Galatians 2:19
For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
For through the law
This phrase indicates the means by which Paul experienced a transformation. The Greek word for "through" is "διὰ" (dia), which implies an agency or instrumentality. The law, given by God through Moses, was intended to reveal sin and lead people to Christ (Galatians 3:24). Historically, the law served as a guardian, highlighting humanity's inability to achieve righteousness on its own. Paul acknowledges that it was the law itself that brought him to the realization of his need for a Savior, as it exposed his sinfulness and inability to fulfill its demands perfectly.

I died to the law
The concept of "dying to the law" is profound. The Greek word for "died" is "ἀπέθανον" (apethanon), which signifies a complete separation or cessation. In a spiritual sense, Paul is expressing that he has been released from the law's jurisdiction and its power to condemn. This death is not physical but a metaphorical death to the law's demands and penalties. Historically, this reflects the transition from the Old Covenant, based on adherence to the law, to the New Covenant, established through faith in Christ. By dying to the law, Paul emphasizes the believer's freedom from the law's condemnation, as Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf.

so that I might live to God
The purpose of dying to the law is to "live to God." The Greek word for "live" is "ζήσω" (zēsō), which implies a vibrant, active life. This new life is characterized by a relationship with God, made possible through faith in Jesus Christ. Historically, this reflects the shift from a life bound by legalistic observance to one of grace and faith. Living to God means that the believer's life is now directed by the Holy Spirit, empowered to fulfill God's purposes. This phrase encapsulates the essence of Christian freedom: not a license to sin, but a liberation to serve and glorify God wholeheartedly. Through Christ, believers are called to a life that reflects God's love, righteousness, and holiness, living in the fullness of His grace.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Paul the Apostle
The author of the letter to the Galatians, Paul was a former Pharisee who became a follower of Christ. His writings often address the relationship between the Law and faith in Christ.

2. The Galatians
The recipients of the letter, the Galatians were a group of early Christians in the region of Galatia, struggling with the influence of Judaizers who insisted on adherence to the Mosaic Law for salvation.

3. The Law
Refers to the Mosaic Law given to the Israelites, which includes moral, ceremonial, and civil regulations. Paul discusses its role and limitations in the life of a believer.

4. Christ's Crucifixion
The event that Paul alludes to as the means by which believers are freed from the Law, allowing them to live for God.

5. Judaizers
A group within the early church that taught that Gentile converts must adhere to Jewish laws, including circumcision, to be true Christians.
Teaching Points
Understanding the Purpose of the Law
The Law serves to reveal sin and our need for a Savior. It is not a means to achieve righteousness but a guide that points us to Christ.

Dying to the Law
Through Christ's sacrifice, believers are no longer bound by the Law's demands. This death to the Law is a spiritual transformation that allows us to live for God.

Living for God
Our new life in Christ is characterized by living in the Spirit, pursuing holiness, and reflecting God's love and grace in our daily actions.

Freedom in Christ
Embrace the freedom that comes from faith in Christ, which liberates us from legalistic practices and empowers us to live a life pleasing to God.

The Role of Faith
Faith in Christ, not adherence to the Law, is the foundation of our relationship with God. This faith leads to a life of obedience and service to Him.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding the purpose of the Law help us appreciate the work of Christ in our lives?

2. In what ways can we practically "die to the law" in our daily walk with Christ?

3. How does living for God manifest in our relationships with others, both within and outside the church?

4. What are some modern-day "laws" or legalistic practices that can distract us from living in the freedom of Christ?

5. How can we encourage one another to live by faith and not by works, as Paul teaches in Galatians 2:19?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Romans 7:4-6
Paul explains how believers have died to the law through the body of Christ, enabling them to serve in the new way of the Spirit.

Philippians 3:9
Paul contrasts righteousness based on the law with righteousness through faith in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:15
Highlights living for Christ, who died for all, as a central theme of the Christian life.
Dead to the LawJ. Brown.Galatians 2:19
Death and LifeW. Harris.Galatians 2:19
Death to the LawW. Perkins.Galatians 2:19
Death to the Law and Life to GodGalatians 2:19
Dying to Law and Living to GodW.F. Adeney Galatians 2:19
Living unto GodGalatians 2:19
That I Might Live unto GodJ. Brown.Galatians 2:19
The Christian Dead to the LawC. Bradley.Galatians 2:19
The Law an Obstacle in the Way of SalvationC. Bradley.Galatians 2:19
The Paralyzing Power of the Sense of Being Alive to the LawC. Stanford, D. D.Galatians 2:19
Withstanding of Peter At AntiochR. Finlayson Galatians 2:11-21
The Death of Legal Hope the Life of Evangelical ObedienceR.M. Edgar Galatians 2:19-21
People
Barnabas, Cephas, Galatians, James, John, Paul, Peter, Titus
Places
Jerusalem, Syrian Antioch
Topics
Dead, Die, Died, Law, Order
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Galatians 2:19

     5380   law, and gospel

Galatians 2:14-21

     8316   orthodoxy, in NT

Galatians 2:17-21

     5775   abuse

Galatians 2:19-20

     6139   deadness, spiritual
     6617   atonement, in NT

Galatians 2:19-21

     2414   cross, centrality

Library
February 10. "I am Crucified with Christ; Nevertheless I Live" (Gal. Ii. 20).
"I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live" (Gal. ii. 20). Christ life is in harmony with our nature. A lady asked me the other day--a thoughtful, intelligent woman who was not a Christian, but who had the deepest hunger for that which is right: "How can this be so, and we not lose our individuality! This will destroy our personality, and it violates our responsibility as individuals." I said: "Dear sister, your personality is only half without Christ. Christ was made for you, and you were
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

September 25. "The Faith of the Son of God" (Gal. Ii. 20).
"The faith of the Son of God" (Gal. ii. 20). Let us learn the secret even of our faith. It is the faith of Christ, springing in our heart and trusting in our trials. So shall we always sing, "The life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Thus looking off unto Jesus, "the Author and Finisher of our faith," we shall find that instead of struggling to reach the promises of God, we shall lie down upon them in blessed repose and be borne up by them
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

December 18. "The Faith of the Son of God" (Gal. Ii. 20).
"The faith of the Son of God" (Gal. ii. 20). Faith is hindered most of all by what we call "our faith," and fruitless struggles to work out a faith which is but a make-believe and a desperate trying to trust God, which must ever come short of His vast and glorious promises. The truth is that the only faith that is equal to the stupendous promises of God and the measureless needs of our life, is "the faith of God" Himself, the very trust which He will breathe into the heart which intelligently expects
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

From Centre to Circumference
'The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.'--GAL. ii. 20. We have a bundle of paradoxes in this verse. First, 'I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.' The Christian life is a dying life. If we are in any real sense joined to Christ, the power of His death makes us dead to self and sin and the world. In that region, as in the physical, death is the gate of life; and, inasmuch as what we die to in Christ is itself
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Duty of Remembering the Poor
POVERTY is no virtue; wealth is no sin. On the other hand, wealth is not morally good, and poverty is not morally evil. A man may be a good man and a rich man; it is quite certain that very frequently good men are poor men. Virtue is a plant which depends not upon the atmosphere which surrounds it, but upon the hand which waters it, and upon the grace which sustains it. We draw no support for grace from our circumstances whether they be good or evil. Our circumstances may sometimes militate against
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

"And if Christ be in You, the Body is Dead Because Sin,"
Rom. viii. 10.--"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because sin," &c. This is the high excellence of the Christian religion, that it contains the most absolute precepts for a holy life, and the greatest comforts in death, for from these two the truth and excellency of religion is to be measured, if it have the highest and perfectest rule of walking, and the chiefest comfort withal. Now, the perfection of Christianity you saw in the rule, how spiritual it is, how reasonable, how divine, how
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Nor have I Undertaken that in the Present Discourse...
25. Nor have I undertaken that in the present discourse, as it more pertains to thee, who hast laid open the hiding-places of the Priscillianists, so far as relates to their false and perverse dogmas; that they may not seem to have been in such sort investigated as if they were meet to be taught, not to be argued against. Make it therefore more thy work that they be beaten down and laid low, as thou hast made it, that they should be betrayed and laid open; lest while we wish to get at the discovery
St. Augustine—Against Lying

Or are we Indeed to Believe that it is for any Other Reason...
41. Or are we indeed to believe that it is for any other reason, that God suffers to be mixed up with the number of your profession, many, both men and women, about to fall, than that by the fall of these your fear may be increased, whereby to repress pride; which God so hates, as that against this one thing The Highest humbled Himself? Unless haply, in truth, thou shalt therefore fear less, and be more puffed up, so as to love little Him, Who hath loved thee so much, as to give up Himself for thee,
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

Thus the Spirit of Man, Cleaving unto the Spirit of God...
29. Thus the spirit of man, cleaving unto the Spirit of God, lusts against the flesh, that is, against itself: but for itself, in order that those motions, whether in the flesh or in the soul, after man, not after God, which as yet exist through the sickness man hath gotten, may be restrained by continence, that so health may be gotten; and man, not living after man, may now be able to say, "But I live, now not I, but there liveth in me Christ." [1916] For where not I, there more happily I: and,
St. Augustine—On Continence

So Great Blindness, Moreover, Hath Occupied Men's Minds...
43. So great blindness, moreover, hath occupied men's minds, that to them it is too little if we pronounce some lies not to be sins; but they must needs pronounce it to be sin in some things if we refuse to lie: and to such a pass have they been brought by defending lying, that even that first kind which is of all the most abominably wicked they pronounce to have been used by the Apostle Paul. For in the Epistle to the Galatians, written as it was, like the rest, for doctrine of religion and piety,
St. Augustine—On Lying

Neither do they Confess that they are Awed by those Citations from the Old...
7. Neither do they confess that they are awed by those citations from the Old Testament which are alleged as examples of lies: for there, every incident may possibly be taken figuratively, although it really did take place: and when a thing is either done or said figuratively, it is no lie. For every utterance is to be referred to that which it utters. But when any thing is either done or said figuratively, it utters that which it signifies to those for whose understanding it was put forth. Whence
St. Augustine—On Lying

Introduction to Apologia De Fuga.
The date of this Defence of his Flight must be placed early enough to fall within the lifetime, or very close to the death (§1. n. 1), of Leontius of Antioch, and late enough to satisfy the references (§6) to the events at the end of May 357 (see notes there), and to the lapse of Hosius, the exact date of which again depends upon that of the Sirmian Council of 357, which, if held the presence of Constantius, must have fallen as late as August (Gwatk. Stud. 157, n. 3). Athanasius not only
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

The Main Current of the Reformation
I One of the greatest tragedies in Christian history is the division of forces which occurred in the Reformation movements of the sixteenth century. Division of forces in the supreme spiritual undertakings of the race is of course confined to no one century and to no one movement; it is a very ancient tragedy. But the tragedy of division is often relieved by the fact that through the differentiation of opposing parties a vigorous emphasis is placed upon aspects of truth which might otherwise have
Rufus M. Jones—Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries

Whether God Became Incarnate in Order to Take Away Actual Sin, Rather than to Take Away Original Sin?
Objection 1: It would seem that God became incarnate as a remedy for actual sins rather than for original sin. For the more grievous the sin, the more it runs counter to man's salvation, for which God became incarnate. But actual sin is more grievous than original sin; for the lightest punishment is due to original sin, as Augustine says (Contra Julian. v, 11). Therefore the Incarnation of Christ is chiefly directed to taking away actual sins. Objection 2: Further, pain of sense is not due to original
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Bread and Wine Cont.
(4) We have yet to ask the great question, what is the specific blessing expressed by the elements, and therefore surely given to the faithful by the sacrament. Too many are content to think vaguely of Divine help, given us for the merit of the death of Christ. But bread and wine do not express an indefinite Divine help, they express the body and blood of Christ, they have to do with His Humanity. We must beware, indeed, of limiting the notion overmuch. At the Supper He said not "My flesh," but "My
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

The Great Debt She Owed to Our Lord for his Mercy to Her. She Takes St. Joseph for Her Patron.
1. After those four days, during which I was insensible, so great was my distress, that our Lord alone knoweth the intolerable sufferings I endured. My tongue was bitten to pieces; there was a choking in my throat because I had taken nothing, and because of my weakness, so that I could not swallow even a drop of water; all my bones seemed to be out of joint, and the disorder of my head was extreme. I was bent together like a coil of ropes--for to this was I brought by the torture of those days--unable
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Relation ii. To one of Her Confessors, from the House of Dona Luisa De La Cerda, in 1562.
Jesus. I think it is more than a year since this was written; God has all this time protected me with His hand, so that I have not become worse; on the contrary, I see a great change for the better in all I have to say: may He be praised for it all! 1. The visions and revelations have not ceased, but they are of a much higher kind. Our Lord has taught me a way of prayer, wherein I find myself far more advanced, more detached from the things of this life, more courageous, and more free. [2] I fall
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Estimate of the Scope and Value of Jerome's Writings.
General. The writings of Jerome must be estimated not merely by their intrinsic merits, but by his historical position and influence. It has already been pointed out that he stands at the close of the old Græco-Roman civilisation: the last Roman poet of any repute, Claudian, and the last Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, died before him. Augustin survived him, but the other great Fathers, both in the East and in the West, had passed away before him. The sack of Rome by Alaric (410) and
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

Galatians.
The Commentary is in three books, with full Prefaces. Book I., Ch. i. 1-iii. 9. Addressed to Paula and Eustochium, a.d. 387. The Preface to this book begins with a striking description of the noble Roman lady Albina, which is as follows: Only a few days have elapsed since, having finished my exposition of the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, I had passed to Galatians, turning my course backwards and passing over many intervening subjects. But all at once letters unexpectedly arrived from Rome with the
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

Twentieth Day. Holiness and Liberty.
Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness: now present your members as servants of righteousness unto sanctification. Now being made free from sin, and become servants unto God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.'--Rom. vi. 18, 19, 22. 'Our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus.'--Gal. ii. 4. 'With freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.'--Gal. v. 1. There is no possession more
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

Charity and Rebuke.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.--1 COR. xiii. 13. The second main point of difference between a true and a false Charity, we want to remark, is, Divine Charity is not only consistent with, but it very often necessitates, reproof and rebuke by its possessor. It renders it incumbent on those who possess it to reprove and rebuke whatever is evil--whatever does not tend to the highest interests of its object. This Charity conforms in this, as
Catherine Booth—Godliness

Second Great Group of Parables.
(Probably in Peræa.) Subdivision A. Introduction. ^C Luke XV. 1, 2. ^c 1 Now all the publicans and sinners were drawing hear unto him to hear. 2 And both the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. [For publicans see p. 76, and for eating with them see p. 349. The Pharisees classed as "sinners" all who failed to observe the traditions of the elders, and especially their traditional rules of purification. It was not so much the wickedness of
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Critical Reconstruction of the History of the Apostolic Age.
"Die Botschaft hör' ich wohl, allein mir fehlt der Glaube." (Goethe.) Never before in the history of the church has the origin of Christianity, with its original documents, been so thoroughly examined from standpoints entirely opposite as in the present generation. It has engaged the time and energy of many of the ablest scholars and critics. Such is the importance and the power of that little book which "contains the wisdom of the whole world," that it demands ever new investigation and sets
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

This Question I Should Briefly Solve, if I Should Say...
24. This question I should briefly solve, if I should say, because I should also justly say, that we must believe the Apostle. For he himself knew why in the Churches of the Gentiles it was not meet that a venal Gospel were carried about; not finding fault with his fellow-apostles, but distinguishing his own ministry; because they, without doubt by admonition of the Holy Ghost, had so distributed among them the provinces of evangelizing, that Paul and Barnabas should go unto the Gentiles, and they
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

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