Post by Lee on Apr 4, 2014 3:24:58 GMT
Who were these Galatians? They were inhabitants of Asia Minor, among whom the apostle laboured for some time, discipling and teaching. In chapter 4. he tells us that he declared the Gospel to them; and that they received him as a messenger from God; and not only so, but that they obeyed the gospel; for Paul reminds them that they were all the sons of God through the faith; and that they had put on Christ by being baptized into him. These Galatians, then, were certain Asiatics, who had become the sons of God, by believing and obeying the gospel Paul preached; hence, they were the “brethren” of the apostle, by believing and obeying the same thing.
From these circumstances, connected with the apostle and these Christians of Galatia, we have arrived at a knowledge of the things they believed and obeyed, or practised. Together they made up the faith and the obedience of faith; or “the gospel declared” and “the gospel received” by them. Now, concerning this gospel, which, in his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul terms the “ONE FAITH,” he is exceedingly jealous. He says, in his epistle to the Romans, that it is “THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION,” and that it is the rule by which “God will judge the hidden things of man;” and in the second chapter of the epistle before us, he says “that man is not justified by works of law (that is the Mosaic law), but ONLY through the faith (or Gospel) of Jesus Christ.” Now, if this be so, you cannot wonder at his sensitiveness when he learned that some of the Judaising teachers, the clergymen of his day, had crept in among the Galatians, and were “perverting the gospel of Christ,” and so turning it into “another gospel,” a sort of Presbyterianism, perhaps, which, however, he declared most solemnly “is not another,” that is, it is spurious. Now concerning these “other gospels,” as substitutes for THE GOSPEL which he preached, and which the Galatians had believed and obeyed, and on account of which they had received the Spirit, he writes, pronouncing the anathema in my friend’s text, namely, “If even we, or an angel from heaven declare a gospel to you, different from what we have declared to you, let him be accursed.” He emphasizes the curse upon the clergymen, and makes assurance doubly sure, by telling these Galatians that the gospel he declared to them was the gospel they had received; therefore, he imprecates again, and says: “As we said before, so now I say again, if any one declare a gospel to you different from what you have received, let him be accursed.”
John Thomas
From these circumstances, connected with the apostle and these Christians of Galatia, we have arrived at a knowledge of the things they believed and obeyed, or practised. Together they made up the faith and the obedience of faith; or “the gospel declared” and “the gospel received” by them. Now, concerning this gospel, which, in his epistle to the Ephesians, Paul terms the “ONE FAITH,” he is exceedingly jealous. He says, in his epistle to the Romans, that it is “THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION,” and that it is the rule by which “God will judge the hidden things of man;” and in the second chapter of the epistle before us, he says “that man is not justified by works of law (that is the Mosaic law), but ONLY through the faith (or Gospel) of Jesus Christ.” Now, if this be so, you cannot wonder at his sensitiveness when he learned that some of the Judaising teachers, the clergymen of his day, had crept in among the Galatians, and were “perverting the gospel of Christ,” and so turning it into “another gospel,” a sort of Presbyterianism, perhaps, which, however, he declared most solemnly “is not another,” that is, it is spurious. Now concerning these “other gospels,” as substitutes for THE GOSPEL which he preached, and which the Galatians had believed and obeyed, and on account of which they had received the Spirit, he writes, pronouncing the anathema in my friend’s text, namely, “If even we, or an angel from heaven declare a gospel to you, different from what we have declared to you, let him be accursed.” He emphasizes the curse upon the clergymen, and makes assurance doubly sure, by telling these Galatians that the gospel he declared to them was the gospel they had received; therefore, he imprecates again, and says: “As we said before, so now I say again, if any one declare a gospel to you different from what you have received, let him be accursed.”
John Thomas