ACC ~ Galatians 2 v16

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.

Gal