Study Notes on Galatians

Assorted excerpts from different sources

Galatians 3

Galatians 3:1–18

Paul asks “Why then the law?” His arguments in 3:1–18 seem to have left the law without any function. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Galatians 3:19

Why the law is expressed in terms of five emphases: [Longenecker, Galatians]

It was added
Because of transgressions
Until the seed to whom the promise was given should come
It was ordained through angels
By the hand of a mediator

Each feature or clause needs to be treated separately, though with an eye always to their cumulative impact. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Burton remarks that the word for “it was added” marks the law as supplementary and hence subordinate to the covenant. [Burton, Galatians]

The phrase “because of transgressions” could refer to either of two options: [Longenecker, Galatians]

The law was given to bring about a knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20), by identifying it as a transgression before God (Rom 4:15; 5:13; 7:7).
The law was given to increase and multiply sin (Rom 5:20).

Regarding Gal 3:19, Longenecker notes that the idea of “because of transgressions” as bringing about a knowledge of sin fits the contextual imagery of a supervisory custodian — the pedagogue of 3:24–25 — or the guardians and stewards of 4:2. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Thus the covenant of promise is presented to the mind as of permanent validity, both beginning before and continuing through the period of the law and afterwards. The law, on the other hand, is temporary — added to the permanent covenant for a period limited in both directions. [Burton, Galatians]

There is not much difference between this statement and that of Romans 5:20a, except that there is no word of angels there. When Paul says that the law was “added,” he does not mean that it was added to the promise as a kind of supplement to it. He means that it was added to the human situation for a special purpose — a purpose totally different from that of the promise. The use of the verb προσετέθη — note its sinister nuance in Gal 2:4 above — and the parallel in Romans 5:20a (“the law came in by a side road”) provide an apt comment on the sense of προσετέθη here. [Bruce, Galatians]

In the New Testament there are a few references to angels being associated with the law of Moses. Stephen’s point in Acts 7 is that the people showed their impiety by disregarding the law, even though it was administered by beings as high and holy as angels. The writer to the Hebrews argues that if the word spoken through angels was safeguarded by the severest sanctions, much more terrible must be the penalty for rejecting the saving message brought not by angels but by the Lord himself (Heb 2:2). Paul, for the polemical purposes of his present argument, uses the angelic administration as evidence of the inferiority of the law to the promise, which was given directly by God. [Bruce, Galatians]

It is plain in the Pentateuch that Moses served as go-between, receiving the law from God to give to the people (“I stood between Yahweh and you,” Deut 5:5) and presenting their pleas to God (Deut 5:22–31). [Bruce, Galatians]

On “Ordained Through Angels” (Gal 3:19)

Longenecker notes that this phrase needs to be understood both as to the history of the phrase and as to Paul’s use here. [Longenecker, Galatians]

The verb translated “ordained” is διατάσσω. BDAG gives two senses: (1) to put into a proper order or relationship, make arrangements (cf. Acts 20:13); and (2) to give detailed instructions as to what must be done, order. [BDAG, s.v. διατάσσω]

The Masoretic text has no explicit reference to angels being present in the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. Exodus 19:18 portrays God as descending on Mount Sinai in fire, accompanied by smoke and the quaking of the mountain. Deuteronomy 33:2, however, says that the Lord came to Sinai “from myriads of holiness” (or “with myriads of holy ones”) and with a fiery law, while Psalm 68:18 (LXX 67:18) refers poetically to an accompanying retinue of chariots in the giving of the law — but not directly to angels. [Longenecker, Galatians]

The first explicit association of angels with the giving of the law came about, it seems, with the Septuagint’s translation of the textually ambiguous phrase in Deuteronomy 33:2, “with a fiery law.” The LXX renders the verse as follows: [Longenecker, Galatians]

καὶ εἶπεν· κύριος ἐκ Σινα ἥκει καὶ ἐπέφανεν ἐκ Σηιρ ἡμῖν, κατέσπευσεν ἐξ ὄρους Φαραν σὺν μυριάσιν Καδης· ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ ἄγγελοι μετ' αὐτοῦ

“And he said: The Lord has come from Sinai, and has appeared to us from Seir; he hastened from Mount Paran, with the ten thousands of Kadesh — at his right hand, angels with him.”

The crucial clause is the last: ἐκ δεξιών αὐτοῦ ἄγγελοι μετʼ αὐτοῦ, “at his right hand, angels with him.” Where the Hebrew has the difficult phrase אֵשׁ דָּת (commonly rendered “a fiery law”), the LXX introduces explicit angelic presence. It is this LXX reading that underlies the tradition — found in Acts 7:53, Hebrews 2:2, and here in Galatians 3:19 — of the law being given or mediated through angels. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Nevertheless, an understanding of angels as being present at the giving of the Mosaic Law seems to have been the dominant tradition in Paul’s day, as reflected in Acts 7:38, 53 and Hebrews 2:2. [Longenecker, Galatians]

It is almost impossible to read “ordained through angels” in any other way than with the intent to depreciate the law as not given directly by God. [Burton, Galatians]

It was probably the case that the Judaizers were citing the angels’ presence at Sinai as evidence of the law’s glory and God’s approval. Paul, however, turns this tradition in ad hominem fashion against them. [Longenecker, Galatians]

In Genesis 22:15, for a second time in that passage, the angel of Yahweh calls to Abraham and delivers the promise to him. But on previous occasions it appears that God is speaking directly to Abraham. [Personal study]

In Exodus 3:2, the angel of Yahweh appeared to Moses in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush. Later in verse 4, Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, and God called to him from the midst of the bush. And in verse 6 he also said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. [Personal study]

Exodus 14:19: the angel of God who had been going before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them — so Israel was accompanied by the angel of God as they were on their Exodus route. Again in Exodus 23:20, God says he is going to send an angel before them to keep them along the way and to bring them into the place he has prepared. There are similar passages in Exodus 23:23; 32:34; and 33:2. Numbers 20:16: “We cried out to Yahweh and he heard our voice and sent an angel and brought us out from Egypt.” [Personal study]

Psalm 78:25: manna is described as the bread of angels. Isaiah 63:9: “In all their distress he was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his mercy he redeemed them, and he lifted them and carried them all the days of old.” [Personal study]

In Acts 7, Stephen in verse 30 reminds us that an angel appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. Then in verse 35 he says, “This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ — is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer, with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.” And in verses 52–53: “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become — you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.” [Personal study]

Hebrews 2:2: “If the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every trespass and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” — that salvation first spoken by the Lord, confirmed to us by those who heard. [Personal study]

On “By the Hand of a Mediator” (Gal 3:19)

In the Septuagint, the law is said repeatedly to have been given “by the hand of Moses.” See Lev 26:46; Num 4:37, 45, 49; 9:23; 10:13; 15:23; 33:1; 36:13; Josh 21:2; 22:9; Judg 3:4; 2 Chr 33:8; Ps 77:20. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Galatians 3:20

The number of solutions offered to the problem of the relation between the two clauses of verse 20 has been reckoned to exceed three hundred. [Bruce, Galatians]

The two statements in verse 20 are completely intelligible if each is taken by itself. It goes without saying that a mediator requires at least two parties between which he mediates — you cannot mediate on behalf of one party only. That God is one is the theological basis of Judaism and Christianity alike (cf. Rom 3:30; 1 Cor 8:6). [Bruce, Galatians]

Perhaps the point about the law is that it was negotiated not directly between the principals, but through deputies. And a point to note about μεσίτης, the Greek for “the mediator,” is that the article here is not generic. Whatever be true of mediators in general, the mediator in this situation — the law-giving — is representative not of one, but of many. [Bruce, Galatians]

The one God is God of Jews and Gentiles alike (cf. Rom 3:29). The law divided them; the gospel brings them together. And since the God of Jews and Gentiles is one, it is fitting that he should provide one way of salvation for both — the way of faith. [Bruce, Galatians]

Paul tells us what it is about mediation that reflects negatively on the law: the presence of the mediator implies a plurality that stands in contrast to the oneness of God. But how this plurality is to be defined is problematic. [Longenecker, Galatians]

There are three likely interpretations of this problem of the plurality and the mediator: [Longenecker, Galatians]

The plurality has to do with a duality of parties involved in a mediated arrangement — God on the one hand and the Jewish people on the other.
The plurality has to do with a plurality of persons — though understood as groups rather than individuals — and that since a whole group cannot easily engage in a transaction with another group, a mediator is required to act as a go-between, in this case between the angels through whom the law was ordained and the Jewish people.
The concept of a mediator itself implies a plurality which stands in contrast to the oneness of God — the assumption being that any transaction in which a mediator is involved is inferior to one in which God acts directly.

The second part of verse 20 is a citation of the quintessential confession of all Jews — the great Deuteronomic utterance known as the Shema, “God is one” (Deut 6:4). [Longenecker, Galatians]

The law is shown to be temporary, secondary, and preparatory. [Bruce, Galatians]

Galatians 3:21

“Is the law then contrary to the promises?” The direction of the argument thus might prepare us for an affirmative answer rather than for Paul’s emphatic “may it never be.” [Bruce, Galatians]

The grammar of verse 21b — “for if a law had been given which was able to impart life” — assumes the condition to be untrue. The form of the sentence shows plainly that the association of law and life is for Paul a false one. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Life for Paul is spiritual life (Rom 8:11; 1 Cor 15:22, 36; 2 Cor 3:6; cf. John 6:63). This stands in antithesis to death, with which the law is associated. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Being made alive, being in Christ, being led by the Spirit, and being righteous — both forensically and ethically — are for Paul cognate expressions (cf. Gal 2:20; 5:16, 25). The phrase “of the law” indicates the source, and so means “on the basis of law.” Paul, however, insists that no law can give life, and so righteousness — in whatever its dimension, whether forensic or ethical — cannot be based on any law. [Longenecker, Galatians]

It is natural to suppose that Paul has in mind the fact that in making his promise to Abraham God acted unilaterally in sovereign grace. In giving the law he employed mediation. In bestowing the promise, he acted on his own as one. No angelic intervention, no human mediation was involved. God promised and Abraham believed. But “God is one” would be a strange way of saying this. [Bruce, Galatians]

The law as a means of justification and life — in terms of Lev 18:5 (cf. v. 12) — has been superseded by faith — in terms of Hab 2:4 (cf. v. 11). The conclusion is that despite what is said in Lev 18:5 and in Rom 7:10, the law in fact proved unable to give life. Could it have given life, then indeed Christ died in vain (cf. Gal 2:21). It proved on the contrary to lead to death: “the written code kills” (2 Cor 3:6). [Bruce, Galatians]

The establishment of righteousness by faith as the way to life implies the inability and displacement of the law. Once again, ζωοποιεῖν (“to make alive”) is practically synonymous with δικαιοῦν (“to make righteous,” “to justify”). To be justified by faith is to receive life by faith. δικαιοσύνη, which often means “the righteousness which leads to life,” can become simply the equivalent of life. [Bruce, Galatians]

Galatians 3:22

The scripture confined everyone without distinction under sin. Some, like Lightfoot and Burton, have argued that Paul had in mind a particular passage of scripture — either Ps 143:2 (possibly alluded to in Gal 2:16) or Deut 27:26 (quoted in Gal 3:10). The use of the singular γραφή (“scripture”) and the presence of the article in front of it suggests that he had a particular passage in mind, and a passage from the Pentateuch would be most appropriate. Furthermore, such an implied reference would make “under sin” equivalent to “under a curse” (3:10), which is not unlikely, and would bring matters into perspective. [Longenecker, Galatians]

συνεκλεισεν in verse 22 means figuratively “confined,” “hem in,” or “imprison.” τὰ πάντα, literally “all things,” used of people has the effect of obliterating every distinction and referring to all humanity as an entity — so “all people,” or perhaps better, “everyone without distinction” (cf. Eph 1:10; Col 1:20). [Longenecker, Galatians]

Accepting “under sin” as equivalent to “under a curse” (assuming Deut 27:26 to be in mind), Paul is then saying that a primary function of the Mosaic law was to bring all humanity under the curse of the law. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Reaching back to the expression “because of transgressions” (v. 19) and combining that with the statement “confined all things under sin” (v. 22), we can say that Paul saw the law functioning in a negative fashion vis-à-vis God’s promise: it brought about a knowledge of sin — perhaps even an intensified knowledge by actually increasing sin — and it brought condemnation by bringing all humanity under its curse. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Paul saw two strands of God-given material running throughout the scriptures. First, the law of God, which was given to highlight the true nature of sin and so bring sinful humanity under its curse. Second, the promises of God, which have always called for a response of faith and are now focused in the faithfulness — or obedience — of Jesus Christ. [Longenecker, Galatians]

In terms of how these two strands operate in our standing before God: the one brings us down, the other raises us up. Ultimately the strands are united in a common overall purpose — they cannot be pitted against each other, as Marcion later asserted. Yet because they function on different levels in the divine economy, or operate in different spheres (as Burton says), they cannot be treated as though they are basically the same, or supplementary to each other, or simply to be amalgamated — as the Alexandrian fathers tried to do. [Longenecker, Galatians]

What the law does is to bring to light the universal human plight: all are under sin. If, realizing this, men and women look around for a way of deliverance from their plight, they find it in the promise. Believing the promise and the one who has made it, they are justified — justified by faith in Jesus Christ, in whom the promise and its fulfillment are embodied. Far from being against the promises, then, the law drives men and women to flee from its condemnation and seek refuge in the promises. [Bruce, Galatians]

Since it is God’s law, it serves as God’s instrument to accomplish his purpose. It cannot of itself impart life, but by showing the bankruptcy of human effort it shuts men and women up to the grace of God as their only hope. [Bruce, Galatians]

ἡ γραφή here is tantamount to the written law, concentrated in such an uncompromising form as Deut 27:26, quoted in verse 10 above — the more so since the verb συγκλείω is used similarly in Rom 11:32, where God is the subject: “God has consigned them all to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.” But here the figure of speech is more vivid than in verse 8: the written law is the official who locks the lawbreaker up in the prison house of which sin is the jailer. Unlike τούς πάντας in Rom 11:32, the more general τὰ πάντα here is neuter plural. It embraces the whole human situation — man and all his works in the age which the gospel age has displaced. Those who come to their senses in the prison house and recognize the hopelessness of their predicament will be the readier to embrace the promise of liberty and life. The law thus serves the interests of the promise, and of the beneficiaries of the promise. [Bruce, Galatians]

ὑπὸ ἁμαρτίαν (cf. Rom 3:9, πάντας ὑφ’ ἁμαρτίαν εἶναι): that all are under the dominion of sin, sold into the ownership of sin. This is the first of a series of ὑπό phrases: cf. ὑπὸ νόμον (v. 23; 4:4f.), ὑπὸ παιδαγωγόν (v. 25), ὑπὸ ἐπιτρόπους καὶ οἰκονόμους (4:2), ὑπὸ τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου (4:3).

ἐκ πίστεως — the faith by which the true children of Abraham (v. 6) inherit the promises made to Abraham and his posterity (v. 16) is specifically identified as “faith in Jesus Christ,” the σπέρμα τοῦ Ἀβραάμ par excellence.

Galatians 3:23

The first person plural of ἐφρουρούμεθα (“we were held in custody”) indicates the Jews as being under the law’s guardianship. By definition, Jews are included among “everyone without distinction” (τὰ πάντα), and so the Mosaic law exercises its condemnatory function in their case as well. But Jews also lived under the law in a special way distinct from all others, which Paul clarified in his analogy of the παιδαγωγός in verses 24–25. [Longenecker, Galatians]

By τὴν πίστιν (“the faith”) — the coming faith to be revealed — Paul means not faith generically but the particular faith referred to in verse 22b, that has to do with the faithfulness of Jesus Christ and humanity’s response of faith. [Longenecker, Galatians]

ὑπὸ νόμον ἐφρουρούμεθα συγκλειόμενοι is remarkably parallel to the confinement of verse 22. But here, instead of sin as the jailer, law is the warden or custodian — a distinction without much of a difference, so that the reader might be disposed to ask, like the imaginary interlocutor of Rom 7:7, “Is the law sin?” [Bruce, Galatians]

To be under law in the sense of verse 23 is another way of expressing the experience of being under sin in the sense of verse 22. To be under law is in practice to be under sin — not because law and sin are identical, but because law, while forbidding sin, stimulates the very thing it forbids. See Rom 6:14, where it is because “you are no longer under law but under grace” that “sin shall not have dominion over you” — the implication being that sin has dominion over men and women so long as they are under law. As will be seen in 4:4, one purpose of the coming of Christ is the redemption of his people from their bondage under law. [Bruce, Galatians]

The sense of verse 22 is here repeated in different terms. The coming of faith — the faith in Jesus Christ just mentioned, in other words the gospel — may be understood both on the plane of salvation history and in the personal experience of believers. On the plane of salvation history, the coming of faith coincides with the appearance of Christ, in whom the parenthetic age of law was displaced by the age of faith (cf. 4:4), which fulfills the promise made to Abraham. In the personal experience of believers, it coincides with their abandonment of the attempt to establish a righteous standing of their own based on legal works, and their acceptance of the righteousness which comes by faith in Christ (cf. Rom 10:3; Phil 3:9). [Bruce, Galatians]

εἰς τὴν μέλλουσαν πίστιν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι — for the construction, see Rom 8:18, πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν δόξαν ἀποκαλυφθῆναι εἰς ἡμᾶς (for the more classical construction, cf. 1 Pet 5:1, τῆς μελλούσης ἀποκαλυφθῆναι δόξης). The revelation of glory marks the consummation of Christ’s saving work; the revelation of faith marks its inception. [Bruce, Galatians]

The law kept the Gentiles out of the privileges of the people of God and kept Israel apart from the rest of mankind. This divisive force has been overcome by the unifying effect of Christ’s redemptive act. [Bruce, Galatians]

Galatians 3:24

Longenecker translates παιδαγωγός as “supervisory guardian.” In antiquity this role was distinguished from that of the διδάσκαλος (teacher): the παιδαγωγός carried out custodial and disciplinary functions rather than educative or instructional ones. [Longenecker, Galatians]

The παιδαγωγός was the personal slave attendant who accompanied the freeborn boy wherever he went from the time he left his nurse’s care. It was his duty to teach the boy good manners — with the use of the birch if necessary — take him to school carrying his satchel and other effects, wait for him there in the παιδαγωγεῖον (a room in the schoolhouse reserved specifically for pedagogues; cf. Demosthenes, De Corona 258), or even in the classroom itself, then take him home and test his memory by making him recite the lesson he had learned. During the boy’s minority the παιδαγωγός imposed the necessary restraint on his liberty, until with the coming of age he could be trusted to use his liberty responsibly. [Bruce, Galatians]

In De Corona 258, Demosthenes taunts Aeschines with the menial duties Aeschines performed as a boy in his father’s grammar school — duties that included sweeping the παιδαγωγεῖον, the waiting-room set apart for pedagogues: [Demosthenes, De Corona 258]

“You helped your father in the drudgery of a grammar school, grinding the ink, sponging the benches, and sweeping the waiting-room [παιδαγωγεῖον] — holding the position of a menial, not of a free-born boy.”

Plato also writes of παιδαγωγοί in the Laws (Book 7, 808c–d), distinguishing their custodial role from that of teachers (διδάσκαλοι): [Plato, Laws 7.808c–d]

“Just as no sheep or other witless creature ought to exist without a herdsman, so children cannot live without a tutor (παιδαγωγός), nor slaves without a master. And, of all wild creatures, the child is the most intractable; for in so far as it, above all others, possesses a fount of reason that is as yet uncurbed, it is a treacherous, sly and most insolent creature. Wherefore the child must be strapped up, as it were, with many bridles — first, when he leaves the care of nurse and mother, with pedagogues (παιδαγωγοῖς) to guide his childish ignorance, and after that with teachers (διδασκάλοις) of all sorts of subjects and lessons, treating him as becomes a free-born child. On the other hand, he must be treated as a slave, and any free man that meets him shall punish both the child himself and his pedagogue (παιδαγωγόν) or teacher (διδάσκαλον), if any of them does wrong.”

The same distinction appears in the Lysis (208c), where Socrates questions a young boy about his παιδαγωγός: [Plato, Lysis 208c]

“Are you your own master, or do they not even allow that? Nay, he said; of course they do not allow it. Then you have a master? Yes, my tutor; there he is. And is he a slave? To be sure; he is our slave, he replied. Surely, I said, this is a strange thing, that a free man should be governed by a slave. And what does he do with you? He takes me to my teachers (εἰς διδασκάλους), he replied.”

Aristotle (384–322 BC) alludes to the same custodial function in the Nicomachean Ethics (3.12): [Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 3.12]

“As the child should live according to the direction of his tutor (παιδαγωγός), so the appetitive element should live according to rational principle.”

Xenophon (c. 430–354 BC) writes in the Constitution of the Lacedaemonians (3.1): [Xenophon, Const. Lac. 3.1]

“When a boy ceases to be a child, and begins to be a lad, others release him from his moral tutor (παιδαγωγός) and his schoolmaster (διδάσκαλος): he is then no longer under a ruler and is allowed to go his own way.”

A late second or early third century AD papyrus letter (P.Oxy. 6.930) illustrates the same distinction in everyday life. A mother, on hearing of the departure of her son’s teacher, writes to her son: [P.Oxy. 6.930]

“So, my son, I urge both you and your παιδαγωγός that you go to a suitable διδάσκαλον.”

She closes the letter with: “Salute your esteemed παιδαγωγός Croes.”

The παιδαγωγός, though usually a slave, was an important figure in ancient patrician households, being charged with the supervision and conduct of one or more sons in the family. He was distinguished from the διδάσκαλος in that he gave no formal instruction, but administered the directives of the father in a custodial manner — though of course indirectly he taught by the supervision he gave and the discipline he administered. [Longenecker, Galatians]

The point of the analogy with the παιδαγωγός here in Galatians is not that the Mosaic law was a positive preparation for Christ — though in terms of piety and education that cannot be doubted, and is affirmed in other contexts. Rather, the focus here is on the supervisory function of the law, the inferior status of one under such supervision, and the temporary nature of such a situation in the course of salvation history. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Dunn suggests that the closest modern equivalent of the παιδαγωγός is not the teacher or tutor but the babysitter — someone responsible for the child’s immediate supervision and safety, but not for his education. [Dunn, Galatians]

The Greek phrase εἰς Χριστόν (“unto Christ”) in verse 24 admits three possible readings: [Longenecker, Galatians]

A pregnant sense, suggesting a forthcoming result, with Paul understood to be saying that the law functioned to bring forth Christ. Longenecker cites Rom 8:21 as an example of this type of construction. The final clause of Gal 3:24 — “in order that we might be justified by faith” — might suggest such a reading.
A telic sense, suggesting that the purpose of being under the supervision of the Mosaic law was to lead us to Christ — as in the KJV and NIV. The analogy of a παιδαγωγός who brings his young charge to a teacher might suggest this reading.
A temporal sense, meaning that the law’s supervisory reign over the lives of God’s people was meant to last only until the coming of Christ — as in the RSV and several other translations. This would be in line with the use of εἰς in the immediately preceding clause of verse 23b: “until this coming faith should be revealed.”

On the phrase “in order that we might be justified by faith” (v. 24): Paul, as is his custom, speaks in ultimates rather than in terms of immediate causation. Here he expresses the ultimate purpose of the law as παιδαγωγός — that we might be justified by faith. The law’s other functions of bringing about a knowledge of sin, increasing sin, and condemning sin all have this ultimate purpose in view as well, and so serve this end among both Jews and Gentiles. Here, however, Paul has in mind the law in its custodial function in the experience of Israel, and so speaks of being justified before God in the first person plural. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Galatians 3:25

With the coming of the Christian gospel, as effected by Christ, the law no longer has validity as a regulating norm for the life of faith. One may of course continue to live a Jewish nomistic lifestyle for cultural, national, or pragmatic reasons — to be a Jewish believer in Jesus did not mean turning one’s back on one’s own culture or nation. Yet no longer could it be argued that circumcision, Jewish dietary laws, following distinctly Jewish ethical precepts, or any other matter having to do with the Jewish lifestyle were requisite for the life of faith — certainly not for Gentile Christians in any sense. Though Paul and the Jerusalem apostles, for cultural, national, or pragmatic reasons, allowed Jewish believers in Jesus to live a Jewish lifestyle, this was not spiritually required. [Longenecker, Galatians]

Summary: Galatians 3:19–25

The law stands over all human endeavor, whether Jewish or Gentile, showing God’s attitude towards sin and thereby bringing us down — that we might then by faith look up. As given by God to supervise the lifestyle of his people Israel, its function as a supervisory custodian has come to an end with the work of Christ. To go back then to living a life regulated by law — even though motivated by fervent piety — is to live a sub-Christian life; in effect, to renounce Christ in our actions. [Longenecker, Galatians]

The Christian church today has many who formerly opposed legalism but hold firmly to nomism. Theirs is a religion of piety that they believe to be God-honoring. What they fail to realize, however, is that in many ways they are recapitulating the error of the Judaizers. More importantly, they fail to appreciate Paul’s words regarding the purpose and function of the law in 3:19–25, often preferring to dwell on his words of 3:1–18. Furthermore, they fail to appreciate the full import of what it means to be in Christ, as presented in 3:26–29 that follows. [Longenecker, Galatians]