Our Liberty In Christ by Philip Mauro

the universally accepted doctrine of Christendom was that of the Church of Rome, namely, that salvation was to be had solely through the sacraments and ceremonies of “the church,’’ and through the religious “works” (penances and the like) of the sinner himself. In other words, the knowledge of salvation from sin and judgment by grace alone, to be received through simple faith, had been virtually blotted out. Inasmuch as the religious works which the false “church” laid upon the sinner for the attainment of his own salvation were called “good works,” it is not to be wondered at that the re­covery of the doctrine of pure grace had the effect of pro­ducing, in many, an aversion even to the very mention of “good works.” This reaction against “good works” on the part of those who came to understand that salvation is by Cod’s grace alone, apart from works of law, was foreseen; and hence the very Scripture which says: “For by grace arc ye saved through faith, and that not of your­selves, it is the gift of God,” goes on immediately to declare that those who are saved by God’s grace “are created (anew) in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained (i. e. prepared) that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:810). .

We establish therefore the fact that “the grace of Christ” into which the gospel brings us, is a state of being, or a manner of life, which (according to God’s plan) is to be characterized by “good works.” Those works, how­ ever, are not works of law, but works of faith—things done in obedience to “the law of Christ” (6:2). They are to be done, moreover, not in order to secure the for­giveness of sins and the bestowal of eternal life, but for the very different reason that pardon and life have been already secured to us by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for us. Therefore we keep His com­mandments because we love Him, remembering His words: “He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that lovcth Me,” and “He that lovcth Me not keepeth not My sayings” (John 14: 21, 24).

II. “ANOTHER GOSPEL’’ The Galatians were being removed (or literally changed) from the grace of Christ unto a different gos­pel which is not another. Apparently they had not actu­ally abandoned the ground to which the apostle’s preach­ ing and teaching had brought them, and which he called (in writing to the Corinthians) “the gospel * * wherein ye stand” (1 Cor. 15: 1) ; but they were being seduced there from by teaching which Paul here refers to as “a different gospel” (since it opposes the gospel of God) and as “not another” (since in reality it was not “gospel” at all, but a legal system of vain