Galatians 3:22

Gal_3:22-23

But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin.

A charge of sin

I. The scripture statement of mans natural condition. And what now do you expect to hear? That man, though fallen and frail, has nevertheless many native virtues and excellences? that, if his conduct be sometimes amiss, yet his heart is good? These are, I know, the vain imaginations which multitudes indulge:--but they receive no countenance from Holy Scripture. No--if Gods Word is to decide, you will find that--

1. The Scripture brings against man a charge of sin. As preparatory to this, the Bible fully sets forth mans duty: sometimes dwelling on the several particulars of the ten commandments; at other times, comprehensively demanding Love as the fulfilling of the whole law; expanding this, again, into the two branches of that love--love to God, love to man; or pointing to still more special duties, arising out of special relations and situations in life. Furthermore, we are told, that whoso offendeth in one point is guilty of all--he has broken through that hedge of the law, which should have kept him from all sin. After laying down a strict principle like this, it ceases to be surprising, that the Scripture invariably addresses man as a sinner. For mans own conscience must tell him that Gods perfect law has not been kept.

2. On this charge the Scripture shuts man up (for that is the meaning of the words hath concluded) as already sentenced and condemned. Man is not merely in danger of this sentence; it is passed on him already. Living in this world, he is but a prisoner at large. Gods justice has got firm hold of him; and wander where he may, and vaunt as he likes, the day of execution is coming nearer and nearer--and he cannot escape.

3. All men, without a single exception, come under this charge. All nations. All ranks. All ages.

4. The charge is incessantly reiterated, and pressed again and again.

II. The design with which this statement is so earnestly insisted upon. Why do the Scriptures thus shut up all men under the charge of sin. St. Paul replies--that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ may be given to them that believe. The object aimed at, in the Scripture doctrine of mans sin, was--

1. To show the reasonableness of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Though man be guilty, condemned, and under actual sentence; yet his condition, so long as life endures, is not hopeless. There is in the same Scripture a promise--a promise of salvation.

2. To compel sinners actually to accept the promise by believing in Christ. The terrors of God are really mercies; they are the wholesome rod by which the lost sheep are driven back to that gracious fold, where they may remain safe, under the care of the good shepherd, Jesus Christ. In conclusion, I ask,

(1) Are you not sinners? Methinks there should be no doubt on this head.

(2) Is salvation yet given to you? In other words, have you believed in Jesus Christ?

(3) What will ye do in the end--that end which is shortly approaching--death--judgment? (J. Jowett, M. A.)

The great prison

How much is declared in these few words! They set forth the whole counsel of God with regard to mankind. They show us what man is by nature, and what he may become by grace: and they point out the only way in which it is possible for him to pass from one of these states to the other. God, speaking to man through His Holy Scriptures, hath concluded all under sin. He has, so to say, shut up all mankind together in the same great prisonhouse of sin. How has He done this? When a conqueror overruns a country, he will sometimes drive the inhabitants, or at least a large part of them, into bondage (e.g., Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar)

. Now is this the way in which God concluded all mankind under sin? by driving them into sin, and shutting them up in it? God forbid! Satan does indeed draw and drive men into sin: this is the accursed work of his restless sabbathless life: and when he has got them there, he binds them fast, and will not let them flee from his toils. He builds a high wall of sin all round them, so that they shall not look over it into the goodly land beyond: and here he shuts them all up together, sinner with sinner, and sinner with sinner, a never-ending ghastly multitude, that they may encourage and pamper each other in wickedness, and that no example, no voice of holiness, may ever reach and startle them. This is the way in which Satan would conclude all mankind under sin, in which he does conclude all such as give themselves up to him, to work his bidding. But God never drove, never drew any man into sin. Throughout His Scriptures He is calling to us to come out from the deadly land, from the loathsome plague-breathing dungeon of sin. By His commandments, by entreaties, by threats, by promises, He calls us to come out from sin. So that, when the Scripture concludes, or shuts up all men together under sin, it is not by driving them into sin, but for the sake of calling them out from it. In order however that men should come forth from a place, in order that they should desire to come forth, it is necessary they should know that they are there, that they should know too what sort of a place it is, how dismal, how miserable, how terrible. How unwilling are we to be persuaded that the prison can indeed be a prison! To us at least, we feel confident, it is nothing of the sort. For how can it be a prison, we say to ourselves, when there are no bare walls to be seen? when the walls are all glittering with precious stones, and are far more like the walls of a palace? How can it be a prison, when it is so vast, stretching out to the furthermost parts of the earth, and all mankind are walking about in it: Nay, how can it be a prison, when all the people in it are doing just what they like, are following the lusts of their own hearts, are drinking and rioting and thieving and lying, without any fear of law, without any regard for truth, without any restraint to check them? And what is there to keep them from going out whenever they please? There are no bars, no locks, no chains, no jailor. For this is the craft and subtilty of the evil one,--that he makes us fancy we are free, when we are in prison: he makes us fancy that we are at liberty, when we are in bondage: he makes us fancy that we are our own masters, when we are his slaves: he blinds and cheats and stupefies us, until we deem we are doing our own will, and pursuing our own pleasure, when in fact we are drudging in his toils, and rushing into the jaws of destruction before his lashing scourge. Therefore, in order that our eyes might be open to the misery of our condition, that we might see our danger before it was too late, God was mercifully pleased to give us His Scriptures, wherein He declares in the ears of all mankind, that one and all are concluded under sin; that, however its appearance may deceive us, sin is not a palace but a prison, that in that prison we are all shut up, and that no earthly power can deliver us out of it. God, by the voice of His Scripture, hath concluded all under sin. Now suppose that you were to be carried before an earthly court of justice, and that one sweeping accusation were to be brought against you; suppose that you were to be found guilty to the full extent of that accusation, and that the very excuses you set up were the complete proof of your guilt,--what would follow: The judge would straightway pass sentence upon you; and you would all be condemned to suffer punishment, according to the measure of your offence. Such would be the course of things, if you were taken before an earthly court of justice. The verdict is followed by the sentence; and they who are found guilty are condemned. And must we not expect that the course of things should be the very same, when we are carried before a heavenly court of justice? Surely they who are found utterly guilty, whose own mouth declares their guilt, must likewise be condemned. And yet St. Paul assures us that God has concluded all under sin, not in order that He may stretch forth His arm, and take vengeance on His enemies, and sweep them away from the face of the earth; but in order that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. This has ever been the one great end of all Gods ordinances, both at first in the creation, and ever since in the government of the world. His purpose was from the beginning to pour out all the blessings which infinite wisdom could conceive, and infinite power could bring to pass, upon His creatures. But why was it necessary that all should be concluded by the Scriptures under sin? Would it not have been enough to set the promise by faith in Jesus Christ before men, without saying anything about the sins by which they were bound? No, my brethren, it would not have been enough. Jesus Christ came as a Deliverer: and who will welcome and rejoice in a deliverer, unless he knows that there is something from which he needs to be delivered, unless he feels that he is in a wretched galling bondage, and that he cannot of himself burst his chains, that he cannot throw off his yoke? But when a mans eyes are opened to see the prison in which he is shut up, to see and feel the chains which are fast bound round his soul, and have eaten into it,--when he has learnt to see and to know that the pleasures, whatever they may be, of sin are only, like the fleshpots of Egypt, intoxicating drugs given to him to deprive him of all sense of his captivity,--then will he long for a deliverer, and rejoice on hearing of his approach, and hail him when he comes into view, and follow him whithersoever he may lead. (J. C. Hare, M. A. )

The reasonableness of faith

Let us try to realize what would have been Pauls line of argument with modern schools who construct their own methods of self salvation.

I. The school of natural religion holds that men are bound to obedience. But this law has been and is constantly violated. What now? Is God to perpetually interpose with an act of oblivion? If so, what becomes of his admitted moral government? The very foundations of natural religion are destroyed by such a supposition. Then the only alternative is the gospel system of mediation by means of which sin may be forgiven and God justified.

II. The school of classical morality aims at the exaltation of the individual by a species of moral accomplishment. But where has the ideal been realized outside of Christianity? If sincere, therefore, this school must be grievously disappointed as they are brought face to face with universal proofs of the Scripture doctrine of mans depravity, and so they are shut up to the only means of its removal, the sanctification of the Spirit through faith.

III. The school of fine feeling and poetic sentiment worships what is beautiful in human character. But look at the state of the world. That beauty is wanting, and so they are shut up to the operation of that Spirit who alone can produce what is pure, lovely, and of good report. (Dr. Chalmers.)

The reasonableness of the gospel

The gospel is a reasonable scheme, on the principle that whatever other way is divised is found on trial to be deficient: so that man is shut up to the gospel as his only resource. In demonstrating this Paul introduces the law as a successful general which outmanoeuvres man in his every attempt at escape, and so compels him to await the throwing open of Gods method of deliverance.

I. We must assume in man the workings of spiritual solicitude and anxiety. The crying sin of the day is apathy, and many men are shut up in the prison of their own moral listlessness. But, presuming an awakened state, we must examine the avenues through which he tries to enter heaven, and the tactics of the law in intercepting him.

II. Repentance is one of these avenues: but in his attempt to escape:by it man is outgeneralled by the law, which refuses to admit the efficacy of sorrow and amendment, crying, do this and live, fail to do so and die.

III. Forced back from this outlet, men endeavour to take refuge in the supposed mercy of god. But the law comes forward and dislodges them by showing that God has left no ground for the hope of unconditional forgiveness.

IV. Thus men are shut up by the law to the need of a surety. It proves to the sinner--

1. That his curse must be endured.

2. That it has been endured by Christ the only Saviour. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The great jail, and how to get out of it

We preach, at Gods command, the way of salvation by mercy, not by merit; by faith, not by works: by grace, not by the efforts of men.

I. A crowded prison. All are shut up under sin.

1. The jailer--Scripture.

(a) A lawful authority, for it is not the word of man, but of the Spirit of God.

(b) A powerful authority, for it has the strength of the Almighty to support it.

2. The prisoners--all.

(a) Heathen (Rom_1:18-21).

(b) The outwardly moral.

(c) The sincerely religious.

3. The prison. No escape from vengeance of broken law. One offence enough to keep a sinner bound for ever in misery and degradation.

II. A glorious deliverance. Jesus opens the prison door, and all who will may go free.

1. This deliverance by Jesus is complete. A slave before, a child now; no longer under the law, but under grace. Guiding principle formerly was, This do, and thou shalt live; it now is, I am saved, and so I love to serve my God. The man now does not work for wages, and expect to win a reward by merit; he is a saved man, and he has all he needs; for Christ is his, and Christ is all.

2. This deliverance comes to men by promise. No bargain--the free gift of Gods sovereign good-will.

3. The promised deliverance is not made to works, but only to faith.

4. The faith necessary for appropriating the promised deliverance, is faith in Christ. Not faith in yourself, or in a priest, or in sacraments, or in a set of doctrines; but you must believe that Christ the Son of God came on earth and became a man, took your sins upon His shoulders, bore them up to the tree, and suffered what was due for your sins in His own person on the cross; and you must trust yourself with Him, with Him fully, with Him alone, and with all your heart: and if you do so, the promise will be fulfilled to you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The true principle of salvation, and the importance of acting upon it

In every work which we undertake, it is most important that we should act upon right principles; for if We are misled upon essential points, our efforts will be wasted, since success cannot possibly be the result. A man may study the stars as long as he pleases, but he certainly will not come to right conclusions if he calculates their courses upon the theory that they daily revolve round the earth as a centre. The alchymists were earnest even to enthusiasm, but the object of their pursuit was unattainable, and the theories which guided their investigations were absurd, and therefore they exhibited a sorrowful spectacle of perseverance misapplied, and labour thrown away. In mechanics the most ingenious contriver must fail if he forgets the law of gravitation. You must proceed upon right principles, or disappointment awaits you. Now, the greatest matter of concern for any one of us is the eternal salvation of our soul. We need to be saved, and, according to the Scriptures of truth, there is but one way of salvation; but that way does not happen to be in favour among the sons of men. The great popular principle, popular all over the world, no matter whether the people happen to be Protestant or Catholic, Parsee or Mahomedan, Brahminist or Buddhist, is self-salvation--they would reach eternal life by merit. There are differences about what is done, but the great universal principle of unregenerate man is that he is, somehow or other, to save himself. This is his principle; and the further he goes in it, the less likely is he to be saved. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Suitability of the Divine plan of salvation to mans necessities

Objections are continually raised to the Divine plan of salvation. The worlds plan of salvation is, Do; the Bible says, It is all done; accept it as a free gift. The gospel way of salvation is, Christ has saved His people, and as many as trust in Him are His people, and are saved. Just think for a minute, is not this way of salvation the only one which would be suited to all sorts and conditions of men? Dear sir, you yourself may be a man of excellent disposition, and of admirable habits; I will suppose that the salvation to be preached by us was exactly such as would be suitable to such a person as you believe yourself to be, but would not this be a very unfortunate thing for many others? Are there not living within your observation many persons who are far below you in moral character? Do you not know of whole swarms of your fellow-creatures whose outward life is utterly defiled? Some of these are conscious of their degradation, and would fain rise out of it: would you have them left to despair? A way of salvation suited to the righteous it is clear would not suit them: are they to be overlooked? Would you have salvation put up to an examination like a place in the Civil Service, and only those allowed to pass who are as good as you are? Are all beneath your level to perish? I feel sure you love your fellow-men enough to say, No; let the plan of salvation be such as to save the most reprobate of men. Then I ask you, what plan could there be but this one, that God freely forgives for Christs sake even the greatest offenders, if they turn to Him and put their trust in His dear Son? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God must be accepted on His own terms

A ships crew mutinied against their commander, who was the kings son; and not only-refused to obey him, but threw him overboard with the intention of depriving him of life. Feeling their condition desperate, they commenced pirates, and while disorder and every evil work prevailed among themselves, they carried terror and misery over the ocean and into all the surrounding coasts. The prince, contrary to all probability, reached the shore in safety, and on arriving at his fathers palace, instead of urging the punishment of those who meant to murder him, employed all his influence, and with success, to induce his justly-offended parent to lay aside all thoughts of vengeance, and even to despatch immediately heralds of mercy offering a free pardon to them if they would but acknowledge the prince as their saviour and ruler, and submit to be guided by him in all their future proceedings; but reminding them that if they did not accede to this overture of mercy, sooner or later they must fall into the hands of some of his war-vessels, and must count on being dealt with according to the rigour of the law. On the messengers of mercy approaching the vessel, some of the most determined villains were for treating them as they had done their commander, but this proposal being overruled, they were taken aboard, and their sovereigns proclamation was made in the hearing of the piratical rebels. Some mocked at it; others said it was a stratagem to get them into the kings power; and even the most sober thinking among them, though they were tired of this scene of discord and ravage, both in the vessel and when the.y were on the shore, said that really they could not give the king credit for such extraordinary kindness, nor bring their mind to acknowledge the authority of the prince, but that they would endeavour to behave better as individuals, to establish better order in the ship, and to restrain their companions from those excesses of cruelty and rapine in which they had formerly indulged, so that if the kings cruisers should lay hold of them, as they feared might be the case, the king might be induced to pardon them, perhaps reward them for their good conduct. The time dreaded by them all at last arrived. Their vessel is boarded by the kings servants in irresistible force, and the whole crew are safely lodged in prison, and in due time brought before the king for judgment. With a calmness of inflexible determination, more appalling than the most furious passion, the sovereign pronounces their sentence. You most causelessly violated your allegiance; you transgressed the law; you, in intention, murdered my son; yet, on his intercession, I proffered you forgiveness--free, full forgiveness. You refused to give me credit for the generosity I manifested, and dishonoured me by supposing me false and malignant like yourselves. You persisted in despising my authority and opposing my will. And even such of you as have not run to the same enormity of licentiousness and cruelty, have formed laws to yourselves which ye have observed; but my laws ye have not regarded. And you have trampled on my grace as well as my authority. You have spurned mercy on the only terms consistent with my honour to offer it; and you have had the insufferable arrogance of attempting to dictate to me in what way I should bestow my favour. You have had your choice, and you must abide by it. As for those men who would not that I should reign over them, bring them forth and slay them before me. Let the self-righteous see, in a figure, the doom which awaits him if mercy prevent not. The law by which he must be judged is none of the laws of human device, but the law of God. (John Brown, D. D.)

All human nature sinful

There is a well in Belgium which once had very pure water, and it was stoutly reasoned with stone and brick, but that well became afterwards the centre of the battle of Waterloo. At the opening of the battle the soldiers with their sabres compelled the gardener, William yon Kylsom, to draw water out of the well for them, and it was very pure water. But the battle raged, and three hundred dead and half dead were flung into the well for quick and easy burial, so that the well of refreshment became the well of death, and long after, people looked down into the well and they saw the bleached skulls but no water. So the human soul was a well of good, but the armies of sin have fought around it, fought across it, and been slain, and it has become a well of skeletons. Dead hopes, dead resolutions, dead ambitions. An abandoned well unless Christ shall reopen and purify and fill it as the well of Belgium never was.

Unclean, unclean.

Jesus our only hope

It is a pretty thing which is told of the father of the Rev. Newman Hall, that his common seal was a crown with an anchor fixed into it, with just these words: Other refuge have I none. Well, if you do not use that seal, if you do not write the words over the door of your house, yet take care that you hear their meaning in your hearts, and never hesitate on any occasion to confess that you are saved by faith in Christ Jesus. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The law and the gospel

Faith, in my text, and in sundry places in this Epistle, seems to have a complex signification: it signifies the object of faith, revealed in the gospel, or the method of salvation through faith in the righteousness of Christ; and it also signifies the grace of faith in the soul, or a hearty compliance with this way of salvation, so that this expression, before faith came, refers to the time before the doctrine of faith was revealed in the gospel to the Galatians, and before the grace of faith was wrought in their hearts. Here it may be proper to observe, that the members of the primitive church in general, and particularly that in Galatia, were brought under the gospel dispensation, and embraced the doctrine of the gospel by faith, at one and the same time. But they were not, like us, educated under the gospel dispensation; for part of them had been Jews, educated under the Mosaic dispensation, which by way of eminence is frequently called the law; and, as they were under the legal dispensation, they were generally under the influence of a legal spirit; that is, they sought for justification by their own works of obedience to that law. Another part of them had been educated heathens, and were destitute at once of the revelation of the gospel, and of faith in it. Of this sort the generality of the Galatians had been. And yet St. Paul represents them also as having been under the law, not the Jewish or Mosaic law, which the Gentiles had no concern with, but the law of nature, which is universally binding upon all mankind. And as they were under this law, they were also possessed of a legal spirit; that is, they sought salvation by their own obedience to it, as the only way which they knew, and which was natural to them. But, when the gospel dispensation was set up in the world, and the doctrine of faith preached to them, they immediately believed, and so were freed from the outward dispensation of the law, and from a legal spirit at once; and they heard the doctrine, and received the outward dispensation of the gospel, and savingly believed, at one and the same time. My present design is to lay down some propositions for the explication of the apostolic doctrine concerning the law and the gospel, that you may see in what sense mankind are kept prisoners by the law, under condemnation, and shut up to the faith; or to the method of justification, through the righteousness of Christ, as the only way of escape.

I. All mankind, in all ages, are under a law to God. This can be denied by none who grant there is such a thing as sin or duty; for where there is no law, there can be no duty or trangression. If murder or blasphemy are universally evil with regard to all mankind, in all ages, it must be because they are forbidden by a law universally and perpetually binding.

II. This law was first of all given to man in a state of innocence, under the model of a covenant of works; that is, it was the constitution, by obedience to which he was to secure the favour of God, and to obtain everlasting felicity. It was his duty to observe it with a view to obtain immortality and happiness by it; and these blessings he was to secure by his own works of obedience.

III. That this law has passed through several editions, and received several additions and modifications, adapted to the various circumstances of mankind, and the designs of heaven towards them. That you may more fully understand this, I would observe by the way, that the law is either moral or positive. By the moral law, I mean that law which is founded upon the eternal reason of things, and that enjoins those duties which creatures under such and such circumstances owe to God, and to one another, and which necessarily flow from their relation to one another. Thus, love to God, and justice to mankind, are moral duties universally binding upon mankind in all circumstances, whether in a state of innocence, or in a state of sin; whether under the revealed law, or the law of nature. There can be no possible circumstances in which mankind are free from the obligation of such duties, and at liberty to commit the contrary sins. These are more properly the materials of a moral law. But there is another set of duties agreeable to the circumstances of fallen creatures under a dispensation of grace, which I may call evangelical morals; I mean repentance and reformation, and the utmost solicitude to re-obtain the forfeited favour of our Maker. These are universally binding upon mankind in their present state, and result from their circumstances, and consequently partake of the general nature of a moral law. By a positive law, I mean a law not necessarily resulting from the reason of things, and our relations and circumstances, but founded upon the will of the lawgiver, and adapted to some particular occasion. Such was the appendage to the first covenant, Thou shalt not eat of the tree of knowledge. Such were the institution of sacrifices immediately after the fall, the ordinance of circumcision given to Abraham., and the various ceremonies of the law of Moses; and such are baptism and the Lords Supper, and the institution of the first day of the week for the Christian Sabbath under the gospel. These ordinances are not binding in their own nature, and consequently they are not of universal or perpetual obligation, but they are in force when and where the lawgiver is pleased to appoint.

IV. That the law of God requires perfect, perpetual, and personal obedience. This holds true with regard to every law of God, whatever it be. If it requires purely moral duties, it requires that they be performed exactly according to its prescriptions. If it requires evangelical duties as repentance or sincerity, it requires perfect repentance, perfect sincerity. If it requires the observance of any ceremonial or sacramental institutions, as sacrifice, circumcision, baptism, or the Lords Supper, it requires a perfect observance of them. This, my brethren, is the nature of the law, of every law that God ever made under every dispensation of religion, before the fall, and after the fall, before the law of Moses, under it, and under the gospel. In all ages, in all circumstances, and from all persons, it requires perfect, perpetual, and personal obedience: to the performance of this, it promises eternal life: but the sinner, by every the least failure, falls under its dreadful curse, and is cut off from all the promised blessings. And hence it most evidently follows,

V. That it is absolutely impossible for any of the fallen sons of men to be justified and saved by the constitution of the law. Take what dispensation of the law you please, the law of innocence, the law of Moses, or the moral part of the gospel, it is impossible for one of the fallen posterity of Adam to be saved by it in any of these views; and the reason is plain, there is not one of them but what has broken it: there is not one of them that has yielded perfect obedience to it: and, therefore, there is not one of them but what is condemned by it, to suffer its dreadful penalty. Thus you are held in close custody by the law; you are shut up under condemnation by it. And is there no way of escape? No; there is no possible way of escape--but one; and that shall be the matter of the next proposition.

VI. That God has made another constitution, namely, the gospel, or the covenant of grace, by which even guilty sinners, condemned by the law, may be justified and saved by faith, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. According to this constitution there is encouragement for sinners to repent and use the means of grace; and all who are saved by it, are not only obliged to yield obedience to the law, but also enabled to do so with sincerity, though not to perfection. They are effectually taught by it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live righteously, soberly, and godly in the world; and, in short, holiness of heart and life is as effectually secured in this way as in any other.

VII. That all mankind are under the law, as a covenant of works, till they willingly forsake it, and fly to the gospel for refuge by faith in Christ. There are but two constitutions that God has set up in our world, by which mankind can obtain life, namely, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, or the law and gospel; and all mankind are under the one, or the other. We are all of us, my brethren, under one or other of these constitutions: for to be from under both of them is the same thing as to be lawless, and to be under no plan of life at all. And would you know whether you are set free from the law, and placed under the covenant of grace? St. Paul, who knew it both by his own experience, and by inspiration from heaven, will inform you.

1. You have been made deeply sensible of sin and condemnation by the law (Rom_3:20; Rom_8:7). Has the law ever had these effects upon you, my brethren? Have you ever had such a conviction of sin and condemnation by it? If not, you are still under it.

2. If you have been delivered from the law, you have been cut off from all hopes of obtaining justification by your own obedience to it; you have given up this point as altogether desperate; or, in the strong language of the apostle, you have been slain by the law. When the commandment came, sin revived and I died (Rom_8:9).

3. If you have been set at liberty from the law, and brought under the covenant of grace, you have believed in Christ, and fled to the gospel, as the only way of escape from the bondage and condemnation of the law. It is-the uniform doctrine of the apostle, that it is by faith only that this happy change is brought about in our condition.

4. If you are under the covenant of grace, then you are not willing slaves to sin, but make it your great business to live to God. I through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God (Gal_2:19). And do you thus live to God, sirs? Is this the great business and constant endeavour of your whole life? If not, you are not under grace, but under the law, the Egyptian task-master, who demands perfect obedience, but gives no ability to perform it. (President Davies, M. A.)

Works a hindrance to salvation

I have heard of one who fell into the water and sank, and a strong swimmer standing on the shore did not at the same instant plunge in, though fully resolved to rescue him. The man went down the second time, and then he who would rescue him was in the water swimming near him, but not too near, waiting very cautiously till his time came. He who was drowning was a strong, energetic man, and the other was too prudent to expose himself to the risk of being dragged under by his struggles. He let the man go down for the third time, and then he knew that his strength was quite exhausted, and swimming to him he grasped him and drew him to shore. If he had seized him at first, while the drowning man had strength, they would have gone down together. The first part of human salvation is the sentence of death upon all human power and merit. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

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Under arrest

I. The unhappy period--Before faith came.

1. We had no idea of faith by nature. It would never occur to the human mind that we could be saved by believing in Jesus.

2. When we heard of faith as the way of salvation we did not understand it. We could not persuade ourselves that the words used by the preacher had their common and usual meaning.

3. We saw faith in others, and wondered at its results; but we could not exercise it for ourselves.

4. We could not reach to faith, even when we began to see its necessity, admitted its efficacy, and desired to exercise it. The reason of this inability was moral, not mental.

5. We were without the Spirit of God, and therefore incapable. We do not wish to go back to the state in which we were before faith came, for it was one of darkness, misery, impotence, hopelessness, sinful rebellion, self-conceit, and condemnation.

II. The custody we were in--Kept under the law, shut up.

1. We were always within the sphere of law. In fact, there is no getting out of it. As all the world was only one prison for a man who offended Caesar, so is the whole universe no better than a prison for a sinner.

2. We were always kicking against the bounds of the law, sinning, and pining because we could not sin more.

3. We dared not overleap it altogether, and defy its power. Thus, in the case of many of us, it checked us, and held us captive with its irksome forbiddings and commandings.

4. We could not find rest. The law awakened conscience, and fear and shame attend such an awakening.

5. We could not discover a hope; for, indeed, there is none to discover while we abide under the law.

6. We could not even fall into the stupor of despair; for the law excited life, though it forbade hope. Among the considerations which held us in bondage were these: The spirituality of the law, touching thoughts, motives, desires. The need of perfect obedience, making one sin fatal to all hope of salvation by works. The requirement that each act of obedience should be perfect. The necessity that perfect obedience should be continual throughout the whole of life.

III. The revelation which set us free--The faith which should afterwards be revealed. The only thing which could bring us out of prison was faith. Faith came, and then we understood--

1. What was to be believed.

2. What it was to believe. We saw that it was trust, implicit and sincere.

3. Why we believed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

.

Law and gospel

The law and the gospel are two keys. The law is the key that shutteth up all men under condemnation, and the gospel is the key which opens the door and lets them out. (William Tyndale.)

Shut up unto the faith

To let you more effectually into the meaning of this expression, it may be right to state that in the preceding clause, kept under the law, the term, kept, is, in the original Greek, derived from a word which signifies a sentinel. The mode of conception is altogether military. The law is made to act the part of a sentry, guarding every avenue but one, and that one leads those who are compelled to take it to the faith of the gospel. They are shut up to this faith as their only alternative--like an enemy driven by the superior tactics of an opposing general, to take up the only position in which they can maintain themselves, or fly to the only town in which they can find a refuge or a security. This seems to have been a favourite style of argument with Paul, and the way in which he often carried on an intellectual warfare with the enemies of his Masters cause. It forms the basis of that masterly and decisive train of reasoning which we have in his Epistle to the Romans. By the operation of skilful tactics, he (if we may be allowed the expression) manoeuvred them, and shut them up to the faith of the gospel. It gave prodigious effect to his argument, when he reasoned with them, as he often does, upon their own principles, and turned them into instruments of conviction against themselves. With the Jews he reasoned as a Jew. He made use of the Jewish law as a sentinel to shut them out of every other refuge, and to shut them up to the refuge laid before them in the gospel. He led them to Christ by a schoolmaster whom they could not refuse; and the lesson of this schoolmaster, though a very decisive, was a very short one--Cursed be he that continueth not in all the words of the law to do them. But in point of fact, they had not done them. To them, then, belonged the curse of the violated law. The awful severity of its sanctions was upon them. They found the faith and the free offer of the gospel to be the only avenue open to receive them. They were shut up unto this avenue; and the law, by concluding them all to be under sin, left them no other outlet but the free act of grace and of mercy laid before us in the New Testament. (Dr. Chalmers.)

The law was meant to prepare men for Christ

By showing them that there is no other way of salvation except through Him. It had two especial ends: the first was to bring the people who lived under it into a consciousness of the deadly dominion of sin, to shut them up, as it were, into a prison-house out of which only one door of escape should be visible, namely, the door of faith in Jesus; the second intention was to fence about and guard the chosen race to whom the law was given--to keep them as a peculiar people separate from all the world, so that at the proper time the gospel of Christ might spring forth and go out from them as the joy and comfort of the whole human race. (T. G. Rooke.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Galatians

THE UNIVERSAL PRISON

Gal 3:22.

The Apostle uses here a striking and solemn figure, which is much veiled for the English reader by the ambiguity attaching to the word ‘concluded.’ It literally means ‘shut up,’ and is to be taken in its literal sense of confining, and not in its secondary sense of inferring. So, then, we are to conceive of a vast prison-house in which mankind is confined. And then, very characteristically, the Apostle passes at once to another metaphor when he goes on to say ‘under sin.’ What a moment before had presented itself to his vivid imagination as a great dungeon is now represented as a heavy weight, pressing down upon those beneath; if, indeed, we are not, perhaps, rather to think of the low roof of the dark dungeon as weighing on the captives.

Further, he says that Scripture has driven men into this captivity. That, of course, cannot mean that revelation makes us sinners, but it does mean that it makes us more guilty, and that it declares the fact of human sinfulness as no other voice has ever done. And then the grimness of the picture is all relieved and explained, and the office ascribed to God’s revelation harmonised with God’s love, by the strong, steady beam of light that falls from the last words, which tell us that the prisoners have not been bound in chains for despair or death, but in order that, gathered together in a common doleful destiny, they may become recipients of a common blessed salvation, and emerge into liberty and light through faith in Jesus Christ.

So here are three things--the prison-house, its guardian, and its breaker. ‘The Scripture hath shut up all under sin, in order that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given unto all them that believe.’

I. First, then, note the universal prison-house.

Now the Apostle says two things--and we may put away the figure and look at the facts that underlie it. The one is that all sin is imprisonment, the other is that all men are in that dungeon, unless they have come out of it through faith in Jesus Christ.

All sin is imprisonment. That is the direct contrary of the notion that many people have. They say to themselves, ‘Why should I be fettered and confined by these antiquated restrictions of a conventional morality? Why should I not break the bonds, and do as I like?’ And they laugh at Christian people who recognise the limitations under which God’s law has put them; and tell us that we are ‘cold-blooded folks who live by rule,’ and contrast their own broad ‘emancipation from narrow prejudice.’ But the reality is the other way. The man who does wrong is a slave in the measure in which he does it. If you want to find out--and mark this, you young people, who may be deceived by the false contrasts between the restraints of duty and the freedom of living a dissolute life--if you want to find out how utterly ‘he that committeth sin is the slave of sin,’ try to break it off, and you will find it out fast enough. We all know, alas! the impotence of the will when it comes to hand grips with some evil to which we have become habituated; and how we determine and determine, and try, and fail, and determine again, with no better result. We are the slaves of our own passions; and no man is free who is hindered by his lower self from doing that which his better self tells him he ought to do. The tempter comes to you, and says, ‘Come and do this thing, just for once. You can leave off when you like, you know. There is no need to do it a second time.’ And when you have done it, he changes his note, and says, ‘Ah! you are in, and you cannot get out. You have done it once; and in my vocabulary once means twice, and once and twice mean _always_.’

Insane people are sometimes tempted into a house of detention by being made to believe that it is a grand mansion, where they are just going to pay a flying visit, and can come away when they like. But once inside the walls, they never get past the lodge gates any more. The foolish birds do not know that there is lime on the twigs, and their little feet get fastened to the branch, and their wings flutter in vain. ‘He that committeth sin is the slave of sin--shut up,’ dungeoned, ‘under sin.’

But do not forget, either, the other metaphor in our text, in which the Apostle, with characteristic rapidity, and to the horror of rhetorical propriety, passes at once from the thought of a dungeon to the thought of an impending weight, and says, ‘Shut up _under_ sin.’

What does that mean? It means that we are guilty when we have done wrong; and it means that we are under penalties which are sure to follow. No deed that we do, howsoever it may fade from the tablets of our memory, but writes in visible characters, in proportion to its magnitude, upon our characters and lives. All human acts have perpetual consequences. The kick of the rifle against the shoulder of the man that fires it is as certain as the flight of the bullet from its muzzle. The chalk cliffs that rise above the Channel entomb and perpetuate the relics of myriads of evanescent lives; and our fleeting deeds are similarly preserved in our present selves. Everything that a man wills, whether it passes into external act or not, leaves, in its measure, ineffaceable impressions on himself. And so we are not only dungeoned in, but weighed upon by, and lie under, the evil that we do.

Nor, dear friends, dare I pass in silence what is too often passed in silence in the modern pulpit, the plain fact that there is a future waiting for each of us beyond the grave, of which the most certain characteristic, certified by our own forebodings, required by the reasonableness of creation, and made plain by the revelation of Scripture, is that it is a future of retribution, where we shall have to carry our works; and as we have brewed so shall we drink; and the beds that we have made we shall have to lie upon. ‘God shut up all under sin.’

Note, again, the universality of the imprisonment.

Now I am not going to exaggerate, I hope. I want to keep well within the limits of fact, and to say nothing that is not endorsed by your own consciences, if you will be honest with yourselves. And I say that the Bible does not charge men universally with gross transgressions. It does not talk about the virtues that grow in the open as if they were splendid vices; but it does say, and I ask you if our own hearts do not tell us that it says truly, that no man is, or has been, does, or has done, that which his own conscience tells him he should have been and done. We are all ready to admit faults, in a general way, and to confess that we have come short of what our own consciousness tells us we ought to be. But I want you to take the other step, and to remember that since we each stand in a personal relation to God, therefore all imperfections, faults, negligences, shortcomings, and, still more, transgressions of morality, or of the higher aspirations of our lives, are sins. Because sin--to use fine words--is the correlative of God. Or, to put it into plainer language, the deeds which in regard to law may be crimes, or those which in regard to morality may be vices, or in regard to our own convictions of duty may be shortcomings, seeing they all have some reference to Him, assume a very much graver character, and they are all sins.

Oh, brethren, if we realise how intimately and inseparably we are knit to God, and how everything that we do, and do not do, but should have done, has an aspect in reference to Him, I think we should be less unwilling to admit, and less tinged with levity and carelessness in admitting, that all our faults are transgressions of His law, and we should find ourselves more frequently on our knees before Him, with the penitent words on our lips and in our hearts, ‘Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.’

That was the prayer of a man who had done a foul evil in other people’s sight; who had managed to accumulate about as many offences to as many people in one deed as was possible. For, as a king he had sinned against his nation, as a friend he had sinned against his companion, as a captain he had sinned against his brave subordinate, as a husband he had sinned against his wife, and he had sinned against Bathsheba. And yet, with all that tangle of offences against all these people, he says, ‘Against Thee, Thee only.’ Yes! Because, accurately speaking, the _sin_ had reference to God, and to God alone. And I wish for myself and for you to cultivate the habit of connecting, thus, all our actions, and especially our imperfections and our faults, with the thought of God, that we may learn how universal is the enclosure of man in this dreadful prison-house.

II. And so, I come, in the second place, to look at the guardian of the prison.

That is a strange phrase of my text attributing the shutting of men up in this prison-house to the merciful revelation of God in the Scripture. And it is made still more striking and strange by another edition of the same expression in the Epistle to the Romans, where Paul directly traces the ‘concluding all in disobedience’ to God Himself.

There may be other subtle thoughts connected with that expression which I do not need to enter upon now. But one that I would dwell upon, for a moment, is this, that one great purpose of Scripture is to convince us that we are sinful in God’s sight. I do not need to remind you, I suppose, how that was, one might almost say, the dominant intention of the whole of the ceremonial and moral law of Israel, and explains its many else inexplicable and apparently petty commandments and prohibitions. They were all meant to emphasise the difference between right and wrong, obedience and disobedience, and so to drive home to men’s hearts the consciousness that they had broken the commandments of the living God. And although the Gospel comes with a very different guise from that ancient order, and is primarily gift and not law, a Gospel of forgiveness, and not the promulgation of duty or the threatening of condemnation, yet it, too, has for one of its main purposes, which must be accomplished in us before it can reach its highest aim in us, the kindling in men’s hearts of the same consciousness that they are sinful men in God’s sight.

Ah, brethren, we all need it. There is nothing that we need more than to have driven deep into us the penetrating point of that conviction. There must be some external standard by which men may be convinced of their sinfulness, for they carry no such standard within them. Your conscience is only _you_ judging on moral questions, and, of course, as you change, it will change too. A man’s whole state determines the voice with which conscience shall speak to him, and so the worse he is, and the more he needs it, the less he has it. The rebels cut the telegraph wires. The waves break the bell that hangs on the reef, and so the black rocks get many a wreck to gnaw with their sharp teeth. A man makes his conscience dumb by the very sins that require a conscience trumpet-tongued to reprehend them. And therefore it needs that God should speak from Heaven, and say to us, ‘_Thou_ art the man,’ or else we pass by all these grave things that I am trying to urge upon you now, and fall back upon our complacency and our levity and our unwillingness to take stock of ourselves, and front the facts of our condition. And so we build up a barrier between ourselves and God, and God’s grace, which nothing short of that grace and an omnipotent love and an all-powerful Redeemer can ever pull down.

I wish to urge in a few words, yet with much earnestness, this thought, that until we have laid to heart God’s message about our own personal sinfulness we have not got to the place where we can in the least understand the true meaning of His Gospel, or the true work of His Son. May I say that I, for one, am old-fashioned enough to look with great apprehension on certain tendencies of present-day presentations of Christianity which, whilst they dwell much upon the social blessings which it brings, do seem to me to be in great peril of obscuring the central characteristic of the Gospel, that it is addressed to sinful men, and that the only way by which individuals can come to the possession of any of its blessings is by coming as penitent sinners, and casting themselves on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ? The beginning of all lies here, where Paul puts it, ‘the Scripture hath herded all men,’ in droves, into the prison, that it might have mercy upon all.

Dear friend, as the old proverb has it, deceit lurks in generalities. I have no doubt you are perfectly willing to admit that all are sinful. Come a little closer to the truth, I beseech you, and say each is sinful, and I am one of the captives.

III. And so, lastly, the breaker of the prison-house.

I need not spend your time in commenting on the final words of this text. Suffice it to gather their general purport and scope. The apparently stern treatment which God by revelation applies to the whole mass of mankind is really the tenderest beneficence. He has shut them up in the prison-house in order that, thus shut up, they may the more eagerly apprehend and welcome the advent of the Deliverer. He tells us each our state, in order that we may the more long for, and the more closely grasp, the great mercy which reverses the state. And so how shallow and how unfair it is to talk about evangelical Christianity as being gloomy, stern, or misanthropical! You do not call a doctor unkind because he tells an unsuspecting patient that his disease is far advanced, and that if it is not cured it will be fatal. No more should a man turn away from Christianity, or think it harsh and sour, because it speaks plain truths. The question is, are they true? not, are they unpleasant?

If you and I, and all our fellows, are shut up in this prison-house of sin, then it is quite clear that none of us can do anything to get ourselves out. And so the way is prepared for that great message with which Jesus opened His ministry, and which, whilst it has a far wider application, and reference to social as well as to individual evils, begins with the proclamation of liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

There was once a Roman emperor who wished that all his enemies had one neck, that he might slay them all at one blow. The wish is a fact in regard to Christ and His work, for by it all our tyrants have been smitten to death by one stroke; and the death of Jesus Christ has been the death of sin and death and hell--of sin in its power, in its guilt, and in its penalty. He has come into the prison-house, and torn the bars away, and opened the fetters, and every man may, if he will, come out into the blessed sunshine and expatiate there.

And if, brethren, it is true that the universal prison-house is opened by the death of Jesus Christ, who is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world, and the power by which the most polluted may become clean, then there follows, as plainly, that the only thing which we have to do is, recognising and feeling our bound impotence, to stretch out chained hands and take the gift that He brings. Since all is done for each of us, and since none of us can do sufficient for himself to break the bond, then what we should do is to trust to Him who has broken every chain and let the oppressed go free.

Oh, dear friend, if you want to get to the heart of the sweetness and the blessedness and power of the Gospel, you must begin here, with the clear and penitent consciousness that you are a sinful man in God’s sight, and can do nothing to cleanse, help, or liberate yourself. Is Jesus Christ the breaker of the bond for you? Do you learn from Him what your need is? Do you trust yourself to Him for Pardon, for cleansing, for emancipation? Unless you do, you will never know His most precious preciousness, and you have little right to call yourself a Christian. If you do, oh, than a great light will shine in the prison-house, and your chains will drop from your wrists, and the iron door will open of its own accord, and you will come out into the morning sunshine of a new day, because you have confessed and abhorred the bondage into which you have cast yourselves, and accepted the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:22 we are all prisoners of sin: See Rom 3:9; 7:1-13; 11:32. Keeping the law is of no use in bringing salvation; only believing in Jesus Christ can bring freedom.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Gal 3:22. Ἀλλὰ, but) So far is righteousness from being of the law, that the acknowledgment of sin is rather what comes of the law.—συνέκλεισεν, hath concluded) It has comprehended sinners, that were formerly unconcerned [free from all alarm], and has concluded them all together; comp. inclosed [συνέκλεισεν, of the multitude of fishes in the net], Luk 5:6.—ἡ γραφὴ, the Scripture) The Scripture, not God, is said to have concluded all under sin; although a ‘concluding’ of that sort is elsewhere ascribed to God, Rom 11:32. Moreover, it is worthy of notice, that he says, the Scripture, not the law. Scripture began to be written, not at the time when the promise was made, but at the time when the law was given; for God stands to His promises even without writing: but it was necessary, that the perfidy [faithlessness to God’s commands] of the sinner should be rebuked by the written letter. Furthermore, in the subsequent clause also, that, etc., Paul touches upon something, which goes beyond the sphere of the law, not beyond that of Scripture.[31]—τὰ τάντα, all) Not only all men, but also all the things, which they are and have in their possession.

[31] And for this reason also, ἡ γραφὴ is here said, not ὁ νόμος.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal_3:22. But the case supposed (ἐδόθη νόμος ὁ δυνάμ. ζωοποιῆσαι) does not exist: for, on the contrary, according to the Scriptures all men have been subjected to the dominion of sin, and the purpose of God therein was, that the promised salvation should not come from the law, but should be bestowed on believers on account of faith in Christ. What sort of position is assigned under these circumstances to the law, is then stated in Gal_3:23.

συνέκλεισεν ἡ γραφὴ κ.τ.λ.] Scripture is personified, as in Gal_3:8. That which God has done, because it is divinely revealed and attested in Scripture (see Rom_3:9-19) and thereby appears an infallible certainty, is represented as the act of Scripture, which the latter, as in its utterances the professed self-revelation of God, has accomplished. The Scripturethat is, when regarded apart from the personification, God, according to the divine testimony of the Scripturehas brought all into ward under sin, that is, has put the whole of mankind without exception into the relation of bondage, in which sin (comp. Rom_3:9) has them, as it were, under lock and key, so that they cannot escape from this control and attain to moral freedom. On the figurative expression, and on the conception of the matter as a divine measure (not a mere declaration), compare on Rom_11:32. Following Chrysostom (ἠλέγξεν) and others, Hermann finds the sense: per legem demum cognitum esse peccatum (Rom_7:7 f., Gal_3:19 ff.), which, however, does not correspond with the significance of the carefully-chosen συνέκλεισεν, and is also at variance with ἡ γραφή, which is by no meansas, following the Fathers (but not Theodoret), Beza, Calvin, Baumgarten-Crusius and others thinkequivalent to νόμος, but denotes the O.T., whilst ὁ νόμος in the whole connection is the institute of the law. The bond of guilt which is implied in the dominion of sin is obvious of itself, without any need for explaining ἁμαρτίαν as the guilt of sin.

Moreover, the emphasis is on the prefixed συνέκλεισεν: included, so that freedom, that is, the attainment of δικαιοσύνη, is not to be thought of. Συγκλείειν, however, does not denote: to include together, with one another, as Bengel, Usteri, and others hold (not even in Rom_11:32), which is clearly proved by the fact that the word is very often used of the shutting up of one, unaccompanied by others (1Sa_24:19; Psa_31:9; Polyb. xi. 2. 10; 1Ma_11:66; 1Ma_12:7); but συν corresponds to the idea of complete custody, so that the enclosed are entirely and absolutely held in by the barriers in question. Comp. Herod, vii. 129: λίμνη συγκληϊσμένη πάντοθεν, Eur. Hec. 487; Polyb. i. 17. 8, i. 51. 10, iii. 117. 11; also Plat. Tim. p. 71 C, where it is used with ἐμφράττειν; 1Ma_4:31; 1Ma_5:5. Una includere would be συγκατακλείειν, Herod. i. 182; Lucian, Vit. auct. 9, D. mort. xiv. 4.

τὰ πάντα] the collective whole, not: all which man ought to do (Ewald), but like τοὺς πάντας, Rom_11:32. The neuter used of persons, who are thus brought under the point of view of the general category: the totality. See on 1Co_1:27; Arrian. v. 22. 1. According to Calvin, Beza, Wolf, Bengel, and others (comp. also Hofmann), τὰ πάντα is supposed to refer not merely to men, but also to everything which they are, have, or do. But the figurative συνέκλεισεν, and also the context by τοῖς πιστεύουσι and the personal indications contained in Gal_3:23 ff., give the preference to our interpretation. Besides, τὰ πάντα, taken of things, would mean all things (Xen. Mem. i. 11; Rom_11:36, et al.), which is here unsuitable. Comp. on the matter itself, Rom_3:9; Rom_3:19

ἵνα ἡ ἐπαγγελία κ.τ.λ.] the purpose of God, because that which was previously represented as the action of Scripture was in reality the action of God. Therefore we must not (with Semler, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Flatt, Winer, Matthias, and others) explain logice: quo appareat dari, etc.

ἡ ἐπαγγελία] that which was promised, a sense which the abstract receives through δοθῇ. Comp. Gal_3:14. That which is meant is the promised gift, already well known from the context, namely, the κληρονομία, Gal_3:16; Gal_3:18.

ἐκ πίστεως] not from obedience to the law, which with that subjection under the control of sin was impossible, but so that the divine bestowal proceeds, as regards its subjective cause, from faith in Jesus Christ; comp. Gal_3:8. The emphasis is on this ἐκ πίστ. Ἰ. Χ., and not on ἐπαγγελία (Hofmann); see Gal_3:23 ff.

τοῖς πιστεύουσι] is explained by Winer and others as an apparent tautology arising from the importance of this proposition (and therefore emphatic); but without adequate ground (and passages such as Gal_3:9, Rom_1:17, Php_3:9, are not relevant here); the expression, on the contrary, is quite in keeping with the circumstances of the Galatians. That salvation was intended for believers, was not denied; but they held to the opinion that obedience to the law must necessarily be the procuring cause of this salvation. Paul therefore says: in order that, in virtue of faith in Jesus Christ, not in virtue of obedience to the law, salvation should be given to the believersso that thus the believers have no need of anything further than faith. Comp. Gal_5:4 f.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Gal 3:22 . The real function of the Law was not to justify but to convict of sin, that men might the more readily turn in humble faith to Christ for relief from the burden of an accusing conscience. ἡ γραφὴ . The Old Testament was always designated by the plural γραφαί in apostolic times, for the several books were preserved in separate rolls and did not form a single whole. Here, therefore, ἡ γραφή points to some particular passage of the Law to which the author has already drawn attention as embodying its spirit. The passage of Deu 27:26 quoted in Gal 3:10 answers this description, for it imprecates a curse on all who fell short of perfect obedience. συνέκλεισεν … τὰ πάντα . The figure here presented of prisoners under sentence, condemned to pay the penalty of sin, makes it clear that the object of συνέκλεισεν is persons , not things: and accordingly these prisoners are described in Gal 3:23 as συγκλειόμενοι (masc.). A neuter plural substantive must therefore be understood with τὰ πάντα which is applicable to persons. Hence I infer that by τὰ πάντα is meant τὰ πάντα σπέρματα , i.e. , all the families of Abraham after the flesh, in other words the whole Jewish nation. ἵνα … The design of the Law was to pave the way for the eventual fulfilment of the promise to all that believe by faith in Christ.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By this word, Scripture, he meaneth the Law.

All men, and whatsoever cometh from man.

In every one of these words, there lieth an argument against the merits of works, for all these words, promise, faith, Christ, might be given, to believers, are against merits, and not one of them can stand with deserving works.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

But--as the law cannot give life or righteousness [ALFORD]. Or the "But" means, So far is righteousness from being of the law, that the knowledge of sin is rather what comes of the law [BENGEL].

the scripture--which began to be written after the time of the promise, at the time when the law was given. The written letter was needed SO as PERMANENTLY to convict man of disobedience to God's command. Therefore he says, "the Scripture," not the "Law." Compare Gal 3:8, "Scripture," for "the God of the Scripture."

concluded--"shut up," under condemnation, as in a prison. Compare Isa 24:22, "As prisoners gathered in the pit and shut up in the prison." Beautifully contrasted with "the liberty wherewith Christ makes free," which follows, Gal 3:7, Gal 3:9, Gal 3:25-26; Gal 5:1; Isa 61:1.

all--Greek neuter, "the universe of things": the whole world, man, and all that appertains to him.

under sin-- (Rom 3:9, Rom 3:19; Rom 11:32).

the promise--the inheritance promised (Gal 3:18).

by faith of Jesus Christ--that is which is by faith in Jesus Christ.

might be given--The emphasis is on "given": that it might be a free gift; not something earned by the works of the law (Rom 6:23).

to them that believe--to them that have "the faith of (in) Jesus Christ" just spoken of.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 22. But the scripture hath concluded] All the writings of the prophets have uniformly declared that men are all sinners, and the law declares the same by the continual sacrifices which it prescribes. All, therefore have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; and, being tried and found guilty, συνεκλεισεν ἡ γραφη, the Scripture hath shut them up-put them in prison, and locked them up, till the time should come in which the sentence of the law should be executed upon them: (See Ro 3:9-20, and the notes there; and particularly Ro 11:32, where the apostle uses the same metaphor, and which in the note is particularly explained.)

That the promise of justification, by faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that believe.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. The Scripture hath concluded. By the word Scripture is chiefly intended the law itself. It “hath concluded all under sin,” and therefore, instead of giving, it takes away righteousness from all. The reasoning is most powerful. “You seek righteousness in the law: but the law itself, with the whole of Scripture, leaves nothing to men but condemnation; for all men, with their works, are pronounced to be unrighteous: who then shall live by the law?” He alludes to these words,

“He who shall do these things, shall live in them.” (Leviticus 18:5.)

Shut out by it, says he, from life through guilt, in vain should we seek salvation by the law. — The word translated all (τὰ πάντα) signifies all things, and conveys more than if he had said all men; for it embraces not only men, but every thing which they possess or can accomplish.

That the promise by faith. There is no remedy but to throw away the righteousness of works, and betake ourselves to the faith of Christ. The result is certain. If works come into judgment, we are all condemned; therefore we obtain, by the faith of Christ, a free righteousness. This sentence is full of the highest consolation. It tells us that, wherever we hear ourselves condemned in Scripture, there is help provided for us in Christ, if we betake ourselves to him. We are lost, though God were silent: why then does he so often pronounce that we are lost? It is that we may not perish by everlasting destruction, but, struck and confounded by such a dreadful sentence, may by faith seek Christ, through whom we “pass from death into life.” (1 John 3:14.) By a figure of speech, (μετωνυμία,) in which the thing containing is put for the thing contained, the promise denotes that which is promised.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(22) The scripture.—Slightly personified.

Hath concluded.—The same peculiar word occurs in Rom_11:32, with a similar sense. It means to “shut up,” “hem in,” “prevent from straying either to the right hand or to the left,” as a shepherd shuts up his flock in the fold.

All.—This is put in the neuter gender, but only to give a more complete universality to the statement. What is meant is “all mankind.”

The promise by faith of Jesus Christ.—The promise which originates in faith in Christ, which derives its fulfilment from faith, is due to faith.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. But the Scripture, &c.] The impossibility (Theod. Mops.) of obtaining righteousness by legal obedience is proved by the plain testimony of Scripture. It is noteworthy that in this momentous argument St Paul appeals not to conscience or experience, but to God’s Word written.

the Scripture hath concluded] Not the O. T. generally, but the particular passage referred to in ch. Gal_2:16, viz. Psa_143:2. This view is confirmed by the tense employed ‘concluded’, rather than the perfect ‘hath concluded’. This personification of Scripture is remarkable, investing it with the dignity and authority of a Divine utterance.

concluded] i.e. ‘shut up’, leaving no means of escape. The same word occurs Rom_11:32, ‘God shut up all men into disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all’.

all] Lit. ‘all things’, neuter. In the passage just quoted from Romans we have ‘all men’. This is more comprehensive, not because ‘no exception is made, not even in favour of the Virgin Mary, as the Vatican decree would require’ (Dr Schaff)—though this is true,—but because men’s purest aims, and noblest efforts, and holiest achievements are tainted with sin.

that the promise … believe] The promise is here put for the thing promised, justification, life. Bp. Lightfoot observes that the words, ‘by faith in Jesus Christ’ are not redundant. St Paul’s opponents did not deny that only believers could obtain the promise. They held that it was obtained by works, and not by faith.

This verse reveals the end for which the law was given—not to condemn, but to shew that by it was no escape, from it no escape, except by faith in the promise—in the Person promising and the Person promised. How beautifully Bunyan illustrates this great truth when he makes the Pilgrims who were shut up in the Doubting Castle of Giant Despair effect their escape by the Key of Promise, which Christian found in his bosom!

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin,.... By the "Scripture" is meant, either the writing of the law in particular, the killing letter, or the whole Scripture, or God in it; and who by and in it has shown, declared, and proved, that all the individuals of human nature, Jews and Gentiles, and all that is in them, and done by them, are under the power and dominion of sin, defiled by it, and involved in the guilt of it; for it is not "all persons", but "all things", belonging to all persons; all the members of their bodies, and faculties of their souls; all their thoughts, inclinations, and intentions; all their works and services, even their best righteousness, which is as filthy rags; all are declared to be sinful and polluted, and men on account of them to be guilty before God, and liable to punishment; from whence there can be no escape by the law of works; for they are like men concluded, or shut up in a prison, from which there is no apparent likelihood of deliverance: now the Spirit of God, discovering to men this their wretched and desperate condition, under the law and sin, reveals Christ and his righteousness to them, and enables and encourages them to believe in him, by whom only they can be justified from all things, they cannot by the law of Moses, in which they see themselves shut up, as in a prison:

that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe; by the "promise" is intended, the promise of life and salvation, and particularly of a justifying righteousness; which is given, not merited; righteousness is a gift, a gift of grace, a free gift, and so is eternal life; salvation in all its parts is of free grace; Christ is a free gift, and so are all things along with him; yea, faith itself, by which they are received, it is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God; Christ is the author and finisher, as well as the object of it; and therefore here called "the faith of Jesus Christ": and such that have it, to them the promise, or the things promised, righteousness and life are given, which the law could not give; not to them that work, but to them that believe: thus the law is so far from being against the promises of God, that it is subservient to them; for though the law has no tendency in itself to bring persons to Christ, and to believe in him for righteousness, yet this concluding men under sin, showing them their desperate, and hopeless, and helpless condition, the Spirit of God takes occasion from hence to reveal Christ unto them, and to enable them as perishing creatures to venture on him, and lay hold on the hope set before them in the Gospel; and so they come to enjoy the grand promise of it, even life and salvation by Christ.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Ver. 22. But the Scripture] The law and the prophets.

Hath concluded all] Gr. Hath clapped them up close prisoners. All in the neuter gender (both men and women), to prevent cavils, συνεκλεισεν παντα.

That the promise, &c.] That he might have mercy upon all, Rom 11:32. {See Trapp on "Rom 11:32"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the Scripture - The Old Testament (see the note at Joh 5:39), containing the Law of Moses.

Hath concluded all under sin - Has “shut up” (συνέκλεισεν sunekleisen) all under the condemnation of sin; that is, has declared all people, no matter what their rank and external character, to be sinners. Of course, they cannot be justified by that law which declares them to be guilty, and which condemns them, any more than the Law of the land will acquit a murderer, and pronounce him innocent, at the same time that it holds him to be guilty. In regard to the meaning of the expression used here; see the note at Rom 11:32; compare Rom 3:9, Rom 3:19. “That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ, etc.” That the promise referred to in the transaction with Abraham, the promise of justification and life by faith in the Messiah. Here we see one design of the Law. It was to show that they could not be justified by their own works, to hedge up their way in regard to justification by their own righteousness, and to show them their need of a better righteousness. The Law accomplishes the same end now. It shows people that they are guilty; and it does it in order that they may be brought under the influence of the pure system of the gospel, and become interested in the promises which are connected with eternal salvation.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Hath concluded all under sin; i.e. hath declared all to be under sin, from which they could not be delivered but by faith in Jesus Christ, the promised seed. (Challoner) --- The law was not given to all; but all its precepts and prohibitions were binding under sin, and all violators of the law were guilty of sin.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

But the Sripture hath concluded all under sin: it pleased God to give a law, which, if Adam had continued in his estate of innocence, might have given life; but considering man in his lapsed state, that now is not possible: Rom 2:10; There is none righteous, no not one: and Eph 2:3; We are all children of wrath.

That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe; that the promises of life and salvation might be given to those who, according to the new covenant of the gospel, should receive and accept of the Mediator, and the terms of salvation which God offers to us in the gospel; where these promises are exhibited upon condition of believing. Though, upon our first reflection upon it, it may seem strange to us, that God, having in his eternal counsels fixed the salvation of man upon a conenant of grace, and his believing in Jesus Christ, should in time first propound a covenant of works: Do this, and live; yet, upon second thoughts, this will appear necessary; for till man was a transgressor by breaking the law, and violating the first covenant, there was no room for a Mediator, no cause for men’s applying themselves to a Mediator. God therefore first gave out the covenant of works, and suffered man to break it; and then he revealed the Mediator to lapsed man; that so they who should believe in him might obtain the promise of life, to which by the fall they had forfeited their right.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. But—But the reversive conjunction introduces the terrible reverse fact.

The Scripture—Revelation; not in one passage or so alone, but in its whole tenor.

Hath concluded—Or shut up; that is, in thought and declaration. What Scripture is here represented as doing, God is said to do in Rom_11:32. Taking us off from the basis of law, yielding that we are completely under sin, Scripture flings us upon faith of Jesus Christ for redemption.

All—Neuter gender in the Greek, so as to signify the race as a whole mass. All, as in the nature of a fallen parent and under a perfect law, are under sin; and viewed as living human individuals are sure, sooner or later, to sin. Apart from Christ there would be no hope of holiness and life for any one of them. The introduction of a Saviour was the requisite condition of the propagation of the race. See note, Rom_11:32.

To them that believe—Even under Jesus Christ there is a law, the law of faith and self-surrender. But this law gracious aids enable us to keep, and find a remedy for our short comings. But beware of inferring that the promise secures an unconditional salvation.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin (ajllakleisen hJ grafh tanta uJpoan); on the contrary, the Scripture hath shut it all up under sin. On the sense which the phrase, "the Scripture," sometimes bears, denoting the sacred writings collectively and not one particular passage, see note on ver. 8. Here, as in ver. 8, we feel ourselves at liberty not to limit the apostle"s reference to one passage, as that cited in Gal_2:16 or ver. 23 of this chapter, but to understand him as including in his scope the teaching of Holy Scripture in both these and other places; having probably in view some such general summary of the contents of God"s Word as bearing upon the subject, as he has alleged in Ro 3. It is highly probable that some such summary, very possibly this identical one with variations, he was wont frequently to employ, as he certainly had constant occasion to do, in reasoning with his fellow-Jews and others, in synagogues and elsewhere. As in ver. 8, so here, the term "Scripture" is so applied as to invest Scripture with a sort of personal agency, which in stricter propriety would be predicated of its Divine Author. We have, in fact, presented to us the action of God himself in his ordering of that older economy, and not merely the statement of Scripture describing the condition of things under it. "Shut it all up under sin;" leaving no loop-hole of escape. The sense of the verb is illustrated by its use in the Septuagint, (Jos_6:1) "Jericho was (sugkekleismenh) straitly shut up." God, in the appointments and revelations of the Law, found and pointedly left his people, so to speak, under the operation and overmastering of sin, providing for them therein, and as yet, no such outlet from either its condemnation or its power ("the law of sin," Romans) as he purposed in after times to open for them. The description stands in marked contrast with the blessed liberty predicated in the next chapter of the children of "Jerusalem which is above." This condition of things under the old economy is represented as being only a provisional ordering of the Divine Disposer, made with a view to a perfect manifestation of delivering goodness to come by-and-by. "Shut up that," etc. We have a remarkable parallel to this twofold significance of "shut up," both as present and as prospective, in kleisen Rom_11:32," God hath shut up all men unto disobedience (sune oJ Qeov tountav eijv ajpeiqeian), that he might have mercy upon all;" where likewise the providential ordering of God is spoken of, and not the description of Scripture only. There we read tountav, here tanta, with an evident propriety in the choice of gender; for there St. Paul is thinking of Jews and of Gentiles as severally coming under the operation of the Divine "shutting up;" here he is not thinking of varied personalities, but rather of the entire circumstances of men under the legal economy. That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe (ina hJ ejpaggelia ejk pistewv jIhsou Cristou doqh toiv pisteuousi). The term "promise," as connected with the verb "might be given," denotes beyond doubt the thing promised, as in ver. 14, "the promise of the Spirit:" this is "the promise" meant here. Now, if we were to join the words, "by faith of Jesus Christ," with the noun "promise," we should have to understand the two together as meaning," the promise which was made to Abraham because of his faith in Jesus Christ;" and this would be attended with a twofold inconvenience:

(1) the term would have to be taken in two senses in the same sentence; it would first mean here, "the word of promise spoken to Abraham," and then, when immediately after taken with the verb "might be given," it would change its sense into that of "the thing promised;

(2) this method of construing the sentence would import a new thought, one which did not, so far as we know it may have done so, perhaps, but there is no proof of it belong to St. Paul"s views of the subject; namely, that "Jesus Christ not merely "Christ," but "Jesus Christ" the historical Son of David was believed in by Abraham. It appears safer, therefore, to connect the words, "by faith of Jesus Christ," with the verb; thus: "that the promise might by faith, as a consequence of faith, of Jesus Christ be given to them that believe." The apostle redoubles the mention of "faith" as the qualification for receiving the gift. "Faith! Faith! with none of your wretched works of ceremonialism! Compare for this iteration of faith, vers. 2-7. He adds, "of Jesus Christ," to "by faith," to mark that the bestowment of the blessing was delayed till Christ should have actually come, to whose line amongst Abraham"s posterity the promise had been made. The apostle intimates that the ulterior purpose which God had in view in then "shutting it all up under sin," the purpose which is described in this last sentence, was likewise signified by "Scripture," as well as the condition of comparative helplessness and condemnation, under which those subject to the Law were detained. The participle toiv pisteuousi is either a class substantive (as Act_2:44; 1Co_14:22) to believers," or the present tense of the participle points to action contemporaneous with that expressed by the verb, "to them that should believe."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But, on the contrary, the scripture wherein that law is written hath concluded all under sin - Hath shut them up together, (so the word properly signifies,) as in a prison, under sentence of death, to the end that all being cut off from expecting justification by the law, the promise might be freely given to them that believe.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

VERSE 22. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin.

Where? First in the promises concerning Christ in Gen 3:15 and in Gen 22:18, which speak of the seed of the woman and the seed of Abraham. The fact that these promises were made unto the fathers concerning Christ implies that the fathers were subject to the curse of sin and eternal death. Otherwise why the need of promises?

Next, Holy Writ "concludes" all under sin in this passage from Paul: "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." Again, in the passage which the Apostle quotes from Deu 27:26, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." This passage clearly submits all men to the curse, not only those who sin openly against the Law, but also those who sincerely endeavor to perform the Law, inclusive of monks, friars, hermits, etc.

The conclusion is inevitable: Faith alone justified without works. If the Law itself cannot justify, much less can imperfect performance of the Law or the works of the Law, justify.

VERSE 22. That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

The Apostle stated before that "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin." Forever? No, only until the promise should be fulfilled. The promise, you will recall, is the inheritance itself or the blessing promised to Abraham, deliverance from the Law, sin, death, and the devil, and the free gift of grace, righteousness, salvation, and eternal life. This promise, says Paul, is not obtained by any merit, by any law, or by any work. This promise is given. To whom? To those who believe. In whom? In Jesus Christ.

Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.

But the scripture shut up all things under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. [The apostle now undertakes to show the inferiority of the law to the gospel. For what purpose then, you ask, was the law? It was added by God for the purpose of revealing and manifesting to man his sinfulness, and was to exist only during the interim between the giving of the promise and the fulfillment of the promise by the coming of Christ ( Gal_2:18 ; Rom_5:13-20 ; Rom_7:7 ). It was not given directly by divine lips, as was the gospel, but through the intervention of angels ( Deu_33:2 ; Heb_2:2 ); and it was not given personally, but through Moses, a mediator ( Deu_5:5 ). Now, this mediatorship of Moses also argues the temporal nature of the law; for a mediator is no part of the personality of the one whom he represents: he is a different personality; but God is one personality, and can not, therefore, be properly represented by any other than himself. Such a mediatorship, therefore, must, in the very nature of the case, be but temporary. The men who represent God are mortal and pass away, but God is immutable and ever-abiding. His promises, therefore, stand on a different plane from anything which rests on human mediation. But some one will ask, if the law brings a curse, is it not antagonistic to the promises which bring a blessing? God forbid that we should think that the Almighty acts in so contrary a manner. There are two ways in which the law might antagonize the gospel. 1. If righteousness could have been obtained by it, it might have proved a rival way of life. But it is no such rival. 2. If it had destroyed life despite the gospel, it would have been contradictory to the gospel. But it merely shut men up as prisoners, doomed for their sins, that justification by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to all them that believe. Thus, instead of being antagonistic to the gospel, the law emphasized and revealed the blessedness of the gospel.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. But. But none became righteous by the law. The Scriptures place all under sin that the promise should be to them only who believe through Christ. All hope is in the gospel. See Rom. 11:32.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

22. ἀλλὰ. In contradiction to the hypothesis in Gal 3:21 b, the statement of Scripture is otherwise.

συνέκλεισεν. Gal 3:23, Rom 11:32; Luk 5:6[109]. For its metaphorical use in the LXX. see Psalms 30 (31):9, 77 (78):50, 62. The preposition refers not to the things enclosed, i.e. “together,” but to the completeness of the closure, “complete custody, so that the enclosed are absolutely and entirely held in by the barriers in question” (Meyer).

[109] Is affixed to a word it means that all the passages are mentioned where that word occurs in the New Testament.

ἡ γραφὴ. Gal 3:8 note. The passage here referred to is Deu 27:26, quoted in Gal 3:10, or, less probably, Psalms 142 (143):2, quoted in Gal 2:16.

τὰ πάντα. Not strictly in the sense of “all things,” as in Col 1:20. Perhaps it is safest to understand it of the whole results of the dispensation of the Law, but persons may be referred to by the neuter in abstract speech: see Joh 6:37; 1Jn 5:4. So Thuc. III. 11. 4 τὰ κράτιστα ἐπὶ τοὺς ὑποδεεστέρους πρώτους ξυνεπῆγον; Xen. Anab. VII. 3. 11 τὰ μὲν φεύγουτα καὶ ἀποδιδράσκοντα ἡμεῖς ἱκανοί ἐσόμεθα διώκειν … ἢν δέ τις ἀνθιστῆται κ.τ.λ. See Winer-Schmiedel, § 28. 1; Blass, § 32. 1. For the thought cf. Rom 11:32.

ἵνα, strictly telic. Cf. Chrysostom εἰ δὲ διὰ τοῦτο ἐδόθη [ό νόμος], ἴνα συγκλείσῃ πάντας, τουτέστιν, ἵνα ἐλέγξῃ καὶ δείξῃ τὰ οἰκεῖα αὐτῶν πλημμελήματα, οὐ μόνον οὐ κωλύει σε τοῦ τυχεῖν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ἀλλὰ καὶ συμπράττει πρὸς τὸ τυχεῖν … ἐπειδὴ γὰρ Ἰουδαῖοι οὐδὲ τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ᾐσθάνοντο τῶν οἰκείων, μὴ αἰσθανόμενοι δὲ οὐδὲ ἀφέσεως ἐπεθύμουν, ἔδωκε τὸν νόμον ἐλέγχοντα τὰ τραύματα, ἵνα ποθήσωσι τὸν ἰατρόν.

ἡ ἐπαγγελία ἐκ πίστεως Ἰ. Χρ. δοθῇ. ἐκ π., cf. the marginal ἐκ νόμου Gal 3:21. ἐκ π. Ἰ. Χρ., cf. Gal 2:16. It is possible to take the phrase ἐκ π. Ἰ. Χρ. closely with ἡ ἐπαγγελία (so Ell.), the promise belonging to faith not to works (for the omission of the article after ἐπαγγελία see Col 1:8 note, Blass, § 47. 7 sq.); but as this hardly brings out the full meaning of ἐκ it is better to join the phrase with δοθῇ: “in order that the promise should, as a result of faith in Jesus Christ, be given to them that believe.” Had the Law brought righteousness this would not have been necessary, but the Scripture included all under sin for this express purpose. It could not be given till Christ came; cf. Gal 3:23.

τοῖς πιστεύουσιν. In one emphatic word he sums up the argument of Gal 3:7-22.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22.] But on the contrary (ἀλλά, not δέ: comp. Ellic. This not being the case,—no law being given out of which could come righteousness) the Scripture (not the Law, as Chrys. and most of the Fathers, also Calv., Beza, al.; but as in ver. 8, the Author of Scripture, speaking by that His witness) shut up (not subjective, as Chrys., ἤλεγξεν … κ. ἐλέγξας κατεῖχεν ἐν φόβῳ,—for it is their objective state of incapacity to attain righteousness which is here brought out:—nor ‘conclusit omnes simul,’ as Bengel, al.: the preposition enhances the force of κλείειν, as in ‘contraho,’ συμπνίγειν, &c.: see note Rom 11:32, where the same expression occurs. “The word συγκλείειν is beautifully chosen, to set off more clearly the idea of Christian freedom by and by.” Windischmann: cf. ch. 5:1. Nor has συγκλ. merely a declaratory sense, as Bull, Examen Censuræ xix. 6, ‘conclusos involutos declaravit,’ al.) all (neuter, as indicating the entirety of mankind and man’s world: ‘humana omnia,’ as Jowett: cf. reff. I think (against Ellic. Exo_2) that we must hold fast this) under sin, in order that (the intention of God, as in Rom 11:32: not the mere result, here or any where else. Beware of such an assertion as Burton’s, quoted also by Peile;—“ἵνα here implies, not the cause, but the consequence, as in many places.” ἵνα never implies any thing of the sort; nor does any one of the examples he gives bear him out) the promise (i.e. the things promised—the κληρονομία, cf. vv. 16, 18) (which is) by (depends upon, is conditioned by) faith of (which has for its object and its Giver—is a matter altogether belonging to) Jesus Christ (q. d. ἡ ἐπαγγ. ἡ ἐκ π.0: but the article in such sentences is frequently omitted, especially where no distinction is intended between the subject and another of the same kind: cf. τῆς πίστεως ἐν χρ. Ἰησ. below, ver. 26,—τοῖς κυρίοις κατὰ σάρκα, Eph 6:5, &c.

The words ἐκ πίστ. cannot well be taken with δοθῇ without harshness, especially as Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ intervenes, and τοῖς πιστεύουσιν is already expressed. Besides, in this case they would most naturally come first,—ἵνα ἐκ πίστεως Ἰ. χρ. ἡ ἐπαγγ. δοθῇ τ. π.) might be given (be a free gift—δοθῇ has the emphasis) to them that believe (δοθῇ having the emphasis, τοῖς πιστ. does no more than take up ἐκ πίστ. above; q. d. ‘to those who fulfil that condition’).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. ἀλλὰ συνέκλεισεν ἡ γραφὴ τὰ πάντα ὑπὸ ἁμαρτίαν “But the scripture shut up all things under sin.” ἀλλὰ marks the contrast between the unreal hypothesis of v. 21 and the actual fact as here stated, which furnishes the proof that the apodosis of v. 21 b, “righteousness would have been of law,” and hence also the protasis, “if a law had been given that could give life,” which that verse by its form implies to be contrary to fact, are actually such. That the proof is drawn from the O. T. law implies that the latter is the only law actually in question, or that if the O. T. law could not justify no law could. The scripture is probably Deu 27:26, referred to in v. 10—a passage from the law, and cited here as embodying the verdict of the law. The reference to v. 10 and the context in general give to ὑπὸ ἁμαρτίαν the meaning “under condemnation of sin,” equivalent to ὑπὸ κατάραν in v. 10. All this refers, it must be noted, not to God’s sentence against men, but to the verdict of law. Paul is still arguing that from law comes no righteousness, no justification; that for this one must come to God in faith. See the next clause.

Συνκλείω is found in Greek writers from Herodotus down in various senses, but primarily with the meaning “to shut up,” “to confine,” either inceptive, “to put in confinement,” or continuative, “to hold confined.” So also in the Lxx, Psa 30:9 (31:8): οὐ συνέκλεισάς υε εἰς χεῖρας ἐχθροῦ. 77 (78)50; likewise in N. T., Luk 5:6, Rom 11:32.

In the usage of the N. T. writers in general and of Paul in particular the singular γραφή refers to a particular passage of the O. T. Note the expressions ἡ γραφὴ αὕτη (Act 8:35), ἑτέρα γραφή (Joh 19:37) πᾶσα γραφή (2Ti 3:16), and the fact that elsewhere in the Pauline epistles the singular is uniformly accompanied by a quotation (chap. 3:8, 4:30, Rom 4:2, Rom 9:17, Rom 10:11, Rom 11:2). See also 1Ti 5:18. In 2Ti 3:16, πᾶσα γραφή, a specific passage is, of course, out of the question. Deu 27:26, quoted in v. 10, and Psa 143:2, quoted in 2:16, would both be appropriate to the apostle’s purpose in this v., but the remoteness of the latter passage makes against its being the one here meant. A reference to a passage itself in the law is, moreover, more probable in view of the fact that it is the function of this law that is under discussion.

Τὰ πάντα, equivalent to τοὺς πάντας in Rom 11:32, refers to all who were under ὁ νόμος (v. 21), i. e., the Jews, since at this point the question pertains simply to the function or reason for existence of the law. On the neuter used of persons, the rhetorical effect being somewhat to obliterate the thought of individuals and to present those referred to as a solidarity, see 1Co 1:27, Col 1:20, Eph 1:10, Joh 17:10. ὑπὸ ἁμαρτίαν in Rom 7:14 (cf. 6:14, 15) means “under the power of sin” and in Rom 3:2 “sinful” (though some interpreters take it in the sense of “under condemnation”). But these single instances of the phrase in different specific senses are not sufficient to set aside the clear evidence of the context in favour of the meaning, “under condemnation for sin,” which is in itself equally possible.

ἵνα ἡ ἐπαγγελία ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοθῇ τοῖς πιστεύουσιν. “that, on ground of faith in Jesus Christ, the promise might be given to those who believe.” This clause expresses the purpose of the shutting up, referred to in the preceding clause: a purpose which, as the mention of Jesus Christ as the object of faith shows, is to be achieved not for each individual in the period of law as he learns the lesson that law teaches, but in the historic establishment of the new principle; and a purpose of God, as is shown by the fact that the result described is that which is achieved in the gospel, which is for Paul the gospel of God. But this, in turn, implies that the shutting up was itself an act of God, or, more exactly, that the declaration of the scripture expressed something which God desired men to learn from the experience under law. In other words, though to isolate the law and understand it as defining the way of salvation is wholly to misunderstand God’s attitude towards men, yet the law was given by God to accomplish a certain work preparatory to the giving of the gospel, viz., to demonstrate that men can not be justified on grounds of merit. Thus it is that Paul finds a way to reconcile his rejection of the legalism which he found in the law, with the divine origin of the law; instead of denying the latter, as Marcion later in effect did (Iren. Haer. 1. 27:2).

Ἡ ἐπαγγελία is manifestly, as in vv. 14, 18, the promise to Abraham, involved in the covenant, and, as in v. 14, is used by metonymy for the thing promised. See reff. there. Whether the reference is as in v. 14 specifically to the Spirit, or more generally to acceptance with God with all that this involves, is impossible to say with certainty. On ἐκ πίστεως cf. 2:16, and notes and reff. there. It here expresses the ground on which the giving (δοθῆ) takes place. Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ is, as always after πίστις, an objective genitive. See notes on διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ Ἱσησοῦ, 2:16. τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, a general present participle (BMT 123) with generic article—to believers—is the indirect object of δοθῇ. It is necessary to complete the sense, though the thought has been in effect expressed by ἐκ πίστεως. The repetition emphasises the fact that only through faith could the promise be fulfilled.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But it is not true that the law gives life, for the law, according to scripture, condemned all alike.

The scripture [η γραφη] . Scripture is personified. See on verse 8. Hath concluded [συνεκλεισεν] . Better, hath shut up, as a jailer. Only in Paul, with the exception of Luk 5:6. Frequent in LXX Not included with others, but confined as within an enclosure, as Luk 5:6, of the net enclosing the fish. Comp. Exo 14:3; Jos 6:1; 1 Macc. 4 31. Scripture, in its divine utterances on the universality and guilt of sin, is conceived as a jailer who shuts all up in sin as in a prison. Comp. Rom 3:10 - 19; Rom 11:32.

All [τα παντα] . Neuter, all things collectively : = all men. For the neuter in a similar comprehensive sense, see 1Co 1:27; Col 1:20; Eph 1:10.

That [ινα] . In order that. That which is represented through a personification as the act of Scripture, is the act of God, according to a definite purpose that the promise should be inherited by believers only, through faith in Jesus Christ.

The promise [η επαγγελια] . That is, the thing promised; the inheritance, verse 18.

By faith [εκ πιστεως] . Const. with the promise, not with might be given. The promised gift which is the result of faith. The false teachers claimed that it was the result of works.

To them that believe [τοις πιστευουσιν] . Not tautological. Even the Judaisers held that salvation was intended for believers, but also that legal obedience was its procuring cause; against which Paul asserts that it is simply for those that believe.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.