Commentary on Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians Thessalonians Timothy Titus and Philemon John Calvin (continued)
CHAPTER 1
by corruption. 29 Christ, therefore, died for our sins, in order to redeem or separate us from the world.
From the present wicked age. By adding the epithet ``wicked'', he intended to shew that he is speaking of the corruption or depravity which proceeds from sin, and not of God's creatures, or of the bodily life. And yet by this single word, as by a thunderbolt, he lays low all human pride; for he declares, that, apart from that renewal of the nature which is bestowed by the grace of Christ, there is nothing in us but unmixed wickedness. We are of the world; and, till Christ take us out of it, the world reigns in us, and we live to the world. Whatever delight men may take in their fancied excellence, they are worthless and depraved; not indeed in their own opinion, but in the judgment of our Lord, which is here pronounced by the mouth of Paul, and which ought to satisfy our minds.
According to the will. He points out the original fountain of grace, namely, the purpose of God; ``for God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.'' (John 3:16.) But it deserves notice, that Paul is accustomed to represent the decree of God as setting aside all compensation or merit on the part of men, and so Will denotes here what is commonly called ``good pleasure.'' 30 The meaning is, that Christ suffered for us, not because we were worthy, or because anything done by us moved him to the act, but because such was the purpose of God. Of God and our Father is of the same import as if he had said, ``Of God who is our Father.'' 31
5. To whom be glory. By this sudden exclamation of thanksgiving, he intends to awaken powerfully in his readers the contemplation of that invaluable gift which they had received from God, and in this manner to prepare their minds more fully for receiving instruction. It must at the same time be viewed as a general exhortation. Every instance in which the mercy of God occurs to our remembrance, ought to be embraced by us as an occasion of ascribing glory to God.
Galatians 1:6-9
Galatians 1:6-9
6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 29"Non pas que cela viene de la creation, mais de leur corruption." "Not that this comes from creation, but from their corruption."
30{Οὐκ} {εἶπε} {κατ} {᾿} {ἐπιταγὴν} {τοῦ} {Πατρὸς} {ἀλλὰ} {κατὰ} {τὸ} {θέλημα}, {τουτέστι} {τὴν} {εὐδοκίαν} ``He did not say, according to the command, but according to the will, that is, according to the good pleasure, of the Father.'' --- Theophylact.
31"An English reader would readily suppose that 'God and our Father' are two different persons. The original text suggests no such idea. The meaning is, 'our God and Father'. — The particle {καὶ} (and) is here hermeneutic. As Crellius says, it is equivalent to `that is' or `who is;' or rather, it does not connect different persons, but different descriptions of the same person: 1 Corinthians 2:2; Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:11; 1 Peter 1:2 {̔Ημῶν} belongs equally to both nouns, {Θεοῦ} and {Πατρός} --- Brown.