who reJ01ce m Christ Jesus, and have no confidence iD. &he flesh" (Phil. iii. 3). ' ••