(1) В¶ O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? (2) This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? (3) Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (4) Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. (5) He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Let the Reader observe, that when Paul calls the Galatians foolish, the word is meant in no worse sense, than that of weakness in faith. The expression is like that of Christ, to his disciples, at Emmaus. Luke 24:25, In both cases, the persons spoken to were in grace; and, therefore, it differed wholly from the Scriptural sense of fool, such as Christ condemned: Matthew 5:22. See Commentary there. In that sense, and some others, the term evidently meant, reprobate. See Job 28:28. with Isaiah 27:11. If the Reader hath my Poor Man's Concordance at hand, he may consult it, under the article Rebel for information, as to the difference in those terms. God's children are called rebellious, yea, the Lord calls them himself: Isaiah 30:1 and a temporary woe is pronounced upon them. But the Lord never calls them rebels; neither doth the Lord allow any other, to call them by that name, with impunity. See Numbers 20:10
What rendered the conduct of those Galatians the more reprehensible was, that Christ had been so blessedly preached to them, in all his fullness, and all-sufficiency; as if they had in reality been present at all the great events, which attended his crucifixion, and death, at Jerusalem. And yet, with all those strong convictions on their minds, they were turning aside, from seeking justification, in a full, free grace in Christ, to take to them recommendations, by the deeds of the law. Reader! the smallest attention to the Apostle's statement, under grace, is enough to convince any man, of the folly and weakness of such conduct. Let a child of God, who is savingly called by sovereign grace, to the truth as it is in Jesus, ask his own heart, the same question. Paul asked those Galatians. How was the Spirit first received? For, as it was first received, so most it be to the last. As I came to Christ, in the first moments of convictions under sin; so must I, at the very last, come to Him. For in myself I have no more to bring him now, than I had then, And as I came, under the reproaches, and condemnations of my own heart; so must I always come. And a blessed, and a sure way of coming it is, in which the divine glory, and the soul's safety, sweetly concur. And to live upon Christ, in the daily comfort of His Person, Blood, and Righteousness; in the free, sovereign grace, of an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure; what can give assured peace to the soul, like this?