For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
All Commentaries on Galatians 2:19 Go To Galatians 2
John Chrysostom
AD 407
This may be viewed in two ways; it is either the law of grace which he speaks of, for he is wont to call this a law, as in the words, For the law of the Spirit of life made me free: Romans 8:2 or it is the old Law, of which he says, that by the Law itself he has become dead to the Law. That is to say, the Law itself has taught me no longer to obey itself, and therefore if I do so, I shall be transgressing even its teaching. How, in what way has it so taught? Moses says, speaking of Christ, The Lord God will raise up unto you a Prophet from the midst of you of your brethren, like me; unto Him shall you hearken. Deuteronomy 18:15 Therefore they who do not obey Him, transgress the Law. Again, the expression, I through the Law died unto the Law, may be understood in another sense: the Law commands all its precepts to be performed, and punishes the transgressor; therefore we are all dead to it, for no man has fulfilled it. Here observe, how guardedly he assails it; he says not, the Law is dead to me; but, I am dead to the Law; the meaning of which is, that, as it is impossible for a dead corpse to obey the commands of the Law, so also is it for me who have perished by its curse, for by its word am I slain. Let it not therefore lay commands on the dead, dead by its own act, dead not in body only, but in soul, which has involved the death of the body.
