The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians
Galatians 4
Chapter IV · Vol. IV, pp. 395–397
1 We were under the law till Christ came, as the heir is under his guardian till he be of age. 5 But Christ freed us from the law: 7 therefore we are servants no longer to it. 14 He remembereth their good-will to him, and his to them, 22 and showeth that we are the sons of Abraham by the free woman.
1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;Cited in WCF 19.3, 20.1
3 Even so we, awhen we were children, were in bondage under the elements1 of the world:Cited in WCF 19.3, 20.1
a ch.3.7,29;5.1; ver.9. Col.2.8,20. He.7.16,18,19;9.9,10.
1 Or, rudiments.
4 But when bthe fulness of the time was come, cGod sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,Cited in WSC 21, 27 · WLC 36, 37, 39, 47, 48, 74, 97 · WCF 8.2, 8.4, 8.6, 11.4, 12.1, 19.6 · HC 19, 26, 35, 36
5 Tod redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.Cited in WLC 39, 74, 97 · WCF 8.6, 12.1, 19.6 · HC 19, 26, 36
6 And because ye are sons, eGod hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.Cited in WLC 10, 38, 74 · WCF 2.3, 12.1, 20.1 · HC 25, 26, 33, 53
7 Wherefore gthou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.2Cited in WCF 20.1 · HC 26
g ver.5,6; ch.3.7,13,14,26,27. Ro.8.16,17. Tit.3.7. Je.3.19. Re.21.7. 1 Co.3.22.
2 The best MSS. have this last clause as follows:—'And if a son, an heir also through God;' omitting 'Christ.' On this passage Windischmann, as quoted by Alford, remarks:—'The words through God combine, on behalf of our race, the whole agency of the blessed Trinity: the Father has sent the Son and the Spirit, the Son has freed us from the law, the Spirit has completed our sonship; and thus the redeemed are heirs through the triune God himself, not through the law nor through fleshly descent.'—P.
8 Howbeit then, hwhen ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.Cited in WLC 109 · HC 95
9 But now, iafter that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye 3again to the weak and beggarly elements,4 whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?Cited in HC 95
11 Ik am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
k 2 Co.11.2,3. Ac.16.6. ch.2.2;5.2,4. 1 Th.3.5.
13 Ye know how othrough infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first:5
A.M. cir. 4062. A.D. cir. 58.
o 1 Co.2.3. 2 Co.12.7; 11.6,30; 10.10. 1 Th.2.2.
5 A careful examination of the incidents in Paul's history at the time of his first visit to Galatia leads me to the conclusion that he had no intention to remain in the province, deeming it probably a very unpromising missionary field; but he was detained by sudden illness, and while weak and suffering, preached the gospel to them. The very fact of his proclaiming the truth of God while his body was racked with pain, may have largely contributed to the extraordinary effect produced upon the impressible Celts, who 'received him as an angel of God.'—P.
14 And pmy temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; qbut received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
15 Where is6 then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, rthat, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.
6 Or, What was.
r ver.14. 1 Th.5.13. He.13.7,17. 1 Ti.5.17.
16 Ams I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
s 1 Ki.21.20; 22.8. Pr.27.5. Ps.141.5. ch.3.1-4; 2.14; ver.9-11; ch.5.1-9.
17 Theyt zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you,7 that ye might affect them.Cited in WLC 105
18 Butu it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
u 1 Co.15.58.
19 Myv little children, of whom I xtravail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,Cited in WLC 124
20 I ydesire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.8
y Ro.1.10,11. 1 Co.4.19,21. 2 Th.2.17,18.
8 Or, I am perplexed for you, ver.11.
21 Tell me, ye zthat desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?9
z Ro.9.30-32; 10.2,3. ver.9. Mat.22.29. He.5.11,12.
9 See note * below.
22 For it is written, athat Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free-woman.
23 Butb he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free-woman was by promise.
24 Which things are can allegory: for these are the two covenants;1 the one from the mount Sinai,d which egendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
c Ho.12.10. Eze.xv. xvi. xix. xxiii. xxxvii. Mat.xiii. Lu.xv. xvi. 1 Co.10.11.
1 Or, testaments, He.8.7,8; 9.15-17.
d De.33.2.
e ch.5.1. Ro.8.15. Ac.15.10. He.2.15.
* The error of the Galatian church which Paul desires to correct, was the combining of Jewish fasts and ordinances with Christianity. They were a superstitious people; they wished to have something tangible or sensuous in their religion. Paul in this section of his epistle shows the real distinction between the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ. He shows it by means of a figure or type, taken from the Old Testament.—P.
25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to2 Jerusalem gwhich now is, and is in bondage with her children.
A.M. cir. 4062. A.D. cir. 58.
2 Or, is in the same rank with.
g Lu.19.41-44; 21.24. Ro.9.30-32; 10.2,3; 11.7-11.
27 For it is written, iRejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
i Is.54.1-5. Mat.8.11,12. Re.7.4,9. Ge.49.10.
28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are jthe children of promise.
j Ro.9.8; 4.13,16,17. ch.3.7,9,26,29. Ac.3.25.
29 Butk as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.Cited in WLC 145
k Ge.21.9. Job 19.28. Mat.23.34,37. Jn.15.19. Ac.iv.-viii. xii.-xiv. xvii. xviii. xxi.-xxv. 1 Th.2.14,15. He.10.33,34. ch.5.11; 6.12-14.
30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? lCast out the bond-woman and her son: for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman.
l Ge.21.10,12. Jn.8.35. Mat.8.11,12. Ro.11.7. ch.3.8,22. Eze.36.17.
31 So then, brethren, nwe are not children of the bond-woman, but of the free.
n Ro.8.1,2,15. 2 Ti.1.7. He.2.14,15. Jn.8.36. ch.3.29; 5.1,13. 1 Jn.3.1,2. Jn.1.12,13. 1 Pe.1.2-4,23.
Notes
Ver. 1, 2. Now, to illustrate the preference of the gospel dispensation to the legal by a familiar similitude, ye know that the heir of a rich estate, during his minority, has no more liberty of enjoying the inheritance to which he has a full right than if he were a mere servant, but is under the direction and discipline of masters to educate him, and the government of guardians and tutors, and of trustees, to manage his estate for him, that he may be fitted to enter upon the possession of it at the time appointed by his father. 3. In like manner we who are Jewish believers, during the infant state of the legal dispensation, were, like minors, subjected to its servile and obscure discipline, enslaved by its terrors, and tied down to its typical observances, which consisted of dim and obscure resemblances taken from worldly things, and which were in their nature carnal and earthly, little calculated to carry our thoughts, hopes, or affections beyond the things of this world to our spiritual and eternal inheritance. 4. But when the time appointed in his purpose, and marked in his promises and predictions, was arrived—the time when men's degeneracy and wickedness, which were come to the greatest height, and their extensive expectations, rendered the superaboundings of mercy and a reformation peculiarly necessary—God, in the riches of his infinite wisdom and grace, sent forth his own eternal pre-existent Son by special manifestation into our world, that he might, in a marvellous manner, assume our nature into a personal union with his own divine nature, being conceived and born of the Virgin Mary; and that he, as God-man, might be placed under the precept of the law as a covenant of works, which we had broken, and under its curse and penalty, which we had incurred; 5. That, by his obedience and sufferings, he might fully meet all its demands, and perfectly deliver us from it as a covenant in its commanding and condemning power, and even from the rigorous ceremonial dispensation, and render us abundant partakers of all the privileges of the gospel state which pertain to the adult children of God.—6. And in consequence of his graciously loving you, Jews or Gentiles, he calls you to a state of sonship, and sends forth his Holy Spirit, which proceeds from and is communicated by his Son, to dwell in your souls with far richer abundance of gifts and graces than were ordinarily vouchsafed under the Mosaic dispensation, to form you into the temper of his children, and bear witness with your spirits that ye are such; and to give you a humble liberty and familiar boldness in your dealings with himself, and enable you to claim and call upon him, and stand affected towards him, with faith, love, desire, delight, reverence, filial obedience, and holy confidence in his care and kindness, and with zeal for his honour as your heavenly Father. 7. Whoever of you therefore truly believe in Christ are no longer, as servants, kept at a distance, and subjected to severe discipline; but, as children of riper age, are entered on a large possession of your inheritance, as an earnest of your quickly enjoying the full riches and glory thereof; yea, are heirs of the all-sufficient God himself as your portion, in the right, and for the sake of, and together with Jesus Christ, who, as his eternal Son, is heir of all things.—Why then should ye abandon these high and sure privileges to seek happiness by your works of obedience to the law as a covenant? 8-11. Since God, in his infinite mercy, pitied you while ye were plunged in the grossest ignorance and most shocking idolatries, slavishly worshipping stocks and stones, or other creatures real or imaginary, even the most base or abominable, instead of the true God, and by the light and power of his gospel found you out, brought you to the knowledge of himself through Jesus Christ, owned you as his, and rendered you accepted in the Beloved, what must be your infatuation and ingratitude if ye turn from this light and grace of the gospel, and all its holy and delightful liberties and honours, to a state of servile subjection to the dark hints and severe injunctions of the Mosaic law, which are utterly insufficient to make your peace with God, purge your conscience from guilt, secure you from wrath, procure your acceptance to life, or to enrich you with any spiritual knowledge, grace, or comfort? Has God delivered you from heathen bondage, that ye who had originally no attachment to the Jewish ceremonies should, in contempt of Christ's fulfilment of them, and of the gospel deliverance from them, be fond of such servitude, and be zealous to observe their sacred seasons and other rites, in order to render you accepted with God? Truly, when I think on this your conduct, I am greatly afraid that all the pains I took to acquaint you with and persuade you to embrace the gospel, have been lost upon most of you, and will only serve as an occasion to enhance your guilt and increase your eternal misery. 12. Let me therefore earnestly beseech you, my beloved brethren, by everything serious, solemn, or endearing, to abide in the same sentiments relative to the justification of a sinner before God which I, who was once as proud and obstinate a legalist as any of you, now heartily embrace, and exercise the same affection towards me as I do towards you; for I am ready to bear with you in everything consistent with the truth of the gospel and the welfare of your souls; and indeed I have no reason to disregard you, as ye never injured me; or, if ye did, I have heartily forgiven it. 13, 14. Such, ye know, was my affection to you, that, with the utmost concern for your salvation, under great difficulties, sufferings, reproaches, and much bodily weakness and despicable appearances, I laboured in explaining and recommending to you the gospel of Christ; and such was your affection to me, that, notwithstanding these infirmities and humbling circumstances, ye neither slighted my person nor rejected my doctrine, but entertained and embraced it, and me for its sake, with readiness and pleasure, as an ambassador of Christ, yea, as if I had been a holy angel sent down from heaven, or even the Messiah himself. 15, 16. Where are now those expressions of gratitude to me for my labours; or that happiness ye then professed to have and hope for in my ministrations? For such was your fervour of love and joy, that, if it could have been of any advantage to me, ye would have gladly undergone the most painful severities and inconveniences for my sake. Why then are ye now giving up those very doctrines which ye then so much esteemed? Why are ye become so cool in your affection to me who still affectionately regard you? I appeal to your consciences if ye ought to hold me as your enemy because I have plainly and faithfully maintained the truth and importance of gospel doctrines, and warned you of your infinite danger in mixing the works of the law with faith in Christ for your justification. 17. As for these your new teachers who pretend so great concern for your welfare, they act with no Christian candour or honour, but seek to decoy you from all regard to me or my apostolic authority, in order that ye may blindly submit to them, and bestow all your esteem, honour, and applause upon them. 18. Remember therefore that it is a very beautiful and laudable temper to be always zealously and uniformly attached to that which is truly worthy and important, and not merely when I am among you. 19. My dear but weak children in the faith, whom I thought I had instrumentally begotten to Christ through the gospel, my soul is still as earnestly concerned that the pure doctrines of the gospel, and Jesus Christ therein, as made of God to you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, may be really fixed in your minds and hearts, as ever I was to have you converted from your heathenish ignorance and idolatry. 20. Earnestly I wish that I were but present with you to confirm the truth, to answer your objections and scruples by word of mouth, and to vary my discourse into encouragement or rebuke as the occasions should require; and gladly should I find ground to encourage you; for truly I now greatly suspect that many of you have never been really converted to Christ, and may at length utterly apostatize from his truth and ways. 21. But I earnestly beg that ye who seem so fond of being under the law for justification by your own obedience, would seriously tell me, as before the judgment-seat of Christ, if ever ye have truly considered what the law demands, or what it denounces against the least transgression; or what a wide difference even these writings of Moses mark out between those that seek justification by their own works and those who seek it only by faith in Christ. 22, 23. For there it is recorded that Abraham, the friend of God, had two sons who were typical of different dispensations and different sorts of persons—the one Ishmael, who was born by Hagar his bond-slave, according to the common law of generation, and the other Isaac, by Sarah, his proper wife, in an extraordinary and miraculous manner, at an unexpected time of life, and as an accomplishment of God's free promise.—24, 25. Now these things were intended by God as figurative representations of the miserable condition of those who are under the law as a covenant of works, and of the happiness of those who are under the covenant of grace. Hagar represented the covenant made between God and the Israelites at Sinai, which, by its terrible manner of delivery, strictness of precepts, and severity of curses, tended to beget a servile temper of spirit, and subjected its votaries to everlasting destruction if left without the gospel relief promised to Abraham: and she and her son, cast out from Abraham's family, represented the Jews and other legalists abandoned by God for their unbelief, and left in bondage to Satan and their lusts. 26, 27. But the gospel church of true believers in Christ, which is of a heavenly, original nature and tendency, and highly privileged with the unnumbered liberties and blessings of the new kingdom, and by the oracles and ordinances of which we are born to Christ, was typified by Sarah and her son; for, in allusion to Sarah and Hagar, the prophet Isaiah foretold that the Gentile nations, after being long abandoned by God to heathenism, should at last, with great joy, afford more children to him than the Jewish nation, which in Abraham, and afterwards at Sinai, was solemnly espoused to him as his peculiar people. 28. This being the case, we members of the gospel church are, 'like Isaac, begotten to God by virtue of the free promises of the gospel, and are entitled to all the blessings of the new kingdom. 29, 30. But as in that age Ishmael, who was born according to the ordinary course of nature, and had only temporal advantages, with his mocking and malignant tongue persecuted Isaac, who was born by an extraordinary operation of the Spirit of God, and was heir of all the promises made to his father, so in this the Jewish zealots and self-justiciaries rage at and persecute us who are born of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.—And as Hagar and Ishmael were expelled from the family of Abraham, and deprived of the covenant blessings thereof, so shall God expel those zealots and all self-justifiers from his kingdom of grace and glory, and deny them the blessings of his children. 31. Since then we who believe on Christ alone for justification to eternal life are not of those who shall be excluded from the gospel state and heavenly inheritance, or promised blessings of grace and glory, but are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, we have nothing to do with the Mosaic servile dispensation, nor are any of its ceremonial observances necessary to our acceptance with God.
Ver. 3. Elements. Superficial principles of knowledge, mainly drawn from and terminating in material objects. C.
Ver. 4. The fulness of the time appointed by God the Father, and revealed to the prophets and the church by the Holy Spirit. Made of a woman; that is, born, Ro. 1. 3.—Under the law, in its requirement of obedience to its authority. and of death for its violation.—Note, Every one 'born of a woman' was necessarily born subject to death. C.
Ver. 6. Abba, Father! See note on Ro. 8. 16. The apostle uses two words, Chaldaic-Hebrew and Greek, to show the equal right of Jew and Gentile to claim God for his spiritual Father through his union with Christ. C.
Ver. 7. Thou, the liberated heir, mentioned ver. 1. C.
Ver. 9. Weak. How the law of Moses was 'weak' may be seen from He. 7. 18, 19; 10. 1; and how the law of nature, from Romans throughout.—Beggarly. That leave men ever seeking, but never finding justification and peace. C.
Ver. 10. Ye (superstitiously) observe—for so the original signifies—as if the mere act of observance were meritorious. C.
Ver. 12. Be as I am, free from Jewish traditions and prejudices.—For I am as ye are. I live, as touching Jewish observances, just as the Gentiles do.—Ye have not injured me at all. I do not complain of your forgetfulness as if it were any personal injury to me. C.
Ver. 14. By 'temptation in the flesh' some understand persecution; others, some bodily infirmity, 2 Co. 12. 7; comp. with 10. 10. C.
Ver. 15. Ye would have plucked, &c. Hence some have inferred that the affliction of the apostle was disease of the eyes. Others take the expression to be proverbial for any sacrifice. The phrase, 'your own eyes,' would seem, by the implied distinction, to countenance the former opinion. C.
Ver. 17. They would exclude, &c. 'They would exclude (separate) you from my affections, that ye might affect (join yourselves to) them.' C.
Ver. 20. I desire. Rather, 'I could have wished.'—To change my voice from that of a father (ver. 19) to that of a corrector or reprover, which I fear your case requires. C.
Ver. 24. Are an allegory. Rather, 'may be thus allegorized,' being natural and historical emblems of spiritual realities. C.
Ver. 25. This Agar is mount Sina. Let these words be compared with Mat. 26. 26, 'This is my body,' whereon the Romanists found the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the absurdity of that doctrine will be apparent: for if 'This is my body' be no figure, but a reality, then 'Agar (does not represent, but) is mount Sina'—a monstrous but inevitable consequence. C.
Reflections.—Great and glorious are the advantages of the New Testament church, brought in by the incarnation, obedience, and suffering of the Son of God, above the dark and servile state of the Old. What a large and firm foundation of mercy and hope is the manifestation of God in our nature, and in our law-room and stead! Happy are they who are marked as his fellow-heirs of eternal life by their active faith in Jesus Christ, and who are hereby enabled to enjoy the most familiar intimacy with God! Marvellous is his grace in calling gross idolaters to his favour and service! and base their ingratitude and dreadful their danger who, after making a fair profession of his gospel, apostatize from him, and deny the power of his righteousness for our justification before him. It is painful for faithful ministers to behold such events. But highly necessary at such a time honestly to contend for the truth, though it should make our kindest friends become our furious enemies. For artful are the methods and high the pretences of affection or piety by which seducers alienate men from the truth, and from their faithful, beloved, and affectionate ministers.—With great concern ought ministers, by prayers and instructions, to promote the conversion and edification of their hearers. It is vain to think that Christ can be formed in the heart where self-righteousness and self-dependence habitually prevail and reign. Whatever we may wish, we ought never to think all well where what we see is evidently evil. Ministers ought carefully to explain and apply the law of God to the consciences of those who are disposed to trust to their own works. And it is needful to look further than the letter in order to understand the Scripture. It is not according to our external privileges, but according as we rely on our own works, or adhere by faith to God's free promises, that we shall be lost or saved. The true children of God are generally persecuted by legal hypocrites. But it is enough to make them a rich and everlasting amends that they may rejoice in hope of the glory of God.