(1) В¶ Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (2) Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. (3) For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. (4) Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
I admire the manner, in which Paul exhorts the Church to stand firm in Christ, after having so fully proved, in the foregoing Chapter s, the complete, and blessed justification of the Church in Christ, as perfectly detached from, and unconnected with any, and every law-work, before God. The liberty Paul speaks of, is the perfect, and complete freedom, Christ hath by himself attained; for his whole Church and People, by his obedience, blood-shedding, and death. He hath, as the great Head, Surety, and Husband of his people, redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them. And therefore, as the Apostle saith elsewhere; the law of the Spirit of life in Christ JESUS hath made every child of God free, from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2
Reader! pause over the sweet subject of liberty in Christ, for it is sweet. Christ is the Church's Husband, Head, and Surety. And as such, hath answered every demand of law. Christ also hath paid every penalty, for every breach of the law, by his death. Hence, both law and justice are satisfied; and the Lord hath brought the prisoners out of captivity, as the everlasting Covenant agreed for. Isaiah 49:8-9. The whole Church of God, therefore, and every individual soul of that Church, is delivered from the curse of the law; from guilt, from sin, from the accusations of Satan, the alarms of conscience, unbelief, and all the whole train of evils, of a fallen state. And it is the privilege of all the Church of God, to behold themselves in Christ, perfectly holy in him. For Christ and his Church being One, what Christ is in God's sight, so must the Church be. And, as God hath declared himself well pleased in him, the Church is included in this view; and is holy and without blame before him in love. Oh! the blessedness of an union, and oneness with Christ!
But Reader! while called upon to stand fast in this liberty, wherewith Christ hath made all his people free, and never more to seek the smallest recommendation from the works of the law; let no child of God be tempted to make a mistake in his expectations, concerning this liberty. Every child of God, regenerated by the Holy Ghost, is fully, freely, and completely holy in Christ before God, and everlastingly accepted in him: nevertheless, as he still carries about with him a body of sin, and death, which is altogether unholy, and virtually all that is evil; he must not be surprised, that he is still the subject of sin, in his flesh. He will feel the assaults of sin, he will groan under them: he will find, that often when he would do good, evil is present with him. Jesus hath freed him from all the condemnation of sin, but not from the sorrows of it. Jesus hath conquered sin, death, hell, and the grave: but yet his people shall know, and feel, by the body of sin they still wear, as long as they are in this time-state, the dreadful evil of sin, by the effects; the awful terrors of Satan, by his fiery darts; and the tremendous prospects which are in death, and hell, and the grave, had not Jesus destroyed their everlasting power, by his victory over all. Oh! the unspeakable blessedness of the liberty, wherewith Christ hath made his people free! Precious Lord Jesus! it is said by thy servant the Apostle, that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty: 2 Corinthians 3:17. Oh! then, ever give to my poor soul this liberty; that as thou hast set me free from the law of sin and death, and loosed my bands, I may daily, hourly, minutely, have liberty of access, to thy pardon-office, and throne of grace; and rejoice in hope of the glory of God! Romans 5:1-45
I wish it were perfectly understood, by men professing the great truths of the Gospel, that what Paul here saith of circumcision, is equally applicable to any, and to everything, which may be attempted to be joined with Christ, for salvation. Circumcision was a solemn ordinance of God. But it evidently pointed to Christ, and in Christ was completed. The observance of circumcision, after Christ had fulfilled the whole law, and by his death done away all the penal effects of the law; was, to all intents and purposes, saying, that Christ had not fulfilled the law; neither was his death effectual for salvation, without some additions. But, if the submitting to the rite of circumcision implied this; so doth every other thing, which men join with Christ, as in their view, essential to salvation. And yet, what multitudes are there, and even in what are called Gospel churches, where they mingle up a variety of other things, which unhumbled pride, or weakness, and ignorance, prompt men to substitute, to join with the Lord Jesus, as so many means of salvation. Alas! how fully do all such testify their total unacquaintedness, with the plague of their own heart? And yet if possible, much worse; how ignorant must they be, of the Person, glory, and infinitely precious merits, of the blood-shedding, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ!
I only detain the Reader in this place to remark, on what the Apostle saith, of falling from grace, that this hath no respect whatever, to the childish idea of some men, who would insinuate the possibility of falling from grace. The Apostle is here speaking of the falling from the profession of faith only, in Christ. Paul had been uniformly teaching the Church of Galatia of justification only in Christ. There was some of the hearers of these grand truths, nominal Christians only, who sought to the law for justification; and probably there were some others, truly regenerated, who leaned rather to the mingling system, of Law and Gospel, as hath been in all ages. Now, saith Paul to all such, whoever are justified (or suppose themselves to be justified, for it can be but supposition), by the law; the grace in Jesus, ye are fallen from. But what hath this to do with the grace of God's elect? If, on this passage, and every other to be met with in the Bible, men would try it by this unerring standard, the decision must be infallible. The new-birth, or regeneration, is the only criterion of grace. No man, but he that is born again, can be said to be a partaker in grace. Everything short of the new-birth, is short of all. And, therefore, this, and this only, becomes the grand conclusion. Is the man born again? If so, he cannot fall from grace. For the Holy Ghost saith, by Peter, he is thereby made a partaker of the divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4. And it were little short of blasphemy to say, that he that is made a partaker of the divine nature, can fall away, and lose that spiritual life, which can never die. 1 Peter 1:23. But there may, and the Lord only knoweth how often there is, great flaming professions, much zeal in appearance, for converting the world, by men unconverted themselves. And therefore, when such blazing Comets disappear, and go out in darkness, the world which behold, call this falling from grace, concerning men who never were in grace. Those hypocrites Paul hath noticed, Hebrews 6:4-6. were of this description. There is not a word said in this passage, amidst much outside godliness, of any inward grace. Not a syllable to intimate, that the work of God the Holy Ghost, had passed upon either of their hearts, by regeneration. So that, let the Reader be always on the lookout for the new-birth in all high professions, void of vital godliness, and he will be sure to discover, as fire manifests tinsel from pure gold, that this blessed discriminating work of God, hath never passed upon persons of this complexion. See Hebrews 6:1. and Commentary.