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the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he
liveth, but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband . . . . .
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become DEAD to the law by the body of Christ:
that ye should be married to another, even to Him Who is raised from the dead"
(Rom. 7: 2-4).
The conversion of Saul of Tarsus was no mere change of creed or change of opinion,
it was a matter of death, followed by a new life.
This being the basic doctrine of the Apostle's preaching, it is not surprising that he
discontinues the line of argument started in the fifteenth verse, and stakes his all on the
death of Christ, and his own death as reckoned in Him:
"For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Gal. 2: 19).
The word "law" is the Greek nomos, which occurs many times in Paul's epistles,
sometimes with the article "the" and sometimes anarthrous, or without the article "the".
Here in Gal. 2: 19 both occurrences are anarthrous and should read "For I through law,
to law died". Nomos with the article represents a specific code of laws, like for example
"the law of Moses" and "the laws of Khammarabi". Nomos without the article represents
the idea of obligation arising out of law.
In what way could Paul say that "through (the instrumentality of) law, he had died to
law"? The best answer is found in the verse that immediately follows, read in the light of
Gal. 3: 13:
"I am crucified with Christ . . . . . Who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2: 20).
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it
is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3: 13).
In some wonderful way Paul realized that the law had been honoured, its curse
endured and removed, and that though he personally had been mute and helpless, while
the Son of God undertook his complete redemption, yet in the marvelous provision of
grace, when Christ died the just for the unjust, he, Paul, had been reckoned to have died
too. This matter is so vital, so near the heart of the gospel, so closely related to the whole
scheme of redeeming love, that we cannot feel that the closing paragraphs of an article
are the proper place for its discussion. We will carry this introductory part of Paul's
argument with us when we resume our studies in the next number of this series.
The preceding article "Emmanuel God with us" (Emmanuel38, pages 24, 25) was
written some years after this present series, and without conscious pre-arrangement takes
up this important subject "reckoning", which we commend to the quickened
understanding of the reader.