The penman of this epistle is here described by his name, PAUL: by his office, AN APOSTLE; and by his commission to that office, which was not human, but altogether divine, even from GOD THE FATHER BY JESUS CHRIST. Observe here, 1. The great modesty of this great apostle, in the setting forth his au... [ Continue Reading ]
That is, "All the brethren which are here with me, and own the doctrine which. preach, send greeting unto the churches of Galatia." Here note, 1. How St. Paul's doctrine is justified from the charge of singularity, which the Judaizing false teachers objected against it. What he wrote and taught, he... [ Continue Reading ]
These words are both. Christian salutation, and an apostolical benediction: as they are. salutation, they express. wish and desire of the best blessings towards and on the behalf of them they saluted. From whence we may learn, that religion doth not abolish and destroy, but spiritualize and improve... [ Continue Reading ]
That is, "Our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself unto death, for the remission of our sins, that he might deliver us from this evil world; namely, to separate or bring us off from the evil customs and practices of the wicked men in the world, and engage us to live. life of strict holiness according to t... [ Continue Reading ]
That is, "To God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Redeemer, be given the highest degrees of honour and glory, throughout the present and eternal ages." Note here, 1. The work and duty incumbent upon Christ's redeemed ones, and that is, to ascribe all honour and homage, all glory and praise to God t... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. The heavy charge which St. Paul brings in against the false apostles or Judiazing teachers, they perverted the gospel which St. Paul preached, and taught. new gospel of their own; yet not absolutely so, but by compounding and mingling the gospel with the cermonial law, and by making... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe here, 1. How our apostle supposes an impossibility only for the confirmation of what he had before affirmed. He doth not suppose it possible for any angel in heaven, or apostle upon earth, to contradict the doctrine of the gospel which he had delivered, to preach any thing contrary to it, or... [ Continue Reading ]
Our apostle in these words discovers the great sincerity used in preaching the pure and unmixed doctrine of the gospel to the Galatians; for he did not persuade that men, but God, should be heard and obeyed, that so their faith might be founded upon divine, and not human authority; nor did he in his... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle here, as he did before, Galatians 1:1-2, asserts the divinity of the doctrine of the gospel which he had preached to them; and assures them likewise of his own lawful call to be an apostle, which was questioned by his adversaries, who affirmed, that he had received his doctrine only from... [ Continue Reading ]
Here the apostle offers several arguments to satisfy the Galatians, that both his commission to preach the gospel, and also the gospel which he preached to them, were not from man, but our Lord Jesus Christ. And the first argument to prove it, as. convictive evidence of it, was his bitter enmity aga... [ Continue Reading ]
Here we have second evidence which St. Paul brings to prove himself an apostle extrordinary, called by God himself unto the ministerial service; and that the doctrine he delivered was not immediately from the mouths of the apostles, but by immediate revelation from Jesus Christ. Thus he speaks: "Whe... [ Continue Reading ]
Here is. third evidence to prove, that St. Paul received his ministry and message by divine revelation from Jesus Christ, and not from man, or by man. He acknowledges that not till three years after his conversion, when he had preached the gospel in the deserts of Arabia, had he ever seen Peter, or... [ Continue Reading ]
Observe, here, that St. Paul, having to do with the false apostles and the seduced Galatians, whom, he had just cause to suspect, would not (as they ought) give much credit to his word; he asserts the truth of what he affirmed, upon oath, appealing to the all-knowing and heart-searching God, as witn... [ Continue Reading ]
The fourth evidence is here produced by St. Paul, to prove, that both his ministry and his message, his office and his doctrine, were divine; and that he was so far from learning the Christian religion from the Christian churches in Judea, that he was not by face so much as known to them, or they to... [ Continue Reading ]