Galatians 5:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After the proof, he next shows the extreme danger of their condition. If one who has recourse to the law cannot find salvation in it, and meanwhile falls away from grace, what remains for him except inevitable punishment? The law has no power, and grace does not receive him. Having thus intensified their fear, shaken their thoughts, and shown them the shipwreck threatening them, he then reveals the nearby harbor of grace. He does this everywhere, promising in grace the surest and most secure salvation.

That is, you have no communion with Christ. You who think you receive justification in the law have been deprived of grace, which truly justifies. It is a great misfortune when you do not obtain what the law promises and are deprived of what grace gives.

Since it is they who suffer this, and not Christ, Paul added: "You have fallen away from grace." For if the work of Christ's grace is such that those who were debtors to the works of the law are freed from their debt. Then these people, who do not receive so great a grace, prefer to be debtors to the law. This has not yet happened, but since such a desire had begun to appear, the Apostle in many places speaks as though it had already been accomplished.

But if you do this, you have been left without Christ, you who desire to be justified by this law. If you wish to obtain justification by your own works according to the law, then you have fallen away from the grace accomplished among you, as among all the Gentiles.

Paul refutes those who believed they were justified by the Law. He does not refute those who honored the well-grounded prescriptions of the Law in honor of Him who established them, understanding that they were given as a foreshadowing of the truth and belonged to a definite time. You who are justified by the Law have been freed from Christ and have fallen from grace. As no one can serve two masters, so it is difficult to fulfill both the shadow and the truth of the Law. In the ancient Law there is shadow until the day shines forth and the darkness is removed. Truth is found in the Gospel of Christ, for grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:17). Therefore one loses the grace of Christ and abandons the Gospel he held if he thinks he can be justified by any fulfillment of the Law.

"You have been severed from Christ." Why do you say this? "You who are justified by the law have fallen away from grace." He who gave the law also promised to give grace. Therefore, when grace has been given, this shows that the law is inactive and superfluous. Thus those who choose life under the law deprive themselves of the gifts of grace.

Question. If, according to the Apostle, "the doers of the law will be justified" (Rom 2:13), why does he also say, "You who justify yourselves by the law have fallen away from grace" (Gal 5:4)? Answer. It is not the doers of the law in general who will be justified, but the doers of the spiritual law, understood spiritually. By fulfilling the spiritual law in the inner man (Rom 7:22), in the Spirit, they will be justified without falling away from grace. This comes through the descent of the Word into the depth of the soul because of its purification. But those who serve the visibly bodily aspect of the law certainly fall away from divine grace. They do not know the perfection of the spiritual law in grace, which purifies the mind from every defilement, nor its end, Christ (Rom 10:4).

All the virtue of believers in Christ consists in the grace of God. But grace is given not according to merits, but according to the mercy of God. Therefore you fall away from grace if you place your justification in the law: in doing good works, in keeping the Sabbath, and in circumcision. If you believe that you are justified by these things, then you have been left without Christ and have fallen away from grace. For you do not have your hope from Christ, nor do you expect grace for yourself through His sufferings and Resurrection, if you think salvation will come from the law.

"You who are justified by the law have fallen away from grace." Whoever seeks justification in the law has no need of grace, because he thinks it possible to fulfill the law and trusts in his own powers alone. Grace, however, is given only to the weak, as all believers acknowledge themselves to be.

"You who justify yourselves by the law," for you declare yourselves its children and servants through circumcision, "have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace," because you do not trust in its sufficient power. By this, according to St. Chrysostom, the Apostle shows the extreme danger of the Galatians' condition. If one who has recourse to the law does not find salvation in it, since salvation is promised under the impossible condition of fulfilling the whole law, and meanwhile falls away from grace, what remains for him except inevitable punishment? The law has no power in relation to him, and grace does not receive him.

Drawing the final conclusion about the uselessness of the Law in general, and of circumcision in particular, the Apostle sets circumcision in opposition to Christ. He says that Christians who are circumcised will receive no profit from Christ. This means they believe not in Christ, but in the Law, which they must fulfill completely as Jews who have fallen away from Christ. See, St. Chrysostom cries, what danger threatens! Therefore he rightly anathematized even angels themselves. How, then, will Christ profit them nothing? He did not prove this, but simply said it, because the dignity of his person was more convincing than any proof. One who is circumcised is circumcised as though fearing the Law. But one who fears the Law does not believe in the power of grace.

Here he explains, with emphasis, how Christ profits those who hold to the Law nothing. He does not profit them because He departs from you and leaves you idle, empty. The condition of the communion of Christ the Savior with souls is faith, expressed in such dispositions as these. By my own fault I am perishing, and I have no other hope of salvation except You alone, God incarnate and crucified for us. To You therefore I flee, and to You I cleave with all my thoughts, feelings, and dispositions. Save me also, the one Savior of all. Whoever flees to the Lord in this way is received by Him. In baptism he receives the grace of regeneration and the strength for a new life in Christ. Continued cleaving to the Lord and placing hope in Him alone supports and preserves such a life.