Charles Ellicott Commentary Galatians 2:19

"For I through the law died unto the law, that I might live unto God." — Galatians 2:19 (ASV)

In the last verse, the Apostle had been presenting a hypothetical case, but by a not unnatural process of thought, he gradually uses the “I” more earnestly and appeals directly to his own personal experience. The “I” of Galatians 2:18 is really St. Peter or the Judaizers; the “I” of this verse is St. Paul himself. The object of his appeal is to substantiate his assertion that to restore the dethroned Law to its old position is positively sinful.

Once I was done with the Law, I was done with it forever. The Law itself had prepared me for this. It was a stage that I inevitably had to pass through, but which was inherently temporary. It carried with it the sentence of its own dissolution.

For . . .—This assigns the reason for using the word “transgressor” in the preceding verse. It is a transgression to rebuild the demolished fabric of the Law because the true Christian is done with the Law once and for all.

Through the law am dead to the law.—In what sense can this be said? The Apostle himself had freed himself from his obligations to the Law—not, however, by simply evading them from the start, but by passing through a period of subjection to it. The road to freedom from the Law lay through the Law.

The Law, on its prophetic side, pointed to Christ. On its moral side, the Law held up an ideal that its devotees could not attain. It did not help them attain it; rather, it bore the stamp of its own insufficiency. People broke its precepts, and its weakness seemed to lead to a dispensation that would supersede it.

St. Paul would not have become a Christian if he had not first sat at the feet of Gamaliel. If we could trace the whole undercurrent of silent, and perhaps only half-conscious, preparation that led to the Apostle’s conversion, we would see how large a part was played in it by the sense of the Law’s insufficiency, gradually developed in him. Thus, the negative aspect was provided by his own private meditation, while the positive aspect, faith in Christ, was given by the vision on the road to Damascus.

That I might live unto God.—We might not unnaturally expect “to Christ” here, instead of “to God.” But the Christian lives to Christ in order that he may live to God. The ultimate object of the Christian plan is that he may be presented righteous before God. He could not obtain this righteousness by the Law; it is obtained in Christ.