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From: Galatians 3:7-14

Justification By Faith (Continuation)

[7] So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. [8] And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the
gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
[9] So then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had faith.
[10] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cur-
sed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law,
and do them.” [11] Now it is evident that no man is justified before God by the
law; for “He who through faith is righteous shall live” ; [12] but the law does not
rest on faith, for “He who does them shall live by them.” [13] Christ redeemed
us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us — for it is written,
“Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree” — [14] that in Christ Jesus the bles-
sing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the pro-
mise of the Spirit through faith.

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Commentary:

6-9. The Apostle recalls the figure of Abraham in order to show that man’s jus-
tification is not the result of the material works prescribed by the Mosaic Law,
but rather the result of faith in God’s word. According to Gen 15:6, when God
promised Abraham that he would have a son even though he was already an old
man and his wife Sarah was barren, Abraham immediately took God at his word.
It was this faith that justified Abraham: God had not yet established circumcision
or given the Law. Therefore, St Paul argues, “it is men of faith who are the sons
of Abraham”.

God had given the Patriarch a promise whose implications were universal: “In
you shall all the nations be blessed.” That promise is now being kept through
the entry of the Gentiles, through faith, into the new people of God. Abraham is
in effect the father of those who believe, for in him all those who would believe
in Jesus Christ were already blessed.

In the same way as he justified Abraham, God justifies every man — through
faith (cf. Gen 15:6; Rom 4:2ff; Jas 2:21ff). Thus, people do not become sons of
the Kingdom simply because they are descendants of Abraham according to
the flesh: no, they must become like him by being men of faith like him. There-
fore, man’s greatness in God’s eyes is not a matter of blood or descent, as the
Jews believed, but of divine grace, which makes us children of the blessing,
children of God (cf. Jn 1:12-13).

God grants the gift of justification by faith to all who believe in his word, as Ab-
raham did. The true imitators of Abraham, St John of Avila says, are “those who
believe with loving faith, with firm and constant faith, who are so well grounded
in faith that nothing, no adversity, no temptation, no ill-treatment can disconsole
them or dismay them” (”Lecciones Sobre Gal, ad loc.”).

10-12. In what is called the Council of Jerusalem, St Peter had said, “Why do
you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which nei-
ther our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” (Acts 15: 10): the Jews could not,
despite their efforts, keep the Mosaic Law — the Law which they thought justified
them in God’s sight. Therefore, those who place their hope of salvation in the Law
are subject to the curse which the Law itself places on those who infringe it: “Cur-
sed be he who does not confirm the words of the Law by doing them” (Deut 27:
26).

The curse of the Law falls on anyone who fails to keep it, given that every com-
mandment involves a penalty for its transgressor. That is why the Apostle argues
that those who rely only on the Law are subject to the risk of being cursed, of
being punished — “are under a curse”. He then goes on to recall once more the
passage in Habakkuk which says that “the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4;
cf. note on Rom 1: 17). If the righteous or justified man lives by faith, the Apostle
concludes, he does not live by the Law, for the Law does not call for faith but for
fulfillment of its precepts.

13-14. Christ, who was innocent, wished to offer the Father perfect atonement
and thereby blot out our sin. To this end he voluntarily turned upon himself the
curse which the Law laid on its transgressors. He bore the curse of the Law on
our behalf and thereby set us free from the curse. What was for our Lord punish-
ment was for men salvation. As St Jerome puts it, “the injury suffered by the
Lord is our glory. He died so that we might live; he descended into hell so that
we might ascend into heaven. He became folly so that we might be reaffirmed in
wisdom. He emptied himself of the fullness and form of God, taking the form of
a slave, so that this divine fullness might dwell in us and we might be changed
from slaves into lords. He was nailed on the Cross so that the sin committed at
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil might be blotted out, once he was
hung on the tree of the Cross” (”Comm. in Gal, ad loc.”).

With our Lord’s death, the world’s redemption is achieved, God’s promise is ful-
filled and the blessing he gave to Abraham multiplies his posterity, making them
more numerous than the stars of heaven or the sand of the seashore (cf. Gen
15:5-6; 22:17).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.