Under the law, God as it were stood still to see what man could do; but in the gospel God is seen acting, and as for man, he has but to "stand still and see the salvation of God." This being so, the inspired apostle hesitates not to say to the Galatians, "Christ is become of no effect unto you; whosoever of you are justified by law ([Greek: en nomo]), ye are fallen from grace." If man has any thing to do in the matter, God is shut out; and if God is shut out, there can be no salvation, for it is impossible that man can work out a salvation by that which proves him a lost creature; and then if it be a question of _grace_, it must be all grace. It cannot be half grace, half law. The two covenants are perfectly distinct. It cannot be half Sarah and half Hagar. It must be either the one or the other. If it be Hagar, God has nothing to do with it; and if it be Sarah, man has nothing to do with it. Thus it stands throughout. The law addresses man, tests him, sees what he is really worth, proves him a ruin, and puts him under the curse; and not only puts him under it, but keeps him there so long as he is occupied with it,--so long as he is alive. "The law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth;" but when he is dead, its dominion necessarily ceases so far as he is concerned, though it still remains in full force to curse every _living_ man.
The gospel, on the contrary, assuming man to be lost, ruined, dead, reveals God as he is,--the Saviour of the lost,--the Pardoner of the guilty,--the Quickener of the dead. It reveals him, not as exacting aught from man, (for what could be expected from one who has died a bankrupt?) but as exhibiting his own independent grace in redemption. This makes a material difference and will account for the extraordinary strength of the language employed in the Epistle to the Galatians: "I marvel"--"Who hath bewitched you?"--"I am afraid of you"--"I stand in doubt of you"--"I would they were even cut off that trouble you." This is the language of the Holy Ghost, who knows the value of a full Christ and a full salvation; and who also knows how essential the knowledge of both is to a lost sinner. We have no such language as this in any other epistle; not even in that to the Corinthians, although there were some of the grossest disorders to be corrected amongst them. All human failure and error can be corrected by bringing in God's grace; but the Galatians, like Abraham in this chapter, were going away from God, and returning to the flesh. What remedy could be devised for this? How can you correct an error which consists in departing from that which alone can correct any thing? To fall from grace, is to get back under the law, from which nothing can ever be reaped but "the CURSE." May the Lord establish our hearts in his own most excellent grace!