ACC ~ Galatians 2 v15 - 21

OVERVIEW:

The ceremonies of the law have served their purpose (THEODORET). Even the patriarchs were saved by faith, and no one is saved by works without Christ (JEROME). The accusers of Paul make Christ a sinner (THEODORET), as do Gentiles who slavishly adopt the law (MARIUS VICTORINUS, CHRYSOSTOM). Paul shows that even Jews have forsaken the law (JEROME, AUGUSTINE). We are called to die to the letter (MARIUS VICTORINUS), as we die to the world in union with the crucified Lord (AMBROSIASTER), so as to share in the living bread of heaven (AMBROSE) in the company of saints and angels. Christ dwells in us as our sins are forgiven (AMBROSIASTER), though we are never completely freed from sin in the flesh (AUGUSTINE). Paul expresses his gratitude with passion (CHRYSOSTOM), knowing the cost to Christ (JEROME). To avoid nullifying grace, we must remember Christ’s death for our sins (AMBROSIASTER). To make him die in vain is the worst of heresies (CHRYSOSTOM).

2:15 | Jews by Birth, Not Gentiles

WE JEWS BY BIRTH. JEROME: A Jew by nature is one of Abraham’s stock, who has been circumcised by his parents on the eighth day. One who is a Jew “not by nature” is one of Gentile origin who has been subsequently made so. That I may embrace the whole argument in a brief discourse, the sense of the text is as follows: “We are Jews by nature, doing those things that were precepts of the law. We are not sinners who come from the Gentiles—either in the sense of those who are sinners generically because they worship idols or those whom Jews now regard as unclean. Yet we know that we cannot be saved by the works of the law but rather by faith in Christ. We have believed in Christ that what the law had not given us our faith would guarantee to us. Seceding from the law in which we could not be saved, we have gone over to faith, in which not the circumcision of the flesh but the devotion of a pure heart is demanded. But what if we now belatedly declare by seceding from the Gentiles that whoever is uncircumcised is unclean? In that case faith in Christ—by which we previously thought we were saved—would rather be-come a minister of sin than of righteousness. For faith would under that assumption take away the circumcision without which one is unclean.” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.15.

PRIDE IN PERCEIVING GENTILES AS SINNERS. AUGUSTINE: The Jews had given the name of sinners to the Gentiles through a certain pride, already inveterate. It is as though they themselves were just, seeing the mote in another’s eye and not the beam in their own. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 16 [1B.2.15-18].

2:16 | Not Justified by Works of the Law

PATRIARCHS, PROPHETS AND SAINTS PRIOR TO CHRIST WERE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH, NOT WORKS. JEROME: Some say that if Paul is right in asserting that no one is justified by the works of the law but from faith in Christ, the patriarchs and prophets and saints who lived before Christ were imperfect. We should tell such people that those who are said not to have obtained righteousness are those who believe that they can be justified by works alone. The saints who lived long ago, however, were justified from faith in Christ, seeing that Abraham saw in advance Christ’s day. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.16.

NO ONE CAN FULFILL THE LAW IN EVERY RESPECT BY MORAL EFFORT ALONE. JEROME: In this place we must consider how many are the precepts of the law which no one can fulfill. And it must also be said that some works of the law are done even by those who do not know it. But those who perform it are not justified, because this happens without faith in Christ. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.16.

MUCH OF THE LAW IS KNOWN BY NATURAL CONSCIENCE. THEODORET: The necessary commandments of the law were taught even by nature. That is, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor, honor your father and mother, and the rest of this kind.” But the commandments about the sabbath and circumcision and lepers and menstruation and sacrifice were peculiar to the [Jewish] law, since nature taught nothing about these matters. These are what he now calls “works of the law.” The transgression of these is sin, yet the mere keeping of them is not the way of maintaining perfect righteousness. For these were symbols of other things. Nonetheless they were appropriate to the Jews in their due time. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.15-16.

2:17 | Can Christ Be an Agent of Sin?

WHETHER CHRIST BECOMES AN AGENT OF SIN TO THOSE WHO RETURN TO THE LAW. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Suppose that we, after receiving faith in Christ, do in Christ what the Jews do. Suppose we have received faith in Christ and wish to be justified in it. Suppose we have understood that a man is not justified by the works of the law. Would we not then, by observing the works of the law, be made sinners? Then it would be the case that Christ, whom we received in order not to sin, would himself become a minister of sin. Now, when after receiving him we return to sin—that is, to the old covenant—is Christ made a minister of sin? Let this possibility, Paul says, be far from us. One ought not to think in this way and act so as to make Christ a minister of sin, when he suffered in order that sin might perish. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.17.

WHETHER CHRIST COULD EVEN BE CONCEIVED AS AN AGENT OF SIN. THEODORET: Paul says in effect: “We have forsaken the law and come over to Christ, expecting to enjoy righteousness through faith in him. But suppose that this itself is counted as a transgression. The fault would then pertain to Christ the Lord himself. For it was he who gave us the New Testament. Far be it from us to tolerate such blas-phemy!” EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.17.

2:18 | Rebuilding the Law Makes One a Trangressor

ONE WHO REESTABLISHES THE LAW IS A TRANSGRESSOR AGAINST NOT FAITH BUT THE LAW ITSELF. CHRYSOSTOM: Note the shrewdness of Paul. For they wanted to show that the one who does not keep the law is a transgressor; but he turns the argument upside down, showing that the one who observes the law is a transgressor not against faith but against the law itself. What he says is as follows: “The law has ceased, as we ourselves agree, in so far as we have left it and taken refuge in the salvation of faith. If we now strive to establish it, we become transgressors by this very fact, as we strive to observe the precepts dissolved by God.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 2.18.

2:19 | Dying to the Law, Living to God

VARIED WAYS OF UNDERSTANDING THE LAW. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Now it is possible to see Paul as speaking of two laws—one of Moses, the other of Christ—so that he is saying he is dead to that law, which was given to the Jews, through the law that was given through Christ … that is, “I am dead through the law of Christ to the law formerly given to the Jews.” But Paul may also be seen as doing what both he and the Savior himself often do, so that he speaks of two laws because it is itself, as it were, twofold: one thing when it is understood carnally another when understood spiritually. … Thus the sense will be “For I through the law,” which is now spiritually understood, “am dead to the law”—that law obviously which is understood carnally. And since this is so, “I am dead to the carnal law” because I understand the law spiritually, “so that I live to God.” For what it means for someone to live to God is that he understands those precepts contained in the law not carnally but spiritually, that is, what it is to be truly circumcised and what the true sabbath is. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.19.

2:20a | Crucified with Christ

NO LONGER I WHO LIVE. AMBROSE: This means, “Not I, who once ate from the earth [like Adam]. Not I who was once grass, as all flesh is grass, but Christ who lives in me. That is, there lives that living bread which comes from heaven, there lives wisdom, there lives righteousness, there lives the resurrection.” ON PARADISE 76.

WHERE I AM NOT I, I AM MORE HAPPILY I. AUGUSTINE: The human spirit, cleaving to the Spirit of God, struggles against the flesh that is, against itself and on its own behalf. Those impulses natural to humanity, whether in the flesh or in the soul, which remain because of our acquired debility, are restrained by discipline for the sake of obtaining salvation. So the human being who does not live according to human nature can already say, “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” For where I am not I, I am more happily I. Thus when any reprobate impulse arises according to my old human nature, to which I who serve the law of God with my mind do not consent, I may now say this: “now I am not the one doing that.” ON CONTINENCE 29.

2:20b | Christ Lives in Me

IS PAUL UNIQUE? ORIGEN: Since Christ was in Paul, who will doubt that he was also likewise in Peter and John and in every individual among the saints, and not only in those who are on earth but also in those in heaven? For it is absurd to say that Christ was in Peter and Paul but not in the archangel Michael or Gabriel. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.4.29.

DEAD TO THE WORLD. AMBROSIASTER: One who is fixed to the cross of Christ is one who, in imitation of his footsteps, is not ensnared by any worldly desire. Living to God, he appears dead to the world. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.19.

2:20c | Living by Faith in the Son of God

SNATCHED FROM DEATH. AMBROSIASTER: There is no doubt that Christ lives in the one who is delivered from death by faith. When Christ forgives the sins of one who is worthy of death, he himself lives in that person, since by his protection the person is snatched from death. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.20.

2:20d | Christ Gave Himself for Me

MAKING THE UNIVERSAL GOD MY OWN. CHRYSOSTOM: What are you doing, Paul, making common things your own, and claiming for yourself what was done on behalf of the whole world? For he says not “who loved us” but “who loved me.” … But Paul speaks in this highly personal voice, aware of the culpability of human nature and the ineffable compassion of Christ, aware of what he redeems us from and what grace he confers upon us. Burning with desire toward him, he utters this. In just this way did the prophets often make the universal God their own, crying, “My God, my God, I invoke you.” He shows that each of us ought to render as much thanks to Christ as though Christ had come for him alone. For God would not have withheld this gift even from one person. He has the same love for every individual as for the whole world. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 2.20.

HE HANDED HIMSELF OVER. JEROME: Judas and the priests, with the princes, handed him over, and Pilate, to whom he was finally handed over, handed him over again. But the Father handed him over that he might save the abandoned world. Jesus gave himself, that he might do the Father’s will. But Judas and the priests and elders of the people and Pilate unwittingly handed over their lives to death. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.2.20.

2:21a | Not Nullifying the Grace of God

ON NOT NULLIFYING GRACE. AMBROSIASTER: Since a future life is promised to Christians, the one who now lives with God’s assistance lives in the faith of the promised life. For this one contemplates his image, having the pledge of the future life, which was procured for us by Christ’s love in accordance with God’s will. The one who is grateful to Christ is therefore the one who endures in faith toward him. He knows that he has no benefit from anyone but Christ and treats Christ with dishonor if he compares any other to him. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.21.

2:21b | Justification Not Through the Law

THE REASON FOR CHRIST’S DEATH. AMBROSIASTER: The law could not give remission of sins, nor triumph over the second death nor free from captivity those who were bound because of sin. The reason for Christ’s death was to provide those things that the law could not. He did not die in vain, for his death is the justification of sinners. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.21.

THE ABSURDITY OF THE CONTRARY ARGUMENT. CHRYSOSTOM: How could an act so great, so awesome and surpassing human reason be to no purpose? How could a mystery so ineffable, for which the prophets yearned in travail, the patriarchs foresaw and the angels were astonished to behold, acknowledged by all as the crown of God’s loving care—how could one say that this was vain and futile? Considering therefore how exceedingly absurd it would be for them to say a deed of such significance and magnitude had been superfluous … Paul adopts an indignant tone toward them saying, “O foolish Galatians.” HOMILY ON GALATIANS 2.21.