The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
Ver. 21 . — Is the law then against the promises of God? Jerome correctly points out that this is an answer by anticipation to the objection to which S. Paul had exposed himself in verse 19, when he said, “ The law was added because of transgressions till the seed should come.” For any one might say : If the law was added to the promise, and, as it were, removed it, it seems to have taken to itself the office of quickening and justifying men, so that it may be regarded as doing the work of the promise till Christ should come ; for if not, why was it added, unless it were, as you say yourself, because of transgressions , to destroy them by the living and virtuous actions prescribed by the law for justification. If this be so, then the law is against the promises of God, for God promised this justification to faith in Christ, not to the law, nay, He thereby excluded it from the law.
That S. Paul is meeting an objection of this sort is obvious from what follows. The law, he exclaims, cannot give life; therefore, it is not against the promises of God which offer that spiritual life in Christ. The antecedent is proved thus : If the law could give life it could also justify; but this it cannot do (ver. 22). Hence the law was only given to be our paedagogue to Christ, to lead us to justification by faith. Or it may be put thus : When I said that the law was given because of transgressions, I meant that its function was to prevent them by fear of punishment, that passion might not issue in action ; I did not mean that the law alone could calm the violence of passion within, or give that grace by which we fulfil the law.
God forbid. It is impossible that God should give a law contradictory to His promises, for this would be for God to contradict Himself. The law which came after was not opposed to the preceding promises, but its office was to admonish men to prepare themselves worthily for Christ and His Gospel. Therefore the law is not contrary to the promise, but establishes it.
For if there had been a law given which could have given life. To give life is to impart righteousness to the soul. But, as S. Paul appears to distinguish between life and righteousness , it is better to say that to give life stands for to quicken man's works . This is done when a man does virtuous actions out of the spirit of charity. The argument is from the effect to the cause, from a living work to life ; as we say : This man eats, talks, moves, therefore he is alive. In the same way, if the law could produce in us living works, it could also give us the spirit of charity from which they spring, for the works of the Spirit presuppose the Spirit, just as motion does life.
Ver. 22. — But the scripture hath concluded all under sin. This Scripture is cited in Rom. iii. 9.
Ver. 23. — Before faith came. Like slaves under the stern discipline of the law, we were kept as though by walls and hedges from sin, and were held, and kept in, that we might be thereby prepared, and might learn to long for the righteousness which Christ should give.
Ver. 24. — The law was our schoolmaster. A paedagogue, says S. Jerome, is one who looks after a boy. Among the Greeks he was a slave, whose duty it was to accompany his ward wherever he went, to keep him from loose conduct, to chastise him if need were, and in every way to form his character for good. Such was the office of the law with regard to the Hebrews.
Unto Christ By a happy figure of speech, S. Paul compares the law to a paedagogue, and faith in Christ to a father. For we are born again by faith in Christ, and become sons of God, thereby passing from the state of pupilage under the law to that of men under Christ.
Ver. 26 . — For ye are all the children of God. Both Jews, who were under the law, and Gentiles, who were not, are become, by faith in Christ, children of God. The conjunction for is causal, and indicates the reason why we are not under the law as a paedagogue, viz., because we are the sons of God. Children are like slaves, S. Paul says, in chap. iv. 1, nay, like the lower animals, in needing a paedagogue to enable them to resist the motions of sense. But those in Christ have left this state of childhood, and are become sons of God, have grown to man’s estate. It would be, therefore , absurd for them to be made subject to the law as their paedagogue , as though they were still children. This would be as absurd, says Theophylact, as for a man, when the day had dawned, to prefer a lamp to the sun. This is a rebuke to the Judaisers, which may be summarised thus : Christ is to us as a father to his grown-up sons. Why do you then go back to the paedagogy of the law ? Why hold out your hand again like boys to the ferule ?
By faith . Not faith alone , but by faith manifested in baptism and other acts.
Ver. 27 . — As many of you as have been baptized into Christ To be baptized into Christ is to receive His baptism as distinct from that of Moses or John Baptist. The change from the first person (we) of verse 25 to the second person (you) here denotes the change of subject from Jews to Gentiles.
Have put on Christ You have received plenteously in your baptism the grace and gifts of Christ ; you have put them round you like a garment (cf. Ps. cix. 18), so that you are made partakers of the Divine nature, and therefore of the workings of God’s power, Christ shines in your lives. “ Your daily conversation,” says Anselm, “ like a splendid robe, is Christ’s holiness and Christ's religion.”
These words may be explained in a better way, thus : As matter takes its form, the body its soul as a substantial robe to hide its nakedness and ugliness ; so you in baptism have put on Christ by grace, so that the Spirit of Christ is, as it were, your form and soul ; consequently you have been brought into such close union with Christ that, as He is the Son of God by nature, so are you by adoption and grace. This is the explanation of Chrysostom and Theophylact. The conjunction for shows that Paul wishes to prove that we are the sons of God by the fact that we have put on Christ, who is the Son of God by nature, and hence are one with Him, and, as it were, are Christ Himself. Cf. notes to 1 Cor. xii. 12.
We should note from this the efficacy of baptism, which not only adorns us with graces and gifts, but with Christ Himself. What have the Protestants to say to this who make baptism to be a bare sign of righteousness already received by faith ?
S. Ambrose ( Serm. 90) gives some beautiful words of S. Agnes about the baptismal robe of Christ, both that which is within, and that material robe which formerly was given to adults at their baptism as a symbol of the first. “ He adorned me,” she said, “ with a glorious bracelet. He covered my hand and neck with precious stones . He put pearls in my ears, and loaded me with glistening gems. On my face He put his seal, that I might admit no lover save Him alone. He clad me in a robe of cloth of gold, and with glorious jewels did He beautify me.” And a little farther she continued: “ Now have I drunken milk and honey from His mouth. Now have I been clasped in His most chaste embraces . Now has His body been united to mine, and His blood has bedewed my cheeks.” This last of course refers to the Eucharist, which used to be given to those newly baptized, that they might be wholly united to Christ To them too used to be given milk and honey, as symbols of the sweetness of Christ, and of the law of Christ, of which they then become partakers.
Ver. 28. — There is neither Jew nor Greek . — i.e., in Christ. In the Church of Christ there is no distinction before God of birth, position , or sex. All, whether Jews or Greeks (= Gentiles), whether slaves or freemen, whether males or females, make one mystical body, the Church, of which the Head is Christ.
Or we may take it, and better, with S. Chrysostom, to mean that ye are one in the sense that ye have put on one form, or one soul, like the garment described above, and this not of any angel, but of Christ. This garment is the faith, charity, and holiness of Christ, and it makes you to seem like one man, to be one Christ. The Jews, therefore, have nothing of their Judaism to pride themselves on when they pass into Christ; therefore they have nothing of their own to invite you to, O Galatians, for you are equal sharers in Christ with them.
Ver. 29. — If ye be Christ's. If you are members of the Head, and are the mystical body of its Spirit, then, as Christ is, so are ye Abraham’s seed, and hence inheritors of the righteousness promised to Abraham. Accordingly, Ambrose reads here : “If ye are one in Christ ; then are ye Abraham's seed” which gives the meaning very clearly.