Paul makes a remarkable assertion in Galations 2:19. He says:
“For through the law, I died to the law.”
He goes on to make a statement of purpose in his very next words: “so that I might live to God.” Just what does Paul mean here, and how does this help us to understand the purpose and meaning of the law itself?
For through the law I died to the law”. It is the law that enables us to see the utter impossibility of attaining righteousness by works. It is the law that highlights just how sinful our sins really are. To die to the law is to put away all self-righteous works in the pursuit of justification. This does not mean that we no longer seek to obey God’s law. But our obedience is from the heart, and does not flow out of a works-righteousness mindset. Only the former is acceptable to God. Only the former is the fruit of our love for Christ and His work on our behalf.
To die to the law is to put away all self-righteous works in the pursuit of justification.
The next portion of this verse reads “so that I might live to God.” The purpose of Paul’s dying to the law was that he might live fully to God. Only when we are freed from this works-righteousness mindset are we able to pursue righteousness and obedience to God’s commands in the correct way. This was always the purpose of the law – to point us to the glory of God’s grace in the redemptive work of Jesus, causing us to embrace an obedience that is from the heart, an obedience that flows out of love, not compulsion.
Christ does not set us free from the law so that we may go on sinning all the day long, disregarding the moral commands that God has set forth, all the while claiming that “grace” is our ticket to live however we please. God’s kindness, and patience and forbearance are “meant to lead us to repentance” (Romans 2:4). Christ sets us free so that we no longer fear the curse of death and the wrath of God and thus it is possible to obey entirely out of love. We are saved FROM the law, but we are also saved TO the law! We are saved from the law’s feeling like a weight and a burden. We are saved to delight in God’s commands and find joy in keeping His law. When we try to use the law as a means of righteousness, it brings wrath. But when law keeping is the fruit of our love for Christ, it brings blessing to our lives. When law keeping is done in the context of our sonship, having been redeemed from the law “so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galations 4:5), it is a source of great joy and contentment to us.
God’s kindness, and patience and forbearance are “meant to lead us to repentance” Romans 2:4
In no place in all of Scripture does Paul ever promote the idea that righteous living is no longer necessary on account of grace or on account of the fact that we are “no longer under the law”. On the contrary, Paul (and all of the other new testament authors and figures, for that matter, including Jesus himself) consistently promotes a life that is marked by righteous living, obedience, and the pursuit of holiness and godliness. The desires of the flesh are to be crucified and put away.
The righteousness that was called for by the law in the old covenant is the very same righteousness that we are called to live out in the freedom of grace in Christ in the new covenant. The only thing that has really changed is that Jesus has now clarified the intended meaning of the law, making the moral law even more comprehensive in our understanding of it, and has fulfilled and brought to an end the judicial/civil laws that were temporarily in place for the theocratic nation of Israel, and likewise the ceremonial/sacrificial laws that pertained to the proper worship of God and were all completely fulfilled by Christ, thus bringing them to an end with his death on the cross. The abiding moral law (the Decalogue/Ten Commandments) is still God’s standard for righteousness and all Christians should still pursue obedience to it. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” Jesus says in John 14:15. “Do we then overthrow the law”, asks Paul? “By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law”, Romans 3:31. “And this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome”, 1 John 5:3. “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” 1 John 2:3-4.
The abiding moral law (the Decalogue/Ten Commandments) is still God’s standard for righteousness and all Christians should still pursue obedience to it. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” Jesus says in John 14:15
To die to the law is not to die to law keeping. To die to the law is to understand that law keeping without the proper motivation is useless, worthless, and even despicable in God’s sight. To die to the law is to understand the surpassing worth of Christ that affords us (believers) the righteousness that is by faith. To die to the law is to trust in Christ alone for salvation. To die to the law is to keep the law because we are saved, not so that we can be saved. To die to the law is to take hold of the gospel promise which reveals that there is only one way of salvation, and it comes by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, not on account of any measure of work or effort on our part. To die to the law is to experience the poorness of spirit of Matthew 5:3, the mourning of Matthew 5:4, the meekness of Matthew 5:5, and the satisfaction of the hunger and thirst for a righteousness that we know is not our own, a righteousness that is from God and for God. It is not a righteousness that seeks to please man (Gal 1:10), but one of an undivided heart that seeks for God’s glory alone. To die to the law is to live to Christ out of gratitude for his having died for us, in our place, as our substitute.
To die to the law is to keep the law because we are saved, not so that we can be saved.
The only way to truly live, is to die. Paul knew this. Paul knew what it was to embrace the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Paul knew what it was to willingly give up everything he had ever gained in this world for the sake of gaining Christ, counting all things loss in order that he might know him, and be found in him. Paul knew the freedom of being released from slavery to law keeping, fully accepting that he did not having a righteousness of his own. Paul put all of his hope in the righteousness of God that depends on faith (Phil 3:8-9). And in this righteousness that was freely given to him, Paul teaches us how we might also find true joy in obedience from the heart, whereby we live unto God just as he had learned to joyfully do. We, too, must die to the law, and live unto God.