“The Epistle to the Galatians is my Epistle; I have betrothed myself to it; it is my wife.”—LUTHER.
“Principalis adversus Judaismum Epistola.”—TERT. adv. Marc. v. 2.
“Discrimen Legis et Evangelii est depictum in hoc dicto ‘posteriora mea videbitis, faciem means non videbitis.’
A wide multi-column table is printed here in the source volume (pages 828). It does not reflow into a single web column; the readable content of the source table is given elsewhere in this edition.
Evangelium
Ira Gratia
Peccatum Donum
Infirmitas Perfectio.”
LUTHER, Colloq. i., p. 20, ed 1571.
“Judaism was the narrowest (i.e. the most special) of religions, Christianity the most human and comprehensive. In a few years the latter was evolved out of the former, taking all its intensity and durability without resort to any of its limitations…. In St. Paul’s Epistles we see the general direction in which thought and events must have advanced; otherwise the change would seem as violent and inconceivable as a convulsion which should mingle the Jordan and the Tiber.”—MARTINEAU, StudiesofChristianity, p. 420.
IN the very first line of the Apostle’s greeting a part of his object—the vindication of his Apostolic authority— becomes manifest.1 In the Epistles to the Thessalonians he had adopted no title of authority; but, since those Epistles had been written, the Judaists had developed a tendency to limit the term Apostle almost exclusively to the Twelve, and overshadow all others with their immense authority. The word had two technical senses. In the lower sense it merely meant a messenger or worker in the cause of the Gospel, and, as an equivalent to the common Jewish title of Sheliach, was freely bestowed on comparatively unknown Christians, like Andronicus and Junias.2 Now Paul claimed the title in the highest sense, not from vanity or self–assertion, but because it was necessary for the good of his converts. He had the primary qualification of an Apostle, in that he had seen Christ, though for reasons which he explained in the last Epistle he declined to press it. He had the yet further qualification that his Apostolate and that of Barnabas had been publicly recognised by the Church of Jerusalem. But this claim also he wished to waive as unreal and even misleading; for his Apostolate was derived from no merely human authority. Writing to the Corinthians, some of whom had impugned his rights, he had intentionally designated himself as “a called Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” Writing to these weak and apostatising Galatians it was necessary to be still more explicit, and consequently he addresses them with his fullest greeting, in which he speaks both of his own authority and of the work of Christ. By impugning the first they were setting temporary relations above spiritual insight; by errors respecting the latter they were nullifying the doctrine of the Cross.
“Paul, an Apostle, not from men, nor by the instrumentality of any man, but by Jesus Christ and God our Father, who raised Him from the dead, and all the brethren with me,3 to the Churches of Galatia. Grace to you and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins that He may deliver us from this present evil state of the world, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom is His due glory4 for ever and ever. Amen.”5
This greeting is remarkable, not only for the emphatic assertion of his independent Apostleship, and for the skill with which he combines with this subject of his Epistle the great theologic truth of our free deliverance6 by the death of Christ, but also for the stern brevity of the terms with which he greets those to whom he is writing. A sense of wrong breathes through the fulness of his personal designation, and the scantiness of the address to his converts. He had addressed the Thessalonians as “the Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” He had written “to the Church of God which is in Corinth, to the sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.” About this very time he wrote to the Romans as “beloved of God, called to be saints.” To the Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, he adds the words “saints in Christ Jesus,” and “saints and faithful brethren;” but to these Galatians alone, in his impetuous desire to deal at once with their errors, he uses only the brief, plain address, “To the Churches of Galatia.”
And then without one word of that thanksgiving for their holiness, or their gifts, or the grace of God bestowed on them, which is found in every one of this other general Epistles, he bursts at once into the subject of which his mind is so indignantly full.
“I am amazed that you are so quickly shifting from him who called you in the grace of Christ into a differentGospel, which is not merely another,7 only there are some who are troubling you, and wanting to reverse the Gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach contrary to what we preached to you, let him be accursed.8 As we have said before, so now again I say deliberately, If any one is preaching to you anything contrary to what ye received, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.9 Well, am I NOW trying to be plausible to men, or to conciliate God Himself? Had I still been trying to be a man–pleaser, I should not have been what I am—a slave of Christ.”10
Such was the startling abruptness, such the passionate plainness with which he showed them that the time for conciliation was past. Their Jewish teachers said that Paul was shifty and complaisant, and that he did not preach the real Gospel. He tells them that it is they who are perverters of the Gospel, and that if they, or any one of them, or any one else, even an angel, preaches contrary to what he has preached, let the ban—the cherem—fall on him. He has said this before, and to show them that it is not a mere angry phrase, he repeats it more emphatically now, and appeals to it as a triumphant proof that whatever they could charge him with having done and said before, now, at any rate, his language should be unmistakably plain.
“Now I declare to you, brethren, as to the Gospel preached by me that it is not a mere human Gospel. For neither did I myself receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you heard my manner of life formerly in Judaism, that I extravagantly11 persecuted the Church of God, and ravaged it, and was making advance in Judaism above many my equals in age in my own race, being to an unusual degree a zealot for the traditions of my fathers. But when He who set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace thought good to reveal His Son in me that I should preach Him among the Gentiles, immediately I did not confer with mere human teachers, nor did I go away to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and again returned to Damascus.
“Next, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Kephas, and I stayed at his house fifteen days; but not a single other Apostle did I see, except James, the Lord’s brother.12 Now in what I am writing to you, see, before God, I am not lying.13
“Next I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was quite unknown by person to the Churches of Judæa which were in Christ, only they were constantly being told that our former persecutor is now a preacher of the faith which once he ravaged. And they glorified God in me.14
“Next, after fourteen years, I again went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking with me Titus also.15 And I went up by revelation, and referred to them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,16 privately however to those of repute, lest perchance I might be running, or even ran, to no purpose.17 But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised—but because of the false brethren secretly introduced, who slank in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus that they might utterly enslave us—[to whom not even (?)] for an hour we yielded bywayofthesubjectiontheywanted, in order that the truth of the Gospel may permanently remain with you.18 From those, however, who are reputed to be something—whatever they once were, makes no matter to me, God cares for no man’s person19—for to me those in repute contributed nothing, but, on the contrary, seeing that I have been entrusted with the Gospel of the uncircumcision, as peter of the circumcision—for He who worked for Peter for the Apostolate of the circumcision, worked also for me towards the Gentiles—and recognising the grace granted to me, James, and Kephas, and John, who are in repute as pillars, gave right hands of fellowship to me and Barnabas, that we to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision—only that we should bear in mind the poor, which very thing I was of my own accord even eager to do.20
“But when Kephas came to Antioch I withstood him to the face, because he was a condemned man.21 For before the arrival of certain from James22 he used to eat with the Gentiles; but on their arrival23 he began to withdraw and separate himself, being afraid of these Jewish converts. And the rest of the Jews joined in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was swept away by their hypocrisy.24 But when I perceived that they were not walking in the straight truth of the Gospel, I said to Kephas, before them all, If you, a born Jew, are living Gentile–wise and not Judaically, how can you try to compel the Gentiles to Judaise? We, Jews by birth and not ‘sinners’ of the Gentiles,25 but well aware that no man is justified as a result of the works of the Law, but only by means of faith in Jesus Christ—even webelieved on Jesus Christ that we may be justified as a result of faith in Christ, and not of the works of Law; for from works of Law ‘no flesh shall be justified.’26 But (you will object) if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we turn out to be even ourselves ‘sinners’ (men no better than the Gentiles), is then Christ a minister of sin?27 Away with the thought! For if I rebuild the very things I destroyed, then I prove myself to be not only a ‘sinner,’ but a transgressor.” The very rebuilding (he means) would prove that the previous destruction was guilty; “but it was not so,” he continues to argue, “for it was by Law that I died to Law;” in other words, it was the Law itself which led me to see its own nullity, and thereby caused my death to it that I might live to God.28 “I have been crucified with Christ;” my old sins are nailed to His cross, no less than my old Jewish obligations; yet this death is life—not mine, however, but the life of Christ in me; and so far as I now live in the flesh, I live in faith on the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself up for me. I am not, therefore, setting at nought the grace of God by proclaiming my freedom from the Levitical Law; you are doing that, not I; “for had righteousness been at all possible by Law, then it seems Christ’s death was superfluous.”29
He has now sufficiently vindicated his independent Apostleship, and since this nullification of the death of Christ was the practical issue of the Galatian retrogression into Jewish ritualism, he passes naturally to the doctrinal truth on which he had also touched in his greeting, and he does so with a second burst of surprise and indignation:—
“Dull Galatians!30 who bewitched you with his evil eye,— you before whose eyes Jesus Christ crucified was conspicuously painted?31 This is the only thing I want to learn of you;—received ye the Spirit as a result of works of Law, or of faithful hearing? Are ye so utterly dull? After beginning the sacred rite spiritually, will ye complete it carnally? Did ye go through so many experiences in vain?32 if it be indeed in vain. He then that abundantly supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh powers in you, does he do so as a result of works of Law or of faithful hearing? Of faith surely—just as ‘Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Recognise then that they who start from faith, they are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture foreseeing33 that God justifies the Gentiles as a result of faith,34 preached to Abraham as an anticipation of the Gospel, ‘In thee shall all the Gentiles be blessed.’ So they who start from faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. For as many as start from works of law are under a curse. For it stands written, ‘Cursed is every one who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the Law to do them.’ But that by law no man is justified with God is clear because ‘The just shall live by faith.’ But the Law is not of faith, but (of works, for its formula is) he that doth these things shall live by them. Christ ransomed us from the curse of the Law,—becoming on our behalf a curse, since it is written, ‘Cursed is every one who hangeth on a tree’35—that the blessing of Abraham may by Christ Jesus accrue to the Gentiles, that we may receive the promise of the Spirit by means of faith.”36
Then came some of the famous arguments by which he establishes these weighty doctrines—arguments incomparably adapted to convince those to whom he wrote, because they were deduced from their own principles, and grounded on their own methods, however startling was the originality of the conclusions to which they lead. Merely to translate them without brief explanatory comment would add very little to the reader’s advantage. I will endeavour, therefore, to throw them into a form which shall supply what is necessary to render them intelligible.
“Brethren,” he says, “I will give you an every–day illustration.37 No one annuls, or vitiates by additions, even a mere human covenant when it has been once ratified. Now the Promises were uttered to Abraham ‘and to his seed.’ The word employed is neither plural in form nor in significance. A plural word might have been used had many been referred to; the reason for the use of a collective term is because oneperson is pre–eminently indicated, and that one person is Christ.38 What I mean is this: God made and ratified a covenant with Abraham; and the Law which came four hundred and thirty years afterwards39 cannot possibly nullify the covenant or abrogate the promise. Now God has bestowed the gift on Abraham by promise, and therefore clearly it was not bestowed as a result of obedience to a law.40
“Why, then, was the Law? you ask; of what use was it?” Very briefly St. Paul gives them the answer, which in the Epistle to the Romans he elaborates with so much more fulness.
Practically, the answer may be summed up by saying that the Law was damnatory, temporary, mediate, educational.41 It was added to create in the soul the sense of sin, and so to lead to the Saviour, who in due time should come to render it no more necessary;42 and it was given by the ministry of angels43 and a human mediator. It was not, therefore, a promise, but a contract; and a promise direct from God is far superior to a contract made by the agency of a human mediator between God and man.44 The Law, therefore, was but “supplementary, parenthetical, provisional, manuductory.” How startling would such arguments be to those who had, from their earliest childhood, been taught to regard the Law as the one divine, inspired, perfect, and eternal thing on earth; the one thing which alone it was worth the labour of long lives to study, and the labour of long generations to interpret and to defend! And how splendid the originality which could thus burst the bonds of immemorial prejudice, and the courage which could thus face the wrath of outraged conviction! It was the enlightenment and inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God; yes, but the Spirit works by the human instruments that are fitted to receive His indwelling power; and, in the admirable saying of the Chinese philosopher, “The light of heaven cannot shine into an inverted bowl.” To many a thoughtful and candid Jew it must have come like a flash of new insight into the history of his nation, and of mankind, that he had elevated the Law to too exclusive a position; that the promise to Abraham was an event of far deeper significance than the legislation of Sinai; that the Promise, not the Law, was the primary and original element of Judaism; and that therefore to fall back from Christianity to Judaism was to fall back from the spirit to the letter—an unnatural reversion of what God had ordained.
But he proceeds, “Is there any opposition between the Law and the Promise? Away with the thought! In God’s œconomy of salvation both are united, and the Law is a relativepurpose of God which is taken up into His absolute purpose as a means.45 For had a Law been given such as could give life, righteousness would in reality have been a result of law; but the Scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise which springs from faith in Jesus Christ may be given to all who believe. For before the faith came we were under watch and ward of Law, till the faith which was to be revealed. So the Law became out tutor unto Christ, the stern slave guiding us from boyish immaturity to perfect Christian manhood,46 in order that we may be justified as a result of faith. But when the faith came we are no longer under a tutor. For by the faith ye are all sons of God in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as were baptised into Christ, put on Christ. There is no room for Jew or Greek, no room for slave or free, no room for male and female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus;47 and if ye are of Christ then it seems ye ate Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.48
“Now, what I mean is, that so long as the heir is an infant he differs in no respect from a slave, though he is lord of all, but is under tutors and stewards till the terms fixed by his father. So we, too, when we were infants, were enslaved under elements of material teaching; but when the fulness of time came God sent forth His Son—born of a woman, that we may receive the adoption of sons;49 born under Law, that He may ransom those under Law. But because ye are sons. God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, our Father! So thou art no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, an heir also by God’s means. Well, in past time not knowing God ye were slaves to those who by nature are not gods, but now after recognising God—nay, rather being recognised by God—how can ye turn back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments,50 to which again from the beginning ye want to be slaves? Ye are anxiously keeping days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you that I have perhaps toiled for you in vain.”51
In this clause the boldness of thought and utterance is even more striking. He not only urges the superiority of the Christian covenant, but speaks of the Jewish as mere legal infancy and actual serfdom; nay, more, he speaks of the ceremonial observances of the Levitical Law as “weak and beggarly rudiments;” and, worse than all, he incidentally compares them to the ritualisms of heathendom, implying that there is no essential difference between observing the full moon in the synagogue and observing it in the Temple of Mên; between living in leafy booths in autumn, or striking up the wail for Altis in spring; nay, even between circumcision and the yet ghastlier mutilations of the priests of Cybele.52 Eighteen hundred years have passed since this brief letter was written, and it has so permeated all the veins of Christian thought that in these days we accept its principles as a matter of course; yet it needs no very violent effort of the imagination to conceive how savage would be the wrath which would be kindled in the minds of the Jews—aye, and even of the Jewish Christians—by words which not only spoke with scorn of the little distinctive observances which were to them as the very breath of their nostrils, but wounded to the quick their natural pride, by placing their cherished formalities, and even the antique and highly–valued badge of their nationality, on a level with the pagan customs which they had ever regarded with hatred and contempt. Yet it was with no desire to waken infuriated prejudice that St. Paul thus wrote. The ritualisms of heathen worship, so far as they enshrined or kept alive any spark of genuine devotion, were not objectionable—had a useful function; in this respect they stood on a level with those of Judaism. The infinite superiority of the Judaic ritual arose from its being the shadow of good things to come. It had fulfilled its task, and ought now to be suffered to drop away. It is not for the sake of the calyx, but for the sake of the corolla, that we cultivate the flower, and the calyx may drop away when the flower is fully blown. To cling to the shadow when it had been superseded by the substance was to reverse the order of God.
Then comes a strong and tender appeal.
“Become as I, because I too became as you, brethren, I beseech you.53 It is not I whom you wronged at all, by your aberrations. Nay, to me you were always kind. You know that the former time it was in consequence of a sickness that I preached to you; and though my personal condition might well have been a trial to you, ye despised me not, nor loathed me,54 but as an angel of God ye received me, as Christ Jesus. What, then, has become of your self–felicitation? for I bear you witness that, if possible, ye dug out your very eyes and gave them me. So, have I become your enemy by speaking the truth to you?55
“Mere alien teachers are paying court to you assiduously, but not honourably; nay, they want to wall you up from every one else, that you may pay court to them.56 Now, to have court paid to you is honourable in an honourable cause always, and not only when I am with you,57 my little children whom again I travail with, until Christ be formed in you. But I could have wished to be with you now, and to change my voice to you,58 for I am quite at a loss about you.”59
Then, returning as it were to the attack, he addresses to them the curious allegory of the two wives of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, and their sons Ishmael and Isaac.60
These are types of the two covenants—Hagar represents Sinai, corresponds to, or is under the same head with bondage, with the Law, with the Old Covenant, and therefore with the earthly Jerusalem, which is in bondage under the Law; but Sarah corresponds to freedom, and the promise, and therefore to the New Covenant, and to the New Jerusalem which is the free mother of us all. There must be antagonism between the two, as there was between the brothers–sons of the slave and the free–woman; but this ended in the son of the slave–woman being cast out. So it is now; the unbelieving Jews, the natural descendants of the real Sarath, are the spiritual descendants of Hagar, the ejected bondwoman of the Sinaitic wilderness, and they persecute the Gentiles, who are the prophesied descendants of the spiritual Sarah. The spiritual descendants of Sarah shall inherit the blessing of which those Jews who are descended physically from her should have no share. Isaac, the supernatural child of promise, represents the spiritual seed of Abraham,—that is Christ, and all who, whether Jew or Gentile, are in Him. “Therefore, brethren, we,” he adds—identifying himself far more entirely with Gentiles than with Jews, “are not children of a slave–woman, but of the free. In the freedom wherewith Christ freed us, stand then, and be not again enyoked with the yoke of slavery.”
Again, how strange and how enraging to the Jews would be such an allegory! It was Philonian, Rabbinic; but it was more admirable than any allegory in Philo, because it did not simply merge the historical in the metaphorical; and more full of ability and insight than any in the Rabbis.61 This was, indeed, “to steal a feather from the spicy nest of the Phœnix” in order to wing the shaft which should pierce her breast. The Jews, the descendants of Sarah, by the irresistible logic of their own most cherished method, here find themselves identified with the descendants of the despised and hated Hagar, just as before they had heard the proof that not they but the converted Gentiles were truly Abraham’s seed!62
And the Galatians must be under no mistake; they cannot serve two masters; they cannot combine the Law and the Gospel. Nor must they fancy that they could escape persecution by getting circumcised and stop at that point “See,” he says, “I, Paul—who, as they tell you, once preached circumcision—I, Paul, tell you that, if you hanker after reliance on circumcision, Christ shall profit you nothing. Nay, I protest again to every person who gets himself circumcised, that he is a debtor to keep the whole Law. Ye are nullified from Christ, ye who seek justification in Law, ye are banished from His grace; for we spiritually, as a consequence of faith, earnestly await the hope of righteousness. For in Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working by means of love.”63 “In these,” as Bengel says, “stands all Christianity.”
“Ye were running bravely. Who broke up your path to prevent your obeying truth? This persuasion is not from Him who calleth you. It is an alien intrusion—it comes only from one or two—yet beware of it. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Ifeel confident with respect to you64 in the Lord that you will adopt my views; and he who troubles you shall bear the burden of his judgment, be he who he may. And as for me, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still an object of persecution? The stumbling–block of the cross has been done away with, it appears! They are not persecuted,—just because they preach circumcision; why then should Ibe, if as they say I preach it too? Would that these turners of you upside down would go a little further than circumcision, and make themselves like the priests of Cybele!65
“I cannot help this strong language; for yewere called for freedom, brethren; only, not freedom for a handle to the flesh, but by love be slaves to one another.66 For the whole Law is absolutely fulfilled67 in one word in the ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ But if ye are biting and devouring one another, take heed that ye be not consumed by one another.68
“I mean then, walk spiritually, and there is no fear of your fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. The flesh and the spirit are mutually opposing principles, and their opposition prevents your fulfilling your highest will. But if ye are led by the spirit ye are not under Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are manifest; such are fornication, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, witchcrafts,69—enmities, discord, rivalry, wraths, cabals, partyfactions, envies, murders,70—drunkenness, revellings,71 and things like these; as to which I warn you now, as I warned you before, that all who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit72 is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, beneficence, faith, gentleness, self–control. Against such things as these there is no law. But they that are of Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we are living spiritually, spiritually also let us walk. Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.”73
At this point there is a break. It may be that some circumstance at Corinth had powerfully affected him. Another lapse into immorality may have taken place in that unstable church, or something may have strongly reminded St. Paul of the overwhelming effect which had been produced by the sentence on the particular offender whom he had decided to hand over to Satan. However this may be, he says with peculiar solemnity:—
“Brethren, even though a man be surprised in a transgression, ye the spiritual restore such an one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest even thou shouldst be tempted. Bear ye the burdens of one another’s cares,74 and so shall ye fulfil the law of Christ. But if any man believes himself to be something when he is nothing, he is deceiving himself. But let each man test his own work, and then he shall have his ground of boasting with reference to himself, and not to his neighbour. For each one shall bear his own appointed load.75
“Let then him who is taught the word communicate with the teacher in all good things.76 Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that also he shall reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, from his flesh shall reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap life eternal. [That is the general principle; apply it to the special instance of the contribution for which I have asked you.] Let us not lose heart in doing right, for at the due time we shall reap if we faint not. Well, then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the family of the faith.77
“Look ye with what large letters I write to you with my own hand.78 As many as want to make fair show in the flesh, want to compel you to get yourselves circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For not even the circumcision party themselves keep the law, yet they want to get you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace on them and mercy, and on the Israel of God.” And then, as though by a sudden after–thought, we have the “Henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in triumph on my body the brands of Jesus.”79
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.”80
Such was the Epistle to the Galatians; not can we without some knowledge of what Judaism then was, and what it was daily becoming, form any adequate conception of the daring courage, the splendid originality—let us rather say the inspired and inspiring faith—which enabled the Apostle thus to throw off the yoke of immemorial traditions, and to defy the hatred of those among whom he had been trained as a Hebrew and a Pharisee. We must remember that at this very time the schools of Rabbinism were fencing the Law with a jealous exclusiveness which yearly increased in its intensity; and that while St. Paul was freely flinging open all, and more than all, of the most cherished hopes and exalted privileges of Judaism, without one of its burdens, the Rabbis and Rabbans were on the high road to the conclusion that any Gentile who dared to get beyond the seven Noachian precepts—any Gentile, for instance, who had the audacity to keep the Sabbath as a day of rest—without becoming a proselyte of righteousness, and so accepting the entire yoke of Levitism, “neither adding to it nor diminishing from it,” deserved to be beaten and punished, and to be informed that he thereby legally incurred the penalty of death.81 What was the effect of the Epistle on the Churches of Galatia we cannot tell; but for the Church of Christ the work was done. By this letter Gentiles were freed for ever from the peril of having their Christianity subjected to impossible and carnal conditions. In the Epistle to the Romans circumcision does not occur as a practical question. Judaism continued, indeed, for some time to exercise over Christianity a powerful influence, but in the Epistle of Barnabas circumcision is treated with contempt, and even attributed to the deception of an evil angel;82 in the Epistle of Ignatius, St. Paul’s distinction of the true and false circumcision is absolutely accepted;83 and even in the Clementine Homilies, Judaistic as they are, not a word is said of the necessity of circumcision, but he who desires to be un–Hellenised must be so by baptism and the new birth.84
The Epistle to the Galatians was quickly followed by that to the Romans, which was at once singularly like and singularly unlike its immediate predecessor. No violent external opposition, no deep inward sorrow was at that particular moment absorbing the Apostle’s soul. It was a little pause in his troubled life. The period of his winter stay at Corinth was drawing to a close. He was already contemplating a yet wider circle for his next missionary tour. The tide of his thoughts was turning wholly towards the West. He wished to see Rome, and, without making any prolonged visit, to confirm the Gospel in the capital of the world. He did not contemplate a long stay among the Roman Christians, because it was his invariable principle not to build on other men’s foundations. But he wished to be helped by them—with facilities which a great capital alone can offer—on his journey to Spain, where as yet the Gospel had been unpreached. His heart was yearning towards the shores whose vessels he saw in the ports of Lechæum and Cenchreæ, and whose swarthy sailors he may have often met in the crowded streets.
But before the could come to them he determined to carry out his long–planned visit to Jerusalem. Whether the members of that church loved or whether they hated him— whether they would give to his converts the right hand of fellowship or hold them at arm’s–length—he at least would repay evil with good; he would effectually aid their mass of struggling pauperism; he would accompany the delegates who carried to them a proof of Gentile love and generosity, and would himself hand over to the Apostles the sums— which must by this time have reached a considerable amount—which had been collected solely by his incessant endeavours. How earnestly and even solemnly had he brought this duty before the Galatians, both orally and be letter! how carefully had he recommended the Corinthians to prevent all uncertainty in the contributions by presenting them in the form of a weekly offering! how had he stimulated the Macedonians by the forwardness of the Achaians, and the Achaians by the liberality of the Macedonians. And after all this trouble, forethought, and persistence, and all the gross insinuations which he had braved to bring it to a successful issue, it was but natural that one so warm–hearted should wish to reap some small earthly reward for his exertions by witnessing the pleasure which the subscription afforded to the mother church, and the relief which it furnished to its humbler members. But he did not conceal from himself that this visit to Jerusalem would be accompanied by great dangers. He was thrusting his head into the lion’s den of Judaism, and from all his past experience it was but too clear that in such a place, and amid the deepened fanaticism of one of the yearly feasts, perils among his own countrymen and perils among false brethren, would beset every step of his path. Whether he would escape those perils was known to God alone. Paul was a man who cherished no illusions. He had studied too deeply the books of Scripture and the book of experience to be ignorant of the manner in which God deals with His saints. He knew how Elijah, how Isaiah, how Jeremiah, how Ezekiel, how Daniel, how John the Baptist, how the Lord Jesus Himself, had lived and died. He knew that devotion to God’s work involved no protection from earthly miseries and trials, and he quoted without a murmur the sad words of the Psalmist, “For Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep appointed to be slain.” But whether it was God’s will that he should escape or not, at any rate it would be well to write to the Roman Christians, and answer all objections, and remove all doubts respecting the real nature of his teaching, by a systematic statement of his beliefs as to the true relations between Jews and Gentiles, between the Law and the Gospel, as viewed in the light of the great Christian revelation that we are justified through faith in Christ. This, if anything, might save him from those Judaic counter–efforts on the part of nominal Christians, which had undone half his work, and threatened to render of no effect the cross of Christ. He therefore availed himself of the earliest opportunity to write and to despatch the greatest of all his Epistles—one of the greatest and deepest and most memorably influential of all compositions ever written by human pen—the Epistle to the Romans.