Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Amen.
The apostolic benediction
By this last word he seals all that precedes it. He says not merely “with you” as elsewhere; but, “with your spirit,” thus withdrawing them from carnal things, and displaying throughout the beneficence of God, and reminding them of the grace which they enjoyed, whereby he was able to recall them from all their Judaizing errors. For to have received the Spirit came not of the law’s penury, but of the righteousness which is by faith, and to preserve it when obtained came not from circumcision but from grace. Farther, he concludes his exhortation with a prayer, and makes mention of grace and the Spirit on this account, namely, both as addressing himself to the brethren, and as supplicating God that they might continue to enjoy these blessings, thus providing for them a twofold security. For this very thing, namely, both prayer and complete teaching, became to them as a double wall. For teaching, reminding them of what benefits they enjoyed, they rather kept them in the doctrine of the Church, and prayer, invoking grace, and exhorting to an enduring constancy, permitted not the Spirit to depart from them. And He abiding in them, all the error of such doctrines as they held was shaken off like dust, in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Chrysostom.)
The blessing of Christ’s grace
Dwell as we will on the brighter side of things, life is very hard, and men and women are hard on one another, and we ourselves are growing hard, and that is the worst of all. We need something to soften, in no enfeebling way, the hardness of life, and of men, and of our own heart. And most of the blessings we seek of our own will, weaken our souls; and in the weakening, make us harder in the future. But the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we could win it and take it, softens all things by making us stronger towards goodness and truth and righteousness and love. What is it? What is His grace?
I. Whatever this grace is, it does not come from one who is ignorant of all we need.
1. He has known to the full the weight of human suffering, and the blessing of His grace that is with us is brought home to us by that knowledge. He can comfort because He knows. He has known what temptation is, and can feel with the agony of our resistance, and through that with our weakness. He has not known remorse or the loss of good, but, through His infinite pain in contact with sin, and His infinite pity for those enthralled by it, He can understand our unhappiness in guilt. By knowledge of sorrow He can bring blessing to sorrow.
2. Nor has He known joy less. In early life, as boy and youth, He knew all our simple and pure joys. In manhood, when He first went out to the world, we have often traced the joy of enthusiasm in His work. In later days these only lived in memory, but another joy took their place--the mighty joy of universal love, the joy of giving up all things for all men--that wonderful and mystic joy which we faintly realize whenever out of the depths of personal suffering we rise into the glorious life of self-surrender because we love.
II. Christ’s fitness to give comes not only of knowledge of our need, but also of His victory over all that is evil and weak in our need. It is the Victor who can give grace and strength to those whom the same foes attack. In order to conquer, win His grace who has conquered, and who will give it to you.
1. Kindness, the goodwill of love. The first meaning of the invocation in the text is: “The loving kindness which belonged to Christ, which formed part of His character, be with you, and form part of yours.” Filial tenderness. Penetrating love and insight. Nay, more than this: to be perfect, it ought to reach, through frank forgiveness, those who injure us; through interest in the interests, ideas, and movements of human progress, those who are beyond our own circle, in our nation, nay, even in the world; and finally all men, those even who are our bitterest foes, through desire that they should have good and be good.
2. The kind of beauty we express by the word charm. “The beautiful charm of Christ be with you all”--the charm of harmony of character, the musical subordination and accord of all the qualities and powers of His nature, so that the whole impression made was one of exquisite and various order in lovely and living movement. Sensitiveness to the feelings of others, and to all that is beautiful. An eye to see traces of the Divine loveliness everywhere; faith to believe in it; power to draw it forth. Conclusion: Pray for this grace. It will make you at one with all that is tender, pitiful, dear, and sweet in human lovingkindness, and with all that is sensitive and delicate and graceful in manner and speech, and will create in you an harmonious soul. It will make you at one with moral good, just and true and pure. It will take all that is living in humanity, all that is fair, all that is moral, and link them to and complete them by uniting them to the love of God, and to God’s love for all men; so that to human love and moral love and imaginative love will be added the spiritual love which gathers them all into perfection. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.)
The apostle’s farewell wish
The apostle concludes the Epistle with his ordinary farewell wish; wherein, having designated them by the name of “brethren,” he wishes that God’s grace and favour, with all spiritual benefits flowing from it, and purchased and conveyed to them through Jesus Christ, might reside, both in the effects and sense of it, in their spirits and whole soul; and he affixes his “Amen,” as an evidence of fervency, and confidence in his wish, and as a confirmation of the whole doctrine delivered by him in this Epistle.
1. The more of prejudice a minister apprehends to exist in a people or person against himself and his doctrine, the more ought he to endeavour by affectionate insinuations, and by frequent and seasonable reiterations of loving force, to root out those prejudices.
2. The main thing in people for which ministers ought to care, is the spirit and inward man, as that for which God mainly calls (Pro_23:26), and being kept right, will command the outward man and keep it right also (Pro_4:23). (James Fergusson.)
Parting words
This is his last farewell. He ends the Epistle with the same words wherewith he began. As if he said: “I have taught you Christ purely, I have entreated you, I have chidden you, and I have let pass nothing which I thought profitable for you. I can say no more, but that I heartily pray that our Lord Jesus Christ would bless and increase my labour, and govern you with His Holy Spirit for ever.” (Luther.)
Grace
I.Grace is the sum of all other blessings.
II. Grace is obtained through Christ.
III. Grace is the greatest happiness we can desire for others. (J. Lyth. , D. D.)
Grace for all
I.Grace is needed by all.
II. Grace is provided for all.
III. Grace is offered to all.
IV. Grace is supplicated for all.
V. Grace may be enjoyed by all. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The grace of Christ
It is of little moment whether by this “grace” we understand that free love and favour which He always bears in His heart to all that believe in His name, or all that kindness--all those heavenly and spiritual blessings--in the communication of which He manifests this love, this free favour. In any case, to possess His grace is an inconceivable blessing. To be the objects of the kind regards of one so excellent, so amiable, so kind, so wise, so faithful, who can estimate the value of this? It was the apostle’s wish that the Galatian Christians might every day enjoy new proofs of this unaltered, unalterable lore. He does not pray simply that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be with them, but that it may be with their spirit. The leading object of the whole Epistle is to withdraw them more from external things, and fix them on things spiritual; and such a prayer is a most appropriate conclusion. (John Brown, D. D.)
Grace through Christ alone
Here is the concluding wish of Paul for the Galatians, and it is quite in harmony with the teaching of the Epistle. In opposition to all that the false teachers would have the teachers believe respecting righteousness through the sacrifices of the law and obedience to its precepts, Paul had set before them Christ crucified as the sole foundation of all their hopes for eternity, and proved to them that by faith, and by faith alone, all the benefits of Christ’s death are to be obtained and appropriated. And now he concludes with the affectionate wish that they might constantly and richly experience in their own souls the truth of the gospel, through “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” dwelling in their hearts. May every true believer, both with respect to himself and to the whole Church of Christ, say with the apostle, “Amen!” (John Venn, M. A.)
It is much to be observed that in the original the word “Brethren” stands at the end of the sentence in a very unusual and emphatic position. After all the severity and strength of the Epistle, he concludes with this word of tenderness and affection. (Bishop Moberly.)
After all his sorrow, amazement, censure, and despondency, he parts with them in kindness; after all the pain they had cost him, yet were they dear to him; and ere he lifts his hand from the parchment, it writes as a parting love-token--Brethren. (John Eadie, D. D.)
The benediction
As the apostle began with grace (chap. 1:3), so he ends with grace, to teach us--
I. That our salvation is placed in it alone for the beginning, progress, and accomplishment thereof. For--
1. Election is of grace (Rom_11:5).
2. Vocation (2Ti_1:9).
3. Justification (Rom_4:24).
4. Glorification (Rom_6:23).
II. That Christ is to have all the glory of this grace.
III. That all our salutations and greetings, adieus and farewells, ought to be founded in the grace of Christ.
The conclusion: It is an epitome of the Epistle.
I. Christ “the Lord” of the house is opposed to Moses who was but a servant.
II. The “grace” of Christ is opposed to the merit of works.
III. The “spirit,” the true seat of grace, is opposed to the flesh in which the false apostles gloried so much.
IV. “brethren” denotes the affection which is opposed to the lordly carriage of the false apostles and to the strife which they endeavoured to foment. (R. Cudworth.)
