Bible Commentaries

‘REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW’

‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.’

Galatians 3:13

The Cross of Christ sheds light upon some of those darker problems of existence which have from the beginning perplexed the minds of men.

I. One of the most momentous of these questions finds a solution there and not elsewhere. It is this: ‘How shall a man be just with God?’ The only satisfactory solution of these questions is to be found at the Cross.

II. God alone can give peace, light, cheer.—But sin has disturbed man’s relations with God, towards Whom he entertains aversion and enmity, for the ‘carnal mind is enmity against God.’ At times conscience upbraids the sinner; it brings him in guilty before that tribunal at which he must stand one day to give in his account. Something whispers within, ‘You are not what you ought to be, and what you might have become.’ He is constrained to make efforts to do better and to become better.

III. The religion of Christ differs from all other religions mainly in this, that it begins where they end, with the sinner’s reconciliation to God and the forgiveness of his sins, whereas they place these things at the goal, as the result of lifelong efforts and struggles. What shall God render unto me for all that I am doing to secure His favour in this life? This is the spirit of the devotee of all merely human systems. ‘What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that He hath done unto me?’ This is the cry of the Christian soul which has been redeemed from the curse of the law. Love must inevitably be its constraining motive.

—Rev. F. K. Aglionby.

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‘A venerated clergyman of our Church who passed away towards the close of the last century used to tell of some words spoken to him in his early ministry by Charles Simeon, of Cambridge, whom he met at the house of a friend. Having been asked to conduct family worship, as the custom was, he expounded the passage of Scripture which he had read. Some time afterwards Mr. Simeon took him aside and said to him, “My young friend, you do not understand the uses of the law. They are three: (1) It convinces men of sin; (2) it leads them to Christ; and (3) it becomes their rule of life.” Thus we see that “the law of God is magnified and made honourable” when it fulfils these, its true functions, in their due order.’

GOD’S COVENANT

The covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, … cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.’

Galatians 3:17

The figurative language, based upon the familiar custom of agreements and contracts among men, is applied to the relation between the Most High and those who are one with Christ Jesus.

I. Its author.—God deigns to establish a covenant between Himself and His people. This is a fact most wonderful, and most encouraging and inspiring.

II. Its beneficiaries.—It is for the advantage, not of the seed of Abraham only, but of every tribe and nation, upon a condition which is spiritual, and which may be fulfilled as well by Gentiles as by Jews.

III. Its character.—It is of the nature of a promise. It differs from human covenants, in which there is an obligation on both sides in this respect, that whilst God can do all things for us, we have nothing which we can pay to Him as an equivalent. On this account, the covenant is termed the covenant of grace.

IV. Its import.—Nothing earthly or temporary, but a spiritual and abiding blessing is assured to His people by the faithfulness of God. Righteousness, salvation, life: such is the description given of the advantage secured to those who benefit under this dispensation of Divine mercy.

V. Its supremacy.—St. Paul contrasts it with the law, which was given hundreds of years after the covenant of grace was revealed to Abraham; and he points out several respects in which the law given by Moses was inferior to the eternal promise of Divine grace.

VI. Its ratification and fulfilment.—This is by Jesus Christ, Abraham’s seed, the Mediator, by faith in whom the promise is given to them that believe.

Illustration

‘The very oath sworn to Abraham by his Maker was, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, designed to show to the heirs of promise, down the whole stream of time, the immutability of God’s counsels. God forbid, cries St. Paul, that any one should think that the law—the schoolmaster who was to bring us to Christ—was against the promises of God! Though the sanctions of the two covenants might be different—a circumstance which does not in the least affect the moral obligation—the terms on which they dealt with man were the same. This development may be more complete, more uniform, more equable, more progressive, under the Gospel than under the law; but the direction of that development was ever, if not consciously towards Christ, at least towards Christianity.’

THE ONE MEDIATOR

‘How a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.’

Galatians 3:20

This short sentence is so difficult in its conciseness, so abstruse, and capable of so many meanings, that it is not too much to say that it has more interpretations than any other passage in the Bible. Bishop Lightfoot said, ‘The interpretations which have been given to this passage mount up to two hundred and fifty, or three hundred.’ The number seems almost incredible! But it at least proves that the language is very full, and the solution exceedingly difficult.

Amongst all the meanings, however, which have been attached to it, there are two which stand out so distinct, and are so far superior to all the rest, that the true understanding of the words must be in one or the other, or in both unitedly.

I. The one is this.—‘Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one. A ‘Mediator’ implies that there are two parties concerned. There cannot be mediators unless there are two between whom ‘the mediator’ is to act. And the two must be, more or less, at variance, otherwise there would be no need, or occasion, for the mediation. Here, then, there must be two. Two? God is one of the two, one of those two between whom the mediation takes place. Then, who was the other? Who was the other? St. Paul leaves an awful blank! Who is the other? Man. In what condition, then, must man be? At enmity with God! Else, he would not need a mediation. Therefore, the fact of the existence of a mediation proves that man is alienated from God. ‘A Mediator is not a Mediator of one, but God is one.’ Who is the other?

II. The other interpretation is this.—The words are intended to draw a contrast between the Law and the Gospel. The mediation of the Law—which was conducted by Moses—was of the nature of a contract between two parties—God on the one side, man on the other. And each must fulfil his part in the contract, or else it would not be valid. Therefore the contract of the Law, observe this! leaves the issue uncertain, for it depended, on one side, on man’s obedience, which was an exceedingly doubtful thing; it certainly cannot be depended upon! But just the contrary to that is the contract of the Gospel. In that contract God is all in all. It depends on the will and power of God. It is all, from beginning to end, His work. He elects the soul; He makes the faith; He makes the obedience; He makes the holiness; and He has provided, and He Himself gives, and is, the reward. There is nothing but God in it. So the unity of God is complete. There is nothing but God. ‘God is one.’ The mediation is entirely different from the mediation of the law. There the parties mediated were two. Here all are one. God the Author, God the Finisher; only God on either side, in His electing love, in the sinner’s penitence, in the sinner’s peace, in the sinner’s eternal life. It is all God. One; alone. ‘Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one, but God is one.’

III. But why may we not embrace the two, and read both in this very deep verse? Thus: man is separated from God. The fact that there is a Mediator, the necessity of a Mediator proves it. We are all at variance with God. A controversy between a man and God is, on reasonable, and rational principles, hopeless. I am one and alone in my deep, sinful degradation. God is one and alone in the solitude of His infinite and unapproachable holiness. There is not the vestige of a hope for me unless there be a Mediator. ‘But God is one.’ One, up in heaven, in His fore-ordaining love; one, in my poor heart, working there, in His grace and mercy; one, in His eternal sovereignty; one, in His power and will to make me all He would have me to be. One to plan, one to execute, His grand design. One to begin, one to perfect my salvation. One to save me, and glorify Himself by my everlasting happiness.

—Rev. James Vaughan.

GOD’S GIFTS AND MAN’S FAITH

‘The promise by faith of Jesus Christ … given to them that believe.’

Galatians 3:22

It would be difficult to say what portion of Holy Scripture can be of more vital moment to us than this. It is important both as regards its main subject, namely, the promises of God to man in Jesus Christ, and also in reference to ourselves, in teaching us how and by what means we obtain the benefit of those promises.

I. All God’s blessings to us, through the Redemption of Christ, are a free gift.—This is the first and central idea of the whole. Man had done nothing to deserve them. How could he? It would be an absurdity to talk of man’s doing anything to deserve God’s gifts when you come to consider what the blessings of Christ’s Redemption really are. For the benefits of Christ’s Redemption consist in this—namely, redeeming us from the power of evil and of sin.

II. It is faith which is the means whereby we obtain the healing or salvation which God has wrought.—God heals us. God provides us the strength and power to become holy, just, and good, instead of sinful, corrupt, and wicked. But the reason that so few persons become what they should be—and what they might be—is, that in their common everyday life they forget God, that it is only by God’s constant help that they can remain good, and that the moment they go alone, as you may say, they are sure to go back. The fact is that they do not lead believing lives.

III. See how all this is practically set before us in those Sacraments of the Gospel which Christ has ordained for our soul’s life and health. To begin with, there is Baptism. Baptism teaches us that God has chosen to make us His children; and that what we have to do is—not to make ourselves His children, but—to live as His children. But how? How can we live as His children? Here again God’s mercy is with us—His free mercy, not of our deserving, but of His goodness. So long as we live in dependence upon His help, i.e. so long as we live by faith, so long He will find us the power to live as His children. The Holy Communion teaches us that God provides our souls with a food which shall keep up our spiritual life, i.e. that God feeds his children with a Divine food by which their relationship to their Divine Father is kept up and kept alive. We do not make the food which feeds our souls any more than we made ourselves God’s children. God makes it, and God gives it.

THE UNITY OF LIFE

‘Ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.’

Galatians 3:28 (R. V.)

It is a sublime watchword. Doubtless we are often forgetful of it, even deliberately false to it. But the words are there to be a constant check upon us, to recall us from strife and jealousy and selfishness and self-assertion to the idealism of the Gospel. ‘One man!’ We can hardly miss the force of the expression. It is absent to a great extent from the rendering in our Authorised Version, but in the Revised Version it is fully brought out. The life of all Christians is pourtrayed as one human life to which each individual existence is but contributory. The solidarity is a living solidarity. It finds its likeness not in the unity of that which is unconscious, but in the self-realisation of a rational and spiritual being. ‘Ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.’

I. Co-operation is a familiar idea to us all.—We are accustomed to see great masses of men animated by one dominant motive, pressing on as some disciplined army to a common end, inspired by the same thoughts, moved it may be by the same antagonisms and hatreds, upheld by the same hopes and ideals. We are used to see men sink their individual differences for one supreme purpose, and forget what separates them in the acknowledgment of what they have in common.

II. The unity of Christians has its source in the personal life of Christ.—The Incarnate, Crucified, Risen Saviour is the pledge of our human solidarity. It is not merely that we all look back to Him; it is not merely that we all believe in Him; it is not merely that we all hope for the fullness of His everlasting kingdom; it is that His Life embraces ours, and that in that wondrous embracement we all are one.

III. The words ought to haunt those of us who are engaged in public life.—They bid us see things in a true perspective. They press upon us the realisation that even international divergencies ought to be merged in the conception of a higher unity.

IV. There ought to be, there can be, no peace for us so long as so many of those who are partakers of that one Christian life, which we owe to the Saviour of the world, are wretched, suffering, disease-stricken, sin-stricken, depraved. We cannot stand by and say that these things matter nothing to us. The call to us is to give ourselves. We are bidden serve those who are bound up with us in a common life. ‘And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also’—and in Him we are all brethren.

—Rev. the Hon. W. E. Bowen.

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‘There is a beautiful Indian legend—told by Bishop Westcott in one of his sermons—of a Buddhist saint who had attained to the stage next Nirvana. The final reward was at last within his reach, but he turned away from it. “Not,” he said, “till the last soul on every earth and in every hell has found peace can I enter on my rest.”’