Yet, when Paul speaks of the law creating servitude, he is speaking here of the way in which the Galatians misapplied the law…
Furthermore, we believe that it is impossible to keep the law of God, but that the law simply reveals our duty; it is for each one to read his condemnation therein….
As for us, we will see the implications of this teaching later on, but, briefly, it concerns the fact that our only means of deliverance is through the gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself declares in the eighth chapter of John’s Gospel that it is his role to set us free, and that this privilege was given to him by God the Father, to deliver us from all condemnation. We must, therefore, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and find all that we need in him, for it is through him that we are freed from the yoke of the law. This yoke is too heavy for us to bear: not only does it weigh us down, it actually plunges us into the pit of hell. Thus, we obtain this deliverance only through the seed which brings regeneration and complete liberty. We become children of God, and not only are we known as such in the eyes of the world, but before angels. We will finally reach the inheritance that has been obtained for us at so great a cost, and which we could never have possessed by our own merits. It can only be obtained through the One to whom it all belongs, having conferred the inheritance on us through the gospel which we hear each day.
Now, let us fall down before the majesty of our great God, acknowledging our sins, and praying that he would help us to feel them more than ever before.Then we may grow and mature more and more through genuine repentance, so that, in coming to him, we may do so in all humility and without hypocrisy.We must be ashamed of our sin to the point that we seek no other remedy than the Lord Jesus Christ. Since our great God has received us and sealed us with the grace of his adoption in our hearts by his Holy Spirit, may we maintain the purity of the gospel, adding nothing of our own invention. May nothing be corrupted by our own notions, but may the Holy Spirit keep us obedient in the faith.
—Calvin’s sermon, “Freedom from the Bondage of the Law” (Galatians 4:21–26) (HT: Jack Miller)
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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Thanks, Dr. Clark. Have you ever thought of putting all these quotes in a published book?
… Quotes such as this one from Calvin, Bavink, Witsius, Warfield, Olevianus, Ursinus, Hodge, and from other Reformed…
This would be an immeasurable service to Christ’s Church. We really need something like this so that true historical theology will be fairly represented. You could write an essay introducing each section. E.g., a section on Law/Gospel, etc.
I beg you to consider doing this. As things now stand, we rank and file believers are getting pelted with incomplete or inaccurate history… and the gospel is getting lost in the cross fire.
Thank you again, Dr. Clark,
Chuck
From Machen’s Notes on Galatians 2:19 (p 159) (For I through the law died to the law, that I would live to God)
The law . . . led men, by its clear revelation of what God requires, to relinquish all claim to salvation by their own obedience. In that sense, surely, Paul could say that it was through the law that he died to the law. The law made the commands of God so terribly clear that Paul could see plainly that there was no hope for him if he appealed for his salvation to his own obedience to those commands.
This interpretation yields a truly Pauline thought. But the immediate context suggests another, and an even profounder, meaning for the words.
The key to the interpretation is probably to be found in the sentences, I have been crucified together with Christ, which almost immediately follows. The law, with its penalty of death upon sins (which penalty Christ bore in our stead) brought Christ to the cross; and when Christ died I died, since he died as my representative.
The death to the law…is that which the law itself brought about when… Christ died. Since He died that death as our representative, we too have died that death. Thus our death to the law, suffered for us by Christ, far from being contrary to the law, was in fulfillment of the law’s own demands.