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ineffective, it actually provokes those tendencies to greater activity. The intention of the
gift of the Spirit is to constrain the believer to a life in which the natural tendencies shall
have no place, and to produce in him their direct contraries. Law, therefore, has nothing
to say against the fruit of the Spirit; hence the believer is not only not under law, ver. 18,
the law finds no scope in his life, inasmuch as, and in so far as, he is led by the Spirit;”*
(b) of a force or influence impelling to action, Rom. 7:21, 23 (1st part), “a different
law,”
RV
;
(c) of the Mosaic Law, the “law” of Sinai, (1) with the definite article, e.g., Matt.
5:18; John 1:17; Rom. 2:15, 18, 20, 26, 27; 3:19; 4:15; 7:4, 7, 14, 16, 22; 8:3, 4, 7; Gal.
3:10, 12, 19, 21, 24; 5:3; Eph. 2:15; Phil. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:8; Heb. 7:19; Jas. 2:9; (2) without
the article, thus stressing the Mosaic Law in its quality as “law,” e.g., Rom. 2:14 (1st
part); 5:20; 7:9, where the stress in the quality lies in this, that “the commandment which
was unto (i.e., which he thought would be a means of) life,” he found to be “unto (i.e., to
have the effect of revealing his actual state of) death”; 10:4; 1 Cor. 9:20; Gal. 2:16, 19,
21; 3:2, 5, 10 (1st part), 11, 18, 23; 4:4, 5, 21 (1st part); 5:4, 18; 6:13; Phil. 3:5, 9; Heb.
7:16; 9:19; Jas. 2:11; 4:11; (in regard to the statement in Gal. 2:16, that “a man is not
justified by the works of the Law,” the absence of the article before
indicates the
assertion of a principle, “by obedience to law,” but evidently the Mosaic Law is in view.
Here the apostle is maintaining that submission to circumcision entails the obligation to
do the whole “Law.” Circumcision belongs to the ceremonial part of the “Law,” but,
while the Mosaic Law is actually divisible into the ceremonial and the moral, no such
distinction is made or even assumed in Scripture. The statement maintains the freedom of
the believer from the “law” of Moses in its totality as a means of justification);
(d) by metonymy, of the books which contain the “law,” (1) of the Pentateuch, e.g.,
Matt. 5:17; 12:5; Luke 16:16; 24:44; John 1:45; Rom. 3:21; Gal. 3:10; (2) of the Psalms,
John 10:34; 15:25; of the Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, 12:34, the Psalms and
Isaiah, Rom. 3:19 (with vv. 10-18); Isaiah, 1 Cor. 14:21; from all this it may be inferred
that “the law” in the most comprehensive sense was an alternative title to “The
Scriptures.”
The following phrases specify “laws” of various kinds; (a) “the law of Christ,” Gal.
6:2, i.e., either given by Him (as in the Sermon on the Mount and in John 13:14, 15;
15:4), or the “law” or principle by which Christ Himself lived (Matt. 20:28; John 13:1);
these are not actual alternatives, for the “law” imposed by Christ was always that by
which He Himself lived in the “days of His flesh.” He confirmed the “Law” as being of
divine authority (cf. Matt. 5:18); yet He presented a higher standard of life than
perfunctory obedience to the current legal rendering of the “Law,” a standard which,
without annulling the “Law,” He embodied in His own character and life (see, e.g., Matt.
5:21-48; this breach with legalism is especially seen in regard to the ritual or ceremonial
part of the “Law” in its wide scope); He showed Himself superior to all human
interpretations of it; (b) “a law of faith,” Rom. 3:27, i.e., a principle which demands only
faith on man’s part; (c) “the law of my mind,” Rom. 7:23, that principle which governs
the new nature in virtue of the new birth; (d) “the law of sin,” Rom. 7:23, the principle by
which sin exerts its influence and power despite the desire to do what is right; “of sin and
death,” 8:2, death being the effect; (e) “the law of liberty,” Jas. 1:25; 2:12, a term
* From
Notes on Galatians,
by Hogg and Vine p. 298.