Saturday, June i. ' Gal. 6 : 11 , 12 .
by the fact that they themselves did not keep the law, except in this one matter of circumcision which they had selected out of the whole law as the one thing to empha size. In a similar way the 'Seventh Day Adventists today do not keep the whole Mosaic law, nor even the whole Sabbatic layr," but the one part of the law upon which they have chosen to put their empha sis, viz., the seventh day of the week. But\ the law as given by Moses does not say “the seventh day of the week,” it does.say “the seventh day” after six days of labor (Ex. 20:9, 10), but in the Bible there is no “of the week” found in the law as originally given, that is man’s addition to God’s Word. There is "no specification as to “the day of the week,” though the Jews did keep the seventh day of the week in commemoration of the completion of the old creation, but the law did not specify that it should be the seventh day “of the week,” but only that it should be “the seventh day” after six days of labor. The Judaizers (and in a similar way the Sev enth Day Adventists) acted, by their empha sis upon circumcision, as if keeping a part of the law rigidly would answer, instead of keeping the whole law (James 2:10; Gal, 2:10; 5:3; Rom. 2:13), The real pur pose of the Judaizers in having the Gala- tians circumcised was that they themselves might “glory in” their “flesh,” in a mere carnal outward thing, and not in a real change wrought inwardly by-the power of God. In a similar way many today glory in the number of persons that they have led to accept merely outward water baptism, not thinking much whether or no there has been a real change of heart, and whether the one baptized with water has been really “baptized unto Christ,” which is proven, not merely by submitting to some form of water baptism, but by putting on Christ
We now come to the conclusion of this wonderful letter. Though the letter has been very plain, and sometimes stern, in dealing with error, the conclusion is very tender. Paul refers to having -written the letter with his own hand. Paul usually wrote through an amanuensis (Rom-16:22), adding the salutation at the close with his own hand (1 Cor. 16:21),but he wrote this entire epistle to the Galatians with his own hand. He also refers to the large size of the letters he uses. Probably there is in this a gentle hint of how much pain it caused him to write because of the large letters necessitated by his weak eyes (v. 11, R. V,; cf. ch. 4:15; 2 Cor. 12:7-10). There is no warrant for the translation in the Authorized Version, “how large a let ter,” it should be, as in this Revised Ver sion, “with how large letters.” In verse 12 »Paul contrasts with this tender, self- sacrificing love in their behalf the selfish pride and self-sparing of the Judaizers. They were desiring “to make a fair show in the flesh,” i. e., in outward appearance arid not in heart (cf. 2 Cor. 5:12). This was their motive in seeking to compel the Galatian believers also to be circumcised. Furthermore, they were seeking to avoid persecution “for the cross of Christ.” They would escape to a great extent the bitter ness of the Jews against them as Christians if they would lessen the full significance of the atoning death of Christ and would make Jews out of Gentiles. In a similar way today men seek to placate the world by toning down the doctrines of the atone ment. Sunday, June 2 . Gal. 6 : 13 , 14 . > , That it was no real zeal for the law of God as such that actuated them, was proven
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