{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5438","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":16,"verse_to":16},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Jerome</b>: Some say that if Paul is right in asserting that no one is justified by the works of the law but from faith in Christ, the patriarchs and prophets and saints who lived before Christ were imperfect. We should tell such people that those who are said not to have obtained righteousness are those who believe that they can be justified by works alone. The saints who lived long ago, however, were justified from faith in Christ, seeing that Abraham saw in advance Christ's day.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 1.2.16</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: In this place we must consider how many are the precepts of the law which no one can fulfill. And it must also be said that some works of the law are done even by those who do not know it. But those who perform it are not justified, because this happens without faith in Christ.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 1.2.16</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 16). However, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. Some say: if what Paul affirms is true, that no one is justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, then the patriarchs, prophets, and saints who lived before the coming of Christ were imperfect. Those whom we ought to admonish are those who have not attained to justice, who believe that they can be justified by works alone. But the saints, who have been justified by the faith of Christ since ancient times. For Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced. And Moses esteemed the greater riches as a treasure of the Egyptians, as an insult to Christ. For he looked to the reward. And Isaiah saw the glory of Christ, as John the Evangelist recounts, and Judas speaks generally of all: I want to remind you, knowing everything once: that Jesus, saving the people from the land of Egypt, destroyed them secondly, those who did not believe. Where the works of the Law are not so much condemned, as those who trust that they can be justified by works alone, the Savior also spoke to his disciples, Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20). It is necessary to gather (or consider) at this place how many precepts there are in the Law, which no one is able to fulfill. And on the other hand, it must be said that some of the Law is also done by those who are ignorant of it. But this is why his workers are not justified, because they are done without the faith of Christ. For example, not sleeping with a woman as a man sleeps, not committing adultery, not stealing, but rather honoring father and mother, and doing the other things that are commanded. But if they bring us examples of holy men: that they, being versed in the Law, have committed the things that were of the Law, we will say: Because the just Law is not laid down for the law-abiding and the obedient, but for the unjust and the disobedient, the impious and the sinners, the polluted and the unclean (1 Timothy 1). But as for one who is taught by God, it is not necessary for him to be taught about charity, as Paul says: But as for charity, I have no need to write to you: for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another (IV Thess. IV, 9).<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, save through faith, in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus.\"</p><p>Observe here too how cautiously he expresses himself; he does not say that they had abandoned the Law as evil, but as weak. If the law cannot confer righteousness, it follows that circumcision is superfluous; and so far he now proves; but he proceeds to show that it is not only superfluous but dangerous. It deserves especial notice, how at the outset he says that a man is not justified by the works of the Law; but as he proceeds he speaks more strongly.<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 2</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"knowing that a person is not justified.\" Having fulfilled what accords with Peter's opposition, he now turns to the subject at hand, slightly criticizing circumcision, and asserting that the law cannot be held as able to save. And these things, he says, are according to Peter. But we, being Jews by nature, that is, not converts (for this is what is meant by \"not sinners of the Gentiles\"), since we have recognized that it is not possible to be saved through works of the law (for there is, he says, great exactitude demanded there), have put our trust in Christ, expecting to be saved through faith in him. These things are fittingly spoken both to Peter and to the Galatians.</p><p>\"by works of the law.\" Because of the resentment felt toward him.</p><p>\"For by works of the law no flesh shall be justified.\" The things necessary to the law, and those taught by nature, are for example, \"You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal,\" and the other similar precepts. (Ex. 20:13-15) But matters concerning the Sabbath, and circumcision, and leprosy, and gonorrhea, and sacrifices, and sprinklings, were particular to the law. For nature did not instruct concerning these things. These, then, he calls works of the law. Of these, transgression is sin, and observance is not the accomplishment of perfect righteousness. For these are riddles of other peoples, yet even for the Jews they fitted the occasion. Concerning these the divine Apostle said, \"For by works of the law no flesh shall be justified.\"<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But what do the Marcionites wish to have believed (on the point)? For the rest, the apostle must (be permitted to) go on with his own statement, wherein he says that \"a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith: \" faith, however, in the same God to whom belongs the law also.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: For he remembered that the time was come of which the Psalm spake, \"Let us break their bands asunder, and cast off their yoke from us; \" since the time when \"the nations became tumultuous, and the people imagined vain counsels; \"when \"the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ,\" in order that thenceforward man might be justified by the liberty of faith, not by servitude to the law, \"because the just shall live by his faith.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: The necessary commandments of the law were taught even by nature. That is, \"You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor, honor your father and mother, and the rest of this kind.\" But the commandments about the sabbath and circumcision and lepers and menstruation and sacrifice were peculiar to the [Jewish] law, since nature taught nothing about these matters. These are what he now calls \"works of the law.\" The transgression of these is sin, yet the mere keeping of them is not the way of maintaining perfect righteousness. For these were symbols of other things. Nonetheless they were appropriate to the Jews in their due time.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 2.15-16</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"0e74b08fc327191626ab7ea754adcef2553b1e25fdddbf4d027dae7053c92e54","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5438,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"8a203e84d576ba71466a73b74b779555cc7558b918dac51cde25945bf613d45c","translator":null,"work":null}