Galatians 5:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore he says: “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” Here, it seems to me, he has also uttered a great and wonderful praise of the law.

“If the law,” he says, “before the coming of the Spirit, stood in the place of the Spirit according to its power, then even for this reason there is no need now to remain under the tutor.

“Then, of course, we were rightly under the law, so that, moved by fear, we might restrain our desires, since the Spirit had not yet appeared.

“But now grace has been given to us. It not only commands us to abstain from them, but itself withers them and raises man to a most perfect life. What need is there of the law?

“What need has one of a tutor, if by his own impulse he accomplishes more? A philosopher certainly has no need of a grammar teacher.

“Why, then, do you abase yourselves by listening now to the words of the law, after you first declared yourselves ready to serve the Spirit?”

Therefore, if the Son alone calls us to freedom, and the Spirit is also shown to do this, how will He not be of His essence? He does all things as He does, with power and authority befitting God.

And if this is so, then the Spirit of Christ is neither a creature nor a thing made. Such a word carries great impiety within it.

Above also, Paul does not say, “Walk in the Spirit, and you will have no desires of the flesh,” but, “you will not fulfill them” (Gal 5:16). To have none of them at all is not the struggle, but the reward for the struggle, if we gain the victory by standing firm under grace.

Only the transformation of the body into an immortal state will deliver the flesh from desires.

It should therefore be noticed that this Spirit is not named with an article or with some other qualification, as we read elsewhere, for example, of a spirit of meekness or a spirit of faith. He simply says: Spirit. This detail has some force in Greek rather than in our language, which has no article at all.

Concerning this passage, a question arises. If the one who is guided by the Spirit is not under the authority of the Law, did Moses and the other prophets act in the Spirit while at the same time living under the Law? The Apostle denies this. Or did they, having the Spirit, not live under the Law? To this the Apostle seems to give an affirmative answer. Or, third, perhaps they lived under the authority of the Law but did not have the Spirit? It is impious to think this of such men.

We shall answer this briefly. To be under the Law is not the same as to be as though under the Law. Likewise, to be in the likeness of sinful flesh is not the same as to be in sinful flesh. A real serpent is not the same as the likeness of the bronze serpent that Moses hung in the wilderness (Num 21:6-8).

It follows that the holy prophets, and Moses who walked in the Spirit, and those who lived in the Spirit, did not live under the Law. They lived only as though under the Law. In appearance they were under the Law, to gain those who were under the Law. They did this to call them from the lowliness of the letter to the height of the spirit.

Paul also became a Jew to the Jews, and all things to all, that he might gain all (1 Cor 9:20-22). Yet he did not say, "I was under the Law," but, "I was as though under the Law." By this he showed that he preserved not the truth of the Law, but only its likeness.

It seems that we have resolved the proposed question. But what shall we do with the passage in Paul's epistle that says: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law" (Gal 4:4)? If Christ was under the Law, and not as though under the Law, then all our preceding reasoning has no force.

Yet this objection is resolved by the very meaning of the passage. He Who was under the Law in order to redeem those under the Law certainly submitted to the Law by His own will. He was free from the Law. He was certainly far freer than Paul, who testified that he was not under the Law, but as though under the Law.

For our sake He descended into the depth and abyss of death. We cry in prayer: "Who will deliver us from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24). So too He was pleased to be born of a woman and to be under the Law. He did this to save those who were born of woman and were under the Law.

Yet it is beyond doubt that He was born not of a woman in the sense of one joined in marriage, but of a Virgin. The Virgin was called a woman, not according to the reality, but for the sake of those who knew her as a Virgin. Thus, for the sake of those who supposed that holy Mary had a husband, the Virgin is called a woman. So also, for the sake of those who thought Christ was under the authority of the Law, it is said that He was under the Law. They did not know that He was as though under the Law for the sake of those who truly were under the Law.

Having said that freedom from the law of Moses must not become an occasion for pleasing the flesh, the Apostle then explains the contrary. Walking in the Spirit (18), turning away from the works of the flesh (19-21), and bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit (22-23) are precisely why a man becomes free from the law and is not under the law (18).

How is this so? Defining the essence of the Old Testament law, the Apostle says, “the whole law is fulfilled in one word: love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 14). Showing the fruits of the spiritual life (v. 22), he places love first, then joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, and self-control.

Clearly, against such virtues the Old Testament law can have no rebuke, condemnation, or punishment: “against such there is no law” (v. 23). On the contrary, having fulfilled the final aim and essential demand of this law, Christians already rise above it: “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (v. 18).

Thus, in proclaiming freedom, the Apostle means freedom from the law of Moses. He grounds this freedom in submission to another and higher law, the law of life in Christ, and in participation in His sufferings through the crucifixion of the flesh with its passions and desires: “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (v. 24).

“The Apostle has pointed to the struggle of evil and good thoughts. But to will and not to will belongs to the soul. Therefore he says, ‘these are opposed to one another,’ so that you may not allow the soul to walk in its evil desires.”

“Whoever has the Spirit quenches every evil desire within himself by His help. Whoever has been freed from evil desires no longer needs the help of the law, having risen far above its teaching.”

If the law, before the coming of the Spirit, stood in the place of the Spirit as far as it could, then for this reason also there is no need now to remain under the tutor. What need has one of a tutor, if by himself he does more?

Why, then, do you abase yourselves so? At first you declared yourselves ready to serve the Spirit, and now you again listen to the law.

Blessed Theodoret writes: “By flesh the Apostle means the inclination of the will toward what is worse, and by spirit the indwelling grace, because it guides toward what is better.”

The force of the proof is this. The law was needed to restrain the passions. But when the Spirit of God came, He consumed the passions. What need have you of the law, when you already possess more than the law can give?

So here also, after setting forth the struggle with the passions and showing that they overcome them by being led by the Spirit, he concludes: you are no longer under the law.

The law restrained the passions from without. But you have cast them out of the heart and now pursue them. Therefore the law has fallen away from you, as a shell falls away when the chick is hatched, or scaffolding falls when the house is built.

Chrysostom says: “What sequence is there here between the ideas? The strictest and most evident. Whoever has the Spirit quenches every evil desire within himself by His help. Whoever has been freed from evil desires no longer needs the help of the law, having risen far above its teaching.

“What need has one who is not angry of hearing, ‘Do not kill’? What need has one who does not look with lustful eyes of the instruction, ‘Do not commit adultery’? Who will speak of the acts of evil to one who has torn out the very root of evil within himself?

“The root of murder is anger, and the root of adultery is a curious and lustful gaze. Therefore he says, ‘If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.’

“If the law, before the coming of the Spirit, stood in the place of the Spirit as far as it could, then for this reason also there is no need now to remain under the tutor.

“Then we were rightly under the law, so that, moved by fear, we might restrain our desires until the Spirit appeared. But now grace has been given to us. It not only commands us to abstain from them, but itself withers them and raises man to a most perfect life.

“What need is there of the law? What need has one of a tutor, if by himself he does more? A philosopher has no need of a grammar teacher.

“Why, then, do you abase yourselves so? At first you declared yourselves ready to serve the Spirit, and now you again listen to the law.”