You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
Read Chapter 18
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The righteousness of the law, of which it is said that if a man does it he shall live in it, is set forth to this end: that every man may recognize his own infirmity. It is not in his own strength or through the letter of the law (which cannot be) but only by receiving through faith the favor of the Justifier that he may attain and do and live in righteousness.
Live in them, a long and happy life, (Chaldean) attended with grace and glory. (Lyranus)
Jesus Christ and St. Paul explain it of eternal life. (Matthew xix. 17 and Romans x. 5.) (Calmet)
“The man who carries out the law will find life through it.” Scripture did not say he will find life through it, in the sense that through the law he will live in heaven, but he will find life through it to the extent that what he merits, he reaps in the present world.
For the law promises those who practice it not the rewards of the heavenly kingdom but the consolations of this life when it says, “The one who does these things shall live in them.” But the Lord says to his disciples, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” .
