O foolish Galatians
Referring not to any national character, as some have thought, by
which they were distinguished from others for their rudeness in
knowledge, their ignorance and folly, as the Cretians for their
lying nor to their former state in unregeneracy, it being common
to all men, to God's elect themselves, before conversion, to be
foolish in a moral and spiritual sense; but to their present
stupidity about the article of justification, it being an
instance of most egregious folly to leave Christ for Moses, the
Gospel for the law, and the doctrine of free justification by the
righteousness of Christ, which brings so much solid peace and
comfort with it, for the doctrine of justification, by the works
of the law, which naturally leads to bondage. Now this was said,
not rashly, nor in anger, or on purpose to reproach and provoke,
and so not at all contrary to ( Matthew 5:22
) but in like manner as Christ said to his disciples, "O fools,
and slow of heart to believe" ( Luke 24:25 ) . So the
apostle here, as pitying the Galatians, grieved for them, and as
one surprised and astonished that ever people of such light, that
had had the Gospel so clearly preached to them, should ever give
into such a notion.
Who hath bewitched you?
some false teacher or another had, or it cannot be conceived how
their heads should ever have been turned this way; which must be
understood, not in a literal and proper sense, as Simon Magus
bewitched the people of Samaria with his sorceries, but in a
figurative and improper one; that as sorcerers and enchanters
cast a mist before people's eyes, or, by some evil arts or
juggling tricks, deceive their sight, and make objects seem to
appear which do not, or in a different form than they really do,
so these deceitful workers, who had transformed themselves into
the apostles of Christ, as Satan sometimes transforms himself
into an angel of light, had set this doctrine in a false light
before them, thereby to corrupt their minds from the simplicity
that is in Christ. Though the apostle reproves the Galatians for
their folly and weakness in giving in so easily to such
deceptions, yet he imputes the chief fault unto, and lays the
greatest blame on the false teachers; whom he represents as
sorcerers and enchanters, and their doctrine, particularly that
of justification by works, as witchcraft; it being pleasing to
men, a gratifying of carnal reason, and operating as a charm upon
the pride of human nature. What Samuel said to Saul, ( 1 Samuel
15:22 1 Samuel
15:23 ) may be applied to the present case, "to obey" the
truth "is better than sacrifice", than all the rituals of the
ceremonial law: "and to hearken" to the Gospel of Christ, "than
the fat of rams", or any of the legal institutions; "for
rebellion" against, and opposition to any of the doctrines of the
Gospel, and especially to this of justification by the
righteousness of Christ, "is as the sin of witchcraft". The Greek
word, (baskanw) , signifies
"to envy", and hence, "to bewitch"; because the mischief, by
witchcrafts, generally proceeds from envy; and so the Syriac
version, which the Arabic follows, renders it, (Nwkb Mox wnm) , "who hath envied
you", which suggests this sense, that the false apostles envying
their light and knowledge in the Gospel, their faith, peace,
comfort, and happiness, had endeavoured to introduce another
doctrine among them, subversive of all this.
That ye should not obey the truth.
This clause is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and in some
others, and in the Syriac version. By "the truth" is meant,
either the whole Gospel, often so called, in opposition to the
law, and the types and shadows of it; and because it is contained
in the Scriptures of truth, and comes from the God of truth; the
substance of it is Christ, who is the truth, and is what the
Spirit of truth leads into; or else particularly the doctrine of
justification by the righteousness of Christ, which is the truth
the apostle is establishing, and these Galatians seemed to be
going off from, through the artful insinuations of the false
teachers. Formerly these people had not only heard this truth,
but embraced it: they received the love of it, were strongly
affected to it, and firmly believed but now they began to
hesitate and doubt about it; they were not so fully persuaded of
it as heretofore; they seemed ready to let it go, at least did
not hold it fast, and the profession of it, without wavering as
before; they were fallen from some degree of the steadfastness of
their faith in, and of the obedience of it to this truth, which
is what was the design of the false apostles, and is here charged
upon the Galatians. The aggravations of which follow in this, and
in some subsequent verses,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set
forth;
meaning in the ministry of the Gospel, in the clear preaching of
it by the apostle; Jesus Christ was the sum and substance of his
ministry, in which he was set forth and described, and, as it
were, painted to the life by him; the glories and excellencies of
his divine person, the nature of his office, as Mediator, the
suitableness of him as a Saviour, the fulness of his grace, the
efficacy of his blood, sacrifice, and righteousness, were so
fully, and in such a lively manner expressed, that it was as if
Christ was personally and visibly present with them; yea, he was
so described in his sufferings and death, as hanging, bleeding,
dying on the accursed tree, that he seemed to be as it were, as
the apostle adds,
crucified among you:
for this cannot be understood literally, for he was crucified
without the gates of Jerusalem; nor does it respect the sin of
the Galatians in departing from the Gospel, as if that was a
crucifying of him again, and a putting him to open shame; nor
their sufferings for the sake of Christ, as if he, in that sense,
was crucified in them, and with them: but it intends the clear
Gospel revelation of a crucified Christ, in the preaching of him
by the apostle, which was such that no picture, no image, no
crucifix would come up to, and which, where such preaching is,
are altogether vain and needless; and the clear view these saints
had, by faith, in the glass of the Gospel of Christ, and him
crucified, which so realized the object, as if it was present and
before the natural eye. Now this was an aggravation of their
weakness and folly, that after such clear preaching, and clear
sight, they had of the Gospel, and of Christ in it, that they
should in the least degree depart from it.
