ACC ~ Galatians 3 v6 - 14

OVERVIEW:

Paul urges us all to become Abraham’s children through faith (MARIUS VICTORINUS). Asserting that Abraham anticipates our condition (CHRYSOSTOM), Paul takes circumcision as a sign for us (JEROME) and the promise as a foretaste of the gospel (AUGUSTINE). From praising faith Paul goes on to disparage legalism (THEODORET), showing that the law has no power to curse the one under the gospel (CHRYSOSTOM) as it curses the natural man (EPIPHANIUS), though he does not deny that good works are called for (MARIUS VICTORINUS). The law brings only knowledge of sin (AUGUSTINE) and gives present but not future life (PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE). Christ became a victim for us (AMBROSIASTER), taking our sins upon himself (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUs). Even as our sacrifice (CHRYSOSTOM) he vindicated the law (EPIPHANIUS). As a result the blessing of Abraham descends to us and prepares us for the Spirit (CHRYSOSTOM).

3:6 | Abraham’s Belief Counted as Righteousness

DISSOLVING FEAR IN KINSHIP WITH ABRAHAM. CHRYSOSTOM: Since the argument was about the law, Paul develops another highly controversial argument, bringing Abraham to the fore, and most effectively. … “For the power of faith,” he says, “is shown by the miracles that occurred among you; but if you wish I shall also try to convince you from the ancient records. … There was no law then,” he says, “and now too there is no law. … Just as in Abraham’s time the law was not yet given, so now, having been given, it has ceased.” And since they thought it a great thing to be descended from Abraham and were afraid that if they abandoned the law they would be deprived of their kinship, Paul turns this argument on its head and dissolves fear by showing that it is faith above all that produces affinity with Abraham. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 3.6.

3:7 | People of Faith Are Abraham’s Descendants

SOLA FIDE. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Every mystery which is enacted by our Lord Jesus Christ asks only for faith. The mystery was enacted at that time for our sake and aimed at our resurrection and liberation, should we have faith in the mystery of Christ and in Christ. For the patriarchs prefigured and foretold that man would be justified from faith. Therefore, just as it was reckoned as righteousness to Abraham that he had faith, so we too, if we have faith in Christ and every mystery of his, will be sons of Abraham. Our whole life will be accounted as righteous. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3.7.

3:8a | Scripture Foresaw the Gentiles’ Justification by Faith

THE ONE WHO GAVE THE LAW DECREED BEFORE THE LAW THAT THE GENTILES BE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH ALONE. CHRYSOSTOM: For since they were perturbed by the greater antiquity of the law and the fact that faith came after the law, he destroys this surmise of theirs, showing that faith is older than the law. That is obvious from Abraham, since he was justified before the appearance of the law. … “The one who gave the law,” he says, in effect “was the one who decreed before the law was given that the Gentiles should be justified.” And Paul does not say “revealed” but “preached the gospel” [beforehand to Abraham], so that you may understand that even the patriarch rejoiced in this kind of righteousness and greatly desired its advent. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 3.8.

HOW JOSHUA’S CIRCUMCISED PEOPLE ANTICIPATE THE SPIRITUAL CIRCUMCISION OF JESUS’ PEOPLE. JEROME: God, providing that the descendants of Abraham should not be mixed with the other nations … marked off the Israelite people by a particular rite: circumcision. … After that for forty years no one was circumcised in the wilderness. They were living without any intermixing with other nations. … As soon as the people crossed the river Jordan and the host poured out onto the territory of Judea in Palestine, he made provision by a necessary circumcision against the future error from miscegenation with the Gentiles. But the fact that the people are said to have been circumcised a second time by their leader Joshua signifies that circumcision had ceased in the wilderness, though practiced in Egypt for a good reason. Believers now are cleansed by our Lord Jesus Christ through a spiritual circumcision. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.7.

3:8b | The Gospel Preached to Abraham

THE GOSPEL BEFOREHAND TO ABRAHAM. AUGUSTINE: The greatest cause for triumph in Abraham was that, before his circumcision, faith was reckoned to him for righteousness. This is most correctly referred to the promise that “All nations shall be blessed in you,” meaning of course by the following of his faith, by which he was justified even before the ordinance of circumcision, which he received as a token of faith, and long before the servitude of the law, which was given much later. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 20 [1B.3.2-9].

3:9 | People of Faith Blessed with Abraham, Who Had Faith

BLESSED WITH ABRAHAM. THEODORET: Paul has thus eulogized faith and shown what fruits it has from the gracious gifts of the Spirit. He also has shown that it is older than the law from the witness of the law itself—for the Old Testament describes the events concerning Abraham. Finally, he sets the law alongside faith, showing how it differs. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.7-9.

3:10a | The Results of Reliance on the Law

A CHRISTIAN’S GOOD WORKS DISTINGUISHED FROM WORKS OF THE LAW. MARIUS VICTORINUS: From his saying “works of the law” we are to understand that there are also good works in the Christian life, especially those that the apostle frequently commends, such as that we should be mindful of the poor and the other precepts for living that are contained in this very letter. The fulfillment of all these works is the calling of every Christian. The cursed works of the law referred to here are therefore other things: obviously observations [of days,] sacrifices of lambs and other such works that they perform concerning circumcision and the choice of foods. But now the paschal feast has been consummated through Christ. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.10.

THE CURSE NOW TURNED TO BLESSING. EPIPHANIUS: The words “they are under a curse” mean that in the law there was a curse against Adam’s transgression, until the advent of the one who came from above and who, clothing himself with a body from the mass of Adamic humanity, turned the curse into blessing. PANARION 42.12.3, FIRST REFUTATION OF MARCION.

ONLY ONE WHO ADHERES TO FAITH ALONE IS BLESSED. CHRYSOSTOM: This dissolves the fear, cleverly and shrewdly turning it on its head. … For they said that the one who does not keep the law is cursed, while he shows that the one who strives to keep it is cursed and the one who does not strive to keep it is blessed. They said also that the one who adheres to faith alone is accursed, while he shows, on the contrary, that the one who adheres to faith alone is blessed. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 3.9-10.

3:10b | The Text of the Law

WHICH VERSION OF THE HEBREW TEXT OF DEUTERONOMY 27: 26 WAS PAUL FOLLOWING? JEROME: We perceive that the apostle, as elsewhere, has written down the sense of the passage rather than the words. We consider it uncertain whether the seventy interpreters [of the Septuagint] have added “everyone” and “in all” or whether it was in the old Hebrew and deleted by the Jews. What makes me suspect this is that the apostle, a man skilled in Hebrew learning, would never have added these words everyone and all as if they were necessary to his meaning in the proof that all who perform the works of the law are accursed, unless they were in the Hebrew copies. Therefore, reading over the Hebrew copies of the Samaritans, I found the word kōl written, which means “all” or “in all” and concurs with the Seventy. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.3.

3:11a | No One Is Justified by the Law

THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW. AUGUSTINE: The law leads to knowledge of sin and at length to the transgression of the law itself. It is thus with the knowledge and increase of sin that grace may be sought through faith. AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF PELAGIUS 1.14.

3:11b | Righteousness Through Faith

NOT PAUL’S ARGUMENT ALONE BUT ALSO THE PROPHET’S. CHRYSOSTOM: All have sinned and are under a curse. Yet he does not say this, lest he should seem to be running ahead of his own demonstration. He establishes it by a testimony that succinctly proves both that no one fulfills the law (and therefore they are accursed) and that faith justifies. … For the prophet did not say, “The just shall live from law” but from faith. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 3.11.

3:12 | The Law Does Not Rest on Faith

RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE AGE TO COME. PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE: This means the one who follows the law will live and not die for the present. But the righteousness which is from faith makes one righteous in God’s sight, so that one may be rewarded eternally in the age to come. QUESTIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, APPENDIX 66.

3:13a | Having Become a Curse for Us

REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW. AMBROSIASTER: Since no one could obey the law, all were convicted by the curse of the law, so that it was right to punish them. But Christ, born as a man and offered for us by his Father, redeemed us from the devil. He was offered for those who were liable to the curse of the law. Jesus was made a curse in the way that under the law a victim offered for sin is said to be sin. … Thus he did not say “cursed for us” but “made a curse. “ EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 3.13.1-2.

WHETHER A REAL CHANGE OCCURRED IN THE LORD’S BECOMING A CURSE FOR US. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: It is not that the Lord was changed into these things—for how could that be?—but because he underwent them, “taking up our transgressions and bearing our sicknesses.” LETTER 101.61.

3:13b | The Curse of the Crucifixion

HOW THE CURSE WAS LOOSED. EPIPHANIUS: The holy apostle, revealing again how the appearance in the flesh and the cross fulfilled the plan for the loosing of the curse and how this was written beforehand in the law and prophesied as coming, then fulfilled in the Savior, has clearly proved that the law is not alien to the Savior. PANARION 42.12.3, SECOND REFUTATION OF MARCION.

SUFFERING FROM THE CURSE, HE RELEASED THEM FROM THE CURSE. CHRYSOSTOM: For the people were liable to punishment since they had not fulfilled the whole law. Christ satisfied a different curse: the one that says “Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.” Both the one who is hanged and the one who transgresses the law are accursed. Christ, who was going to lift that curse, could not properly be made liable to it yet had to receive a curse. He received the curse instead of being liable to it and through this lifted the curse. Just as, when someone is condemned to death, another innocent person who chooses to die for him releases him from that punishment, so Christ also did. … Just as by dying he snatched from death those who were going to die, so also when he suffered the curse he released them from the curse. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 3.13.

3:14 | Receiving the Promise of the Spirit

RECEIVING THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT THROUGH FAITH. CHRYSOSTOM: It would not be right that the grace of the Spirit should come to one who was graceless or full of offense. We are blessed first by the taking away of the curse. Then, justified by faith, we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. So the cross has dissolved the curse, faith has brought righteousness, and by God’s own righteousness the grace of the Spirit has been given. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 3.14.