02.11. ESSAY NO. 11

ESSAY NO. 11

Paul begins Galatians 4:1-31 by tying up what he had just taught in the third. Jews "were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world," until, fulfilling his promise to Abraham, God sent his eternal Son, true man and seed of Abraham however, born of human mother, capable of dying un­der the law in lieu of the death of actual law-breakers; sent him to be "the end (both aim and the termina­tion) of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believeth" (Romans 10:4), to redeem men from the stat­us of child and ward, and to promote them to sons and heirs—in short, to lift them out of slavery into ac­knowledged sonship and liberty. That Gentiles, who had been strangers to the house, as well as Jews, who had been minors in the house, were so exalted is shown by Paul’s’ again reminding the Galatians that they had received the Holy Spirit, which is the peculiar seal of Christianity: "And be­cause ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). Strang­ers and minors, having but "the spirit of bondage," could cry only "Master," never, "Father, Father."

"Rudiments of the World"

Why did Paul call the Mosaic covenant "the rudi­ments of the world . , . the weak and beggarly rudi­ments"? Although the law itself was holy and spirit­ual, the legal system in which it was imbedded was a religion of the flesh. It was addressed to the flesh, which "lusteth against the Spirit" (Galatians 6:18); it made its appeal to the natural man, who "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:14). Reli­gious legal systems are for the morally immature. All of them, Jewish and heathen alike, are built upon the elementary principles that underlie natural religion and civil government—the rudimentary principles up­on which the Christ-less world, religiously and socially, has ever been, and is, run. The Jews had in written form a much fuller revela­tion of God’s law than did heathen nations, but they broke it, even as Gentiles broke the law they knew. Knowing that his legal anchor would never hold in the mud bottom of the human mind, God was merely us­ing it as preparation for the gospel preached "before­hand unto Abraham" (Galatians 3:8). The Sinaic covenant, though adapted to the minority of the Jews, was too weak and poor to bring to maturity the spiritual, God­like possibilities of men. Something stronger and richer than "weak and beggarly" legalism and ritual­ism, were all nations to be blessed, was required. Therefore God from all eternity, was graciously build­ing a religion fitted to lead men into obeying his im­mutable law of life, that they might live abundantly and eternally. Did not Christ tell the woman at "the well (John 4:1-54), that the time had come for the spiritual re­ligion, promised from of old, that would reach man’s inmost spirit, qualify him to "worship in spirit and truth," and "become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life"?

Legalism Becomes Heathenism

After referring to their former heathen life, Paul says to the Galatians: "But now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, where-unto ye desire to be in bondage again"? All Judaizers in the church, ancient and modern, magnify man’s side of redemption, works of law, and human merit to the disparagement of God’s side, works of grace, and hu­man demerit. Because the Galatians were being led into this deep, beguiling error, Paul very emphatically reminds them that their conversion from slavish heath­enry began with God’s knowing them, rather than with their knowing God. He is amazed and alarmed at their deserting Christian ground, and fears that he has labored with them in vain. He must by all means show them the real nature of the terrible mis­take they are making—that religiously to observe Mosaic rites after the cross is to deny the efficacy of the gospel of grace, to relapse into "bondage over again," and to give up Christ altogether. This decep­tive tare, if let alone, will supplant Christianity; hence, Paul digs it up by the roots.

What could be more startlingly instructive than this identification of heathenry with the Mosaic system after its tutorship was accomplished? When the Galatians, who had never known Moses, observed circumcision and other "carnal ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation," it was the same in prin­ciple as if they had returned to heathen idolatry with its impure rites, abominable obscenity, and demon worship. Both systems were based on the rudimentary principles of the flesh and "the wisdom of the (Christ-less) world," which can never lift men higher than the flesh and the world. According to Galatians, Mosaism after the cross has the same deadly effect on men that heathenism has.

Current Galatianism The core of the Galatians’ default was they thought the gospel Paul preached was "weak and beggarly." They were so spiritually shallow and ignorant that they thought the Christian life could not be attained on the principle of divine grace kindling and working with human faith, love, and hope; that the gospel needed to be bolstered up and made sufficient by adding the principle of law. (A very common error today.) It was incidental that they manifested this crass mis­understanding of the power and the working of grace in the human spirit by observing Mosaic rites and ceremonies. The basic error of the Galatians was their thinking that, not grace and faith, but law with its immature, not to say infantile, methods was the dy­namics of righteousness. Now, the grand object of the book of Galatians was to show them that it was the other way around—that the principle of law was pro­visional, "weak and beggarly," while within the church was the full-grown power of God, "wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Of course, Christians today do not show their mis­trust of the working principle of Christianity by tak­ing up the ways of Moses, but they may easily show it in other ways. Just to name some: trust in blood, wealth, culture, position, ability to sing or speak, strong character, good works, dead forms, traditions of men, and creeds, written and unwritten. Note how the book relies on the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:2-5,Galatians 4:6, Galatians 5:16-26), a new power inaccessible to men until Pentecost, to counter­act the fleshly workings of all these. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" and unity and growth and fruit.