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Originally Posted by G.Wetmore  Of course the moral works of the law do not justify a person, but that is not what Paul is speaking of in Galatians. If Paul was speaking of the moral law, then he would be contradicting the rest of the NT, because Paul is arguing that we no longer have to observe the law. If Paul was speaking about the moral law, then Christians he would be telling Christians that they could live however they wanted, and that is absurd, Paul would never say that. He is specifically speaking about the observance of the ceremonial law, as a system of meritorious righteousness. The question is how is one made right before God. Is it by Christ and his work, received in faith, or by a system of Jewish merit, obligating all men to judaize in order to be accepted by God. |
The Judaizer's insistence that the Gentiles be circumcised in order to be saved is the occasion for which Galatians was written but the grounds for Paul's gospel argument is much grander and broader as it covers the whole law. One either has Christ keep it for him or he is a debtor to every part (ceremonial, moral etc.) Calvin writes:
Institutes, 3.19.3
"For those who teach that Paul in this contends for freedom of ceremonies alone are absurd interpreters, as can be proved from the passages adduced in the argument. Such passages are these: That Christ “became a curse for us” to “redeem us from the curse of the law” [Galatians 3:13]. Likewise: “Stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has set you free, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. Now I, Paul, say... that if you receive circumcision, Christ will become of no advantage to you... And every man who receives circumcision is a debtor to the whole law. For any of you who are justified by the law, Christ has become of no advantage; you have fallen away from grace” [Galatians 5:1-4p.]. These passages surely contain something loftier than freedom of ceremonies! Of course I admit that Paul is there discussing ceremonies, for his quarrel is with false apostles who were trying to reintroduce into the Christian church the old shadows of the law that had been abolished by Christ’s coming. But for the discussion of this question, the higher topics upon which the whole controversy rested had to be considered. First, because the clarity of the gospel was obscured by those Jewish shadows, Paul showed that we have in Christ a perfect disclosure of all those things which were foreshadowed in the Mosaic ceremonies. Further, because those impostors imbued the common people with the very wicked notion that this obedience obviously availed to deserve God’s grace, Paul here strongly insists that believers should not suppose they can obtain righteousness before God by any works of the law, still less by those paltry rudiments! And at the same time he teaches that through the cross of Christ they are free from the condemnation of the law, which otherwise hangs over all men [Galatians 4:5], so that they may rest with full assurance in Christ alone."