That the promises which were made before to Abraham cannot be destroyed by the Law which was given afterward: and that things later cannot prejudge things earlier, since the promises to Abraham were given 430 years before, that in him all nations should be blessed. 'But God gave it to Abraham by promise.' Therefore not by that which is of the Law, which as yet was not; but when it came, it showed sin, it did not take it away. 'What then?' Why then was it given, being necessary for the weak? That it might restrain the slippery and erring by the sternness of the saving precept, and shut them in by the astringency of observances. 'Now the Law is good, because spiritual?' To him therefore who thinks it not spiritual. The Law is good, if thou raise thy mind above the letter, because the letter kills.
The Law was set down on account of transgression. That it might teach us not to transgress, or restrain us until Christ should come. 'Till the seed should come to whom He had promised.' After the offense of the people in the wilderness, after the worshipped calf, and the murmuring against the Lord, the Law prohibiting transgression succeeded. The Law is not set down for the just, and therefore it enjoins things so hard, that it might tame the pride of the Jews. 'On account of transgression,' he says: for not on account of justification. Let those be silent who hear these things, who rave that the Law by itself has sent anyone to the kingdom of heaven. 'Ordained by angels.' By this he wishes it understood that in all the Old Testament, wherever any angel was seen, in him the Mediator spoke, who says:
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Nor is it any wonder if God speaks in angels, since even through the angels who are in men the Lord speaks in the prophets, as Haggai says: 'And the angel who spoke in me said'; and he adds: 'Thus says the Lord God almighty.' By 'angels' we can understand Moses, Aaron, and Joshua, who were messengers of God, through whom God gave the Law and ordained it through angels. 'Which Law was ordained by angels.' For we read that angels were present either to Moses, as some think, or to Christ. For Moses also, they say, was a mediator between God and the people. For 'angel' is the name of an office, not of a nature. 'In the hand of a mediator.' In the power, and might, and virtue of Christ.
But a mediator is not of one, but God is one. Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid. There is understood 'of one substance,' or 'of one party': because between God and men a Mediator arose. But he added: 'God is one,' lest anyone, on account of the office of the assumed flesh, should separate Him from the unity of the divine substance. 'Is not of one,' that you may understand 'of substance': because in Christ, as there is one person, so there is a twofold substance. 'For if a law had been given which could give life.' As to the Romans. For that which was impossible to the Law, wherein it was weak: namely because it was now kept by no one; for if it did not give life, how did it send the dead to the kingdom? 'Truly righteousness would be by the Law.'
He named the inheritance 'righteousness,' or certainly the righteousness which is of the faith of the New Testament. 'But the Scripture has concluded all things under sin.' It has caught them. 'That the promise of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.' That it might be necessary for believers to be saved by faith alone through grace. 'But before faith came, we were kept under the Law.' Before He came in whom we should believe, or through whom we should believe. If it came, where are they who say that faith is of nature? 'Shut up unto that faith which was to be revealed.' We were kept by the Law for this faith, which was to be revealed. Therefore it is not of nature, which was at some time revealed after the Law. 'Wherefore the Law was our pedagogue in Christ.' Disciples of perfect age do not need a pedagogue. 'That we might be justified by faith.'
But after faith is come, we are no longer under a pedagogue. Diligently note how often he says 'by faith': that those may be confounded who say that the Law sent men to the kingdom without grace; and they do not understand that whoever were saved under the Law were saved by grace, because by faith, which grace bestows. 'For you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.' For all equally, both Jews and Gentiles, through faith alone, by which as a gift of God you believe in Christ. 'For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ, have put on Christ.' Having put on the Son of God, and been made all His members through the sanctification of baptism, you must needs be sons of God. Why then to you the Law, which was given to sinners, whose sins are now forgiven?
There is neither Jew nor Greek. Then there was diversity between Jew and proselyte, even between tribe and tribe, and in all these things there was distinction. 'There is neither bond nor free.' They are separated not by condition, but by faith: because a slave can be better than a free man, and a free man can outstrip a slave in the quality of faith. 'There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.' They are separated by the strength and weakness of their bodies. But faith is reckoned in the devotion of the mind: for often a woman becomes the cause of salvation to a man. 'And if you be Christ's, then are you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.' If you have all been made one body of Christ, you are the seed of Abraham and true heirs: not by carnal seed, but by divine promise.
But I say: as long as the heir is a little child. He speaks according to the comparison he has begun. He differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but he is under tutors and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Because over them the priests and princes exercised dominion, whom he calls tutors and stewards. But now they are commanded not to lord it, but to set forth an example: because we are all a priestly race, and all things are held in common, although through them we receive the sacraments. But by 'tutors and stewards' the prophets also can be understood, by whose words we were daily instructed unto the coming of the Savior, just as the Law of Moses was above called a pedagogue.
Those are rightly said to be under guardians and stewards who, possessing the spirit of fear, have not yet been counted worthy to receive the spirit of liberty and adoption. For the age of infancy dreads punishments, fears the tutor, and does not trust that it is free, although by nature it is mistress. 'So we also, when we were children.' This can be understood: as long as one is a little child, and has not fulfilled the time set by his father, so that he may be called son and heir, 'we were in bondage under the elements of this world.' Of days and seasons, which because of our weakness, and lest we should observe idols, we sometimes received.
He called 'the elements of the world' those whom above he had named guardians and stewards, because we were first set under these overseers, since we were not yet able to receive among us the coming of the sons of God. Others said the elements of the world are heaven and earth and the things within them. Others interpret the elements as the Law and the oracles of the prophets: that through these, as the first beginnings and rudiments of letters, we might take up the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. Yet more simply the 'elements' are taken for letters, or for the Law and the prophets, because through them men are initiated: and they are learned not so much for their own use as for the use of another thing, that we might be able to read connected discourse, in which the sense and the order of the words rather than the beginnings of letters are considered.
'But when the fullness of time came.' When now no one could keep the Law by custom, or what in its presence he had decreed he would do. 'God sent his Son.' The sending of the Son is understood as his incarnation, not a diminishing of his majesty. 'Made of a woman.' 'Woman' signifies not corruption, but sex. Indeed Eve, as soon as she was made, is called 'woman.' How was he 'made under the Law'? 'That he might redeem those who were under the Law.' For if they could not otherwise be saved, thus for the sake of those who were born, he willed to be born of a woman and of the female. For he also received baptism as if repenting, though he was free from sins, that he might teach the rest that they must be cleansed through baptism.
'Made under the Law, that he might redeem those who were under the Law.' Because if he had not been made under the Law, he could not save the Jews. But the Gentiles, though placed under the Law, he was able to redeem. 'That we might receive the adoption of sons.' For we should not all have received the adoption, if he had not been made under the Law. 'And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father.' He proves that we are sons of God, since we received the Spirit of Christ, which he had in himself, crying, that is, making us cry out. 'Therefore now you are no longer a servant, but a son; and if a son, an heir also through God.' Why do you wish to be a servant, you who, receiving the Spirit of the Son, have been made a son and heir, not through your own merit nor by nature?
'But then indeed, not knowing God.' He turns to them, that is, to those believing from among the Gentiles, and reproves them because they wish to observe festival days and Jewish seasons, as formerly they did toward idols. For these days were granted to the Jews for this reason, lest out of love of festivity they should offer themselves to idols. 'You served those which by nature are not gods. But now, since you have come to know God, or rather are known by God, how do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you wish to be in bondage anew?' Since he does not know the wicked: therefore it was not you who sought him, but he who sought you. 'You observe days and months and seasons.' We do not do the like: for we do not honor the calends, nor do we celebrate festival days in luxuries and feastings, as they do.
But in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 'And years.' Perhaps he speaks of the seventh year of remission, or of the fiftieth, that is, the jubilee. 'I am afraid lest perhaps I have labored among you in vain.' For I have accomplished nothing by making you Christians, if you observe these things again. 'Be as I am.' Be holy, and be wise unto more perfect things. 'For I too am as you.' A man who lived in the Law without reproach, I counted all things as dung, that I might gain Christ. 'Brethren, I beseech you, you have not injured me at all.' So that you may rightly think I am moved for the cause of enmity, and not for your salvation. A disciple injures his master, if through his own negligence he despises his precepts and labor. 'You know that through weakness of the flesh I preached the gospel to you long ago.'
Whether of sufferings or of natural weakness: because he had the treasure in earthen vessels. He teaches through weakness of the flesh, who says, if they cannot contain themselves, let them marry: that is, I gave you humbler precepts, as to little ones. It can also be taken thus: when I came to you, I came not in wisdom of speech, but humble and despised. 'And your trial in my flesh you did not despise nor reject.' It is a great trial to disciples if a master is either weakened or injured with impunity. But therefore these things are permitted by God to be suffered here, that they may perfect virtue in weakness, and that, perceiving corruption, they may with greater ardor desire the incorruptible. 'But you received me as an angel of God.'
When he says he was compared to an angel, he shows the angel to be greater. 'As Christ Jesus.' Not only as an angel, since you thus received me. 'Where then is your blessedness? For I bear you witness that, if it could have been done, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.' He shows with what great charity they had received him, and how they had handed themselves wholly over to his teaching, so that they desired to give him the members of their body that were most dear, that in this way at least they might repay the gospel light, if they had handed over their own eyes. 'Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?' This is the nature of truth, that enmities pursue it, just as by flattery pernicious friendships pursue their aim. For what delights is gladly heard.
Everything we do not wish gives offense: just as these too had begun to love the Sabbath's leisure and the feasts of festival days, preaching against the Apostle, who by his own example taught all self-restraint. 'They are zealous for you, not in a good way, but they wish to shut you out, that you may be zealous for them.' 'The zealous one' can be understood both as an imitator, and as an enemy and an envier. He does not emulate well who emulates in order to cast down another, and not that he himself may profit. 'But emulate the good' always in what is good, and not only 'when I am present with you.' Do not be zealous for those men, but always be zealous for the good, not for a time. 'My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.' Brought forth into the light through the Gospel, and begotten through teaching. He shows that one can be reborn through repentance.
You have made me endure pain again. But Christ is formed in that one who understands the power of his faith: in whom his whole manner of life is expressed and depicted. Christ is formed in the heart of believers, when all the mysteries are opened to them and those things which seemed obscure become clear. 'I could wish to be present with you now.' Because I cannot write so many things as you would marvel to hear. 'And to change my voice.' I would turn the voice of a coaxing father into the fury of a reproving master. The teaching of divine Scripture builds up and delights, but it profits much more if from letters it be turned into voice. For the living voice has great force, which is expounded in the very way in which it is generated in the throat. 'Because I am confounded on your account.'
'Tell me, you who wish to be under the Law, have you not read the Law? Detriment to disciples is confusion and reproach to the master, just as their progress is the glory of the teacher. For he is confounded in them, because, having already become sons, they desire to be servants. 'For it is written that Abraham had two sons: one of the bondwoman, and one of the free. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh; he who was of the free, by promise.' Ishmael was the son of the flesh, Isaac of faith. For Abraham begot the former according to fleshly custom: the latter, against nature, by promise, he received by believing. Who are they born according to the flesh, but the lovers of the world? Who are they born by promise, but the lovers of the kingdom of heaven?
For to them too it is promised, as they desire eternal life and worship God freely. 'These things are said by way of allegory.' That is, one thing is figured by another. The Apostle gave a rule how we ought to allegorize: namely, that with the truth of the history remaining, we should understand the figures. For when he had said that Abraham had two wives, he afterwards showed what these very women prefigured: and he did this same thing where certain deeds of the saints are recounted, not where sins are condemned. But to call crimes mysteries is to charge God either with impossibility or with ignorance, as one who either could not show his sacraments otherwise, or, not knowing what things were necessary to himself, had beforehand generally condemned the sins of certain men.
Then he would afterward not have reproved and punished those sins, if he himself had willed them to be done for the sake of his mysteries: but you will scarcely find precepts so interpreted, lest their force should seem to be emptied. 'For these are the two Testaments: one indeed from Mount Sinai.' The Old and the New, like two mothers, and what on Mount Sinai was given through Moses. 'Unto bondage.' Understand, of the Law. 'Begetting.' The Jews were compelled even by present fear to serve: driven by the threats of the Law, whereas Christians are invited by rewards to be free. Those, as servants, besides the moral precepts, are occupied also with diverse works: from us, as sons, when the moral admonitions are fulfilled, all servile burdens are taken away.
And those, serving the priests out of debt, were compelled even to render tribute; but we, owing nothing except charity, honor them of our own will. Of that very race were those who crucified the Lord and remained in the same unbelief: hence they are scattered through all lands, so that from their books the testimony to Christian truth may not be lacking. Therefore from the Old Testament God founded the New, because it pleased God, until the fullness of time, with earthly things set forth as it were in reward for the promises, to reveal the heavenly promises, and to a people gaping after earthly goods he gave a law on tablets of stone. 'Which is Hagar.' Abraham's bondwoman. 'For Sinai is a mountain in Arabia.'
From the qualities of the places he wishes the diversity of the Testaments to be understood. 'Which is joined to her that now is Jerusalem, and serves with her children.' Neighboring. 'But that which is above.' Therefore also from heaven the mediator and high priest of the New Testament came. And the Gospel was preached not in one place, but in the whole world. 'Jerusalem is free.' The children of the free ought not to be servants. 'Which is the mother of us all.' That is, of the multitude of believers. 'For it is written: Rejoice, O barren, that bearest not.' He proves that we have another mother, better than the Jews' Jerusalem, which is full of iniquity. 'Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not.' Cry out for great gladness. 'For many are the children of the desolate.' Which Hannah prefigured, who said:
'The barren has borne seven, and she that had many children is grown feeble in children.' 'More than she that has a husband.' She who glories in her fruitfulness, thinking she has a husband: or because at that time she did have one, before the bondwoman was cast out with her son. 'Now we, brethren, according to Isaac.' As it was promised to Abraham concerning Isaac, so also concerning us: for in him all nations would be blessed. 'We are children of promise.' Not according to Ishmael, of the flesh. 'But as then he who had been born according to the flesh...' Not only the Jews, but carnal Christians even today persecute the Church, either by disparaging, or by hurling calumnies, or by living wickedly, which is by far the greater persecution.
Indeed, those who are carnal always persecute those who are spiritual: at which we ought not to marvel, if we too understand ourselves to be spiritual, when such men harass us. 'He persecuted him who was according to the spirit.' In Genesis indeed it is written: that Ishmael was playing with Isaac. But here it is shown that it was not a simple play which is called persecution, but that he wished to make him buffoonish and frivolous such as he himself was, lest he should be preferred to him in the inheritance. Therefore Abraham, in casting him out, is commanded to hear the voice of Sarah. Perhaps Ishmael, being as it were the elder by birth, and circumcised at that time when he could already understand and perceive what he suffered, claimed for himself the rights of the firstborn; and Scripture called the quarrel of the little ones 'play.'
Even today the Jews persecute the Church more than the Gentiles. 'So also now.' So they desire you to be servants like themselves. 'But what does the Scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free. Therefore, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman.' However much iniquity exalts itself, it is a bondwoman, and must be subjected to the saints: however much they exalt themselves and boast that they are sons of Abraham. As long as they are children of the bondwoman, they cannot hold the inheritance with you. 'But of the free.' We ought not, then, having forsaken our mother, to follow the bondwoman: for although she was the wife of the same man, yet it was for a time, because Sarah could not yet bear. 'By which freedom Christ has freed us.'
He redeemed us from the hand of the enemy. CHAP. V. 'Stand fast.' Be firm in the faith of the Gospel. 'And do not again be held under the yoke of bondage.' For now the time of the age has flowed away: now the darkness has passed and the true light already shines: you ought no longer to drag the yoke together with servants. By 'the yoke of bondage' he calls the Law hard, difficult, laborious, which wears out its keepers with a heavy burden; which yoke Christ took away from us, that most grievous yoke of many observances, so that we should not be circumcised carnally, or the rest of such things: but that we should hold these things understood spiritually, and, the shadows that signify being removed, should be watchful in the light of the very things which are signified. For this too pertains to us: 'Be not mindful of the injury of your countrymen.'
And, 'If anyone finds what belongs to another, let him restore it,' and the rest. And especially that the Decalogue itself, except for the Sabbath observance, is to be kept carnally. 'Behold, I Paul say to you.' I Paul say to you boldly, fearing no one, not concealing my name, that those who hear may be moved not so much by the authority of the one sent as of the one sending. 'That if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.' Whom you think insufficient by himself for your salvation. 'And I testify again to every man who circumcises himself.' He who takes up the head of the works of the Law must necessarily fulfill them all, and lie under the curse. 'That he is a debtor to do the whole Law.'
He is a debtor not only of circumcision, but also of frequenting festival days at Jerusalem, of offering the burnt offerings of victims, and the rest. 'You are emptied from Christ.' For if you put your hope in the Law, you judge the grace of Christ to be weak: and what you have already received freely, you wish to obtain, as though not having it, by your own labors. 'You who are justified by the Law have fallen from grace.' You wish to be justified, and to follow the shadow rather than the truth. Who is so deaf to the words of the Apostle that he would dare to say the Law is grace, when the Apostle cries out: 'You who are justified by the Law have fallen from grace'? 'For we in the spirit.' By spiritual acts, not carnal. 'By faith.' Not by the Law. 'The hope of righteousness.' For by hope we are saved. 'We await.'
Morally he set 'spirit' in distinction from 'letter.' But by 'the hope of righteousness' Christ is to be understood: because he himself is the truth, patience, hope, righteousness, every virtue: whose second coming we await, when he shall judge all things: coming to be present not now in patience, but in terror and justice. 'For in Christ Jesus.' What availed in the Law did not avail in Christ. 'Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision.' Circumcision does not profit, nor does uncircumcision harm. 'But faith.' Therefore faith also works: for he who believes God attends to the commandments. For he who believes in things to come works more than he who fears present punishment. 'Which works through charity.' Not through fear. 'You were running well.'
'Who hindered you from obeying the truth?' By the steps of faith and moral disciplines. Who is it that calls you again, who hindered you with the burdens of the Law, which not even they themselves could bear? 'This persuasion is not from him who calls you.' He says this persuasion is not of God, but of those who assert such things: he exhorts them that they ought to hear none of them. 'A little leaven corrupts the whole lump.' Lest anyone should say, why do you rebuke all, when not all have erred? he foretells that a little leaven of malice can corrupt the whole lump of the Church. Do not think the snares of a few men, who coming from Judea teach otherwise, are to be despised, because a little leaven corrupts the whole lump. 'I have confidence in you in the Lord.'
In you: who are not yet corrupted with depravity. 'That you will be minded no otherwise.' Than as the truth has it. 'But he who troubles you shall bear his judgment,' whoever he is. Who troubles you away from the truth of the Gospel. 'But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision.' As the seducers lied about me to you, that I preached thus to others. 'Why do I still suffer persecution?' As though an enemy of the Law and of circumcision. He says: all the hatred of the Jews against me, and though they gnash against me with madness, is for no other reason than that I teach the Gentiles that they ought not to be circumcised, nor to keep the superfluous burdens of the Law, though abolished: because, the truth having come, the shadows have ceased. 'Then the scandal of the cross has been made void.'
For they are scandalized precisely because I say salvation is in the faith of the cross alone. And by this they are enemies of his cross, who say righteousness is by the Law, whose part it is to command, not to help. 'Would that those who trouble you were even cut off.' Some say, would that they were cut off from error, and grafted into truth; others say, if they think this profits them, let them not only be circumcised, but even cut off, if the mutilation of the member profits. 'For you, brethren, were called to liberty; only do not give liberty as an occasion to the flesh.' To the liberty of the New Testament, only so far that you not, through the occasion of circumcision, be called back to the servitude of the Law.
And lest they use the liberty of living as an occasion for the flesh, namely lest they live according to the flesh. Let them be circumcised according to the flesh. Let them observe the precepts of the Law according to the flesh. If they rather stand in the spirit, let them cut off the foreskin of the flesh by the spirit, and, attending more deeply to the understanding of the spirit, let them abandon the lowliness of the letter. 'But through the charity of the spirit serve one another.' I teach not pride, but service ought to be voluntary, not compelled: because charity seeks not the things that are its own, but the things of the neighbor. 'For the whole Law is fulfilled in one saying.' The very moral precepts of the Law which are required, I can conclude in one saying, and complete in one precept.
Therefore faith alone does not suffice for life, so that the fringed precepts of the Law are concluded in one chapter of love. 'You shall love your neighbor.' Charity, or love, is completed in four modes: that is, first God is to be loved; second, we love ourselves; third, our neighbors; fourth, our enemies. God more than ourselves, the neighbor as ourselves, the enemy as a neighbor; and unless we first love God, we cannot love ourselves, that is, not sin; and if we do not love ourselves, by what pattern shall we love our neighbors? but if we do not love the neighbor, much less the enemy. If therefore we wish to have love, let us first love God more than our own souls: which is proved thus:
If for God's sake we despise even our own safety and our very souls—therefore faith alone does not suffice for life. 'As yourself.' He who says he loves his neighbor not only does him no evil which he would not wish for himself, but even does him the good which he wishes to be done to himself by another: and he fulfills the whole Law, which has two kinds of commandments: that is, not to do evil, and to do good. 'But if you bite and devour one another.' Through strife, because you judge yourselves better than one another, when you disparage one another, when you are tormented by another's happiness, and make your own evil out of another's good, when you bite one another, and when you think to avenge yourselves with a curse.