I · personal pronoun — 1st person nominative singular
through
διὰdia
G1223
through (in very wide applications · preposition
law
νόμουnomou
G3551
law (through the idea of prescriptive usage) · noun — genitive singular masculine
dead
ἀπέθανον,apethanon
G599
to die off (literally or figuratively) · verb — second aorist active indicative, 1st person singular
law
νόμῳnomō
G3551
law (through the idea of prescriptive usage) · noun — dative singular masculine
that
ἵναina
G2443
compare G3588 (ὁ)) · conjunction
live
ζήσω.zēsō
G2198
to live (literally or figuratively) · verb — aorist active subjunctive, 1st person singular
God
θεῷtheō
G2316
figuratively · noun — dative singular masculine, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Romans 7:4 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 r…
Romans 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
1 Thessalonians 5:10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the worl…
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 14:7-8 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Galatians 2:11–end
I. From the account which Paul gives of what passed between him and the other apostles at Jerusalem, the Galatians might easily discern both the falseness of what his enemies had insinuated against him and their own folly and weakness in departing from that gospel which he had preached to them. But to give the greater weight to what he had already said, and more fully to fortify them against the insinuations of the judaizing teachers, he acquaints them with another interview which he had with the apostle Peter at Antioch, and what passed between them there, _Gal 2:11-14. Antioch was one of the chief churches of the Gentile Christians, as Jerusalem was of those Christians who turned from Juda…
Here Paul seems to pass from his exact words to Peter, to the general purport of his argument on the question. However, his direct address to the Galatians seems not to be resumed till Gal 3:1, "O foolish Galatians," &c.
For--But I am not a "transgressor" by forsaking the law. "For," &c. Proving his indignant denial of the consequence that "Christ is the minister of sin" (Gal 2:17), and of the premises from which it would follow. Christ, so far from being the minister of sin and death, is the establisher of righteousness and life. I am entirely in Him [BENGEL].
I--here emphatical. Paul himself, not Peter, as in the "I" (Gal 2:18).
through the law--which was my "schoolmaster to bring me…
For I through the law am dead to the law - In consequence of properly considering the nature and requisitions of the law, I am dead to all hope and expectation of help or salvation from the law, and have been obliged to take refuge in the Gospel of Christ. Or, probably the word νομος, Law, is here put for a system of doctrine; as if he had said, I through the Gospel am dead to the law. The law itself is consigned to death, and another, the Gospel of Christ, is substituted in its stead. The law condemns to death, and I have embraced the Gospel that I might be saved from death, and live unto God.
The Church Fathers
"Yet I." I, he says, persuaded by that law itself, made myself dead to the law. For the law announced Christ to me, and to him indeed I am dead (for I no longer live according to that one), but I follow the doctrines of this one. "through the law died to the law." Or, I died to the Mosaic law through the law of the Gospel. How then shall I, being dead and lifeless toward it, keep it? Or by its law, and the burdensome observances in it, I have become dead in regard to sin through it. Therefore is the one who killed it worthy of being observed? "that I might live for God." That is, the immortal and ageless life.
"Purify out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump," cries the apostle to us. And again in anger at such people he directs that we should "have no fellowship with anyone called a brother if he is a fornicator or covetous man or idolater or reviler or drunkard or robber; with such a man one ought not even to eat." "For I through the law am dead to the law," he says, "that I may live unto God. I am crucified with Christ; it is no longer I that live," meaning that I used to live according to my lusts, "but Christ lives in me," and I am pure and blessed by obeying the commandments; so that whereas at one time I lived in the flesh carnally, "the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God."
This has a double meaning. For he speaks either of the law of grace, or only the old law, indicating that it is through this law that he died to the law. Actually what he says is this: The law itself led me to pay attention to him. If then in my attempt to pay attention to him I transgress it how and it what manner did Moses say the following, applying it to Christ, namely, That the Lord will raise a prophet from you from your brethren like me, and you shall listen to Him? So those who do not believe in Him, they transgress the Law. But what is the meaning of the statement, "I die to the Law?" Just as the dead are not subject to the commandments of the Law, likewise neither am I who, as one who has died to the curse of that Law. For the Law made all accursed those who did not fulfill the things of the Law. Indeed, no one was able to fulfill it completely.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Paul — =Saul (q.v.) was born about the same time as our Lord. His circumcision-name was Saul, and probably the name Paul was also given to him in infancy “for use in the Gentile world,” as “Saul” would be…
Christ Is God · Saints live to him as God — Saints live to him as God
Justification · 23:6; — 23:6;
Justification Before God · Under the gospel: Is not of faith and works united — Under the gospel: Is not of faith and works united
Life, Spiritual · Is described as: A life to God — Is described as: A life to God
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Galatians 2:19
For I through the law am dead to the law,.... The apostle further replies to the objection against the doctrine of justification, being a licentious one, from the end of his, and other believers, being dead to the law: he owns he was dead unto it, not in such sense as not to regard it as a rule of walk and conversation, but so as not to seek for life and righteousness by it, nor to fear its accusations, charges, menaces, curses, and condemnation: he was dead to the moral law as in the hands of Moses, but not as in the hands of Christ; and he was dead to it as a covenant of works, though not as a rule of action, and to the ceremonial law, even as to the observance of it, and much more as nece…
Galatians 2:17-21
17. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
17. Porro si quaerentes justificari in Christo, inventi sumus ipsi quoque peccatores, ergo Christus peceati minister est? absit.
18. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
18. Nam si quae destruxi haec rursum aedifieo, praevaricatorem me ipsum constituo.
19. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
19. Ego enim per Legem Legi mortuus sum. Ut Deo viverem,
20. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life wh…
when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me: Attempting to gain acceptance with God through keeping the law inevitably leads to sin (5:2-4; see Rom 7:5, 8-11), whereas living by the Spirit leads away from sin (Gal 5:16, 22-24). • I died to the law: The NLT adds an explanation that this means I stopped trying to meet all its requirements. Those who trust in Christ participate in his death (2:20); they are no longer under the law’s judgment (see Rom 6:2, 10-11; 7:2-6), and they stop seeing the law as a means of their salvation. Instead, Christians live for God in a new relationship with God through Christ (Gal 3:23–4:11; see Rom 6:10-11; 14:7-8; 2 Cor 5:15).
