The Gospel lives in our hearts and gives us righteousness. Without the Gospel within, we can never advance. When the Gospel shows us the will of God, we are blessed by faith, hope, and love. We live with the gift of these virtues and find spiritual blessing.
For through the law, I died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. (Gal 2:19)
Paul had the revelation that the law will not carry us into faith. Because of this, he writes, “I died to the law.” He writes here with great clarity saying he was dead and became a slave to the law. Because of this, he was subject to the violence of the law.
Paul realized that God wants our freedom. We are to enter into a state of perfect freedom without trouble or pain. Jesus Christ says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matt 11:30).
To show the relationship between the law and the Gospel freedom, Paul shows how the relationship between the law and the Gospel can be seen in his life. He says in effect, “I was a Pharisee that followed the law with the most care. I was a Grand Zealot for this law. We tried to find deliverance from sin by following the law exactly and hoped that the law would become natural.”
An example of this is found in a person who studies science a long time, possesses it perfectly, and knows it naturally because of previous long hours of work. They do not study to find condemnation but want the freedom of understanding science. But how did they find this freedom? They studied and because of this, they found freedom to understand science.
Another example comes from the study of grammar. The study of grammar is useless if we cannot speak and write well. Grammar helps end ignorance and becomes a state that instructs the others. This becomes then a natural state that is acquired first by long hours of work.
But even after long hours of work and study, the law does not deliver from sins and does not give freedom. Instead, the person finds condemnation.
Jesus Christ fulfilled the law by living it perfectly. He alone lived the law naturally. When we look at him, we see the perfection of the law in a life. He did this so we may receive the promised Spirit and become his adopted children.
Paul says that he rests on this belief, “I died to the law,” not violently by the law, though at times the law allowed killing. Instead, Paul died because of his sin and separation from God. I am dead constrained by the law, though I expected deliverance by following this. Paul writes, “If anyone has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law blameless” (Phil 3:5).
Paul’s revelation showed him all life comes from God. I live with God only that I may live by the Spirit. Through the freedom of Jesus Christ, I do not arrive at a place of self-indulgence and sensuality. Instead, with pain, suffering and work, “I am crucified with Christ Jesus.”
And it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:20)
What joy we have in this Word! Jesus Christ frees me from the law that made me dead. I live no longer by myself in the law in sensuality, corruption, and propriety. I am dead to the law. I am also dead to the law that defends me following my own inclinations. I do not live the life of propriety that was esteemed by Adam.
Now I live by faith in the Son of God. Jesus Christ lives and works in me. Jesus Christ leads and governs me. His life is my life. His Spirit communicates with me. He fills my soul with His Spirit and life. Therefore I see nothing within or without except Jesus Christ who lives within me.
This makes me dead to the law because inside I have freedom in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Thus, I am annihilated to all things criminal and proprietary, so that I may find Jesus Christ within me. He takes away my proud exterior of conformity so it is not anymore me that lives, but Jesus Christ living within me. However if I live in the flesh, if I live again in this world with a worldly spirit that separates me from goodness, then I will live in subjection again.
Now I want to live in faith, surrender, and obedience to the Son of God. I love Him so much. I want to yield to His good will in all things to sanctify me and help me grow.
I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Gal 2:21)
If all our growth and sanctification depended on the law, then why do we have a Savior? Paul understands that we need a Savior and tells us of the grace merited by Jesus Christ; also, Paul says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:7–8). This abundant redemption is made through Jesus Christ’s death. This rigorous death was essential for the salvation of human beings. The actions of Jesus were sufficient for the redemption of a million worlds, as he willed salvation for our abundant redemption. By his death he destroyed in all of us the life of Adam. Following the law brings us death. If we hope to acquire this perfection through the law, we make the death of Jesus Christ in vain, since he died so that we may die to this law. If we give and attribute all to the law, we receive nothing from His grace of justification. We must die to the law and live to Jesus Christ.
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! (Gal 3:1)
Nothing is as hard as the sight of these people that before had received pure grace now leave this way and then return to their former madness. These are people that have known the favorable effects of grace and tasted the sweet prayer and presence of God; they have been instructed in God’s ways and had Jesus Christ depicted before their eyes. That is to say, the preachers of the Gospel (with whom Jesus Christ is well pleased) depicted the crucifixion for them. After this, they have had Jesus Christ crucified and manifested within them. Even after all these things, they leave Jesus Christ, often because of false reports, under the pretext of a more accurate gospel. O, this is very hard to bear from people who had been educated in the truth!
The only thing I want to learn from our is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? (Gal 3:2)
This question goes to all people who have received the anointing of the Holy Spirit and grace within the interior. Is it by doing the law that you have received the Spirit of love, peace and charity? No, assuredly. The word that you have heard the Lord speak inside of you gives his Spirit and the anointing of His grace.
Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? (Gal 3:3)
After having suffered to be with God, we make our sufferings useless, since we return to our first madness. There are persons who return to sin after having left them; for others, after having been advanced in the way of the Spirit, they quit to follow nature; for others, after having left propriety for the way of surrender to Jesus Christ, leave Jesus Christ and return to the way of propriety. Now these people, having suffered much travail, have made their pains and sufferings vain and useless.
Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” 7 so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. (Gal 3:6–7)
The principal character of Abraham was his faith and his abandon to the rule of God. Abraham believed and trusted in God’s promises; he respected God’s strong rule and followed Him, even when the way seemed to destroy the promises. That is what makes Abraham’s perfect state and is what distinguishes his character from the rest of humanity. Like Abraham, the true characteristics of interior souls are faith and abandon. Faith is their foundation and prayers make their interior.