CHAPTER 5
Lecture 1
1 Stand fast and be not held again under the yoke of bondage.
2 Behold I Paul tell you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
3 And I testify again to every man circumcising himself that hhee is a debtor to do the whole law.
4 You are made void of Christ, you who are justified in the law; you are fallen from grace.
Above, the Apostle showed that justice is not through the Law; here he leads them back from error to a state of rectitude.
First, with respect to divine matters.
Secondly, with respect to human affairs (6:1).
As to the first, he does two things:
First, he admonishes them;
Secondly, he gives the reason underlying his admonition (v. 2).
In the admonition itself he includes two things: one is an inducement to good: the other is a caution against evil. He induces to good when he says, Stand fast. As if to say: Since you have been set free from the bondage of the Law through Christ, stand fast and, with your faith firm and feet planted, persevere in freedom. And so when he says, Stand fast, he exhorts them to rectitude. For he that stands is erect: “He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed, lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). Likewise he exhorts them to be firm: “Therefore, be ye steadfast and unmoveable” (1 Cor 15:58); “Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth” (Eph 6:14).
But he cautions and draws them from evil, when he adds: and be not held again under the yoke of bondage , i.e., do not subject yourself to the Law which engenders unto bondage. Of this yoke, it is written in Acts (15:10): “This is a yoke which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear,” a yoke from which we have been loosed by Christ alone: “For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the sceptre of their oppressor, thou hast overcome” (Is 9:4). The reason for adding, again, is not that they had been under the Law before, but that, as Jerome says, to observe the legal ceremonies after the Gospel is so great a sin as to border on idolatry. Hence, because they had been idolaters, if they were to submit themselves to the yoke of circumcision and the other legal observances, they would be, as it were, returning to the very things wherein they had formerly practiced idolatry.
However, according to Augustine in Epistle 19, three periods of time are distinguished with respect to the observance of the legal ceremonies: namely, the time before the passion, the time before the spreading of grace and the time after the spreading of grace. To observe the legal ceremonies after grace had been preached is a mortal sin for the Jews. But during the interim, i.e., before the preaching of grace, they could be observed without sin even by those who had been converted from Judaism, provided they set no hope on them. However, those converted from paganism could not observe them without sin. Therefore, because the Galatians had not come from Judaism but wanted, nevertheless, to observe the legal ceremonies and put their hope in them, they were in effect returning to the yoke of bondage. For in their case, observances of this sort were akin to idolatry, inasmuch as they entertained a false notion touching Christ, believing that salvation cannot be obtained by Him without the observances of the Law.
Then when he says, Behold, I Paul tell you , he explains these two parts of his admonition:
First, the second part;
Secondly, the first part (v. 5).
As to the first, he does two things:
First, he shows what the yoke of bondage is that they ought not submit to;
Secondly, he proves it (v. 4).
Regarding the first, he does two things:
First, he shows that this yoke is a source of great harm;
Secondly, that it is terribly burdensome (v. 3).
The yoke of the Law is harmful because it nullifies the effect of the Lord’s passion. Hence he says, be not held again under the yoke of bondage, because behold, I Paul , who am speaking with the voice of authority, tell you , and well, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing, i.e., faith in Christ .
But against this is something recorded in Acts (16:3), namely, that Paul circumcised Timothy. Hence in effect he brought it about that Christ profited him nothing; furthermore, he was deceiving him. I answer that, according to Jerome, Paul did not circumcise Timothy as though intending to observe the Law, but he feigned circumcision in working circumcision on him. For, according to him, the apostles feigned observing the works of the Law to avoid scandalizing the believers from Judaism. In other words, they performed the actions of the Law without the intention of observing them, and so they departed not from the faith. Hence he did not deceive Timothy.
However, according to Augustine, the answer is that the apostles did in very truth observe the works of the Law and had the intention of observing them; because, according to the teaching of the apostles, it was lawful at that time, i.e., before grace had become widespread, for converts from Judaism to observe them. Therefore, because Timothy was born of a Jewish mother, the Apostle circumcised him with the intention of observing the Law. But because the Galatians were putting their hope in the legal observances after the spreading of grace, as though without them grace was not sufficient to save them, and they observed them in that frame of mind, for that reason the Apostle declared to them that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing . For it followed from this that they did not correctly estimate Christ, to signify Whom circumcision was given: “That it may be a sign of the covenant between me and you” (Gen 17:11). Therefore, those who submitted to circumcision believed that the sign was still in vogue and that the one signified had not yet come. Thus they were fallen away from Christ. In this way, then, it is plain that the yoke of the Law is harmful.
Furthermore, it is a heavy burden, because it obliges to the impossible. And this is what he states: I testify again to every man circumcising himself, that he is a debtor to do the whole law . As if to say: I say that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing . But in addition to this, I testify to every man , both Jew and Gentile, circumcising himself, that he is a debtor to do the whole law . For one who professes a religion makes himself a debtor to all that pertains to the observances of that religion. And, as Augustine says: “There has never been a religion without some visible sign to which those who live in that religion are obligated; as in the Christian religion the visible sign is Baptism, which all Christians are held to undergo. Furthermore, they are obligated to everything that pertains to the Christian religion.” Now the sign of the Mosaic Law was circumcision. Therefore, whoever circumcised himself was put under obligation to observe and fulfill all the matters of the Law. And that is what he says: he is a debtor to do the whole law : “Whosoever offends in one point, is become guilty of all” (Jam 2:10). No one, however, was able to keep the Law, according to Acts (15:10): “This is a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.”
But suppose someone is circumcised; then according to the aforesaid he is obligated to observe all the matters of the Law. But this is to sin mortally. Therefore, he is obligated to sin mortally and thus he sins in either case.
I answer that on the assumption that the same conviction prevails, he is obliged to observe the matters of the Law: for example, if one is convinced that he would sin mortally unless he were circumcised, then, having become circumcised, if the same conviction remains, he would sin mortally were he not to observe the matters of the Law. The reason for this is that the conviction that something must be done is nothing else but a judgment that it would be against God’s will not to do it. If this is the case, I say that unless he did what his convictions dictate, he would sin mortally, not by reason of the work done but by reason of his conscience. Likewise, if he does it, he sins, because ignorance of this kind does not excuse him, since he is ignorant of a precept. Nevertheless, he is not absolutely perplexed, but only in a qualified sense, because it is within his power to correct his erroneous conscience. And this is the way the Apostle is here testifying to everyone who circumcises himself that he is obliged to observe the ceremonies of the Law.
Then when he says, You are made void of Christ, he proves what he said, namely, that they must not embrace the observances of the Law, because it involves a double injury: first, the loss of Christ; secondly, the loss of grace. Moreover, the first is the cause of the second, because you who are justified in the law are fallen from grace.
He says therefore, You are made void of Christ. As if to say: Verily Christ will profit you nothing, because you are made void of Christ, i.e., of living in Christ. The second injury is the loss of grace. Hence he says: you are fallen from grace,, i.e., you who were full of the grace of Christ, “because of his fulness we have all received” (Jn 1:16); “The heart of a fool is like a broken vessel and no wisdom at all shall it hold” (Sir 22:17). You , I say, who are justified in the law, i.e., who believe that you are justified, are fallen—“Be mindful, therefore, from whence thou art fallen and do penance” (Rev 2:5).— from grace , namely, from possessing future happiness or even from the grace you once had.