Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume IMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume I
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Bible. Deuteronomy -- Commentaries
This, and only this, is true, practical Christianity; and if the
reader will turn to the second of Galatians, he will find another of
those fine, glowing utterances of the blessed apostle, setting forth,
with divine force and fullness, the special glory of Christian life
and walk. It is in connection with his faithful rebuke of the apostle
Peter at Antioch, when that beloved and honored servant of Christ,
through his characteristic weakness, had been led to step down, for a
moment, from the elevated moral ground on which the gospel of the
grace of God places the soul. We cannot do better than quote the
entire paragraph for the reader: every sentence of it is pregnant with
spiritual power.
"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him _to the face_."
He did not go behind his back, to disparage and depreciate him in the
view of others, even though "he was to be blamed. For before that
certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; but when they
were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were
of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him,
insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth
of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a
Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why
compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews
by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not
justified by works of 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 works of law; for by works of law shall no flesh
be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we
ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of
sin? God forbid [or, Far be the thought--μη γενοιτο.]. For if
I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a
transgressor." For if the things were right, why destroy them? and if
they were wrong, why build them again? "For I, through law, am _dead
to law_, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh, I live [not by the law, as a rule of
life, but] by the faith of the Son of God, _who loved me_, and gave
_Himself for me_. I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if
righteousness come by law, then Christ is dead in vain [or, has died
for nothing--δωρεὰν.]." (Gal. ii. 11-21.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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