The Doctrine of Justification in the Book of Galatians

Below is the Book of Galatians with my inline commentary, focusing on verses and ideas relevant particularly to the doctrine of justification.  This is a follow-up to my two earlier inline commentaries on Romans 1-8 and the Book of James.  Are we made right before God merely by an external imputation of the righteousness of Christ, without any regard whatsoever for our internal moral condition?  Or does our justification, to be fully complete and actualized, require and involve the inward transformation of our lives?  The former is what I call the "Anti-Augustinian" interpretation of the Protestant doctrine of justification.  The latter conforms to the Catholic doctrine of justification and to what I call the "Pro-Augustinian" interpretation of the Protestant doctrine.  You can read more about these two interpretations of the Protestant doctrine here.

My text is taken from the KJV text on the Bible Gateway website, tweaked and formatted to fit my purposes in this article.  I have removed chapter and verse numbers in order to preserve better the flow of the text.

Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) and all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

There is only one true gospel.  All others are perversions.

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me.

Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised: And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

Paul seems here to be referring to the same issues that come up in Acts 15, in the discussion of the Jerusalem Council.  Do Gentiles who become Christians have to be circumcised and required to keep the ceremonies of the Law of Moses?  Paul takes this issue very seriously, because for him, as we will see below, it is tied to the question of whether we will follow Christ or reject him to keep the pre-Christian Old Covenant.

But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me: But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

Paul and the earlier leaders of the Church are fellow-workers, not rivals.  They preach the same gospel.

But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Peter agreed with Paul that the Gentiles should be welcomed into the Church without having to become Jews and keep the ceremonies of the Old Covenant.  But during this period in Antioch, Peter failed to live up to his principles for fear of some who were still critical of a full intermixing between Jews and Gentiles.  Paul rebuked him.

We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

For Paul, the issue of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles is inseparably tied up with the question of how we are made right with God--how we are justified.  In the Old Covenant system, Jews were separated from Gentiles.  Gentiles were, in general, excluded.  In the New Covenant, Jews and Gentiles are received into the one Body of Christ as equals.  Gentiles don't have to become Jews.  The ceremonial regulations that separated Jews from Gentiles no longer apply.  Now everyone enters into the covenant people of God by means of faith in Christ and baptism.  To require Gentiles to be circumcised and become Jews, for Paul, is to go back to the Old Covenant.  But to go back to the Old Covenant is to reject Christ who has brought the New Covenant and superseded the Old.  It is therefore to reject Christ and to seek to be justified by obedience to the Law of God without the grace of Christ.

But no one can be justified by obedience to the law of God, for we are all sinners.  We can only be justified by grace through faith in Christ.  We do not attain a right status before God by means of doing good works which God then rewards with the bestowal of his acceptance.  Rather, we, being sinners, receive a righteous status before God by means of receiving righteousness from God as a free gift through faith in Christ.  All of this follows the same trajectory we observed in our examination of Romans 1-8.

But is Christ a minister of sin because he justifies sinners?  No, because in justifying sinners, he does not approve of sin, but he destroys sin and makes us righteous.  Through faith in Christ, we have died to the law--not to its moral requirements, as if sin no longer brings punishment, but we have died to observance of the law as the way of obtaining our justification.  Now, through faith, we are united to Christ, and we live in him and he lives in us.  We do not work out our own righteousness which then earns God's favor; we receive righteousness from God as a free gift through faith in Christ.

We do not want to build up again the things we have destroyed.  That is, in coming to Christ, sin is not built up, but destroyed.  And we do not, after coming to Christ, go back to the law as our way of salvation, for that would be regress and not progress.  If we could produce our own righteousness by means of obedience to the law without grace, then Christ died in vain.

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed." So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

"Look, Galatians," says Paul, "why are you going back now to the law?  Is this how you started out when you came to Christ?  Did you receive all the things you have received--the Spirit and all his gifts--through earning them by your own obedience to the law, or did you receive them as a gift of grace through faith in Christ?  The latter, of course.  So then, why would you now try to go back to the law?  Do you think that having begun to receive righteousness by faith you can complete your righteousness by works?  No.  As Abraham discovered, our righteousness comes to us from faith, not from works.  If you want to be a son of Abraham, therefore, you've got to follow the way of justification by faith.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, "The just shall live by faith." And the law is not of faith: but, "The man that doeth them shall live in them." Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree": That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Again, we do not receive righteousness by producing it ourselves by our works, but as a gift of grace.  The Spirit is given to us as a gift of grace, purchased for us through the redemption of Christ, who took our curse upon himself so as to communicate to us his blessings.  He died so we could live.  There is a clear contrast between the way of justification by faith and the way of justification by works.

Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

The promise of righteousness as a gift of grace to be received by faith was already well in place hundreds of years before the Law of Moses was given, so the law is not the source of our righteousness.  The giving of the law did not annul the way of justification by faith already established with Abraham hundreds of years earlier.  The law was not given in order to provide a way of salvation other than that of faith.  It was given to help with sins until Christ should come to bring redemption.

If the law could have made us alive--if it could have changed our hearts and made us righteous--then it could have given us the righteousness we need.  But it can't make alive.  Only the grace of Christ can do this.

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

The Law of Moses was our tutor until Christ should come.  It was never the way of justification, but it helped us learn what we needed to learn to be ready for the coming of Christ.  To go back to the ceremonies of the Law of Moses now would be to reject the coming of Christ and act as if the Law was all we ever needed.  It would be like having a Steward appointed over a kingdom until the return of the King, and then rejecting the King when he comes in favor of the Steward.  The Steward is not at odds with the King but his servant.  He only becomes a rival if he tries to become an alternative to the King.  There is nothing wrong with the Law of Moses.  It was from God.  But it was meant to lead us to Christ.  If, instead, we try to use it to replace Christ, we have created a false system of justification at enmity with God's way of grace.

Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

We are no longer merely servants of God, or under-age children, under an inferior tutor.  We have now become children of God, full heirs of God, through Christ.

Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Paul compares the previous idolatrous life of the Gentiles with the life of Jews under the Law of Moses before Christ.  In both cases, there was a kind of bondage to something inferior, something which, of itself, could not bring salvation.  Of course, Paul is not saying that the Law of Moses was evil or idolatrous, but only pointing out that, like the religions and philosophies of the Gentiles, it could not bring salvation.  For the Gentiles who have become Christians to try to take upon themselves the ceremonies of the Law of Moses would be, in a way, like going back to their pre-Christian religions--seeking some way of salvation other than through Christ and the grace of the true God.

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude you, that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.

Paul wonders how it is that those who were so passionate before about following the gospel brought by Paul should now so quickly be following the false teachers who are leading away from Christ and to justification by the works of the law.

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, "Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband." Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Paul applies to story of Hagar and Sarah to the relationship between the unbelieving Jews and the Christians.  The Jews, having rejected Christ to keep the Old Covenant, have abandoned the grace and Spirit of God for an attempt to be saved by their own human obedience to the law.  They have chosen the "flesh"--the merely human, bound to sin--over the "Spirit"--the grace of God which liberates us from sin and gives us a righteousness we could not attain for ourselves.  Paul exhorts the Galatians not to follow the way of the unbelieving Jews but the way of Christ.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

Again, if you seek to be justified by obedience to the law, you are doomed, for you can't do it.  You are a sinner.  Instead, the people of faith wait for righteousness to be given to them by God.  They do not try to be saved by the ceremonies of the law but through the Spirit who will enable them, through faith, to truly live lives of love.

Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased. I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

We have been liberated from the law.  But that does not mean we have been liberated from the requirements of the law.  We have been liberated from our attempts to produce our own righteousness from ourselves in order to be justified before God's moral law.  We are no longer required to follow the ceremonies distinctive to the Old Covenant, but the moral law of God is still as much required of us now as ever.  Our salvation does not come in being released from these requirements, but in being given the Spirit of God, through whom we can put to death the evil workings in our hearts and cultivate instead good fruits of righteousness.

If we continue to live in sin, we will not attain the kingdom of God, for the moral law of God cannot tolerate such things, for God is holy.  But if, through the Spirit, we turn from evil living and live instead lives of righteousness, we will receive the kingdom of God, for the law will have no objection to us.  We will be living in accordance with love to God and neighbor, and so our lives will be in accord with God's law and acceptable to it.

We are to be justified by faith and not by works.  Just as we saw in Romans and in James, so we see here as well that this does not mean that we become acceptable to God merely by an external imputation of righteousness.  Rather, we become acceptable to God and thus gain eternal life because, through faith, the Spirit is given to us and we are made able to live lives of righteousness that fulfill the law.  The moral condition of our hearts and lives is not irrelevant to our moral status before God.  On the contrary, our status has everything to do with our moral condition.  We become justified before God only by having our lives changed by the Spirit to produce fruit that is acceptable to God.  It is not that Christ obeyed the law for us and provided for us an external imputation of his righteousness so that we no longer have to obey the law ourselves in order to be right with God.  Rather, Christ merited for us through his life and through his death a righteousness which is given to us through faith by the Holy Spirit, a righteousness that comes to live in us and enables us to meet the law's requirements by our holy living.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.

We "fulfill the law of Christ" when we bear one another's burdens.

Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

We will reap what we sow.  Our justification does not come from God annulling for us the requirements of his law and accepting us as righteous merely because another is righteous in our place.  Rather, God justifies us by giving us his Spirit, who enables and causes us to live righteously and so to sow with our lives that which will reap eternal life.  God is not mocked.  His law will not tolerate sin.  We must therefore be freed from sin and made righteous to be acceptable before God's law.  We don't need our sin covered up externally, like snow on a dunghill.  We need the dung to be turned to gold.  Anything else is a mockery of God's moral law.

Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.

As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Let us glory only in the cross of Christ.  For through the cross we are crucified to the world.  In Christ, the ceremonies of the law are done away with, and what really counts is (not merely an external imputation of righteousness, but) a new creation, a creation that bears righteous fruit to God and so fulfills the law.

Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

In closing, the whole idea of Paul's doctrine of justification which he articulates so thoroughly in Romans and Galatians is summed up succinctly in his letter to the Ephesians, 2:8-10:  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

Two errors are repudiated here.  1. Paul repudiates the idea that we are justified by our own works--that is, that we can produce our own righteousness and so earn for ourselves a right relationship with God.  It is, rather, by grace and not by works that we are saved.  2. But Paul also repudiates the idea that our justification by grace means that the law's requirements have been removed from us, that we no longer have to be righteous, that we are saved by becoming exempt somehow from having to live in accordance with God's moral law and be judged according to the conformity of our lives to that law.  On the contrary, while our own works do not save us, yet what our salvation does is produce in us good works that please God and fulfill the requirements of his law.  The grace of Christ does not mean that we no longer have to be righteous to be right with God; the grace of Christ means that we are now given the ability to be righteous and so right with God.

For more, see here.

Published on the feast of St. Paul Miki and Companions.