Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Galatians 1:4

Galatians 1:4. Paul here touches on the doctrinal, as in Galatians 1:1 he touched on the personal, point of controversy with the false teachers. He holds up at once before the Galatians, who were returning to the bondage of the law, the picture of the dying Saviour, who, by the one sacrifice on the cross, fully and forever accomplished our redemption, so that we need not resort to any human means of salvation or go back to a preparatory dispensation.

Who gave himself, nothing less than His own person, into death, as a ransom and expiatory sacrifice (Romans 4:25; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14; Matthew 20:28).

For our sins, to atone for them, and thereby to abolish the guilt and to reconcile us to God (Romans 3:25; Galatians 3:13). All sins are included, great and small, past and present, known and unknown.

That he might deliver u s. Lit, tear away, from a power, the expression used by the Lord of Paul's own deliverance (Acts 26:17). ‘It strikes the key-note of the Epistle. The gospel is a rescue, an emancipation from a state of bondage' (Lightfoot).

From (or out of) this present evil world (æon, age), from the state and order of this transitory world, where sin and death reign, from the world which lies in wickedness (1 John 5:19), in opposition to the supernatural order of the heavenly kingdom, which begins even here on earth (for he who believeth in Christ ‘hath eternal life'), but which will not be fully revealed till the glorious appearance of Christ (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 2:2; 1 Timothy 6:17; Hebrews 6:5). The words contain an allusion to the Jewish distinction between ‘this world' and ‘the world to come,' or the period before and the period after the appearance of the Messiah. But the distinction is modified in the New Testament: the present world of temptation and trial extends to the second and glorious coming of Christ; and the future world, though beginning here in faith, does not fully appear to sight till the consummation. The primary distinction of time (present and future) is lost in the moral distinction (good and evil); and hence ‘evil' is placed in the Greek emphatically at the end. The verse implies a longing after the glorious liberty of the children of God. The Apostles lived on the border line of two aeons, looking sadly on one and hopefully on the other. So all true Christians are pilgrims and strangers in this world of sin and sorrow, and have their citizenship in heaven.

According to the will of God, from whom the whole plan and process of redemption proceeds, so that all the glory belongs to Him, and not to man. The sacrifice of the Son was not forced, or even commanded, by the Father, but strictly voluntary, as is implied in the preceding words: ‘Who gave himself for our sins' (comp. John 10:18). It was the act of His free love in full harmony with the eternal design of the Father, who ‘is not desiring that any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance' (2 Peter 3:9).

And our Father, who is at the same time our loving, merciful Father, and who out of infinite love gave His Son for our salvation.

Our,' however, may also be connected with both nouns: ‘our God and Father.'

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Galatians 1:4

Old Testament

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