GALATIANS CHAPTER 3 GALATIANS 3:1 Paul asketh what had moved the Galatians to depend on the law, having already received the Spirit through faith. GALATIANS 3:6 As Abraham was justified by faith, so they who are of faith inherit his blessing. GALATIANS 3:10 The law brought men under a curse, and cou... [ Continue Reading ]
By THE SPIRIT here is understood the gifts of the Spirit, which were either such as were common to all believers, (such as faith, love, &c.), or else such as were peculiar to some, and those not all believers; such were those abilities for miraculous operations given to some. Some understand this te... [ Continue Reading ]
The doctrine of their false teacthers was, that to faith in Christ, an obedience also to the law of Moses was necessary to justification; they did not deny Christ, or the doctrine of the gospel, only they pleaded for the works of the law as necessary to be superadded. The apostle calls this first ow... [ Continue Reading ]
There is no doubt but these churches in the regions of Galatia had their share in the sufferings of Christians by the Jews for their adherence to and profession of the doctrine of the gospel, which they might either wholly, or in a great measure, have avoided, would they have complied with the Jews... [ Continue Reading ]
He had asked them, GALATIANS 3:2, whether they had received the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing the gospel? Some think what he saith here to be a continuation of the same argument, but it rather seems a new one: there he spake of their receiving the Spirit, here he speaks of the minist... [ Continue Reading ]
As Abraham was justified, so must all the children of Abraham; but ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, (that is, agreed to the truth of all those promises which God gave him, and trusted in God for the fulfilling of them; for both those acts of the mind are included in believing God), and so was justified alone.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WHICH ARE OF FAITH; those who are believers, and receive Jesus Christ, as exhibited and tendered to them in the gospel, trusting not to any righteousness of their own, arising from their obedience to the works of the law; they ARE THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM, considered as the father of the faithfu... [ Continue Reading ]
The Holy Ghost in Scripture (by whose inspiration the Scripture was written) foreseeing, or knowing, the counsels and designs of God, that the heathen (when the fulness of times as to them should come) should be justified through faith in Christ, preached the same doctrine before unto Abraham; so as... [ Continue Reading ]
Those that believe in Jesus Christ with such a faith as the gospel doth require, they, and they alone, are blessed with spiritual blessings, justified from the guilt of sin, WITH ABRAHAM; that is, in the same manner that Abraham, the father of the faithful, and who himself was a believer, was justif... [ Continue Reading ]
The argument is this: Those that are under a curse cannot be under the blessing of justification: but those that are under the law are under the curse. This he proves out of the law, DEUTERONOMY 27:26, where those are pronounced CURSED, WHO CONTINUE NOT IN ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW T... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle, by another argument, proveth that sinners are not justified by works. He grants, they may be justified by their good and blameless living before men, so as that they may have nothing to say against them, but he says they cannot, by such works, be _justified in the sight of God._ His arg... [ Continue Reading ]
The law saith nothing of faith in the Mediator; though faith in God be commanded in the first precept, yet faith in Christ is not commanded by the law as that by which the soul shall live. For that which the law saith is: DO THIS AND LIVE: THE MAN THAT DOETH the things contained in the law, SHALL LI... [ Continue Reading ]
If the law curseth all those who continue not in all things contained in the law, (as the apostle had said, GALATIANS 3:10, and proved from DEUTERONOMY 27:26), it might be objected: How will believers then escape more than others; for none of them continue in all that is written in the law? The apos... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle, by THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM, here, understands those spiritual blessings of justification, reconciliation, and adoption, which came to Abraham upon his believing, and the imputation of righteousness thereupon unto him. _Christ_ (he saith) was _made a curse for us, _ that all those blessi... [ Continue Reading ]
OLBGrk; THOUGH IT BE BUT A MAN'S COVENANT: the word here translated _covenant, _ diayhkh, is ordinarily translated _testament; _ see MATTHEW 26:28. It signifies in the general, an ordering or disposing of things; more specially, a testament; which is the disposition of the testator's goods after his... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW TO ABRAHAM AND HIS SEED WERE THE PROMISES MADE; the promises, GENESIS 12:3, GENESIS 22:18; in the one of which places it is said: _In thee; _ in the other: _In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed._ He saith, _promises, _ either because of the repetition of the same promises, o... [ Continue Reading ]
THE COVENANT, THAT WAS BEFORE CONFIRMED OF GOD IN CHRIST: the word translated _covenant, _ is the same as before; ordinarily signifying one's disposal of things in his last will and testament. Which name is given to the covenant of grace, with respect to the death of Christ; for though Christ as yet... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THE INHERITANCE of the heavenly Canaan, typified by the earthly Canaan, the promise of which was made to Abraham, _be_ to be obtained _by the_ fulfilling of the _law, _ and yielding obedience to it, then _it is no more of_ the _promise._ It is much the same with what the apostle said before, ROMA... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE THEN SERVETH THE LAW? Some might say: To what purpose was the law given? As if there could be no use of it unless it were available to justification. IT WAS ADDED BECAUSE OF TRANSGRESSIONS; it was (saith the apostle) given after the promise, not to supply something wanting as to justificat... [ Continue Reading ]
This is a text acknowledged by all interpreters to be very obscure; not so much as considered in itself, (for all know, that a mediator speaks one that goes in the middle between two persons that are at odds, so cannot be of one), as in regard of the connection of it with what went before; where he... [ Continue Reading ]
IS THE LAW THEN AGAINST THE PROMISES OF GOD? GOD FORBID: though it be thus, yet there is no such opposition between the law and the promises, as that either of them make the other useless. Far be it from me (saith the apostle) to assert any such thing! They are not contrary to one another but subser... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THE SRIPTURE HATH CONCLUDED ALL UNDER SIN: it pleased God to give a law, which, if Adam had continued in his estate of innocence, might have given life; but considering man in his lapsed state, that now is not possible: ROMANS 2:10: _There is none righteous, no not one:_ and EPHESIANS 2:3: We ar... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE FAITH CAME; before the covenant of grace, or the doctrine of the gospel, or Christ himself, was revealed. WE WERE KEPT UNDER THE LAW; the apostle either speaks of all mankind, of whom it is true, that until God's revelation of the covenant of grace, they had no other way of salvation made kno... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAW, both the law contained in ordinances and the moral law, WAS OUR SCHOOLMASTER; serving us in the same stead that a schoolmaster in a school doth, who only fitteth children for higher degrees of learning at universities. TO BRING US UNTO CHRIST: the ceremonial law showed us Christ in all his... [ Continue Reading ]
After that Christ, the object of saving faith, was in the fulness of time revealed, and the gospel, which is the doctrine of faith, was fully revealed and published, the time of our nonage was over.... [ Continue Reading ]
All you that believe, whether native Jews or Gentiles, are the children of God by adoption, through faith in Jesus Christ, 1 THESSALONIANS 1:12: so that you need not run back to the law to look for help and salvation from that; but only look unto Christ, to whom the law was but a schoolmaster to lea... [ Continue Reading ]
BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST, may either be understood of receiving the sacrament of baptism; which who receiveth, is not only baptized in the name of Christ, and into the profession of Christ; but is sacramentally, or in a sign, baptized into Christ; or else (which, considering what followeth, seemeth much... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS NEITHER JEW NOR GREEK; in the business or justification, the case of Jews and Greeks is the same. This he saith, that the Galatians might not think themselves disadvantaged from their not being under the law, as the schoolmaster that should lead them unto Christ. THERE IS NEITHER BOND NOR F... [ Continue Reading ]
Lest these Galatians should be discouraged, because the promise was made to Abraham and his seed, and they were not the seed of Abraham; he tells them, if they were Christ s, that is, if they truly believed in him, and were implanted into him, that then they were the seed of Abraham, that seed to wh... [ Continue Reading ]