Notes for Galatians

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1241_1; Galatians 1:6, called you into the grace of Christ

To Score The Gospel = Grace

The test of the Gospel is grace. If the message excludes grace, or mingles law with grace as the means either of justification or sanctification (Galatians 2:21; 3:1-3), or denies the fact or guilt of sin which alone gives grace its occasion and opportunity, it is "another" gospel, and the preacher of it is under the anathema of God (vs. 8, 9).

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1241_2; Galatians 1:10, For do I now persuade men, or God?

The demonstration is as follows:

• (1) The Galatians know Paul, that he is no seeker after popularity (v. 10).

• (2) He puts his known character back of the assertion that his Gospel of grace was a revelation from God (vs. 11, 12).

• (3) As for the Judaizers, Paul himself had been a foremost Jew, and had forsaken Judaism for something better (vs. 13, 14).

• (4) He had preached grace years before he saw any of the other apostles (vs. 15-24).

• (5) When he did meet the other apostles they had nothing to add to his revelations (2:1-6).

• (6) The other apostles fully recognized Paul's apostleship (2:7-10).

• (7) If the legalizers pleaded Peter's authority, the answer was that he himself had claimed none when rebuked (2:11-14).

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1242_1; Galatians 1:13, in time past in the Jews' religion,

Dispensation Of Grace

The new dispensation of grace having come in, the Mosaic system, if still persisted in, becomes a mere "Jews' religion."

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1242_2; Galatians 1:14, my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion
Ref. Galatians 1:14, profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals

Greek word: Ioudaismos (Judaism).

In verses 13 and 14 the Greek word for "the Jews' religion" is Ioudaismos (Judaism). In Acts 26:5 and James 1:26,27 , threskeia — religious service — is translated "religion," and in Colossians 2:18 "worshipping." Excepting James 1:27 , "religion" has always a bad sense, and nowhere is it synonymous with salvation or spirituality.

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1243_1; Galatians 2:15, We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles

Paul here quotes from his words to Peter when he withstood him at Antioch to show the Galatians that, whatever the legalists may have pretended, Peter and he were in perfect accord doctrinally. Paul appealed to the common belief of Peter and himself as a rebuke of Peter's inconsistent practice.

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1243_2; Galatians 2:17, while we seek to be justified by Christ

i.e., we Jews

That is, "we" Jews. (See Romans 3:19-23.) The passage might be thus paraphrased: If we Jews, in seeking to be justified by faith in Christ, take our places as mere sinners, like the Gentiles, is it therefore Christ who makes us sinners? By no means. It is by putting ourselves again under law after seeking justification through Christ, that we act as if we were still unjustified sinners, seeking to become righteous through law-works. (Cf. Galatians 5:1-4.)

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1244_1; Galatians 3:19, Wherefore then serveth the law?

The answer is sixfold:

(1) The law was added because of transgressions, i.e. to give to sin the character of transgression,

• (a) Men had been sinning before Moses, but in the absence of law their sins were not put to their account (Romans 5:13); the law gave to sin the character of "transgression," i.e. of personal guilt.
• (b) Also, since men not only continued to transgress after the law was given, but were provoked to transgress by the very law which forbade it (Romans 7:8), the law conclusively proved the inveterate sinfulness of man's nature (Romans 7:11-13).

(2) The law, therefore, "concluded all under sin" (cf. Romans 3:19-23).

(3) The law was an ad interim dealing, "till the seed should come" (Galatians 3:19).

(4) The law shut sinful man up to faith as the only avenue of escape (Galatians 3:23).

(5) The law was to the Jews what the pedagogue was in a Greek household, a ruler of children in their minority, and it had this character "unto" (i.e. until) Christ (Galatians 3:24).

(6) Christ having come, the believer is no longer under the pedagogue (Galatians 3:25).

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1244_2; Ref. Job 41 Study Page, Galatians 3:24, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster

I. The law of Moses, Summary:

(1) The Mosaic Covenant was given to Israel in three parts:

• the commandments, expressing the righteous will of God (Exodus 20:1-26);
• the "judgments," governing the social life of Israel (Exodus 21:1-24:11),
• and the "ordinances," governing the religious life of Israel (Exodus 24:12; 31:18).

(2) The commandments and ordinances were one complete and inseparable whole. When an Israelite sinned, he was held "blameless" if he brought the required offering (Luke 1:6; Philippians 3:6).

(3) Law, as a method of the divine dealing with man, characterized the dispensation extending from the giving of the law to the death of Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:13-14, 23-24).

(4) The attempt of legalistic teachers (e.g. Acts 15:1-31; Galatians 2:1-5) to mingle law with grace as the divine method for this present dispensation of grace, brought out the true relation of the law to the Christian, viz.

II. The Christian doctrine of the law:

(1) Law is in contrast with grace. Under the latter God bestows the righteousness which, under law. He demanded (Exodus 19:5; John 1:17; Romans 3:21; See Note Page 1194_1; Romans 10:3-10; 1 Corinthians 1:30).

(2) The law is, in itself, holy, just, good, and spiritual (Romans 7:12-14).

(3) Before the law the whole world is guilty, and the law is therefore of necessity a ministry of condemnation, death, and the divine curse (Romans 3:19; 2 Corinthians 3:7-9; Galatians 3:10).

(4) Christ bore the curse of the law, and redeemed the believer both from the curse and from the dominion of the law (Galatians 3:13; 4:5-7).

(5) Law neither justifies a sinner nor sanctifies a believer (Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:2-3, 11-12).

(6) The believer is both dead to the law and redeemed from it, so that he is "not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14; 7:4; Galatians 2:19; 4:4-7; 1 Timimothy 1:8-9).

(7) Under the new covenant of grace the principle of obedience to the divine will is inwrought (Hebrews 10:16). So far is the life of the believer from the anarchy of self-will that he is "inlawed to Christ" (1 Corinthians 9:21), and the new "law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2; 2 John 5) is his delight; while, through the indwelling Spirit, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in him (Romans 8:2-4; Galatians 5:16-18). The commandments are used in the distinctively Christian Scriptures as an instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16; Romans 13:8-10; Ephesians 6:1-3; 1 Corinthians 9:8-9).

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1245_1; Ref. Job Chapter 41 Sudy Page 1, Galatians 3:25, we are no longer under a schoolmaster

Greek word is paidagogos, "child-conductor."

"Among the Greeks and Romans, persons, for the most part slaves, who had it in charge to educate and give constant attendance upon boys till they came of age."


—H. A. W. Meyer.

The argument does not turn upon the extent or nature of the pedagogue's authority, but upon the fact that it wholly ceased when the "child" (Galatians 4:1) became a "son" (Galatians 4:1-6), when the minor became an adult. The adult "son" does voluntarily that which formerly he did in fear of the pedagogue. But even if he does not, it is no longer a question between the son and the pedagogue (the law), but between the son and his Father—God. (Cf. Hebrews 12:5-10; 1 John 2:1, 2.)

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1246_1; Galatians 4:19, My little children

The Allegory

The allegory (vs. 22-31) is addressed to justified but immature believers (cf. l Corinthians 3:1, 2), who, under the influence of legalistic teachers, "desire to be under the law," and has, therefore, no application to a sinner seeking justification. It raises and answers, for the fifth time in this Epistle, the question. Is the believe under the law? (Galatians 2:19-21; 3:1-3; 3:25, 26; 4:4-6; 4:9-31). i

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1247_1; Galatians 5:22, But the fruit of the Spirit is love

Christian Character to be sought after rather than political correctness.

Christian character is not mere moral or legal correctness, but the possession and manifestation of nine graces:

• love

• joy

• peace—character as an inward state

• longsuffering

• gentleness

• goodness—character in expression toward man

• faith

• meekness

• temperance — character in expression toward God.

All of these taken together present a moral portrait of Christ, and may be taken as the apostle's explanation of Galatians 2:20, "Not I, but Christ," and as a definition of "fruit" in John 15:1-8. This character is possible because of the believer's vital union to Christ (John 15:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12, 13), and is wholly the fruit of the Spirit in those believers who yielded to Him (Galatians 5:22, 23).

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1248_1; Galatians 6:11, Ye see how large a letter I have written

From mine own hand

Greek "with how large letters . . .mine own hand." The apostle was, it appears from many considerations, afflicted with ophthalmia, a common disease in the East, to the point almost of total blindness (e.g. Galatians 4:13-15).

Ordinarily, therefore, he dictated his letters. But now, having no amanuensis at hand, but urged by the spiritual danger of his dear Galatians, he writes, we cannot know with what pain and difficulty, with his own hand, in the "large letters" his darkened vision compelled him to use.

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