In me.— On my account. Doddridge.
Inferences.—With what entire satisfaction may we depend upon the divine authority of the Gospel which was delivered by the Apostle Paul, who has testified, even upon oath, that he received it, together with his commission to preach it, not from any mere man, but immediately from Jesus Christ, who is God-man! He is evidently God, as all apostolic and ministerial authority, spiritual blessings, and the whole of the Gospel revelation, proceed jointly and equally from the Father and him, in distinction from, and in opposition to, all that is derived from men; and he is as evidently Man, as he died and rose again from the dead: and O how infinitely important and beneficial is his death, who gave himself an atoning Sacrifice for our sins, that he might deliver us from them, and from all the evils of this present world; and whose resurrection is a high demonstration of the acceptableness and efficacy of his death for these great and holy purposes! On this ground we may, if we be real believers or genuine penitents, comfortably hope for grace and peace from the Father and the Son. But with what holy detestation should we reject those who would corrupt the Gospel of Christ, and substitute another pretended gospel in its stead, for justification in any other way than alone through faith in him! How grievous and astonishing is it, that any, who once seemed to embrace this blessed Gospel, should be turned aside from it to some other scheme of doctrine, which, in reality, is no gospel at all, and never can bring salvation to them! And how heavy is the curse that lies upon those who pervert them! But O, what a wonderful and happy change does the grace of our Lord Jesus make, when it effectually reaches the heart! It reveals Christ in them who were utter strangers to him before; and makes them ready to confess the ignorance and error, in which they formerly gloried; it turns the greatest bigots for superstition and human traditions, and the most inveterate enemies to Christ, into sincere believers; it changes the most furious persecutors of his people into true lovers of him and them, and frequently into zealous preachers of that Gospel which they before sought to destroy: and it makes those, who preserve this union with the Lord Jesus, such faithful servants of Christ, that they no longer seek to please men by any sinful compliances with them: and when he calls such faithful souls to his work, they yield obedience to him, without consulting the interests of the flesh, or the opinion of men. And O what matter of thanksgiving and joy is it to his churches, whenever they hear of such monuments being raised to the praise of the glory of his grace, whether they have ever seen their faces or not! They glorify God for his power and mercy exercised in their behalf, and for all the service to his people and cause, which is done and may be further hoped for by them. And for the encouragement of such ministers, if they be faithful unto death, they have the glorious promise, that "they shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." Daniel 12:3.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Among, the heaviest burdens which lay on the great Apostle Paul, was the care of all the churches, where many errors soon crept in, and Judaizing teachers sought to corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel, and therewith to decry him who was the zealous defender of its glorious privileges. Nowhere had these seducers practised with more success than among the Galatians; for whose recovery to the purity of the faith, the Apostle writes this epistle.
1. He begins with his apostolical address. Paul an Apostle, not of men, neither by man, not assuming a character to which he had no title, nor acting under any ordination merely human, but immediately called to this high office, and commissioned by Jesus Christ himself, who personally appeared to him; and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, declaring thereby his perfect satisfaction in the great atonement of his Son: and therefore St. Paul's commission bore this eminent distinction, that while the chief Apostles were only ordained by Jesus in the days of his humiliation, the great Apostle of the Gentiles received his call and office from the glorified Redeemer, exalted on his mediatorial throne.
2. All the brethren who were with him, joined the Apostle in his address to the churches of Galatia, concurring with him in sentiment, and declaring thereby their approbation of the doctrines which he maintained, and of the just reproofs that he was about to give.
3. He wishes that the best of blessings may attend them. Grace be to you, in all its happy effects of pardon, comfort, strength, purity, and peace, the consequence thereof; all proceeding of free grace and unmerited love from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the meritorious cause of all our mercies; who gave himself for our sins, in infinite compassion to our wretched state, humbling himself to take our nature upon him, and, as our substitute, to bear our sins in his own body on the tree; that he might obtain eternal redemption for his faithful saints, and deliver us from this present evil world, from the guilt and condemnation under which it lies, and from the power of iniquity by which it is enslaved; and this has our adored Redeemer done for his faithful followers according to the will of God, and, or even, our Father; who is reconciled to his believing people by the blood of the cross, and regards them as dear children. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen! Both to the Father and his co-equal Son, for such a contrivance of infinite love and grace, in order to the redemption of lost souls, be all praise and honour ascribed by men and angels, in time and to eternity! Note; 1. The oblation of Jesus, once for all, is the only substantial foundation of the sinner's hope towards God. (2.) This world in which we dwell is full of evil: we must in spirit and temper be delivered from it, or we shall be condemned with it.
2nd, Abruptly the Apostle hastens to his point, and expresses,
1. His astonishment at their defection from the faith. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, from the blessed God himself, and from us his ministers, unto another gospel, different from that which we preached to you, wherein the glorious grace of a Redeemer was exalted; which new doctrine is not indeed another gospel, bringing no glad tidings to the sinful soul of free pardon and salvation by Jesus Christ; but the truth is, there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ, destroying the riches of the grace thereof, and adulterating the truth with the base alloy of error. Note; there is but one way to regain the lost favour of God, and that is by grace through faith; and they who propose any other must perish with a lie in their right hand.
2. He expresses his detestation of any other pretended gospel besides that which he had preached to them. But though we, or an angel from heaven, if we could suppose it possible, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed, and lie down under the most dreadful anathemas of divine vengeance. As we said before, with the deepest solemnity I repeat it, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received from us, let him be accursed.
3rdly, To vindicate himself from the aspersions of the Judaizing teachers, who affected to set up St. Peter and the other apostles as far his superiors, he enters into a detail of his divine mission and miracles.
1. He declares the scope of his preaching. Do I now persuade men, or God, endeavouring to engage the Galatians to obey human inventions, or to submit to the gospel of the blessed God? (see the Annotations;) or do I seek to please men, and ingratiate myself with you, as the Jewish zealots? No. For I am well persuaded, that if I yet pleased men, and made that my study, to accommodate the gospel to their prejudices, I should not be the servant of Christ, and with fidelity and simplicity discharge the trust committed to me. Note; (1.) To please God, not men, must be our great design. (2.) It is impossible that our fidelity in preaching the gospel should not offend those, who, in pride and self-sufficiency, cannot bear the humbling truth of the necessity of submission to the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ for our acceptance before him.
2. He demonstrates so them the divinity of his mission. The gospel that he preached was not after man, a human invention, or received at second-hand from men's information, but immediately by revelation from the exalted Jesus, now entered into his glory. They knew his past conversation; what a bigot he had been for Judaism; how greatly he had excelled many of his fellow-students in rabbinical knowledge, exactly skilled in all their laws and traditions: to propagate these, he had exerted all his zeal, and, with rage approaching to madness, had persecuted the professors of the Christian name with the savage fury of the most barbarous foe. No prejudices of education, therefore, could have led him to embrace Christianity; but, on the contrary, such a riveted enmity against it could be only overcome by some very extraordinary method of conviction. But when it pleased God, who, of his rich grace, separated me from my mother's womb to serve him in the gospel, and called me by his grace, in such a distinguishing manner, when I was going with the most implacable enmity to persecute the disciples at Damascus; when, I say, God was graciously pleased then to reveal his Son in me, making my inmost soul, by divine irradiation, acquainted with the fulness of the redemption which is in him, that I might preach him among the heathen, as peculiarly ordained to be their apostle,—immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, consulting no longer my own worldly ease, interest, or honour, or asking advice about what God had so clearly determined: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, as if I needed instruction, or a confirmation in my office; but, divinely taught and ordained, I immediately entered on my work, and went into Arabia, where the gospel had not been preached before, and returned again unto Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, not to learn of him, but to communicate the success of my labours, and enjoy the comforts of Christian fellowship with him and other brethren there; and abode with him only fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother, or near kinsman; so that I received not my knowledge or commission from them. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not, but with the deepest solemnity appeal to him for the truths that I advance. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, preaching the gospel; and was, during many years, unknown by face unto the churches of Judea, which were in Christ, and professed faith in his name; so that from them I could not have received any knowledge of the truth. But they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past, now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me, ascribing to him praise for my wondrous conversion. Note; Christ must be revealed by his Spirit in us, as well as by his word to us, if we would know him to the saving of our souls.