“Christ First, Me Last–Nothing Between But Love”

"Christ First, Me Last–Nothing Between But Love"

(No. 2370)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, JULY 22, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 10,
1888.

"The faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me,"
Galatians 2:20.

Paul looks at the matter of salvation from the point of view suggested
by Grace. If any man might have said, "The Son of God, whom I have
loved, and to whom I have given myself," it would have been the
Apostle. On another occasion, speaking of the Lord, he said, "Whose I
am, and whom I serve." But here he thinks not of himself, or of what he
had been led to do for the Lord, but only of what the Lord had done for
him! He dug down to the foundation of salvation–he traced the stream
of Grace back to the Fountainhead and, therefore, he spoke of "the Son
of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

You will not do wrong, my Beloved Friends, if you meditate on what the
Grace of God has enabled you to do–if you do it humbly and if you
praise God for it. I think that we sometimes forget to give Glory to
the Lord for the sanctifi-cation we have already received. I have heard
persons thank God for their health and for their wealth, but I have not
so often heard them express gratitude for Divine Grace. I do not know
that I wish to hear them praise God for their virtue, but still, if
they have any, and they know that they have, let them praise God for
it–for what virtue have they which they have not received? If you have
any faith, if you have any hope, if you have any love–if there is any
difference between you and your fellow men, if you possess anything by
which God is glorified–you ought to thank Him for it and to praise and
bless His holy name. Still, there would always be a tendency, in
dwelling even on what we have done by the Grace of God, to begin to get
unduly exalted and, on the whole, it is far wiser to think of what
Christ has done for you than of what you have done for Him!

I say, again, you may think of what you have done for Christ and give
God the Glory for it, but it will not be well to dwell upon that
thought to any great extent. I am sure it will not do to think upon it
in the hour of deep distress of mind, or especially in the prospect of
death. Then we gather up all our good works and throw them overboard!
We look upon the best things that we have ever worked, even by the
power of the Spirit of God, as quite secondary to what Christ has
worked out for us and brought in and laid before His Father as the
ground of our acceptance with Him.

I like to think of our text and I invite you to think of it in the
light of Free Grace. "Who loved me and gave Himself for me." I cannot
preach much at this time, but I can talk to you a little of what I have
tasted, handled and felt–and I pray the Holy Spirit to help you–not
so much to hear the text explained, as to feel its gracious influence
moving over your spirit and awakening in your heart happy memories of
gratitude for blessings received.

I. Our first division shall be THE FACT REMEMBERED–"Who loved me, and
gave Himself for me."

Paul speaks of it as a fact ascertainable and one which he had,
himself, ascertained–that Jesus Christ loved him and gave Himself for
him. He is not speaking, now, of the love of benevolence which the Lord
Jesus Christ has towards all men, or even of that aspect of His work
which bears upon every creature under Heaven. He is thinking of that
special love, that discriminating Grace which had lighted upon him.
That is the point around which our thoughts are to gather as we
meditate upon Paul's words, "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
The Apostle knew that Christ had loved him and had given Himself for
him. And we, also, may know it. It is not necessary for us to go
through life merely hoping and fearing, questioning and enquiring–we
may come to the certain knowledge of the fact, if it is a fact, that we
have an interest in the special love of Jesus Christ, that we are
redeemed from among men, that we are called and separated to be the
Lord's peculiar people, that each of us may be able to say of the Lord
Jesus Christ–"Who loved me, and gave Him-

self for me." I would not distress the mind of anyone who is feeble in
faith and who is clinging to Christ, but has never, yet, received full
assurance of salvation. But I would encourage such a person never to
rest until he gets rid of all questions and is able to say without the
slightest trepidation, "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

Christ died to save sinners–the sinners who are saved by Him are those
who trust Him. I trust Him, therefore He has saved me. This is a good,
sound argument. "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life." I
believe on Him, therefore I have everlasting life. This is solid ground
to rest upon. "He loved me, and gave Himself for me," of which the
evidence is that I trust Him. I rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no
confidence in the flesh. To this will be added the evidences of a work
of Grace in the heart. "We know that we have passed from death unto
life, because we love the brethren." "One thing I know, whereas I was
blind, now I see." We know this, also, by the witness of the Holy
Spirit, for, "the Spirit, Himself, bears witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God." And so, at last, we come to say with as
much confidence as Paul, himself, could say it, "Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me." Away, then, with all doubts and questions! Be gone,
you evil birds that pollute the Sacrifice! By a simple childlike faith
we come to Jesus and we take Him to be our Savior. We know that we
cannot come to Jesus unless the Father, who sent Him, draws us.
Therefore we know that we are drawn by Divine Grace and that He has
loved us with an everlasting love, because with loving kindness He has
evidently drawn us to Himself. So, you see, Paul is speaking of a fact
that is ascertainable, and a fact that, in his own case, was
ascertained. If we do not get to know it for ourselves, we cannot
rejoice in it.

Now just think for a few minutes of some well-known but very blessed
Truths of God which gather about this fact– "Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me." And first, it is a Divine Love. Paul speaks of "the
Son of God, who loved me." There are some persons who would be greatly
delighted if they heard that some nobleman loved them! And if we were
informed that some prince or princess loved us, we might feel ourselves
elevated–yet there would be very little in it to make us proud. If we
were informed that an angel loved us with all the great heart of an
unfallen spirit, we might take comfort from the fact–but the text
reminds us that it is the Son of God who has loved us! I cannot talk
about this Divine Love as it deserves, but I want you to try and feel
in your soul, "Jesus Christ loves me; not merely feeds me, thinks upon
me, is favorably inclined to me, but He loves me."

Love is a grand word, even in its silver use among men and women, but
love in its golden use with God in Heaven, what does it not mean? Oh,
marvelous, indeed, is the love of God towards His people! I say again
that I cannot worthily speak of it–words seem such poor things to
express the love of God. They break their backs in trying to convey the
wondrous weight of meaning. If this love is shed abroad in your heart
by the Holy Spirit, your heart's love will best read and understand
this wondrous fact that the Divine Being, the Everlasting Father, and
His ever-blessed Son, and the sacred Spirit, the great Trinity in
Unity, loves you. Oh, delight yourselves in this glorious Truth! It is
a sea of sweetness– dive into it and be filled with it!

The language of the text also suggests to me that I should remind you
that the love of Jesus was an ancient love. It is true that He loves us
now, but Paul also truly wrote, "Who loved me." The verb is in the past
tense. Jesus loved me upon the Cross. He loved me in the manger of
Bethlehem. He loved me before the earth was. There never was a time
when Jesus did not love His people! "Before the earth was," I said just
now, and I repeat it–He saw us in the glass of His eternal purposes,
He foreknew us, He looked ahead and saw what we would be, who we would
be and His love went forth to us before the day-star ever began to
shine! Think of it–"The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yes,
I have loved you with an everlasting love." That He should love us at
all is a wonder. That He should have loved us always is a wonder of
wonders! And this love is a part of His eternal purposes and is as old
as His arrangements for the history of the universe. "Who loved me, and
gave Himself for me." Truly, this was an ancient love!

Note further that as this love was Divine and ancient, so it was a
preeminently practical love–"Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Jesus could not give any more than Himself. He not only gave His crown,
His Throne, His Manhood, His life, His sufferings, His death, His
offices, His excellences, His merits–He gave Himself, His Godhead, His
Humanity! "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." It is not possible
for you to measure the unknown depths of Christ's sufferings, but if
you could, you would not have arrived at, "Himself." It is not merely
that which He did and said that Jesus gave for us–He gave Himself. It
was not simply that which belonged to Him which Jesus handed over for
us, but He gave Himself–"Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

O Beloved, I wish I had the strength and the ability to think and to
speak to you upon this practical display of our Lord's love as it
deserves, but I have not. Meditate upon it, I pray you. He gave Himself
for you in the Everlasting Covenant when He stood as your Surety and
Representative. He gave Himself for you through the long ages in which
He waited to come to earth to redeem you. He gave Himself for you when
He assumed your nature and became bone of your bone, and flesh of your
flesh. He gave Himself for you through a life of toil and
righteousness. He gave Himself for you as your Substitute when He, "His
own self, bore our sins in His own body on the tree." In the scourging,
the shame, the spitting, the bloody sweat, the Crucifixion, He gave
Himself for you! Take these blessed words of the Apostle and put them
in your mouth–and let them lie there as wafers made with honey till
they melt into your very soul–"Who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
In all these wondrous senses, keeping back nothing, reserving for
Himself nothing, no, not even the name of Himself, He loved me, and
gave Himself for me! Truly, this was practical love.

And I may say of it, in the next place, that it was a love altogether
immeasurable. If you measure a love by its gifts, you have certainly an
immeasurable love, here, because it was proven by an immeasurable gift!
The Nature of the Lord Jesus Christ is not to be comprehended. The
wondrous union of Godhead and Manhood made Him, I was about to say,
something more than God, for He had added to all the Infinity of His
Godhead, the capacity to suffer as a Man. But He gave Himself at His
utmost–the boundless, the inconceivable, the indescribable–He gave
Himself for me! There is a limit to everything else, but not to the
love of God. You say to the sea, "To here shall you come, but no
farther," but you cannot say that to this boundless sea of Divine Love!
You do not know by experience how much God loves you–you have only
drunk a little of the sweetness of this wondrous well of Living
Water–but you cannot tell the depth of it. There is no bottom to it!
You cannot exhaust its supply–you may drink, and drink, and drink
again, through a long life, yes, and throughout eternity you may go on
receiving of this love, but you will never measure its heights, depths,
lengths and breadths. That is quite beyond your power. You can only
love, dear Mother, to a certain degree, though you love your child to
the death. You can only love, dear Husband, up to a certain point,
though you are willing to lay down your life to raise your spouse from
a sick bed. But God stops nowhere in His love–it is as boundless and
infinite as He is, Himself!

Our Lord Jesus Christ cannot possibly or conceivably be limited in His
love. I want you to try to get hold of this thought. Notice it. HE
loved me! Such a one as He is, He loved me–

"Christ first, me last–nothing between but love." Those words are very
sweet to me. I read them somewhere and they cling to my memory. "Who
loved me," the first word is, "who." The last word is, "me," and there
is "nothing between but love." Oh, that is a blessed position for
anyone to be in! Christ shall be first–I will be glad to be anywhere,
to be nothing, to be last–so long as there shall be this sweet link of
love between my soul and my Savior–"Who loved me and gave Himself for
me."

[As the sermon is shorter than usual, we insert the verses referred to
by Mr. Spurgeon, from which the title of the discourse has been
selected. The lines can be obtained from Messrs. Penman and Co., 33
Furnival Street, London, 6d. per dozen, or 3s. per 100, post free.

"WHO LOVED ME"

GALATIANS 2:20

Three blessed sunbeams, guiding all I see. Three tender chords, each
full of melody. Three healing leaves, balm for my agony. HE loved
me–the Father's only Son, He ga ve Himself–the precious, Spotless
One– He shed His blood and thus the work was done! HE LOVED, not
merely pitied. Here I rest. Sorrow may come, I to His heart am
pressed– What should I fear while sheltered on His breast? Wonder of
wonders! Jesus loved me! A wretch! Lost, ruined, sunk in misery! He
sought me, bound me, raised me, set me free!

My soul the order of the words approve Christ first, me last–nothing
between but love. Lord, keep me always down–Yourself above! Trusting
to You–not struggling restlessly So shall I daily gain the victory.
"I"–"yet not I but Christ,"–WHO LOVED ME!]

Let us reflect yet a moment further that this love is an abiding
love–"Who loved me." But He is unchanging, so that He still loves me!
He cannot love me more, He will not love me less. He has loved me at no
period more than He loves me, now, and if just now I may be groaning
because of my imperfections, and mourning because of my tribulations,
yet He loved me so as to give Himself for me–and He has never abated
from that love and He never will! It is a very fine thing, no doubt, to
have worldly substance, but it melts like the hoar frost in the sun. It
is a very great mercy to have bodily health, but how small a thing soon
takes it away and turns the joy of life into the shadow of death! But
if you get this love of Christ, you have a treasure which can never be
lost, a blessing that will never be exhausted. "Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me!" Sit down, dear child of God, and say to yourself,
"Here I have something which I shall never lose. It cannot be taken
from me. Oh, that by Grace I may be enabled to rejoice in it and to
return the love of my poor heart to Him who ceases not to love me!"

There is a great deal that might be said of such a Savior as this, but
I feel a consolation in my heart in being unable to say any new and
fresh thing, tonight, for the subject, in itself, ought to be to you
full of joy. And if your heart is right, it will be. If your heart is
not right with God, you will be craving for fine expressions and pretty
phrases. Judge your own spiritual condition, then, by this test–does
this theme, in itself, touch you? "Who loved me, and gave Himself for
me!" I will use it as a thermometer and drop it into your heart to see
the warmth of your affection to Christ. If you are as you should be,
full of a devout attachment to Him, you will say, "Yes, that is all I
need to feel and know–He loved me, and gave Himself for me!"

So much, then, upon the fact remembered.

II. Now, secondly, Beloved Friends, let me speak to you for just a few
minutes on THE FAITH CONFESSED. Paul says, "I live by the faith of the
Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

Observe, first, that the faith which made Paul live was faith in a
Person–"the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself
for me." Possibly, some of you are trying to get faith and yet you do
not know what saving faith is. You have heard a great deal about it,
but it is an astonishing thing that the best definition of faith in the
world does not make men see what faith is! The gas may be very bright,
but a man who is blind does not see any better because of the
brilliance of the light. The eyes of our soul must be opened if we are
to see what faith is.

Now, saving faith is faith in a Person, faith in the living, loving
Lord who gave Himself for us. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? I do not
merely mean, do you believe in His teachings? You must believe in them.
But to be saved you must believe in Him, "who loved me, and gave
Himself for me." There He stands–my faith seems to see Him, even now,
at the right hand of God, risen from the dead and gone into Glory–and
I come and trust Him and take Him to be my Savior. If He is my Savior,
it is His business to save me. I am not to save myself. I put myself
into His hands that He may keep me. I bring my foul self to Him, that
He may cleanse me–my dead self to Him, that He may quicken me–my
naked self to Him, that He may clothe me. I bring my good-for-nothing
self to Him that He may be precious to me and that I may be made
precious in Him! He is to be everything to me! It is not merely what I
read about Him that I am to believe, but I am to trust Him. Now,
Beloved, let those of us who have believed in Jesus long ago exercise
that faith afresh in this gracious loving way by now living by faith
upon the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us.

This faith, you perceive, is a faith in a clear and distinct fact–"the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." To go,
again, over the sacred ground on which we trod just now, the Apostle
does not say, "I have faith in the Son of God, of whom I hope that He
loved me." He knows it! He is sure of it and there is no comfort to
come out of faith until it learns to speak without stammering–and to
say of the Lord Jesus, "who loved me, and gave Himself for me." This
either is a fact, or it is not, and if it is a fact, full of every
consolation, why should I not know it? Ought you to give sleep to your
eyes until you know that He loves you and that you are His? This can be
proven, as I have already shown you. He that believes in Jesus has the
sure token of Divine Love. If you trust Him, trust Him wholly and
alone,

then He loved you and gave Himself for you–for you the manger at
Bethlehem, for you the Cross at Calvary, for you the empty sepulcher,
for you His pleading before the eternal Throne–He loved you, and gave
Himself for you, and it is for your faith to learn to speak this great
Truth of God plainly!

This faith was, next, an appropriating faith–"Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me." No faith except a personal faith will save the soul.
Another man's faith will not save me. I must have a Christ of my own.
The love that Christ has to others is pleasant to reflect upon, but it
cannot give me peace. It must be love which He has to me if it is to
save me– "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Somebody says that
such a desire as that is selfish. I answer that it is nonsense to talk
so! A wife is not thought to be selfish because she rejoices in her
husband's love. A child is not selfish because he is happy in his
father's love. How, dear Friends, can I take any joy in the love of
Christ to men in general, if I have no sense, whatever, of His love to
me? Of what use could it be to me? In order that I may love my fellow
men, I must first come to know that Christ loves me. How can I have a
blessing in the saving of the souls of others if my own soul is not,
first, saved? Let your religion begin at home–and when you make sure
of its presence there, then you may sing–

"Now will I tell to sinners round What a dear Savior I have found."

It would be a poor occupation to go out and tell them of a dear Savior
that you had not found, to tell them of manna that you had never
gathered and of waters of which you had never drunk! No, in order to be
truly useful in the Lord's service, you must, first of all, know in
your own experience the truth of Paul's words, "Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me." Our text is the language of faith. Unbelief says,
"Yes, Christ is very loving," but if you have true faith, you will say,
"He loved me." Unbelief says, "I know that Christ loves His people, but
I am afraid that He would never love me." Such talk as this is
mistrustful and ruinous to the soul! But Faith, as soon as it opens its
mouth, begins to make a personal appropriation of the blessings of the
Grace of God. What do you do when you come to the Communion Table? Do
you come there to see other people eat bread and drink wine? No, but in
Communion, you, each of you, eat, and each of you drink–that is the
very essence of Communion. So must each of you take Christ to be yours,
personally, and say, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." This is
the faith which is mentioned by the Apostle–an appropriating faith.

And as I read the text, it looks to me as if it was a faith full of
wonderment. Though the Apostle speaks of it as a matter of fact, yet he
seems to be much astonished, as he says, "Who loved me, and gave
Himself for me." I am sure that if the Lord will put into your soul a
sense of the love of Christ, it will ravish your heart and it will
carry you away with astonishment. You will go home and say to yourself,
"The greatest wonder in the two worlds of Heaven and earth is this,
that He loved me, and gave Himself for me!" And in consequence you will
be filled with holy joy and rejoicing. "He loved me, and gave Himself
for me," will ring like marriage bells in your heart! Not all the harps
of Heaven can sound out sweeter music than this text when the Holy
Spirit speaks it to our soul, "the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
Himself for

me."

III. I must not tarry longer on this sweet theme, but must finish with
this point–THIS FAVOR ENJOYED. There is a certain power that lies in
this fact, remembered, and that grows out of this faith, confessed.
Paul says that he lived by the faith of the Son of God who loved Him,
and gave Himself for him.

Beloved Friends, a sense of the love of Christ to you, personally, will
affect your whole life. It will change it, at first, but it will keep
it changed ever afterwards, and it will go on increasing in its power
over you till, when you fully know it, every thought, every word and
every action will seem to be set in the key of love–"who loved me, and
gave Himself for me." That religion which does not affect the whole
life is a dead and worthless religion, but this essence of our holy
faith, "who loved me, and gave Himself for me," is Divinely operative
upon the entire man. Alone, or with others in the family, or in the
business, whatever his calling is, this will tincture it all with a
heavenly sweetness, "who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

And this will be particularly seen in the relieving of your griefs.
Full of pain, you will say to yourself, "Yet He loved me. He has not
sent this pain for nothing. He does not afflict willingly, for He loved
me and gave Himself for me." If you are very poor, you will say to
yourself, "He gave the riches to Dives, but Lazarus lay in His bosom.
He loved me, and gave Himself for me, and that is better than wealth."
And if ever you come to be despised for His sake, and men cast out your
name as evil, you will say, "I do not mind it at all. I can even
rejoice in it, for He loved me, and gave Himself for me!

And I may well give up myself, my reputation and everything else for
Him." Sorrow ceases to be sorrow when once there is in the heart a
sweet sense of the infinite love of Christ!

This thought will also help you in your labor. When you have something
to do for Jesus that rather tries you. When you feel disappointed and
baffled and the devil tempts you to give it all up and run away, you
will say to yourself, "How can I? He loved me, and gave Himself for
me." By Gethsemane and Calvary you will bind yourself to the sternest
labor for His dear sake. Nothing is too hot or too heavy for a man
whose heart is on fire with Divine Love! When the torrents of love
sweep through the soul, then every obstacle is overcome. I can go as a
missionary to the Congo and joyfully die in that malarious climate when
I know that He loved me, and gave Himself for me! I can try to preach
in the streets of London amid the jeers and the noise of the passers-by
when I know that He loved me, and gave Himself for me! You will go
cheerfully to the slums, you will visit the lodging houses, you will
teach the ignorant, you will look after the foul and the depraved when
you get this Truth of God impressed on your heart–"He loved me, and
gave Himself for me."

And, Beloved Friends, this will help you in prayer. When you are at the
Mercy Seat, tremblingly asking for some great favor, tempted to fear
that you will not receive it–your faith will become very strong when
you hear the whisper, "who loved me, and gave Himself for me." He that
spared not Himself, how shall He not give me all things? We ask with
great confidence and assurance when we feel the force of this blessed
Truth of God.

By-and-by we shall come to die. I am constantly reminded of this fact.
During the last two or three weeks we have lost more friends than I
remember being taken away in a similar period at almost any other time.
We are getting old, together, and so there are more dying than there
used to be when the young people first joined the Church. Well, I shall
soon be going and so will you, but we shall not dread the grave, for
Jesus loved us, and gave Himself for us! Will He not be with me even in
my last moments? Certainly He will! I shall not dread the terrors of
the Great Judgment Day, for, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Who is He that condemns, now that Christ has died, and risen again, and
sits at the right hand of God to plead for us? The terrors of the world
to come, the quivering earth, the burning sky, the falling stars–all
these will cause no perturbation of mind when we are fully assured that
He loved us, and gave Himself for us.

Thinking of this sublime passage, one seems to feel his wings growing
and is ready to take flight to the upper sky, for what, even in Heaven,
is there brighter or more blessed than this Jesus, "who loved me, and
gave Himself for me"? Is not this Heaven's own song, "Unto Him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood"?

O my dear Hearers, I stand here and try to talk to you in my feeble way
about these great Truths of God, but do you know them yourselves? If
you do, you know more than Solomon ever knew! If you know this love of
Christ, you know more than all the Greek philosophers put together! You
need not be ashamed in any company–the knowledge of the love of Christ
is the most excellent of all the sciences–there is none that can be
compared with it. But if you do not know it, I pray my Lord, in His
infinite mercy, to disturb and disquiet you until you do know it! What
right have you to rest without faith in Jesus? You have no
safety–indeed, you have no hope! Without God, without Christ, you will
die without forgiveness or hope of Heaven! God bring you to seek His
face tonight, before another sun has risen! Seek Him. Seek Him! Trust
in the Savior's finished work and I hope we shall yet see you, again,
as you come forward and say, "Yes, He loved me, and gave Himself for
me, and here am I to confess it to the glory of His Grace." God grant
it, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"-116 (SONG II), 248, 731.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Galatians 2:16-21; 3.

Galatians 2:16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the work of the
Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by
the works of the Law: for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be
justified. This is the primary Truth of God to be proclaimed by the
Christian ministry. It is the foundation stone of all Gospel preaching
and yet, somehow or other, such is the hardness of the human heart,
that it is the most difficult thing to induce our hearers to build on
this foundation. Many of them are always trying to lean upon their own
works and so struggling to get back under the old legal dispensation,
instead of rejoicing in the lib-

erty of the dispensation of Grace. One objection to the Doctrines of
Grace rather than the Doctrine of Law is this, that some think it will
lead to sin. The Apostle puts it thus–

17. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are
also found sinners, is, therefore, Christ the minister of sin? God
forbid! For the tendency of the Gospel of Grace is to excite gratitude
in those who receive it. If I am freely pardoned, then I must love Him
who has thus generously forgiven me. Gratitude is the root of true
virtue and the mainspring of all holiness. If there are base-minded men
who can suck poison out of this honeycomb, is Christ to be blamed for
their evil doing? God forbid! But if, on the other hand, you and I go
back to trusting in works, then we are, indeed, guilty in the sight of
God.

18. For if I build, again, the things which I destroyed, I make myself
a transgressor. If I once said I would not trust in my good works and
now go back to trust in them, I have already, whatever may be my
outward conduct, perpetrated a great sin!

19. 20. For I, through the Law, am dead to the Law, that I might live
unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for
me. I do not know a better epitome of Christian experience than this.
This is the daily walk of a true child of God. If he lives after any
other sort, then he lives not a Christian's life at all! Christ living
in us, ourselves living upon Christ and our union to Christ being
visibly maintained by an act of simple faith in Him–this is the true
Christian's life.

21. I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness comes by
the Law, then Christ is dead in vain. If a man can be saved by his own
works, and willings, and doings, then Christ's death was an unnecessary
piece of torture and, instead of being the most glorious manifestation
of Divine Love, it was a shameful waste, putting upon Christ a terrible
burden of suffering which was totally unnecessary.

Galatians 3:1. O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you
should not obey the Truth of God, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has
been evidently set forth, crucified among you? These Galatians thought
that they were very philosophical and very intellectual, but the
Apostle says, "O foolish Galatians!" They thought that they had been
led by reason and guided by the learning of their teachers–but Paul
calls it witchery–"Who has bewitched you?" he asks, as if anything
which led a man to trust in his own works should be as much abhorred as
the incantations of a witch! "Who has bewitched you?" It is a dangerous
state, it is a devilish snare to be brought into–to be led to trust to
frames, feelings, experiences, works, prayers, or to anything else but
Christ! It is a strange thing that those who have seen Christ should
ever go back to these things! Lord, keep us every day, among our other
sins, from our own self-righteous nature! Now the Apostle is going to
reason with the Galatians against their self-righteousness.

2. This, only, would I learn of you, Received you the Spirit by the
works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith? "You know that the Spirit
of God is necessary to salvation. You have received that. Did you get
the Spirit through the works of the Law, or by simply hearing the
Gospel and believing it?" The answer comes at once if we have received
the Spirit! It was by the hearing of faith and not by the works of the
Law.

3. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made
perfect by the flesh? Surely, the way in which the Christian life
begins is the method in which it is to be sustained. "As you have
received Christ Jesus, the Lord," the Apostle says in another place,
"so walk in Him." If you have begun in the flesh, go on in the flesh,
but if you really know that your beginning was in the Spirit, then do
not go back to the flesh.

4. Have you suffered so many things in vain? If it is yet in vain. This
is another pertinent question.

5. He, therefore, that ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles
among you, does he do it by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of
faith? They had miraculous gifts among them as a Church and the Apostle
asks them whether these were works of the Law, or whether they were not
exercised as the result of faith. The answer is clear. It was the
believing man who worked the miracle, not the self-righteous man! Paul
is now going to take the Galatians far back in Jewish history.

6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness. He was not saved by his works, but by his faith. His
faith was the means of the imputation to him of the righteousness of
the Savior who was yet to come.

7. Know you, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the
children of Abraham. He was called the father of the faithful,
therefore the faithful, those who believe as he did, and are full of
his faith, are his children.

8-10. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In you
shall all nations be blessed. So, then, they which are offaith are
blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the
Law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that
continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to
do them. Now, if everyone who has once violated God's Law is cursed
forever, how mad are those who hope to enter Heaven by that very Law
which is the gate to shut them out! How dare they confide in that which
is their worst enemy–which is sworn to curse them in time and in
eternity!

11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God, it is
evident: for, The just shall live by faith. Scripture lays it down as a
rule that justified men live by faith! If this is the rule, then
certainly they should not live by works.

12. And the Law is not of faith: but, The man that does them shall live
in them. So that the justified man is not justified by the Law, but by
faith. He stands before God, not in what he does, not even in what the
Spirit enables him to do! His own prayers, tears, communings with
Christ. His own labors, his earnest and indefatigable attempts to
extend the Kingdom of Christ–all count for nothing in the matter of
his justification! He hangs them all upon the Cross of Christ and
relies only upon the Cross, looking in no manner, whatever, to anything
which comes of himself.

13. 14. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a
curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a
tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. We were all under the curse of the Law, but Christ voluntarily
took our place and was made a curse for us, so that the blessing might
be ours.

15, 16. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men. Though it is but a
man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no man disannuls, or adds
thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He says
not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which
is Christ. Notice how important a single letter of the Scriptures may
be! If vital Doctrine may depend upon the use of a singular or plural
noun, therefore let us jealously guard the smallest jot or tittle of
the Inspired Word of God.

17-19. And this I say, that the Law, which was four hundred and thirty
years later, cannot disannul the Covenant that was confirmed before by
God in Christ, the Law, that it should make the promise of no effect.
Or if the inheritance is of the Law, it is no more ofpromise: but God
gave it to Abraham by promise. What purpose, then, does the Law serve?
Some might argue that as the Law cannot justify, it is useless, but, on
the contrary, it serves a very definite purpose, as Paul goes on to
show.

19-22. It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come
to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand
of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
Is the Law, then, against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there
had been a Law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the Law. But the Scripture has concluded all under
sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe. Paul constantly comes back to this point, that salvation
is all of Grace, through faith in Jesus Christ.

23-25. But before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up under
the faith which should afterward be revealed. Therefore the Law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by
faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a
schoolmaster. The Apostle is not speaking of a schoolmaster as we
understand that word, but of the slave or servant who took the boys to
school, watched over them in school and out, and even used the rod if
occasion demanded.

26. For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. The
Fatherhood of God is common to all Believers– but there is no
universal fatherhood, as many teach it in these days.

27-29. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise. May this be true of all of us, for Christ's
sake! Amen.