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William Robinson Essays on Christian Unity (1924) |
C
EXPOSITION OF GAL. III. 6 AND JOHN I. 12, 13
IT will be best to take the passage in John i. 12, 13 first. The word which is here translated "born" is more correctly translated "begotten" and this is the marginal rendering of the R.V. Weymouth translates the passage "which were begotten." "The thought is of the first origin of life, and not [256] of the introduction of the living being into a new region,"1 says Westcott. The Jews believed that generation from Abraham was sufficient to secure salvation. The Midrash quoted by Edersheim says: "If thy children were even dead bodies without blood vessels or bones, thy merit would avail for them"; Justin Martyr clearly shows that this was a firm belief of the time. It is refuted first by John the Baptist,2 then by our Lord3 and finally by St. Paul.4 St. John is here refuting the same belief, and points out that the new birth, so far as the begetting is concerned, was not a matter of blood descent, not a fleshly matter, nor dependent upon man's will. This same word, "beget," is used by St. John in his first epistle.5 In most of these cases he refers to the fruits of the begetting; but in v. 1 states clearly that the begetting is synonymous with belief in Jesus as the Christ. With this agrees James i. 18: "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth." Here it is belief in the "word of truth" (equivalent to belief in the central facts of the Gospel), which is the instrument of begetting. 1 Peter i. 3 enunciates the same doctrine, and 1 Peter i. 23 is still more clear--"having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God." This teaching of St. John about the new birth must be supplemented by that given in John iii. 1-9. Here [257] again the origin of the birth is "from above" (see R.V.), and is thus properly described as due to the Spirit. Verse 5 clearly indicates that it is completed in Baptism, and the passage reads in the Greek, "born out of water and of the Spirit." This doctrine of St. John and St. Peter about the new birth corresponds with St. Paul's doctrine of a "new creature"; and St. Paul; too, clearly shows that the creation of this new being has to do with Baptism.6
St. Paul's teaching, therefore, in Galatians iii. 6 must be interpreted in the light of his doctrine of the new creation, and in the light of the fact that he is writing for a purpose in this epistle. He is writing to refute the claims of certain Judaisers, who wished to make Gentile Christians subject to the Law of Moses. His argument is that even this covenant had its origin not in a mere belief, but in an act of faith on the part of Abraham. This act of faith was superior to all ritual observances.
The doctrine of "justification by faith only" is unknown in the New Testament, and was not preached by the leaders of the Reformation. The ecclesiastical system of the Roman Church had approximated to the Jewish ritual system, and what Luther did was to revive the scriptural doctrine of justification by faith. In fact the doctrine of justification by faith alone is not held to-day, except by certain ultra-evangelical Christians. Very few people, for instance, are prepared to believe that faith (i.e., mere intellectual assent) apart from repentance can be of any use; and psychologically [258] it is questionable whether such a thing as mere intellectual assent is possible. Real faith is something greater than this.
[EOCU 256-259]
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