Thomas Aquinas Commentary Galatians 5:1-4

"For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Ye are severed from Christ, ye would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace." — Galatians 5:1-4 (ASV)

Previously, the Apostle showed that righteousness is not through the Law; here he leads them back from error to a state of right standing.

1. First, with respect to divine matters.
2. Secondly, with respect to human affairs (Galatians 6:1).

As to the first point, he does two things:

1. First, he admonishes them.
2. Secondly, he gives the reason underlying his admonition (verse 2).

In the admonition itself, he includes two things: an encouragement toward good and a caution against evil. He encourages them toward good when he says, Stand fast. It is as if to say: Since you have been set free from the bondage of the Law through Christ, stand fast and, with your faith firm and feet planted, persevere in freedom. And so when he says, Stand fast, he exhorts them to right standing, for one who stands is upright: He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed, lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). Likewise, he exhorts them to be firm: Therefore, be ye steadfast and unmoveable (1 Corinthians 15:58); Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth (Ephesians 6:14).

But he cautions and draws them from evil when he adds: and be not held again under the yoke of bondage, meaning, do not subject yourself to the Law which produces bondage. Of this yoke, it is written in Acts: This is a yoke which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear (Acts 15:10), a yoke from which we have been freed by Christ alone: For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the sceptre of their oppressor, thou hast overcome (Isaiah 9:4).

The reason for adding the word again is not that they had been under the Law before. Rather, as Jerome says, to observe the legal ceremonies after the Gospel is a sin so great as to border on idolatry. Hence, because they had been idolaters, if they were to submit themselves to the yoke of circumcision and the other legal observances, they would be, as it were, returning to the very things in which they had formerly practiced idolatry.

However, according to Augustine in Epistle 19, three periods of time are distinguished regarding the observance of the legal ceremonies: the time before the passion, the time before the spreading of grace, and the time after the spreading of grace. To observe the legal ceremonies after grace had been preached is a mortal sin for the Jews. But during the interim period, before the preaching of grace, they could be observed without sin even by those who had been converted from Judaism, provided they set no hope on them.

However, those converted from paganism could not observe them without sin. Therefore, because the Galatians had not come from Judaism but wanted, nevertheless, to observe the legal ceremonies and put their hope in them, they were in effect returning to the yoke of bondage. For in their case, observances of this sort were akin to idolatry, since they held a false notion concerning Christ, believing that salvation cannot be obtained by Him without the observances of the Law.

Then when he says, Behold, I Paul tell you, he explains these two parts of his admonition:

1. First, the second part.
2. Secondly, the first part (verse 5).

As to the first, he does two things:

1. First, he shows what the yoke of bondage is that they ought not submit to.
2. Secondly, he proves it (verse 4).

Regarding the first of these, he does two things:

1. First, he shows that this yoke is a source of great harm.
2. Secondly, that it is terribly burdensome (verse 3).

The yoke of the Law is harmful because it nullifies the effect of the Lord’s passion. Hence he says, be not held again under the yoke of bondage, because behold, I Paul, who am speaking with the voice of authority, tell you, and rightly so, that if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing, that is, faith in Christ will profit you nothing.

But against this is something recorded in Acts, namely, that Paul circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3). Hence, in effect, he brought it about that Christ profited him nothing; furthermore, he was deceiving him. I answer that, according to Jerome, Paul did not circumcise Timothy as if intending to observe the Law, but he feigned the observance of circumcision when he performed it on him. For, according to him, the apostles feigned observing the works of the Law to avoid scandalizing the believers from Judaism. In other words, they performed the actions of the Law without the intention of observing them, and so they did not depart from the faith. Hence he did not deceive Timothy.

However, according to Augustine, the answer is that the apostles did in fact observe the works of the Law and had the intention of observing them. This is because, according to the teaching of the apostles, it was lawful at that time, before grace had become widespread, for converts from Judaism to observe them. Therefore, because Timothy was born of a Jewish mother, the Apostle circumcised him with the intention of observing the Law.

But because the Galatians were putting their hope in the legal observances after the spreading of grace, as though without them grace was not sufficient to save them, and they observed them in that frame of mind, for that reason the Apostle declared to them that if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. For it followed from this that they did not correctly value Christ, for whom circumcision was given as a sign: That it may be a sign of the covenant between me and you (Genesis 17:11). Therefore, those who submitted to circumcision believed that the sign was still valid and that the one it signified had not yet come. Thus they had fallen away from Christ. In this way, then, it is clear that the yoke of the Law is harmful.

Furthermore, it is a heavy burden, because it obligates one to the impossible. This is what he states: I testify again to every man circumcising himself, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. It is as if to say: I say that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. But in addition to this, I testify to every man, both Jew and Gentile, who circumcises himself, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

For one who professes a religion makes himself a debtor to all that pertains to the observances of that religion. As Augustine says, there has never been a religion without some visible sign to which those who live in that religion are obligated. In the Christian religion, for example, the visible sign is Baptism, which all Christians are required to undergo. Furthermore, they are obligated to everything that pertains to the Christian religion. Now the sign of the Mosaic Law was circumcision. Therefore, whoever circumcised himself was put under obligation to observe and fulfill all the matters of the Law. And that is what he says: he is a debtor to do the whole law: Whosoever offends in one point, is become guilty of all (James 2:10). No one, however, was able to keep the Law, according to Acts: This is a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear (Acts 15:10).

But suppose someone is circumcised; then according to what was said before, he is obligated to observe all the matters of the Law. But this is to sin mortally. Therefore, he is obligated to sin mortally and thus he sins in either case.

I answer that on the assumption that the same conviction prevails, he is obligated to observe the matters of the Law. For example, if one is convinced that he would sin mortally unless he were circumcised, then, having become circumcised, if the same conviction remains, he would sin mortally if he did not observe the matters of the Law. The reason for this is that the conviction that something must be done is nothing other than a judgment that it would be against God’s will not to do it. If this is the case, I say that unless he did what his convictions dictate, he would sin mortally, not because of the work done but because of his conscience.

Likewise, if he does it, he sins, because ignorance of this kind does not excuse him, since he is ignorant of a precept. Nevertheless, he is not in an absolute dilemma, but only a qualified one, because it is within his power to correct his erroneous conscience. And this is the way the Apostle is here testifying to everyone who circumcises himself that he is obliged to observe the ceremonies of the Law.

Then when he says, You are severed from Christ, he proves what he said: namely, that they must not embrace the observances of the Law, because it involves a double injury: first, the loss of Christ, and secondly, the loss of grace. Moreover, the first is the cause of the second, because you who are justified in the law are fallen from grace.

He says therefore, You are severed from Christ. As if to say: Truly Christ will profit you nothing, because you are severed from Christ, that is, from living in Christ. The second injury is the loss of grace. Hence he says: you are fallen from grace. You who were full of the grace of Christ—because of his fulness we have all received (John 1:16); The heart of a fool is like a broken vessel and no wisdom at all shall it hold ()—you, I say, who believe that you are justified in the law, are fallen from grace. Be mindful, therefore, from whence thou art fallen and do penance (Revelation 2:5). You have fallen from grace, namely, from possessing future happiness or even from the grace you once had.