Galatians 2:19

Galatians 2:19. For I through law died to law (a dative of disadvantage) that I might live to God (dative of advantage). The same idea is expressed in Romans 7:4-6; Colossians 2:20. Paul gives here, in a single sentence, the substance of his own experience, which he more fully explains in the seventh chapter of Romans. The “I” is here Paul himself, and not Peter (as in Galatians 2:18). The law itself led him to Christ, so that it would be sinful and foolish to return to it again, as Peter did. As well might a freedman become a slave, or a man return to childhood. The law is a schoolmaster to lead to Christ (Galatians 3:24), by developing the sense of sin and the need of redemption. But the very object of a schoolmaster is to elevate the pupil above the need of his instruction and tuition. His success in teaching emancipates the pupil. So children nurse at their mother's breast, that they may outgrow it, and by passing through the school of parental authority and discipline they attain to age, freedom, and independence. The ‘law' is therefore to be taken in the same sense in both cases of the Mosaic law. Comp. Romans 7:6-13. Those who (with many of the fathers, and even Luther and Bengel) refer it in the first clause to the law of Christ (Romans 8:2), and in the second clause to the law of Moses, miss the drift and beauty of the passage. ‘Law' without the article has a wider sense, and is applicable to all kinds of law, as a general rule or principle, but chiefly and emphatically to the Mosaic law, which is usually indicated by the definite article.

That I might live unto God, a new life of obedience to the law of Christ, and gratitude for the redeeming mercy of God. The death of the old man of sin is followed by the resurrection of the new man of righteousness. This cuts off all forms of antinomianism.