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Galatians 2:15-17
New Catholic Bible
Galatians 2:15-17
New Catholic Bible
Paul Defends the Freedom of Christians[a]
It Is Faith That Saves[b]
Justified by Faith in Christ.[c] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,[d] 16 yet we know that a man is justified not by the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we too came to believe in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in him and not by the works of the Law, for no one will be justified by the works of the Law.17 But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? By no means!
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Galatians 2:15 Paul has explained his view of the apostolate; almost by degrees he now passes on to the defense of freedom for the new converts. He reverses the accusation brought against him. Indeed, one can falsify the Gospel by making the practices of the Jewish Law a prerequisite for becoming Christian. Faith in Christ, and it alone, saves believers and sets them free. Paul sketches his thinking about Baptism and about the indissoluble bond that must exist between faith and the Sacrament.
- Galatians 2:15 Law or faith: the famous antithesis. Two religious outlooks are opposed: to accept the one is to reject the other. Christianity’s purpose is not to produce a better Law but to offer faith. On one side, there is an objective, external norm of good and evil, and even a slavery; on the other side, there is a principle of internal action, a spiritual dynamism, a call, even more the very life of God in the heart of human beings, a freedom.
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Christianity cannot shut itself up in a code, no matter how noble; it is a Person, and Christians are those in whom Christ lives (Gal 2:20) and the Spirit acts (Gal 4:6). If there is a moral for Christians, a “law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), it can only be the living and free expression of the love that God inspires in the human heart: “You shall love!” - Galatians 2:15 The baptized must not look elsewhere: Christ has become their very self, and faith lays hold of and permeates their entire life. This statement of Paul is at the same time a self-revelation of a highly mystical nature.
- Galatians 2:15 Gentile sinners: a usual formula for describing pagans as opposed to the chosen people. In this passage it has no pejorative meaning; Paul will in fact say that Jews and Gentiles alike are sinners and in need of redemption (see Rom 3:23f).
