Galatians 3:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It is therefore clear that he who does not continue in the law is cursed, and he who continues in faith is righteous.

"But how can you prove to us," someone may say, "that the curse no longer exists? Abraham lived before the law. But we, having once fallen under the yoke of slavery, subjected ourselves to the curse. Who destroyed this curse?"

See how quickly he meets this objection, though what had already been said was certainly sufficient for it. How can one be subject to the curse who has once been justified, has died to the law, and has received a new life?

Can someone, then, be righteous and yet not live without faith in Christ? If a doubt arises in the reader, let him receive the words of Paul, who says of himself: “As to righteousness according to the Law, blameless.”

Paul, then, was at that time righteous according to the Law, but he could not yet live, because he did not have Christ in himself. Christ says: “I am the life” (Jn 11:25).

Believing in Him, Paul later began to live. Let us do something similar with the saying, “The righteous lives by faith.”

Let us say: “The pure lives by faith, the wise lives by faith, the strong lives by faith.” Let us pronounce a corresponding judgment concerning the other constituent parts of the virtues.

This refutes those who, not believing in Christ, think themselves strong, wise, temperate, or just. Let such people know that no one lives without Christ, without whom every virtue is deficient, in vitio est.

The present word of the Apostle may also be read thus: “that the righteous man by faith,” and then one may add: “lives” or “will live.”

In the Apostle’s words, “The Law is not of faith; but the one who observes its prescriptions shall live by them,” it is shown most clearly that he is not speaking of simple life, but of life related to something.

The righteous man truly lives from faith, and it is not added, “in this” or “in that.” But the one living in the Law, by fulfilling its prescriptions, lives in this.

That is, he lives in what he has done and what he considered good. The reward for his struggles is only the works he has done, or, according to the Jews, length of life.

It may also be avoidance of the punishment to which one who transgresses the Law is subjected.

We think that the words “but shall live by them” belong not to the Apostle, but to the prophet Ezekiel, who says: “And I brought them into the wilderness and gave them My commandments.

I showed them My judgments, that a man might do them and live by them” (Ezek 20:10-11).

Although he says that those who walk in the commandments and judgments will live, he nevertheless adds the following: “And I gave them commandments that were not good and judgments by which they would not live” (Ezek 20:25).

What caution in expression! When he said, “I gave them commandments and judgments by which they would live,” he did not add “good.”

But when he said, “by which they would not live,” he added: “I gave them commandments that were not good,” and so forth.

But this is treated more fully in the commentaries on Ezekiel. Now let us return to the order of the discourse in the Epistle to the Galatians.

After the coming of the Redeemer, St. Paul the Apostle teaches, those who wished, like the Galatians, to keep the Old Testament law as a condition of salvation alongside faith, would fall directly under the curse. For "in that case faith is not faith. He who relies here on the law diminishes the Mediator, and for that reason loses the power of mediation" (Bishop Theophan).

The reproach and rebuke of St. Paul the Apostle falls upon all Jews, not only those contemporary with him, but later ones also. Before the coming of Jesus Christ, the Jews could keep the law with faith and hope in the Messiah. Therefore they were not strangers to grace. But by rejecting their Messiah, the Jews remained only with their powerless and severe law, without faith and grace.

These punishments are spoken of with particular expressiveness in Deuteronomy. Through sacrifices, ways were also appointed for avoiding the penalty of the law.

For this reason many sacrifices were prescribed, in great variety. Yet the essence of the teaching concerning sacrifices lay in their typological relation to the sacrifice that Christ offered by Himself.

The one offering sacrifice was saved by believing in Him. Thus here also faith was saving, while the law was only the measure of recompense.

It was a heavy yoke laid upon the chosen people, not because of their faith, but because of their unbelief. In other words, it was imposed on account of their frequent experiences of apostasy.

Even now the power of sin is the same. It takes away blessing and brings punishment. Yet the essence of the New Testament institution is this: Jesus Christ, by being crucified for us, took upon Himself responsibility for the sins of believers.

Therefore sacrifices and all the rites connected with them are now unnecessary. Now, “if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous,” which the law did not give.

For this reason the law was formerly powerless, and now it is entirely unnecessary (1 Jn 2:1).

Blessed Jerome writes: “Christ alone died for all” (2 Cor 5:14). If for all, then also for Moses and for all the prophets.

None of them could destroy the ancient handwriting written against us and nail it to the Cross (Col 2:14). They too were justified and saved by faith.”

“One may be righteous and yet not be alive until he receives faith in Christ, who says, ‘I am the life’ (Jn 11:25).

Just as it is said, ‘The righteous shall live by faith,’ so also the pure shall live by faith, the wise shall live by faith, the courageous shall live by faith.

This stands against those who, not believing in Christ, think themselves strong, wise, temperate, and in general righteous. Let us know that no one can be alive without Christ, without whom every virtue is not blameless.”

“And no one should be troubled that Christ became a curse for us. From the fullness of the Godhead, the Savior humbled Himself to the taking of the form of a servant (Phil 2:7).

But the humiliation of our Lord is our glory. He died that we might live. He became a curse so that blessing might descend upon us and rest in us.”

And St. John Chrysostom says: “As someone not subject to condemnation, deciding to die for one condemned to death, thereby delivers him from death, so Christ acted.

He took the curse upon Himself and freed us from it. The law said, ‘Do this and you shall live.’ Yet because no one could fulfill everything prescribed in the law, all were subject to punishment.

Christ came to free them from this punishment through faith in Him, as the Savior sent by God the Father.”

All external laws are attached to the law of conscience. God, in creation, joined conscience inseparably to awareness and feeling. Therefore there is no man who does not feel the voice within him repeating: do this, and you shall live.

Since there is no one who sincerely recognizes himself as wholly right in everything, there is no one who does not seek justification outside himself. The structure of all religions on earth proves this.

God gave such a structure to our spiritual nature so that within ourselves we might feel an unceasing summons to flee to the protection of the Lord, Who justified us by His death on the Cross.

The Apostle's attention is limited to the Old Mosaic Law, because that is the subject. The present verse gives no new thought, but only explains the preceding one.

The Old Testament economy of salvation, according to its spirit, says in general: the righteous shall live by faith. But the law alone, separated from faith, repeats: do this, and you shall live.

No one has the strength to do everything commanded by the law. Thus those who cling to the law alone remain without the possibility of attaining life. It is as though he says to the Galatians: see where you have fallen by inclining toward subjection to the law!