ABRAHAM AND THE GENTILE 59

To the apostle, `circumcision was nothing, nor uncircumcision', but it had become the quintessence of the `other

gospel' that gendered to bondage. Consequently, around this one strange Jewish rite, the battle rages; not for any

intrinsic value in the ordinance itself, but because it presented both the most formidable as well as the most

vulnerable front of the enemy.

Paul's epistles, looked at from their polemical or combative character, fall into two groups: 1 and 2 Corinthians,

Galatians and Romans are anti-Judaistic and gospel epistles; Ephesians and Colossians are anti-Gnostic and mystery

epistles: the first deal with the weak and beggarly elements of mere religion, the second with a deceitful and vain

philosophy. Both reveal an underlying unity of evil, that of imposing something (carnal ordinances or philosophical

humilities) between the believer and the risen Christ. Those who so glibly emphasized the necessity of `the Law'

seem to have forgotten or purposely hidden such a word as Ezekiel 20:25 :

`... statutes that were not good, and judgments (ordinances) whereby they should not live'.

These believers at Galatia had thought themselves happy and blessed if they could but bring forth the fruit of the

Spirit (love, joy, peace); now they were being moved away from their simplicity, and were going back to bondage -

and what a bondage! Paul knew, as few knew better, the awful bondage of the traditions of the fathers (Gal. 1:14).

With what bewildered fear must these simple Galatians have heard of the wearing of phylacteries; of the necessity

for the Mezuzahs on their door-posts; of the kosher meat; and of the conscience-searing pettiness of Rabbinical

tyranny substituted for God's sabbath day! Against all the array of authority, tradition, superstition, and the flesh,

God raised one man, and enabled him to stand, and to yield, `no, not for an hour'. Praise God for the Davids who

have thus single-handed laid these Goliaths low: may grace be given us to stand, alone if need be, in our day.

The opening chapter, as we have seen, is taken up with a three-fold claim - Paul's independent apostleship,

gospel, and authority. Let us examine this three-fold claim more closely.

`PAUL,

AN APOSTLE, (NOT OF MEN, NEITHER BY MAN, BUT BY JESUS CHRIST, AND GOD THE FATHER, WHO RAISED

HIM FROM THE DEAD;)'.- The epistle to the Romans opens with the words, `Paul a bondslave of Jesus Christ'; but the

necessities of the case prevented such a statement coming at the commencement of this epistle. It is reserved till

verse 10, and more emphatically till the end of the epistle, where we hear him speaking of the brandmarks of the

Lord Jesus. Different occasions demand different aspects of truth. As in the four Gospels we behold the same

blessed Person, but under different aspects, so as the demands of truth dictate, Paul must say that he is the chief of

sinners; less than the least of all saints; or not one whit behind the chiefest of the apostles. Here, to the Galatians,

the continuance of the truth of the gospel demanded that Paul should magnify his office.

One cannot read Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, and 2 Corinthians without perceiving that the apostleship of Paul

had been questioned, his gospel contemned, his authority repudiated, and his equality with the twelve denied. If

Simon received the name Cephas or Peter (John 1:42; Matt. 16:18), and if of him it could be said, `flesh and blood'

had not revealed the truth concerning the Messiah unto him; so also Saul of Tarsus was called Paul, and his message

was equally a revelation.

The challenged apostleship, moreover, could not conform to the requirements of the twelve as given in Acts

1:21,22, `beginning from the baptism of John', it had an undeniable difference; it was the first apostleship conferred

from heaven. His unique apostleship comes forward in many of his epistles; Romans 1:5, `By Whom we have

received grace and apostleship' (or apostolic grace); Romans 11:13, `I am an apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine

office'. The challenge rings out in 1 Corinthians 9:1, `Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus

Christ our Lord?' In 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 Paul makes a distinction between the twelve and himself. In 1 Timothy

2:7 he says, `... I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the

Gentiles in faith and verity (truth)'.

The Greek word apostolos answers to the Latin legatus, and means `one sent by and in the name of another', as

the result of which it is said, `He that receiveth you receiveth Me'. This reception had been given Paul by the

Galatians, for they `received' him as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Before the apostle proceeds to pray for

grace and peace, the strange words `not of men, neither by man' occur.