Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 3:22

But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

22. But the Scripture, &c.] The impossibility (Theod. Mops.) of obtaining righteousness by legal obedience is proved by the plain testimony of Scripture. It is noteworthy that in this momentous argument St Paul appeals not to conscience or experience, but to God’s Word written.

the Scripture hath concluded ] Not the O. T. generally, but the particular passage referred to in ch. Gal 2:16, viz. Psa 143:2. This view is confirmed by the tense employed ‘concluded’, rather than the perfect ‘hath concluded’. This personification of Scripture is remarkable, investing it with the dignity and authority of a Divine utterance.

concluded ] i.e. ‘shut up’, leaving no means of escape. The same word occurs Rom 11:32, ‘God shut up all men into disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all’.

all ] Lit. ‘all things’, neuter. In the passage just quoted from Romans we have ‘all men’. This is more comprehensive, not because ‘no exception is made, not even in favour of the Virgin Mary, as the Vatican decree would require’ (Dr Schaff) though this is true, but because men’s purest aims, and noblest efforts, and holiest achievements are tainted with sin.

that the promise believe ] The promise is here put for the thing promised, justification, life. Bp. Lightfoot observes that the words, ‘by faith in Jesus Christ’ are not redundant. St Paul’s opponents did not deny that only believers could obtain the promise. They held that it was obtained by works, and not by faith.

This verse reveals the end for which the law was given not to condemn, but to shew that by it was no escape, from it no escape, except by faith in the promise in the Person promising and the Person promised. How beautifully Bunyan illustrates this great truth when he makes the Pilgrims who were shut up in the Doubting Castle of Giant Despair effect their escape by the Key of Promise, which Christian found in his bosom!

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

But the Scripture – The Old Testament (see the note at Joh 5:39), containing the Law of Moses.

Hath concluded all under sin – Has shut up ( sunekleisen) all under the condemnation of sin; that is, has declared all people, no matter what their rank and external character, to be sinners. Of course, they cannot be justified by that law which declares them to be guilty, and which condemns them, any more than the Law of the land will acquit a murderer, and pronounce him innocent, at the same time that it holds him to be guilty. In regard to the meaning of the expression used here; see the note at Rom 11:32; compare Rom 3:9, Rom 3:19. That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ, etc. That the promise referred to in the transaction with Abraham, the promise of justification and life by faith in the Messiah. Here we see one design of the Law. It was to show that they could not be justified by their own works, to hedge up their way in regard to justification by their own righteousness, and to show them their need of a better righteousness. The Law accomplishes the same end now. It shows people that they are guilty; and it does it in order that they may be brought under the influence of the pure system of the gospel, and become interested in the promises which are connected with eternal salvation.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Gal 3:22-23

But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin.

A charge of sin

I. The scripture statement of mans natural condition. And what now do you expect to hear? That man, though fallen and frail, has nevertheless many native virtues and excellences? that, if his conduct be sometimes amiss, yet his heart is good? These are, I know, the vain imaginations which multitudes indulge:–but they receive no countenance from Holy Scripture. No–if Gods Word is to decide, you will find that–

1. The Scripture brings against man a charge of sin. As preparatory to this, the Bible fully sets forth mans duty: sometimes dwelling on the several particulars of the ten commandments; at other times, comprehensively demanding Love as the fulfilling of the whole law; expanding this, again, into the two branches of that love–love to God, love to man; or pointing to still more special duties, arising out of special relations and situations in life. Furthermore, we are told, that whoso offendeth in one point is guilty of all–he has broken through that hedge of the law, which should have kept him from all sin. After laying down a strict principle like this, it ceases to be surprising, that the Scripture invariably addresses man as a sinner. For mans own conscience must tell him that Gods perfect law has not been kept.

2. On this charge the Scripture shuts man up (for that is the meaning of the words hath concluded) as already sentenced and condemned. Man is not merely in danger of this sentence; it is passed on him already. Living in this world, he is but a prisoner at large. Gods justice has got firm hold of him; and wander where he may, and vaunt as he likes, the day of execution is coming nearer and nearer–and he cannot escape.

3. All men, without a single exception, come under this charge. All nations. All ranks. All ages.

4. The charge is incessantly reiterated, and pressed again and again.

II. The design with which this statement is so earnestly insisted upon. Why do the Scriptures thus shut up all men under the charge of sin. St. Paul replies–that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ may be given to them that believe. The object aimed at, in the Scripture doctrine of mans sin, was–

1. To show the reasonableness of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Though man be guilty, condemned, and under actual sentence; yet his condition, so long as life endures, is not hopeless. There is in the same Scripture a promise–a promise of salvation.

2. To compel sinners actually to accept the promise by believing in Christ. The terrors of God are really mercies; they are the wholesome rod by which the lost sheep are driven back to that gracious fold, where they may remain safe, under the care of the good shepherd, Jesus Christ. In conclusion, I ask,

(1) Are you not sinners? Methinks there should be no doubt on this head.

(2) Is salvation yet given to you? In other words, have you believed in Jesus Christ?

(3) What will ye do in the end–that end which is shortly approaching–death–judgment? (J. Jowett, M. A.)

The great prison

How much is declared in these few words! They set forth the whole counsel of God with regard to mankind. They show us what man is by nature, and what he may become by grace: and they point out the only way in which it is possible for him to pass from one of these states to the other. God, speaking to man through His Holy Scriptures, hath concluded all under sin. He has, so to say, shut up all mankind together in the same great prisonhouse of sin. How has He done this? When a conqueror overruns a country, he will sometimes drive the inhabitants, or at least a large part of them, into bondage (e.g., Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar)

. Now is this the way in which God concluded all mankind under sin? by driving them into sin, and shutting them up in it? God forbid! Satan does indeed draw and drive men into sin: this is the accursed work of his restless sabbathless life: and when he has got them there, he binds them fast, and will not let them flee from his toils. He builds a high wall of sin all round them, so that they shall not look over it into the goodly land beyond: and here he shuts them all up together, sinner with sinner, and sinner with sinner, a never-ending ghastly multitude, that they may encourage and pamper each other in wickedness, and that no example, no voice of holiness, may ever reach and startle them. This is the way in which Satan would conclude all mankind under sin, in which he does conclude all such as give themselves up to him, to work his bidding. But God never drove, never drew any man into sin. Throughout His Scriptures He is calling to us to come out from the deadly land, from the loathsome plague-breathing dungeon of sin. By His commandments, by entreaties, by threats, by promises, He calls us to come out from sin. So that, when the Scripture concludes, or shuts up all men together under sin, it is not by driving them into sin, but for the sake of calling them out from it. In order however that men should come forth from a place, in order that they should desire to come forth, it is necessary they should know that they are there, that they should know too what sort of a place it is, how dismal, how miserable, how terrible. How unwilling are we to be persuaded that the prison can indeed be a prison! To us at least, we feel confident, it is nothing of the sort. For how can it be a prison, we say to ourselves, when there are no bare walls to be seen? when the walls are all glittering with precious stones, and are far more like the walls of a palace? How can it be a prison, when it is so vast, stretching out to the furthermost parts of the earth, and all mankind are walking about in it: Nay, how can it be a prison, when all the people in it are doing just what they like, are following the lusts of their own hearts, are drinking and rioting and thieving and lying, without any fear of law, without any regard for truth, without any restraint to check them? And what is there to keep them from going out whenever they please? There are no bars, no locks, no chains, no jailor. For this is the craft and subtilty of the evil one,–that he makes us fancy we are free, when we are in prison: he makes us fancy that we are at liberty, when we are in bondage: he makes us fancy that we are our own masters, when we are his slaves: he blinds and cheats and stupefies us, until we deem we are doing our own will, and pursuing our own pleasure, when in fact we are drudging in his toils, and rushing into the jaws of destruction before his lashing scourge. Therefore, in order that our eyes might be open to the misery of our condition, that we might see our danger before it was too late, God was mercifully pleased to give us His Scriptures, wherein He declares in the ears of all mankind, that one and all are concluded under sin; that, however its appearance may deceive us, sin is not a palace but a prison, that in that prison we are all shut up, and that no earthly power can deliver us out of it. God, by the voice of His Scripture, hath concluded all under sin. Now suppose that you were to be carried before an earthly court of justice, and that one sweeping accusation were to be brought against you; suppose that you were to be found guilty to the full extent of that accusation, and that the very excuses you set up were the complete proof of your guilt,–what would follow: The judge would straightway pass sentence upon you; and you would all be condemned to suffer punishment, according to the measure of your offence. Such would be the course of things, if you were taken before an earthly court of justice. The verdict is followed by the sentence; and they who are found guilty are condemned. And must we not expect that the course of things should be the very same, when we are carried before a heavenly court of justice? Surely they who are found utterly guilty, whose own mouth declares their guilt, must likewise be condemned. And yet St. Paul assures us that God has concluded all under sin, not in order that He may stretch forth His arm, and take vengeance on His enemies, and sweep them away from the face of the earth; but in order that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. This has ever been the one great end of all Gods ordinances, both at first in the creation, and ever since in the government of the world. His purpose was from the beginning to pour out all the blessings which infinite wisdom could conceive, and infinite power could bring to pass, upon His creatures. But why was it necessary that all should be concluded by the Scriptures under sin? Would it not have been enough to set the promise by faith in Jesus Christ before men, without saying anything about the sins by which they were bound? No, my brethren, it would not have been enough. Jesus Christ came as a Deliverer: and who will welcome and rejoice in a deliverer, unless he knows that there is something from which he needs to be delivered, unless he feels that he is in a wretched galling bondage, and that he cannot of himself burst his chains, that he cannot throw off his yoke? But when a mans eyes are opened to see the prison in which he is shut up, to see and feel the chains which are fast bound round his soul, and have eaten into it,–when he has learnt to see and to know that the pleasures, whatever they may be, of sin are only, like the fleshpots of Egypt, intoxicating drugs given to him to deprive him of all sense of his captivity,–then will he long for a deliverer, and rejoice on hearing of his approach, and hail him when he comes into view, and follow him whithersoever he may lead. (J. C. Hare, M. A. )

The reasonableness of faith

Let us try to realize what would have been Pauls line of argument with modern schools who construct their own methods of self salvation.

I. The school of natural religion holds that men are bound to obedience. But this law has been and is constantly violated. What now? Is God to perpetually interpose with an act of oblivion? If so, what becomes of his admitted moral government? The very foundations of natural religion are destroyed by such a supposition. Then the only alternative is the gospel system of mediation by means of which sin may be forgiven and God justified.

II. The school of classical morality aims at the exaltation of the individual by a species of moral accomplishment. But where has the ideal been realized outside of Christianity? If sincere, therefore, this school must be grievously disappointed as they are brought face to face with universal proofs of the Scripture doctrine of mans depravity, and so they are shut up to the only means of its removal, the sanctification of the Spirit through faith.

III. The school of fine feeling and poetic sentiment worships what is beautiful in human character. But look at the state of the world. That beauty is wanting, and so they are shut up to the operation of that Spirit who alone can produce what is pure, lovely, and of good report. (Dr. Chalmers.)

The reasonableness of the gospel

The gospel is a reasonable scheme, on the principle that whatever other way is divised is found on trial to be deficient: so that man is shut up to the gospel as his only resource. In demonstrating this Paul introduces the law as a successful general which outmanoeuvres man in his every attempt at escape, and so compels him to await the throwing open of Gods method of deliverance.

I. We must assume in man the workings of spiritual solicitude and anxiety. The crying sin of the day is apathy, and many men are shut up in the prison of their own moral listlessness. But, presuming an awakened state, we must examine the avenues through which he tries to enter heaven, and the tactics of the law in intercepting him.

II. Repentance is one of these avenues: but in his attempt to escape:by it man is outgeneralled by the law, which refuses to admit the efficacy of sorrow and amendment, crying, do this and live, fail to do so and die.

III. Forced back from this outlet, men endeavour to take refuge in the supposed mercy of god. But the law comes forward and dislodges them by showing that God has left no ground for the hope of unconditional forgiveness.

IV. Thus men are shut up by the law to the need of a surety. It proves to the sinner–

1. That his curse must be endured.

2. That it has been endured by Christ the only Saviour. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The great jail, and how to get out of it

We preach, at Gods command, the way of salvation by mercy, not by merit; by faith, not by works: by grace, not by the efforts of men.

I. A crowded prison. All are shut up under sin.

1. The jailer–Scripture.

(a) A lawful authority, for it is not the word of man, but of the Spirit of God.

(b) A powerful authority, for it has the strength of the Almighty to support it.

2. The prisoners–all.

(a) Heathen (Rom 1:18-21).

(b) The outwardly moral.

(c) The sincerely religious.

3. The prison. No escape from vengeance of broken law. One offence enough to keep a sinner bound for ever in misery and degradation.

II. A glorious deliverance. Jesus opens the prison door, and all who will may go free.

1. This deliverance by Jesus is complete. A slave before, a child now; no longer under the law, but under grace. Guiding principle formerly was, This do, and thou shalt live; it now is, I am saved, and so I love to serve my God. The man now does not work for wages, and expect to win a reward by merit; he is a saved man, and he has all he needs; for Christ is his, and Christ is all.

2. This deliverance comes to men by promise. No bargain–the free gift of Gods sovereign good-will.

3. The promised deliverance is not made to works, but only to faith.

4. The faith necessary for appropriating the promised deliverance, is faith in Christ. Not faith in yourself, or in a priest, or in sacraments, or in a set of doctrines; but you must believe that Christ the Son of God came on earth and became a man, took your sins upon His shoulders, bore them up to the tree, and suffered what was due for your sins in His own person on the cross; and you must trust yourself with Him, with Him fully, with Him alone, and with all your heart: and if you do so, the promise will be fulfilled to you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The true principle of salvation, and the importance of acting upon it

In every work which we undertake, it is most important that we should act upon right principles; for if We are misled upon essential points, our efforts will be wasted, since success cannot possibly be the result. A man may study the stars as long as he pleases, but he certainly will not come to right conclusions if he calculates their courses upon the theory that they daily revolve round the earth as a centre. The alchymists were earnest even to enthusiasm, but the object of their pursuit was unattainable, and the theories which guided their investigations were absurd, and therefore they exhibited a sorrowful spectacle of perseverance misapplied, and labour thrown away. In mechanics the most ingenious contriver must fail if he forgets the law of gravitation. You must proceed upon right principles, or disappointment awaits you. Now, the greatest matter of concern for any one of us is the eternal salvation of our soul. We need to be saved, and, according to the Scriptures of truth, there is but one way of salvation; but that way does not happen to be in favour among the sons of men. The great popular principle, popular all over the world, no matter whether the people happen to be Protestant or Catholic, Parsee or Mahomedan, Brahminist or Buddhist, is self-salvation–they would reach eternal life by merit. There are differences about what is done, but the great universal principle of unregenerate man is that he is, somehow or other, to save himself. This is his principle; and the further he goes in it, the less likely is he to be saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Suitability of the Divine plan of salvation to mans necessities

Objections are continually raised to the Divine plan of salvation. The worlds plan of salvation is, Do; the Bible says, It is all done; accept it as a free gift. The gospel way of salvation is, Christ has saved His people, and as many as trust in Him are His people, and are saved. Just think for a minute, is not this way of salvation the only one which would be suited to all sorts and conditions of men? Dear sir, you yourself may be a man of excellent disposition, and of admirable habits; I will suppose that the salvation to be preached by us was exactly such as would be suitable to such a person as you believe yourself to be, but would not this be a very unfortunate thing for many others? Are there not living within your observation many persons who are far below you in moral character? Do you not know of whole swarms of your fellow-creatures whose outward life is utterly defiled? Some of these are conscious of their degradation, and would fain rise out of it: would you have them left to despair? A way of salvation suited to the righteous it is clear would not suit them: are they to be overlooked? Would you have salvation put up to an examination like a place in the Civil Service, and only those allowed to pass who are as good as you are? Are all beneath your level to perish? I feel sure you love your fellow-men enough to say, No; let the plan of salvation be such as to save the most reprobate of men. Then I ask you, what plan could there be but this one, that God freely forgives for Christs sake even the greatest offenders, if they turn to Him and put their trust in His dear Son? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God must be accepted on His own terms

A ships crew mutinied against their commander, who was the kings son; and not only-refused to obey him, but threw him overboard with the intention of depriving him of life. Feeling their condition desperate, they commenced pirates, and while disorder and every evil work prevailed among themselves, they carried terror and misery over the ocean and into all the surrounding coasts. The prince, contrary to all probability, reached the shore in safety, and on arriving at his fathers palace, instead of urging the punishment of those who meant to murder him, employed all his influence, and with success, to induce his justly-offended parent to lay aside all thoughts of vengeance, and even to despatch immediately heralds of mercy offering a free pardon to them if they would but acknowledge the prince as their saviour and ruler, and submit to be guided by him in all their future proceedings; but reminding them that if they did not accede to this overture of mercy, sooner or later they must fall into the hands of some of his war-vessels, and must count on being dealt with according to the rigour of the law. On the messengers of mercy approaching the vessel, some of the most determined villains were for treating them as they had done their commander, but this proposal being overruled, they were taken aboard, and their sovereigns proclamation was made in the hearing of the piratical rebels. Some mocked at it; others said it was a stratagem to get them into the kings power; and even the most sober thinking among them, though they were tired of this scene of discord and ravage, both in the vessel and when the.y were on the shore, said that really they could not give the king credit for such extraordinary kindness, nor bring their mind to acknowledge the authority of the prince, but that they would endeavour to behave better as individuals, to establish better order in the ship, and to restrain their companions from those excesses of cruelty and rapine in which they had formerly indulged, so that if the kings cruisers should lay hold of them, as they feared might be the case, the king might be induced to pardon them, perhaps reward them for their good conduct. The time dreaded by them all at last arrived. Their vessel is boarded by the kings servants in irresistible force, and the whole crew are safely lodged in prison, and in due time brought before the king for judgment. With a calmness of inflexible determination, more appalling than the most furious passion, the sovereign pronounces their sentence. You most causelessly violated your allegiance; you transgressed the law; you, in intention, murdered my son; yet, on his intercession, I proffered you forgiveness–free, full forgiveness. You refused to give me credit for the generosity I manifested, and dishonoured me by supposing me false and malignant like yourselves. You persisted in despising my authority and opposing my will. And even such of you as have not run to the same enormity of licentiousness and cruelty, have formed laws to yourselves which ye have observed; but my laws ye have not regarded. And you have trampled on my grace as well as my authority. You have spurned mercy on the only terms consistent with my honour to offer it; and you have had the insufferable arrogance of attempting to dictate to me in what way I should bestow my favour. You have had your choice, and you must abide by it. As for those men who would not that I should reign over them, bring them forth and slay them before me. Let the self-righteous see, in a figure, the doom which awaits him if mercy prevent not. The law by which he must be judged is none of the laws of human device, but the law of God. (John Brown, D. D.)

All human nature sinful

There is a well in Belgium which once had very pure water, and it was stoutly reasoned with stone and brick, but that well became afterwards the centre of the battle of Waterloo. At the opening of the battle the soldiers with their sabres compelled the gardener, William yon Kylsom, to draw water out of the well for them, and it was very pure water. But the battle raged, and three hundred dead and half dead were flung into the well for quick and easy burial, so that the well of refreshment became the well of death, and long after, people looked down into the well and they saw the bleached skulls but no water. So the human soul was a well of good, but the armies of sin have fought around it, fought across it, and been slain, and it has become a well of skeletons. Dead hopes, dead resolutions, dead ambitions. An abandoned well unless Christ shall reopen and purify and fill it as the well of Belgium never was.

Unclean, unclean.

Jesus our only hope

It is a pretty thing which is told of the father of the Rev. Newman Hall, that his common seal was a crown with an anchor fixed into it, with just these words: Other refuge have I none. Well, if you do not use that seal, if you do not write the words over the door of your house, yet take care that you hear their meaning in your hearts, and never hesitate on any occasion to confess that you are saved by faith in Christ Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The law and the gospel

Faith, in my text, and in sundry places in this Epistle, seems to have a complex signification: it signifies the object of faith, revealed in the gospel, or the method of salvation through faith in the righteousness of Christ; and it also signifies the grace of faith in the soul, or a hearty compliance with this way of salvation, so that this expression, before faith came, refers to the time before the doctrine of faith was revealed in the gospel to the Galatians, and before the grace of faith was wrought in their hearts. Here it may be proper to observe, that the members of the primitive church in general, and particularly that in Galatia, were brought under the gospel dispensation, and embraced the doctrine of the gospel by faith, at one and the same time. But they were not, like us, educated under the gospel dispensation; for part of them had been Jews, educated under the Mosaic dispensation, which by way of eminence is frequently called the law; and, as they were under the legal dispensation, they were generally under the influence of a legal spirit; that is, they sought for justification by their own works of obedience to that law. Another part of them had been educated heathens, and were destitute at once of the revelation of the gospel, and of faith in it. Of this sort the generality of the Galatians had been. And yet St. Paul represents them also as having been under the law, not the Jewish or Mosaic law, which the Gentiles had no concern with, but the law of nature, which is universally binding upon all mankind. And as they were under this law, they were also possessed of a legal spirit; that is, they sought salvation by their own obedience to it, as the only way which they knew, and which was natural to them. But, when the gospel dispensation was set up in the world, and the doctrine of faith preached to them, they immediately believed, and so were freed from the outward dispensation of the law, and from a legal spirit at once; and they heard the doctrine, and received the outward dispensation of the gospel, and savingly believed, at one and the same time. My present design is to lay down some propositions for the explication of the apostolic doctrine concerning the law and the gospel, that you may see in what sense mankind are kept prisoners by the law, under condemnation, and shut up to the faith; or to the method of justification, through the righteousness of Christ, as the only way of escape.

I. All mankind, in all ages, are under a law to God. This can be denied by none who grant there is such a thing as sin or duty; for where there is no law, there can be no duty or trangression. If murder or blasphemy are universally evil with regard to all mankind, in all ages, it must be because they are forbidden by a law universally and perpetually binding.

II. This law was first of all given to man in a state of innocence, under the model of a covenant of works; that is, it was the constitution, by obedience to which he was to secure the favour of God, and to obtain everlasting felicity. It was his duty to observe it with a view to obtain immortality and happiness by it; and these blessings he was to secure by his own works of obedience.

III. That this law has passed through several editions, and received several additions and modifications, adapted to the various circumstances of mankind, and the designs of heaven towards them. That you may more fully understand this, I would observe by the way, that the law is either moral or positive. By the moral law, I mean that law which is founded upon the eternal reason of things, and that enjoins those duties which creatures under such and such circumstances owe to God, and to one another, and which necessarily flow from their relation to one another. Thus, love to God, and justice to mankind, are moral duties universally binding upon mankind in all circumstances, whether in a state of innocence, or in a state of sin; whether under the revealed law, or the law of nature. There can be no possible circumstances in which mankind are free from the obligation of such duties, and at liberty to commit the contrary sins. These are more properly the materials of a moral law. But there is another set of duties agreeable to the circumstances of fallen creatures under a dispensation of grace, which I may call evangelical morals; I mean repentance and reformation, and the utmost solicitude to re-obtain the forfeited favour of our Maker. These are universally binding upon mankind in their present state, and result from their circumstances, and consequently partake of the general nature of a moral law. By a positive law, I mean a law not necessarily resulting from the reason of things, and our relations and circumstances, but founded upon the will of the lawgiver, and adapted to some particular occasion. Such was the appendage to the first covenant, Thou shalt not eat of the tree of knowledge. Such were the institution of sacrifices immediately after the fall, the ordinance of circumcision given to Abraham., and the various ceremonies of the law of Moses; and such are baptism and the Lords Supper, and the institution of the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath under the gospel. These ordinances are not binding in their own nature, and consequently they are not of universal or perpetual obligation, but they are in force when and where the lawgiver is pleased to appoint.

IV. That the law of God requires perfect, perpetual, and personal obedience. This holds true with regard to every law of God, whatever it be. If it requires purely moral duties, it requires that they be performed exactly according to its prescriptions. If it requires evangelical duties as repentance or sincerity, it requires perfect repentance, perfect sincerity. If it requires the observance of any ceremonial or sacramental institutions, as sacrifice, circumcision, baptism, or the Lords Supper, it requires a perfect observance of them. This, my brethren, is the nature of the law, of every law that God ever made under every dispensation of religion, before the fall, and after the fall, before the law of Moses, under it, and under the gospel. In all ages, in all circumstances, and from all persons, it requires perfect, perpetual, and personal obedience: to the performance of this, it promises eternal life: but the sinner, by every the least failure, falls under its dreadful curse, and is cut off from all the promised blessings. And hence it most evidently follows,

V. That it is absolutely impossible for any of the fallen sons of men to be justified and saved by the constitution of the law. Take what dispensation of the law you please, the law of innocence, the law of Moses, or the moral part of the gospel, it is impossible for one of the fallen posterity of Adam to be saved by it in any of these views; and the reason is plain, there is not one of them but what has broken it: there is not one of them that has yielded perfect obedience to it: and, therefore, there is not one of them but what is condemned by it, to suffer its dreadful penalty. Thus you are held in close custody by the law; you are shut up under condemnation by it. And is there no way of escape? No; there is no possible way of escape–but one; and that shall be the matter of the next proposition.

VI. That God has made another constitution, namely, the gospel, or the covenant of grace, by which even guilty sinners, condemned by the law, may be justified and saved by faith, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. According to this constitution there is encouragement for sinners to repent and use the means of grace; and all who are saved by it, are not only obliged to yield obedience to the law, but also enabled to do so with sincerity, though not to perfection. They are effectually taught by it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live righteously, soberly, and godly in the world; and, in short, holiness of heart and life is as effectually secured in this way as in any other.

VII. That all mankind are under the law, as a covenant of works, till they willingly forsake it, and fly to the gospel for refuge by faith in Christ. There are but two constitutions that God has set up in our world, by which mankind can obtain life, namely, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, or the law and gospel; and all mankind are under the one, or the other. We are all of us, my brethren, under one or other of these constitutions: for to be from under both of them is the same thing as to be lawless, and to be under no plan of life at all. And would you know whether you are set free from the law, and placed under the covenant of grace? St. Paul, who knew it both by his own experience, and by inspiration from heaven, will inform you.

1. You have been made deeply sensible of sin and condemnation by the law (Rom 3:20; Rom 8:7). Has the law ever had these effects upon you, my brethren? Have you ever had such a conviction of sin and condemnation by it? If not, you are still under it.

2. If you have been delivered from the law, you have been cut off from all hopes of obtaining justification by your own obedience to it; you have given up this point as altogether desperate; or, in the strong language of the apostle, you have been slain by the law. When the commandment came, sin revived and I died (Rom 8:9).

3. If you have been set at liberty from the law, and brought under the covenant of grace, you have believed in Christ, and fled to the gospel, as the only way of escape from the bondage and condemnation of the law. It is-the uniform doctrine of the apostle, that it is by faith only that this happy change is brought about in our condition.

4. If you are under the covenant of grace, then you are not willing slaves to sin, but make it your great business to live to God. I through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God (Gal 2:19). And do you thus live to God, sirs? Is this the great business and constant endeavour of your whole life? If not, you are not under grace, but under the law, the Egyptian task-master, who demands perfect obedience, but gives no ability to perform it. (President Davies, M. A.)

Works a hindrance to salvation

I have heard of one who fell into the water and sank, and a strong swimmer standing on the shore did not at the same instant plunge in, though fully resolved to rescue him. The man went down the second time, and then he who would rescue him was in the water swimming near him, but not too near, waiting very cautiously till his time came. He who was drowning was a strong, energetic man, and the other was too prudent to expose himself to the risk of being dragged under by his struggles. He let the man go down for the third time, and then he knew that his strength was quite exhausted, and swimming to him he grasped him and drew him to shore. If he had seized him at first, while the drowning man had strength, they would have gone down together. The first part of human salvation is the sentence of death upon all human power and merit. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

.

Under arrest

I. The unhappy period–Before faith came.

1. We had no idea of faith by nature. It would never occur to the human mind that we could be saved by believing in Jesus.

2. When we heard of faith as the way of salvation we did not understand it. We could not persuade ourselves that the words used by the preacher had their common and usual meaning.

3. We saw faith in others, and wondered at its results; but we could not exercise it for ourselves.

4. We could not reach to faith, even when we began to see its necessity, admitted its efficacy, and desired to exercise it. The reason of this inability was moral, not mental.

5. We were without the Spirit of God, and therefore incapable. We do not wish to go back to the state in which we were before faith came, for it was one of darkness, misery, impotence, hopelessness, sinful rebellion, self-conceit, and condemnation.

II. The custody we were in–Kept under the law, shut up.

1. We were always within the sphere of law. In fact, there is no getting out of it. As all the world was only one prison for a man who offended Caesar, so is the whole universe no better than a prison for a sinner.

2. We were always kicking against the bounds of the law, sinning, and pining because we could not sin more.

3. We dared not overleap it altogether, and defy its power. Thus, in the case of many of us, it checked us, and held us captive with its irksome forbiddings and commandings.

4. We could not find rest. The law awakened conscience, and fear and shame attend such an awakening.

5. We could not discover a hope; for, indeed, there is none to discover while we abide under the law.

6. We could not even fall into the stupor of despair; for the law excited life, though it forbade hope. Among the considerations which held us in bondage were these: The spirituality of the law, touching thoughts, motives, desires. The need of perfect obedience, making one sin fatal to all hope of salvation by works. The requirement that each act of obedience should be perfect. The necessity that perfect obedience should be continual throughout the whole of life.

III. The revelation which set us free–The faith which should afterwards be revealed. The only thing which could bring us out of prison was faith. Faith came, and then we understood–

1. What was to be believed.

2. What it was to believe. We saw that it was trust, implicit and sincere.

3. Why we believed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

.

Law and gospel

The law and the gospel are two keys. The law is the key that shutteth up all men under condemnation, and the gospel is the key which opens the door and lets them out. (William Tyndale.)

Shut up unto the faith

To let you more effectually into the meaning of this expression, it may be right to state that in the preceding clause, kept under the law, the term, kept, is, in the original Greek, derived from a word which signifies a sentinel. The mode of conception is altogether military. The law is made to act the part of a sentry, guarding every avenue but one, and that one leads those who are compelled to take it to the faith of the gospel. They are shut up to this faith as their only alternative–like an enemy driven by the superior tactics of an opposing general, to take up the only position in which they can maintain themselves, or fly to the only town in which they can find a refuge or a security. This seems to have been a favourite style of argument with Paul, and the way in which he often carried on an intellectual warfare with the enemies of his Masters cause. It forms the basis of that masterly and decisive train of reasoning which we have in his Epistle to the Romans. By the operation of skilful tactics, he (if we may be allowed the expression) manoeuvred them, and shut them up to the faith of the gospel. It gave prodigious effect to his argument, when he reasoned with them, as he often does, upon their own principles, and turned them into instruments of conviction against themselves. With the Jews he reasoned as a Jew. He made use of the Jewish law as a sentinel to shut them out of every other refuge, and to shut them up to the refuge laid before them in the gospel. He led them to Christ by a schoolmaster whom they could not refuse; and the lesson of this schoolmaster, though a very decisive, was a very short one–Cursed be he that continueth not in all the words of the law to do them. But in point of fact, they had not done them. To them, then, belonged the curse of the violated law. The awful severity of its sanctions was upon them. They found the faith and the free offer of the gospel to be the only avenue open to receive them. They were shut up unto this avenue; and the law, by concluding them all to be under sin, left them no other outlet but the free act of grace and of mercy laid before us in the New Testament. (Dr. Chalmers.)

The law was meant to prepare men for Christ

By showing them that there is no other way of salvation except through Him. It had two especial ends: the first was to bring the people who lived under it into a consciousness of the deadly dominion of sin, to shut them up, as it were, into a prison-house out of which only one door of escape should be visible, namely, the door of faith in Jesus; the second intention was to fence about and guard the chosen race to whom the law was given–to keep them as a peculiar people separate from all the world, so that at the proper time the gospel of Christ might spring forth and go out from them as the joy and comfort of the whole human race. (T. G. Rooke.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 22. But the scripture hath concluded] All the writings of the prophets have uniformly declared that men are all sinners, and the law declares the same by the continual sacrifices which it prescribes. All, therefore have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and, being tried and found guilty, , the Scripture hath shut them up-put them in prison, and locked them up, till the time should come in which the sentence of the law should be executed upon them: (See Ro 3:9-20, and the notes there; and particularly Ro 11:32, where the apostle uses the same metaphor, and which in the note is particularly explained.)

That the promise of justification, by faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that believe.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

But the Sripture hath concluded all under sin: it pleased God to give a law, which, if Adam had continued in his estate of innocence, might have given life; but considering man in his lapsed state, that now is not possible: Rom 2:10; There is none righteous, no not one: and Eph 2:3; We are all children of wrath.

That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe; that the promises of life and salvation might be given to those who, according to the new covenant of the gospel, should receive and accept of the Mediator, and the terms of salvation which God offers to us in the gospel; where these promises are exhibited upon condition of believing. Though, upon our first reflection upon it, it may seem strange to us, that God, having in his eternal counsels fixed the salvation of man upon a conenant of grace, and his believing in Jesus Christ, should in time first propound a covenant of works: Do this, and live; yet, upon second thoughts, this will appear necessary; for till man was a transgressor by breaking the law, and violating the first covenant, there was no room for a Mediator, no cause for mens applying themselves to a Mediator. God therefore first gave out the covenant of works, and suffered man to break it; and then he revealed the Mediator to lapsed man; that so they who should believe in him might obtain the promise of life, to which by the fall they had forfeited their right.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

22. Butas the law cannot givelife or righteousness [ALFORD].Or the “But” means, So far is righteousness frombeing of the law, that the knowledge of sin is rather whatcomes of the law [BENGEL].

the scripturewhichbegan to be written after the time of the promise, at the time whenthe law was given. The written letter was needed SO asPERMANENTLY to convict manof disobedience to God’s command. Therefore he says, “theScripture,” not the “Law.” Compare Ga3:8, “Scripture,” for “the God of the Scripture.”

concluded“shutup,” under condemnation, as in a prison. Compare Isa24:22, “As prisoners gathered in the pit and shut up in theprison.” Beautifully contrasted with “the liberty wherewithChrist makes free,” which follows, Gal 3:7;Gal 3:9; Gal 3:25;Gal 3:26; Gal 5:1;Isa 61:1.

allGreekneuter, “the universe of things”: the whole world, man, andall that appertains to him.

under sin (Rom 3:9;Rom 3:19; Rom 11:32).

the promisetheinheritance promised (Ga 3:18).

by faith of Jesus Christthatis which is by faith in Jesus Christ.

might be givenTheemphasis is on “given”: that it might be a free gift;not something earned by the works of the law (Ro6:23).

to them that believetothem that have “the faith of (in) Jesus Christ” just spokenof.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin,…. By the “Scripture” is meant, either the writing of the law in particular, the killing letter, or the whole Scripture, or God in it; and who by and in it has shown, declared, and proved, that all the individuals of human nature, Jews and Gentiles, and all that is in them, and done by them, are under the power and dominion of sin, defiled by it, and involved in the guilt of it; for it is not , “all persons”, but , “all things”, belonging to all persons; all the members of their bodies, and faculties of their souls; all their thoughts, inclinations, and intentions; all their works and services, even their best righteousness, which is as filthy rags; all are declared to be sinful and polluted, and men on account of them to be guilty before God, and liable to punishment; from whence there can be no escape by the law of works; for they are like men concluded, or shut up in a prison, from which there is no apparent likelihood of deliverance: now the Spirit of God, discovering to men this their wretched and desperate condition, under the law and sin, reveals Christ and his righteousness to them, and enables and encourages them to believe in him, by whom only they can be justified from all things, they cannot by the law of Moses, in which they see themselves shut up, as in a prison:

that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe; by the “promise” is intended, the promise of life and salvation, and particularly of a justifying righteousness; which is given, not merited; righteousness is a gift, a gift of grace, a free gift, and so is eternal life; salvation in all its parts is of free grace; Christ is a free gift, and so are all things along with him; yea, faith itself, by which they are received, it is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; Christ is the author and finisher, as well as the object of it; and therefore here called “the faith of Jesus Christ”: and such that have it, to them the promise, or the things promised, righteousness and life are given, which the law could not give; not to them that work, but to them that believe: thus the law is so far from being against the promises of God, that it is subservient to them; for though the law has no tendency in itself to bring persons to Christ, and to believe in him for righteousness, yet this concluding men under sin, showing them their desperate, and hopeless, and helpless condition, the Spirit of God takes occasion from hence to reveal Christ unto them, and to enable them as perishing creatures to venture on him, and lay hold on the hope set before them in the Gospel; and so they come to enjoy the grand promise of it, even life and salvation by Christ.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Hath shut up (). Did shut together. First aorist active indicative of , old verb to shut together, on all sides, completely as a shoal of fish in a net (Lu 5:6). So verse Gal 3:23; Rom 11:32.

Under sin ( ). See in verse 10. As if the lid closed in on us over a massive chest that we could not open or as prisoners in a dungeon. He uses (the all things), the totality of everything. See Rom 3:10-19; Rom 11:32.

That (). God’s purpose, personifying scripture again.

Might be given (). First aorist passive subjunctive of with .

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

But it is not true that the law gives life, for the law, according to scripture, condemned all alike.

The scripture [ ] . Scripture is personified. See on verse 8. Hath concluded [] . Better, hath shut up, as a jailer. Only in Paul, with the exception of Luk 5:6. Frequent in LXX Not included with others, but confined as within an enclosure, as Luk 5:6, of the net enclosing the fish. Comp. Exo 14:3; Jos 6:1; 1 Macc. 4 31. Scripture, in its divine utterances on the universality and guilt of sin, is conceived as a jailer who shuts all up in sin as in a prison. Comp. Rom 3:10 – 19; Rom 11:32.

All [ ] . Neuter, all things collectively : = all men. For the neuter in a similar comprehensive sense, see 1Co 1:27; Col 1:20; Eph 1:10.

That [] . In order that. That which is represented through a personification as the act of Scripture, is the act of God, according to a definite purpose that the promise should be inherited by believers only, through faith in Jesus Christ.

The promise [ ] . That is, the thing promised; the inheritance, verse 18.

By faith [ ] . Const. with the promise, not with might be given. The promised gift which is the result of faith. The false teachers claimed that it was the result of works.

To them that believe [ ] . Not tautological. Even the Judaisers held that salvation was intended for believers, but also that legal obedience was its procuring cause; against which Paul asserts that it is simply for those that believe.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1 ) “But the scripture hath concluded,” (alla suekleisen he graphe) “But the scripture has shut up (shut out), in close affinity, close colleague, the same class,” to convict all of sin, and each of sin-guilt, Deu 27:26; 1Ki 8:46; Rom 3:19.

2) “All under sin,” (ta panta hupo hamartian) “All mankind (without respect of persons) under sin,” under the condemnation, classification of sin-creatures, all families of Abraham, after the flesh, as well as all human beings, Rom 3:9; Rom 3:23; Rom 6:23.

3) “That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ,” (hina he epangellia ek pisteos lesou Christou) “In order that the promise by faith of (in) Jesus Christ,” or (Gk. ek) “out of the media of faith,” of or in Jesus Christ, apparently referring to the Gift of faith, without which none can be saved, Heb 11:6; 1Co 13:13; Joh 1:11-12. Both Jesus Christ the object of Faith’s promise and the gift of faith have their source and fountainhead in Jesus Christ.

4) “Might be given to them that believe,” (dothe tois pisteuousin) “might be given (doled out) to the ones believing, a) before the law, b) under the law, and c) after the law was fulfilled, abrogated in the sense of an approved program of worship and service, Act 10:43; Rom 1:16; Gal 3:26. As surely as God kept His promise to send His Son, so sure shall all who believe in His Son receive eternal life, Joh 10:27-29.

FULFILLING PROMISES

Sir William Napier one day met a poor child who was crying bitterly because she had broken her bowl. Having no money with him, he promised to meet her in the same place and the same hour next day, and give her money to buy another. Reaching home, he found an invitation to dine out with a gentleman whom he particularly wished to see; but he declined it on account of his pre-engagement with the child. “I could not disappoint her, she trusted me so implicitly,” he said.

-Gray-Adams

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

22. The Scripture hath concluded. By the word Scripture is chiefly intended the law itself. It “hath concluded all under sin,” and therefore, instead of giving, it takes away righteousness from all. The reasoning is most powerful. “You seek righteousness in the law: but the law itself, with the whole of Scripture, leaves nothing to men but condemnation; for all men, with their works, are pronounced to be unrighteous: who then shall live by the law?” He alludes to these words,

“

He who shall do these things, shall live in them.” (Lev 18:5.)

Shut out by it, says he, from life through guilt, in vain should we seek salvation by the law. — The word translated all ( τὰ πάντα) signifies all things, and conveys more than if he had said all men; for it embraces not only men, but every thing which they possess or can accomplish.

That the promise by faith. There is no remedy but to throw away the righteousness of works, and betake ourselves to the faith of Christ. The result is certain. If works come into judgment, we are all condemned; therefore we obtain, by the faith of Christ, a free righteousness. This sentence is full of the highest consolation. It tells us that, wherever we hear ourselves condemned in Scripture, there is help provided for us in Christ, if we betake ourselves to him. We are lost, though God were silent: why then does he so often pronounce that we are lost? It is that we may not perish by everlasting destruction, but, struck and confounded by such a dreadful sentence, may by faith seek Christ, through whom we “pass from death into life.” (1Jo 3:14.) By a figure of speech, ( μετωνυμία,) in which the thing containing is put for the thing contained, the promise denotes that which is promised.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(22) The scripture.Slightly personified.

Hath concluded.The same peculiar word occurs in Rom. 11:32, with a similar sense. It means to shut up, hem in, prevent from straying either to the right hand or to the left, as a shepherd shuts up his flock in the fold.

All.This is put in the neuter gender, but only to give a more complete universality to the statement. What is meant is all mankind.

The promise by faith of Jesus Christ.The promise which originates in faith in Christ, which derives its fulfilment from faith, is due to faith.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

22. But But the reversive conjunction introduces the terrible reverse fact.

The Scripture Revelation; not in one passage or so alone, but in its whole tenor.

Hath concluded Or shut up; that is, in thought and declaration. What Scripture is here represented as doing, God is said to do in Rom 11:32. Taking us off from the basis of law, yielding that we are completely under sin, Scripture flings us upon faith of Jesus Christ for redemption.

All Neuter gender in the Greek, so as to signify the race as a whole mass. All, as in the nature of a fallen parent and under a perfect law, are under sin; and viewed as living human individuals are sure, sooner or later, to sin. Apart from Christ there would be no hope of holiness and life for any one of them. The introduction of a Saviour was the requisite condition of the propagation of the race. See note, Rom 11:32.

To them that believe Even under Jesus Christ there is a law, the law of faith and self-surrender. But this law gracious aids enable us to keep, and find a remedy for our short comings. But beware of inferring that the promise secures an unconditional salvation.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘But the Scripture has shut up (concluded) all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.’

Indeed the Scripture declares that through the Law’s teaching, and through ‘the Law written in the heart’ (the conscience – Rom 2:14-16), the whole world, indeed the whole of creation (Rom 8:20-22), is imprisoned by sin (Rom 3:10-23). It is shut up in darkness. It stands condemned. And this was so that what was promised, which is given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given, not to those who keep the Law, but to those who believe in Him and receive the promise. That is, it is given to those who receive the promised Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13; Act 1:4; Act 2:33) and the promise of salvation through Christ (Act 13:23; Act 13:32; Act 26:6; Rom 1:1-2; 2Ti 1:1; 2Pe 1:4). They come from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God (Act 26:18).

Old Testament passages that demonstrate that man is utterly sinful and ‘imprisoned’ by sin are abundant. See for example Psa 130:3; Psa 143:2; Jer 17:9; Isa 1:5-6 compare Psa 142:7; Isa 61:1 Isa 42:7; Zec 9:11-12). And that is why in the end One had to come Who was without sin, so that He could bear the sin of the guilty (Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Gal 3:22. All The words are used here for all men. In Rom 3:9; Rom 3:19 the Apostle expresses the same thing by , all men, and , all the world: but, speaking in the present verse of the Jews in particular, he says we, meaning those of his own nation, as is evident from Gal 3:24-25. Hath concluded all under sin, means, “hath ranked them all together, as one guilty race of sinners.” See this proved, Rom 1:18; Rom 1:32; Rom 3:9. To the same purpose of putting both Jews and Gentiles into one state, St. Paul uses, Hath shut them up all together, Rom 11:32. Some render Gal 3:23. But before faith came, we were kept shut up under the law, till the future faith should be revealed.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Gal 3:22 . But the case supposed ( . ) does not exist: for, on the contrary, according to the Scriptures all men have been subjected to the dominion of sin, and the purpose of God therein was, that the promised salvation should not come from the law, but should be bestowed on believers on account of faith in Christ. What sort of position is assigned under these circumstances to the law , is then stated in Gal 3:23 .

. . .] Scripture is personified, as in Gal 3:8 . That which God has done, because it is divinely revealed and attested in Scripture (see Rom 3:9-19 ) and thereby appears an infallible certainty , is represented as the act of Scripture , which the latter, as in its utterances the professed self-revelation of God, has accomplished . The Scripture that is, when regarded apart from the personification, God, according to the divine testimony of the Scripture has brought all into ward under sin , that is, has put the whole of mankind without exception into the relation of bondage, in which sin (comp. Rom 3:9 ) has them, as it were, under lock and key, so that they cannot escape from this control and attain to moral freedom. On the figurative expression, and on the conception of the matter as a divine measure (not a mere declaration), compare on Rom 11:32 . Following Chrysostom ( ) and others, Hermann finds the sense: “ per legem demum cognitum esse peccatum ” (Rom 7:7 f., Gal 3:19 ff.), which, however, does not correspond with the significance of the carefully-chosen , and is also at variance with , which is by no means as, following the Fathers (but not Theodoret), Beza, Calvin, Baumgarten-Crusius and others think equivalent to , but denotes the O.T., whilst in the whole connection is the institute of the law. The bond of guilt which is implied in the dominion of sin is obvious of itself, without any need for explaining as the guilt of sin.

Moreover, the emphasis is on the prefixed : included , so that freedom, that is, the attainment of , is not to be thought of. , however, does not denote: to include together, with one another , as Bengel, Usteri, and others hold (not even in Rom 11:32 ), which is clearly proved by the fact that the word is very often used of the shutting up of one , unaccompanied by others (1Sa 24:19 ; Psa 31:9 ; Polyb. xi. 2. 10; 1Ma 11:66 ; 1Ma 12:7 ); but corresponds to the idea of complete custody, so that the enclosed are entirely and absolutely held in by the barriers in question. Comp. Herod, vii. 129: , Eur. Hec . 487; Polyb. i. 17. 8, i. 51. 10, iii. 117. 11; also Plat. Tim . p. 71 C, where it is used with ; 1Ma 4:31 ; 1Ma 5:5 . Una includere would be , Herod. i. 182; Lucian, Vit. auct . 9, D. mort . xiv. 4.

] the collective whole , not: all which man ought to do (Ewald), but like , Rom 11:32 . The neuter used of persons , who are thus brought under the point of view of the general category: the totality . See on 1Co 1:27 ; Arrian. v. 22. 1. According to Calvin, Beza, Wolf, Bengel, and others (comp. also Hofmann), is supposed to refer not merely to men, but also to everything which they are, have, or do . But the figurative , and also the context by and the personal indications contained in Gal 3:23 ff., give the preference to our interpretation. Besides, , taken of things, would mean all things (Xen. Mem . i. 11; Rom 11:36 , et al .), which is here unsuitable. Comp. on the matter itself, Rom 3:9 ; Rom 3:19

. . .] the purpose of God , because that which was previously represented as the action of Scripture was in reality the action of God . Therefore we must not (with Semler, Koppe, Rosenmller, Flatt, Winer, Matthias, and others) explain logice: quo appareat dari , etc.

] that which was promised , a sense which the abstract receives through . Comp. Gal 3:14 . That which is meant is the promised gift, already well known from the context, namely, the , Gal 3:16 ; Gal 3:18 .

] not from obedience to the law, which with that subjection under the control of sin was impossible, but so that the divine bestowal proceeds, as regards its subjective cause, from faith in Jesus Christ; comp. Gal 3:8 . The emphasis is on this . . ., and not on (Hofmann); see Gal 3:23 ff.

] is explained by Winer and others as an apparent tautology arising from the importance of this proposition (and therefore emphatic ); but without adequate ground (and passages such as Gal 3:9 , Rom 1:17 , Phi 3:9 , are not relevant here); the expression, on the contrary, is quite in keeping with the circumstances of the Galatians. That salvation was intended for believers , was not denied; but they held to the opinion that obedience to the law must necessarily be the procuring cause of this salvation. Paul therefore says: in order that, in virtue of faith in Jesus Christ , not in virtue of obedience to the law, salvation should be given to the believers so that thus the believers have no need of anything further than faith. Comp. Gal 5:4 f.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Ver. 22. But the Scripture ] The law and the prophets.

Hath concluded all ] Gr. Hath clapped them up close prisoners. All in the neuter gender (both men and women), to prevent cavils, .

That the promise, &c. ] That he might have mercy upon all, Rom 11:32 . See Trapp on “ Rom 11:32 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

22 .] But on the contrary ( , not : comp. Ellic. This not being the case, no law being given out of which could come righteousness) the Scripture (not the Law, as Chrys. and most of the Fathers, also Calv., Beza, al.; but as in Gal 3:8 , the Author of Scripture, speaking by that His witness) shut up (not subjective, as Chrys., . , for it is their objective state of incapacity to attain righteousness which is here brought out: nor ‘conclusit omnes simul,’ as Bengel, al.: the preposition enhances the force of , as in ‘contraho,’ , &c.: see note Rom 11:32 , where the same expression occurs. “The word is beautifully chosen, to set off more clearly the idea of Christian freedom by and by.” Windischmann: cf. ch. Gal 5:1 . Nor has . merely a declaratory sense, as Bull, Examen Censur xix. 6, ‘conclusos involutos declaravit,’ al.) all (neuter, as indicating the entirety of mankind and man’s world: ‘humana omnia,’ as Jowett: cf. reff. I think (against Ellic. Exo 2 ) that we must hold fast this) under sin, in order that (the intention of God, as in Rom 11:32 ; not the mere result , here or any where else. Beware of such an assertion as Burton’s, quoted also by Peile; “ here implies, not the cause, but the consequence, as in many places.” never implies any thing of the sort; nor does any one of the examples he gives bear him out) the promise (i.e. the things promised the , cf. Gal 3:16 ; Gal 3:18 ) (which is) by (depends upon, is conditioned by) faith of (which has for its object and its Giver is a matter altogether belonging to) Jesus Christ (q. d. . .0: but the article in such sentences is frequently omitted, especially where no distinction is intended between the subject and another of the same kind: cf. . . below, Gal 3:26 , , Eph 6:5 , &c.

The words . cannot well be taken with without harshness, especially as intervenes, and is already expressed. Besides, in this case they would most naturally come first, . . . . .) might be given (be a free gift has the emphasis) to them that believe ( having the emphasis, . does no more than take up . above; q. d. ‘to those who fulfil that condition’).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Gal 3:22 . The real function of the Law was not to justify but to convict of sin, that men might the more readily turn in humble faith to Christ for relief from the burden of an accusing conscience. . The Old Testament was always designated by the plural in apostolic times, for the several books were preserved in separate rolls and did not form a single whole. Here, therefore, points to some particular passage of the Law to which the author has already drawn attention as embodying its spirit. The passage of Deu 27:26 quoted in Gal 3:10 answers this description, for it imprecates a curse on all who fell short of perfect obedience. . The figure here presented of prisoners under sentence, condemned to pay the penalty of sin, makes it clear that the object of is persons , not things: and accordingly these prisoners are described in Gal 3:23 as (masc.). A neuter plural substantive must therefore be understood with which is applicable to persons. Hence I infer that by is meant , i.e. , all the families of Abraham after the flesh, in other words the whole Jewish nation. The design of the Law was to pave the way for the eventual fulfilment of the promise to all that believe by faith in Christ.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Galatians

THE UNIVERSAL PRISON

Gal 3:22 .

The Apostle uses here a striking and solemn figure, which is much veiled for the English reader by the ambiguity attaching to the word ‘concluded.’ It literally means ‘shut up,’ and is to be taken in its literal sense of confining, and not in its secondary sense of inferring. So, then, we are to conceive of a vast prison-house in which mankind is confined. And then, very characteristically, the Apostle passes at once to another metaphor when he goes on to say ‘under sin.’ What a moment before had presented itself to his vivid imagination as a great dungeon is now represented as a heavy weight, pressing down upon those beneath; if, indeed, we are not, perhaps, rather to think of the low roof of the dark dungeon as weighing on the captives.

Further, he says that Scripture has driven men into this captivity. That, of course, cannot mean that revelation makes us sinners, but it does mean that it makes us more guilty, and that it declares the fact of human sinfulness as no other voice has ever done. And then the grimness of the picture is all relieved and explained, and the office ascribed to God’s revelation harmonised with God’s love, by the strong, steady beam of light that falls from the last words, which tell us that the prisoners have not been bound in chains for despair or death, but in order that, gathered together in a common doleful destiny, they may become recipients of a common blessed salvation, and emerge into liberty and light through faith in Jesus Christ.

So here are three things–the prison-house, its guardian, and its breaker. ‘The Scripture hath shut up all under sin, in order that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given unto all them that believe.’

I. First, then, note the universal prison-house.

Now the Apostle says two things–and we may put away the figure and look at the facts that underlie it. The one is that all sin is imprisonment, the other is that all men are in that dungeon, unless they have come out of it through faith in Jesus Christ.

All sin is imprisonment. That is the direct contrary of the notion that many people have. They say to themselves, ‘Why should I be fettered and confined by these antiquated restrictions of a conventional morality? Why should I not break the bonds, and do as I like?’ And they laugh at Christian people who recognise the limitations under which God’s law has put them; and tell us that we are ‘cold-blooded folks who live by rule,’ and contrast their own broad ‘emancipation from narrow prejudice.’ But the reality is the other way. The man who does wrong is a slave in the measure in which he does it. If you want to find out–and mark this, you young people, who may be deceived by the false contrasts between the restraints of duty and the freedom of living a dissolute life–if you want to find out how utterly ‘he that committeth sin is the slave of sin,’ try to break it off, and you will find it out fast enough. We all know, alas! the impotence of the will when it comes to hand grips with some evil to which we have become habituated; and how we determine and determine, and try, and fail, and determine again, with no better result. We are the slaves of our own passions; and no man is free who is hindered by his lower self from doing that which his better self tells him he ought to do. The tempter comes to you, and says, ‘Come and do this thing, just for once. You can leave off when you like, you know. There is no need to do it a second time.’ And when you have done it, he changes his note, and says, ‘Ah! you are in, and you cannot get out. You have done it once; and in my vocabulary once means twice, and once and twice mean always .’

Insane people are sometimes tempted into a house of detention by being made to believe that it is a grand mansion, where they are just going to pay a flying visit, and can come away when they like. But once inside the walls, they never get past the lodge gates any more. The foolish birds do not know that there is lime on the twigs, and their little feet get fastened to the branch, and their wings flutter in vain. ‘He that committeth sin is the slave of sin–shut up,’ dungeoned, ‘under sin.’

But do not forget, either, the other metaphor in our text, in which the Apostle, with characteristic rapidity, and to the horror of rhetorical propriety, passes at once from the thought of a dungeon to the thought of an impending weight, and says, ‘Shut up under sin.’

What does that mean? It means that we are guilty when we have done wrong; and it means that we are under penalties which are sure to follow. No deed that we do, howsoever it may fade from the tablets of our memory, but writes in visible characters, in proportion to its magnitude, upon our characters and lives. All human acts have perpetual consequences. The kick of the rifle against the shoulder of the man that fires it is as certain as the flight of the bullet from its muzzle. The chalk cliffs that rise above the Channel entomb and perpetuate the relics of myriads of evanescent lives; and our fleeting deeds are similarly preserved in our present selves. Everything that a man wills, whether it passes into external act or not, leaves, in its measure, ineffaceable impressions on himself. And so we are not only dungeoned in, but weighed upon by, and lie under, the evil that we do.

Nor, dear friends, dare I pass in silence what is too often passed in silence in the modern pulpit, the plain fact that there is a future waiting for each of us beyond the grave, of which the most certain characteristic, certified by our own forebodings, required by the reasonableness of creation, and made plain by the revelation of Scripture, is that it is a future of retribution, where we shall have to carry our works; and as we have brewed so shall we drink; and the beds that we have made we shall have to lie upon. ‘God shut up all under sin.’

Note, again, the universality of the imprisonment.

Now I am not going to exaggerate, I hope. I want to keep well within the limits of fact, and to say nothing that is not endorsed by your own consciences, if you will be honest with yourselves. And I say that the Bible does not charge men universally with gross transgressions. It does not talk about the virtues that grow in the open as if they were splendid vices; but it does say, and I ask you if our own hearts do not tell us that it says truly, that no man is, or has been, does, or has done, that which his own conscience tells him he should have been and done. We are all ready to admit faults, in a general way, and to confess that we have come short of what our own consciousness tells us we ought to be. But I want you to take the other step, and to remember that since we each stand in a personal relation to God, therefore all imperfections, faults, negligences, shortcomings, and, still more, transgressions of morality, or of the higher aspirations of our lives, are sins. Because sin–to use fine words–is the correlative of God. Or, to put it into plainer language, the deeds which in regard to law may be crimes, or those which in regard to morality may be vices, or in regard to our own convictions of duty may be shortcomings, seeing they all have some reference to Him, assume a very much graver character, and they are all sins.

Oh, brethren, if we realise how intimately and inseparably we are knit to God, and how everything that we do, and do not do, but should have done, has an aspect in reference to Him, I think we should be less unwilling to admit, and less tinged with levity and carelessness in admitting, that all our faults are transgressions of His law, and we should find ourselves more frequently on our knees before Him, with the penitent words on our lips and in our hearts, ‘Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.’

That was the prayer of a man who had done a foul evil in other people’s sight; who had managed to accumulate about as many offences to as many people in one deed as was possible. For, as a king he had sinned against his nation, as a friend he had sinned against his companion, as a captain he had sinned against his brave subordinate, as a husband he had sinned against his wife, and he had sinned against Bathsheba. And yet, with all that tangle of offences against all these people, he says, ‘Against Thee, Thee only.’ Yes! Because, accurately speaking, the sin had reference to God, and to God alone. And I wish for myself and for you to cultivate the habit of connecting, thus, all our actions, and especially our imperfections and our faults, with the thought of God, that we may learn how universal is the enclosure of man in this dreadful prison-house.

II. And so, I come, in the second place, to look at the guardian of the prison.

That is a strange phrase of my text attributing the shutting of men up in this prison-house to the merciful revelation of God in the Scripture. And it is made still more striking and strange by another edition of the same expression in the Epistle to the Romans, where Paul directly traces the ‘concluding all in disobedience’ to God Himself.

There may be other subtle thoughts connected with that expression which I do not need to enter upon now. But one that I would dwell upon, for a moment, is this, that one great purpose of Scripture is to convince us that we are sinful in God’s sight. I do not need to remind you, I suppose, how that was, one might almost say, the dominant intention of the whole of the ceremonial and moral law of Israel, and explains its many else inexplicable and apparently petty commandments and prohibitions. They were all meant to emphasise the difference between right and wrong, obedience and disobedience, and so to drive home to men’s hearts the consciousness that they had broken the commandments of the living God. And although the Gospel comes with a very different guise from that ancient order, and is primarily gift and not law, a Gospel of forgiveness, and not the promulgation of duty or the threatening of condemnation, yet it, too, has for one of its main purposes, which must be accomplished in us before it can reach its highest aim in us, the kindling in men’s hearts of the same consciousness that they are sinful men in God’s sight.

Ah, brethren, we all need it. There is nothing that we need more than to have driven deep into us the penetrating point of that conviction. There must be some external standard by which men may be convinced of their sinfulness, for they carry no such standard within them. Your conscience is only you judging on moral questions, and, of course, as you change, it will change too. A man’s whole state determines the voice with which conscience shall speak to him, and so the worse he is, and the more he needs it, the less he has it. The rebels cut the telegraph wires. The waves break the bell that hangs on the reef, and so the black rocks get many a wreck to gnaw with their sharp teeth. A man makes his conscience dumb by the very sins that require a conscience trumpet-tongued to reprehend them. And therefore it needs that God should speak from Heaven, and say to us, ‘ Thou art the man,’ or else we pass by all these grave things that I am trying to urge upon you now, and fall back upon our complacency and our levity and our unwillingness to take stock of ourselves, and front the facts of our condition. And so we build up a barrier between ourselves and God, and God’s grace, which nothing short of that grace and an omnipotent love and an all-powerful Redeemer can ever pull down.

I wish to urge in a few words, yet with much earnestness, this thought, that until we have laid to heart God’s message about our own personal sinfulness we have not got to the place where we can in the least understand the true meaning of His Gospel, or the true work of His Son. May I say that I, for one, am old-fashioned enough to look with great apprehension on certain tendencies of present-day presentations of Christianity which, whilst they dwell much upon the social blessings which it brings, do seem to me to be in great peril of obscuring the central characteristic of the Gospel, that it is addressed to sinful men, and that the only way by which individuals can come to the possession of any of its blessings is by coming as penitent sinners, and casting themselves on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ? The beginning of all lies here, where Paul puts it, ‘the Scripture hath herded all men,’ in droves, into the prison, that it might have mercy upon all.

Dear friend, as the old proverb has it, deceit lurks in generalities. I have no doubt you are perfectly willing to admit that all are sinful. Come a little closer to the truth, I beseech you, and say each is sinful, and I am one of the captives.

III. And so, lastly, the breaker of the prison-house.

I need not spend your time in commenting on the final words of this text. Suffice it to gather their general purport and scope. The apparently stern treatment which God by revelation applies to the whole mass of mankind is really the tenderest beneficence. He has shut them up in the prison-house in order that, thus shut up, they may the more eagerly apprehend and welcome the advent of the Deliverer. He tells us each our state, in order that we may the more long for, and the more closely grasp, the great mercy which reverses the state. And so how shallow and how unfair it is to talk about evangelical Christianity as being gloomy, stern, or misanthropical! You do not call a doctor unkind because he tells an unsuspecting patient that his disease is far advanced, and that if it is not cured it will be fatal. No more should a man turn away from Christianity, or think it harsh and sour, because it speaks plain truths. The question is, are they true? not, are they unpleasant?

If you and I, and all our fellows, are shut up in this prison-house of sin, then it is quite clear that none of us can do anything to get ourselves out. And so the way is prepared for that great message with which Jesus opened His ministry, and which, whilst it has a far wider application, and reference to social as well as to individual evils, begins with the proclamation of liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

There was once a Roman emperor who wished that all his enemies had one neck, that he might slay them all at one blow. The wish is a fact in regard to Christ and His work, for by it all our tyrants have been smitten to death by one stroke; and the death of Jesus Christ has been the death of sin and death and hell–of sin in its power, in its guilt, and in its penalty. He has come into the prison-house, and torn the bars away, and opened the fetters, and every man may, if he will, come out into the blessed sunshine and expatiate there.

And if, brethren, it is true that the universal prison-house is opened by the death of Jesus Christ, who is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world, and the power by which the most polluted may become clean, then there follows, as plainly, that the only thing which we have to do is, recognising and feeling our bound impotence, to stretch out chained hands and take the gift that He brings. Since all is done for each of us, and since none of us can do sufficient for himself to break the bond, then what we should do is to trust to Him who has broken every chain and let the oppressed go free.

Oh, dear friend, if you want to get to the heart of the sweetness and the blessedness and power of the Gospel, you must begin here, with the clear and penitent consciousness that you are a sinful man in God’s sight, and can do nothing to cleanse, help, or liberate yourself. Is Jesus Christ the breaker of the bond for you? Do you learn from Him what your need is? Do you trust yourself to Him for Pardon, for cleansing, for emancipation? Unless you do, you will never know His most precious preciousness, and you have little right to call yourself a Christian. If you do, oh, than a great light will shine in the prison-house, and your chains will drop from your wrists, and the iron door will open of its own accord, and you will come out into the morning sunshine of a new day, because you have confessed and abhorred the bondage into which you have cast yourselves, and accepted the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

concluded. See Rom 11:32.

sin. Greek. hamartia. App-128. Compare Rom 3:10-18.

believe. App-150.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

22.] But on the contrary (, not : comp. Ellic. This not being the case,-no law being given out of which could come righteousness) the Scripture (not the Law, as Chrys. and most of the Fathers, also Calv., Beza, al.; but as in Gal 3:8, the Author of Scripture, speaking by that His witness) shut up (not subjective, as Chrys., . ,-for it is their objective state of incapacity to attain righteousness which is here brought out:-nor conclusit omnes simul, as Bengel, al.: the preposition enhances the force of , as in contraho, , &c.: see note Rom 11:32, where the same expression occurs. The word is beautifully chosen, to set off more clearly the idea of Christian freedom by and by. Windischmann: cf. ch. Gal 5:1. Nor has . merely a declaratory sense, as Bull, Examen Censur xix. 6, conclusos involutos declaravit, al.) all (neuter, as indicating the entirety of mankind and mans world: humana omnia, as Jowett: cf. reff. I think (against Ellic. ed. 2) that we must hold fast this) under sin, in order that (the intention of God, as in Rom 11:32; not the mere result, here or any where else. Beware of such an assertion as Burtons, quoted also by Peile;- here implies, not the cause, but the consequence, as in many places. never implies any thing of the sort; nor does any one of the examples he gives bear him out) the promise (i.e. the things promised-the , cf. Gal 3:16; Gal 3:18) (which is) by (depends upon, is conditioned by) faith of (which has for its object and its Giver-is a matter altogether belonging to) Jesus Christ (q. d. . .0: but the article in such sentences is frequently omitted, especially where no distinction is intended between the subject and another of the same kind: cf. . . below, Gal 3:26,- , Eph 6:5, &c.

The words . cannot well be taken with without harshness, especially as intervenes, and is already expressed. Besides, in this case they would most naturally come first,- . . . . .) might be given (be a free gift- has the emphasis) to them that believe ( having the emphasis, . does no more than take up . above; q. d. to those who fulfil that condition).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Gal 3:22. , but) So far is righteousness from being of the law, that the acknowledgment of sin is rather what comes of the law.-, hath concluded) It has comprehended sinners, that were formerly unconcerned [free from all alarm], and has concluded them all together; comp. inclosed [, of the multitude of fishes in the net], Luk 5:6.- , the Scripture) The Scripture, not God, is said to have concluded all under sin; although a concluding of that sort is elsewhere ascribed to God, Rom 11:32. Moreover, it is worthy of notice, that he says, the Scripture, not the law. Scripture began to be written, not at the time when the promise was made, but at the time when the law was given; for God stands to His promises even without writing: but it was necessary, that the perfidy [faithlessness to Gods commands] of the sinner should be rebuked by the written letter. Furthermore, in the subsequent clause also, that, etc., Paul touches upon something, which goes beyond the sphere of the law, not beyond that of Scripture.[31]- , all) Not only all men, but also all the things, which they are and have in their possession.

[31] And for this reason also, is here said, not .-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Gal 3:22

Gal 3:22

But the scripture shut up all things under sin,-The scripture then regarded both Jew and Gentile as under sin. All sinned, the Jew under the law, the Gentile from under it, that all as sinners might come through faith to Jesus and receive the forgiveness of sins, or might receive through faith the promises made to Abraham.

that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.-Because they were to be fulfilled and could be enjoyed only in Christ Jesus. So the Jews and the Gentiles could alike come to these promises through faith in Christ.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Chapter 19

The Faith of Christ

and

Our Faith in Christ

Gal 3:22-26

The Scriptures speak of both the faith of Christ and our faith in Christ. In Gal 3:19 Paul tells us that the law of God given at Mt. Sinai was given for a specific, designated period of time. It was added because of transgressions till the Seed (Christ) should come to whom the promise (the promise of Gods blessing, grace, and salvation) was made. In Gal 3:21 the apostle assures us that the law of God given at Sinai is not in any way against, or contrary to Gods covenant promise of salvation by Christ, and that it was never intended to produce righteousness. The law is, as Paul puts it in 2Co 3:7, the ministration of death. It has nothing to do with life. It cannot produce righteousness. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain (Gal 2:21).

Gal 3:22-26

Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin. The whole volume of Holy Scripture and particularly the killing letter of the law of God, declare that all men, all that is in us by nature, and all that is done by us are under the power, dominion, and guilt of sin. All the sons and daughters of fallen Adam are defiled, sinful, and guilty.

Pauls language is inclusive of all things relating to all men. All the members of our bodies. All the faculties of our souls. All the thoughts of our minds. All the emotions of our hearts. All the intentions of our wills. All our choices. All our works. All our services to God and men. Even all our best works of righteousness, which are but filthy rags. All are sinful and polluted. The Word of God declares that we are guilty and shuts us up as prisoners under the sentence of death, without hope in ourselves.

That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. The promise of life is the promise of eternal life and salvation, of everlasting righteousness and the never ending smile of divine approval. All included in the promise belongs to all who believe.

It is not our believing that fulfilled Gods covenant promise and brought in that blessed righteousness by which we now stand before him in life. The promise is given to all who believe. But the promise was fulfilled and comes to us by faith of Jesus Christ. It was Christ to whom the promise was made as our Surety in the everlasting covenant, upon condition of his obedience unto death as our Substitute. And it is Christ who obtained the promise by his faithful fulfillment of his covenant engagements as our Surety (Heb 10:5-14).

Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. What faith is Paul talking about here? Whose faith is this? Is it yours? Is it mine? The faith that came by which we were delivered from the curse of Gods holy law, by which we were justified, is the faith of Jesus Christ spoken of in Gal 3:22.

It is this, the faith of Jesus Christ, that is revealed to us by the gospel. We are shut up to Christ, the faith that is now revealed in the gospel. Our faith in Christ is not revealed to us, it is given to us and worked in us by the mighty operations of God the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:19-20; Eph 2:8-9; Col 1:12). It is Christ (the faith of Christ) who is revealed.

When God the Holy Spirit comes to chosen, redeemed sinners in the saving power of his omnipotent grace, he convinces them of all that Christ accomplished by his faithful obedience as our Substitute. When he reveals Christ in a person, he convinces him that his sin has been put away by Christs atonement, that righteousness has been brought in by Christs obedience, and that justice has been satisfied by Christs blood (Joh 16:8-11). And the sinner, being convinced of these things, trusts Christ.

Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Be sure to note that our translators put the words to bring us in italicized letters to call our attention to the fact that these words were added by them to make the sentence read more smoothly and that there are no corresponding words in the original language of the text. So Gal 3:24 would be more accurately translated, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster unto (or until) Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Everyone in Galatia would have understood exactly what Paul meant by comparing the law to a schoolmaster. A schoolmaster was a servant to whom a man would commit the care and education of his children until they reached maturity. It was his responsibility to teach and protect the children and see to it that they got their education. It was the laws purpose, like a schoolmaster, to direct Gods elect to Christ and make sure they get to Christ. It was our schoolmaster until Christ came and fulfilled it by his faithful obedience to it and satisfaction of it. Once that was done the schoolmasters service ended (Rom 10:4).

Now that the righteousness of the law has been fulfilled by Christs obedience in life as our Representative and the justice of the law has been fulfilled by Christs satisfaction of it in his death (Rom 4:25), we can be and are justified by faith. Because justification has been accomplished by Christ in the court of heaven, we can now be justified in the court of our own consciences by faith in Christ.

Faith looks away from self to Christ. Looking to Christ we see our justification fully accomplished in him and we are justified by him. Trusting Christ, we receive complete, final, full justification in him and have peace with God in him by whom we have now received the atonement (Rom 4:25 to Rom 5:12, Rom 5:18).

Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Since faith has come, that is to say, since Christ has come, we are no longer under the law. It was the laws purpose, like a schoolmaster, to direct Gods elect in the Mosaic age to Christ and make sure they got to Christ. It was the childrens schoolmaster until Christ came and fulfilled it by his faithful obedience to it and satisfaction of it. Once that was done the schoolmasters service ended (Rom 10:4).

Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Obviously, just as it is in the case of justification, our faith in Christ does not cause God to adopt us as his children. That was done in eternal election (Eph 1:3-6). Rather, our faith in Christ is the fruit and evidence of our adoption (Gal 4:6-7), just as it is the fruit and evidence of our justification. Our faith in Christ is the assurance of our adoption as the children of God. Believing on the Son of God, we stand before God with the confident assurance that we are justified, accepted in Christ, the children of God, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

The Faith of Christ

The Scriptures declare that we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. That means that our justification was totally accomplished by Christ, that it was accomplished outside our experience, altogether without us, by the faith (faithful obedience) of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Substitute. Paul uses this phrase, the faith of Christ, seven times in his writings (Rom 3:22; Gal 2:16; Gal 2:20; Gal 3:22; Eph 3:12; Php 3:9).

Every time he speaks of justification accomplished for us, he uses this phrase or its equivalent the faith of Jesus Christ. We have been conditioned to think of faith only in connection with ourselves. We believe in Christ. We trust the Son of God. He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. When we read in the Book of God about the faith of Christ we automatically think, That must just be an odd way of saying faith in Christ.

Correct Translation

That is exactly what the vast majority of the commentaries do with this phrase. They tell us the words, faith of Christ, really means, faith in Christ. These words, the faith of Christ, are commonly treated as though they were a mistranslation of the Greek text; but they are not a mistranslation. I have checked everyone of them carefully. Our translation is correct. Yet, almost every modern English translation (those great improvements upon the old, archaic King James Version) mistranslates this phrase and makes it read, faith in Christ. I do not think that the mistranslations were made accidentally!

We are told by the commentators and led by the modern translations to believe that the phrase is really just an odd way of saying faith in Christ and that it really refers to our faith in Christ. Such recklessness in handling the Word of God, be it deliberate or otherwise, completely alters the meaning of Holy Scripture.

Clear Distinction

When Paul speaks of our faith in Christ and of the faith of Christ as distinct things, the distinction is clear and unmistakable. When he speaks of our faith, it is obvious (Rom 3:25; Rom 3:28; Rom 4:5; Gal 3:26; Col 1:4). Theres no ambiguity at all. In these, and the dozens of other passages like them, there is no question about whose faith Paul is referring to. He is talking about our faith. And when he draws a distinction between our faith in Christ and the faith of Christ, the distinction is equally obvious (Rom 3:21-22; Gal 2:15-16; Gal 3:22; Php 3:9).

Both Vital

Paul is not simply declaring our faith in Christ twice in the same sentences, just in different ways. He is not being redundant. Not at all! When he speaks of the faith of Jesus Christ he is talking about Christs faith. When he speaks of our faith in Christ, he is talking about our faith. Both are vital. We could never be saved by our faith in Christ were it not for the faith of Christ; and we can never be saved by the faith of Christ until we have faith in Christ. Yes, we must have faith in Christ; and our faith in Christ is the result of the faith of Christ as our Savior while he was in this world.

Our Faithful Surety

The faith of Jesus Christ What exactly does that mean? When the Holy Spirit speaks about the faith of Jesus Christ, he is referring to our Saviors faithful performance of all the Fathers will as our covenant Surety, Substitute, and Redeemer. The faith of Jesus Christ refers to our Saviors fidelity as Jehovahs righteous Servant. It speaks of his faithful performance, in our place as our Substitute, of all that was necessary for the salvation of Gods elect. The faith of Jesus Christ refers to his faithfulness in accomplishing all that which the Father trusted to his hands as our Mediator (Eph 1:12).

Faith and Faithfulness

When the Word of God speaks about the faith of Christ, the word faith speaks both of our Saviors trust in God as the perfect man and of his faithfulness to God as his Servant. It speaks not only of trust, but also of loyalty and fidelity.

We see a clear example of the word faith being used this way in Rom 3:3-4. For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

When Paul speaks here of the faith of God, it is obvious that he is referring to the truthfulness, veracity, fidelity, and faithfulness of God. In fact, the word commonly translated faith in the New Testament is translated fidelity in Tit 2:10. There, when Paul exhorted servants to be faithful in all things to their masters, showing all good fidelity, the word could be translated, showing all good faith. It is in this sense that he uses the phrase the faith of Jesus Christ. Our justification was accomplished and eternal redemption was obtained for us by Christs faithfulness in doing all that he came here to do for us, according to the will of God (Mat 1:21; Heb 10:1-14).

Our Kinsman Redeemer

As portrayed in the book of Ruth, the Lord Jesus Christ is our Kinsman Redeemer. As Boaz did for Ruth all that she could not do for herself, what we could not do for ourselves Christ has done for us as our Substitute and Savior, as our Kinsman Redeemer. He took our place before the law of God, assumed total responsibility for us, obeyed the law perfectly, bringing in everlasting righteousness, and died under the penalty of the law, satisfying all its holy demands by his death upon the cursed tree, when he was made to be sin for us.

Redemption, as described in the law and illustrated in the book of Ruth, required two things on the part of the redeemer. First, the redeemer had to be able and willing to redeem. Second, he had to faithfully perform all that was required by the law to buy back the lost inheritance of his needy kinsman.

The one needing redemption was totally dependent upon the faithfulness of the kinsman redeemer for deliverance. Ruth laid herself down at Boazs feet, looking to him alone for everything her soul required. And she found all in him. He would not rest until he had performed the thing.

So it was with us. The debt and penalty of our sins was one from which we could not escape. The righteousness required by Gods holy law we could not perform. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified! None of our works, no matter how well intentioned, no matter how well performed, can propitiate Gods justice and justify us in his sight. We desperately need and must have a Redeemer, One who is able and willing to do everything required by Gods holy law and justice for us. We must have a Redeemer who is able and willing, but more. We must have a Redeemer who has actually stepped out onto the stage of time and faithfully performed all the work for us. Behold the Man! Here is our mighty Boaz, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal 4:4-5). Thanks be to God for the faith of Jesus Christ and the redemption, justification and salvation he accomplished by his faithfulness as our Substitute and Surety!

The Verses

Look at the passages in which Paul uses this tremendous phrase, The faith of Jesus Christ, and rejoice in the glorious good news of the gospel redemption obtained and justification accomplished by the faithful obedience of Christ as the sinners Substitute.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference (Rom 3:21-22).

We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Gal 2:15-16).

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe (Gal 3:22).

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith (Php 3:9).

Free Salvation

The righteousness of God, justification, the promise of justification unto eternal life, does not come and could never come through something we do. Never! Salvation is of the Lord! It has been accomplished and comes to sinners by the faith of Jesus Christ (Eph 1:11-12; Eph 3:8-12). It costs our Savior dear; but the salvation he gives is a totally free salvation. In him we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. The Father trusted his darling Son as our Surety from eternity and he was faithful to that trust.

Truly, the riches of Christ are unsearchable riches! By his faithful obedience unto death in our room and stead, every sinner who trusts him has been made completely worthy of Gods everlasting approval in heavens eternal glory, and shall have it. Let us give thanks to our great God for such grace by such a Savior (Col 1:12-14). The life we now have and enjoy in Christ, that eternal life which is Gods free gift to us, comes to us by the faith of the Son of God (Gal 2:19-20).

Our Faith in Christ

Does all of this mean that sinners must not be called upon to believe in Christ? Does this mean that faith in Christ is unnecessary? Not at all! Our faith in Christ is every bit as necessary for our eternal salvation as the faith of Christ as our Savior. The Scriptures speak just as often and just as forcefully about our faith in Christ as they do of the faith of Christ as our Surety and Mediator (Act 3:16; Act 24:24; Rom 3:25; Gal 3:26; Eph 1:15; Col 1:4; Col 2:5).

We call upon sinners everywhere to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do so with this word from God Almighty. This is a sure thing. It is a lead pipe synch. He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. We say to sinners everywhere exactly what Paul said to the Philippian jailor when he came trembling and fell down at the apostles feet crying, What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!

If you trust Christ, you now live by the faith of the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you. You have redemption, righteousness, justification, and eternal life. You have everything included in that magnificently huge word SALVATION! It was all obtained for you by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even your faith in him, and mine, were obtained for us by the faith of Jesus Christ. No wonder Paul speaks as he does in 1Co 1:30-31. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

concluded: Gal 3:8-10, Gal 3:23, Psa 143:2, Rom 3:9-20, Rom 3:23, Rom 5:12, Rom 5:20, Rom 11:32

that: Gal 3:14, Gal 3:17, Gal 3:29, Rom 4:11-16, Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21, 2Ti 1:1, Heb 6:13-17, Heb 9:15, 2Pe 1:4, 2Pe 3:13, 1Jo 2:25, 1Jo 5:11-13

to: Mar 16:16, Joh 3:15-18, Joh 3:36, Joh 5:24, Joh 6:40, Joh 11:25, Joh 11:26, Joh 12:46, Joh 20:31, Act 16:31, Rom 10:9, 1Jo 3:23, 1Jo 3:24, 1Jo 5:13

Reciprocal: Exo 19:24 – lest Num 35:32 – General Deu 5:25 – this great 1Sa 26:8 – delivered 1Ki 8:46 – there is no man Job 15:14 – is man Eze 18:4 – the soul that Mat 3:14 – I have Mat 7:11 – being Luk 10:26 – General Act 10:43 – whosoever Act 20:21 – faith Act 24:25 – Felix Rom 2:12 – in the law Rom 3:19 – and all the Rom 3:27 – but by Rom 4:2 – but Rom 4:16 – of faith Rom 9:17 – For 2Co 1:20 – all Gal 2:16 – but Gal 4:30 – what Eph 2:3 – we Eph 2:8 – through Phi 3:9 – which is of the Jam 2:23 – the scripture Jam 3:2 – in

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

GODS GIFTS AND MANS FAITH

The promise by faith of Jesus Christ given to them that believe.

Gal 3:22

It would be difficult to say what portion of Holy Scripture can be of more vital moment to us than this. It is important both as regards its main subject, namely, the promises of God to man in Jesus Christ, and also in reference to ourselves, in teaching us how and by what means we obtain the benefit of those promises.

I. All Gods blessings to us, through the Redemption of Christ, are a free gift.This is the first and central idea of the whole. Man had done nothing to deserve them. How could he? It would be an absurdity to talk of mans doing anything to deserve Gods gifts when you come to consider what the blessings of Christs Redemption really are. For the benefits of Christs Redemption consist in thisnamely, redeeming us from the power of evil and of sin.

II. It is faith which is the means whereby we obtain the healing or salvation which God has wrought.God heals us. God provides us the strength and power to become holy, just, and good, instead of sinful, corrupt, and wicked. But the reason that so few persons become what they should beand what they might beis, that in their common everyday life they forget God, that it is only by Gods constant help that they can remain good, and that the moment they go alone, as you may say, they are sure to go back. The fact is that they do not lead believing lives.

III. See how all this is practically set before us in those Sacraments of the Gospel which Christ has ordained for our souls life and health. To begin with, there is Baptism. Baptism teaches us that God has chosen to make us His children; and that what we have to do isnot to make ourselves His children, butto live as His children. But how? How can we live as His children? Here again Gods mercy is with usHis free mercy, not of our deserving, but of His goodness. So long as we live in dependence upon His help, i.e. so long as we live by faith, so long He will find us the power to live as His children. The Holy Communion teaches us that God provides our souls with a food which shall keep up our spiritual life, i.e. that God feeds his children with a Divine food by which their relationship to their Divine Father is kept up and kept alive. We do not make the food which feeds our souls any more than we made ourselves Gods children. God makes it, and God gives it.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Gal 3:22. -But the Scripture shut up all under sin. is strongly adversative-but, on the contrary,-the statement following being in direct contradiction to the preceding one: so far from righteousness being of the law, the Scripture embodying that law shuts up all men under sin, as unrighteous and beneath its curse. Therefore the law, which encloses all under sin and its penalty, cannot by any possibility be the source of life. The phrase is so far personified, as doing what God its author does. Rom 11:32. It may signify the Old Testament as a whole, or, as being in the singular, some special portion of it, as Psa 143:2, or Deu 27:26. Compare for use of singular Luk 4:21, and chiefly in John, as Joh 19:37; Joh 20:9, etc., in many of which places the quotation is not given, but only referred to. The in the verb does not mean that all are shut up together-omnes simul (Bengel, Usteri), for the verb is sometimes applied to individuals, and means to hem in on all sides. Sept. Psa 31:9; Polybius, 11.2, 10. Compare Herod. 7.41; Pol. 1.17, 8. Many of the fathers, followed by Calvin, Beza, and others, suppose that Scripture means the law. It indeed contains, expounds, and enforces the law, but it is not to be identified with it. Nor does the verb mean merely, convinced them of sin- (Chrysostom, Hermann), for this subjective experience was not always effected as a reality; but the Scripture so shut them up objectively under sin as to bring out their inability to obtain righteousness by the law. Bishop Bull and others assign a declaratory meaning to the verb-conclusos declaravit; and similar reference to the verdict of Scripture is alleged by Schott, Winer, Wieseler, Usteri, Hofmann, in the same way as an analogous dilution-permisit, demonstravit-is proposed for the same verb in Rom 11:32 by so many expositors. Such a meaning is only inferential as to result. The Scripture was the divine instrument of this spiritual incarceration, in which sin has the lordship over its prisoners. Bondage and helplessness are intended by the phrase-not, however, to produce despair, but to serve a very different purpose. There was little need for Jerome’s caution, nec vero aestimandum scripturam auctorem esse peccati, . . . judex non est auctor sceleris. The neuter plural (not , Grotius) is certainly more comprehensive than the masculine, though it is putting undue pressure on it to extract the signification of man and man’s things (Bengel),-humana omnia, non modo omnes sed etiam omnia (Windischmann, Hofmann),-Brenz including especially the lower animals. The statement is certainly true, but the following verse is rather against such a view as required by the context, and the masculine is used in Rom 11:32 to express an analogous thought. The neuter sets out the comprehensive or unindividualized generality of the statement. Winer, 27, 5. Compare Joh 6:37; Joh 17:2, 1Co 1:27, Col 1:20, 2Th 2:6, and examples in Poppo, Thucydides, Prolegom. 1.104; thus, too, quaecunque for quemcunque, Sallust, vol. ii. p. 68, ed. Kritz. And the purpose is-

-in order that the promise by faith in Christ Jesus might be given to them who believe. The telic expresses the divine purpose of the previous statement. It cannot mean the mere result, or be taken logice-quo appareret dari, as Winer, Burton, Peile, Koppe, Semler. The promise, , is the abstract, tantamount in this clause to the blessing promised. It is connected with faith-,-for the words are to be construed with , and qualify it. That faith belongs to, rests on, I. X. as its object. Gwynne’s notion of its being a subjective genitive has a precarious foundation. The article is not inserted before I. X., as no defining limitation is intended. Winer, 20, 2. The antithesis looks back to in the 21st verse-the promise springs out of faith, and is conditioned by it. It has no connection of origin or stipulation with the law. Originating in faith, and dependent on faith, it is given -they only being its recipients. It is harsh to connect with , and the repetition of idea is not a mere emphatic tautology (Winer); but the apostle first says that the promise is one which from its nature is conditioned by faith, and then he adds, it is given to those in whom this condition is realized, or the defining element of this promise and the requisite qualification for receiving it are ever one and the same-faith. The Galatians accepted the last part of the statement, that the recipients of the inheritance were believers; but they demurred to the first part, that the promise is of faith, for they practically held that it was to some extent connected with works of law, and was partially suspended on the performance of them. Therefore the earnest apostle first defines the promise as of faith, and then limits the reception of it to those who believe, that there might be no possible mistake as to his meaning. The shutting up of all under sin shows the impossibility of salvation by works, and brings out clearly the connection of salvation with the promise and faith. The next verses look back to the clause of Gal 3:19 in which the intermediate duration of the law is stated.

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Gal 3:22. Concluded all under sin does not say that God caused them to sin. The truths and facts regarding their conduct by the children of men, disclosed to God that all had sinned, hence He just declared what was true which was that all were sinners, which would make them all the subjects for divine mercy. Since all were actually sinners as a class, all would require the same means of spiritual redemption. The said means could not be by the merits of the law of works, therefore the Lord used that document as a hold-up or preparatory measure (see verse 19), at the same time pointing man to the coming of the promised seed of Abraham, that was to provide all nations with a system to be known as the faith, which would be able to assure the believers that they would be justified in Christ.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Gal 3:22. The Scripture, the whole Old Testament, including the law. It is here personified as in Gal 3:8, and stands for the author of the Scripture. The Apostle may have had in mind a special passage, as Psa 143:2 (quoted above Gal 2:16) or Deu 27:26 (quoted Gal 3:10), or rather the general scheme of the Scripture as a history of the fall and redemption. Shut up all (things) under sin. Comp. Rom 11:32 : God shut up all (men) in unbelief (or disobedience), that He might have mercy upon all. These two passages contain, as in a nutshell, the whole history of men, the mystery of the fall cleared up by the greater mystery of redemption. Shut up, as in a prison and state of complete slavery, without means of escape, in striking contrast with the freedom of the gospel. The verb implies an effective (not simply a declaratory) activity of God in the development and punishment (not in the origin) of sin, and this activity is conditioned and controlled by the eternal counsel of redeeming love. All things, the most comprehensive term. In the parallel passage, Rom 11:32, the masculine is used, all men. They are viewed as one solid mass of corruption and guilt. No exception is made, not even in favor of the Virgin Mary, as the Vatican dogma would require. The second clause, that (in order that, with the intention that) the promise, etc., contains the solution of the problem in the first clause. God wills sin only as something to be overcome and destroyed; He permitted the fall of Adam only in view of the redemption by Christ which more than made up for all the loss of the fall.

In Christ the tribes of Adam boast

More blessings than their father lost.(Watts.)

Earth has a joy unknown in heaven

The new-born peace of sin forgiven.

Tears of such pure and deep delight,

Ye angels I never dimmed your sight.(A. L. Hillhouse.)

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

But the scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. [The apostle now undertakes to show the inferiority of the law to the gospel. For what purpose then, you ask, was the law? It was added by God for the purpose of revealing and manifesting to man his sinfulness, and was to exist only during the interim between the giving of the promise and the fulfillment of the promise by the coming of Christ (Gal 2:18; Rom 5:13-20; Rom 7:7). It was not given directly by divine lips, as was the gospel, but through the intervention of angels (Deu 33:2; Heb 2:2); and it was not given personally, but through Moses, a mediator (Deu 5:5). Now, this mediatorship of Moses also argues the temporal nature of the law; for a mediator is no part of the personality of the one whom he represents: he is a different personality; but God is one personality, and can not, therefore, be properly represented by any other than himself. Such a mediatorship, therefore, must, in the very nature of the case, be but temporary. The men who represent God are mortal and pass away, but God is immutable and ever-abiding. His promises, therefore, stand on a different plane from anything which rests on human mediation. But some one will ask, if the law brings a curse, is it not antagonistic to the promises which bring a blessing? God forbid that we should think that the Almighty acts in so contrary a manner. There are two ways in which the law might antagonize the gospel. 1. If righteousness could have been obtained by it, it might have proved a rival way of life. But it is no such rival. 2. If it had destroyed life despite the gospel, it would have been contradictory to the gospel. But it merely shut men up as prisoners, doomed for their sins, that justification by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to all them that believe. Thus, instead of being antagonistic to the gospel, the law emphasized and revealed the blessedness of the gospel.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

All are under sin because of the Law – it revealed the requirements, and we all fail. The promise was given to those that believe. Believe what? God and what He said, as we have said before. Belief is the only way to God, not following any law of any sort.

The term faith and the term believe are very closely related – one is “pistis” and the other “pistueo,” both relating to commitment to something. Belief being the knowledge, while faith being the action of trusting in that knowledge that is believed.

This passage ought to make the strong Calvinist squirm, since belief seems to be a pre-requisite for the faith. Many of them hold that the faith is given so that we can believe. Others get around this little problem buy saying that God regenerates the lost person so that they can believe and receive faith. A good way to explain things, but they only have one passage to base pre-salvation regeneration on, and that is that John The Baptist was regenerated in His mothers womb – and the fact that there is no indication of regeneration in this passage isn’t a problem to them – what they assume is truth and that is that (for them 🙂

The Net Bible reflects a newer line of thought about “faith of Jesus Christ” that relates the faith to Christ Himself, rather than our faith in Him. “But the scripture imprisoned everything and everyone * under sin so that the promise could be given because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ to those who believe.” The Net Bible note suggests that most modern Greek scholars follow this line of thought.

Some related verses: Rom 8:2-4; Rom 3:11-19; Rom 11:32.

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

3:22 But the {s} scripture hath concluded {t} all under sin, that the {u} promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

(s) By this word “scripture” he means the Law.

(t) All mankind, and whatever comes from mankind.

(u) In every one of these words, there lies an argument against the merits of works: for all these words, promise, faith, Christ, might be given, to believers, are against meritorious works, and not one of them can be included as a meritorious work.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes