will. For, if they were necessarily connected with this life, as embraced in one lot with it, no
man would be free or pure from them, for no man can escape the characteristic accidents
of humanity, such as, to eat and drink, to sleep and grow, to hunger and thirst, to be born
and die, and the like; no man can ever become superior to these, neither sinner nor just
man, king nor peasant, We all are subject to the necessity of nature. And so if vice were an
essential element of this life, no one could avoid it, any more than the things just mentioned.
And let me not be told that good men are rare, for natural necessity is insuperable by all, so
that as long as one virtuous man shall be found, my argument will in no wise be invalidated.
Miserable, wretched man! what is it thou sayest? Is this life evil, wherein we have learnt to
6
know God, and meditate on things to come, and have become angels instead of men, and
take part in the choirs of the heavenly powers? What other proof do we need of an evil and
depraved mind?
“Why then,” they say, “does Paul call the present life evil?” In calling the present world
[age] evil, he has accommodated himself to our usage, who are wont to say, “I have had a
bad day,” thereby complaining not of the time itself, but of actions or circumstances. And
so Paul in complaining of evil principles of action has used these customary forms of speech;
and he shows that Christ hath both delivered us from our offences, and secured us for the
future. The first he has declared in the words, “Who gave Himself for our sins;” and by
adding, “that He might deliver us out of this present evil world,” he has pronounced our
future safety. For neither of these did the Law avail, but grace was sufficient for both.
Ver. 4. “According to the will of our God and Father.”17
Since they were terrified by their notion that by deserting that old Law and adhering to
the new, they should disobey God, who gave the Law, he corrects their error, and says, that
this seemed good to the Father also: and not simply “the Father,” but “our Father,” which
he does in order to affect them by showing that Christ has made His Father our Father.
Ver. 5. “To whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
This too is new and unusual, for we never find the word, “Amen” placed at the beginning
of an Epistle, but a good way on; here, however he has it in his beginning, to show that what
he had already said contained a sufficient charge against the Galatians, and that his argument
was complete, for a manifest offence does not require an elaborate crimination. Having
spoken of the Cross, and Resurrection, of redemption from sin and security for the future,
of the purpose of the Father, and the will of the Son, of grace and peace and His whole gift,
he concludes with an ascription of praise.
Another reason for it is the exceeding astonishment into which he was thrown by the
magnitude of the gift, the superabundance of the grace, the consideration who we were, and
17 [“And not by our own merits. cf. τοῦ καλέσαντος, v. 6.”—Lightfoot. “The salvation was willed by God to
whom Christ was obedient (Philip. ii. 9.).”—Meyer.—G.A.]
16
Galatians 1:1--3