Reflection on Gal 3:22
The preceding verses read: “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.” So the Apostle Paul explains to us again that justification from sin, or so-called righteousness, does not come by the law, i.e. by the external observance of the law. We ask: So what is the purpose of the law? We find the answer in verse 22, which we are going to recite for the following two weeks: “But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” It says that, as the Scripture declares, the whole world is a prisoner of sin. In other words, the law convicts us of sin but does not deliver us from it. We are delivered through faith in Jesus Christ. So that what was promised is given to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore the centre of our faith and salvation is a personal relationship to Christ. The purpose is not to observe external rites or commands and then to give Christ the second or tenth place. Christ must have the first place! And how? Through the saving faith, because our sins force us to go to the source of forgiveness, which is the cross of Jesus. So not through the observance of some rules, however good or holy, for appearances’ sake, but through repentance of sins and faith in Jesus who died on the cross for our sins.
The Apostle explains these deep truths in the following verses again.
Quote: “Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” (Gal 3:23-25) But we must know that Moses’ commands were fulfilled in Christ, the Ten Commandments continue and, on the contrary, are even completed by Christ’s interpretation in His Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7). So Jesus does not abolish the law but rather fulfils it.
We are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ. It means to seek God’s will for our life and to fulfil it. So we cannot abolish the Decalogue, as has been attempted by pseudo Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia wherein he cancels both universal and divine moral principles by relativizing them. This is heresy and revolt against God.
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