The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the GalatiansFindlay, George G. (George Gillanders)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Galatians
Findlay, George G. (George Gillanders)
Bible. Galatians -- Commentaries
Of this interior revelation _the Holy Spirit_, according to the
Apostle's doctrine, had been the organ. The Lord on first meeting
the gathered Apostles after His resurrection "breathed upon them,
saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John xx. 22). This influence was
in truth "the power of His resurrection"; it was the inspiring breath
of the new life of humanity issuing from the open grave of Christ.
The baptism of Pentecost, with its "mighty rushing wind," was but
the fuller effusion of the power whose earnest the Church received
in that gentle breathing of peace on the day of the resurrection.
By His Spirit Christ made Himself a dwelling in the hearts of His
disciples, raised at last to a true apprehension of His nature.
All this was recapitulated in the experience of Paul. In his case
the common experience was the more sharply defined because of the
suddenness of his conversion, and the startling effect with which
this new consciousness projected itself upon the background of his
earlier Pharisaic life. Paul had his Resurrection-vision on the road
to Damascus. He received his Pentecostal baptism in the days that
followed.
It is not necessary to fix the precise occasion of the second
revelation, or to connect it specifically with the visit of Ananias
to Saul in Damascus, much less with his later "ecstasy" in the
temple (Acts ix. 10-19; xxii. 12-21). When Ananias, sent by Christ,
brought him the assurance of forgiveness from the injured Church,
and bade him "recover his sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost,"
this message greatly comforted his heart, and pointed out to him
more clearly the way of salvation along which he was groping. But
it is the office of the Spirit of God to reveal the Son of God; so
Paul teaches everywhere in his Epistles, taught first by his own
experience. Not from Ananias, nor from any man had he received this
knowledge; _God_ revealed His Son in the soul of the Apostle--"sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into his heart" (ch. iv. 6). The language
of 2 Cor. iii. 12-iv. 6 is the best commentary on this verse. A veil
rested on the heart of Saul the Pharisee. He read the Old Covenant
only in the condemning letter. Not yet did he know "the Lord" who
is "the spirit." This veil was done away in Christ. "The glory of
the Lord" that burst upon him in his Damascus journey, rent it once
and for ever from his eyes. God, the Light-giver, had "shined in
his heart, in the face of Jesus Christ." Such was the further scope
of the revelation which effected Paul's conversion. As he writes
afterwards to Ephesus, "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, had given him a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Christ; eyes of the heart enlightened to know the hope
of His calling, and His exceeding power to usward, according to that
He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at
His own right hand" (Eph. i. 17-21). In these words we hear an echo
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