Volume IV
The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians.
With John Brown’s marginal references, notes and reflections · Vol. IV, p. 389
Galatia was a province in the north-east of Lesser Asia. Here, as in many other places, the apostles had scarcely planted the gospel of Christ, when some judaizing teachers contended that the Gentile converts should be circumcised, as a token of their obligation to fulfil the whole law of Moses, in order to their justification before God; and as Paul's instructions greatly thwarted their schemes, they insinuated that he had no apostolic authority. To confute these pretensions is the scope of this epistle. Here Paul (1) Represents his apostolic authority as in nothing inferior to that of Peter, or any other apostle, ch. i.; 2. 1-15. (2) Reprehends the Galatians for their sudden apostasy from the faith of the gospel, and establishes the doctrine of justification by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, ch. 1. 6-9; 2. 16-21; iii. iv. (3) Directs to the right improvement of the doctrines and privileges of gospel grace, ch. v. vi.
[The Galatians or Gallo-Grecians were the descendants of a colony of Gauls or Celts, who migrated from their own country under Brennius, and after a series of disasters, obtained possession of a considerable district of Western Asia, to which they gave the name of Galatia. They are represented by historians as a tall, athletic, and warlike people, who went nearly naked, and used for arms merely a buckler and sword; and who, by the impetuosity of their attack, were nearly irresistible. Before their conversion to Christianity, their religion was so corrupt and superstitious, that they are said to have offered human sacrifices of the prisoners taken in war. They spoke the Greek language in common with all the inhabitants of Western Asia; but, according to Jerome, retained their original Celtic also down to the fifth century.
Among this semi-barbarous people it appears that Paul planted, not one, but several churches, Ac. 16. 6; 18. 23; and being now a prisoner at Rome, ch. 6. 17, some false apostles had, after his departure, seduced his converts from the simplicity of the gospel, and persuaded them to conjoin with it the observance of the Jewish ceremonies as necessary to salvation, ch. 6. 13; that justification was a compound of faith and works, ch. 3. 2; 4. 21; that Paul was no authorized apostle, and (as may be inferred from ch. 2. 9) in no wise to be compared with others who had seen Christ in the flesh. Under these circumstances the apostle wrote this epistle, wherein he labours to counteract these 'deceitful workers' and their false doctrines, and to bring the Galatians back to the perception and acknowledgment of the simplicity of the gospel. This he endeavours to effect, (1) By asserting the authority of his apostleship and the truth of the gospel he had preached, ch. i.; ii. to ver. 15. (2) By illustrating and vindicating the true doctrine of justification by faith, proving the temporary character of the Levitical institutions and of the entire legal dispensation, to the end of ch. iv. (3) By instructing his converts how to use their Christian liberty, and pressing upon them the necessity of exterminating the lusts of the flesh, and of cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. C.
Justification by faith alone is the theme of this epistle. With a logical acuteness, an appropriateness of illustration, and a power of application, unequalled even in the Bible, is this grand theme set forth. All sources of knowledge, all forms of authority,—direct divine teaching, inspiration, personal experience, the
testimony of Christ, the statements of the Old Testament,—are all employed to elucidate and enforce the doctrine of justification by faith. This epistle is a model of controversial theology. Truth is defended and error exposed with equal clearness and decision. There is no tampering with incipient heresy. There is no attempt to throw the cloak of Christian charity over a false principle. There is no effort to cultivate fraternal union at the expense of fundamental truth. Purity of faith is its pervading maxim. Until this is established and recognized, there can be no real unity or peace in a church.
There is much in the character and history of the Galli, or Celts, to illustrate incidental statements and allusions in this epistle. A few points may be noticed as a guide to the thoughtful reader. (1) A leading characteristic of the Celts was impressibility, combined with quickness of apprehension, and promptitude, approaching to rashness, in act. An illustration is given in ch. 4. 14. (2) Fickleness and constant tendency to change was another marked feature, which explains ch. 1. 16; 3. 1, &c. (3) The Celts were quarrelsome, and vindictive when passion was roused. See ch. 5. 15. (4) They were likewise proud and vainglorious. See ch. 6. 5. (5) They were superstitious to an extreme: and their superstition was shown in undue veneration for ceremonies and shrines. See ch. 3. 3. The apostle has left in various incidental notices and sketches a tolerably distinct portrait of the people to whom he addressed this epistle. The thoughtful reader will see that he is here dealing with a type of character as unlike as possible to the polished but dissolute Greek, or the calm philosophic Roman, or the dreamy speculative Oriental. Paul knew them thoroughly. He noted their national characteristics, their faults and passions, with an eye quickened by divine intuition; and he took full advantage of this knowledge in reclaiming and re-establishing in the faith an erring church. P.]