Grace of God:— See ch. Galatians 1:6-7 to which this seems here opposed. The latter part of this verse will be found explained in St. Paul's own words, ch. 5.
Inferences, drawn from Galatians 2:17. One of the greatest and most plausible objections alleged by unbelievers against the divine institution of the Christian religion, is the smallness of the influence that it may seem to have upon the lives and manners of its professors. If God condescended to give men an express revealed law, and to send so extraordinary a person as his own eternal Son to promulgate that law upon earth; it were natural to expect that it should have some very visible and remarkable effects in the world, answerable to the dignity of the thing itself, and worthy of its great Author. They who are blessed with such singular advantages, what manner of persons, as St. Peter expresses it, ought they to be in all holy conversation and godliness!
And are there then,—will unbelievers be apt to say,—are there to be met with, in the lives and manners of Christians, any considerable distinguishing characters, whereby to judge that they are really under the influence and peculiar guidance of such a divine Director?—Is there among those who call themselves Christians less of impiety and profaneness towards God, less of fraud and injustice towards men, than is found among the professors of other religions? Is there not too plainly the same boundless ambition, the same insatiable covetousness, the same voluptuousness and debauchery of manners, to be found among them, as amongst other men? Nay, have not moreover the pretences even of religion itself been the immediate occasion of the bitterest animosities, of the most bloody wars, of the most inhuman persecutions?—Have not the greatest immoralities of all kinds received too plain an encouragement from the reliance upon a power of repeating continually certain periodical absolutions; and much more from an imagination that the practices of a vicious life maybe compensated before God by the observance of certain superstitious commutations?—Lastly, and beyond all this, has not even the grace of God, as the Apostle urges, been itself too frequently turned into wantonness? That is, has not the fundamental grace of the gospel,—the gracious promise of pardon, upon true repentance and amendment, and faith in Jesus Christ, been itself abused into an encouragement of wicked living, in a dependance upon the formalities of a death-bed repentance?
Very great, and very just reproaches, indeed, are these upon many who profess themselves to be followers of Christ. But, that such objections have no conclusive consequence at all against Christianity itself, is what the Apostle, after a very affectionate manner, declares in the words above proposed for our reflection, and which he closes with a generous God forbid!—For, if, says he, I build again the things which I destroyed, I MAKE MYSELF A TRANSGRESSOR.
We will therefore endeavour to shew, from his words, first, "that the wickedness of the lives of those who call themselves Christians, is no argument against the truth and excellency of the Christian religion itself."
Now, natural and necessary causes always and necessarily produce effects proportional to their natural powers: so that, from the degree or quantity of the effect, may always certainly be judged the degree of power and efficacy in the cause. But in moral causes the case is necessarily and essentially otherwise. In these, how efficacious soever the cause be, yet the effect, more or less, depends upon the will of the person upon whom the effect is to be wrought, whether the cause shall produce its proper effect or no.
The Christian religion affords men the most perfect instructions possible in the ways of holiness and virtue, and arguments infinitely strong to enforce the practice of them, jointly, with the greatest aids in behalf of the truly sincere. The effect of this doctrine upon the lives of men in the primitive times, before worldly corruptions entered into the church, was, through the grace of God, which can never be separated from any thing which relates to the salvation of souls, great and conspicuous: and if we understand the prophesies rightly, which relate to things yet to come, this effect will be much more remarkable in the latter ages; when the corruptions which now prevail among Christians shall be reformed, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the channels of the sea. As things at present stand, there are great numbers of men,—many more than are taken notice of in the noise and hurry of the busy world,—who, upon the foundation of a well-settled belief in the gospel of Christ, go on regularly in the course of a holy life, with a perpetual uniform sense of God upon their minds, and an assured expectation of a future judgment: nay, and even among those who value themselves upon despising the assistance of revelation, and rely entirely upon their own natural abilities in matters of religion, it is very plain that the greatest part of those right notions, concerning God and virtue, about which they can now so readily and so clearly discourse, are really almost wholly borrowed from the light of that revelation which they are so desirous should be thought entirely needless. This, I say, is very plain, from the extreme ignorance of the heathen world, notwithstanding there are not wanting among them men of excellent natural abilities; and from the right notions of God to be found, among Christians, in numbers of persons, even of the lowest capacities, and meanest employments, to a degree which few, exceeding few, even of the greatest philosophers, were ever able to arrive at. So very different a thing is it to discern the reasonableness of moral obligations, after they have been once clearly revealed; and to be able, without any assistance, to discover at first the same obligations by the mere strength of nature and reason.
But however this be, and supposing the effect of Christianity in the world had been much smaller than it has been, still this would be no argument at all against the truth and excellency of the doctrine itself: because, as was before observed, "in all moral causes it must always depend more or less on the will of the person upon whom the effect is to be wrought, whether even the most powerful cause shall produce its proper effect, or no." When God himself calls men in the strongest and most efficacious manner that is consistent with his calling them at all, it is still in their own power not to hearken to that call; or at least not to yield to it finally;—not to be on the whole the better,—nay, to be the worse for it; much worse than if they had never known the way of righteousness. For as, where no law is, there is no transgression; so, on the other hand, and for the same reason, "where there is a law, not obeyed, that law worketh wrath; and sin, by this commandment, becomes exceeding sinful." If therefore the effect were always to be the measure in judging of the goodness and excellency of a cause, the best and wisest laws would often, upon account of their very excellency, be the worst: the law of God would be chargeable with the malignity of sin, and God himself as the real and immediate author of evil.
The same may, in proportion, be said concerning reason, even the absolute and necessary reason of things. But if it be no objection against the excellency of reason itself, that it very often is not able to make men act reasonably, and never of itself graciously, and no diminution to the divine commandments in general, that they frequently, not only fail of reforming men's manners, but even, on the contrary, do moreover make sin to become the more exceeding sinful; then, for the same reason, neither against the truth and excellency of Christianity in particular, can any argument be drawn from the wickedness of their lives who profess themselves Christians.
But, secondly, though the practice of any wickedness whatsoever affords no real argument against Christianity itself, yet it is always matter of very great and just reproach to the professors of this holy religion; as being the utmost contradiction, and the higher possible inconsistency with their profession. Nay, every vice that any Christian, so called, is guilty of, tends to defeat every end of the gospel of grace, and brings dishonour upon the name and upon the religion of Christ; for hence unbelievers are confirmed in their infidelity, and scoffers are encouraged to make a scorn of every thing sacred. See Romans 2:24.
From what has been said we are led, thirdly, to a very plain and easy rule, by which we may judge of the malignity and dangerousness of any error in matters of religion. In proportion as the error tends to reconcile any vicious, vain, or impious practice with the profession of religion; or, as St. Paul expresses it, to make Christ the minister of sin,—in the same proportion is the doctrine pernicious, and the teachers of it justly to be deemed corrupt. And this is the reason why our Lord, when he warns Christians to be aware of false teachers, who should come to them in sheep's clothing, but inwardly were ravening wolves, gives us this mark by which for ever to distinguish them:—By their fruits ye shall know them. The fruits of holiness and true goodness are marks which admit no counterfeit. If the course of a man's life be holy, devout, self-denying, virtuous, and charitable, and his doctrine leads men towards nothing but the love of God in Christ Jesus, holiness, goodness, and charity, in expectation of a righteous judgment to come,—this is a mark, or character, to which nothing has any similitude but what is itself really and truly the same.
REFLECTIONS.—1st. The Apostle, in vindication of his divine mission and ministry, as in nothing inferior to the other apostles, relates what passed at Jerusalem, when, fourteen years after his conversion, he went up thither, with Barnabas and Titus, by a special revelation from God, on occasion of the dissensions which the Jewish teachers had raised in the church of Antioch, about the necessity of circumcising the Gentiles, and engaging them to keep the law of Moses.
1. He communicated and explained in conversation, to those who were of greater note and reputation, the gospel which he preached among the Gentiles, in all its freedom and latitude, but privately, because of the known prejudices which many of the Jewish Christians entertained concerning the necessity of still observing the law. And this method he took, lest by any means he should run, or had run in vain, and, through the clamours of the hot zealots for Judaism, his past labours should have been in some measure rendered abortive, or his future usefulness be obstructed.
2. Though he acted with all prudence, he made no sinful compliance with their prejudices, maintaining the purity of the gospel, and firm to his principles, that the Gentiles were in no manner obliged to the observation of the Mosaical law: therefore, though Titus was a Greek, he was not compelled to be circumcised; nor did the apostles insist upon it. And St. Paul took Titus, a Gentile Christian, and minister of the gospel, on purpose that in him he might bear a public testimony against those false brethren, who had craftily insinuated themselves into the church at Antioch; and with prying eyes observed the Apostle's conduct at Jerusalem, whether he would there maintain the liberty of the Christian Gentiles from the Mosaical institutions. For they would have been happy if they could have had such a plea as the circumcision of Titus, to urge the same upon the Gentile converts. But not for an hour would the Apostle and his colleague Barnabas give way to such a dangerous imposition, that the truth and freedom of the gospel might be maintained inviolable, and the Gentiles enjoy that entire liberty from every yoke of bondage which in Christ Jesus was preached unto them. Note; False brethren are our most dangerous foes. Against them we need peculiar watchfulness.
3. Though he conferred with the Apostles of chief eminence, and who were so preferred to him by the Judaizing teachers, whatever had been the case formerly (ποτε), and whatever privileges they had enjoyed above him, that affected not the matter at present. God accepteth no man's person: however great the names of Peter, James, and John were, they added nothing to him, nor contributed the least to his improvement in knowledge; so thoroughly had he been taught of God the mysteries of gospel truth.
4. The issue of the conference was, the perfect satisfaction expressed by the Apostles at Jerusalem in what they heard; it appearing most undeniably, that the same Lord, who had wrought by St. Peter's ministry among the Jews, who was more particularly sent to them, had wrought as effectually by St. Paul among the Gentiles; to whom they therefore concluded the apostleship of the Gentiles was committed. Therefore these pillars of the church, James, Cephas, and John, convinced of the grace and apostleship conferred upon him, with cordial affection gave to him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, and concurred in their sentiments, that it fully appeared to be the will of God that Paul and his fellow-labourer should go to the Gentiles more immediately, while their own ministry should be more generally confined to the Jews: only they recommended it to them that they should remember the poor saints in Judea, and obtain some relief for them from the Gentile churches,—a service in which St. Paul warmly engaged. So that it was evident, from the result of this conversation, that there was a perfect harmony in doctrine between St. Paul and the apostles at Jerusalem, and that they fully recognized his divine authority and mission.
2nd, Nothing could serve more effectually to establish the character of the great Apostle of the Gentiles than the occurrence recorded Galatians 2:11. &c. wherein, so far from being St. Peter's inferior, as the Judaizing teachers suggested, he appears his faithful and zealous reprover.
1. Peter's fault was, that, at his coming to Antioch, he freely communed with the Gentile Christians, and ate and drank with them, though they were uncircumcised; but, on the arrival of some Jewish brethren sent from James, he temporized, and, for fear of offending the prejudiced Judaizers, to the great discouragement of the Gentile brethren, he suspended his former familiar intercourse with them; and, influenced by him, the Jewish Christians at Antioch dissembled likewise, and withdrew from free converse, as before, with their Gentile brethren; and, overcome by such bad examples, even Barnabas himself was carried away with their dissimulation, and, contrary to all his former conduct and teaching, joined in this separation; for which St. Peter was most justly to be blamed.
2. The rebuke which St. Paul gave him was such as his dissimulation deserved. And as the offence given was public, publicly and to his face he with noble fidelity withstood him; and, seeing him deviate so much in the present instance from the path of truth, and the liberty of the gospel, he addressed himself to Peter, and said unto him, before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, satisfied that the ceremonial law is no longer binding, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews, and, by the example which thou hast lately shewn, wouldst enslave their consciences to the Mosaical institutions, as if necessary to their acceptance with God? What a glaring contradiction appears between such a conduct and your late avowed principles and practice!
3. He suggests the strongest arguments for the unreasonableness of such a conduct, since all distinction of Jew and Gentile now had ceased. We who are Jews by nature, God's chosen people, and trained up in the law; and not sinners of the Gentiles, who, in general, are looked upon by the Jews as persons abandoned and reprobate; knowing that a man is not, cannot be, justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ for pardon and acceptance with God, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ,—through faith in that great atonement which he accomplished for us, and not by the works of the law: and if this was the case with us, must not the Gentiles have recourse to the same free grace? for by the works of the law, moral or ceremonial, shall no flesh be justified, none being able to produce an immaculate obedience, adequate to its demands. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin; who, notwithstanding all that he has done for us, and in us, would, in such a case, leave us under the condemning guilt and prevailing power of sin? God forbid; with abhorrence is the thought to be rejected. Yet would this be the consequence of seeking to the law for acceptance with God; for if I should build again the things which I destroyed, and, after preaching the grace of the gospel, have recourse to the law for justification before God, I make myself a transgressor, contradict my own doctrine, and acknowledge myself still under guilt and condemnation, which my faith in Christ has not removed. So inconsistent was this behaviour, therefore, in St. Peter and his associates.
4. Though some might object to the doctrine of free justification, without the deeds of the law, the Apostle declares his own and every Christian believer's judgment and practice. For I through the law am dead to the law, renouncing all my expectations from it, that I might live unto God, abiding in a constant state of favour with him, through the Redeemer's infinite merit, and quickened by his grace to newness of life. I am crucified with Christ; the law has no more demands upon me, and worldly interests no power over me: nevertheless I live in a state of reconciliation with God, bringing forth the fruits of righteousness; yet not I, by any inherent power or principle naturally in myself, but Christ liveth in me; I receive from him, as my Head of vital influence, his quickening Spirit: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live not after the flesh, but by the faith of the Son of God, placing my whole dependance upon him, and drawing continual supplies of grace and strength out of his fulness, who loved me, and gave himself for me, to make a complete atonement, and to bring in an everlasting righteousness, for me and all who faithfully and perseveringly embrace his great salvation. I do not frustrate the grace of God, and slight, as of no value, the transcendant favour of God's dear Son, and the righteousness unto life which is in him, as they do who go to the works of the law for acceptance with God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain; for in that case righteousness and salvation might have been obtained without him. Note; (1.) We must renounce all hope of being justified by the law, before we can fly to Jesus, and live unto God. (2.) By faith alone is the life of our souls maintained, while, from the fulness of our Redeemer, we derive the constant supplies of grace and strength. (3.) All who, either in whole or part, place their dependence on their own doings and duties for acceptance with God, make Christ to have died in vain.