2:19 <\/b>For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.\u00a0<\/b> The Holy Bible: English Standard Version<\/i>. 2001 (Ga 2:19). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.<\/p>\n

With God’s new covenant came a greater understanding of the role of the law.\u00a0 For thousands of years, Jewish faith had taught that a person was made righteous by their fufillment of the law, or Torah.\u00a0 Rather than properly understanding the role of the law to expose sin and point to God for redemption, the Jews had developed a legalistic religion that was based solely on works and fulfillment of the law.<\/p>\n

As Paul clarifies the new covenant of God and the reality of justification by faith, he is challenged to wade through issues like circumcision, feasts, and rituals.\u00a0 In the simple yet powerful statement of Galatians 2:19, Paul declares death to the old way and a commitment to live to God’s standard of righteousness in Christ.<\/p>\n

Are you ready for the big word of the day?\u00a0 Over the centuries, the Gnostics and Anabaptists developed a view called antinomianism, which suggested that this verse exempted Christians from moral law.\u00a0 That is a false teaching and is not what Paul is saying.\u00a0 In fact, throughout his letters he reinforces that actions and morals do matters.\u00a0 Consider Romans 7, Galatians 2, and others.\u00a0 The confirmed and long standing value of the God’s Law is that is reveals the depth of man’s depravity.<\/p>\n

The justification of man through Christ’s death is the fulfillment of the Law and is the legal acquittal of any punishment required by the Law.\u00a0 In fact, Christ’s death has paid the price that came from the conviction of sin, so that we can walk in freedom.\u00a0 This is the basis of 2:19.\u00a0 Paul is declaring his ability to live because of his death.\u00a0 The freedom from faith in Christ will be a recurring theme through the book of Galatians, particularly in chapter 5.\u00a0 Clearly, God has called us to a life that is rooted in freedom, that is resting in justification, and that is righteous becuase of Christ’s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2:19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.\u00a0 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Ga 2:19). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society. With God’s new covenant came a greater understanding of the role of the law.\u00a0 For thousands of years, Jewish faith had taught that a person […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rlsmith.me\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}