Galatians Commentary

Ver 15. “We, being Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners,

He is now proceeding to the second part of his speech, which commences with an anticipation. The Gentiles differed from them in this respect, that they were "unholy and profane," (1 Tim 1:9); while the Jews, being holy, so far as God had chosen them for his people, might contend for this superiority. Skillfully anticipating the objection, Paul turns it to the opposite conclusion. Since the Jews themselves, with all their advantages, were forced to betake themselves to the faith of Christ, how much more necessary was it that the Gentiles should look for salvation through faith? Paul's meaning therefore is: "We, who appear to excel others, -- we, who, by means of the covenant, have always enjoyed the privilege of being nigh to God, have found no method of obtaining salvation, but by believing in Christ: why, then, should we prescribe another method to the Gentiles? For, if the law were necessary or advantageous for salvation to those who observed its enactments, it must have been most of all advantageous to us to whom it was given; but if we relinquished it, and betook ourselves to Christ, much less ought compliance with it to be urged upon the Gentiles."

The word sinner, signifies here, as in many other places, a "profane person" (Heb 12:16), or one who is lost and alienated from God. Such were the Gentiles, who had no intercourse with God; while the Jews were, by adoption, the children of God, and therefore set apart to holiness. By nature, does not mean that they were naturally free from the corruption of the human race; for David, who was a descendant of Abraham, acknowledges, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps 51:5), but the corruption of nature, to which they were liable, had been met by the remedy of sanctifying grace. Now, as the promise made the blessing hereditary, so this benefit is called natural; just as, in the Epistle to the Romans, he says, that they were sprung from a "holy root" (Rom 11:16).

Ver 16. yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.

The first thing to be noticed is, that we must seek justification by the faith of Christ, because we cannot be justified by works. Now, the question is, what is meant by the works of the law? The Papists, misled by Origen and Jerome, are of opinion, and lay it down as certain, that the dispute relates to shadows; and accordingly assert, that by "the works of the law" are meant ceremonies. As if Paul were not reasoning about the free justification which is bestowed on us by Christ. For they see no absurdity in maintaining that "no man is justified by the works of the law," and yet that, by the merit of works, we are accounted righteous in the sight of God. In short, they hold that no mention is here made of the works of the moral law. But the context clearly proves that the moral law is also comprehended in these words; for almost everything which Paul afterwards advances belongs more properly to the moral than to the ceremonial law; and he is continually employed in contrasting the righteousness of the law with the free acceptance which God is pleased to bestow.

The works of the law. It is objected by our opponents, that the term "works" must have been employed without any addition, if Paul had not intended to limit it to a particular class. But I reply, there is the best of all reasons for this mode of expression; for, though a man were to excel all the angels in holiness, no reward is due to works, but on the footing of a Divine promise. Perfect obedience to the law is righteousness, and has a promise of eternal life annexed to it; but it derives this character from God, who declares that "they who have fulfilled them shall live." (Lev 18:5). On this point we shall afterwards treat more fully in its own place. Besides, the controversy with the Jews was about the law. Paul, therefore, chose rather to bring the matter to an issue, by meeting them at once on their own ground, than to adopt a more circuitous route, which might wear the aspect of evading the subject, or distrusting his cause. Accordingly he resolves to have a close debate about the law.

Their second objection is, that the whole question raised was about ceremonies, which we readily allow. Why then, say they, would the apostle pass suddenly from a particular department to the whole subject? This was the sole cause of the mistake into which Origen and Jerome were betrayed; for they did not think it natural that, while the false apostles were contending about ceremonies alone, Paul should take in a larger field. But they did not consider that the very reason for disputing so keenly was, that the doctrine led to more serious consequences than at first view appeared. It would not have given so much uneasiness to Paul that ceremonies should be observed, as that the confident hope and the glory of salvation should be made to rest on works; just as, in the dispute about forbidding flesh on certain days, we do not look so much to the importance of the prohibition itself, as to the snare which is laid for the consciences of men. Paul, therefore, does not wander from the subject, when he enters into a controversy about the whole law, although the arguments of the false apostles were confined wholly to ceremonies.

Their object in pressing ceremonies was, that men might seek salvation by obedience to the law, which, they falsely maintained, was meritorious; and accordingly, Paul meets them, not with the moral law, but with the grace of Christ alone. And yet this extended discussion does not occupy the whole of the Epistle; he comes at length to the specific question of ceremonies: but as the most serious difficulty was, whether justification is to be obtained by works or by faith, it was proper that this should be first settled.

But through faith in Jesus Christ. He does not merely state that ceremonies, or works of any kind, are insufficient without the assistance of faith, but meets their denial by a statement admitting of no exception, as if he had said, "Not by works, but by the Gift of Christ alone." In any other point of view, the sentiment would have been trivial and foreign to the purpose; for the false apostles did not reject Christ nor faith, but demanded that ceremonies should be joined with them. If Paul had admitted this claim, they would have been perfectly at one, and he would have been under no necessity to agitate the church by this unpleasant debate. Let it therefore remain settled, that the proposition is so framed as to admit of no exception, "that we are justified in no other way than by faith," or, "that we are not justified but by faith," or, which amounts to the same thing, "that we are justified by faith alone."

Hence it appears with what silly trifling the Papists of our day dispute with us about the word, as if it had been a word of our contrivance. But Paul was unacquainted with the theology of the Papists, who declare that a man is justified by faith, and yet make a part of justification to consist in works. Of such half-justification Paul knew nothing. For, when he instructs us that we are justified by faith, because we cannot be justified by works, he takes for granted what is true, that we cannot be justified through the righteousness of Christ, unless we are poor and destitute of a righteousness of our own. Consequently, either nothing or all must be ascribed to faith or to works.

No flesh will be justified by the works of the law. He had already appealed to the consciences of Peter and others, and now confirms it more fully by affirming that such is the actual truth, that by the works of the law no mortal will obtain justification. This is the foundation of a freely bestowed righteousness, when we are stripped of a righteousness of our own. Besides, when he asserts that no mortal is justified by the righteousness of the law, the assertion amounts to this, that from such a mode of justification all mortals are excluded, and that none can possibly reach it.

Ver 17. But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!

"What are these false apostles doing?" Paul cries. "They are turning Law into grace, and grace into Law. They are changing Moses into Christ, and Christ into Moses. By teaching that besides Christ and His righteousness the performance of the Law is necessary unto salvation, they put the Law in the place of Christ, they attribute to the Law the power to save, a power that belongs to Christ only."

The papists quote the words of Christ: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Mat 19:17). With His own words they deny Christ and abolish faith in Him. Christ is made to lose His good name, His office, and His glory, and is demoted to the status of a law enforcer, reproving, terrifying, and chasing poor sinners around. The proper office of Christ is to raise the sinner, and extricate him from his sins.

Is Christ a servant of sin? Either we are not justified by Christ, or we are not justified by the Law. The fact is, we are justified by Christ. Hence, we are not justified by the Law. If we observe the Law in order to be justified, or after having been justified by Christ, we think we must further be justified by the Law, we convert Christ into a legislator and a minister of sin.

The purpose of the Law is to reveal sin. The Law requires perfect obedience. It condemns all who do not accomplish the will of God. But show me a person who is able to render perfect obedience. The Law cannot justify. It can only condemn according to the passage: "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." If the Law is the minister of sin, it is at the same time the minister of wrath and death. As the Law reveals sin it fills a person with the fear of death and condemnation. Eventually the conscience wakes up to the fact that God is angry. If God is angry with you, He will destroy and condemn you forever.

All who say that faith alone in Christ does not justify a person, convert Christ into a minister of sin, a teacher of the Law, and a cruel tyrant who requires the impossible. All merit-seekers take Christ for a new lawgiver.

Far from it. He properly rejects that inference. Christ, who discovers the sin which lay concealed, is not therefore the minister of sin; as if, by depriving us of righteousness, he opened the gate to sin, or strengthened its dominion. The Jews were mistaken in claiming any holiness for themselves apart from Christ, while they had none. Hence arose the complaint: "Did Christ come to take from us the righteousness of the law, to change saints into polluted men, to subject us to sin and guilt?" Paul denies it, and repels the blasphemy with abhorrence. Christ did not bring sin, but unveiled it; he did not take away righteousness, but stripped the Jews of a false disguise.

Ver 18. For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.

For if I build up again. "By the ministry of the Gospel I have destroyed sin, heaviness of heart, wrath, and death. I have abolished the Law, so that it should not bother your conscience any more. Should I now once again establish the Law, and set up the rule of Moses? This is exactly what I should be doing, if I would urge circumcision and the performance of the Law as necessary unto salvation. Instead of righteousness and life, I would restore sin and death."

By the grace of God we know that we are justified through faith in Christ alone. We do not mingle law and grace, faith and works. We keep them far apart. Let every true Christian mark the distinction between law and grace, and mark it well.

We conclude with Paul, that we are justified by faith in Christ, without the Law. Once a person has been justified by Christ, he will not be unproductive of good, but as a good tree he will bring forth good fruit. A believer has the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will not permit a person to remain idle, but will put him to work and stir him up to the love of God, to patient suffering in affliction, to prayer, thanksgiving, to the habit of charity towards all men.

Ver 19. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God.

For I through the law. Now follows the direct reply, that we must not ascribe to Christ that work which properly belongs to the law. It was not necessary that Christ should destroy the righteousness of the law, for the law itself slays its disciples. As if he had said, "You deceive wretched men by the false notion, that they must live by the law; and, under that pretext, you keep them in the law. And yet you bring it as a charge against the Gospel, that it annihilates the righteousness which we have by the law. But it is the law which forces us to die to itself; for it threatens our destruction, leaves us nothing but despair, and thus drives us away from trusting to the law."

Died to the law. To be dead to the Law means to be free of the Law. The law allures us all to destruction, and we find in it no life. It is not to Christ, he tells us, that it is owing that the law is more hurtful than beneficial; but the law carries within itself the curse which slays us. Hence it follows, that the death which is brought on by the law is truly deadly. With this is contrasted another kind of death, in the life-giving fellowship of the cross of Christ. He says, that he is crucified together with Christ, that he might live unto God.

Blessed is the person who knows how to use this truth in times of distress. He can talk. He can say: "Mr. Law, go ahead and accuse me as much as you like. I know I have committed many sins, and I continue to sin daily. But that does not bother me. You have got to shout louder, Mr. Law. I am deaf, you know. Talk as much as you like, I am dead to you. If you want to talk to me about my sins, go and talk to my flesh. Belabor that, but don't talk to my conscience. My conscience is a lady and a queen, and has nothing to do with the likes of you, because my conscience lives to Christ under another law, a new and better law, the law of grace."

That I might live to God. He declares that we are dead to the law, not by any means that we may live to sin, but that we may live to God. To live to God, sometimes means to regulate our life according to his will, so as to study nothing else in our whole life but to gain his approbation; but here it means to live, if we may be allowed the expression, the life of God. In this way the various points of the contrast are preserved; for in whatever sense we are said to die to sin, in the same sense do we live to God. In short, Paul informs us that this death is not mortal, but is the cause of a better life; because God snatches us from the shipwreck of the law, and by his grace raises us up to another life.

Ver 20. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

I have been crucified with Christ. Paul does not here speak of crucifying the flesh, but he speaks of that higher crucifying wherein sin, devil, and death are crucified in Christ and in me. By my faith in Christ I am crucified with Christ. Hence these evils are crucified and dead unto me. We are delivered from the yoke of the law, only by becoming one with Christ, as the twig draws its sap from the root, only by growing into one nature.

It is no longer I who live. True Christian righteousness is the righteousness of Christ who lives in us. We must look away from our own person, so that we can see nothing else but Christ crucified and raised from the dead to save us. If I keep on looking at myself, I am gone. Being crucified with Christ and dead unto the Law, I may now rise unto a new and better life.

Christ lives in me. This explains what he meant by "living to God." He does not live by his own life, but is animated by the power of Christ; so that Christ may be said to live in him; for, as the soul enlivens the body, so Christ imparts life to his members. It is a remarkable sentiment, that believers live out of themselves, that is, they live in Christ; which can only be accomplished by holding real and actual communication with him. Christ lives in us, making us partakers of his righteousness; so that, while we can do nothing of ourselves, we are accepted in the sight of God.

That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. "I live by the faith of the Son of God," he says. "My speech is no longer directed by the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. My sight is no longer governed by the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. My hearing is no longer determined by the flesh, but by the Holy Ghost. I cannot teach, write, pray, or give thanks without the instrumentality of the flesh; yet these activities do not proceed from the flesh, but from God."

A Christian uses earthly means like any unbeliever. Outwardly they look alike. Nevertheless there is a great difference between them. I may live in the flesh, but I do not live after the flesh. I do my living now "by faith in the Son of God." Paul had the same voice, the same tongue, before and after his conversion. Before his conversion his tongue uttered blasphemies. But after his conversion his tongue spoke a spiritual, heavenly language.

We may now understand how spiritual life originates. It enters the heart by faith. Christ reigns in the heart with His Holy Spirit, who sees, hears, speaks, works, suffers, and does all things in and through us over the protest and the resistance of the flesh.

Who loved me. This is added to express the power of faith. But where does faith derive such power as to convey into our souls the life of Christ? He accordingly informs us, that the love of Christ, and his death, are the objects on which faith rests; for it is in this manner that the effect of faith must be judged. How comes it that we live by the faith of Christ? Because "he loved us, and gave himself for us." The love of Christ led him to unite himself to us, and he completed the union by his death. By giving himself for us, he suffered in our own person; as, on the other hand, faith makes us partakers of every thing which it finds in Christ.

"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 Jn 4:1). For if any merit of ours had moved him to redeem us, this reason would have been stated; but now Paul ascribes the whole to love: it is therefore of free grace. Let us observe the order: "He loved us, and gave himself for us." As if he had said, "He had no other reason for dying, but because he loved us," and that "while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son" (Rom 5:10).

And gave himself for me. Let us count the price. When you hear that such an enormous price was paid for you, will you still come along with your cowl, your shaven pate, your chastity, your obedience, your poverty, your works, your merits? What do you want with all these trappings? What good are the works of all men, and all the pains of the martyrs, in comparison with the pains of the Son of God dying on the Cross, so that there was not a drop of His precious blood, but it was all shed for your sins. If you could properly evaluate this incomparable price, you would throw all your ceremonies, vows, works, and merits into the ash can. What awful presumption to imagine that there is any work good enough to pacify God, when to pacify God required the invaluable price of the death and blood of His own and only Son?

Ver 21. I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

I don't reject the grace of God. Paul is now getting ready for the second argument of his Epistle, to the effect that to seek justification by works of the Law, is to reject the grace of God. I ask you, what sin can be more horrible than to reject the grace of God, and to refuse the righteousness of Christ? It is bad enough that we are wicked sinners and transgressors of all the commandments of God; on top of that to refuse the grace of God and the remission of sins offered unto us by Christ, is the worst sin of all, the sin of sins. That is the limit. There is no sin which Paul and the other apostles detested more than when a person despises the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Still there is no sin more common. That is why Paul can get so angry, because it snubs Christ, rebuffs the grace of God, and refuses the merit of Christ. What else would you call it but spitting in Christ's face, pushing Christ to the side, usurping Christ's throne. By this abominable doctrine many have spoiled, darkened, and buried the benefit of Christ, and in place of the grace of Christ and His Kingdom, have established a doctrine of works and a kingdom of ceremonies.

For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing! We will always affirm with Paul that either Christ died in vain, or else the Law cannot justify us. But Christ did not suffer and die in vain. Hence, the Law does not justify.

If my salvation was so difficult to accomplish that it necessitated the death of Christ, then all my works, all the righteousness of the Law, are good for nothing. How can I buy for a penny what cost a million dollars? The Law is a penny's worth when you compare it with Christ. Should I be so stupid as to reject the righteousness of Christ which cost me nothing, and slave like a fool to achieve the righteousness of the Law which God disdains?

If we could produce a righteousness of our own, then Christ has suffered in vain; for the intention of his sufferings was to procure it for us, and what need was there that a work which we could accomplish for ourselves should be obtained from another? If the death of Christ be our redemption, then we were captives; if it be satisfaction, we were debtors; if it be atonement, we were guilty; if it be cleansing, we were unclean. On the contrary, he who ascribes to works his sanctification, pardon, atonement, righteousness, or deliverance, makes void the death of Christ.

Man's own righteousness is in the last analysis a despising and rejecting of the grace of God. No combination of words can do justice to such an outrage. It is an insult to say that any man died in vain. But to say that Christ died in vain is a deadly insult. To say that Christ died in vain is to make His resurrection, His victory, His glory, His kingdom, heaven, earth, God Himself, of no purpose and benefit whatever.

Ver 15. “We, being Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners,

Ver 16. yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.

Ver 17. But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!

Ver 18. For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.

Ver 19. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God.

This passage will be better understood by comparing it with the Romans 7. There Paul describes beautifully, that no man lives to the law, but he to whom the law is dead, that is, has lost all power and efficacy; for, as soon as the law begins to live in us, it inflicts a fatal wound by which we die, and at the same time breathes life into the man who is already dead to sin. Those who live to the law, therefore, have never felt the power of the law, or properly understood what the law means; for the law, when truly perceived, makes us die to itself, and it is from this source, and not from Christ, that sin proceeds.

This form of speech is frequently met with in the Scriptures, particularly in the writings of St. Paul, when the Law is set against the Law, and sin is made to oppose sin, and death is arrayed against death, and hell is turned loose against hell, as in the following quotations: "Thou hast led captivity captive," Psalm 68:18. "O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction," Hosea 13:14. "And for sin, condemned sin in the flesh," Romans 8:3. Here Paul plays the Law against the Law, as if to say: "The Law of Moses condemns me; but I have another law, the law of grace and liberty which condemns the accusing Law of Moses."

Paul does not only refer to the Ceremonial Law, but to the whole Law. We are not to think that the Law is wiped out. It stays. It continues to operate in the wicked. But a Christian is dead to the Law. For example, Christ by His resurrection became free from the grave, and yet the grave remains. Peter was delivered from prison, yet the prison remains. The Law is abolished as far as I am concerned, when it has driven me into the arms of Christ. Yet the Law continues to exist and to function. But it no longer exists for me.

Ver 20. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

Whenever remission of sins is freely proclaimed, people misinterpret it according to Romans 3:8, "Let us do evil, that good may come." As soon as people hear that we are not justified by the Law, they reason: "Why, then let us reject the Law. If grace abounds, where sin abounds, let us abound in sin, that grace may all the more abound." People who reason thus are reckless. They make sport of the Scriptures and slander the sayings of the Holy Ghost. These must be instructed as to why good works do not justify, and from what motives good works must be done. Good works are not the cause, but the fruit of righteousness. When we have become righteous, then first are we able and willing to do good. The tree makes the apple; the apple does not make the tree.

Ver 21. I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

Ver 15. “We, being Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners,

John Chrysostom comments, "Observe how he represses the high thoughts of the Jews; each argument lays the ground for the next, and his language is authoritative. We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles. The phrase, Jews by nature, implies that we, who are not proselytes, but educated from early youth in the Law, have relinquished our habitual mode of life, and betaken ourselves to the faith which is in Christ." (Commentary on Galatians).

Jerome comments, "We know that we cannot be saved by the works of the Law but by faith in Christ. We have believed in Christ so that our faith in him might give us what the Law could not. We abandoned the Law in which we could not be saved, and we have gone over to faith, in which the devotion of a pure heart is demanded, not the circumcision of the flesh. By now withdrawing from the Gentiles we declare that whoever is uncircumcised is unclean. Therefore, is faith in Christ, by which we previously thought we were saved, the agent of sin rather than of righteousness, which abolishes [the need for] circumcision, the very thing without which one is deemed unclean? God forbid that I should uphold what I once attacked and knew would never again be beneficial to me. When I decisively departed from the Law, I died to it that I might live in Christ and be nailed to his cross and that I might be reborn as a new man and live by faith, not by the flesh, and leave the world in Christ. I remain steadfast in my original resolve. Christ did not die for me for nothing. If I was able to be saved by keeping the old Law instead of by having faith in him, then I have believed in Christ in vain." (Commentary on Galatians).

John Calvin comments, "Skilfully anticipating the objection, Paul turns it to the opposite conclusion. Since the Jews themselves, with all their advantages, were forced to betake themselves to the faith of Christ, how much more necessary was it that the Gentiles should look for salvation through faith?" (Commentary on Galatians).

Ver 16. yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.

Clement of Rome writes, "Nor were the rest of his tribes in any little glory: God having promised that their seed shall be as the stars of heaven. They were all therefore greatly glorified, not for their own sake, or for their own works, or for the righteousness that they themselves wrought, but through his will. And we also being called by the same will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, neither by our own wisdom, or knowledge, or piety, or the works which we have done in the holiness of our hearts. But by that faith, by which God Almighty has justified all men from the beginning; to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen." (Letter to the Corinthians, ch 32).

Jerome comments, "Some say that if Paul is right to assert that no one is justified by the works of the Law but by faith in Jesus Christ, then the patriarchs, prophets, and saints who lived prior to Christ's advent were lacking in something. We must remind these objectors that Paul is talking here about those who have not pursued righteousness and who believe that they can be justified only by works. The saints who lived long ago, however, were justified by faith in Christ. Abraham foresaw the day of Christ and rejoiced. 'Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.' Isaiah beheld the glory of Christ, as John the Evangelist notes... Thus it is not so much the works of the Law that are condemned as those who are confident that they can be justified by them...

The flesh about which it is said, 'All flesh is like grass, and all of its glory is like the flowers of the field,' is not justified by the works of the Law. But the flesh spoken of in the mystery of the resurrection, 'All flesh will see God's salvation,' is justified through faith in Jesus Christ. According to the more common understanding, it used to be that the only flesh redeemable by the Law were those who lived in Palestine. Now, however, all flesh is justified by faith in Jesus Christ, as his churches are being established all over the world." (Commentary on Galatians).

Peter Lombard comments, "In short, there is no way that one can be justified except through the faith of Christ Jesus, referring to the faith by which one believes in Christ. It is for this reason, therefore, that we Jews, like the gentiles, believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by the faith of Christ. The Apostle does not say that by faith good works are thereby made meaningless, for God renders to each person according to that person's works. Rather, it is because works proceed from grace—not grace from works." (The Bible in Medieval Tradition: The Letter to the Galatians, Ian Christopher Levy, Eerdmans, 2011).

Martin Luther comments, "After we have taught faith in Christ, we teach good works. 'Since you have found Christ by faith,' we say, 'begin now to work and do well. Love God and your neighbor. Call upon God, give thanks unto Him, praise Him, confess Him. These are good works. Let them flow from a cheerful heart, because you have remission of sin in Christ.' " (Commentary on Galatians).

Ver 17. But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!

John of Damascus comments, "Look at the absurd direction into which he leads those who are attached to the Law. If the faith in Christ, he says, is not sufficient to justify, but, once again there is a need to uphold the Law, and if those, having left the Law for Christ, are not justified in doing so, but rather are condemned, then Christ will be found to be the cause of our condemnation, since we left the law on his account in order to run towards the faith. 'God forbid,' he says. Seeing the absurdity, which this doctrine leads to, he immediately turns away from it by using this aphorism." (Commentary on St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians).

Anselm writes, "My merits were Thy Death; my iniquity Thy Chastisement. O wonderful compact of judgment; O arrangment of unspeakable mystery! The unjust sinneth, and the Just is punished; the guilty erreth, and the Innocent is beaten; the unloving offendeth, and the Loving is condemned; what the evil deserveth, the Good suffereth; what the slave perpetrateth, the Master payeth the penalty for; what man committeth, God endureth... For I have done wickedly, Thou sufferest the penalty: I have committed sin, Thou art visited with the vengeance: I have been guilty of crimes, and Thou art subjected to torment: I have been proud, Thou art humbled: I have been puffed up, Thou art emaciated: I have shewn myself disobedient, Thou, by being obedient to the Father, payest the penalty of my disobedience." (Second Prayer, pg 183).

Ver 18. For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.

Ignatius writes, "Let us not, therefore, be insensible to His kindness. For were He to reward us according to our works, we should cease to be. Therefore, having become His disciples, let us learn to live according to the principles of Christianity. For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, is not of God. Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven, and be changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be salted in Him, lest any one among you should be corrupted, since by your savour you shall be convicted. It is absurd to profess Christ Jesus, and to Judaize. For Christianity did not embrace Judaism, but Judaism Christianity, that so every tongue which believes might be gathered together to God." (Epistle to the Magnesians, ch 10).

Ver 19. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God.

Justin Martyr writes, "For Isaiah did not send you to a bath, there to wash away murder and other sins, which not even all the water of the sea were sufficient to purge; but, as might have been expected, this was that saving bath of the olden time which followed those who repented, and who no longer were purified by the blood of goats and of sheep, or by the ashes of an heifer, or by the offerings of fine flour, but by faith through the blood of Christ, and through His death, who died for this very reason" (Dialogue with Trypho, Ch 13).

Ver 20. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

Mathetes writes, "But when our wickedness had reached its height, and it had been clearly shown that its reward, punishment and death, was impending over us; and when the time had come which God had before appointed for manifesting His own kindness and power, how the one love of God, through exceeding regard for men, did not regard us with hatred, nor thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us, but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us, He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for those who are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange!" (The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus, Ch 9).

William Nicoll comments, "Why did St. Paul love Christ with such an overwhelming passion? To answer it aright would be to retrace the whole history. But first we say that St. Paul's love was the love of gratitude. 'He loved me and gave Himself for me' that is the burning centre. Christ died for the ungodly. We are justified by faith in His blood. St. Paul knew the great desolation of the Victim of Love. Christ was made a curse for him on the tree of Calvary. Christ kept knocking by the voice of interior grace at the door of his heart till his heart opened. Then the soul that had been separated from the Author of Peace was restless and weary no longer. To him the meritorious death of Christ became the beautiful gate of the temple whereby he entered into the treasure-house of God. The full, finished, and perfect sacrifice and atonement for the sins of the whole world blotted out the transgressions that were past. More than that: if any man be in Christ there is a new creation. There is the stroke that ends him and the touch that begins him afresh. The faith of St. Paul apprehended the dying of the Lord Jesus, and the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead quickened his mortal body. Mystically he died and rose again in Christ." (Expositor's Dictionary of Text).

Ver 21. I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

Marius Victorinus comments, "I am not ungrateful to God’s grace (2: 21), so that, God having redeemed me through Christ and Christ having handed himself over for my sake, I would return to the hope of the Law—all the hope I have in Christ being disregarded—and would believe myself to be justified based on the works of the Law. That would be ungrateful to the one who did so much for me, who for my sake would put himself in the line of fire in order to liberate me from my sins by taking their penalties upon himself." (Commentary on Galatians, translated by Stephen Andrew Cooper).

Bernard writes, "As for your justice, so great is the fragrance it diffuses that you are called not only just but even justice itself, the justice that makes men just. Your power to make men just is measured by your generosity in forgiving. Therefore the man who through sorrow for sin hungers and thirsts for justice, let him trust in the One who changes the sinner into a just man, and, judged righteous in terms of faith alone, he will have peace with God." (Sermons on the Song of Solomon, 22.8)

Charles Spurgeon comments, "They who say that the death of Christ goes only part of the way, but that man must do something in order to merit eternal life,— these, I say, make this death of Christ to be only partially effective, and, in yet clearer terms, ineffectual in and of itself. If it be even hinted that the blood of Jesus is not price enough till man adds his silver or his gold, then his blood is not our redemption at all, and Christ is no Redeemer! If it be taught that our Lord’s bearing of sin for us did not make a perfect atonement, and that it is ineffectual till we either do or suffer something to complete it, then in the supplemental work lies the real virtue, and Christ’s work is in itself insufficient. His death cry of 'It is finished,' must have been all a mistake, if still it is not finished; and if a believer in Christ is not completely saved by what Christ has done, but must do something himself to complete it, then salvation was not finished, and the Saviour’s work remains imperfect till we, poor sinners, lend a hand to make up for his deficiencies. What blasphemy lies in such a supposition!" (Salvation by Works, a Criminal Doctrine, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol 26).

15. Ἡμεῖς φύσει Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἁμαρτωλοί,

οὐκ ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἁμαρτωλοί - This clause expresses pointedly the insolent contempt of the Pharisaic party for Gentiles, who did not belong to the holy nation nor inherit the Law and the Covenants. Yet in spite of these arrogant pretensions to superior sanctity (it is added) they were driven by the verdict of their own conscience to embrace the faith of Christ because they knew that no flesh could possibly be so perfect in obedience to Law as to be thereby justified.

16. εἰδότες ὅτι οὐ δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος ἐξ ἔργων νόμου, ἐὰν μὴ διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ, καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν ἐπιστεύσαμεν, ἵνα δικαιωθῶμεν ἐκ πίστεως χριστοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων νόμου· διότι οὐ δικαιωθήσεται ἐξ ἔργων νόμου πᾶσα σάρξ.

οὐ δικαιοῦται ἄνθρωπος - Two methods of seeking justification in the sight of God are here distinguished. The former took account of nothing but stedfast obedience to the law of God. Before his conversion Paul knew no other: he had been taught by his legal training to base his standard of right and wrong entirely on the revealed law, to find in it the sole guide of conscience, and to measure righteousness by conformity to its commandments alone.

But his view of God’s judgment had been profoundly modified by his conversion. He had learnt on the one hand from the teaching of Christ how impossible it was for man to attain to perfect righteousness, seeing that God claims not only obedience to the letter of the law, but an allegiance of the heart too thorough to be attainable by human infirmity. But on the other hand he knew now that God is a loving Father in Christ, ever seeking out His erring children that He may win them back, ever ready to temper strict justice with infinite mercy, and waiting only for the first response of imperfect faith and imperfect repentance, so they be at all sincere, to blot out a guilty past, and pronounce a favourable judgment on the sinner. He perceived that there is room in the judgment of God for another element beside strict justice, viz., the mercy of the judge, and that a prisoner, however clear may be his guilt on the evidence of his life, may nevertheless be assured of pardon and acceptance by throwing himself in humble trust on that mercy. In the Epistles of Paul accordingly justification acquired a new meaning, becoming equivalent to acceptance before God, and the term righteousness was applied to the merciful acquittal of the guilty but penitent offender.

ἐξ ἔργων νόμου - The clause defines an acquittal on the merits of the case alone, based on a life of holy obedience, while διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ points to faith in Christ as the appointed channel of God’s mercy.

ἐπιστεύσαμεν - Here, as in Romans 13:11, this verb denotes the act of embracing the faith. Jewish Christians had by their conversion declared the hopelessness of their position under the Law without Christ. Faith in him was (they saw) the only means of obtaining justification.

διότι - This clause corroborates the verdict of conscience and experience by the authority of Scripture, for it adopts the language of Psalms 142:2 LXX, οὐ δικαιωθήσεται ἐνώπιόν σου πᾶς ζῶν, with only some verbal alterations suggested by the context of the Epistle. As two kinds of justification have been mentioned, the clause ἐξ ἔργων νόμου is required here to make it clear that the justification to which the Psalm refers was legal, the words ἐνώπιόν σου are dropped as needless in this context, and πᾶσα σάρξ is substituted for πᾶς ζῶν in order to show that the Psalm referred to earthly life. The passage is quoted with corresponding verbal changes in Romans 3:20.

17. Εἰ δέ, ζητοῦντες δικαιωθῆναι ἐν χριστῷ, εὑρέθημεν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἁμαρτωλοί, ἆρα χριστὸς ἁμαρτίας διάκονος; Μὴ γένοιτο.

Εἰ δέ, ζητοῦντες δικαιωθῆναι ἐν χριστῷ, εὑρέθημεν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἁμαρτωλοί - The last verse arrived at the conclusion that Jewish converts by their own act condemned themselves to be guilty of a broken law. The argument now proceeds on this assumption “ If it be true (as has been shown) that we by seeking to be justified in Christ were found to be ourselves also sinners as well as the Gentiles if our sin was then discovered, and it be admitted that confession of sin lies at the root of all Christian life, what then is the attitude of Christ toward sin?”

ἆρα χριστὸς ἁμαρτίας διάκονος - This clause is clearly interrogative, and the true reading is ἆρα, not ἄρα (inferential). For here, as always elsewhere in Pauline language, μὴ γένοιτο repudiates a monstrous suggestion, put forward in the form of a question, the mere statement of which is repugnant to the moral sense. It was objected to this doctrine of God’s free grace in Christ to guilty sinners that it held out a license to sin by doing away the wholesome restraints of the Law, and so encouraged men to continue in sin by its assurance of pardon. The fallacy is here dismissed with scorn on the strength of the very nature of Christ, but is more fully exposed in the sixth chapter to the Romans.

18. Εἰ γὰρ ἃ κατέλυσα, ταῦτα πάλιν οἰκοδομῶ, παραβάτην ἐμαυτὸν συνίστημι. (For if I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.)

Εἰ γὰρ ἃ κατέλυσα - This translates to "For if what I destroyed." "Εἰ" (Ei) means "if," introducing a conditional statement. "γὰρ" (gar) is a conjunction often translated as "for," indicating reasoning or explanation. "ἃ" (ha) is a relative pronoun referring to things or actions previously mentioned. "κατέλυσα" (katelusa) is the first person singular aorist form of "καταλύω" (katalyō), meaning "I destroyed" or "I dismantled."

ταῦτα πάλιν οἰκοδομῶ - This means "these things I again rebuild." "ταῦτα" (tauta) means "these things" or "this." "πάλιν" (palin) means "again." "οἰκοδομῶ" (oikodomō) is the first person singular present form of "οἰκοδομέω" (oikodomeō), meaning "I rebuild" or "I construct."

παραβάτην ἐμαυτὸν συνίστημι - This translates to "I prove myself to be a transgressor." "παραβάτην" (parabatēn) means "transgressor" or "lawbreaker." "ἐμαυτὸν" (emauton) is a reflexive pronoun, "myself." "συνίστημι" (synistēmi) is the first person singular present form of "συνίστημι" (synistēmi), meaning "I establish" or "I prove."

19. Ἐγὼ γὰρ διὰ νόμου νόμῳ ἀπέθανον, ἵνα θεῷ ζήσω.

Ἐγὼ - The stress laid on the personal pronoun shows that Paul is here referring to the facts of his personal history. He singles out his own conversion for the sake of the crucial example which it afforded of the difficulty of reconciling the commands of Christ with the traditional law of Israel, for he was actually bearing the commission of the high priest, and carrying out the orders of the Sanhedrim when Christ met him in the way and laid His commands upon him. He had to choose between the two: and at Christ’s word he flung up his office and renounced for ever the service of the Law.

διὰ νόμου - through the law. The translation of these words in our versions through the law seems to me fatal to the sense: for the death to Law which is here recorded was not due to the instrumentality of Law, but was the immediate effect of the vision and words of Christ; and the express object of this reference to the conversion of Saul is to show how union with Christ annihilates the authority of an outward law. διὰ νόμου is really akin to διὰ γράμματος καὶ περιτομῆς in Romans 2:27, and to διʼ ἀκροβυστίας in Romans 4:11. In all these cases διά denotes the environment, whether of the letter, of circumcision, of uncircumcision, or of law, which was subsisting at the time. Saul was on official duty, surrounded by the circumstances and machinery of Law when Christ stayed him, and he became at once dead to the claim of Law upon him.

νόμου νόμῳ ἀπέθανον - These words give a vivid description of the spiritual revulsion produced by his conversion in the heart of Saul. Whereas, hitherto, his whole mind had been set on fulfilling the whole Law, and he had counted its obligations all in all to him, he now entirely renounced the duty of obedience to its commands and repudiated its authority. And just as death works a final change, and leaves behind an indelible effect, so did his conversion affix a permanent stamp of lifelong change on all his after years: thenceforth he served another Master, owned absolute obedience to His will, listened for His inward voice or outward revelation, and drank of His Spirit.

νόμῳ - The absence of the article before νόμῳ is noteworthy; whereas the Law of Moses, being the one revealed Law, is always designated the Law ( ὁ νόμος), νόμῳ denotes law in the abstract, so that this clause comprehends emancipation from all control of external law. The freedom was, of course, purely spiritual: Paul continued fully to acknowledge the duty of outward submission to all duly ordained authority, but maintained the absolute independence of his spirit and conscience from its dictates.

ἵνα θεῷ ζήσω - This clause adds the motive for this death to Law. It was a veritable death unto life: Saul had striven in vain to obtain life before God by zealous fulfilment of every commandment; he now acknowledged his utter failure, surrendered all the pride and ambition of his life, and cast himself in humble trust at the feet of Jesus to receive from Him that precious life which he had sought in vain by his most zealous efforts under the Law.

20. Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι· ζῶ δέ, οὐκέτι ἐγώ, ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ χριστός· ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκί, ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ, τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντός με καὶ παραδόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ.

Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι - The Greek order throws special emphasis on Χριστῷ : union with Christ became from that time the central feature of his life; it entailed in the beginning a fellowship with his crucifixion, a real crucifixion of heart and will. By this figure he describes the intense agony of spiritual conflict, the crushing load of shame and bitter remorse which he underwent during the three days of darkness and silent despair that followed his vision of the Christ.

ζῶ δέ - and I live. I can perceive no ground for rendering δέ nevertheless (A.V.) or yet (R.V.). There is no contrast here between the life and the previous death: on the contrary, the life is presented as the direct outcome of the death. As the resurrection of Christ was the sequel of the crucifixion, so Paul was joined to Christ in death that he might be joined to Him in spiritual life.

οὐκέτι ἐγώ - The new life is no longer, like the former, dependent on the struggling efforts of a mere man to draw near to God in his own righteousness. Christ Himself is its source, as the vine is the source of life to the branches.

ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ - but in that I live. Our versions make this = ἣν ζωὴν ζῶ; but it seems to me more accordant with the context and with Greek forms of expression to make ὅ = in that, as it is rendered by A.V. in Romans 6:10. Two instances of this adverbial use of ὅ for a connecting particle have been already noted in this Epistle (Galatians 1:7; 2:10). Paul is here accounting for the fact that he now possesses spiritual life, though still in the flesh and subject to motions of sin in his members: it belongs to him in virtue of his faith in the Son of God.

με καὶ παραδόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ - The previous clauses have expressed the intimate personal union between the spirit of Paul and his Divine Master. In harmony with that view an exclusive personal aspect is presented of the love of Christ and of His sacrifice on the Cross, as though Paul himself had been their sole object.

21. Οὐκ ἀθετῶ τὴν χάριν τοῦ θεοῦ· εἰ γὰρ διὰ νόμου δικαιοσύνη, ἄρα χριστὸς δωρεὰν ἀπέθανεν.

διὰ νόμου - Law was never, like faith, instrumental to justification (cf. Galatians 2:16). Accordingly, Paul never speaks of justification through Law, but either ἐκ νόμου or ἐν νόμῳ. Here, as in Galatians 2:19, διὰ νόμου really denotes a legal environment, and the verse argues that if righteousness was really within men’s reach under a legal dispensation, then there was no occasion for the death of Christ at all.