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15 For the law produces wrath;(A) but where there is no law, neither is there violation.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 4:15 Law has the negative function of bringing the deep-seated rebellion against God to the surface in specific sins; see note on Rom 1:18–32.

Acquaintance with Sin Through the Law. [a]What then can we say? That the law is sin? Of course not![b] Yet I did not know sin except through the law, and I did not know what it is to covet except that the law said, “You shall not covet.”(A) But sin, finding an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetousness. Apart from the law sin is dead.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 7:7–25 In this passage Paul uses the first person singular in the style of diatribe for the sake of argument. He aims to depict the disastrous consequences when a Christian reintroduces the law as a means to attain the objective of holiness pronounced in Rom 6:22.
  2. 7:7–12 The apostle defends himself against the charge of identifying the law with sin. Sin does not exist in law but in human beings, whose sinful inclinations are not overcome by the proclamation of law.

19 [a]Why, then, the law? It was added for transgressions, until the descendant[b] came to whom the promise had been made; it was promulgated by angels at the hand of a mediator.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 3:19–22 A digression: if the Mosaic law, then, does not save or bring life, why was it given? Elsewhere, Paul says the law served to show what sin is (Rom 3:20; 7:7–8). Here the further implication is that the law in effect served to produce transgressions. Moreover, it was received at second hand by angels, through a mediator, not directly from God (Gal 3:19). The law does not, however, oppose God’s purposes, for it carries out its function (Gal 3:22), so that righteousness comes by faith and promise, not by human works of the law.
  2. 3:19 The descendant: Christ (Gal 3:16). By angels: Dt 33:2–4 stressed their presence as enhancing the importance of the law; Paul uses their role to diminish its significance (cf. Acts 7:38, 53). A mediator: Moses. But in a covenant of promise, where all depends on the one God, no mediator is needed (Gal 3:20).