Chapter 6.
(Concluded from page 153.)
In chap. 6:1-6 the difference between the legal system and Christianity is very strikingly presented. The apostle supposes the case of a man who has been overtaken in some fault. He has made some misstep. Who will be most likely to recover that man ? Will one in whom the spirit of pride and self-boasting has been fostered know how to reach the springs of that man's failure ? Will he so understand the way of restoration as to be able to demonstrate it to the failing one ?
It is evident the spirit of vainglory widely prevailed among the Galatians, with pretensions of great spirituality. This was the fruit of the leaven of legality which had been introduced among them.
It is to this boast of being spiritual the apostle ironically refers when he says, "Ye which are spiritual." As if to say:Here is a test for your spirituality:this man overtaken in a fault, recover him. Will your boasts of superiority help him? Will high thoughts of self restore him? How utterly futile would all this be in such a case ! How well the apostle knew it! Hence his suggestion that the recovery of a man from his fault will require real humility. There will be need of remembering one's own liability to err. It is the consciousness of this that fosters in us (men in whom sin dwells) that spirit of meekness which enables one to make the burdens or troubles of another his own. This lowliness is what Christ Himself exemplified. Christians should walk as He walked (i John 2:6). The leaven of legality in the Galatians had turned them from the ways in which is fulfilled the law which controls in the life of Christ. Grace, and grace alone, enables for such ways.
In thinking themselves to be spiritual, the Galatians were self-deceived, and this self-deception was the fruit of legality. Had grace been the controlling principle, each one would have been concerned about their own burdens-their responsibilities-and instead of glorying as above those they judged to have failed, they would be rejoicing in the grace that had enabled them to meet their obligations.
It may be in place here to explain that in the original the words for burden, in verses 2 and 5, are not the same. In verse 2 it expresses the trouble of mind in which the one who has failed is, and with which, where grace, not law, is operating, one will identify himself. He will make that trouble his own in a very real way. In verse 5 the word expresses responsibility. Every one is personally accountable, and must answer for himself and not another.
In verses 6-10 the apostle contrasts the effects of legality and grace in another way. It is evident the introduction of the leaven of legality among the Galatians had resulted in the drying up of the outflowing streams of grace. The ways in which grace expresses itself had been given up. The apostle reminds them of it and would call them back to them. Grace, the grace the gospel had made known to them, taught them to communicate in all good things to those whom God had used to instruct them in the things of God. They had formerly, we may surely believe, had their part in forwarding the apostle on his way. Now the good things they once gave so heartily they were withholding. The activities in which grace had instructed them had been to a large extent checked.
The faithful apostle warns them against being deceived. He tells them, " God is not mocked." Their pretensions, their provoking one another, their envying one another, will not pass before His eye as the fruit of the Spirit. Even in nature we may learn that the harvest will be according to what is sown; this law is no less inflexible in the spiritual sphere. If the sowing is to the flesh, the reaping must be of the flesh also, and that too, according to the law of increase.
And here I must warn against a grave mistake often made. Sowing to the flesh must not be limited to what we commonly call the vulgar and gross things. There is sowing to the flesh in connection with what is regarded as cultured and refined. It was this sort of sowing that prevailed among the Galatians. In either case the harvest is not the abiding fruits of the Spirit. Christians are characterized by the fruits of the Spirit-fruits that are the anticipation of the joys of that time when we shall have entered upon the final and permanent condition of the life of which by grace we are participants now. Bearing these fruits is '^well-doing." The apostle exhorts us not to weary in it, and assures us that there will be no disappointment in the harvest if the sowing is to the Spirit. Instead of drying up the channels in which love flows out, we are exhorted to seize upon every opportunity for the service of love. How such service shines in contrast with the drying up of love's activities through the leaven of legality!
In verses 11-14, the apostle contrasts the motives actuating himself with those governing the troublers among the Galatians. Whether we read, "Ye see how large a letter," or with others, "What large letters, I have written unto you with mine own hand," it is clear Paul was seeking to impress the Galatians with what was a manifest fact, that in the intensity of his desire to communicate with them he had not waited for an amanuensis to write for him at his dictation as was his custom (2 Thess. 3:17). A practiced amanuensis could have produced a more attractive manuscript, but the apostle had not the ambition to make "a fair show in the flesh"- which, manifestly, was actuating the perverters of the gospel. The apostle faithfully exposes it.
The reasons for forcing the believing Gentiles to be circumcised were two. First, the cross of Christ, which abolishes all distinctions of men in the flesh, was an offence to the Jews. Association with the uncircumcised, though believing Gentiles, brought persecution upon them. They were anxious to avoid it. Hence they insisted strenuously on believing Gentiles being circumcised.
The second reason was their desire to be able to point to the circumcision of the believing Gentiles as a proof of their being different from the mass-better than the rest. It was not because they themselves were in reality keepers of the law. The apostle says they were not. Nor did they really expect the circumcised Gentiles to keep the law. Their purpose and desire was to be able to justify themselves in their association with Gentiles. They thought they could do that if they could convince the unbelieving Jew that the Gentiles they associated with were a better class of Gentiles than the rest. Their circumcision would be a proof that they did not give to the cross the meaning in which it was an offence to the Jew-that they did not regard it as God's declaration of the utter unprofitableness of the flesh. Paul, however, insists vigorously on the true significance of the cross. With him it mean's God's irreversible judgment, the complete cutting off of man in the flesh. To him, who in faith took sides in it with God, it was the world's crucifixion. It was the end of the world for him. He could no more be a part of it or have any place in it. On the other hand, it was also his crucifixion to the world; because of his subjection to it, the world itself linked him with the crucified One-had no more use for him than it had for the One they had crucified. The cross then in its true import measured the gulf that was between the world and Paul.
Oh that the truth of this were in our souls, beloved, in the same power as it was in the soul of the apostle. However far behind him we may be as to actual practical realization, let us maintain the truth of it faithfully. Paul is the authoritative exponent of Christianity. It is the actuality, the verity of God. Our subjective realization of it, alas, is defective; yet, thank God, every Christian has title to proclaim and insist on the divine reality as what God Himself has established, and in its actuality is permanent and unchangeable. Of course, no one who is before God will boast of its being subjectively realized in fulness.
Verses 15-18 are the apostle's conclusion. It is brief, but a rich and most precious statement of divine truth. Christians are in Christ Jesus, as elsewhere taught; it is of God they are in Him (i Cor. i :30). How immeasurable is the grace that has laid hold of us and taken us out of our relationships with the failed first man, and established us in eternal relationship with Him who is the Second and Last Adam! What unbounded mercy to be called of God, to be connected with Him! But if our being in Christ Jesus is of God's sovereign grace, then neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. A believer from among the circumcised is nothing more than a believer from among the uncircumcised. What counts in Christ is what God has wrought. A circumcised Jew to be in Christ has to be created anew, or born again, through faith. An uncircumcised Gentile comes to be in Christ in the same way. It is not subjection to a religious rite or a ceremonial performance, but new creation.
In Christ Jesus, then, there is no opportunity for boasting, except in Christ Himself, who is all- everything. What we are in ourselves is nothing. What we make ourselves to be by our own efforts to improve goes for nothing. Christ is all.
Now the apostle wishes peace to be upon all who walk after this rule. The Galatians in following the perverters were not walking after the rule of new creation; they were not walking as men who had been created anew in Christ Jesus. They were not therefore in that faith in which peace and mercy could be realized.
It is altogether likely that being connected with the nation of Israel was a matter of great importance in the eyes of the troublers, and through them the Galatians had come to attach great importance to it also. But the apostle indicates that the important thing for an Israelite is to be an Israelite of God. Elsewhere he teaches that they are not all Israel that are of Israel (Rom. 9:6). Only the believing Israelites are real Israelites-Israelites of God. Such are included among those upon Whom Paul here wishes peace and mercy.
How forcefully he appeals to the authority under which he was writing. He says, " Henceforth let no man trouble me." If proof were needed that he was an authenticated messenger of the Lord Jesus, he was able to give it. He bore in his body the brands by which the Lord Jesus had signalized him as being His bond-servant and representative. Those scars that he had received in his many persecutions declared him to be the bearer of Christ's message to the world and the Church.
The end is abrupt. There are no salutations, no reminders of associations fondly remembered and affectionately cherished. It is simply, " Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your
spirit. Amen." C. Crain