William Burkitt's Expository Notes

Galatians 3:1

Observe here, 1. The object of the apostle's sharp reprehension, the churches of Galatia.

Observe, 2. The ground of their reprehension, their defection from the truth into. very great error, namely, their holding of circumcision, and the observation of the ceremonial law, as necessary to salvation; which was. making of the cross of Christ of no effect, and. virtual denial of his being come in the flesh.

From hence we learn, that the best and purest of particular churches may err, and have erred fundamentally and dangerously: For what consists such. church of, but persons all fallible? Head and members, being all sinful, are as unable to secure themselves from error, as from vice. Indeed the church of Rome talks big, and boasts of. false gift, that of infallibility; but could never yet agree where it is lodged, whether in the Pope, or in. general council; however, they are sure they have it. Well, if so, the more wicked and wretchedly inexcusably are they, in not improving their talent of infallibility for the best service of the Christian church, namely, by writing one infallible comment upon the whole Bible. What. serviceable performance would it have been in them, to pin the Pope in his chair, and hold down his hands to write, as Aaron and Hur held up Moses's hands to pray, till all the Amalekite errors and heresies, so much complained of, were routed and ruined! Woe unto them that let such an excellent gift lie idle amongst them, and unemployed by them.

Observe, 3. The high and heinous aggravation of this fault in the Galatians, before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified among them; that is, Christ, and their freedom by him from the bondage of the ceremonial law, had been preached to them: and his death and sufferings, with the great end and design of them, as plainly laid before them, as if Christ himself had been crucified in the midst of them.

Observe, lastly, the brand of infamy which our apostle sets upon the Judaizing doctors, heretical and false teachers; he calls them spiritual sorcerers, and their doctrines spiritual witchcraft: O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?

Because, 1. As sorcerers, by deluding the senses, make persons apprehend they see what they see not; so heretics, by casting. mist of seeming reason before the understanding, do delude it, and make the deluded person believe that to be truth, which indeed is not.

2. As sorcerers, in what they do, are assisted beyond the reach of their own ability and skill, by the help of Satan; so heretical spirits are often, by Satan's concurrence with them, more than ordinarily assisted by him, in drawing multitudes after them: O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? The original word seems borrowed from the practice of witches and sorcerers, who being assisted by the devil, use to cast mists before the eyes of the people, to dazzle and delude them.

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William Burkitt's Expository Notes

Galatians 3:1

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