CHAP. II.] THEY WALKED NOT UPRIGHTLY. u ver. 5. 35 1 Tim. v. 20 14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly ac cording to "the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, ' If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? J Acts x. 28. & xi. 3. 14. "Peter." Rather, perhaps, "Cephas," N, A., B., C., 10, 17, 67**, 137, Vulg., Copt., Arm., Eth.; but D., E., F., G., K., L., P., most Cursives, d, e, f, g, read, "Peter." one of law, the other of grace; above all, the one was the system of the servant, the other of the Son-the Master. 14. "But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel," &c. If Christ had declared the abolition of meats and drinks as affecting men's standing in the sight of God as holy or unholy, which He had done very emphatically in his words as recorded in Mark vii. 19, then they who Judaized in the matter of meats, clean and unclean, showed their lurking disbelief in the system of Christ as all-sufficient, and professed their belief that it must be supplemented by Judaism. St. Paul laid down that meats were indifferent. "Meat commendeth us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we eat not are we the worse" (1 Cor. viii. 8), but St. Peter had contravened this. He had behaved as one who believed that if he eat not the Gentiles' meat he was more acceptable to God. Now if he had been a mere private Christian his conduct in this matter should have been noticed: but from his position as the principal leader, it was far worse; and he who was the most tender and appreciative and liberal of men, and yet the most uncompromising asserter of the truth of Christ, at once called him to account, and the elder Apostle submitted. Such was the influence of this great Apostle that, if he had held out, as it were, and vindicated his conduct, and entrenched himself behind his authority, and so on, there would have been a division in the Church, which probably it would never have recovered, to say nothing of a serious corruption of the doctrine of grace at its fountain head. It remains to consider one more question: Why did St. Paul insert this account of his reproof of Peter in this letter? Not for a moment because he desired to show his equality with Peter in Apostleship, in that that he had power to reprove him, 36 ■ Acts xv. 10, 11. a Matt. ix. 11. Eph. ii. 3, 12. b Acts xiii. 38, 39. JEWS BY NATURE. [GALATIANS. 15 We who are Jews by nature, and not a sinners of the Gentiles, 16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the but for this, that St. Peter, feeling that he was wrong on such a point, at once yielded; for there cannot be a shadow of a doubt that this was the conclusion of the matter. And the lesson to those who were being led away by the Judaizers was this: that so far from being able to claim St. Peter as an upholder of the Jewish system, when he was at Antioch he renounced conformity to the system; and when led away by his (shall we call it) constitutional weakness, he yielded to unworthy fear and compromised-instead of holding out, he gave way at once; and the sooner those led away by the false teachers followed his example the better. 15. "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles." It is very doubtful whether the following verses form part of the remonstrance with Peter. St. Paul seems to turn off from the reproof of St. Peter, and address himself to the Galatians. But even if these 15th and 16th verses are said to Peter, the 17th and following cannot well be. "We who are Jews by nature," &c. We do not merely contend that the Gentiles are justified by faith, but that the Jews themselves can be justified in no other way. The Jews called the Gentiles universally "sinners." St. Paul, as it were, accepts the term on behalf of the Gentiles, and in effect declares that whatever the Gentiles are in the sight of God, the Jews have to be justified in exactly the same way of faith. 66 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law," &c. For what did God send His Son amongst the Jews? In order that through faith in Him they might be justified. They were already in a sense near to God by having received God's revelation of Himself ["If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came," John x. 35], by being the children of Abraham, by having been circumcised; but the very coming of Christ amongst them, and His calling upon them to believe in Him for salvation, was proof positive of this, that whatever their spiritual or ecclesiastical position was before Christ came, now that Christ had come they were to believe in Him for exactly the same purposes of salvation as the Gentiles had to believe in Him, the only real difference being that the Jews were first called upon to believe. CHAP. II.] EVEN WE HAVE BELIEVED. c works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, 16. "But by the faith of Christ." "Save through faith in Christ," Revisers. See below. "But by the faith" (¿àv μǹ). This is literally and properly "except by or through faith in Jesus Christ," as if through faith in Christ and only through faith in Him, a man is justified by the works of the law, but this is contrary to the teaching of the whole Epistle, that faith alone justifies. This is got rid of in various ways. Bishop Lightfoot, perhaps, does least violence to the apparent meaning, by supposing such a paraphrase as "a man is not justified by works of law-he is not justified, except by faith in Jesus Christ." But it seems questionable to me whether we need resort to any means of getting rid of the difficulty, for the difficulty is probably one of our own creation, brought on by our anxiety to make the Apostle speak with extreme accuracy upon the relations between faith and works-in fact, to make him speak as a modern Lutheran or Solifidian or Evangelical. But any one who has read his Epistles carefully, and cares to speak honestly, will acknowledge that St. Paul expresses himself constantly in a spirit of liberty on this point, as if the great truth of our Justification was not a matter of verbal accuracy. Take, for instance, his words in Rom. ii., where he speaks of God giving eternal life "to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality," and "honour, glory, and peace to every man that worketh good," that we must suffer with Christ if we are to be glorified with him,that we are saved by hope. In this very Epistle he says-and fearful words they are" They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." I have given a list of such passages in my Church Doctrine Bible Truth," chap. xi., to which I refer the reader. We may, then translate làv un here as we would elsewhere. 66 "Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith," &c. Even we, though children of Abraham, circumcised and separated from the Gentiles, even we have believed in Christ, that we might be justified through faith in Him, and not 38 NOT BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW. [GALATIANS. and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. d Ps. cxliii. 2. Rom. iii. 20. ch. iii. 11. • 1 John iii. 8, 9. e 17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. by the works of the law. Why should the Son of God become Incarnate and be crucified and rise again? Simply that He should be made to us what we so much need, "Wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." "For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." This seems to be a free citation of a verse in Psalm cxliii., "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified." The Apostle appends to it "by the works of the law," and it is clear that he has a right to do so, for all men when this Psalm was written were under the law, and so were all incapable of standing before God by the deeds of the law. If they did stand before God, it was through God's mercy anticipating in their case the virtue of the All-sufficient Sacrifice. 17. "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found," &c. This, according to the commentators, is a place of no ordinary difficulty. I give an explanation which seems to me very plain and which I find is adopted by Wesley as well as by others. If while seeking our justification through Christ we are yet found wilful sinners (continuing in sin that grace may abound), is Christ the minister of sin? Does the freeness of justification through His Gospel encourage us to indulge our sinful lusts without fear of consequences? God forbid, let it not be thought for a moment. 18. "For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." Wesley's paraphrase seems admirable: "If I build again by my sinful practice the things which I destroyed by my preaching-I only show myself, not Christ, to be a transgressor; the whole blame lies on me, not on Him or His Gospel. As if he had said, the objection were just, if the Gospel promised CHAP. II.] I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. 39 f 19 For I through the law am dead to the Rom. viii. 2. law, that I might live unto God. 20 I am 'crucified with Christ: nevertheless I 19. "Am dead." Rather, "died." g Rom. vi. 14. h Rom. vi. 11. vi. 14. justification to men continuing in sin. But it does not; therefore, if any who profess the Gospel do not live according to it, they are sinners, it is certain, but not justified, and so the Gospel is clear." 66 19. "For I through the law am dead to the law." "I," that is the Apostle himself, through the law executing its office of convincing me of sin, am dead or died to the law. I died to the law as the means of my justification, or standing in the sight of God. When the law convinced me of sin, it at the same time convinced me of its own weakness, and led me to seek in Christ the only means of justification." "That I might live to God." Such was the example of living to God set forth in the example of Christ, and in the lives of the first Christians, that the mere keeping of the Decalogue in the letter seemed wretched in comparison. The life to God by which St. Paul lived was not through seeking to obey the ten commandments, but by having the life of Christ working within him. This made him obey the ten commandments and infinitely more, it made him live a life of sacrifice to God, consciously doing all to the glory of God. It made him live a life of prayer, of Apostolical poverty and self-denial, of devotion to the service of Christ and of His Church such as we could not have conceived unless a small part of it had been recorded in the pages of the New Testament. 20. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ," &c. "I am crucified with Christ." In what sense? Evidently in the sense of Rom. vi. 1-12. In verse 8 of that chapter we read: "If we be dead (or rather died) with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." When did this take place? The Apostle most assuredly assumes that it first took place in Baptism. The Apostle most certainly lays down that at the time of Baptism a very mysterious union took place with Christ, particularly as regards His Death and Resurrection; so that it was |