Charles Spurgeon Commentary Galatians 3:12

"and the law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them." — Galatians 3:12 (ASV)

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

The very spirit of law is the spirit of works; and as life only comes by faith, it cannot come by the works of the law, for they are not of faith. Now comes the gospel, clear and bright, like the sun rising out of a thick fog.

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

The law demands doing, the gospel enjoins believing. The believing man comes in as an heir of the blessing, but, the man who trusts to his own doing is an heir of the curse.

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

So that the justified man is not justified by the law, but by faith.

He stands before God, not in what he does, not even in what the Spirit enables him to do; his own prayers and tears, his communings with Christ, his own labors, his earnest and indefatigable attempts to extend the kingdom of Christ, all avail nothing in the matter of his justification. He hangs them all upon the cross of Christ, and relies only upon the cross, looking in no manner whatever to anything which comes from himself.

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.

The law says nothing about faith; it speaks only about doing: Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.

"Be perfectly at home with me, for I am so with you. Though you Galatians have treated me very badly, yet you have not really injured me, and I freely overlook your ill manners toward me."