GALATIANS 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 247] GALATIANS 1 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC The apostle seems to write with a greater anxiety and severity to the Galatians than he did to the Corinthians. He tells them that if the line they were on was the right one, Christ had died for nothing. He has to vindicate the divine commission that he held (verse 1) which did not come through man, he did not get his commission through the twelve. We have not got the gospel directly from the Lord, nor from God the Father; we have got it mediately; Paul got it immediately. We owe it all to Paul, for he is in a special way our apostle. What was put into Paul was put there that it might be preached to the nations, the Son of God revealed in the affections of a man, so that that man might become the vessel of the ministry of the Son of God to the nations. If we have not got the gospel from Paul we have not got it at all; no one else has it: it comes that way, and it has pleased God that it should — He separated Paul from the outset and called him by His grace. It pleased God to reveal His Son in Paul so that Paul might preach Him in the glad tidings. Paul says in another place, “My glad tidings” (2 Timothy 2: 8) — he is able to appropriate personally as his own peculiar mission and treasure “my glad tidings”. He begins at the outset by preaching Christ, that He is the Son of God: it is a Man in the very supreme place of love and favour with God. The Son of God is the glorified Man in heaven, a Man in the supreme place of heavenly favour, divine affections and acceptance with God: it is a Man there who is preached as glad tidings; that is God’s mind for men, and nothing less. All is set forth in a heavenly, glorified Son of God. It pleased God that there should be a new commission from heaven. The twelve had their commission on earth, which compared with the days of the Lord Jesus in His flesh, resurrection and life on earth; but [p. 248] then, if one may so say, Paul compared with Him as a glorified Man in heaven. Paul’s knowledge of Christ is not after the flesh or in resurrection, but his knowledge of Him is as a glorified Man in heaven.
Ques Was Paul’s evidence greater than that of the disciples?
CAC Yes, “Last of all, as to an abortion, he appeared to me also” (1 Corinthians 15: 8). He was seen as a glorified Man in heaven, all that transcendent light above the brightness of the midday sun, shining in a glorified Man in heaven, all the effulgence of God in His beloved Son. I think the whole truth of the assembly is involved in it. “Why dost thou persecute me?” — those on earth were carrying the features of the heavenly Man, and Paul was persecuting them — the whole truth of the assembly was wrapped up in that pronoun “me”.
Ques How would you distinguish between a glorified Man in heaven and a Man in resurrection?
CAC A Man in resurrection stands in relation to all the previous history of man as on the earth; that is, man has been on earth and come under sin and death, but there is another Man who has been made sin and has gone into death, and by the grace of God that Man is seen in resurrection on earth. Resurrection stands in reference to what man is brought out of, the bringing out from that state of death which man has come under. Resurrection is in relation to the former history of man, which is taken up by Christ and God glorified as to it. A risen Christ is the evidence that everything is cleared; He has passed out of the scene of death in resurrection in perfect suitability for God’s world.
A glorified Christ in heaven stands in reference to the eternal purpose of God: the eternal purpose of God is to have a Man in heaven, who is morally worthy to be there. He has been in the place of humiliation, and has so glorified God in the question of sin and in victory over [p. 249] death, and so met the power of the enemy, that He is worthy to achieve the supreme place. All the purpose of God centres in Him; before the world began it was the purpose of God to have a Man in heaven, and the gospel as unfolded in this epistle is the gospel of divine purpose: it is connected with the Son of God, completely outside all the ruined state of man. Paul was set apart in the purpose of God from his birth: “Who set me apart even from my mother’s womb” (verse 15). He was not converted for many a year. This shows how on the side of purpose, before Paul had any history of responsibility, he was set apart; it is entirely connected with purpose. I am afraid there is very little preached of the gospel on the line of Galatians. Most preachings are to show how the ruin of man has been met by divine remedy: it is very blessed and needful, but it is not Paul’s gospel. It is very important and necessary to see that if man is not brought to repentance — Paul insists on that — if man is not brought to judge himself, he will not move on to the ground of a glorified Man in heaven. No man had ever such a profound sense of his own utter ruin as Paul had. He was a man of a good conscience, he had never done a wrong thing as far as his conscience went — he was a model man, and yet he was the worst man that ever lived, because he hated Christ with a more intense hatred than any other man. He was led by the Spirit to see himself as the chief of sinners, the first man in that army. There was not much reputation in being the chief of sinners: he found what a desperate state it was possible for the human heart to get into, that it should be filled with hatred to Christ.
Ques Was not Paul a specially prepared vessel?
CAC Yes, every minute of Saul’s life he was under the eye of the purpose of God, and every one of God’s elect is under the eye of God’s purpose from the moment they enter the world. God sovereignly overrules things; the place where we are born, the family into which we are born, the influences under which we come, our education, our profession or trade etc., God’s sovereignty takes it all into account, and so orders it that it may bring us into the way and spot of blessing and to the Man of blessing. Paul tells the Romans that he was separated to the gospel of God concerning His Son, he was separated to it, he was a gospel Nazarite, he had nothing to do with anything else. The most blessed thing in regard of our responsible history is that it is connected with divine sovereignty, and divine sovereignty has its way with us in connection with the life of responsibility; it lies behind things and moulds and orders them from the outset. Paul had no exercise when he was born, but he was separated, set apart from his birth. The Lord said, “I have other sheep which are not of this fold” (John 10: 16), and ‘I want all of them converted’. Some of them are sitting in this room tonight, Christ possesses them. He said also to Paul of Corinth, “I have much people in this city” (Acts 18: 10) — no one was converted there yet, but He says, “I have much people in this city”. Paul was set apart, not only for his personal blessing but as the vessel of the glad tidings, so the Lord says to Ananias, “Go, for this man is an elect vessel to me” (Acts 9: 15).
Ques Are we not all special vessels?
CAC Yes, for the blessing of the gospel, but we are not all apostles. I think Paul’s service was only connected with time, and with the place he would have in the world to come, but his eternal place in sonship we share with him. We are delivered from this present evil world and linked up with a glorified Man in heaven. There are two worlds: the present world and the world of purpose, and we are being taken out of one and set in another by divine sovereignty.
Ques How does that work out now?
CAC Every question is settled in regard to our sins: “Who gave himself for our sins, so that he should deliver us out of the present evil world” (verse 4).
Ques “Many are called ones, but few chosen ones” (Matthew 22: 14). Is it special to be chosen or are [p. 251] all chosen?
CAC Do you not think that that brings in a different thought from the thought of sovereignty which we have been speaking of? It brings in the thought of being chosen because of divine complacency. There is a sovereign choice; when the Lord said, “An elect vessel to me”, that is a sovereign choice, Paul had been divinely and sovereignly chosen. But when He says, “Many are called ones, but few chosen ones”, that is rather the choice of selection: God is selecting those whom He can approve. In regard of Christ, He is the Elect of God, that is not sovereign; He is the Elect of God because there is everything in Him which God could delight in. God chooses Him because there is everything there which is complacent to Him. “Chosen us in Him before the world’s foundation” (Ephesians 1: 4) is sovereign, but here (Matthew 22) we come into view as the elect of God having character which God can approve. It was said of Christ, “I have exalted one chosen out of the people” (Psalm 89: 19) — God looks over all the people and picks out Christ and says, ‘This is the One I delight in’.
Ques Are verses 15 and 16 for every believer, or specially to Paul?
CAC I thought they were specially in relation to Paul; he brings it in as vindicating his ministry and the divine character of it, which he has not got through any human channel. Paul got his gospel through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead: it came straight from divine Persons.
It is nice to see that Paul had many brethren with him, “All the brethren with me” (verse 2). He seems to delight to link others with himself: in other epistles it is Timothy, Sosthenes, or Silvanus, but here it is all the brethren: I think it was to show the importance of the question, that he had all the brethren with him. All those with him were in perfect accord with what he was writing; it gave him pleasure to link all the brethren with him; he does not move without the brethren.
[p. 252] If an evil principle is introduced it is likely to spread, not only locally but districtwise. Paul wonders that they should be so quickly changed (verse 6). It is a very solemn thing to find how quickly we can change.
Ques In what way does legality come in here?
CAC In giving some place to the flesh in what might be called the good side. They were going back to the law and circumcision, observing days and all that kind of thing. It all belongs to the present age: if I am under the law I am living in the present age. They are weak and beggarly elements because they produce nothing for God.
It was pointed out at the commencement that God had called them in the grace of Christ to the place that Christ has before Him, but they turned aside to another gospel; they quickly changed from all that, though they did not realise it until they got this letter. They probably had no idea that there had been any change at all, and it probably startled them when they read this epistle and found Paul wondering why they had so quickly changed. The ministry of the word produces exercise, and calls our attention to things that we should never have noticed if left to ourselves. If we were left to our own exercises we might drift a long way without noticing, but the ministry of the word pulls us up and shows where we are getting to. They had moved away from God and moved away from the holy calling of God. “Who has bewitched you?” (Galatians 3: 1). It shows the instability of man when left to himself, he is nothing but instability.
Ques How do works come in here?
CAC It appears that the works of the law and those things which had place in judaism had been brought into christianity to spoil it. The devil always takes up what God has laid aside, and he was very quick to bring in legal elements and works of the law such as observance of days, being circumcised, and all that kind of thing, which can be taken up by man after [p. 253] the flesh.
Ques Are we in danger of allowing anything like that?
CAC I think we are always in danger of legality in some form or other; the pendulum swings from one side to the other, a man is carnal at one time and legal at another. The great thing is to be kept spiritual, and then we shall not swing either side. If we walk in the Spirit we shall not be carnal or legal: we shall not be indulging the carnality of the flesh, or seeking to promote the legality of it.
Ques What form does legality take with us?
CAC I think we are much in danger of taking up the position of men in the flesh, and wanting some kind of recognition or place as in that order.
Ques Why does he bring in the thought of angels from heaven (verse 8)?
CAC Nothing was to be accepted from whatever quarter it might come, even from an angel from heaven. “If even we” — that is a fine touch. We have to see that we do not allow anyone to trouble us and pervert the glad tidings of the Christ. It is easy to see how they have been perverted in the whole of christendom, all kinds of legal elements have been brought in and are applied to man in the flesh, and the glad tidings of the Christ are perverted. We have all been involved in that kind of thing, and we have to see now that we are clear of it; we have to get free in our own spirits from influences of that kind, and come back to the joy and blessing of Paul’s gospel. The legal principle brings people into bondage: I should say that if a person is in bondage it shows that he is legal. The general tendency today is more to the Corinthian error, a laxity and looseness about things, self-indulgence and all that, but legality brings people into bondage and results in the works of the flesh coming out. The Corinthian says, “Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15: 32), but the Galatian says, ‘I will not do that and then I shall be a good man’.