PROLOGUE Galatia bordered on Phrygia, Bithynia and Paphlagonia. The inhabitants were a mixture of Greeks and aborigines, called Galigreci. We have but three allusions to this country. Acts 16:6: Paul, Luke, Silas and Timothy traveled through here on their second evangelistic tour, in which they seem to have been very expeditious, as they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach longer in Asia at that time, because He wanted to send them to Europe. This was about A.D. 51. Again when Paul, having spent about three and a half years in Greece, returned to Asia about the summer of A.D. 54, having traveled to Palestine, up to Jerusalem, down to Antioch and on through to Syria and Phrygia, he is mentioned as passing through the Galatian region, but states nothing about his work there. Then we have one more: In 1 Corinthians 16:1, when Paul reminds the Corinthians of their contribution to the Jerusalem saints, he merely states he had notified the Galatians relative to the same interest. We have information in reference to the time when he was instrumental in their conversion. The E.V. postscript says this letter to the Galatians was written from Rome. But it is a wellknown fact that all of these postscripts are spurious, not a single one occurring in the Greek. We are utterly at sea with reference to the time and place. If it was written at Rome (of which we have no evidence), the time must have been A.D. 61-64. We find it stated in the epistle that Paul himself wrote, a very unusual thing, and would militate against the conclusion that Rome was the place, because Luke, his amanuensis, was there with him and wrote Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon for him. It is more plausible that he wrote it at Caesarea while Luke was away at Jerusalem gathering up materials for the Acts of the Apostles. The end for which Galatians was written is clear and obvious, i .e ., to correct certain serious and dangerous errors which had been propagated among them, much to their spiritual detriment. We find here the same class of Jewish Christian preachers giving trouble as at Corinth on other lines, and no mention of the circumcision which they preached with peculiar emphasis among the Galatians. That fact would argue an earlier date for the Galatian letter, as the Mosaic law was constantly growing weaker among the Jewish Christians till it went into total eclipse in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, A.D. 73. We see these preachers had dropped circumcision among the Gentiles before they preached at Corinth, as there they said nothing about it. Though we have no clue as to the time when Paul established these churches, there is at least a plausible probability that it took place during that indefinite period he spent at home in Tarsus, after they sent him away from Jerusalem to save his life, about A.D. 39. As his Lystra martyrdom was fourteen years before the writing of Second Corinthians, A.D. 57, which would give us A.D. 43, this also occurred near the close of his first evangelistic tour. He had spent a year or more at Antioch before they started on that tour. Hence, he stayed about two years at Tarsus before Barnabas went from Antioch and brought him into Syria. Of this indefinite period we have no record, as Luke, his celebrated, though modest, helper and amanuensis, had not yet fallen in with him. I trow that was the time when he became instrumental in the conversion of the Galatians, as that country is very convenient to Tarsus. This corroborates the above facts, which favor the conclusion of our early date. Still we have no definite clue as to the time or place when and where the letter was written. The entire epistle is a constant fire on those ritualistic heresies which had been propagated to their terrible detriment, and evidently, in many cases, utter ruin. Of course, these preachers claimed to be Christians, otherwise they would not have been received by these Gentile Christian churches. N. B. — While the Gentile converts did not receive circumcision at all, nor any of the Mosaic rites, the most of the Jewish Christians held on to them. When Paul arrived in Jerusalem on his last visit to the apostles, he said, “You see, brethren, how many myriads of Jews there are who believe and are all zealous of the law,” practicing circumcision, Nazaritic vows, bloody sacrifices and watery catharisms. They had practiced these rites and ceremonies fifteen hundred years. Hence they clung to them with the pertinacity of a drowning man, till the Romans destroyed the city, slew a million, sold another million into slavery, and dispersed the remnant to the end of the earth and prohibited them from returning on pain of death.

CHAPTER - 1. “Paul an apostle, not from men .” Apostle is from apo , “from,” and stello , “send.” Hence it simply means one sent. Paul starts out by certifying that he is not sent from men nor by a man. These Galatians are about to be side-tracked by men. He is doing his best to divert their attention away from men to God. “Sent by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised Him from the dead .” Paul does not propose to come in personal competition with those preachers who are playing sad havoc among the Galatians, as that would not be profitable; but he endeavors to bring them in contrast with God, who sent him to preach to them. “The man of God shall not strive.”

Never argue with any one, but in every case bring your antagonist face to face with God’s Word, and leave him there. The Archangel Michael did not bring a railing accusation against the devil (Jude 9), but said: “The Lord rebuke thee.” 2. “And all the brethren who are along with me, to the churches of Galatia .” Paul, by way of Christian courtesy, always associated the brethren with him in his epistles. Your postscript in E.V., all of which are spurious, says he was at Rome. It is more probable he was at Caesarea, A.D. 58-60. 3. “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for sins .” While the Father gave His Son to die for us all ( John 3:16) yet it is equally true that the Son gave Himself. He said: “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay down my life for the sheep.” 4. “In order that he may redeem us from the present wicked age, according to the will of God the Father .” Satan’s wicked age of this world set in with the Fall and will continue till the Millennium, i .e ., till the Lord returns to the earth and sets up His Theocracy ( Acts 3:19-24 and 15:14-18, and Daniel 7:9-14). During this wicked age, Satan is “god of this age” ( Corinthians 4:4) ruling the world through his subordinates in human governments and fallen churches. 5. “To whom be glory unto ages of ages. Amen .” This phrase, translated in E.V. “forever and ever,” is strong and unanswerable in favor of endless duration. While constantly occurring denotative of the eternity appertaining to God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Heaven and the saints in glory, it is also constantly used by all of the inspired writers to denote the endless duration of Hell arid the retributions of the wicked ( Revelation 14:11 and 19:3). Hence the Bible is clear and explicit that the fires of Hell and the torments of the damned will be co-eternal with the felicities of the righteous, the existence of saints and angels, and of God Himself. Hence the infidel sophistry of all efforts to explain away the existence of Hell and eternal punishment.

THE GOSPEL IMMUTABLE We have the gospel clearly defined ( Romans 1:16), “The power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.”

Hence the power of God, like Himself and all of His attributes, is immutable. Therefore the gospel is the same in all ages, has never changed and never can. All these human imitations, presenting an endless diversity of gospel, are Satan’s counterfeits. Hence the truly genuine is precisely what it was in the apostolic age. The didactic phases of the gospel have undergone changes adapted to the progressive dispensations of bygone ages; e .g ., Antediluvian, Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Apostolical. Yet in all these dispensations the power to save was the very same, and will never change during the Mediatorial kingdom which began with the first interventions of grace after the Fall, and will continue to the end of time.

These carnal preachers had followed Paul, preaching a diluted ritualistic gospel different from that which he preached, which he notifies them is no gospel at all, but simply Satan’s counterfeit. Oh, how fearfully is the world this day inundated with the spurious gospels! coaxing and deluding multiplied millions. The very same power that came down at Pentecost must still come down from God out of Heaven, if the devil is defeated and a soul saved. 6. “I wonder that you are so quickly moved away from Him who called you in the grace of Christ into another gospel .” God, through the Holy Ghost in the grace of Christ, had called them to repent of their sins and flee the wrath to come. “Call” is in the aorist tense, indicating an instantaneous complete act of the Holy Ghost in their awakening, conviction and invitation to God, in contradistinction to the gradualism currently taught in popular churches. There is a moment in life when God by the Holy Spirit calls every soul to repentance. That is the auspicious epoch in his probation.

If he yields, and proves true, he is eternally saved; if he rejects, forever undone. 7. “Which is not another, but there are some who trouble you, even wishing to pervert the gospel of Christ .” This perversion becomes Satan’s counterfeit, having the form without the power, which is the only essential element in the gospel. These preachers were giving them much more form and ceremony than Paul had given when he preached the true and genuine gospel. This is peculiar to all apostasies. Satan always makes up for the absence of the Spirit and power by form and ceremony. So fast as churches lose the genuine article, they multiply the counterfeit with great rapidity. 8. “But if indeed we, or an angel from Heaven, may preach unto you any other gospel than that we have preached, let them be accursed . 9. “As we have before said, and I now say again, If any one may preach unto you besides that which you received, let him be accursed .” Here you see that the withering curse of the Almighty rests upon the man or the angel who has the misfortune to become the devil’s instrument in preaching any other gospel than that which we have revealed in the New Testament. “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” Oh, how hard it is to keep preachers and people from devising human substitutes in the absence of God’s genuine! These preachers who gave Paul so much trouble, going around after him and sidetracking his converts, claimed to be true and genuine followers of the Savior. Among the Galatians they insisted on circumcision as well as other idols of the Mosaic law. The same class of men at Corinth said nothing about circumcision, illustrating the fact that they had dropped that idol as they were gradually getting away from the Mosaic institutions. This counterfeit gospel in all ages has been the uncompromising enemy of the genuine, and will so continue till Babylon falls. At the present day Christendom is flooded with effete ceremonies, rites and institutions, vain and futile substitutes for the Spirit and power. 10. “For whether must I obey men or God ?” That question has been repeatedly answered. We are to obey God alone, and heed not the commandments of men. “Whether do I seek to please men? If I yet please men, I were not the servant of Christ .” Before Christ appeared to him on his way to Damascus, he sought to please men. He was a popular preacher, a member of the Sanhedrin, standing at the front of the ministry, intensely loyal to the church and doing his utmost to please the high priest and all others who had the rule over him. From the time he became acquainted with God, his life was no longer manward, but purely Godward, just as yours and mine ought to be. Oh, how happy we would be if we would acquaint ourselves with God’s truth revealed in His blessed Word, and obey Him alone, blessedly free from all the commandments and the dictation of men!

Do not forget that Paul said: “If I please men, I am not the servant of Christ.” Of course, he means carnal men, who are out of harmony with God, because when we please God we incidentally please His people, who are in perfect harmony with God. 11. “I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel preached unto you by me, that it was not according to a man .” How few people at the present day are free from humanisms, and are prepared to give a “Thus saith the Lord” for all they believe, preach and practice 12. “For I did not receive it from a man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ .” Christendom is flooded with humanized gospel.

Talk to a man about his religion, and he will at once refer you to uninspired authorities, the founders of his church or the formulators of his creed. God uses human instrumentality to preach to us the Word and teach us, but we should remember that there is no authority in all the world but God and His Word. These Galatian churches were side-tracked, darkened, deflected from God and almost ruined by these ritualistic preachers who emphasized human ordinances instead of preaching Christ, the Holy Ghost and His infallible truth. 13. “For you heard of my life one time in Judaism, that I persecuted the Church of God exceedingly, and desolated it . 14. “And I profited in Judaism above many comrades in my race, being exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers .” He is illustrating the attitude of those preachers by his own history. He had for years been pertinaciously scrupulous in the advocacy and propagation of all those rites and ceremonies. We are not to conclude from this that these men did not profess to be the disciples of Christ, because in that case they would have been rejected outright, as these Gentiles had no disposition to become Jewish proselytes, because they were Christians and identified with the gospel dispensation. The trouble was that they were still practicing and celebrating the Mosaic law, which was very prevalent to Christian education in Palestine ( Acts 21:21), and was not prohibited by the apostles, because they knew that an attempt to eliminate the gospel ritual among the Jews who had been accustomed to it fifteen hundred years would produce serious friction and alienation, and probably send many souls to perdition.

While this was true in Palestine, the very opposite was true among the Gentiles, who had never received the Jewish ordinances, and, on the contrary, were much prejudiced against them. Hence, in all the apostolic churches, Jews and Gentiles were mixed in the same organizations, the former retaining the ceremonies of the Mosaic law at will, and the latter perfectly exonerated from them by the apostolical decrees ( Acts 15).

Galatia was a long way from Jerusalem, in the heart of the Gentile world, and Jewish influence almost unknown. Hence an attempt to burthen those Gentile converts with the defunct institutions of Judaism was seriously dangerous to their punctuality and calculated to eclipse the glorious doctrines of Christ which Paul and his comrades had preached among them, Hence Paul reminds them that they need not be surprised at the zeal of those Jewish preachers for those patristic institutions, for he had once been on the same line, and even more so. This letter is exceedingly valuable to Christendom as an outstanding protest and an eternal denunciation of human ritualism.

PAUL’S SANCTIFICATION IN ARABIA 15, 16. “When He who separated me from the womb of my mother and called me, by His grace was pleased to reveal His Son in me, in order that I may preach Him among the Gentiles, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood .” While the conversion was simply normal and substantially identical with that of every other Christian, it was attended by the miraculous revelation of the personal glorified Savior to his soul, adumbratory of His second glorious coming into the world to reign in righteousness. This wonderful appearing of the Savior prostrated him three days and nights, crying before God till He sent Ananias to comfort him, when he was not only miraculously healed of blindness but filled with the Holy Ghost to the capacity of his spiritual infancy, though an intellectual giant. We are not surprised that a conversion so powerful, miraculous and extraordinary precipitated him out, preaching Jesus in the synagogues of Damascus like a messenger from Heaven. Very soon, however, a change comes over him, and he suddenly desists from preaching and goes away.

That change was superinduced by the revelation of his inward need of another work of grace, i .e ., God wrought on him by His Spirit convicting him for something more, which is revealed in the manifestation of His Son in him in contradistinction to his revelation when on the road to Damascus.

This Arabian experience is comprehended in a terse statement in Acts 9:22: “But Saul continued more and more to be filled up with dynamite.”

That experience took place down in Arabia at the expiration of the three years which followed. “And he continued to confound the Jews who were dwelling in Damascus, proving that He is the Christ.” This took place after he had received his Arabian experience. Fortunately for Paul, when God convicted him for sanctification, that he “did not confer with flesh and blood,” i .e ., go after human counsel, which so many do terribly to their spiritual detriment. “Neither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who are apostles before me.” This would have been a great mistake in him to face the old apostles, with his experience, and present his own claims to the apostleship, when he only had one experience, however glorious that was, because all of the apostles had two, i .e ., their conversion under the ministry of Jesus, and their sanctification on the day of Pentecost. Hence Paul must have an experience homogeneous with theirs in order to meet them and sustain his testimony and apostolical claims. “But I went away into Arabia.”

How fortunate it was for Paul, when God convicted him for a second work of grace while preaching in Damascus preparatory to the revelation of His Son in him, instead of beating on with the double conflict of inbred sin and the devil without, closing his ears to all human counsel he went away into Arabia that he might be alone with God in the dreary desert inhabited only by the wild beasts and savages. This desert was God’s theological school in which He educated His prophets. In that same Arabian desert He had taught Moses forty years and sanctified him at the burning bush preparatory to his wonderful work. Likewise in the wilderness of Judaea, the same kind of place, He had taught John the Baptist thirty years to get him ready for his glorious ministry, the happy precursor of our Savior. It is really important that Paul study for a time in God’s theological college, away from all the theologians of earth, where God can have His way with him and prepare him for his wonderful ministry. We have not an intimation that he preached during this time. He had more than enough to do to fight Adam the first, as we see so vividly portrayed in Romans 7. When you read that chapter again imagine that you see Paul, rolling around in the sands of Arabia, no company but the wild beasts and anon a passing caravan, while he fights the uncompromising battle with indwelling sin till God reveals His Son in him, when he raises the shout of victory. We can not identify this with his conversion when God revealed His Son to him on his way to Damascus, because the revelation gives this as a subsequent event in Arabia. Again, it is a simple matter of the infallible Word that in the Damascus experience Christ was revealed to him and not in him; however, He shone down on him, but neither is it stated, nor legitimately inferred, that He was revealed in him. Quite different was the Arabian experience, when He was revealed in him. Do you not know that, when you receive the Holy Ghost as an indwelling Sanctifier and Comforter, He comes not into your heart to reveal and glorify Himself, but Jesus? Hence, it is a significant and consolatory fact, that when we receive the Holy Ghost in sanctification, He actually enthrones Jesus in the heart, there to abide and reign forever. When Brother Carradine was conducting a wonderful revival in San Jose, Cal., and many seekers at the altar, Sister McClurkon, the wife of a Presbyterian preacher, was in a deep agony crying to God to sanctify her. Bro. C. said: “Sister, look within.” Soon her face became very bright and she began to shout aloud: “Oh! I see Jesus sitting on the throne of my heart.” N. B. — You may receive it as tenorable orthodoxy that in every case Jesus is revealed to the soul of the sinner in regeneration, and in the heart of the believer in sanctification. Such is the beauty and the charm of the glorified Savior that no human soul, however profligate and debauched, can resist when the Holy Ghost reveals Jesus. This is the grand culmination, when every sinner shouts out, “You may have all the world, but give me Jesus,” this becoming the salient epoch in every conversion. The same is true in every experience of sanctification. The Holy Ghost reveals Jesus in you sitting on the throne of your heart, ruling within and without for time and eternity. “And again I return to Damascus.” After his wonderful Arabian experience, he returned to Damascus, preaching so powerfully as utterly to dumbfound all the Jews in their synagogues, proving with overwhelming demonstration the Christhood of Jesus. Very soon, however, the saints find it necessary to steal him over the wall in a rope-basket to save his life. 18. “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter .” This was important, as Peter was the senior apostle, and now that Paul is going into the regular work, harmony, sympathy, a fraternal meeting and mutual understanding are necessary between these two great apostolical leaders, the one among the Jews and the other among the Gentiles. “And I abode with him fifteen days .” During this period the glorified Savior appeared to him in person while he was praying in the temple ( Acts 22:17), notifying him that the Jews would not receive his testimony, such had been his radical change with reference to them. But then and there He gives him his apostolical commission to the Gentiles. 19. “But other apostles saw I not, save James the Lord’s brother .” This James was not identical with either of those belonging to the original Twelve, i .e ., James the son of Zebedee, the brother of John, and James the son of Alpheus; but he was the brother of our Lord, doubtless the son of Joseph by a former marriage, and brother of Jude, both of them becoming apostles immediately after the resurrection, and this James being honored with the pastorate of the mother church in Jerusalem, doubtless because of his confraternity to the Lord. Of course, the other apostles were out preaching at that time, and Paul not permitted to meet them in view of his short stay of only fifteen days, determined by the terrible opposition which sprang up against him in the Hellenistic synagogues, where he boldly stood in the track of Stephen, in whose martyrdom he had been so prominent; then and the boldly testifying to his conversion and sanctification, paralleling his experience to that of Stephen, at the same time preaching the same gospel for which Stephen had bled and died. The same bloody persecutors who four years previously had stoned Stephen had entered into a conspiracy in the same way. Consequently the brethren stole him away, escorted him to Caesarea, and sent him on to Tarsus to save his life. 21. “Then I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia .” This is the beginning of that period spent up in those northern countries, doubtless consisting of three or four years, till Barnabas went after him about A.D. 43, and brought him to Antioch to help them in that mighty work which at that early date was shaking the Assyrian metropolis. As his indefatigable amanuensis (Luke) had not yet become his traveling companion, we have no record of his work during these years, but have every reason to believe that this was the time when he did much evangelism in Cilicia and Phrygia and Galatia, founding the churches to which this epistle is addressed, corroborating the fact of the trouble on circumcision which was practiced on the Jewish converts generally; meanwhile the Jewish preachers, of whom there were very many at that date, in many instances making efforts to enforce it with other religious rites and ceremonies among the Jewish converts. 22. “But I was unknown to the faces of Judaea which were in Christ .”

They had been under the necessity of taking him entirely out of Judaea to save his life. Consequently he remained unknown personally to the churches in Judaea during these years when he was evangelizing those northern countries. 23. “But only they were hearing that he who persecuted us one time now preaches the faith which he was formerly desolating; and they continue to glorify God in me .” You must remember that they had not mails at that time, and news moved slowly from lip to lip, yet, in the lapse of months and years, traveling very extensively Paul had been exceedingly known in Judaea as a great ecclesiastical leader and commander-in-chief among the bloody persecutors of the Nazarenes. Hence the saints had become accustomed, at the mention of his name, to identify it with blood and slaughter. Oh, what a happy change! — now that the news goes traveling throughout all the churches from Dan to Beersheba that Saul of Tarsus, the great leader of the persecutions, has not only been wonderfully converted, but that he is preaching with all his might the faith which he once destroyed.

Of course, all who heard the good news shouted praises to God. The form of the Greek verb indicates they kept the shout roaring and rolling over the country far and near, giving glory to God, because their greatest enemy had not only been converted, but was preaching with all his might. This state of things went on when he was far away among the Gentiles.

CHAPTER - CHRIST THE ONLY ESSENTIAL 1. “Then after fourteen years again I went up to Jerusalem along with Barnabas, taking Titus also .” Before this he had gone along with Barnabas to Jerusalem, sent by the elders to Antioch to carry alms to the poor saints.

We do not identify this visit with any one mentioned elsewhere, the end in view being the illustration of the non-essentiality of circumcision in the case of Titus, who was a prominent preacher of the gospel, though uncircumcised. 2. “I went up according to revelation .” Jerusalem is the highest city in all that part of the world, situated away up on the great table-lands of Judah and Benjamin, occupying the summits of Zion, Moriah, Akra and Bazetha.

Hence the statement always heard, “up to Jerusalem” and “down” to all other places. This situation also beautifully and pertinently symbolizes Heaven in its elevation. Here we find that God revealed to him where He wanted him to go. That is beautifully indicative of the Divine leadership, when God indicates to us when to go and when to stop. “And I expounded unto them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to the prominent ones, lest I run, or did run, in vain .” In this statement he confirms to the Galatians the authenticity of the gospel he had preached to them by the attestation of all the apostles. 3. “Neither was Titus, who was along with me, being a Greek, compelled to be circumcised .” This was a clear and unequivocal refutation of all the preaching which had been done among them in order to prove the essentiality of circumcision. Those very Galatians were Greeks, as that country had been colonized by Greek emigrants about two hundred years previously, who, mixing with the aborigines, were called Galigreci. So here Paul gives them a clear demonstrative case: Titus, a prominent gospel preacher recognized by all the apostles in Jerusalem, and well known to be a Greek, was not required to be circumcised, even at Jerusalem. That demonstrative case actually covered all the ground, proving most conclusively the nonessentiality of circumcision in their case. There is no presumption in favor of the conclusion that Paul objected to circumcision, as we see at Lystra he circumcised Timothy because his mother was a Jewess, though his father was a Greek. Among the Jews he not only winked at circumcision, but felt free to practice it when the absence of it would prove a stumbling-block to their faith; while, for the very same reason, he violently opposes it in the case of the Galatians, among the Gentiles. We here learn a most profitable lesson. As the ordinances are mere indices of grace, they must always be subordinated to the spiritual interest, and never in any way antagonistical to it, diverting the attention of people away from Christ. When the eye is steadfast on Jesus, then you can with impunity be all things to all men on ritualistic lines. But when there is a probability of diverting the attention away from Christ, and focalizing it on rites and ceremonies to the spiritual detriment, then we are to do like Paul, oppose them with all our might. These Gentiles had no predilection for the Jewish ordinances, consequently not only was their faith liable to be shaken, but utterly vitiated. 4. “But on account of false brethren who had crept in, who came in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus in order that they shall bring us into bondage . 5. “To whom I did not give place for an hour, in order that the truth of the gospel may abide with you .” Here we find that this same class of ritualists, who you must remember were avowed Christian preachers, attacked Titus in Jerusalem, demanding that he should be circumcised, whom Paul antagonized most indefatigably and uncompromisingly, and did not yield to them. So that Titus came and went, passing through all the authorities and magnates of the gospel metropolis without being circumcised, thus confirming to all the Gentile world its nonessentiality. What was the liberty in Christ Jesus which they so highly esteemed? It was the grand and glorious truth, and the sweet, inestimable privilege of adopting the creed, “Jesus only,” and thus utterly disencumbered of everything else. How few Christians in the world today enjoy this glorious freedom! Jesus, Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, glorious Lord, and coming King! Satan has so many devices to put yokes on people that very few escape and go free. Now, this freedom, with reference to rites and ceremonies, means to use them, or not use them, as we walk in the light. You see here Paul himself ( Acts 21:4), practiced Nazaritic vows and sacrifices, and in case of Timothy, circumcision, all of which were utterly effete and non-essential. But he did it lest the Jewish Christians might stumble in case of delinquency; while at the same time he uncompromisingly antagonized every effort on the part of the Christian Jews to enforce the Mosaic ordinances on the Gentile converts. 6. “But from those who seem to be something what they were at that time made no difference to me: God receives not the face of man: for those who to me were prominent amounted to nothing additional . 7. “But on the contrary, seeing that I have been entrusted with the gospel of uncircumcision, as Peter was of circumcision ; 8. “For He that wrought with Peter under the gospel of circumcision, also wrought with me unto the Gentiles ; 9. “And knowing the grace of God, which was given unto me, James and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave unto Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision . 10. “Only that we must remember the poor, which same thing I was truly zealous to do .” In all this transaction we see the absolute pre-eminence of the Holy Ghost and His inspired Word. Of course, the Holy Spirit had given to Peter, James and John, and also Paul and Barnabas, the prominence here mentioned. But you must recognize the fact that this prominence was of Divine election, and of pure spirituality, because he says that “those who seemed to me to be prominent amounted to nothing additional, i .e ., while the Holy Ghost had rendered them prominent as teachers and leaders, yet they had in consequence no extraordinary authority, i .e ., they were nothing but simple instruments in the hands of the Holy Ghost. In this conference we see a recognition of the apostleship of both Paul and Barnabas, and their commission of God to the Gentiles. We also see the absolute supremacy and leadership of the Holy Ghost, and their utter independence of all human authorities. This is patent from the fact that they laid on them but a solitary injunction, and that was purely prudential, i .e ., that they should give attention to the poor. This is noteworthy emphasis in the Lord’s appreciation of the poor. We have to look to them for resources to supply the citizenship of God’s kingdom, from the simple fact that the rich will not have it. How exceedingly seldom do you find the rich hail the gospel as a feast, surrendering all the world for its appreciation? No wonder we have this emphasis laid upon the evangelization of the poor, because it is certainly easier to convert ten of that class to one of the wealthy and proud, while souls are all on par in the Heavenly market. Why is not this the only injunction laid upon all the preachers in all ages when sent out by conferences and synods? We certainly have no right to enjoin any other, as our mission is purely in the soul-saving line. If we give thorough and faithful attention to the poor, the rich are certain to get enough to leave them without excuse at the Judgment Bar. Why did they not supply them with a creed? They did, and that creed was simply God’s Word, the Holy Ghost being their only leader, revelator, and exponent. We see from these Scriptures that God “receives the face of no man.” “Man looketh on the outside, but God looketh on the heart.”

Hence all this personal distinction with which the world is bewildered with high-sounding epithets, honorary cognomens, and official ranks and titles, simply amount to nothing, as they will all evanesce before the great white throne, when pure spiritualities and intrinsical matter of fact will determine all human destiny. The great men on earth will not be great in eternity. Our Savior proposes to turn the column round, so “the first will be last, and the last will be first.” Lord, help us to get low down at the feet of Jesus, where we can see Him only, forever losing sight of all human greatness, and evanescent gewgaw, and phantasmagoria. Let us not forget the manner in which the appointments were made in this Jerusalem Conference; all personalities, creeds, rules, regulations and authorities ignored with the mere reminiscence in behalf of the poor, while they went out with no leader but the Holy Ghost, and no authority but His Word.

PAUL CASTIGATES PETER. 11. “And when Peter came into Antioch, I withstood him to the face . 12. “For before certain ones came from James, he was in the habit of eating with the Gentiles, and when they came he stood aloof, and separated himself, fearing those of the circumcision . 13. “Truly the other Jews were also drawn into co-operation with him, so that even Barnabas was led away by their hypocrisy .” The Greek word here is hypocrisy, which may sound very strong. This word means an actor on the theatrical stage, who performs the part of a different person whom he represents; e .g ., an American may dress up like a Rocky Mountain savage and act the part of an Indian. Peter and the Jewish brethren were deporting themselves as if they were better than the Gentiles, which was not true, and they knew it, for God had revealed it to them at the house of Cornelius, Peter himself being the preacher, when God had surely shown him that He was no respecter of persons, and the Gentiles were as good by nature as the Jews, and the same wide-open door of free gospel grace was there thrown open to them. It was not only a wonder that Peter’s courage failed him under the circumstances, as he, along with Paul, had been sent especially to the Gentiles. We have no assurance of anything involving guilt in this whole transaction. It was mere infirmity, amid all illustrating the superior mentality on the part of Paul, who triumphantly survived the temptation and became the hero of the field. How frequently are sanctified people very bold on our Holiness campground, but found shrinking and reticent when the presiding elder and the official board are on hand! They do not necessarily commit sin in these cases of delinquency as they are soliloquizing in favor of prudence on the occasion, and utterly unwilling to even consider abnegation of their profession: it is merely with them a prudential intermission, or rather a cowardly retreat from responsibility. Of course, the trend of all such practical cowardice is to spiritual depreciation, in the end leading to forfeiture of experience and serious detriment. While Peter’s heart was right, he momentarily gave way to evil reasoning, lest he might damage the cause of Christ among the Jews. John Wesley says that sanctified people generally lose it several times, because of evil reasoning, before they get established in it. While, of course, this was a faltering in the direction of evil, we are satisfied it had not passed the pale of innocent infirmity until fortunately arrested by the stalwart Tarsian. Lord, give us the heroic stamina of Paul, who was willing to stand alone with the truth on his side. Certainly we all ought to be there, where we will no longer make the inquiry of this or that ecclesiastical magnate, but simply, What is the verdict of God’s infallible truth? Others who are in error need our correction. Paul did not cowardly speak to the detriment of the brethren, clandestinely around with others, testing and developing popular sentiment against them; but, knowing that he had the truth of God on his side, he boldly met them face to face, and castigated this public error in the presence of all.

Fortunately, Peter enjoyed the sanctifying power in his heart, and was meek as a martyr and gentle as a lamb under this public exposition. 14. “But when I saw that they are not walking right according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter, in presence of all: If thou, being a Jew, livest like the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, how do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize ?” Peter had eve rendered himself notorious for his bold advocacy of the Gentile gospel free and untrammeled, while he stood before the apostolic college at Jerusalem. After this it becomes grossly inconsistent for him to compel the Gentiles to Judaize. God gave Paul in this important correction a glorious victory, which continued to brighten during the apostolic age. Peter perfectly acquiesced, receiving it all right, standing corrected by his brother, to whom he ever afterward referred as a precious, loving friend in the gospel. In 2 Peter 3:15, he refers to him as “our beloved Paul, according to the wisdom which was given unto him, wrote on to us.”

In this transaction we see the method of settling all difficulties among the Lord’s people. Let the Word be the only umpire in every case. If they are truly sanctified, they will all acquiesce without a murmur. If they do not acquiesce in the Word of the Lord as the umpire in every case, they are to be ignored from the membership of the gospel church ( 1 Corinthians 14:38). If the Roman armies in the Providence of God had not destroyed Jerusalem, thus bringing an end to the Mosaic ritual, the trouble along that line would have been an awful vexation for ages. They not only expatriated the Jews, but prohibited any of them from returning, even on the pain of death. In the early centuries of the Christian era if a Jew was found in another country traveling with his face toward Jerusalem he was arrested and executed. The Emperor Adrian, in the second century, who was an inveterate hater both of the Jewish and Christian religions, and an enthusiastic worshiper of the old Roman gods, dropped the name Jerusalem, founded a Roman colony on the site, calling the place Elia Capitolina, which name was retained two hundred years, thus endeavoring to obliterate the very memory of Jerusalem from the very face of the earth.

This continued till the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, A.D. 325, who went to Jerusalem, hunted up the sacred places, and restored the name, and proceeded to rebuild it. While all this was the wicked work of Satan’s rulers, yet God overruled it as a powerful and valuable auxiliary in the elimination of the effete rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law from the gospel church. Without these awful and providential interventions the old dead Levitical ritual would have clung to the gospel church with the pertinacity of a drowning man. For many centuries Judaizing teachers continued to trouble the churches exceedingly. The Seventh-day Adventists are at present the only survivors of the old fulfilled and, consequently, defunct Mosaic institutions. As in the apostolic age, the true procedure is simply to guard that one point, i .e ., that they do not ruin the people by diverting their attention from Christ. When they want to Judaize by keeping the Mosaic Sabbath, do not reprove them, but remind them that they must keep the Christian Sabbath too, or fall under condemnation for violating the conscience of Christendom ( 1 Corinthians 8:12). When we have Christ all right, we may observe non-essential ceremonies with impunity, if we do not permit them to intrench upon our faith. We must, in everything, keep Christ before the people the only essential.

CHRIST ALONE ESSENTIAL 15. “We Jews by nature, and not sinners from the Gentiles , 16. “Knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but through faith of Christ Jesus .” Millions of modern ritualists this day preach the essentiality of works precisely as those who gave Paul so much trouble.

They frankly admit the non-essentiality of the works of the Mosaic law, which they say these Scriptures all refer to, while they pertinaciously and avowedly preach water baptism, and many other legalisms, as essential to salvation. The Holy Ghost seeing that acute evasion of revealed truth, left out the Greek article from both of these nouns, so that it reads, “no man is justified by works of law,” i .e ., any works of any law, excluding New Testament law just as much as Old Testament law. Such is the plausibility of legalism that it has hung on the church in all ages like lightning from the skirts of the clouds, withering and blighting the spiritual life in every dispensation. The Jewish Church in the time of Christ had vastly more rites and ceremonies than Moses ever established, and at the same time so awfully dead that, instead of seeing and hailing their own Christ, they laid violent hands on Him and took His life. They had gone deep into hollow hypocrisy, dead formality and ritualistic idolatry, even at that time more zealous to keep every ramification of the law than in the former days of spiritual life. We see all the churches this day on the same downward trend, multiplying institutions with an alarming rapidity as substitutes for forfeited spiritual life. This Scripture is perfectly unequivocal in the non-essentiality of any works of any law to save a soul. When the people have Christ all right, they will lose their interest in legal works. When they do not have Christ, Satan always tempts them into legal substitutes. “And we believed into Christ Jesus.” Here you see plainly revealed how we get into Christ, i .e ., how we get saved. It is by faith alone. The enemy is always ready to attack the truth, and hence the importance of ample fortification. There are four justifications: (a) In infancy by the work of Christ, without faith or works; (b) in the case of the sinner, by faith alone without works, because it takes salvation to bring him into the kingdom of God, hitherto being in Satan’s kingdom, where all the work he possibly can do belongs to him; (c) the Christian is justified by faith and works, or, rather, is kept justified, as he must prove his faith by an obedient life; (d) finally, the soul before the Judgment Bar is justified by works alone ( Revelation 22).

Repentance is absolutely necessary to bring the sinner on believing ground where he can be justified by faith alone; while entire consecration is requisite to bring the Christian on believing ground where he can be sanctified by faith only. The justifying faith of a sinner and the sanctifying faith of a Christian are not dead, but replete with the life of the Holy Ghost, which makes them really aggressive and efficient in the work of the Lord.

The Greek tense of this verb, “we believed into Christ Jesus ,” is the aorist, revealing an act instantaneous and complete, confirmatory of the conclusion that we enter Christ suddenly and actually by faith alone, other graces being harmonious and reciprocal. “In order that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by works of law, because by works of law shall no flesh be justified .” The Holy Ghost, through his servant Paul, is here so clear and explicit, even unto substantial repetition, that no honest, intelligent person can possibly be mistaken. Hence the doctrines of baptismal regeneration, sacramental justification, salvation by church loyalty, are literally and eternally obliterated. Well are we assured that the way is so plain that wayfaring men, though fools, need not err therein ( Isaiah 35), yet not only in Paul’s day, but in all ages, have counterfeit preachers flooded the world with legalistic religion, side-tracking young converts as these Galatians, leading astray thousands of simple-minded people who have once known the Lord, and catching with their ritualistic lasso millions who have never known the Lord and dragging them blindfolded into Hell, hoaxed with the delusion that they are not only real Christians, but even inflated with spiritual pride because they are so legalistic and enterprising in what they call church work that they think they will have a prominent seat in Heaven, when they are living and dying without hope and without God.

Such is the plausibility of legalism because it assumes the attitude of good works, which in themselves are right and commendable, but as futile to save as any other form of idolatry, that it has always been the most difficult line of Satanic delusion to reveal and correct. 17. “And if seeking to be justified in Christ we also be found sinners, then is Christ the minister of sin? It could not be so .” This sweeps away the possibility of that sinning religion with which Satan’s legalistic preachers have filled the world. From the inevitable fact that these legalisms have no power to take away sin, and consequently must leave the conscience guilty and condemnatory, therefore its votaries are laid under necessity of satisfying these guilty consciences in some way. Consequently they boldly and defiantly stand up in their pulpits and preach a sinning religion, thus making Christ the minister of sin, which Paul here says is impossible, illustrating the fact that Christ has nothing to do with that kind of religion, but it is Satan’s job from beginning to end. 18. “For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I constitute myself a transgressor .” I .e ., if, after I have gotten rid of my sins in justification, I go on and sin again, I simply reckon myself a transgressor, falling right back where I was before I started, as this legalism, such as water-baptism, sacraments, ceremonies, church-work and conservatism of a lot of human institutions, and add to this all the commendable traits of Christian morality, philanthropy and churchisms indiscriminately, are utterly impotent to take away a solitary sin, and literally powerless to save. Since all this pomp and pageantry of good works and churchisms leave their votaries in their sins, it becomes encumbent on their preachers to comfort them some way, and thus they are bound by a constant effort to convince them that the poor sinning religion that they have is all there is for them. Alas for the wholesale delusions of Satan through legalistic preachers and worldly churches! 19. “For through law I died to law, in order that I may live unto God .”

Since the law of God says, “The soul that sinneth it shall die ,” my only hope is to meet the penalty. This I did in Christ, the Holy Ghost nailing old Adam in my heart to the cross where he bled and died. Consequently through the vicarious substitution of Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost crucifying the man of sin in me, the penalty of the violated law is satisfied, and I have passed from death to life. Law, in the first place in this short verse, means Divine law, pursuant to which we must all die to sin, or sink into Hell. Law, occurring here the second time, has a general and broad signification, taking in all human law. When Adam the first is dead the law is satisfied, so I am dead to it, i .e ., free from it, so that I have nothing to do but live unto God, no longer under the law but under grace ( Romans 6:14). Here comes in this perfect and glorious freedom of which all legalists are utterly ignorant. It is freedom from all law, human and Divine. I am free from all human law from the simple fact that I do not belong to any human being, but to God only. I am free from the law because everything in me having a disposition to violate it is dead and gone.

Hence I am in no practical sense under the law. I am now in the State of New Hampshire, of whose laws I am ignorant, yet I am just as free as if there were no laws, because I have no disposition whatever to violate any law, human or Divine. Consequently I have nothing to do but to live unto God as free from the law as a man lying in his grave. 20. “I have been crucified along with Christ .” In these Scriptures we must constantly discriminate between the carnal “I,” Adam the first, and the spiritual “I,” Adam the Second, i .e ., the Christ-nature in the heart. This is a clear and unequivocal profession of entire sanctification, which simply means the death of sin, regeneration meaning the life of grace. How strange that preachers would confound the two and identify them, when they are as antipodal as midnight and noonday. The crucifixion of old Adam is the negative side of sanctification, sin going out to make room for grace, the glorious infilling of the Holy Ghost following on and flooding the soul. “I live no longer, but Christ liveth in me ,” yet you see there is no possibility of committing sin without taking back the carnal mind, because a dead man can not put forth vital acts. Christ is the only one living in the sanctified man, hence He must evacuate the heart and the old man of sin get back before actual sinning can take place. “And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me .” Faith is the umbilical cord connecting the heart of the believer with Christ, and through which spiritual life is continually transmitted and perpetuated. Hence we live by faith alone, enjoy that faith because on believing ground, and glorify God by a life of good works, the normal fruit of justifying, sanctifying, and keeping faith. It is our precious privilege thus not only to live by faith spiritually, but also temporally, trusting God to feed and clothe us, like He feeds the birds on the finest of the wheat, and clothes them with a plummage more gaudy and resplendent than the regalia of the proudest Oriental potentate that ever encumbered the throne of a world-wide empire. What an unutterable privilege thus to be felicitously relieved of all care, spiritual and temporal ( Philippians 4:6). Rely upon it, God is as faithful in temporal as in spiritual things, so dismiss every care of this life, and that which is to come, and let Jesus live your life for you. If He loved you enough to come from Heaven and die for you, you certainly can trust Him to live your life for you.

LEGALISM, THE BLACKEST INSULT TO GOD 21. “I do not nullify the grace of God: for if righteousness were through law, then Christ died gratuitously .” Well can Paul say that he does not nullify, or make empty, the grace of God. On the contrary, he gives the most superlative appreciation to that grace, from the simple fact that Christ Himself is the sum and substance, essence and quintessence of that grace.

Now, the simple fact that Paul makes Christ everything, and nothing else anything, in the plan of salvation, confirms forever his superlative appreciation of redeeming grace. It is an indisputable fact that just so far as you magnify other things, just so far you necessarily minify Christ, thus fooling the people by wholesale, having them lay hold of this and that poor, fleeting temporality, which has no more power to save than the Chinaman’s wooden idol, while at the same time it gets between him and Christ, blinding his eyes till fleeting mortality ebbs away and Satan dumps him into Hell. The reason why legalism, in all its forms and phases — and I mean by that, all sorts of human work, whether by yourself or your preacher — as a condition of salvation, is the blackest insult to God, is from the simple fact that it treats with contempt the gift of His Son, His vicarious atonement and dying love. Why is that? The above Scripture explains itself: “If justification were by law, then Christ died gratuitously,” i .e ., for nothing, unnecessarily; and why? Did not we have the law here four