11-Some concluding remarks on the teaching of the Epistle

Some concluding remarks on the teaching of the Epistle So ends the Epistle, which began with so tremendous an assertion of Apostolic authority (backed up by the added weight of “all the brethren, which are with me”) and an expression of deep wonderment at the rapid falling away of believers in Galatia from their one time loyalty, both to their own original teacher and to the one and only Gospel, which he brought. That Gospel centred, as the first few verses witness, in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who “gave Himself for our sins,”-the manner of the ‘giving’ is undefined-“that He might deliver ‘believers’ from the present evil age.” Its compass has been restated in the course of the brief letter. It may be well to sum up here the main points of that restatement. For Jews it amounts to this. Assuming that all men wish to ‘right themselves,’ or ‘be righted,’ in the eyes of God; they cannot possibly achieve this by obedience to the Law. The Apostle quotes Scripture in support. Yet it may be safely said that no further argument is needed than ordinary human conscience. Those who have tried hardest know best the futility of trying. Experiment clearly demonstrates that the thing is impracticable. In chap. 2 we are merely told that St Paul and others, his fellows, pinned their faith on Jesus Christ, being assured that only that way, by faith in Jesus Christ, could the condition they desired be actually attained. This involved for them, as Jews, distressful consequences. They were regarded as ‘renegades.’ They had become ‘sinners,’ like the Gentiles. As the Apostle parenthetically remarks, they might truly regard themselves as backsliders, or transgressors, if they returned to the old position they had given up so deliberately. As for St Paul-he has no such intention. His life is a wholly new life: it is dominated by Christ. Even his natural relations to the life about him are coloured by the prodigious change.

We are not very clearly told the manner of its coming: but it came through faith in Christ-Christ, the Son of God, who had loved Paul and “given Himself up” for Paul. The faith has for its object not merely Christ, it is plain, but the Christ who died. Somehow-we are not told how-this ‘faith’ brings new life to a man, begetting in him the assurance of his acceptance with God. As for the way of ‘law,’ it is just a delusion. He who follows after law frustrates and nullifies the grace of God. It is an inconceivable thought that Christ should have died for nothing. This Gospel of acceptance with God through Christ alone had been preached before to the Galatians. But they had other evidence, to convince them of its truth, beside Apostolic affirmation. They had the evidence of the Spirit-that amazing gift of God, that came to them through faith. It had been with them, as it was with Abraham; it was faith that had led to blessing. The mention of Abraham suggests many new ideas. The true doctrine about Abraham is stated at some length; for a good deal of Jewish error was associated with the Patriarch. First of all, it is plain that his real descendants are his ‘spiritual’ descendants, who will share his ‘blessing’ thanks to the same means by which he won it, to wit, faith. As for law, no ‘blessing’ comes that way, but only a ‘curse’; and from that curse Christ redeemed us by the sacrifice of Himself. It is so that a ‘blessing’ may come upon the Gentiles (it had come on the Galatians), a blessing identified with the gift of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be seriously contended that the Law had superseded this primal Abrahamic ‘Covenant.’ How could it? ‘Wills’ and ‘Covenants’ are not so lightly superseded. Once made, they stand. The Abrahamic ‘Covenant’ has precedence of the Law. It rests on the primal promise. The Law cannot cancel the promise, any more than it can bring effective life. Yet it served a useful end. It defined sin; it quickened conscience; it kept Israel in safety, till the hour of Redemption should come. But its elementary character must not be overlooked. It belonged to ‘nursery’ days. When the Son came, ‘Sonship’ also came; and with Sonship the great appeal of the Spirit in us to the Father. As for the Gentiles, they of old have served ‘gods,’ that were none. Now that they ‘know’ God, what folly to return to primitive discipline! Let them recall with what joy they welcomed the new message at the first hearing, and beware of treacherous friends. The story of Isaac and Ishmael testifies to the ‘freedom’ that belongs to the spirit-child-the freedom that is theirs. To hark back to circumcision (even for the uncircumcised believer the submission to circumcision is a real retrogression) is really to give up Christ. To affirm that their Apostle himself laid stress on circumcision, is to fly in the face of facts. Freedom belongs to those alone who follow the Spirit’s guidance. The talk of the ‘circumcision party’ is all delusion, and delusion prompted by self-seeking. It is Christ, and His Cross, that matter; nothing else. The Apostle prays for blessing on those who cling to Him alone. Of his own whole-hearted loyalty none can doubt. As one peruses the Epistle, it is borne in on the mind that, whatever it may be, it is not a formal treatise. It has all the free discursiveness of a thoroughly natural letter. Great ideas pervade it throughout; but they appear to defy analysis. And one feels (one cannot help feeling) that St Paul would have been mightily surprised if he could have learned of the dogmatic superstructure to be afterwards upreared on the great ideas thrown out in the course of his eager writing.

These ideas, on a bread survey, would appear to be chiefly two.

Granted all would stand well with God, they can only attain their wish by what is called ‘faith in Christ.’ This is not very clearly defined, probably primarily because it defies all definition. From this ‘faith,’ further, flows a notable consequence, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

These two fundamental realities exclude once and for all any question of ‘circumcision,’ as an essential to God’s acceptance. Christianity, so far from being an expanded Judaism, is a wholly different thing. Rightly regarded, Judaism is no more than an episode. As compared with Christianity, it is as bondage is to liberty. Religion began long before the Law. And it has found its consummation wholly apart from Law, or anything which partakes of a legal character. The whole-hearted acceptance by man of God’s gift in Jesus Christ is the kernel of the matter. When one grasps this great simplicity of teaching, one can easily understand the appeal the brief but splendid letter made to our Protestant reformers. Surely never was the heart of religion set forth more plainly and unmistakeably by any living man. It is the realisation of a Love, which works in a definite way.