postle tells the Galatians that he will keep their kindness in
perpetual remembrance. Indirectly, he also reminds them how much they
had loved him before the invasion of the false apostles, and gives them
a hint that they should return to their first love for him.

VERSE 15. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?

"How much happier you used to be. And how you Galatians used to tell me
that you were blessed. And how much did I not praise and commend you
formerly." Paul reminds them of former and better times in an effort to
mitigate his sharp reproaches, lest the false apostles should slander
him and misconstrue his letter to his disadvantage and to their own
advantage. Such snakes in the grass are equal to anything. They will
pervert words spoken from a sincere heart and twist them to mean just
the opposite of what they were intended to convey. They are like
spiders that suck venom out of sweet and fragrant flowers. The poison
is not in the flowers, but it is the nature of the spider to turn what
is good and wholesome into poison.

VERSE 15. For I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye
would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

The Apostle continues his praise of the Galatians. "You did not only
treat me very courteously. If it had been necessary you would have
plucked out your eyes and sacrificed your lives for me." And in very
fact the Galatians sacrificed their lives for Paul. By receiving and
maintaining Paul they called upon their own heads the hatred and malice
of all the Jews and Gentiles.

Nowadays the name of Luther carries the same stigma. Whoever praises
Luther is a worse sinner than an idolater, perjurer, or thief.

VERSE 16. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the
truth?

Paul's reason for praising the Galatians is to avoid giving them the
impression as if he were their enemy because he had reprimanded them.

A true friend will admonish his erring brother, and if the erring
brother has any sense at all he will thank his friend. In the world
truth produces hatred. Whoever speaks the truth is counted an enemy.
But among friends it is not so, much less among Christians. The Apostle
wants his Galatians to know that just because he had told them the
truth they are not to think that he dislikes them. "I told you the
truth because I love you."

VERSE 17. They zealously affect you, but not well.

Paul takes the false apostles to task for their flattery. Satan's
satellites softsoap the people. Paul calls it "by good words and fair
speeches to deceive the hearts of the simple." (Romans 16:18.)

They tell me that by my stubbornness in this doctrine of the Sacrament
I am destroying the harmony of the church. They say it would be better
if we would make some slight concession rather than cause such
commotion and controversy in the Church regarding an article which is
not even one of the fundamental doctrines. My reply is, cursed be any
love or harmony which demands for its preservation that we place the
Word of God in jeopardy!

VERSE 17. Yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them.

"Do you Galatians know why the false apostles are so zealous about you?
They expect you to reciprocate. And that would leave me out. If their
zeal were right they would not mind your loving me. But they hate my
doctrine and want to stamp it out. In order to bring this to pass they
go about to alienate your hearts from me and to make me obnoxious to
you." In this way Paul brings the false apostles into suspicion. He
questions their motives. He maintains that their zeal is mere pretense
to deceive the Galatians. Our Savior Christ also warned us, saying:
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing."
(Matt. 7:15.)

Paul was considerably disturbed by the commissions and changes that
followed in the wake of his preaching. He was accused of being "a
pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the
world." (Acts 24:5.) In Philippi the townspeople cried that he troubled
their city and taught customs which were not lawful for them to
receive. (Acts 16:20, 21.)

All troubles, calamities, famines, wars were laid to the charge of the
Gospel of the apostles. However, the apostles were not deterred by such
calumnies from preaching the Gospel. They knew that they "ought to obey
God rather than men," and that it was better for the world to be upset
than to be ignorant of Christ.

Do you think for a moment that these reactions did not worry the
apostles? They were not made of iron. They foresaw the revolutionary
character of the Gospel. They also foresaw the dissensions that would
creep into the Church. It was bad news for Paul when he heard that the
Corinthians were denying the resurrection of the dead, that the
churches he had planted were experiencing all kinds of difficulties,
and that the Gospel was being supplanted by false doctrines.

But Paul also knew that the Gospel was not to blame. He did not resign
his office because he knew that the Gospel he preached was the power of
God unto salvation to every one that believes.

The same criticism which was leveled at the apostles is leveled at us.
The doctrine of the Gospel, we are told, is the cause of all the
present unrest in the world. There is no wrong that is not laid to our
charge. But why? We do not spread wicked lies. We preach the glad
tidings of Christ. Our opponents will bear us out when we say that we
never fail to urge respect for the constituted authorities, because
that is the will of God.

All of these vilifications cannot discourage us. We know that there is
nothing the devil hates worse than the Gospel. It is one of his little
tricks to blame the Gospel for every evil in the world. Formerly, when
the traditions of the fathers were taught in the Church, the devil was
not excited as he is now. It goes to show that our doctrine is of God,
else "behemoth would lie under shady trees, in the covert of the reed,
and fens." The fact that he is again walking about as a roaring lion to
stir up riots and disorders is a sure sign that he has begun to feel
the effect of our preaching.

VERSE 18. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good
thing, and not only when I am present with you.

"When I was present with you, you loved me, although I preached the
Gospel to you in the infirmity of my flesh. The fact that I am now
absent from you ought not to change your attitude towards me. Although
I am absent in the flesh, I am with you in spirit and in my doctrine
which you ought to retain by all means because through it you received
the Holy Spirit."

VERSE 19. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you.

With every single word the Apostle seeks to regain the confidence of
the Galatians. He now calls them lovingly his little children. He adds
the simile: "Of whom I travail in birth again." As parents reproduce
their physical characteristics in their children, so the apostles
reproduced their faith in the hearts of the hearers, until Christ was
formed in them. A person has the form of Christ when he believes in
Christ to the exclusion of everything else. This faith in Christ is
engendered by the Gospel as the Apostle declares in I Corinthians 4:15:
"In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel"; and in II
Corinthians 3:3, "Ye are the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God." The Word
of God falling from the lips of the apostle or minister enters into the
heart of the hearer. The Holy Ghost impregnates the Word so that it
brings forth the fruit of faith. In this manner every Christian pastor
is a spiritual father who forms Christ in the hearts of his hearers.

At the same time Paul indicts the false apostles. He says: "I have
begotten you Galatians through the Gospel, giving you the form of
Christ. But these false apostles are giving you a new form, the form of
Moses." Note the Apostle does not say, "Of whom I travail in birth
again until I be formed in you," but "until Christ be formed in you."
The false apostles had torn the form of Christ out of the hearts of the
Galatians and substituted their own form. Paul endeavors to reform
them, or rather reform Christ in them.

VERSE 20. I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice.

A common saying has it that a letter is a dead messenger. Something is
lacking in all writing. You can never be sure how the written page will
affect the reader, because his mood, his circumstances, his affections
are so changeable. It is different with the spoken word. If it is harsh
and ill-timed it can always be remodeled. No wonder the Apostle
expresses the wish that he could speak to the Galatians in person. He
could change his voice according to their attitude. If he saw that they
were repentant he could soften the tone of his voice. If he saw that
they were stubborn he could speak to them more earnestly. This way he
did not know how to deal with them by letter. If his Epistle is too
severe it will do more damage than good. If it is too gentle, it will
not correct conditions. But if he could be with them in person he could
change his voice as the occasion demanded.

VERSE 20. For I stand in doubt of you.

"I do not know how to take you. I do not know how to approach you by
letter." In order to make sure that he leaves no stone unturned in his
effort to recall them to the Gospel of Christ, he chides, entreats,
praises, and blames the Galatians, trying every way to hit the right
note and tone of voice.

VERSE 21. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear
the law?

Here Paul would have closed his Epistle because he did not know what
else to say. He wishes he could see the Galatians in person and
straighten out their difficulties. But he is not sure whether the
Galatians have fully understood the difference between the Gospel and
the Law. To make sure, he introduces another illustration. He knows
people like illustrations and stories. He knows that Christ Himself
made ample use of parables.

Paul is an expert at allegories. They are dangerous things. Unless a
person has a thorough knowledge of Christian doctrine he had better
leave allegories alone.

The allegory which Paul is about to bring is taken from the Book of
Genesis which he calls the Law. True, that book contains no mention of
the Law. Paul simply follows the custom of the Jews who included the
first book of Moses in the collective term, "Law." Jesus even included
the Psalms.

VERSES 22, 23. For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by
a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

This is Paul's allegory. Abraham had two sons: Ishmael by Hagar, and
Isaac by Sarah. They were both the true sons of Abraham, with this
difference, that Ishmael was born after the flesh, i.e., without the
commandment and promise of God, while Isaac was born according to the
promise.

With the permission of Sarah, Abraham took Hagar, Sarah's bondwoman, to
wife. Sarah knew that God had promised to make her husband Abraham the
father of a nation, and she hoped that she would be the mother of this
promised nation. But with the passage of the years her hope died out.
In order that the promise of God should not be annulled by her
barrenness this holy woman resigned her right and honor to her maid.
This was no easy thing for her to do. She abased herself. She thought:
"God is no liar. What He has promised He will perform. But perhaps God
does not want me to be the mother of Abraham's posterity. Perhaps He
prefers Hagar for the honor."

Ishmael was thus born without a special word or promise of God, at the
mere request of Sarah. God did not command Abraham to take Hagar, nor
did God promise to bless the coalition. It is evident that Ishmael was
the son of Abraham after the flesh, and not after the promise.

In the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans St. Paul advances the
same argument which he amplifies into an allegory in writing to the
Galatians. There he argues that all the children of Abraham are not the
children of God. For Abraham had two kinds of children, children born
of the promise, like Isaac, and other children born without the
promise, as Ishmael. With this argument Paul squelched the proud Jews
who gloried that they were the children of God because they were the
seed and the children of Abraham. Paul makes it clear enough that it
takes more than an Abrahamic pedigree to be a child of God. To be a
child of God requires faith in Christ.

VERSE 24. Which things are an allegory.

Allegories are not very convincing, but like pictures they visualize a
matter. If Paul had not brought in advance indisputable arguments for
the righteousness of faith over against the righteousness of works this
allegory would do little good. Having first fortified his case with
invincible arguments, he can afford to inject this allegory to add
impressiveness and beauty to his presentation.

VERSES 24, 25. For these are the two covenants; the one from the mount
Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is
mount Sinai in Arabia.

In this allegory Abraham represents God. Abraham had two sons, born
respectively of Hagar and Sarah. The two women represent the two
Testaments. The Old Testament is Mount Sinai, the bondwoman, Hagar. The
Arabians call Mount Sinai Agar. It may be that the similarity of these
two names gave Paul his idea for this allegory. As Hagar bore Abraham a
son who was not an heir but a servant, so Sinai, the Law, the
allegorical Hagar, bore God a carnal and servile people of the Law
without promise. The Law has a promise but it is a conditional promise,
depending upon whether people fulfill the Law.

The Jews regarded the conditional promises of the Law as if they were
unconditional. When the prophets foretold the destruction of Jerusalem,
the Jews stoned them as blasphemers of God. They never gave it any
thought that there was a condition attached to the Law which reads: "If
you keep the commandments it shall be well with thee."

VERSE 25. And answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage
with her children.

A little while ago Paul called Mount Sinai, Hagar. He would now gladly
make Jerusalem the Sarah of the New Testament, but he cannot. The
earthly Jerusalem is not Sarah, but a part of Hagar. Hagar lives there
in the home of the Law, the Temple, the priesthood, the ceremonies, and
whatever else was ordained in the Law at Mount Sinai.

I would have been tempted to call Jerusalem, Sarah, or the New
Testament. I would have been pleased with this turn of the allegory. It
goes to show that not everybody has the gift of allegory. Would you not
think it perfectly proper to call Sinai Hagar and Jerusalem Sarah?
True, Paul does call Sarah Jerusalem. But he has the spiritual and
heavenly Jerusalem in mind, not the earthly Jerusalem. Sarah represents
that spiritual Jerusalem where there is no Law but only the promise,
and where the inhabitants are free.

To show that the Law has been quite abolished, the earthly Jerusalem
was completely destroyed with all her ornaments, temples, and
ceremonies.

VERSE 26. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of
us all.

The earthly Jerusalem with its ordinances and laws represents Hagar and
her offspring. They are slaves to the Law, sin and death. But the
heavenly Jerusalem is Sarah, the free woman. This heavenly Jerusalem is
the Church, that is to say the number of all believers throughout the
world, having one and the same Gospel, one an