Galatians 2:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See with what caution he says all this. "We left the Law," he says, "not because it was evil, but because it was weak. Therefore, if the Law does not provide justification, circumcision is also superfluous." Yet he says this for the moment. Later he shows that circumcision is not only superfluous, but dangerous. It is especially notable that at first he said only: "a man is not justified by works of the Law."

See how plainly everything is said. We left the Law not because it is evil, but because it is weak and unable to justify. No one could fulfill its works, difficult and hard to accomplish. This was not because of their greatness, but rather because of their pettiness. Or, otherwise, because it did not sanctify souls, but only removed bodily uncleanness. Therefore circumcision is superfluous. Later he will say that it is even dangerous, because it alienates from Christ.

And now, at the Divine Liturgy, you have heard a reading from the same Epistle to the Galatians which the holy Church set before you last Sunday. Today also the Apostle reassures the Galatians concerning the truly saving faith of Christ which they had received from him. He refutes the false suggestions made to them by unenlightened baptized Jews who had come among them.

These baptized Jews were imposing Jewish rites upon the Christians of Galatia, as though they were still necessary for salvation. Such rites included circumcision, sacrifices, feasts, and others. But the Apostle Paul says that these rites, and the ordinances concerning them, had already lost their force with the appearance of Christianity. They had an educational and guiding significance before the Savior came into the world.

In Christ and after Him, other orders and other rites were established in the community of believers. These were more in accord with the spirit of the Gospel. Having been penetrated by the evangelical spirit, the holy Apostle Paul understood the excess, uselessness, and unfitness of many Jewish rites. He himself renounced them, did not impose them on others, such as his disciples, and gave himself forever to faith in Christ.

This is what he says to the Galatians in the verses of the Epistle read today. Chapter 2, verse 16: I learned that a man is justified not by works of the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ. And we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law.

What, then, is called justification? And what are these works of the law which could not justify a man? Justification is the recognition that a man under judgment is released from punishment. It is the restoration of his former rights, and even his rewarding with due honor.

All men who sinned before Christ were under such judgment. They were under punishment, under a curse, and under the wrath of God. To receive justification, one must be clean, faultless, and pure. But who among men could be such? No man is free from sin and defilement, even if he lived only one day (Job 14:4).

Where, then, is salvation for man? In what did the merciful Lord show salvation to fallen Adam? In faith in the coming Christ. By this faith, by expectation of the Redeemer, and by love for His awaited Kingdom, all Old Testament people lived. By faith in the coming Savior, the pious men of Israel were saved.

In His mercy toward sinful Jews, the Lord gave them many rites and sacrifices to sustain their faith in the Coming One. These pointed to future saving acts. Detailed and strict prescriptions were given to the Jews concerning rites, sacrifices, washings, and sprinklings.

For many Jews, these prescriptions became the chief thing in their religion. They cared most of all about fulfilling them. Such actions are called works of the law.

In what, then, were these works of the law manifested, which did not justify man? The Jews had the moral law, which portrayed love for God and neighbor in the Ten Commandments. This law was not abolished under Christ or after His Ascension. Rather, it was elevated and strengthened, and it remains always obligatory for Christians. It was also obligatory and saving for the Jews.

But before the Nativity of Christ, these commandments began to be fulfilled only according to the letter, outwardly and without sympathy. Reverence for God, for example, was limited to rites alone. The Jews had been commanded to pray to the one true God. They did pray, much and long, but only for display. In general, all their reverence before God was only a learned commandment.

They had been commanded to dedicate the Sabbath to the Lord God. They truly did no work on that day (Ex 16:29-30). They carried on no buying or selling (Neh 10:31; 13:15-17). They carried no burden (Neh 13:19; Jer 17:21-24). They did not kindle fire to prepare food (Ex 35:3). One Jew was even put to death for gathering wood on that day (Num 15:32).

Yet, apart from reading the law and prayers, they did nothing good on that day. They feared even to move a finger unnecessarily, lest they sin. They even considered it improper and almost offensive to the day to do good works on their weekly feast.

The leaders of the Jewish people, the scribes and Pharisees, proved this more than once. They condemned Christ for His miraculous healings of various sick people on the Sabbaths.

Their teachers prescribed that Jews should not walk more than two thousand steps on the Sabbath. They feared to go beyond that distance, even if some unfortunate person beyond the two-thousand-step boundary cried out for urgent help from a Sabbath-keeping Jew.

Tell me, could such a ritual and soulless attitude toward the commandments of love for God serve for a Jew’s justification and salvation? No. The dead and hardhearted will never have a portion in the Kingdom of the living and merciful God.

Adult Jews were required to come each year to the Temple in Jerusalem for the three great Jewish feasts: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. All this was prescribed to sustain faith among the Jews in the one true God. It was meant to enliven brotherly feelings in them and awaken their common expectation of the Messiah-King.

So the Jews stretched out and made their way from various ends of the world to Jerusalem for pilgrimage. But what was their journey like? Was it strict? Was it reverent? Were there no transgressions among them on the long road to Jerusalem? Of course, every family has its unworthy member.

In general, the Jews had grown weary of this obligation. They fulfilled it only by being personally present at the feast and by bringing sacrifices and monetary offerings to the Temple. But how much did they take part in prayer? How clearly was the law and the prophets explained to them there?

Their teachers of the law cared more about rites. They interpreted the law and the prophets perversely, to the harm of the pure faith of the Jews. Would it not have been better to abolish these frequent journeys to Jerusalem, if only the Jews lived by faith in the Messiah, whether in Babylon, Mesopotamia, Greece, or Egypt?

Was it not for this reason that the Lord destroyed the capital of the Jews and the Temple of Jerusalem itself? Did He not see in the Jews no living faith, but only a dead rite and hypocrisy offensive to the majesty of God?

The Jews observed the commandment about fasting very strictly. They wore themselves down by fasting until they could scarcely drag their feet, and their heads could scarcely remain upright on their shoulders. They spread sackcloth instead of a soft bed and sprinkled themselves with ashes.

They thought that for such fasting they would receive every mercy from God. But God did not listen to them. Through the prophet Isaiah He proclaimed that such a fast is not pleasing to Him, if at other times His people indulge their whims and take vengeance on others for every offense. Nor is it pleasing if they do not give alms to the hungry, the poor, and strangers (Is 58:3-5).

The Jews were not stingy with sacrifices. They offered fattened cattle to God in sacrifice and poured out in abundance before the altar the blood of calves, lambs, and goats. Besides the Sabbath, the Jews also honored their other feasts. What did the Lord say to them?

"What is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? Bring no more empty gifts," that is, gifts without a heart warmed by love for God and neighbor. "Your incense is an abomination to Me. I cannot endure your new moons, Sabbaths, and festive assemblies. Your celebration is also lawlessness.

"When you stretch out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you. Though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from before My eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Love justice. Restore the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Plead the widow’s cause" (Is 1:11-17).

If the Jews behaved this way in fulfilling the moral laws, then you may judge how soullessly, and at the same time how painstakingly and minutely, they outwardly fulfilled laws of another kind, namely the ritual laws.

These laws concerned offerings of animals or bread in sacrifice (Lev 6). They prescribed which animals were fit for sacrifice, which parts of them were to be used for what purpose, and whether the whole animal or only part of it should be sacrificed. They prescribed how and with what the sacrifice should be brought to the altar, and who would prepare it. The Jews fulfilled this in detail.

The law stated which birds and animals Jews could use for food (Lev 11). Animals were divided in the law into clean and unclean, to impress upon the Jews the distinction between themselves and the Gentiles as unclean beings.

Yet the Jews, even baptized ones, still observed the Mosaic laws about food. They looked with hostility upon those who ate what Moses had forbidden. Meanwhile, in the Church of Christ there was no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile.

Was it not time, then, for the Jew to cast aside these works of the law? Was it not time to live by the faith and love of Christ, and to care more about developing moral feeling and love for neighbor than about valuing ancient traditions and rites? These had already lost their force, and they deadened the impulses of an enlightened and developed heart and mind.

Therefore the holy Apostle Paul says, verse 16: "And we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law," described above. "For by works of the law no flesh," no man, "will be justified."

Orthodox Christians, are there not in Christian society in general, and more particularly among us Orthodox, the same works of the law? They may seem respectable, yet they are not useful to the soul and do not save. Sadly, there are, and how many there are!

For example, what need is there for sanctimoniousness and hypocrisy in prayer, or for long standings at prayer, if a man honors the Lord only with his lips (Is 29:13-14; Mt 15:8-9; Mk 7:6-7), while his heart is far from Him?

What use are exhausting fasts of a fasting man or woman, if, while eating little bread and water, they do not tame the tongue? They grumble, complain against people, do not forgive them, and sometimes do them outright harm. Is such a fast useful?

"Many," writes St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, the man pleasing to God, "do not eat fish, oil, milk, and other foods which God did not forbid, but rather blessed the faithful to receive with thanksgiving. Yet they devour weak people.

"Many do not give scandal by their deeds, and this is good and praiseworthy. Yet with their tongue they spread scandals and carry evil from place to place, like infected people carrying contagion, or like wind carrying fire. From this come many troubles and misfortunes.

"Many keep the traditions of the fathers, and this is good. Yet they overthrow God’s commandment, for example, concerning love and condescension toward neighbor."

Will large donations to the Temple of God, to the sacristy, or exclusively to a bell save the donor’s soul? What if the honorable sum donated was unlawfully assembled from the coins and pennies of poor brethren?

And what if those brethren earn a piece of bread by sweat and blood, with loss of health, sorrow for their families, and want? What if the substantial donated capital is the fruit of deception, short measure, false weight, delay, or concealment of another’s hard-earned money?

No. However great the donations may be, whether to the Temple of God or to a bell, if the donor does not have love for his neighbor, there is no benefit for him. There is no salvation for his soul, nor will there be.

The holy Apostle Paul said in his time: if I give away all my possessions and give my body to be burned for Christ, but have no love for my neighbor, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:3).

We have learned that a man is not justified by works of the Law, except through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore we left the Law and believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith, and not by works of the Law. For no one can be justified by the Law, since no one can fulfill it.

Some say: if what Paul affirms is true, namely, that no one is justified through works of the Law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ, then the patriarchs, prophets, and saints who lived before the coming of Christ were imperfect.

We can answer such people by saying that Paul means this: those who believed that justification could be obtained only through works of the Law did not receive justification.

But the saints who were from ancient times were justified by faith in Christ. Indeed, Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced (see Jn 8:56).

Here one should consider how many commandments there are in the Law that no one can fulfill. In contrast, one must also speak of those commandments of the Law that can be fulfilled by those who do not know it.

So we also, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are justified not by ourselves, nor by our wisdom, understanding, piety, or works done by us in holiness of heart, but through faith. By this faith Almighty God has justified all from the ages. To Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. What then shall we do, brethren? Shall we abandon virtue and love? By no means. May the Lord not permit this to happen to us. Rather, with all zeal and readiness, let us hasten to accomplish every good work.

To understand precisely the words of Paul that have been set forth, note that by justification he means complete innocence, not only from every voluntary sin, but also from the ancestral sin itself, by which we became sinners.

He also means the holiness by which a man becomes worthy of the heavenly Kingdom. By works of the Law he means the commandments concerning the Sabbath, circumcision, leprosy, discharges, sprinklings, contact with a dead body, and similar decrees.

Such works could not justify a man. First, they were only prefigurations of the saving works that were to be enacted by Jesus Christ. Second, no one could cleanse man from every sin except the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus Christ alone.

"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law." From where did the Apostle learn that man cannot be justified by the works of the Law?

Evidently he learned it from his own reflection on the Law and from clear indications of Scripture, that no one can boast of purity of heart and freedom from sin (Prov 20:9; 3 Kgs 8:46; Job 14:4).

Here the Apostle reveals to us the preliminary inner labor of his thought. Through it he came to awareness of his own powerlessness for justification and to recognition of the necessity of faith in Christ.

Not all Christians came by this path to recognition of the truth proposed by the Apostle. Yet, intending to prove it, the Apostle treats it as something already known and familiar to all.

According to the teaching of Scripture there are two laws. One is the Old Testament Law, which is often called simply the Law, as in the words indicated. The other is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ (Rom 8:2), the law of Christian life, the law of the New Testament Church.

When the Apostle preaches freedom from the Old Testament Law, one must not think that he thereby proclaims freedom from the New Testament law as well.

When he says that the works of the Mosaic Law do not justify man, this does not mean that the works of the Christian law are equally fruitless for his justification at the judgment of Christ.

Christ Himself said, "By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Mt 12:37). If by words, then certainly all the more by deeds.

The essence of Paul's admonition consists first in this: Peter's and Barnabas's conduct at Antioch was especially unjust and inconsistent toward the Gentiles.

For Saint Paul says, if "we are Jews by nature, and not sinners from among the Gentiles," and have learned that the Law is inadequate for justification, then why did we declare ourselves followers of Christ Jesus?

We did so "that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law. For by the works of the Law," because of the multitude and strictness of its prescriptions, "no flesh shall be justified."

What justice, then, compels Gentiles to fulfill the Law, when by birth they did not know the Law at all?

Continuing his speech, the Apostle Paul addresses not so much the Apostle Peter as those who followed his example in observing Jewish rites. At the same time he includes himself in the common number, giving an example of how one should speak with those being rebuked.

For the Galatians, however, the conclusions or propositions of the speech are given. Here the chief subject of the Epistle is expressed: the teaching on justification by faith in Jesus Christ without the works of the Mosaic Law.

First of all the Apostle points out that they, Peter and Paul, being Jews, abandoned the Law of Moses in order to be justified by faith in Christ. How then could the Gentiles cling to the Law of Moses?

And yet, "knowing," that is, having clearly learned and been tangibly convinced, partly from their own experience, but chiefly through revelation in Christ Jesus, "that a man is not justified by the works of the Law." No man can become righteous or be made righteous by them.

No man can attain righteousness and holiness by works of the Law. This is true not only of us Jews, but of every man who would stand in our place. Even the strictest fulfillment of the Law's prescriptions cannot make him righteous.

These prescriptions defined the outward order of our religious life. Although they sanctified unto fleshly purity, they did not quiet the conscience and did not give strength to resist sin.

"But only through faith in Jesus Christ." That is, only through faith in Jesus Christ, the promised Deliverer. By His death He satisfied the righteousness of God, and He sent down to us from the Father the Holy Spirit for our sanctification.

By this He made it so that everyone who believes in Him and resolves to follow Him receives forgiveness of sins. He is also clothed with power from on high to resist sin and to do all righteousness.

This is granted for the sake of faith in Him and of the resolve to be faithful to Him in all things, even to the laying down of one's life.

Having learned all this, we Jews also believed in Christ Jesus. God Himself had shown us all the ranks of justification, which had force for a time, but have now grown old.

We believed in Christ, leaving the Law and fleeing to Christ. We placed in Him all hope of salvation, "that we might be justified by faith in Christ." We did this in the conviction that He will forgive all our sins.

We believed that He will give us strength to acquire inward uprightness in thoughts, feelings, and dispositions. This alone makes men upright before God, "and not by the works of the Law," which provide only outward uprightness and leave the heart in its former, old unrighteousness.

"For by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified." The works of the Law brought no one to this inward uprightness before God, and they cannot bring anyone to it. God, who established them, did not give them such power.

In this whole discourse there is one thought: the Law does not bring us to righteousness. Therefore, having become convinced that only Jesus Christ can grant it, we left the Law and cleaved to Him by faith.

But Saint Paul expresses this in various ways, in order to impress it more strongly on the memory. Three times he recalls the Law's powerlessness to provide righteousness. Three times he points to the true source of righteousness, holiness, and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ through faith in Him.

So full was his soul of this conviction, and so zealous was he to pass it into the souls of others. Nevertheless, there are aspects here that require explanation.

What is meant here by the Law? It is the outward rite and order that defined the moral and religious life of the Jewish people: circumcision, Sabbath observance, feasts, sacrifices, washings, sprinklings, and the like.

This order separated the Jews from all other nations and constituted their exclusive possession. The dispositions that belong to piety and good conduct were common to the whole human race, not to the Jews alone.

These include the fear of God, hope in God, compassion, beneficence, patience, continence, love of labor, and similar virtues. They are not meant here by the Law.

That the Law here means precisely the outward order of Jewish life is clear from the occasion of the discourse. The discourse began because Saint Peter had at first abandoned all the rites and orders separating him from the uncircumcised.

He had lived freely with them. Then, when strict zealots for the observance of these rites arrived, he drew back from the uncircumcised. He again submitted, together with those zealots of separation, to the rites that separated him from them.

Here, therefore, the operative causes were the law of circumcision and the refusal to share food with the uncircumcised. Saint Paul had these directly in mind. Along with them, he meant all similar laws that defined the outward order of Jewish life.

Circumcision alone already obliged one to all of them. Likewise, uncircumcision made one free from them.

What the Apostle Paul calls "living like a Jew" in verse 14 means living in strict observance of all the orders that characterized Jewish life. To live like a Gentile means to live without being subject to these orders.

These orders made up the middle wall that separated Jews from Gentiles. Saint Paul directed all his efforts toward tearing down this middle wall and fusing Jews and Gentiles into one indivisible Church, as one Body of Christ.

All the ancient interpreters understand the Law here in this way. Blessed Theodoret writes: "Nature itself taught what was necessary in the Law. Such are the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness against your neighbor, honor your father and your mother, and other similar commandments. But the commandments concerning the Sabbath, circumcision, lepers, sacrifices, and sprinklings were proper to the Law. Nature did not teach these things. Therefore the Apostle calls all this the works of the Law."

Saint Chrysostom does not state so definitively what he understands by the Law. Yet throughout his interpretation of this section of the Epistle, when he has occasion to speak of the Law, he mentions only circumcision, the Sabbath, and sacrifices.

Consequently, he understands by the Law the same thing that Theodoret expressed directly. Following them, all the other ancient interpreters also understand the Law in this way.

Therefore one should not understand by the Law here the moral law, the rules of piety, good conduct, and all good works. This understanding is contrary to the direct sense of this section and to everything Saint Paul writes in chapter 2.

At the Council in Jerusalem they dealt with outward Jewish rites. The incident with the Apostle Peter also concerned outward rites.

When the Apostles of the Council wrote to the Antiochians that they had decided to lay nothing upon believers from the Gentiles except certain restrictions, they certainly did not mean that they gave them complete freedom from all rules of piety and good conduct.

They meant that they did not oblige them to fulfill any laws of Jewish outward life, beginning with circumcision (cf. Acts 15:24).

What does justification mean here? In the general sense, to be justified means to present sufficient reasons by which the charge brought against someone is lawfully removed, and he is declared upright.

In this sense, justification before God cannot take place. Among men it is possible for a charge to be brought against someone when he is not guilty. He needs only to explain the matter in order to appear innocent.

But before God we are all truly guilty, both because of the ancestral sin and because of our own sins. We cannot present any excuses for our justification. We cannot do anything by which we could wipe out our guilt.

What then is to be done? We would have had to remain forever under the judgment of God's righteousness, if God's goodness had not arranged a special way of justification for us.

To understand this better, let us represent our guilt as a debt before God's righteousness. A debtor may not have the means to pay his debt himself. But another may pay for him.

When that other has paid, the creditor no longer regards him as answerable before him. He clears him and makes him free from the debt.

This is exactly what God's goodness has arranged for our justification before God. Our debts are unpayable. But our Lord Jesus Christ paid them for all of us to God's righteousness by His death on the Cross.

The power of that death is defined in this way: in it the Lord Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree (cf. 1 Pet 2:24). He nailed the handwriting of our sins to the Cross (cf. Col 2:14).

It remains only for God's righteousness to recognize each of us individually and personally as falling under this mercy. Or each of us must present to God's righteousness that, among the whole mass of persons whose debts have been paid, the payment was made for him also.

Suppose there are many debtors in some city. A wealthy man declares to the creditors, whether several or one, that any debtor who presents a receipt or certificate from him is to have his debt counted as paid from his treasury.

The debtor is then to be free from the debt. This receipt or certificate from the Lord's person is what every sinner must present to God's righteousness, in order to stand before it free from the debt of his sins.

What is this receipt or certificate? Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who believes in the Lord is upright before the face of the God of righteousness.

What, then, is faith in the Lord? It is vain to try to define faith in the Lord with one word. It must be described, for it is a state of the heart containing several feelings, convictions, and dispositions, not just one.

It comes through repentance, for the Lord says, "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mk 1:15). From this workshop of the repentant spirit, faith comes forth not alone, but helped by love (cf. Gal 5:6), after the one who has faith is baptized (cf. Mk 16:16).

This is the new creation. It is conceived by grace in the first movements of repentance, and in this order it appears already fully formed. It is characteristically composed and has received Christian personhood.

The whole course of the matter is this. Only the truly repentant man seeks the Lord. The repentant man is filled with two feelings and dispositions: sorrow that he has sinned, and a firm desire no longer to yield to sinful impulses.

In the first feeling, God's righteousness torments him, for he cannot satisfy it by anything. In the second, desire, his own powerlessness frightens him, since he knows it by experience.

He therefore flees to the Lord in full assurance that He will deliver him from both extremes. He will forgive his former sins, and He will give him strength hereafter to resist sins.

Without these two assurances, faith in the Lord is unthinkable. Likewise, repentance is unthinkable without contrition over sins and a firm intention not to yield to sin.

Yet all these dispositions are only preparations for the formation of the believing person. The formation itself is accomplished by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the mystery of baptism.

In baptism, when he is immersed, he is immersed into Christ's death and receives forgiveness of sins. When he rises from the immersion, he comes forth in renewal of life, clothed with the power not to serve sin, but to live henceforth unto God in Christ Jesus (cf. Rom 6:3-13).

Then the believing Christian person appears fully formed. He passes through this whole path, yet nothing from what he has passed through is lost. On the contrary, everything enters into the order of his spirit, which is named by one word: faith.

Therefore faith contains many feelings within itself. But its distinctive and outstanding feature is the surrender of oneself to the Lord's service, even to the laying down of one's life, in expectation of salvation by His grace.

The believer feels that he has been bought with the price of blood. He must serve the One who bought him, in full assurance that by this path he will certainly be saved.

Only the one who believes in this way appears justified before God. This is not only in the sense that the guilt of sinfulness is removed from him. The seed of all righteousness is also placed in him.

This seed lies in his resolve to serve the Lord by fulfilling His will, and in the sense of strength for this, instilled in him by the grace that has regenerated him. He possesses inward uprightness, for a right spirit has been renewed within him (cf. Ps 50:12).

After this it is self-evident why the Law does not justify, and why only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does. The Law did not give new life.