The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Galatians — Edition Insights

_THE PERSONAL HISTORY._

CHAPTER i. 11-ii. 21.

PAUL'S GOSPEL REVEALED BY CHRIST 53

PAUL'S DIVINE COMMISSION 68

PAUL AND THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 83

PAUL AND THE FALSE BRETHREN 98

PAUL AND THE THREE PILLARS 113

PAUL AND PETER AT ANTIOCH 129

THE PRINCIPLES AT STAKE 146

_THE DOCTRINAL POLEMIC._

CHAPTER iii. 1-v. 12.

THE GALATIAN FOLLY 165

ABRAHAM'S BLESSING AND THE LAW'S CURSE 180

THE COVENANT OF PROMISE 196

THE DESIGN OF THE LAW 211

THE EMANCIPATED SONS OF GOD 227

THE HEIR'S COMING OF AGE 242

THE RETURN TO BONDAGE 257

THE STORY OF HAGAR 286

SHALL THE GALATIANS BE CIRCUMCISED? 302

THE HINDERERS AND TROUBLERS 316

_THE ETHICAL APPLICATION._

CHAPTER v. 13-vi. 10.

THE PERILS OF LIBERTY 333

CHRIST'S SPIRIT AND HUMAN FLESH 347

THE WORKS OF THE FLESH 361

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT 375

OUR BROTHER'S BURDEN AND OUR OWN 390

SOWING AND REAPING 405

THE FALSE AND THE TRUE GLORYING 421

RITUAL NOTHING: CHARACTER EVERYTHING 435

THE BRAND OF JESUS 448

"Paul, an apostle (not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren which are with me, unto the Churches of Galatia."[1]--GAL. i. 1, 2.

[1] The text used in this exposition is, with very few exceptions, that of the Revised English Version, or its margin.

Antiquity has nothing to show more notable in its kind, or more precious, than this letter of Paul to the Churches of Galatia. It takes us back, in some respects nearer than any other document we possess, to the beginnings of Christian theology and the Christian Church. In it the spiritual consciousness of Christianity first reveals itself in its distinctive character and its full strength, free from the trammels of the past, realizing the advent of the new kingdom of God that was founded in the death of Christ. It is the voice of the Church testifying "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts." Buried for a thousand years under the weight of the Catholic legalism, the teaching of this Epistle came to life again in the rise of Protestantism. Martin Luther put it to his lips as a trumpet to blow the reveillé of the Reformation. His famous Commentary summoned enslaved Christendom to recover "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." Of all the great Reformer's writings this was the widest in its influence and the dearest to himself. For the spirit of Paul lived again in Luther, as in no other since the Apostle's day. The Epistle to the Galatians is the charter of Evangelical faith.

The historical criticism of the present century has brought this writing once more to the front of the conflict of faith. Born in controversy, it seems inevitably to be born for controversy. Its interpretation forms the pivot of the most thoroughgoing recent discussions touching the beginnings of Christian history and the authenticity of the New Testament record. The Galatian Epistle is, in fact, the key of New Testament Apologetics. Round it the Roman and Corinthian Letters group themselves, forming together a solid, impregnable quaternion, and supplying a fixed starting-point and an indubitable test for the examination of the critical questions belonging to the Apostolic age. Whatever else may be disputed, it is agreed that there was an apostle Paul, who wrote these four Epistles to certain Christian societies gathered out of heathenism, communities numerous, widely scattered, and containing men of advanced intelligence; and this within thirty years of the death of Jesus Christ. Every critic must reckon with this fact. The most sceptical criticism makes a respectful pause before our Epistle. Hopeless of destroying its testimony, Rationalism treats it with an even exaggerated deference; and seeks to extract evidence from it against its companion witnesses amongst the New Testament writings. This attempt, however misdirected, is a signal tribute to the importance of the document, and to the force with which the personality of the writer and the conditions of the time have stamped themselves upon it. The deductions of the Baurian criticism appear to us to rest on a narrow and arbitrary examination of isolated passages; they spring from a mistaken _à priori_ view of the historical situation. Granting however to these inferences, which will meet us as we proceed, their utmost weight, they still leave the testimony of Paul to the supernatural character of Christianity substantially intact.