Galatians 3

Galatians 3:1

[b] crucified among you] That it should be here said to the Galatians that Christ Jesus was ἐν ὑμῖν ἐσταυρωμένος, crucified among them, is not well to be imagined, neither is there any reason to understand the words so, which are otherwise interpretable, either by removing the comma after προεγράφη, or by setting it after ὑμῖν, thus, To whom Jesus Christ having been crucified, hath been set forth among you, before your eyes, that is, with evidence and conviction. Another way of construction might also be pitched on, by joining οἷς and ἐν ὑμῖν, (as 1 Pet. ii. 24. οὐ τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ, by whose stripes of him, that is, by whose stripes,) among whom, that is, you. But that which removes all difficulty is, that the king’s MS. leaves out ἐν ὑμῖν, among you, and then the sense will be obvious, and the construction clear, οἷς κατ’ ὀφθαλμούς Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς προεγράφη, to whom before your eyes (that is, evidently) Christ Jesus hath been set forth, or exposed to public view, (so προεγράφισθαι signifies; see note [a] on Jude,) ἐσταυρωμένος, having been crucified, that is, made known and evidenced in his sufferings, whereby he took away the partition betwixt Jew and Gentile, abolished the ceremonies of the Mosaical law, and so also in the power of his resurrection, the consequent of these sufferings of his.

Galatians 3:2

I pray let me dispute it a while with you, and demand this one thing, which may reasonably set an end to the whole controversy, The gifts of the Spirit that are in your church, were they there till the gospel was preached to you? (1 Cor. xii. 28.) was the Mosaical law able to give you any such privileges, to work such miracles among you? Undoubtedly it was not.

Galatians 3:3

And then is there any reason, that having by the gospel received the gifts of the Spirit, and so begun to be a Christian church, thriven and prospered well in that plain way, you should now think it necessary to take in the law as a suppletory, to make yourselves up with the external, Mosaical, carnal rites and ceremonies?

Galatians 3:4

You have suffered many persecutions and hardships for Christianity, which, if you would have Judaised, you might have avoided, (your persecutions generally proceeding from that fountain;) and if this doctrine be true, then what are ye the better for all these sufferings? Nay, it were well if this were all,

Galatians 3:5

God therefore that hath furnished your church with so many extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, and wrought so many miracles among you, did he any such thing under the Mosaical law? is there any thing in that fit to draw you back to it again from the profession of the gospel? ver. 2. Is not faith it that all the great privileges and advantages have still belonged to?

Galatians 3:6

As it was believing upon which Abraham was justified.

Galatians 3:7

From whence it follows, that those which are justified as Abraham was, are not the Mosaical observers, but believers only, those that receive and obey that doctrine which is taught and required by Christ, the Gentiles as well as Jews.

Galatians 3:8

And the words of the promise made to Abraham, which was an evangelical not legal promise, did in effect contain this in them, that all nations of the world, and not only the Jews, should be justified by faith, and so the Gentiles now, and that without legal Mosaical performances, for thus the words of the promise ran, In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed: all the nations; and so the heathens, and not only the Jews, who lived according to the law, shall be blessed in thee, that is, the form of benediction used among the Gentiles, and not only the Jews, shall be with mention of Abraham’s name, viz. that God will bless them as he blessed Abraham, justify them as he did him, make the whole Gentile world partakers of that promise made personally to Abraham, on condition they believe and obey as he did: all looking on Abraham’s obedience and justification as the example of all Christians, that all that believe and obey as he did shall be blessed as he was.

[c] In thee shall all nations be blessed] The likeliest way of interpreting this phrase, ἐν σοὶ εὐλογηθήσονται, will be by observing first, what is meant by εὐλογεῖσθαι, and then by ἐν σοί. For the first, it refers clearly to the form of benedictions among the Jews, Lev. ix. 23. used solemnly by the priests, who did bless the people in set forms, Num. vi. 24. (as well as bless God for them, as Gen. xiv. 19. Melchisedek blessed Abram. and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, as well as Blessed be the most high God, ver. 20.) Thus also did parents bless their children, Isaac Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 3. and Jacob his sons, Gen. xlix. Then for the ἐν σοί, that will be interpreted by the use of the phrase Gen. xlviii. 20, where Jacob, speaking to and blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, saith, In thee shall Israel bless, (the very same phrase as here,) saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh. By which it may be reasonable to conclude, that to bless others in this form, God make you as Ephraim, &c., to make use of his ensample in blessing any, is to bless them ἐν Ἐφραῖμ, in Ephraim. And so proportionably this will be the meaning here of Ἐν σοί, In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. They among all the nations or Gentiles, and not only the Jews, that bless themselves or others, shall use this proverbial form of benedictions, by mentioning the blessings that God bestowed upon Abraham, God make thee as Abraham, &c., or as the form is set down Gen. xxviii. 4. God give to thee the blessing of Abraham. Thus rabbi Solomon interprets it on Gen. xii. 3, that men shall say to their children, Be thou as Abraham, adding that the phrase is used in scripture always in this sense. And so sure it hath been used according to

Galatians 3:9

From all which it is clear, that believers or Christian livers, without Mosaical performances, have their part of that blessing that was promised to Abraham; and those that sprang from him (from his faith as well as from his loins) are blessed on the same terms as he was.

Galatians 3:10

For all that expect to be justified by the law without the faith of Christ, (which, if it be acknowledged, takes away the wall of partition betwixt Jew

Galatians 3:11

And the same is proved by that known testimony, Habak. ii. 4, (see Rom. i. 17, Heb. x. 38,) They to whom life is promised are the believers, or they that are justified after the evangelical manner.

Galatians 3:12

Whereas the law makes no account of faith, allows no justification but on condition of legal obedience, performance of all that it requires.

Galatians 3:13

In which case, there being no means in the law to justify any, but rather to bring curses on all, because all have sinned, ver. 10, Christ hath been seasonably pleased to interpose, to make satisfaction for sin, to bear that curse which belonged to us, (and that he did by being crucified, which being a Roman punishment was yet near kin to that of hanging on a tree, that is, a gibbet of wood, Deut. xix. 23, which is said there to be an accursed death:)

Galatians 3:14

That the favour bestowed on Abraham, of being justified by faith, and not by ceremonial observances, may be communicated to the Gentiles who believe in God as Abraham, and all those precious consequents thereof, the gifts of the Spirit useful to the building up of a church, ver. 5, as well as that single promise of justification.

Galatians 3:15

Brethren, it is ordinarily acknowledged among men, that a covenant, though it be but of a man, being once firmly made cannot be voided.

Galatians 3:16

And much less can the promises of God miscarry, which were made to Abraham and to his seed; not to seeds in the plural, which might make a difference betwixt Jews and Gentiles, but in the singular, to thy seed, viz., as to Isaac (who was therein a type of Christ) so distinctly to Christ, as he is the head of a family, a spiritual father of children, all believers coming from him as a spiritual progeny, and conse-

Galatians 3:17

To the same purpose again it is observable, that the law, that was delivered by Moses above four hundred and thirty years after the time that that promise was made to Abraham, Gen. xii. 3, cannot in any reason be thought to disannul, or frustrate, or invalidate the covenant made by God to Abraham, and in him to all believers or Christians, his spiritual as well as carnal progeny, so as to leave believers now under obligation to observe the Mosaical law, or to propose justification to them upon no other terms but those; when in the promise to Abraham, so long before, it was made over to them upon these other cheaper and better terms of fidelity and sincerity, and purity of the heart.

Galatians 3:18

For if the blessing that is promised to Abraham’s seed, whether carnal or spiritual, that is, to believing Gentiles as well as circumcised Jews, came by the performance of the Mosaical law, then comes it not by the promise made to Abraham: which is directly contrary to the scripture, which affirms it to come, as to Abraham, so to all others, by promise only.

Galatians 3:19

You will ask then, if the promise made to Abraham be the only thing by which, now and ever since, justification hath been to be had, to what purpose the law was given? I answer, It was given to restrain men from sin, and to shew them their guilt, and to make them seek out for a remedy, which is to be found only in the doctrine of the gospel; and in this respect it was useful for the while, till Christ and his members, disciples and believers, should come; and that the law might be the more effectual to that end, to restrain us from sin, it was given in a glorious formidable manner, by angels delivering the ten commandments in thunder, so terribly, that the people durst not approach the mountain, and therefore was Moses called up to be a mediator, standing betwixt God and the people, to shew them the word of the Lord, Deut. v. 5, and by his hand it was delivered to them.

Galatians 3:20

Here again it may be objected, that if in the delivery of the law Moses were a mediator, he must then needs be so between God and the Israelites, and

Galatians 3:21

This freedom therefore I make use of, and do not depend on the law for justification, nor think the Mosaical observances still necessary; for that were to evacuate the gospel of Christ, (see note [c] Heb. xiii.,) for if still the Mosaical performances are necessary and sufficient to our justification, then Christ needed not to have died, it would be matter of no advantage to us that he thus came into the world and laid down his life for us.

CHAP. III.

O FOOLISH Galatians, * who hath [a] bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, [b] crucified among you?

To this I answer, that if this were conclusive, it would then make void those promises made to Abraham, which must be as carefully preserved as the objector seems careful to make good God’s pact by the law. And indeed the true way of stating the difficulty must be by preserving both as far as the matter will bear. But there is one thing supposed in this objection which is utterly false, and the cause of all the mistake, viz. that it is possible to perform the law, (for that must be presupposed before we can talk of justification by that contract betwixt God and man,) or that the law furnishes with strength sufficient to do it. If that indeed were true, there would be no reason to expect the performance of the promises made to Abraham, and consequently of justification, but only by the law; but when the law doth no such matter, it is clear that that cannot be a valid contract, but void as soon as made, and so that it supersedes not that other of promise to Abraham, or that which is now by me insisted on in Christ, which is purposely to supply the defects and defailances of the law.

Galatians 3:22

But it is clear by scripture, that all men of all nations, Jews and others, are guilty of sin, Rom. iii. 19, and so uncapable of justification by the law, which requires perfect obedience, or else cannot justify, and so still there is no justification to be had upon other terms but those of grace and promise, upon condition of performing sincere evangelical faithful obedience.

Galatians 3:23

All that can be said of the law is, that before Christ and the gospel came we were by God put under that economy, kept under and disciplined by it, as in a state of candidates or expectants, until the time should come for the revelation of the gospel.

Galatians 3:24

And so the law was only a guardian or institutor of us in time of minority, as it were, an imperfect rule proportioned to an imperfect state, not to justify, but only to keep us in order, and to leave and deliver us up to the gospel only for justification.

Galatians 3:25

Now therefore the gospel being come, the