What does “through the law I died to the law” mean?

Explanation:

When Paul says he died to the law, we can be fairly certain this means that he is released from the authority of the law. We can see this because Paul says in other circumstances that he died to sin and died to the law, and when he does, he implies that the things he died to no longer bind him (Romans 6:2, Romans 6:10; Romans 7:4).⁵ So the real question for us is what Paul means by through the law. How is it that through the law Paul is released from the authority of the law?

The immediate context shows that one of Paul’s purposes is to reject the idea that the law can justify one before God. Peter was eating with Gentiles but withdrew from them for the sake of Jewish dietary laws (Romans 2:12). Paul explains that this is hypocritical because no one is justified by the law but through faith in Christ (Romans 2:16). When we consider Romans 2:19 in light of the context, we might take it that Paul is summarizing the notion that the law cannot justify. Why can't the law justify? Because the law reveals to us that we cannot attain God’s standard. Only Christ can attain God’s standard, and we receive Christ’s obedience by faith in him. Thus, the law reveals are deficiency, and motivates us to place our faith in Christ, so that we are released from its authority.⁶

Counterargument:

Paul asks a rhetorical question in Romans 2:17. He then introduces both Romans 2:18 and Romans 2:19 with the conjunction for. Considering that for is placed at the beginning of Romans 2:18 and Romans 2:19, it is best to take the clauses that follow the conjunction as responses to the question that Paul poses in Romans 2:17.⁷ There, Paul poses this important question: if we are justified by faith and not by works, does that make Christ a servant of sinners who no longer live by the law?⁸ Paul answers with an emphatic No, and Romans 2:18–19 explains why.⁹ Thus, we are to understand Romans 2:19 as a direct response to Romans 2:17, not a summary of Paul’s entire argument from Romans 2:11 onward. So, if Romans 2:19 is a response to Romans 2:17, does through the law mean that the law produced knowledge of sin in Paul? Not likely. Paul’s question in Romans 2:17 wonders how Christ can justify people who no longer follow the Jewish law. Aren’t people who don’t follow the Jewish law Gentile sinners? Paul responds by saying that because he is crucified with Christ, he now identifies himself with Christ, not the law. Thus, through Christ’s sacrifice he has died to the law.¹⁰

Response to counterargument:

There are two problems with this counterargument. First, the counterargument here is that through Christ’s sacrifice, Paul was released from the law, but that is not what Paul says in Galatians 2:19. Rather, he says that through the law Paul was released from the law.

Second, the idea that through the law Paul died to the law in the sense that the law revealed sin to Paul is consistent as a response to Galatians 2:17. When Paul asks whether Christ is a servant of sin, his point is not whether Christ is a servant of those who are considered Gentile sinners. Rather, Paul likely responds to an accusation from the Jewish Christians that if the Mosaic law is not a requirement, there is no standard by which to judge anyone’s behaviour. Thus people can live how they please, and Christ becomes a servant of sinners.¹¹

Paul responds to this line of questioning in Galatians 2:19 by explaining that the purpose of the law is not only to demonstrate the right standard of living, but to convict us of our sin, so we will seek God’s mercy.

Explanation:

When Paul says that through the law he died to the law, it is not right away clear what he means. We know from other passages that when Paul says he dies to something, be it sin or the law, he infers that he is released from that entity’s bondage, or authority. But what does it mean that through the law Paul was released from the authority of the law? We can answer this by considering some of Paul’s statements in Romans.¹²

In Romans 7 Paul explains that while the law itself is good, it is not an appropriate means for justification (Romans 7:12), not because the law is deficient but because humans are sinful (Romans 7:11). So what’s the purpose of the law? Paul explains that the usefulness of the law is to show that we are sinful (Romans 7:13), and it’s the knowledge of sin that presses us to seek God’s mercy (Romans 7:24). And of course, God’s mercy is found through faith in Jesus Christ, who frees us from the condemnation of the law. Thus, through the law comes knowledge of sin, which compels us to place our faith in Christ, through which we are released from the authority of the law.

Counterargument:

While it is true that Paul explains that the law reveals sin in Romans 7:1–25, he also explains that through Christ he died to the law. In Romans 7:4, Paul explains that Christians have died to the law through the body of Christ.¹³ In other words it is through Christ and participation in him that believers die to the law. The law reveals sin, but we are not released from the law when we recognize our sin. Rather, we are released from the law through the body of Christ.

Response to counterargument:

This counterargument raises the insightful point that we are released from the law through the body of Christ. Still, in Galatians 2:19, Paul does not say that through Christ he died to the law. Rather, he says that through the law he died to law. We want to know what it means to die through the law not through Christ. How do we die to the law through the law? We die to the law through the law because the law reveals to us that we are sinful. Once we recognize our sinfulness, we have the wherewithal to seek God’s mercy, which we find in Jesus Christ. And by placing our faith in Christ, we die to the law. Thus, through the law comes knowledge of sin, which motivates faith in Christ, which releases us from the law.

The idea that through the law Paul came to repentance in Christ does not align well with Paul’s conversion story. On the road to Damascus Paul was confronted by Christ who blinded Paul (Acts 9:3–8). Later Jesus sent Ananias to open Paul’s eyes, and explains that Paul was set apart by God to carry out God’s mission to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Paul’s conversion explains that it was Christ’s calling, and not Paul’s reflection on the law, that instigated his conversion. Still, Romans 7:1–25 does indicate that through the law Paul came to understand his sinfulness, so there is a sense in which Paul’s conversion was also a process.

Explanation:

Paul says that through the law he died to the law. We know that to die to the law means to be released from the authority of the law. So what does it mean that through the law Paul died to the law? We can see what Paul means in light of his next statement, that he was crucified with Christ.^14,15 Paul says through the law he died to the law so that he might live for God. Then he says, I have been crucified with Christ. In other words, through faith in Christ, Paul participates in Christ’s crucifixion. So what does Christ’s crucifixion have to do with the fact that through the law Paul died to the law? In Galatians 3:13 Paul explains that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.¹⁶ Galatians 3:13 sheds important light on Galatians 2:19, so let’s put these threads together.

The law curses, and since Jesus freely died for our sins, the curse of the law was placed on Jesus. In other words, through the law, Jesus died. But that’s not the whole story. Although Paul does not say it here, he knows that Jesus conquered death such that, although the law condemned him because of our sin, his perfection meant that the law could not hold him. Paul also understands that through faith, he participates in the crucifixion. This means that, through the law Paul died in the sense that through the law Jesus died, and Paul participates in Jesus. And because Jesus conquered death, through Jesus’ death, Paul is released from the authority of the law. 

Counterargument:

It is true that when Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, he means that he participates in Christ’s death and resurrection. Still, this phrase does not clarify Galatians 2:19, but belongs as the opening phrase of Galatians 2:20. The ESV, for example, places a period after that I might live to God, and begins Galatians 2:20 with, I have been crucified with Christ.¹⁷ Paul is not saying that through the law he died to the law because he shares in Christ’s crucifixion. Rather, he says that through the law he died to the law. Then he starts a new thought by explaining that he was crucified with Christ so that it is no longer he who lives but Christ who lives in him (Galatians 2:20).

Explanation:

It is not right away clear what Paul means when he says that through the law he died to sin, but when we reach Galatians 4:4–5 we find our answer.¹⁸ There Paul explains that when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, who was born under the law, to redeem those under the law. In other words, Jesus was born as one who is under the law in order to redeem us. So while Jesus never sinned, we do, so he freely took the punishment under the law that our sins deserved. Thus, through the law Jesus died, and by placing our faith in him we participate in his death and resurrection.

Counterargument:

Paul says in Galatians 2:19 that through the law he died to the law so that he might live for God. It is not at all obvious that what Paul really means is that through the law Christ died, and because Paul shares in Christ through faith Paul also died.¹⁹ So while Galatians 4:4–5 could be used to support this interpretation, one should expect Paul to make a clearer connection between Galatians 2:19 and Galatians 4:4–5. In other words, he might have said, since Christ is under the law, through the law I died to the law, or something of the like. Thus, it is somewhat arbitrary to take a verse from an entirely new context and use it to inform Galatians 2:19.

Response to counterargument:

The fact is, regardless of what Paul means, the meaning is not right away clear. Paul is explaining a complex theological reality that was quite foreign to his Jewish audience, and it took time for him to make himself clear. Jewish identify was equated with the Mosaic law for centuries, and Paul seemed to claim that the whole system was now obsolete. In other words, it is not a surprise that Paul would leave traces of his theological point in various ways as he carefully explains that the works of the law will not justify, but only faith in Christ.

This is a worthy interpretation, except that it would have been simpler for Paul to use the same language he uses in Romans 7:4 where he explains that through the body of Christ, the Roman Christians died to the law. To say that through the law he died to the law in order to make the point that through Christ he died to the law is a somewhat ambiguous strategy.

Explanation:

In Galatians 2:18 Paul says that if he builds up what he tore down, he would be a transgressor. His point is that when he first converted from Judaism, Jesus changed his understanding of the law.²⁰ He continues this train of thought into Galatians 2:19. There he explains that through his zealousness for the law (through the law), he wielded the sword to protect Jewish identity markers such as circumcision and dietary restrictions. Paul has already explained in Galatians 1:23 that he was a persecutor of the church before he converted. Now he explains that the law had compelled Paul to act in such a way that he came into contact with the risen Christ. His encounter with the risen Christ completely altered his understanding of the law and covenantal obligations.²¹ Thus, initially motivated by the law, the law lost its grip on Paul.

Counterargument:

In this context, Paul seems concerned less with the history of his conversion than with conveying the insight that one is justified not by the law but by faith in Christ. While Paul has mentioned his conversion (Galatians 1:12–15), he does so to solidify his authority as one sent by Christ (Galatians 1:11), so that they will accept the truth that justification is through faith, not works. So most likely, when Paul explains that through the law he died to the law, he makes a theological, not autobiographical, point.

The idea that Paul wants to make the point that through his zeal to the law he ended up encountering Christ does not align with Paul’s pattern of thinking in Galatians. When Paul speaks of his conversion, he attributes it not to a zeal for the law but to an encounter with Christ (Galatians 1:12). He even says that he was set apart before he was born to be called through God’s grace (Galatians 2:15). Thus, it is hard to see why Paul would suddenly attribute his conversion to his zeal for the law.