Commentary on Galatians 4.26–5.17

“But the Jerusalem above is free, the mother of us all.” He returns to that people, that is, to the sons of Abraham who are from the free woman, and says that this Jerusalem too, which he calls free, is in the heavens. This is what he says: “but the Jerusalem above,” which is above the heavens, surely because it is not in the world, is not a slave. This Jerusalem, then, with its peoples, is free, and he says she is the mother of us all, that is, of Christians; but the other of the Jews. What is this, that Jerusalem is above the heavens, and that there is also a Jerusalem on earth? From which one may understand that there is land here and land there above the heavens: for Jerusalem, which is a city, is not without land. So what this is, I say—that there is land both here and there, and a city both here and there, but that one free, this one a slave—is another long treatise: for now let us hold that that one is ours, that we must hasten to it. For I advise now, meanwhile, that the higher one is spiritual, and this lower one fleshly.

“For it is written: Rejoice, barren one, who do not bear; break forth and cry, you who do not travail; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband.” This example is from Isaiah, to exclude what they most desired to persuade, namely, that the Galatians should keep the Jewish discipline as well as the discipline they had taken up with the veneration of Christ and faith in Christ. To exclude this, I say, so that they would reject it and hold only the gospel about Christ, he had taken up the earlier example, by which he taught that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman, the other by the free woman. But that free woman, who was truly the wife, was barren, nor would she have given birth if God had not by his promise supplied a son too. From this it is understood that Abraham had a son not from the mingling of bodies with each other, but from God’s promise; since this son of the free woman, who was Isaac, was born of a barren woman, conceived rather by a kind of spirit than by intercourse. This barren woman, then, who produced Isaac, who was born in the image and type of Christ—he it is who freed the people. So when he says, “rejoice, barren one, who do not bear,” because God makes children for you; likewise when he says, “break forth, you who do not travail,” for children are created for you without pain; for to travail is to be in pain, when the birth is poured forth: which surely is not the same with the church, which holds the image, or of which that free wife of Abraham was the image; it is the church, I say, which has many children, whom it has as sons of God and sons of the spirit with joy rather than with pain. These, then, he calls “many children of the desolate.” For that slave woman, even if she had a son, had him from pain, had him from a man. So when he said “many are the children of the desolate,” he referred it to the church, whose image and type he set out above. Then when he said, “many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband,” he showed what he said above: that she had a son without a man, but spiritually. … And certainly, he says, “many are the children of the desolate.” Surely, since Sarah had one son, it is to be referred not to Sarah but to the church, which has many children: so that she who has a husband is the law and the church of the Jews, which, consenting bodily, when it is joined bodily, cannot have a son spiritually.

“But you, brothers, are children of promise according to Isaac.” He separates plainly enough by this comparison, so that the Jews seem to be sons of the slave woman, but Christians sons of the free woman. For as the son promised to Sarah is spiritual, so you too, who are sons of faith, are sons of the free woman according to Isaac: that is, he had Isaac as a son according to faith. So every son is made who is according to faith: for according to faith one receives a son spiritually, and Isaac was a spiritual son.

“But as then, the one born according to the flesh persecuted him who was according to the spirit, so also now.” He shows by a full exposition that he who was born according to the flesh, that is, of the slave woman, persecuted him, namely Isaac, who was according to the spirit, as is read in Genesis: and now those who have a fleshly understanding persecute those who live according to the spirit, that is, Christians. Then, to show the force of the whole argument he has conceived, he adds this.

“But what does Scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” He declares plainly enough from this example, which is in Genesis, that whoever thinks so, and takes the law of the Jews so as to take it in a fleshly way, is a son according to the flesh, of whom the law too pronounced and gave sentence, “let the slave woman and her son be cast out,” because the son of the slave woman cannot be heir with the son who is of the free woman, who is Isaac. So you too, since you have added the observance of the law according to the flesh, so that you may more easily be heirs, be sons of the free woman, that is, take up Christianity alone, the law of Christ and the gospel in Christ, and have nothing as if from the son of the slave woman, that is, do not follow the Jewish discipline.

“Brothers, let us not be sons of the slave woman, but of the free.” He himself declares this more fittingly by adding that you who have now received Christ and my faith are not sons of the slave woman, that is, you do not think in a fleshly way, since the son of the slave woman is fleshly; but you are sons of the free woman, that is, sons of faith. For this is what Isaac was according to faith and promise, a spiritual son. “With which freedom Christ has freed us”: namely with that freedom by which our mother is free, she who is free, namely by faith: for this is true freedom, to keep faith in God, and to believe God and all God’s promises. So Christ has brought us back to freedom according to faith, and freed us with the freedom of faith.

“Stand, then, and do not again be held by the yoke of slavery.” The exhortation had to be added, that they should persevere in what they had received from him through the gospel, and not return again to the slavery of the law. “Stand,” he says; which is not allowed to one who is under a yoke; for he lowers his neck in submission: so he does not stand. You, then, he says, stand; which is to hold the body upright with free limbs. “Do not,” he says, “again be held by the yoke of slavery,” because before you served either the law or paganism. Therefore he says “again,” so that we may not return to the same.

“Behold, I Paul say to you that if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.” He shows plainly that Christ does not profit if anyone places his hope in circumcision, and in fleshly circumcision. So when you join the custom, precepts, and discipline of the Jews, if you place salvation and liberation in them, I say, he says, to you, and I, Paul, say it, namely he who promised you before when he called you into the gospel of God; I, Paul, he says, deny that Christ profits you or brings any help at all, if you are circumcised, if you place all hope in circumcision. Although the Galatians seem both to have received Christ and to join the Jewish discipline, yet he affirmed it and as it were pledged his own person to what he says, saying: Christ will profit you nothing if you are circumcised. Something hidden, then, may seem to be here: since the Galatians follow Christ, and following Christ place the hope of salvation in him, how did Paul confirm that Christ will profit nothing if the Galatians are circumcised? Keeping their mind and faith regarding Christ, they do something more; yet they do not abandon Christ, nor fail to place faith in Christ. But let us return to their mind, purpose, and will. When they had received Christ from Paul, and taken up faith in Christ, and this is the true gospel, surely they thought they would receive too little from Christ—which already belongs to blasphemy and to those who have no faith—from the fact that after receiving Christ they wished to be circumcised and to serve the law and its works. If this is so, there is no faith in Christ: from the fact that something else that might profit is added, rightly Christ will profit you nothing.

“And I testify to every man who circumcises himself that he is a debtor to do the whole law.” So that the Galatians would not think that only certain things were to be taken up from the law of the Jews, such as circumcision, while they despised the rest—whether in foods, or in the observance of days, or in marriage unions, of what kind and in what matters is contained in the law, among all of which some things are superfluous, some as it were unspeakable, and so are left behind by the true and most chaste Christian. I will mention just one: when, for the sake of raising up seed, a brother’s wife is joined to the brother; and the rest of this kind are either done or read as having been done; likewise the other things I spoke of, about foods, then about observances, and many other matters: these too, he says, must be taken up also by one who circumcises himself. If you do not do the other things, you have applied circumcision in vain. For I testify that for every man who circumcises himself there arises a necessity, that he is a debtor to do all the things that belong to the law. So he makes them sinners also in that law which they took up, because they do not do everything, and choose what to do; and again, with regard to the law which is Christ’s and with regard to the gospel, they stray altogether, and will stray more if they do everything that belongs to the law. Then he adds, from this side—in which they do certain things the Jews do—from this side, I say, that they seem to be strangers to Christ.

“You have been emptied from Christ, you who are justified in the law; you have fallen from grace.” For the whole power of one who believes in Christ lies in the grace of God. And grace is not from merits, but from God’s goodness: so you have now fallen from grace if you place your justification in the law; so that because you serve works, because you observe the sabbath, because you are circumcised, you have fallen from grace, and have been emptied from Christ. For you no longer have hope from Christ, nor do you hope that grace comes to you according to his passion and resurrection, if you believe that justification comes from the law.

“For we in the spirit and by faith await the hope of righteousness.” We Christians, he says, who follow Christ, both in the spirit and in faith have hope, and in God’s justification, not from works. For the whole power of the mystery has worked this: that through grace and the goodness of God forgiveness of sins should come to us and eternal life be bestowed, as we have often taught, from God’s grace, not from works or merits. And this comes about through the spirit. But when justification is hoped for from works, the hope is not from the spirit. This we await, and this is to follow the gospel of Christ.

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works through love.” Everywhere he sets down, concerning faith in the gospel of Christ, that neither circumcision avails, nor deeds concerning the body, or done from the body, or for the body’s sake, such as circumcision, such as works, such as the rest of this kind: none of these, he says, avails in Christ; circumcision is in vain. Nor do we avail anything in Christ because we are uncircumcised; but because we have taken up faith in him, and because we believe his promises, and because from his resurrection we too rise again, and have suffered all things with him, and with him—yet through him—rise to life; sure is our faith, through which faith the working toward salvation comes about, and we ought to receive through love, which we have toward Christ and toward God, and from there toward every human being. For these two above all correct the whole of life and fulfill the whole force of the law, and contain all those things that are commanded in the Decalogue. If one keeps faith, it follows that he keeps love; and these two fulfill all that the law of Christ commanded. On these matters I have treated very often: that faith frees, and love builds up.

“You were running well; who hindered you?” That is, you had good faith regarding the gospel; why have you changed? Why have you been called back from a sound course, as if by some bewitchment? For what I taught you through the gospel was sound and true; this is both false and contrary, and will profit nothing. This is what he adds: “Not to obey the truth.” Who, he says, hindered you, so that you do not obey the truth? For the truth is in us: this you ought to have obeyed, so as to observe nothing else. So first he as it were wonders when he said, “who hindered you.” Afterward he now admonishes what is to be done: agree with no one. In every way he fights so that they will not change their mind and add anything beyond what was commanded them through the gospel by Paul. Do not, he says, lend agreement to others.

“Your persuasion is from God, who called us.” That is, what was either persuaded to you by me, or what you yourselves already hold as persuaded, is from God, who called you, as was said above: “those whom he called and predestined”; and the rest were said in order.

“Do you not know that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump?” All leaven is a corruption of bread, and corrupted bread is flour, and a lump of flour, when left, turns sour, and from this leaven is made. And a little leaven, when it is put into a lump, the lump is corrupted. You ought, he says, to be unleavened. So what you think is a little thing you have added, that is, to observe circumcision, this little thing, which is corrupt, corrupts the lump of our gospel, so that you do not have full hope in Christ, nor does Christ look upon you as his own and as those who have hope from him: for faith frees; and, as we said, one does not have faith who hopes for help in any way besides Christ, even together with Christ.

“I am confident of you in the Lord that you will think nothing else.” I am now confident, he says, about the future, that you will have nothing else in your heart and wisdom but to have faith only in Christ according to my gospel. “But he who troubles you will bear judgment, whoever he may be.” He has frightened both those who led astray and these by threats of the judgment to come: he who troubles you, he says, will bear judgment. It is enough to have named judgment, in which it ought surely not to be said that they will suffer punishment, but only judgment. Then he set down first that the judgment to come is from him. But he expressed the fear of punishment by saying “will bear.”

“But I, brothers, if I preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution?” He proves in every way that he is a stranger to the precept which they thought should be added. He suffers persecution from the Jews. For what cause? Only because I do not preach circumcision. So I did not preach circumcision to you in the gospel: as is clear from the fact that the Jews persecute me. He adds another argument as well, to show that he does not preach circumcision: “Then the scandal of the cross has been made void?” It is in vain, then, that those who raised Christ onto the cross deserve punishment, and what was wickedly done has been made void. For this is the scandal of the cross, by which the Jews too were troubled. He has now referred this not only to his own preaching but to the force of the matter itself. For this is why I do not preach it: because the scandal of the cross remains and has not been made void. They therefore owe punishment. And if the Jews, who brought about the scandal of the cross, owe it, it remains that I do not preach circumcision and that you ought not to follow it.

“Would that those who trouble you were cut off!” He has pursued with a curse those who throw new persuasions at them and trouble them. Let them be cut off from the truth of the gospel, he says, or be separated from themselves, or be torn by punishments. And with great confidence he heaped a curse on them, to show that he does not fear those from whom, as he said above, he suffers persecution. So I do not fear persecution, because I preach the truth and do not preach circumcision, nor do I fear to suffer persecution. “Would that those who trouble you were cut off!” Not only circumcised around, but cut off as well: so that this word too is set so as to pertain to circumcision, so that there is also a cutting off.

“For you have been called into freedom, brothers: only do not abuse freedom as an occasion for the flesh.” For the law of Christ, which is spiritual, gives freedom, by which we may go out from the world and return to the Father and to our origin. But since we are still in the world, that is, in the flesh, we ought not to exercise this freedom which we have received so as to walk according to the flesh; and as if it were an occasion for us to act also in the flesh, since he confirms that we are free by faith concerning Christ. “Through the love of the spirit serve one another.” We have received the freedom given, yet we ought to serve one another through love, and the love of the spirit, not of the flesh.

“For the whole law is fulfilled in you in one word.” He has often set down this thought, and we have treated it: that the whole law, and every working of the law, is fulfilled in this word, that is, of love: for whoever loves another neither commits adultery nor steals: and this is also to love Christ; and the things the Decalogue shows are in a way fulfilled in this one precept, as we said above. And he himself adds an example from Exodus: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We ought to take every human being as neighbor; and then we shall also have Christ as neighbor. So you too, love one another, but in the spirit. From here he now seems, as though the earlier question and treatment were set aside, to give a precept by way of exhortation, that they should not love discord but love one another. And this can come about if you love one another, and love in the spirit, not in the flesh, nor in the works of the flesh, nor in the observance of the flesh. For one who loves another cheats in nothing, snatches nothing from another, neither harms, nor despises, nor rebukes.

“But if you bite and accuse one another, see that you are not consumed by one another.” The exhortation to concord comes from this, while it is taught what evil discord does: for if you accuse and bite one another, that is, wish to harm or do harm, you will consume one another. So love yourselves and love one another, and you will fulfill the law by love alone: not, as you think, by circumcision or works and the other things that pertain to it. So this about love has been placed beside the earlier treatment, by which he taught them, apart from the gospel which had been proclaimed to them by Paul himself, that they thought they were keeping the law in circumcision and works; whereas the law is full by this alone, if they love one another.

“But I say to you, walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh.” The whole power of the gospel is this: to live according to the spirit, to believe according to the spirit, to have nothing of the flesh in mind, act, or life; that is, not even to take up hope from the flesh. Walk, then, he says, in the spirit, that is, lead your life so: if you do this, you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh; that is, you will commit no sin that is born from the flesh: for there is no other desire except from the flesh. Therefore he adds:

“For the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.” So that they may understand altogether that they ought to think nothing of the flesh, which is in circumcision and the other observances of the Jewish discipline, since he teaches that these are opposed to each other: not only does the flesh desire, but it desires against the spirit. For the flesh has its own motions and has senses, and they are not only stirred up by the soul: which may be understood also in things that have no soul; as in water, which has its own impulses and powers, whether in taste, or in motion, or in quality or quantity; likewise fire, and likewise earth and the other elements, from which there is as it were a kind of mixture, and flesh has been made from moist things ...