O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth crucified? [The Galatians were of well-known intellectual capacity, and their foolishness in not detecting the fallacious reasoning of the Judaizers was hard to understand. Their conduct was so inexplicable... [ Continue Reading ]
This only would I learn from you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? [Romans 1:5; Romans 16:26. I need ask you but one test question to utterly condemn your conduct. I will refer you to your own experience. When I came and labored among you, God approved and... [ Continue Reading ]
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh?... [ Continue Reading ]
Did ye suffer so many things in vain? If it be indeed vain. [Paul here reproves them in that they have begun their life in the manhood of the Spirit, with the attendant spiritual powers, liberties and graces, and were now seeking to advance or perfect that life by turning back to the childhood of th... [ Continue Reading ]
He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? [According to the unvarying rule of Paul's writings, the pronoun "he" in this verse refers to God rather than to God's minister, though the latter reference... [ Continue Reading ]
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. [Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3; Romans 4:9; Romans 4:21-22]... [ Continue Reading ]
Know therefore that they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham. [For by faith Abraham came into such relations with God that he attained righteousness and justification; and I want you to know that those who follow his spiritual example are his real or spiritual children, to the exclusion... [ Continue Reading ]
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. [Genesis 12:3]... [ Continue Reading ]
So then they that are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. [The word for "Gentiles" and "nations" is the same; so Paul says that the Scripture, foreseeing that the Gentiles would be justified by faith, just as Abraham was, foretold to him this gospel of justification by saying, "In thee s... [ Continue Reading ]
For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. [Deuteronomy 27:26. But if the Scripture declares positively that the blessing of justification comes by faith, i... [ Continue Reading ]
Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident: for, The righteous shall live by faith [Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17]... [ Continue Reading ]
and the law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them. [Leviticus 18:5. Moreover, later prophecy bears out the earlier declaration made to Abraham, for it says that the righteous obtain life, or salvation, by faith, and this has no reference whatever to the law, for the law is not... [ Continue Reading ]
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree... [ Continue Reading ]
that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. [Deuteronomy 21:23. Compare Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Corinthians 7:23; Titus 2:14; etc. That the Galatians may realize the full meaning... [ Continue Reading ]
Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: Though it be but a man's covenant, yet when it hath been confirmed, no one maketh it void, or addeth thereto... [ Continue Reading ]
Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. [Genesis 13:15; Genesis 17:8]... [ Continue Reading ]
Now this I say: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect... [ Continue Reading ]
For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise: but God hath granted it to Abraham by promise. [Brethren, I wish to use an illustration taken from our daily business life, viz.: that of our usage concerning contracts or agreements. Now if, when a human contract has once been confirme... [ Continue Reading ]
What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator.... [ Continue Reading ]
Now a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one. [This verse has been interpreted in more than three hundred different ways.]... [ Continue Reading ]
Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law.... [ Continue Reading ]
But the scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. [The apostle now undertakes to show the inferiority of the law to the gospel. For what purpose then, you ask, was the law? It was added by God for the purpose of revealing a... [ Continue Reading ]
But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.... [ Continue Reading ]
So that the law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. [In the first of these two verses, Paul enlarges the thought of verse 22, fully describing those subjects of the law as prisoners incarcerated in a fortress, and awaiting the coming of a deliverer. The... [ Continue Reading ]
But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor.... [ Continue Reading ]
For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. [Faith, announcing justification from sin, is like a messenger of the father's announcing maturity and liberty to the son so long under the care of a tutor. From the time of this announcement the son ceases to be a minor, shut off from the... [ Continue Reading ]
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.... [ Continue Reading ]
There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus. [Having declared that faith, that is to say, the gospel, brings us into sonship to God, Paul describes the particular step by which this is accomplished. T... [ Continue Reading ]
And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise. [The promise was given to Christ, the seed of Abraham, and if ye are Christ's, then are ye in him heirs of that promise. Thus Paul demonstrates that the gospel privileges are not obtained by the law, but by the gospel sy... [ Continue Reading ]