CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Galatians 1:1. Paul, an apostle.—He puts his own name and apostleship prominent, because his apostolic commission needs to be vindicated against deniers of it. Not of, or from, men, but by, or from, Jesus Christ and God the Father. The divine source of his apostleship is emphatically stated, as also the infallible authority for the gospel he taught.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Galatians 1:1-5
Apostolic Credentials.
I. That apostolic credentials claim distinctively divine authority.—“Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Galatians 1:1). It must have been a painful moment when Paul first became aware that spurious teachers questioned the validity of his apostolic call, and a still more painful disappointment when he discovered his Galatian converts so readily gave credence to those who maligned him. His fears were roused, not so much for his personal reputation as for the injury to the religious life of his converts if they cherished suspicions as to the divine character of the truth they had been taught. The mischief must be dealt with at once. He boldly and emphatically declared that his commission was direct from God, and bore the same divine stamp as that of the other apostles, whose authority even the false teachers had not the temerity to deny. It has ever been the rôle of the subtle adversary of man to strive to eliminate the divine element from the truth and drag it down to a common human level. Truth then loses its stability, begins to move in a flux of confused human opinions, and the soul is plunged into bewilderment and doubt. Whatever tends to vitiate the truth brings peril to the peace and upward progress of the soul. The power of the teacher increases with an ever-deepening conviction of the divine authority of his message.
II. That apostolic credentials recognise the oneness of the Christian brotherhood.—“And all the brethren which are with me” (Galatians 1:2). Here is the indication that St. Paul was not unduly solicitous about his personal reputation. While insisting upon the unquestioned divine source of his apostleship, he does not arrogate a haughty superiority over his brethren. He is one with them in Christ, in the belief of and fidelity to the truth, in the arduous labours of pioneer work, in building up and consolidating the Church, and unites them with himself in his Christian greeting. It is the sublime aim of the gospel to promote universal brotherhood by bringing men into spiritual union with Christ, the Elder Brother. Christ is the unifying force of redeemed humanity. Ecclesiastical ranks are largely human expedients, necessary for maintaining order and discipline. The great Head of the Church has promulgated the unchallengeable law of religious equality: “One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren” (Matthew 23:8).
III. That apostolic credentials justify the use of a sublime and comprehensive greeting.—“Grace be to you and peace,” etc. (Galatians 1:3). A greeting like this from some lips would be fulsome, or at the best mere exaggerated politeness. But coming from one who was in constant communion with the Source of the blessings desired, and from which Source he received his call to the apostleship, it is at once dignified, large-hearted, and genuine. Grace and peace are inclusive of the best blessings Heaven can bestow or man receive. They are divine in their origin and nature—“from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace is the spontaneous outflow of divine love in the redemption of the race, and is the more precious because unmerited; and peace is the conscious experience of that grace in the believing soul—peace from outward dissension and inward fret, peace of conscience, peace with God and man. The blessings the apostle desires God is ever eager to bestow. “Filling up our time with and for God is the way,” said David Brainerd, “to rise up and lie down in peace. I longed that my life might be filled up with fervency and activity in the things of God. Oh the peace, composure, and God like serenity of such a frame! Heaven must differ from this only in degree, not in kind.”
IV. That apostolic credentials are evident in the clear statement of the great principles of the gospel salvation.—“Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us,” etc. (Galatians 1:4-5). In these words we have a suggestive epitome of the whole gospel. Man is delivered from sin and from the present evil age by the self-sacrifice of Jesus; and this method is “according to the will of God,” and brings unceasing glory to His name. This is the gospel in a nutshell, and involves all the grand principles of redemption the apostle was commissioned to declare, and which he develops more clearly in the course of this epistle. Deliverance is divinely provided, irrespective of human effort or merit. The Galatians in seeking to return to legal bondage ignored the root principles of the gospel and imperilled their salvation. The apostle vindicated the credentials of his high office by faithful remonstrance and plain authoritative statement of the truth divinely revealed to him. It is a mark of high intellectual power to make the greatest truths clear to the humblest mind. Christian teaching has all the more weight when associated with irreproachable moral character.
Lessons.—
1. God should be gratefully recognised as the Giver of all good.
2. The special endowments of one are for the benefit of all.
3. It is a solemn responsibility to be entrusted with the preaching of the gospel.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Galatians 1:1. The Power of the Gospel.—
1. Free grace doth often light upon the most unworthy, not only by giving salvation to themselves, but making them instrumental for the kingdom of Christ and bringing about the salvation of others.
2. Faithful and called ministers of Christ are to be so far from cowardly ceding, or heartless fainting under the bold, bitter, and unjust aspersions of those who question their calling, and thereby weaken their authority and render the truth of their doctrine doubtsome, that they ought the more to avow their calling against all who question it.
3. The office of an apostle had this peculiar to itself, that the designation was not mediately by the election and suffrages of men, as in the calling of ordinary office-bearers, but immediately from God, so that the function of the apostles ceased with them, and did not pass by succession to a pope or any other.
4. The false apostles, that they might shake the truth preached by Paul and establish their own contrary error, alleged that he was no lawful apostle. This Paul refutes by showing he was called by Christ after He was raised from the dead and had taken possession of His kingdom, so that his calling had at least no less dignity and glory in it than if he had been called by Christ when He was on earth.—Fergusson.
Galatians 1:2. The Church a Witness.—
1. The more they are whom God maketh use of to hold out the beauty of truth that we may embrace and follow it, or the deformity and danger of error that we may fly from and hate it, we are the more to take heed how we reject or embrace what is pressed upon us, as there will be the more to bear witness of our guilt and subscribe to the equity of God’s judgment if we obey not.
2. We are not so to stumble at the many sinful failings which may be in Churches, as to unchurch them, by denying them to be a Church, or to separate from them, if their error be not contrary to fundamental truths, or if they err from human frailty, and not obstinately and avowedly.—Ibid.
Galatians 1:3. Christian Salutation.—
1. God’s gracious favour and goodwill is to be sought by us in the first place, whether for ourselves or others, that being a discriminating mercy betwixt the godly and the wicked.
2. Peace is to be sought after grace, and not to be expected before it. Peace without grace is no peace. There can be no peace with God or His creatures, nor sanctified prosperity, except through Jesus Christ we lay hold on God’s favour and grace.
3. Grace and peace we cannot acquire by our own industry or pains. They come from God, are to be sought from Him, and His blessing is more to be depended on than our own wisdom or diligence.
4. They to whom grace and peace belong are such as acknowledge Christ to be their Lord to command and rule them, and yield subjection to Him in their heart and life.—Ibid.
Grace and Peace.
I. Grace is not any gift in man, but is God’s and in God. It signifies His gracious favour and goodwill, whereby He is well pleased with us in Christ.
II. Peace is a gift not in God, but in us.
1. Peace of conscience—a quietness and tranquillity of mind arising from a sense of reconciliation with God.
2. Peace with the creatures—with angels, with the godly, with our enemies.
3. Prosperity and good success.
III. Whereas Paul begins his prayer with grace we learn that grace in God is the cause of all good things in us.
IV. The chief things to be sought after are the favour of God in Christ and the peace of a good conscience.
V. As grace and peace are joined we learn that peace without grace is no peace.—Perkins.
Galatians 1:4-5. The Unselfishness of Jesus.
I. Prompting self-surrender.—“Who gave Himself.”
II. His self-surrender was an unmerited and unlooked-for expiation.—“For our sins.”
III. Creates the hope and possibility of immediate salvation.—“That He might deliver us from this present evil World.”
IV. Was a suggestive revelation of the divine character.—“According to the will of God and our Father.”
V. Should evoke the spirit of grateful praise.—“To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Galatians 1:4. Christ our Sacrifice.
I. Whereas Christ is the giver of Himself it follows that His death and sacrifice were voluntary.
II. Therefore all merit and satisfaction for sin are reduced to the person of Christ, and there are no human satisfactions for sin, nor meritorious works done by us.
III. Christ our sacrifice works love in us.—We must in mind and meditation come to the cross of Christ.
1. The consideration of His endless pains for our sins must breed in us a godly sorrow. If He sorrowed for them, much more must we.
2. This knowledge is the beginning of amendment of life.
3. Is the foundation of comfort in them that truly turn to Christ.
IV. Christ gave Himself that He might deliver us from this evil world.—
1. We must be grieved at the wickedness of the world.
2. We must not fashion ourselves to the wicked lives of the men of this world.
3. Seeing we are taken out of this world, our dwelling must be in heaven.—Perkins.
The Gift of Christ.
I. The gift.—“He gave Himself.” Regard Christ:
1. As the object of every prophecy.
2. The substance of every type and shadow.
3. The subject of every promise.
4. He was qualified for the work of redemption. Divine, human, spotless.
II. Christ’s marvellous act.—“He gave Himself for our sins.”
1. To what He gave Himself. To all the privations and sorrows of human life, to obscurity and indigence, to scorn and infamy, to pain and anguish, to an ignominious and painful death.
2. The purpose for which He gave Himself. To deliver us from sin’s curse, defilement, dominion, and from the effects of sin in this world and in eternity.
III. The design of Christ’s offering—“That He might deliver us from the present evil world.” From its evil practices, its spirit, from attachment to it, and from the condemnation to which it will be subjected.
IV. Christ’s offering was according to the will of God.—
1. It was the will of God we should be saved.
2. Christ was the appointed agent.
3. The sacrifice of Christ was voluntary.—Helps.