Galatians 3:25

Gal_3:25; Gal_3:29

For we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Liberty, equality, and fraternity

Liberty, equality, and fraternity, is the three-fold watchword of the masses in modern society. These words are written up in large characters on public buildings, and even on some of the churches, in France; and the ideas represented by them are held and aimed after by vast numbers in nearly every European country. What is meant by them?

(a) By Liberty is meant perfect freedom for the people to govern themselves, This is attainable, and, so far as political government is concerned, it has been attained by France, Great Britain, and other countries.

(b) By Equality is meant the abolition o! rank and title, whether hereditary or otherwise; to many it means socialism or communism--the abolition of personal property--the State becoming the sole proprietor and apportioner of the means of subsistence.

(c) By Fraternity is meant the realization of the feeling of true brotherhood as between man and man. Such are the ideas represented by the liberty, equality, and fraternity sought after by the world--a mixture of truth and error. True liberty, equality, and fraternity are only to be attained through the gospel being accepted and acted on throughout the world. This alone will stop the seethings of dissatisfaction, the upheavals of discontent, and the outbreaks of revolutionary passion.

I. True liberty is that which is enjoyed by the children of God.

1. Freedom from the condemnation of the law.

2. Freedom from the power of evil.

II. Equality in Jesus Christ. Not an equality subverting natural relations; these remain, but with a new spirit of light and love, constituting essential equality under circumstantial inequalities, so far as these are not inlaid in the very constitution of man as a social being.

1. In Christ there is no national inequality.

2. In Christ there is complete equality between master and servant.

3. Equality as between man and woman.

III. True fraternity. This is unattainable by political methods. It never yet has been, and never will be, reached by these means. Neither ancient nor modern republics have been able to secure true brotherhood among the members of the State, e.g., Athenian democracy, French and American Republics. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can make us true brothers, as descended from the same parent, heirs of the same inheritance, and hence possessed of a spirit of true fraternal affection towards each other. Not necessarily do Christians always agree in their opinion on indifferent points; nor do they see fundamental questions always from the same standpoint--one seeing the matter according to his own God-given mental peculiarities, another according to his, and so on; but, amid all differences of opinion, they are one in true brotherly affection, sympathy, and aim. This is the real tendency and intention and aim of Christianity, however far we may at present fall short of it. What we can now see only in part, will one day be perfected, for our citizenship, our commonwealth, is in heaven. (W. Spensley.)

True believers the children of God

I. Consider the sonship of believers under the gospel.

1. In common with the other intelligent creatures of God (Act_17:29).

2. By external profession (Hos_11:1; Mat_2:15).

3. Their sonship consists chiefly in their regeneration and adoption.

4. This sonship is not a mere title or mark of distinction, but has privileges the most excellent annexed to it. There is no condemnation to them. They are His temples. Led by His spirit. Abiding in their Fathers house, heart, love. They have a title to incorruption and immortality (Rom_8:23). They are born to a great inheritance (Rom_8:17; Psa_16:5).

5. This sonship is equally the privilege of every believer in Christ. They may be distinguished from each other, as to external circumstances in life, spiritual gifts and graces, etc., but their filial relation is the same.

6. It is a privilege of which they are conscious, and hence they enjoy the comfort of it (Gal_4:6).

II. How it is that they attain to this privilege and dignity. The text says, by faith in Christ Jesus. To illustrate this, it may be proper to recollect--

1. That in the state of primitive innocence, Adam was truly the son of God: he resembled God (Gen_1:27). This resemblance was effaced by sin; his former relation of sonship to God then ceased, and he was turned out of Gods family and garden as a rebel, while he and his numerous progeny became children of disobedience and wrath.

2. It is by faith, or a supernatural revelation only, that we are informed how this high prerogative may be regained. This surpasses the capacity of the wisest philosopher, and even of angels. It is brought to light by the gospel (Gal_4:4-5).

3. We become the children of God, when we cordially believe in Christ: we are thereby brought into union with Christ and into a relation of sonship with the Father (Joh_1:12). Concluding exhortation:

1. Be astonished, ye heavenly principalities and powers, to see such base-born slaves and rebellious creatures taken into the family of God. Unmeasurable love! Infinite honour!

2. Forget not the love, duty, submission, and service, resulting from this relation.

3. How insipid, alas I are such themes as this to the generality even of gospel hearers. Show them how to acquire a fortune, etc., and they will be all attention; but publish the riches of Gods gracious adoption, they relish it not. Blinded sinner, what a fatal choice! Naught can avail thee in the long run, but this. Claim thy adoption, and live as a child of God. (Theological Sketch Book.)

All children of God by faith in Christ Jesus

I. A wonderful and an inexplicable privilege. What an honour (Pro_17:6)! What an advantage (Rom_8:17)! In this name we have--

1. A spiritual right to all the creatures of God (1Co_3:21-23).

2. An interest in God Himself (Isa_49:15-16; 1Jn_4:16).

3. The service and guardianship of angels (Psa_91:11; Mat_18:10; Heb_1:14).

4. A certain and infallible claim to eternal glory (Col_1:12; Mat_25:34).

II. The means of the enjoyment of this privilege.

1. This privilege is not natural to man. By nature we are

(1) children of this world (Luk_16:8); or worse,

(2) a seed of falsehood (Isa_57:4); or yet worse,

(3) children of unrighteousness and darkness (1Th_5:5); or yet worse,

(4) sons of wilful disobedience (Eph_2:3); or worst of all,

(5) children of wrath (Eph_2:2).

2. This enjoyment may be obtained by

(1) Adoption (Eph_1:5);

(2) Regeneration; not of water only, so we are all sacramentally regenerated; but of the Holy Ghost (Joh_1:12-13; Joh_3:5).

3. Union with Christ (2Co_5:17; 1Co_4:15; Jam_1:18).

4. By means of faith as saith the text.

III. How shall we know that we enjoy this privilege. Every child of God is--

1. Like his Father (1Pe_1:15-16);

(1) He is merciful; are we cruel?

(2) He is righteous; are we unjust?

(3) He is slow to anger; are we furious?

(4) He is abhorrent of evil; do we take pleasure in wickedness?

2. Bears a filial answering to a paternal love.

3. Reverences his Father (Mal_1:6).

4. Is obedient to his Father.

5. But beyond this there is the witness and guidance of the Holy Spirit of our Father. (Bishop Hall.)

The means of Christian sonship

A man has faith in God as the Creator of the universe, as the Father of man, as the moral Ruler of the world; but that is not what is meant by the faith that admits into the saved family. A man may assure himself that he has scientific ground for his faith in theism, but that is a long way from the faith that saves the soul. To put faith in manhood, or kinghood, or pope, or progress, or church, or creed, as the object of faith is simply to divert the mind from that which saves. Faith in the beautiful, the good, the nobler aspects of the race, in the poetry and yearnings of the higher humanitarianism, are interesting things to talk about; but to put them forth as the dark passages through which men are to find their way into the family, is to shut the door of hope in the face of the great sinning, sorrowing, race. Not without meaning is Fichtes despair of raising men into the blessed life since they are so far beneath the reach of his philosophy. But Paul here opens the door of hope, and shows how any man may become a new child of God. (Mitchell.)

The vastness of the Christian family

No man ever wrought to make the world better that was not my brother. No man ever laboured to exemplify the coming manhood, that was not kindred to me. Whatever nation he belonged to he belonged to my nation. Whatever language he spoke, he spoke my language. Whatever sphere he wrought in was my sphere. Whether he was crowned or uncrowned, he was of my lineage. I own him; and if he is saved he owns me. And all over the world, there are no spirits bearing and enduring with fortitude and cheerfulness in obscurity that are not my unknown relations. My Father has an enormous family, for my Father is God. My eldest brother is named Jesus Christ, and the relationships which spring out of this Fatherhood and this Brotherhood--how many they are! Wherever men are denying themselves for rectitude, and enduring for that which is just and true, and living courageously for the right, and exemplifying purity and sweetness, and diffusing happiness-these are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and our brethren. (H. W. Beecher.)

Safety by trusting Christ

A man was fleeing from some men who desired to rob and kill him. He came to a wide gulf, over which there was only a slender plank for a bridge. It looked too weak to bear him, so that there seemed only a choice of the kind of death open to him. What was he to do? Death behind! Death in front by a fearful fall! While his mind was wavering as to his right course, he saw a strong, heavy man on the opposite side, who shouted. Come over, man! I crossed the plank safely; I am heavier than you are. When it has borne me it will bear you: Similarly, Christ is our plank of safety across the gulf of damnation. He has borne my sins, therefore He can and will bear yours.

Jesus the only Saviour

A person asked me the other day whether I had seen a book entitled, Sixteen Saviours. I answered, No, I have not, and I do not want to know of sixteen saviours, I am satisfied with one. If all who dwell in heaven and earth could be made into saviours, and the whole were put together, you might blow them away as a child blows away thistle-down, but there is this one Saviour, the Son of Man, and yet the mighty God, and He cannot be moved. Joy then, my brethren, and rejoice in your blessed Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 15

THE EMANCIPATED SONS OF GOD.

Gal_3:25-29

"FAITH has come!" At this announcement Law the tutor yields up his charge; Law the jailor sets his prisoner at liberty. The age of servitude has passed. In truth it endured long enough. The iron of its bondage had entered into the soul. But at last Faith is come; and with it comes a new world. The clock of time cannot be put back. The soul of man will never return to the old tutelage, nor submit again to a religion of rabbinism and sacerdotalism. "We are no longer under a pedagogue"; we have ceased to be children in the nursery, schoolboys at our tasks-"ye are all sons of God." In such terms the new-born, free spirit of Christianity speaks in Paul. He had tasted the bitterness of the Judaic yoke; no man more deeply. He had felt the weight of its impossible exactions, its fatal condemnation. This sentence is a shout of deliverance. "Wretch that I am," he had cried," who shall deliver me?-I give thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord; for the law of the Spirit of life in Him hath freed me from the law of sin and death". {Rom_7:24; Rom_8:2}

Faith is the true emancipator of the human mind. It comes to take its place as mistress of the soul, queen in the realm of the heart; to be henceforth its spring of life, the normal and guiding principle of its activity. "The life that I live in the flesh," Paul testifies, "I live in faith." The Mosaic law-a system of external, repressive ordinances-is no longer to be the basis of religion. Law itself, and for its proper purposes, Faith honours and magnifies. {Rom_3:31} It is in the interests of Law that the Apostle insists on the abolishment of its Judaic form. Faith is an essentially just principle, the rightful, original ground of human fellowship with God. In the age of Abraham, and even under the Mosaic regime, in the religion of the Prophets and Psalmists, faith was the quickening element, the wellspring of piety and hope and moral vigour. Now it is brought to light. It assumes its sovereignty, and claims its inheritance. Faith is come-for Christ is come, its "author and finisher."

The efficacy of faith lies in its object. "Works "assume an intrinsic merit in the doer; faith has its virtue in Him it trusts. It is the souls recumbency on Christ." Through faith in Christ Jesus," Paul goes on to say, "ye are all sons of God." Christ evokes the faith which shakes off legal bondage, leaving the age of formalism and ritual behind, and beginning for the world an era of spiritual freedom. "In Christ Jesus" faith has its being; He constitutes for the soul a new atmosphere and habitat, in which faith awakens to full existence, bursts the confining shell of legalism, recognises itself and its destiny, and unfolds into the glorious consciousness of its Divine sonship.

We prefer, with Ellicott and Meyer, to attach the complement "in Christ Jesus" to "faith" (so in A.V), rather than to the predicate, "Ye are sons" - the construction endorsed by the Revised comma after "faith." The former connection more obvious in itself, seems to us to fall in with the Apostles line of thought. And it is sustained by the language of Gal_3:27. Faith in Christ, baptism into Christ, and putting on Christ are connected and correspondent expressions. The first is the spiritual principle, the ground or element of the new life; the second, its visible attestation; and the third indicates the character and habit proper thereto.

1. It is faith in Christ then which constitutes its sons of God. This principle is the foundation-stone of the Christian life.

In the Old Testament the sonship of believers lay in shadow. Jehovah was "the King, the Lord of Hosts," the "Shepherd of Israel." They are "His people, the sheep of His pasture"-"My servant Jacob," He says, "Israel whom I have chosen." If He is named Father, it is of the collective Israel, not the individual; otherwise the title occurs only in figure and apostrophe. The promise of this blessedness had never been explicitly given under the Covenant of Moses. The assurance quoted in 2Co_6:18 is pieced together from scattered hints of prophecy. Old-Testament faith hardly dared to dream of such a privilege as this. It is not ascribed even to Abraham. Only to the kingly "Son of David" is it said, "I will be a Father unto him; and he shall be to me for a son". {2Sa_7:14}

But "beloved, now are we children of God". {1Jn_3:2} The filial consciousness is the distinction of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Apostolic writings are full of it. The unspeakable dignity of this relationship, the boundless hopes which it inspires, have left their fresh impress on the pages of the New Testament. The writers are men who have made a vast discovery. They have sailed out into a new ocean. They have come upon an infinite treasure. "Thou art no longer a slave, but a son." What exultation filled the soul of Paul and of John as they penned such words! "The Spirit of glory and of God" rested upon them.

The Apostle is virtually repeating here what he said in Gal_3:2-5 touching the "receiving of the Spirit," which is, he declared, the distinctive mark of the Christian state, and raises its possessor ipso facto above the religion of externalism. The antithesis of flesh and spirit now becomes that of sonship and pupilage. Christ Himself, in the words of Luk_11:13, marked out the gift of "the Holy Spirit" as the bond between the "heavenly Father" and His human children. Accordingly Paul writes immediately in Gal_4:6-7, of "God sending forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts" to show that we "are sons," where we find again the thought which follows here in Gal_3:27, viz., that union with Christ imparts this exalted status. This is, after all, the central conception of the Christian life. Paul has already stated it as the sum of his own experience: "Christ is in me". {Gal_2:20} "I have put on Christ" is the same thing in other words. In Gal_2:20 he contemplates the union as an inner, vitalising force; here it is viewed as a matter of status and condition. The believer is invested with Christ. He enters into the filial estate and endowments, since he is in Christ Jesus. "For if Christ is Son of God, and thou hast put on Him, having the Son in thyself and being made like to Him, thou wast brought into one kindred and one form of being with Him" (Chrysostom).

This was true of "so many as were baptised into Christ"-an expression employed not in order to limit the assertion, but to extend it coincidently with the "all" of Gal_3:26. There was no difference in this respect between the circumcised and uncircumcised. Every baptised Galatian was a son of God. Baptism manifestly presupposes faith. To imagine that the opus operatum, the mechanical performance of the rite, apart from faith present or anticipated in the subject, "clothes us with Christ," is to hark back to Judaism. It is to substitute baptism for circumcision-a difference merely of form, so long as the doctrine of ritual regeneration remains the same. This passage is as clear a proof as could well be desired, that in the Pauline vocabulary "baptised" is synonymous with "believing." The baptism of these Galatians solemnised their spiritual union with Christ. It was the public acceptance, in trust and submission, of Gods covenant of grace-for their children haply, as well as for themselves.

In the case of the infant, the household to which it belongs, the religious community which receives it to be nursed in its bosom, stand sponsors for its faith. On them will rest the blame of broken vows and responsibility disowned, if their baptised children are left to lapse into ignorance of Christs claims upon them. The Church which practises infant baptism assumes a very serious obligation. If it takes no sufficient care to have the rite made good, if children pass through its laver to remain unmarked and unshepherded, it is sinning against Christ. Such administration makes His ordinance an object of superstition, or of contempt.

The baptism of the Galatians signalised their entrance "into Christ," the union of their souls with the dying, risen Lord. They were "baptised," as Paul phrases it elsewhere, "into His death," to "walk" henceforth with Him "in newness of life." By its very form-the normal and most expressive form of primitive baptism, descent into and rising from the symbolic waters - it pictured the souls death with Christ, its burial and its resurrection in Him, its separation from the life of sin and entrance upon the new career of a regenerated child of God. {Rom_6:3-14} This power attended the ordinance "through faith in the operation of God who raised Christ from the dead". {Col_2:11-13} Baptism had proved to them the laver of regeneration in virtue of "the renewing of the Holy Spirit," under those spiritual conditions of accepted mercy and "justification by grace through faith," without which it is a mere law-work, as useless as any other. It was the outward and visible sign of the inward transaction which made the Galatian believers sons of God and heirs of life eternal. It was therefore a "putting on of Christ," a veritable assumption of the Christian character, the filial relationship to God. Every such baptism announced to heaven and earth the passage of another soul from servitude to freedom, from death, unto life, the birth of a brother into the family of God. From this day the new convert was a member incorporate of the Body of Christ, affianced to his Lord, not alone in the secret vows of his heart, but pledged to Him before his fellow-men. He had put on Christ- to be worn in his daily life, while He dwelt in the shrine of his spirit. And men would see Christ in him, as they see the robe upon its wearer, the armour glittering on the soldiers breast.

By receiving Christ, inwardly accepted in faith, visibly assumed in baptism, we are made sons of God, He makes us free of the house of God, where He rules as Son, and where no slave may longer stay. Those who call themselves "Abrahams seed" and yet were "slaves of sin," must be driven from the place in Gods household which they dishonoured, and must forfeit their abused prerogatives. They were not Abrahams children, for they were utterly unlike him; the Devil surely was their father, whom by their lusts they featured. So Christ declared to the unbelieving Jews. {Joh_8:31-44} And so the Apostle identifies the children of Abraham with the sons of God, by faith united to "the Son." Alike in the historical sonship toward Abraham and the supernatural sonship toward God, Christ is the ground of filiation. Our sonship is grafted upon His. He is "the vine," we "branches" in Him. He is the seed of Abraham, the Son of God; we, sons of God and Abrahams seed" if we are Christs." Through Him we derive from God; through Him all that is best in the life of humanity comes down to us. Christ is the central stock, the spiritual root of the human race. His manifestation reveals God to man, and man also to himself. In Jesus Christ we regain the Divine image, stamped upon us in Him at our creation, {Col_1:15-16; Col_3:10-11} the filial likeness to God which constitutes mans proper nature. Its attainment is the essential blessing, the promise which descended from Abraham along the succession of faith.

Now this dignity belongs universally to Christian faith. "Ye are all, " the Apostle says, "sons of God through faith in Him." Sonship is a human, not a Jewish distinction. The discipline Israel had endured, it endured for the world. The Gentiles have no need to pass through it again. Abrahams blessing, when it came, was to embrace "all the families of the earth." The new life in Christ in which it is realised, is as large in scope as it is complete in nature. "Faith in Christ Jesus" is a condition that opens the door to every human being, -"Jew or Greek, bond or free, male or female." If then baptised, believing Gentiles are sons of God, they stand already on a level higher than any to which Mosaism raised its professors. "Putting on Christ," they are robed in a righteousness brighter and purer than that of the most blameless legalist. What can Judaism do for them more? How could they wish to cover their glorious dress with its faded, worn-out garments? To add circumcision to their faith would be not to rise, but to sink from the state of sons to that of serfs.

2. On this first principle of the new life there rests a second. The sons of God are brethren to each other. Christianity is the perfection of society, as well as of the individual. The faith of Christ restores the broken unity of mankind. "In Christ Jesus there is no Jew or Greek; there is no bondman or freeman; there is no male and female. You are all one in Him."

The Galatian believer at his baptism had entered a communion which gave him for the first time the sense of a common humanity. In Jesus Christ he found a bond of union with his fellows, an identity of interest and aim so commanding that in its presence secular differences appeared as nothing. From the height to which his Divine adoption raised him these things were invisible. Distinctions of race, of rank, even that of sex, which bulk so largely in our outward life and are sustained by all the force of pride and habit, are forgotten here. These dividing lines and party-walls have no power to sunder us from Christ, nor therefore from each other in Christ. The tide of Divine love and joy which through the gate of faith poured into the souls of these Gentiles of "many nations," submerged all barriers. They are one in the brotherhood of the eternal life. When one says "I am a child of God," one no longer thinks, "I am a Greek or Jew, rich or poor, noble or ignoble-man or woman." A son of God!-that sublime consciousness fills his being.

Paul, to be sure, does not mean that these differences have ceased to exist. He fully recognises them; and indeed insists strongly on the proprieties of sex, and on the duties of civil station. He values his own Jewish birth and Roman citizenship. But "in Christ Jesus" he "counts them refuse." {Php_3:4-8} Our relations to God, our heritage in Abrahams Testament, depend on our faith in Christ Jesus and our possession of His Spirit. Neither birth nor office affects this relationship in the least degree. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." {Rom_8:14} This is the Divine criterion of churchmanship, applied to prince or beggar, to archbishop or sexton, with perfect impartiality. "God is no respecter of persons."

This rule of the Apostles was a new principle in religion, pregnant with immense consequences. The Stoic cosmopolitan philosophy made a considerable approach to it, teaching, as it did, the worth of the moral person and the independence of virtue of outward conditions. Buddhism previously, and Mahommedanism subsequently, each in its own way addressed themselves to man as man, declaring all believers equal and abolishing the privileges of race and caste. To their recognition of human brotherhood the marvellous victories Won by these two creeds are largely due. These religious systems, with all their errors, were a signal advance upon Paganism with its "gods many and lords many," its local and national deities, whose worship belittled the idea of God and turned religion into an engine of hostility instead of a bond of union amongst men.

Greek culture, moreover, and Roman government, it has often been observed, had greatly tended to unify mankind. They diffused a common atmosphere of thought and established one imperial law round the circuit of the Mediterranean shore. But these conquests of secular civilisation, the victories of arms and arts, were achieved at the expense of religion. Polytheism is essentially barbarian. It flourishes in division and in ignorance. To bring together its innumerable gods and creeds was to bring them all into contempt. The one law, the one learning now prevailing in the world, created a void in the Conscience of mankind, only to be filled by the one faith. Without a centre of spiritual unity, history shows that no other union will endure. But for Christianity, the Graeco-Roman civilisation would have perished, trampled out by the feet of Goths and Huns.

The Jewish faith failed to meet the worlds demand for a universal religion. It would never have saved European society. Nor was it designed for such a purpose. True, its Jehovah was "the God of the whole earth." The teaching of the Old Testament, as Paul easily showed, had a universal import and brought all men within the scope of its promises. But in its actual shape and its positive institutions it was still tribal and exclusive. Mosaism planted round the family of Abraham a fence of ordinances, framed of set purpose to make them a separate people and preserve them from heathen contamination. This system, at first maintained with difficulty, in course of time gained control of the Israelitish nature, and its exclusiveness was aggravated by every device of Pharisaic ingenuity. Without an entire transformation, without in fact ceasing to be Judaism, the Jewish religion was doomed to isolation. Under the Roman Empire, in consequence of the ubiquitous dispersion of the Jews, it spread far and wide. It attracted numerous and influential converts. But these proselytes never were, and never could have been generally amalgamated with the sacred people. They remained in the outer court, worshipping the God of Israel "afar off". {Eph_2:11-22; Eph_3:4-6}

This particularism of the Mosaic system was, to Pauls mind, a proof of its temporary character. The abiding faith, the faith of "Abraham and his seed," must be broad as humanity. It could know nothing of Jew and Gentile, of master and slave, nor even of man and woman; it knows only the soul and God. The gospel of Christ allied itself thus with the nascent instinct of humanity, the fellow-feeling of the race. It adopted the sentiment of the Roman poet, himself an enfranchised slave, who wrote: Homo sum et humani a me nil alienum puto. In our religion human kinship at last receives adequate expression. The Son of man lays the foundation of a world-wide fraternity. The one Father claims all men for His sons in Christ. A new, tenderer, holier humanity is formed around His cross. Men of the most distant climes and races, coming across their ancient battle-fields, clasp each others hands and say, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."

The practice of the Church has fallen far below the doctrine of Christ and His Apostles. In this respect Mohammedans and Buddhists might teach Christian congregations a lesson of fraternity. The arrangements of our public worship seem often designed expressly to emphasise social distinctions, and to remind the poor man of his inequality. Our native hauteur and conventionality are nowhere more painfully conspicuous than in the house of God. English Christianity is seamed through and through with caste-feeling. This lies at the root of our sectarian jealousies. It is largely due to this cause that the social ideal of Jesus Christ has been so deplorably ignored, and that a frank brotherly fellowship amongst the Churches is at present impossible. Sacerdotalism first destroyed the Christian brotherhood by absorbing in the official ministry the functions of the individual believer. And the Protestant Reformation has but partially reestablished these prerogatives. Its action has been so far too exclusively negative and protestant, too little constructive and creative. It has allowed itself to be secularised and identified with existing national limitations and social distinctions. How greatly has the authority of our faith and the influence of the Church suffered from this error. The filial consciousness should produce the fraternal consciousness. With the former we may have a number of private Christians; with the latter only can we have a Church.

"Ye are all," says the Apostle, "one (man) in Christ Jesus." The numeral is masculine, not neuter-one person (no abstract unity), as though possessing one mind and will, and that "the mind that was in Christ." Just so far as individual men are "in Christ" and He becomes the soul of their life, do they realise this unity. The Christ within them recognises the Christ without, as "face answereth to face in a glass." In this recognition social disparity vanishes. We think of it no more than we shall do before the judgment-seat of Christ. What matters it whether my brother wears velvet or fustian, if Christ be in him? The humbleness of his birth or occupation, the uncouthness of his speech, cannot separate him, nor can the absence of these peculiarities separate his neighbour, from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why should these differences make them strangers to each other in the Church.? If both are in Christ, why are they not one in Christ? A tide of patriotic emotion, a scene of pity or terror-a shipwreck, an earthquake-levels all classes and makes us feel and act as one man. Our faith in Christ should do no less. Or do we love God less than we fear death? Is our country more to us than Jesus Christ? In rare moments of exaltation we rise, it may be, to the height at which Paul sets our life. But until we can habitually and by settled principle in our Church-relations "know no man after the flesh," we come short of the purpose of Jesus Christ. {comp. Joh_17:20-23}

The unity Paul desiderates would effectually counteract the Judaistie agitation. The force of the latter lay in antipathy. Pauls opponents contended that there must he "Jew and Greek." They fenced off the Jewish preserve from uncircumcised intruders. Gentile non-conformists must adopt their ritual; or they will remain a lower caste, outside the privileged circle of the covenant-heirs of Abraham. Compelled under this pressure to accept the Mosaic law, it was anticipated that they would add to the glory of Judaism and help to maintain its institutions unimpaired. But the Apostle has cut the ground from under their feet. It is faith, he affirms, which makes men sons of God. And faith is equally possible to Jew or Gentile. Then Judaism is doomed. No system of caste, no principle of social exclusion has, on this assumption, any foothold in the Church. Spiritual life, nearness and likeness to the common Saviour-in a word character, is the standard of worth in His kingdom. And the range of that kingdom is made wide as humanity; its charity, deep as the love of God.

And "if you-whether Jews or Greeks-are Christs, then are you Abrahams seed, heirs in terms of the Promise." So the Apostle brings to a close this part of his argument, and links it to what he has said before touching the falsehood of Abraham. Since Gal_3:18 we have lost sight of the patriarch; but he has not been forgotten. From that verse Paul has been conducting us onward through the legal centuries which parted Abraham from Christ. He has shown how the law of Moses interposed between promise and fulfilment, schooling the Jewish race and mankind in them for its accomplishment. Now the long discipline is over. The hour of release has struck. Faith resumes her ancient sway, in a larger realm. In Christ a new, universal humanity comes into existence, formed of men who by faith are grafted into Him. Partakers of Christ, Gentiles also are of the seed of Abraham; the wild scions of nature share "the root and fatness of the good olive-tree." All things are theirs; for they are Christs. {1Co_3:21-23}

Christ never stands alone. "In the midst of the Church-firstborn of many brethren" He presents Himself, standing "in the presence of God for us." He has secured for mankind and keeps in trust its glorious heritage. In Him we hold in fee the ages past and to come. The sons of God are heirs of the universe.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

3:25 the way of faith has come: The principle of righteousness by faith was always operative (cp. 3:6-9), but the object of that faith and the means of appropriating it are now clear to everyone through Jesus Christ. • we no longer need the law as our guardian: In Greco-Roman culture, a freeborn child who came of age was no longer under the discipline of a guardian, but was free to rule himself. So, too, those who are “of age” through faith in Christ are free from the guardianship of the law. They serve Christ directly as he leads by his word and Spirit.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal_3:25. No longer dependent on the ὥστε in Gal_3:24. Paul now desires to unfold the beautiful picture of the salvation which had come.

οὐκέτι] This is the breathing afresh of freedom. On the matter itself, comp. Rom_6:14; Rom_10:4; Rom_7:25.

ὑπὸ παιδαγ.] without article: under tutorial power.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 3:25-29 . BUT NOW WE ARE NO LONGER CHILDREN. YE ARE ALL SONS OF GOD: AT YOUR BAPTISM YE PUT ON CHRIST, AND WERE INVESTED WITH SPIRITUAL MANHOOD: ALL PREVIOUS DISTINCTIONS OF CREED OR RACE, OF POSITION OR NATURE, WERE DONE AWAY: YE ARE ALL ONE IN CHRIST. The sudden change from the first to the second person plural betokens an extension in the point of view from Israel to the Gentile world. The Epistle has been dealing since Gal 3:17 with the position of Israelites under the Law before the Advent of the Christ. But that event brought Gentiles also within the scope of God’s revealed promises and of His blessings in Christ. So the Apostle turns to his converts, largely enlisted out of Gentiles, with the assurance, “Ye are all sons of God, whatever your antecedents”. Their adoption is assumed, as their possession of the gifts of the Spirit is assumed in Gal 3:2 . The spirit of adoption, of which they were conscious within their hearts, assured them that they were sons of God ( cf. Rom 8:15-16 ).

Gal 3:27 . ἐνεδύσασθε . The conception of spiritual manhood is here associated with baptism by a figure borrowed from Greek and Roman usage. At a certain age the Roman youth exchanged the toga praetexta for the toga virilis and passed into the rank of citizens. So the Christian had been invested at his baptism with the robe of spiritual manhood. Whereas he had before been under the control of rules and regulations, like a child in his father’s house, he possessed now the independence of a grown up son. This figure of clothing is applied in various ways in Scripture: the effects of death and resurrection are described in 2Co 5:4 by the figure of unclothing and reclothing : the figures of putting on Christ and putting on armour are used in Rom 13:12 ; Rom 13:14 , Eph 6:11 to express the new life support and strength required for our Christian warfare. The exact force of the figure depends in every case upon the context. Here the author evidently has in mind the change of dress which marked the transition from boyhood to manhood. Greeks and Romans made much of this occasion and celebrated the investment of a youth with man’s dress by family gatherings and religious rites. The youth, hitherto subject to domestic rule, was then admitted to the rights and responsibilities of a citizen, and took his place beside his father in the councils of the family.

Baptism is in fact likened to a spiritual coming of age: the convert, who had hitherto been bound to obey definite commandments and fulfil definite duties, was now set free to learn God’s will from the inward voice of the Spirit, and discharge the heavier obligations incumbent on a citizen of the heavenly commonwealth under the guidance of an enlightened conscience. He had entered on his spiritual manhood, and was accordingly emancipated from his earlier bondage to an outward Law.

There is an obvious correspondence between this figure of putting on Christ at baptism, and the ceremony which prevailed throughout the Church in subsequent centuries of investing catechumens with white robes on the occasion of their baptism. Both give expression to a kindred thought: some of the Fathers associate them together, and perhaps the language of the Apostle contributed to the spread of the ceremonial. The symbolism however differed materially: the white robes corresponded rather to the wedding garment in the parable: they were an emblem of purity and signified the cleansing effect of baptism, whereas the context of the Epistle points to enfranchisement and emancipation from control.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25–29. See note at Gal 3:23

(Gal 3:25) But when that faith came—we believers are no longer under a paedagogue. (Gal 3:26) For all (not Jews only) of you are sons of God (with full privileges) by means of your faith in Messiah who has come, I mean Jesus. (Gal 3:27) I say “all,” for as many of you as were baptized into union with Christ, put on Christ with all He is and has. (Gal 3:28) I say “all” in the fullest sense of the word, for in our relation to Christ distinctions of nationality and social standing cease to be, and even those of sex are not counted, for you all are one person in Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:29) What does this imply? Nothing less than that if you, even you Galatians, are Christ’s then ye are (as He is) Abraham’s seed, and in accordance with promise (not in accordance with the Law) heirs of all that is promised to Abraham’s seed.

25. To he joined with the following, not the preceding, verses. St Paul is always practical. He will, if possible, wean the Galatians from the error of going back to the Law, and he here begins to state their privileges in Christ.

ἐλθούσης δὲ τῆς πίστεως. The article is resumptive as in Gal 3:20; Gal 3:23. The aorist is probably not “punctiliar,” but refers to that time in the past already mentioned. But in turning to express the present effect of that coming he breaks the natural consecution of tenses.

οὐκέτι ὑπὸ παιδαγωγόν ἐσμεν. “Nam paedagogi utiles quidem sunt puerulis parvulis propter parvulitatem eorum. Non sunt autem necessarii, quando puer in usu effectus ad perfectam profecerit doctrinam” (Theodore of Mopsuestia). Thus the Law is not opposed to grace by preparing for it; it is only opposed to it if we stay in it after grace has come (cf. Chrys.). ἐσμεν. Probably St Paul has here passed to thinking of all believers. In Gal 3:26 he turns directly to the Galatians.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

"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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 25. But, after that faith is come] When Christ was manifested in the flesh, and the Gospel was preached, we were no longer under the pedagogue; we came to Christ, learned of him, became wise unto salvation, had our fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life.

It is worthy of remark that, as ὁ νομος, the LAW, is used by St. Paul to signify, not only the law, properly so called, but the whole of the Mosaic economy, so ἡ πιστις, the FAITH, is used by him to express, not merely the act of believing in Christ, but the whole of the Gospel.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

25. But after that faith is come. This phrase has been already considered. It denotes the brighter revelation of grace after that “the vail of the temple was rent in twain,” (Matthew 27:51,) which, we know, was effected by the manifestation of Christ. He affirms that, under the reign of Christ, there is no longer any childhood which needs to be placed under a schoolmaster, and that, consequently, the law has resigned its office, — which is another application of the comparison. There were two things which he had undertaken to prove, — that the law is a preparation for Christ, and that it is temporal. But here the question is again put, Is the law so abolished that we have nothing to do with it? I answer, the law, so far as it is a rule of life, a bridle to keep us in the fear of the Lord, a spur to correct the sluggishness of our flesh, — so far, in short, as it is

“profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that believers may be instructed in every good work,” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17,)

— is as much in force as ever, and remains untouched.

In what respect, then, is it abolished? Paul, we have said, looks at the law as possessing certain qualities, and those qualities we shall enumerate. It annexes to works a reward and a punishment; that is, it promises life to those who keep it, and curses all transgressors. Meanwhile, it requires from man the highest perfection and most exact obedience. It makes no abatement, gives no pardon, but calls to a severe reckoning the smallest offenses. It does not openly exhibit Christ and his grace, but points him out at a distance, and only when hidden by the covering of ceremonies. All such qualities of the law, Paul tells us, are abolished; so that the office of Moses is now at an end, so far as it differs in outward aspect from a covenant of grace.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(25-29) But now the Law has been exchanged for the dispensation of faith. Henceforth the old state of pupilage is at an end. We are no longer like children, but adult members of the divine family—sons of God. We have entered into this relation by faith in Christ. For to be baptised into Christ is to enter into the closest possible relation to Him. It is to be identified with Him entirely. Nor is any excluded. The old barriers of race, status, and even sex, are done away. Through their relation to Christ, all Christians, as it were, unite to form a single man. They are a body animated by a single personality and will. And their relation to Christ stamps them as the true descendants of Abraham. In them is the promise of the Messianic blessing fulfilled.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. But after that faith is come] See note on Gal_3:23.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But after that faith is come,.... That is, since Christ the object of faith is come in the flesh, and has fulfilled the law, and redeemed them that were under it from its bondage, curse, and condemnation:

we are no longer under a schoolmaster; under the law as such; as no longer under it as a military guard, nor in it as a prison, so neither under it as a schoolmaster; not needing its instructions, or its discipline; since Christ is come as a prophet to teach and instruct, as a priest to atone for sin, and make intercession for transgressors, and as a King to rule and govern; in whose hands, and not in the hands of Moses, the law now is, as a rule of walk and conversation.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Ver. 25. But after that faith] That is, the gospel, or Christ the author and matter of the gospel. See Gal 3:23.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But after that faith is come - The scheme of salvation by faith. After that is revealed; see the note at Gal 3:23.

We are no longer under a schoolmaster - Under the poedagogus, or pedagogue. We are not kept in restraint, and under bondage, and led along to another to receive instruction. We are directly under the great Teacher, the Instructor himself; and have a kind of freedom which we were not allowed before. The bondage and servitude have passed away; and we are free from the burdensome ceremonies and expensive rites (compare the note at Act 15:10) of the Jewish law, and from the sense of condemnation which it imposes. This was true of the converts from Judaism to Christianity - that they became free from the burdensome rites of the Law and it is true of all converts to the faith of Christ, that, having been made to see their sin by the Law, and having been conducted by it to the cross of the Redeemer, they are now made free.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

25. Faith is come—The announcement of justification by faith is an announcement of maturity and liberty. We are no longer under a monitor. We are inspired with a living spirit of free action towards right and holiness. We have wisdom, strength, freedom.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But after that faith is come (ejlqoushv destewv); but now that Faith hath come; this white-robed, joy-bringing angel of deliverance! (see note on the words, in ver. 23, "before faith came"). We are no longer under a schoolmaster (oujketi ujpon ejsmen); we are no longer under a keeper of our childhood. When a child becomes of age, as determined by his father"s arrangement, the paedagogus"s function, of course, ceases; so also when we (God"s collective people) became believers in Christ, we had reached the era appointed by our Father for our coming of age, and the Law lost all hold upon us. This triumphant conclusion is based upon the premiss that the Law was the paeda-gogus of God"s people, and nothing more. This premiss is itself proved true to the apostle"s conviction, by the very nature of the case.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But faith - That is, the gospel dispensation. Being come, we are no longer under that schoolmaster - The Mosaic dispensation.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

VERSE 25. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

The Apostle declares that we are free from the Law. Christ fulfilled the Law for us. We may live in joy and safety under Christ. The trouble is, our flesh will not let us believe in Christ with all our heart. The fault lies not with Christ, but with us. Sin clings to us as long as we live and spoils our happiness in Christ. Hence, we are only partly free from the Law. "With the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." (Rom 7:25.)

As far as the conscience is concerned it may cheerfully ignore the Law. But because sin continues to dwell in the flesh, the Law waits around to molest our conscience. More and more, however, Christ increases our faith and in the measure in which our faith is increased, sin, Law, and flesh subside.

If anybody objects to the Gospel and the sacraments on the ground that Christ has taken away our sins once and for always, you will know what to answer. You will answer: Indeed, Christ has taken away my sins. But my flesh, the world, and the devil interfere with my faith. The little light of faith in my heart does not shine all over me at once. It is a gradual diffusion. In the meanwhile I console myself with the thought that eventually my flesh will be made perfect in the resurrection.

Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.

schoolmaster

(Greek - παιδαγωγός, "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" Gal 4:1 became a; Son 1:1; Gal 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); Heb 12:5-10; 1Jn 2:1; 1Jn 2:2.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor.

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

25. After that faith is come. When once brought to Christ we do not need the tutor any longer. We are no longer under him.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

25. ἐλθούσης δὲ τῆς πίστεως οὐκέτι ὑπὸ παιδαγωγόν ἐσμεν. “But the faith having come we are no longer under a pedagogue.” The article with πίστεως is restrictive, and the reference is as in v. 24 (q. v.) to the faith in Christ. οὐκέτι is temporal, contrasting the two periods of time, with possibly a suggestion of consequence, the post hoc being also a propter hoc. Cf. on 3:18. The phrase ὑπὸ παιδαγωγόν is equivalent, as concerns the fact referred to, to ὑπὸ νόμον, the epithet being substituted for the name; but conveys more clearly than ὑπὸ νόμον the idea of subjection and inferior standing. The coming of the faith is a historic event, identical with the giving of the gospel (see 4:4, 5, Rom 1:16, Rom 1:17), not an experience of successive individuals. Cf. on v. 24. How far this historic event was itself conditioned on personal experience, or how far it repeats itself in the experience of each believer is remote from the apostle’s thought here.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.