20. "Now a mediator cannot be of one (but must be of two parties whom he mediates between); but God is one" (not two: owing to His essential unity not admitting of an intervening party between Him and those to be blessed; but as the One Sovereign, His own representative, giving the blessing directly by promise to Abraham, and, in its fulfilment, to Christ, "the Seed," without new condition, and without a mediator such as the law had). The conclusion understood is, Therefore a mediator cannot appertain to God; and consequently, the law, with its inseparable appendage of a mediator, cannot be the normal way of dealing of God, the one, and unchangeable God, who dealt with Abraham by direct promise, as a sovereign, not as one forming a compact with another party, with conditions and a mediator attached thereto. God would bring man into immediate communion with Him, and not have man separated from Him by a mediator that keeps back from access, as Moses and the legal priesthood did ([Ex 19:12], [13, 17], 21-24; [He 12:19-24]). The law that thus interposed a mediator and conditions between man and God, was an exceptional state limited to the Jews, and parenthetically preparatory to the Gospel, God's normal mode of dealing, as He dealt with Abraham, namely, face to face directly; by promise and grace, and not conditions; to all nations united by faith in the one seed ([Ep 2:14], 16, 18), and not to one people to the exclusion and severance from the One common Father, of all other nations. It is no objection to this view, that the Gospel, too, has a mediator ([1Ti 2:5]). For Jesus is not a mediator separating the two parties in the covenant of promise or grace, as Moses did, but One in both nature and office with both God and man (compare "God in Christ," [Ga 3:17]): representing the whole universal manhood ([1Co 15:22], 45, 47), and also bearing in Him "all the fulness of the Godhead." Even His mediatorial office is to cease when its purpose of reconciling all things to God shall have been accomplished ([1Co 15:24]); and God's ONENESS ([Zec 14:9]), as "all in all," shall be fully manifested. Compare [Joh 1:17], where the two mediators--Moses, the severing mediator of legal conditions, and Jesus, the uniting mediator of grace--are contrasted. The Jews began their worship by reciting the Schemah, opening thus, "Jehovah our God is ONE Jehovah"; which words their Rabbis (as Jarchius) interpret as teaching not only the unity of God, but the future universality of His Kingdom on earth ([Zep 3:9]). Paul ([Ro 3:30]) infers the same truth from the ONENESS of God (compare [Ep 4:4-6]). He, as being One, unites all believers, without distinction, to Himself ([Ga 3:8], 16, 28; [Ep 1:10]; 2:14; compare [He 2:11]) in direct communion. The unity of God involves the unity of the people of God, and also His dealing directly without intervention of a mediator.
21. "Is the law (which involves a mediator) against the promises of God (which are without a mediator, and rest on God alone and immediately)? God forbid."
life--The law, as an externally prescribed rule, can never internally impart spiritual life to men naturally dead in sin, and change the disposition. If the law had been a law capable of giving life, "verily (in very reality, and not in the mere fancy of legalists) righteousness would have been by the law (for where life is, there righteousness, its condition, must also be)." But the law does not pretend to give life, and therefore not righteousness; so there is no opposition between the law and the promise. Righteousness can only come through the promise to Abraham, and through its fulfilment in the Gospel of grace.
22. But--as the law cannot give life or righteousness [Alford]. Or the "But" means, So far is righteousness from being of the law, that the knowledge of sin is rather what comes of the law [Bengel].
the scripture--which began to be written after the time of the promise, at the time when the law was given. The written letter was needed SO as PERMANENTLY to convict man of disobedience to God's command. Therefore he says, "the Scripture," not the "Law." Compare [Ga 3:8], "Scripture," for "the God of the Scripture."
concluded--"shut up," under condemnation, as in a prison. Compare [Is 24:22], "As prisoners gathered in the pit and shut up in the prison." Beautifully contrasted with "the liberty wherewith Christ makes free," which follows, [Ga 3:7], 9, 25, 26; ; [Is 61:1].
all--Greek neuter, "the universe of things": the whole world, man, and all that appertains to him.
under sin--([Ro 3:9], ; ).
the promise--the inheritance promised ([Ga 3:18]).
by faith of Jesus Christ--that is which is by faith in Jesus Christ.
might be given--The emphasis is on "given": that it might be a free gift; not something earned by the works of the law ([Ro 6:23]).
to them that believe--to them that have "the faith of (in) Jesus Christ" just spoken of.
23. faith--namely, that just mentioned ([Ga 3:22]), of which Christ is the object.
kept--Greek, "kept in ward": the effect of the "shutting up" ([Ga 3:22]; [Ga 4:2]; [Ro 7:6]).
unto--"with a view to the faith," &c. We were, in a manner, morally forced to it, so that there remained to us no refuge but faith. Compare the phrase, [Psa 78:50], Margin; [Psa 31:8].
which should afterwards, &c.--"which was afterwards to be revealed."
24. "So that the law hath been (that is, hath turned out to be) our schoolmaster (or "tutor," literally, "pedagogue": this term, among the Greeks, meant a faithful servant entrusted with the care of the boy from childhood to puberty, to keep him from evil, physical and moral, and accompany him to his amusements and studies) to guide us unto Christ," with whom we are no longer "shut up" in bondage, but are freemen. "Children" (literally, infants) need such tutoring ([Ga 4:3]).
might be--rather, "that we may be justified by faith"; which we could not be till Christ, the object of faith, had come. Meanwhile the law, by outwardly checking the sinful propensity which was constantly giving fresh proof of its refractoriness--as thus the consciousness of the power of the sinful principle became more vivid, and hence the sense of need both of forgiveness of sin and freedom from its bondage was awakened--the law became a "schoolmaster to guide us unto Christ" [Neander]. The moral law shows us what we ought to do, and so we learn our inability to do it. In the ceremonial law we seek, by animal sacrifices, to answer for our not having done it, but find dead victims no satisfaction for the sins of living men, and that outward purifying will not cleanse the soul; and that therefore we need an infinitely better Sacrifice, the antitype of all the legal sacrifices. Thus delivered up to the judicial law, we see how awful is the doom we deserve: thus the law at last leads us to Christ, with whom we find righteousness and peace. "Sin, sin! is the word heard again and again in the Old Testament. Had it not there for centuries rung in the ear, and fastened on the conscience, the joyful sound, "grace for grace," would not have been the watchword of the New Testament. This was the end of the whole system of sacrifices" [Tholuck].
25. "But now that faith is come," &c. Moses the lawgiver cannot bring us into the heavenly Canaan though he can bring us to the border of it. At that point he is superseded by Joshua, the type of Jesus, who leads the true Israel into their inheritance. The law leads us to Christ, and there its office ceases.
26. children--Greek, "sons."
by--Greek, "through faith." "Ye all" (Jews and Gentiles alike) are no longer "children" requiring a tutor, but SONS emancipated and walking at liberty.
27. baptized into Christ--([Ro 6:3]).
have put on Christ--Ye did, in that very act of being baptized into Christ, put on, or clothe yourselves with, Christ: so the Greek expresses. Christ is to you the toga virilis (the Roman garment of the full-grown man, assumed when ceasing to be a child) [Bengel]. Gataker defines a Christian, "One who has put on Christ." The argument is, By baptism ye have put on Christ; and therefore, He being the Son of God, ye become sons by adoption, by virtue of His Sonship by generation. This proves that baptism, where it answers to its ideal, is not a mere empty sign, but a means of spiritual transference from the state of legal condemnation to that of living union with Christ, and of sonship through Him in relation to God ([Ro 13:14]). Christ alone can, by baptizing with His Spirit, make the inward grace correspond to the outward sign. But as He promises the blessing in the faithful use of the means, the Church has rightly presumed, in charity, that such is the case, nothing appearing to the contrary.
28. There is in this sonship by faith in Christ, no class privileged above another, as the Jews under the law had been above the Gentiles ([Ro 10:12]; [1Co 12:13]; [Col 3:11]).
bond nor free--Christ alike belongs to both by faith; whence he puts "bond" before "free." Compare Note, see on [1Co 7:21], ; [Ep 6:8].
neither male nor female--rather, as Greek, "there is not male and female." There is no distinction into male and female. Difference of sex makes no difference in Christian privileges. But under the law the male sex had great privileges. Males alone had in their body circumcision, the sign of the covenant (contrast baptism applied to male and female alike); they alone were capable of being kings and priests, whereas all of either sex are now "kings and priests unto God" ([Re 1:6]); they had prior right to inheritances. In the resurrection the relation of the sexes shall cease ([Lu 20:35]).
one--Greek, "one man"; masculine, not neuter, namely "one new man" in Christ ([Ep 2:15]).
29. and heirs--The oldest manuscripts omit "and." Christ is "Abraham's seed" ([Ga 3:16]): ye are "one in Christ" ([Ga 3:28]), and one with Christ, as having "put on Christ" ([Ga 3:27]); therefore YE are "Abraham's seed," which is tantamount to saying (whence the "and" is omitted), ye are "heirs according to the promise" (not "by the law," [Ga 3:18]); for it was to Abraham's seed that the inheritance was promised ([Ga 3:16]). Thus he arrives at the same truth which he set out with ([Ga 3:7]). But one new "seed" of a righteous succession could be found. One single faultless grain of human nature was found by God Himself, the source of a new and imperishable seed: "the seed" ([Psa 22:30]) who receive from Him a new nature and name ([Ge 3:15]; [Is 53:10], ; [Joh 12:24]). In Him the lineal descent from David becomes extinct. He died without posterity. But He lives and shall reign on David's throne. No one has a legal claim to sit upon it but Himself, He being the only living direct representative ([Eze 21:27]). His spiritual seed derive their birth from the travail of His soul, being born again of His word, which is the incorruptible seed ([Joh 1:12]; [Ro 9:8]; [1Pe 1:23]).
Chapter 4
Ga 4:1-31. The Same Subject Continued: Illustration of Our Subjection to the Law Only till Christ Came, from the Subjection of an Heir to His Guardian till He Is of Age. Peter's Good Will to the Galatians Should Lead Them to the Same Good Will to Him as They Had at First Shown. Their Desire to Be under the Law Shown by the Allegory of Isaac and Ishmael to Be Inconsistent with Their Gospel Liberty
1-7. The fact of God's sending His Son to redeem us who were under the law ([Ga 4:4]), and sending the Spirit of His Son into our hearts ([Ga 4:6]), confirms the conclusion ([Ga 3:29]) that we are "heirs according to the promise."
the heir--([Ga 3:29]). It is not, as in earthly inheritances, the death of the father, but our Father's sovereign will simply that makes us heirs.
child--Greek, "one under age."
differeth nothing, &c.--that is, has no more freedom than a slave (so the Greek for "servant" means). He is not at his own disposal.
lord of all--by title and virtual ownership (compare [1Co 3:21], ).
8-11. Appeal to them not to turn back from their privileges as free sons, to legal bondage again.
then--when ye were "servants" ([Ga 4:7]).
ye knew not God--not opposed to [Ro 1:21]. The heathen originally knew God, as [Ro 1:21] states, but did not choose to retain God in their knowledge, and so corrupted the original truth. They might still have known Him, in a measure, from His works, but as a matter of fact they knew Him not, so far as His eternity, His power as the Creator, and His holiness, are concerned.
are no gods--that is, have no existence, such as their worshippers attribute to them, in the nature of things, but only in the corrupt imaginations of their worshippers (see on [1Co 8:4]; [1Co 10:19], ; [2Ch 13:9]). Your "service" was a different bondage from that of the Jews, which was a true service. Yet theirs, like yours, was a burdensome yoke; how then is it ye wish to resume the yoke after that God has transferred both Jews and Gentiles to a free service?
12. be as I am--"As I have in my life among you cast off Jewish habits, so do ye; for I am become as ye are," namely, in the non-observance of legal ordinances. "The fact of my laying them aside among Gentiles, shows that I regard them as not at all contributing to justification or sanctification. Do you regard them in the same light, and act accordingly." His observing the law among the Jews was not inconsistent with this, for he did so only in order to win them, without compromising principle. On the other hand, the Galatian Gentiles, by adopting legal ordinances, showed that they regarded them as needful for salvation. This Paul combats.
ye have not injured me at all--namely, at the period when I first preached the Gospel among you, and when I made myself as you are, namely, living as a Gentile, not as a Jew. You at that time did me no wrong; "ye did not despise my temptation in the flesh" ([Ga 4:14]): nay, you "received me as an angel of God." Then in [Ga 4:16], he asks, "Have I then, since that time, become your enemy by telling you the truth?"
13. how through infirmity--rather, as Greek, "Ye know that because of an infirmity of my flesh I preached," &c. He implies that bodily sickness, having detained him among them, contrary to his original intentions, was the occasion of his preaching the Gospel to them.
at the first--literally, "at the former time"; implying that at the time of writing he had been twice in Galatia. See my Introduction; also see on [Ga 4:16], and [Ga 5:21]. His sickness was probably the same as recurred more violently afterward, "the thorn in the flesh" ([2Co 12:7]), which also was overruled to good ([2Co 12:9], ), as the "infirmity of the flesh" here.
14. my temptation--The oldest manuscripts read, "your temptation." My infirmity, which was, or might have been, a "temptation," or trial, to you, ye despised not, that is, ye were not tempted by it to despise me and my message. Perhaps, however, it is better to punctuate and explain as Lachmann, connecting it with [Ga 4:13], "And (ye know) your temptation (that is, the temptation to which ye were exposed through the infirmity) which was in my flesh. Ye despised not (through natural pride), nor rejected (through spiritual pride), but received me," &c. "Temptation does not mean here, as we now use the word, tendency to an evil habit, but BODILY TRIAL."
as an angel of God--as a heaven-inspired and sent messenger from God: angel means "messenger" (Mal 2:7). Compare the phrase, [2Sa 19:27], a Hebrew and Oriental one for a person to be received with the highest respect ([Zec 12:8]). An angel is free from the flesh, infirmity, and temptation.