Galatians 2:16

VERSE 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.

The demands of the Law may be fulfilled before and after justification. There were many excellent men among the pagans of old, men who never heard of justification. They lived moral lives. But that fact did not justify them. Peter, Paul, all Christians, live up to the Law. But that fact does not justify them. "For I know nothing by myself," says Paul, "yet am I not hereby justified." (1 Corinthians 4:4.)

VERSE 16. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified.

Christ is no sheriff. He is "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29.)

VERSE 16. That we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law.

VERSE 16. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

By the term "flesh" Paul does not understand manifest vices. Such sins he usually calls by their proper names, as adultery, fornication, etc. By "flesh" Paul understands what Jesus meant in the third chapter of John, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh". (John 3:6.) "Flesh" here means the whole nature of man, inclusive of reason and instincts. "This flesh," says Paul, "is not justified by the works of the law."