Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,… God's law is spoken of as a fetter or chain, binding a condemned spirit unto sure and speedy punishment. And Christ Jesus is set forth as a gracious Saviour, coming with both price and power to ransom and deliver. These two parts of the figure should be considered in order. First — Here is the Divine law as a bondage or imprisonment. A principle, or power, hemming the sinful soul in and ensuring its destruction. Law — that substantial and sublime thing. Law, a cloud, presently to vanish! Ah me! it is anything else! The very word "law" means something fixed, established, immutable. And as everywhere seen in the Divine government, the thing "law" is the most permanent and immutable of all things. We observe this in regard even of the lowest physical laws of the universe, Take the law of germination — the transmission of vegetable life through the earthly flora — that Divine ordinance at creation: "That grass and herb and tree should yield seed after their kind, whose seed is in itself after its kind;" and observe with what immutable power it reigns over its broad domain. All the physical changes since creation have not abated jot or tittle of its meaning. The oak and the cedar are now in form, in development, yea, in the colour and fibre of spray and leaf, precisely the oak and the cedar of the primal Eden woodlands. And the odours we breathe in spring-time are from the same flowers that made fair and fragrant the garden when the first man walked with his Maker. And upon our thousand hills the cattle feed upon the self-same grasses that fattened the living creatures to which Adam gave names. Around every seed, as it came from the creative hand, was bound as an iron fetter that thing we call "law." All the men of the world, with all their power and skill of chemistry and magic, cannot produce a rose from a lily seed, nor a pomegranate from a fig-tree. Nor is this natural law without a mighty and merciful meaning. On its steadfastness rests the hope of creation. And from this principle in the natural, how plain the a fortiori argument for the supremacy and vindication of those laws which make up God's moral administration. A sin committed and not punished would be, in that regard, just what the imponderous rain-drop or the growth of tares from seed-corn would be in a natural world — a demonstration of the mutable and unrighteous character, both of the universal laws and their Omnipotent Lawgiver. One evil act or word, or thought, permitted unpunished; and then all such iniquities would have Divine license and sanction. Sin, the great destroyer, would spread as a deadly pestilence throughout all worlds. Yes, my hearers, law is no insignificant thing, to be broken with impunity: it is an immutable, adamantine, omnipotent ordinance, set to guard all great and universal interests — lifting itself as an impassable barrier between the domains of sin and holiness, disloyalty and love. And therefore, so long as Jehovah reigns, is never to be relaxed in one tittle of its righteous requirements, or defrauded of its full and triumphant vindication. All things made by God, from the atom in the air to the glorious archangel, were placed, at the first, and will remain to the end, inexorably "under law." And therefore the apostle, in the strong metaphor of the text, represents the condition of an ungodly man, as one around whom this immutable and everlasting law is bound as an iron fetter, and built as an adamantine prison-house, from which he cannot escape, unless by some Divine and Omnipotent deliverance. Under law! under law ! Verily language hath no more startling image than this! And this brings us to consider the other part of this apostolic figure, wherein unto the soul thus hopelessly imprisoned, Christ Jesus is represented as a deliverer, coming both with price and power to work out salvation — "to redeem! — to redeem them that were under the law." And the figure illustrates strikingly the meaning of redemption. It is something more than deliverance. Our Saviour is not represented as coming in arbitrary omnipotence to open the prison-door and preach liberty to the captive. For this were an abrogation of law, and not its vindication. But He comes to redeem men. The word is "redemption" — i.e., a buying back — not a wresting by power, but a release by purchase. It is not the advent of an armed champion to lift up his challenge at the prison-door, and to carry the stronghold by assault; but the advent of a Mediator, to satisfy every claim, and fulfil every condition of the law which is violated, extenuating nothing of the captive's guilt — disputing none of the law's demands — prepared to meet those demands in every jot and tittle; so that if it were possible to distinguish between the Divine attributes, it would be rather the justice of God than His mercy, which loosens the fetter and unbars the dungeon. "Redemption!" "Redemption!" This is the word! Such a vindication of the law in the face of the universe as strengthens the universal faith in its steadfastness! Mediation! Substitution! This is the mighty truth! Not a breaking of the law, but a fulfilling it in behalf of us! Making manifest its tremendous power even in the very act of deliverance — as in a beneficent rescue from some great natural law. Take the law of gravitation. Imagine a child, abroad on a holiday in some Alpine valley, joyously watching summer-birds, or gathering wild flowers; when suddenly, far above, some elemental agency loosens the avalanche, and downward, in awful momentum, it rushes toward the imperilled child! Now, suppose that infant could stand up in the path of that destroyer, and, putting forth its feeble hand, stop it, and roll it backward! Then, though the fond mother would exult in the deliverance, yet all human faith would be shaken in the steadfastness of the great law, and this world, and all worlds, be flung back into chaos. But instead of this, suppose at the first sound of that descending destruction, the father, thoughtful of his child, had sprung to the rescue — bounding from rock to rock, reckless of precipices and chasms — reaching the imperilled not a moment too soon, snatching it from the very jaws of death; and springing backward, bleeding, breathless, into the shelter of some adamantine cavern, had come forth when the mighty terror had gone by, bearing the beloved and saved one — then the cry of gladness filling all that stormy air, would be no more in praise of human love than of the might and majesty of that glorious thing — law! And thus is it in salvation. The claim of God's holy law is in no sense set aside or weakened! Christ Jesus, for us, bears all its penalty — fulfils all its requirements. And the universe beholds the amazing fact of substitution, assured that the righteousness of God is absolute and immutable, and exults that, even in the deliverance of the sinner, the law is magnified in the punishment of sin. These, then, are the two truths which the text's metaphor illustrates: The law an imprisonment! Christ Jesus a Redeemer. Yet each should receive at our hands its just personal application. 1. If we are impenitent and unpardoned men, let us at least consider seriously our true estate of dark and unsheltered condemnation. "You are under the law!" and as the most necessary and certain of all things, that law must be vindicated. If you will not accept of redemption as offered in Christ, yours is no part in salvation. Law — law. What a fearful thing it is in its aspects towards transgression! Even human law, weak, uncertain, mutable, imperfect — yet how its violator recoils, if it hem him in to destruction! See yonder! through the dark night hurries a trembling fugitive! That man's hands are stained with blood. In silence and solitude, with no human eye to see, he struck the fatal blow, and now on swift foot turns from the face of the dead man! But, alas for him, the avenger of blood is on his track! Law! Law! that inexorable power of retribution — with an eye that gathers evidence from a footprint in earth, or a stain in water, or a whisper in air — is following his footsteps, and will find him and lay a mighty hand on him, and bind him in iron fetters which no power can break, and consign him to dungeons whence no skill can deliver. And if human law is terrible. what think ye of Divine law? God's natural laws are fearful! You see a fair child gathering flowers on the brink of a precipice; singing its glad songs and weaving its dewy garlands, it approaches the dizzy verge! Far out, in a cleft of a rock, grows a tempting violet; the child sees it, longs for it — reaches for it — reaches too far! See, its little feet slip! and you shudder, recoil, cry out with terror! Why? Is not God merciful? Are not God's providences gracious? Yes, indeed; but even God's merciful providences are according to immutable ordinances. That child is under law. The law, that holds the universe together, and is as inexorable as its Maker, hems it in, and presses on it, and will dash it to destruction. And do you think God's moral laws are narrower in their play, or weaker in their pressure? O, ungodly man! be alarmed for yourself! You are pursuing your chosen courses under law — "under law!" You are gathering flowers of sin upon precipices, and below are unfathomed depths of indignation and anguish; and the moral law that binds into one rejoicing universe all sinless ranks of life, is over you, and around you, and pressing you down to destruction, and at the next footstep your feet may slide, and there be none to deliver! Oh, the overwhelming thought! Beings passing to immortality under law — "under law." 2. Meantime, unto the believing and penitent soul the text is full of consolation. We were under the law, but Christ hath redeemed us! Redeemed! Redeemed! Oh, what a word it is! Saved! Saved! How the very thought thrills us! A child saved from a burning house! From foundation to roof swept the red surges, hemming him in unto destruction! But right through the encircling fire rushed a strong deliverer, reckless of danger, to restore it in joyous life to the mother's loving heart! Saved! Saved! A man overboard, in a night of storm, lifting one despairing cry upon the rushing wind, and sinking, in despairing anguish, in the devouring sea! But, behold! a life-boat lowered, manned, darting like a sea-bird through the blinding spray, and strong arms outstretched to snatch the victim from the very jaws of death! Saved! saved! saved! Oh, what a word it is! And yet thus, O children of God, are you saved from the unfathomed ocean and the unquenchable fire! Saved, saved for ever! Oh, what gratitude becomes us! What consecration! What deep, adoring love! (C. Wadsworth.). Parallel Verses KJV: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,WEB: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, |
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