Gal. 4 Gal. 4:1–3 The Jews were for a while held under the law, as an heir under his guardian till he be of age. Gal. 4:4–7 But Christ came to redeem those that were under the law, and to give both to Jew and Gentile the adoption, and consequently the freedom, of sons. Gal.

The apostle had before determined, that the whole body of such as believed in Jesus Christ, were that seed of Abraham to which the promise was made, and so heirs of the promises made to him; yet so, that, as it is among men, though a child be a great heir, and lord of a great estate, yet while he…

The heir, (mentioned in the former verse), though he be an heir of a great estate, yet is not presently possessed of it; but he is by his father kept under tutors and governors, until the time which he hath appointed when he will be pleased to release him from his pupillage, and settle some part of…

Such children were all believers, the seed of Abraham; from the first designed to a gospel liberty, but that was not to be fully enjoyed, until the fulness of time should come when God intended to send his Son into the world; and during the time of their nonage they were kept under the law, as a…

But when the fulness of the time was come; the time, which answered the time appointed of the earthly father, mentioned Gal. 4:2; when that time came in which God had designed to bring his people into the most perfect state of liberty, which in this life they are capable of.

This makes it appear, that Christ’s being under the law must be understood as well of the moral as of the ceremonial law, that is, subject to the precepts of it, as well as to the curse of it; for if the end of this being born under the law, was to redeem those that were under it, that he had not…

Lest the Jews should claim the adoption as peculiar to them, the apostle tells them that these Gentiles were also sons; and in confirmation of that, he saith, that God had sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts: not that the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of the Father, as well as of Christ;…

Thou that art a believing Gentile, as well as the believing Israelites, art no more a servant, not in that state of servile subjection to the law; but a son; but in a more excellent state of liberty, like unto that of sons that have attained to a full and ripe age.

When ye knew not God, as he is, or as ye ought to have known him, or as, since, you have known him; for even the heathen have some knowledge of God, Rom. 1:21.

After that ye have known God; after that you are come to a true and saving knowledge of God in Christ, and know God as he is. Or rather are known of God; or rather after you are received of God, approved of him, made through Christ acceptable to him, which is much more than a true comprehension of…

If we had any evidence that these Galatians were relapsed to their Gentile superstitions, these terms might be understood of such days, &c. as they kept in honour to their idols.

Paul knew that, with reference to himself, he had not laboured in vain; he might say with Isaiah, Isa. 49:5; Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorified.

Be as I am; for I am as ye are; be as friendly to me as I am to you: see the like phrase, 1 Kings 22:4. But how doth the apostle say they had not injured him at all, when it is manifest they had defamed him? Answer.

The Scripture having not given us a particular account of Paul’s circumstances when he first preached the gospel to the Galatians, we are at a loss to determine what those infirmities were which Paul here speaketh of, more than that he calls them infirmities of the flesh: by which may be…

And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; the apostle saith they were so far from injuring him, (as he had said, Gal. 4:12), that they had expressed great kindness to him: for though, when he first came amongst them to preach the gospel, he was a man of no great…

Some understand the blessedness here spoken of in a passive sense; you were then a blessed and happy people, receiving the doctrine of the gospel in the truth and purity of it; what is now become of that blessedness? But both the preceding and the following words seem to rule the sense otherwise,…

What hath now altered your mind, or made you have a worse opinion of me? Wherein have I offended you or done you any harm? I have done nothing but revealed to you the truth of God; am I therefore become your enemy? Or do you account me your enemy on that account?

They; the false teachers, that have perverted you as to the faith of the gospel. Zealously affect you; pretend a great warmth of affection for you. But not well; but in this they do not well, nor for a good end. They would exclude you from our good opinion and affection.

It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing: the apostle, in the former verses, had been speaking of a great zeal, or warmth of affection, (for that zeal signifieth), which these Galatians had for and declared towards him, when he first preached the gospel amongst them; and also of a…

By calling them little children, he both hints to them that he was their spiritual father, and had begotten them to Christ; and that they were as yet weak in the faith, not grown men, but as yet little children: and also hints to them, the tender affection he had towards them, which was the same as…

I desire to be present with you now; I wish circumstances so concurred that I could be present with you. And to change my voice; that I might use my tongue towards you as I saw occasion; either commending, or reproving, or exhorting, as I saw cause.

Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law; you that cannot be content to receive Jesus Christ alone, for justification; but have a mind to maintain a necessity of obedience to the law of circumcision, and other Judaical rites; do ye not hear the law, that law which curseth every one who…

The substance of this is written, Gen. 16, where we read of Abraham’s having Ishmael by Hagar his bondwoman; and Gen. 21:2, where we read of the birth of Isaac, whom he had by Sarah, who was his wife.

They were both (in a sense) born after the flesh, viz. in a natural way and course of generation: but after the flesh is plainly, in this verse, opposed to by promise; and the meaning is, that Ishmael, the son of Hagar, was not that son of Abraham to whom the promise was made, that in him all the…

Which things are an allegory: that is called an allegory, when one thing is learned out of another, or something is mystically signified and to be understood further than is expressed. The Scripture hath a peculiar kind of allegories, wherein one thing is signified by and under another thing.

Agar, the bondwoman, fitly represented Mount Sinai, the mountain in Arabia, from which the law was given: and Jerusalem which now is answereth to Mount Sinai; for as in Mount Sinai the law was given in a terrible manner, so now Jerusalem is the seat of the scribes and Pharisees, who are the doctors…

The new covenant, or the dispensation of the gospel, or the Christian church, which is above, or from above, which answereth to Sarah, and is said to be above, because revealed from heaven by Christ, sent out of the bosom of the Father, not as the law was revealed upon earth, upon Mount Sinai.

It is written, Isa. 54:1. Some think that the apostle doth but allude to that of the prophet; and that the sense of the prophet was only to comfort the Jews, whose city, though it should be for a present time barren, thin of inhabitants, during the time of the Babylonish captivity; yet it should be…

Isaac was the promised seed, Gen. 21:12, Rom. 9:7; the apostle tells the Galatians that the believing Gentiles were (as Isaac) the children of the promise. Isaac being born, not by virtue of any procreative virtue in his parents, which was now dead in them, Rom.

As it was in Abraham’s time, Ishmael, who was born in a mere carnal and ordinary way of generation, persecuted Isaac, by mocking at him, Gen. 21:9, who was born by virtue of the promise, and the mighty power of God, enabling Sarah at those years to conceive, and Abraham to beget a child; even so it…

We read, Gen. 21:10, that when Sarah saw Ishmael mocking at her son Isaac, she was not able to bear it, but speaketh to her husband Abraham, saying: Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even Isaac.

The church of the Gentiles was not typified in Hagar, but in Sarah; from whence the scope of the apostle is to conclude, that we are not under the law, obliged to Judaical observances, but are freed from them, and are justified by faith in Christ alone, not by the works of the law.