Audio Download

Law of Moses Versus the Law of the Spirit – Part 19

[Posted May 3, 2009]

[Updated March 30, 2024]

What does this phrase mean?

“Under the law, Shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed”

Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

“The faith which should afterwards be revealed” is not your faith or my faith. It is “the faith of Christ.”

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Let’s examine the context of these scriptures and see if we can grasp what Paul means by this oft-used phrase “under the law.” This phrase “under the law” appears twelve times in the New Testament. Obviously this is a very important phrase for us to understand properly:

Rom 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

1Co 9:20  And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
1Co 9:21  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Gal 5:18  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Galatians 3 begins with Paul rebuking the Galatians:

Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2  This only would I learn of you; received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Maybe you didn’t catch that. Paul considered the keeping of the law equivalent to “not obeying the truth.” Redemption is for those who are “under the law” (Gal 4:5).

What is “the Truth” Paul refers to here? It certainly was not the law of Moses. The gospel of John tells us what we ourselves should understand about why Paul told these Galatians what their desire to be under the law of Moses indicates and why that desire to be under the law amounted to rejecting the Truth:

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

If one believes that he must keep the law of Moses to be saved, that person is believing a lie! Paul reminds us and the Galatians, that he is the one who introduced them to Christ, and he certainly had not instructed them to perform the “works of the law.”

Paul’s teaching to the Gentiles is based on higher laws which are given seven different names:

the Law of God (Rom 7:22,25)
the Law of Christ (1Co 9:21; Gal 6:2)
the Law of the Spirit (Rom 8:2)
the Law of Faith (Rom 3:27)
the Law of Liberty (Jas 1:25)
the Law of Righteousness (Rom 9:30-31)
and the Law of Life (Gal 3:11, 6:8)

He never refers to the law of Moses, the old covenant, as anything more than a schoolmaster, a tutor and a governor, to be abandoned upon coming to Christ. While Paul is emphatic about not being under ‘the law’, his readers knew what this meant: “I myself serve the law of God” with “the mind.”

Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
Gal 3:2  This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Gal 3:3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

“With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom 7:25). Paul equates the keeping of the law with “the flesh.” In verse 7 he says that those of faith “are the children of Abraham.” Verse 8 says the promise, that “in thee [Abraham] shall all nations be blessed” was an allusion to the calling of the Gentiles. “

Gal 3:9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in ALL THINGS which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 …no man is justified by the law, (for) the just shall live by faith;
Gal 3:12  And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Gal 3:13  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Gal 3:14  That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” (vs 13). As far as Paul was concerned, the law has accomplished nothing more than to make us all “guilty before God”, both Jew and Gentile:

Rom 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The promises to Abraham are only through his singular seed, Christ (vs 16). The physical promises – land, good health, wealth, etc. – don’t even enter into the equation: “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (vs 18).

Gal 3:16  Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
Gal 3:17  And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
Gal 3:18  For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

So, why the law? It was added to demonstrate how evil WE are, to give us the knowledge of sin, and to make sin appear exceedingly sinful:

Gal 3:19  Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, [only] till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

For those in Christ though, it is only “till the seed should come to whom the promise was made” (vs 19). The law itself is not against the promises of God. Prophecies of the promises are within the law, but: “righteousness is not by the law” (vs 21). “But (since righteousness is not by the law), the scripture hath concluded all (Jew and Gentile) under sin (“by the law is the knowledge of sin” – Rom 7:7) (so) that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe” (vs 22).

Gal 3:21  Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

There is the answer to our question. Where are we all before we come to know Christ? “But before faith came we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith that should AFTERWARDS be revealed” (vs 23). That’s pretty clear language. The scripture concludes all under sin (vs 22), under the law until faith comes and delivers us from the law (vs 23). So, the law serves as the means to show us how exceedingly sinful our sin is and thereby brings us to recognize our need for Christ. Is there anyone who doesn’t know Christ? No one is born knowing Christ. We are all dragged to know Him (Joh 6:63) and brought to comprehend our necessity for Him by being “under the law.”

Once we come to know Christ, we become aware of Matthew 5 and the new law, “the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), and we no longer need the schoolmaster who brings us to Christ. No one associated with the teachings of Matthew 5 has any need for the law of the old covenant.

Luk 16:16  The law and the prophets were [only] until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

Joh 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

The laws of the old covenant become as obsolete and redundant as the sacrifices, holy days, clean and unclean meat laws and all the statutes and judgments. In Christ all the law is fulfilled and is now decaying, waxing old and is vanishing away:

Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

All those “commandments contained in ordinances” are, in Christ, being “abolished.” They are all types and shadows of spiritual realities which we have now obtained in and through Christ. There are no exceptions. Christ (love) has fulfilled the law for all those who are in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles:

Eph 2:15  Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain [Jews and Gentiles] one new man, so making peace;

Those who do not yet know Him NEED the law as surely as a fetus (nepios) needs an umbilical cord. This is what Paul means when he says “the law…is good…when used lawfully” – meaning that one must come to know that “the law is NOT for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient…” (1Ti 1:8,9). In Christ, we are no longer “lawless.” In Christ sin no longer dominates our ‘new man’:

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

We are simply under a changed law, a law as high as Matthew 5 is above Exodus 20. Those in Christ, on the other hand, just as surely must cut that umbilical cord and begin taking in a more mature form of nourishment. Until they do, they will still be “under tutors and governors” and will never be more than a “slave” to ‘[their] own righteousness which is of the law”, the most insidious of sins, the sin of self righteousness:

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his [self-righteous] iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity [Self-righteousness].

“The adoption of sons” will make him “lord of all” only when he comes out from under the “schoolmaster, governor and tutors” (Gal 4:1,2).

The law, the “schoolmaster”, will always serve as a tutor and governor to “bring us to Christ.” Each generation of the “predestinated…children of promise” will be brought to see that they need a Savior through their own self-righteous, “road-to-Damascus” experience. We are all struck down and made to see our sins as only God is capable of accomplishing.

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: helkuo, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

It has never been and never will be anything less than a “fiery trial.” So “think it not strange” when the fiery trials come (1Pe 4:12).

Once again, here in Galatians 4:4, being “under the law” is equated with being under sin: “But after that faith [Christ] is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Gal 3:25).

Now let us consider the meaning of:

“Under the Elements of the World”

Gal 4:4 When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His son, made of a woman, made under the law.

We have just stated that “under the law” is the same as being under sin. It is most insidious because we are under the deception that “[our] own righteousness, which is of the law” will be acceptable to the Lord:

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Galatians 4 simply continues on with the concept of being under a schoolmaster:

Gal 4:1 Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child [Greek: nepios] differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all.

Those are Paul’s words of warning to all those who observe the days, months, times and years of the law. That warning includes keeping the days, months, times and years of the Gentiles. He asserts that in so doing you are denying yourself your inheritance. One “differ[s] nothing from a servant [slave]” as long as we remain under the law.

Gal 4:2  But [you are] under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we [Paul himself when he was under the law] when we were children [G3516: nepios, infant, toddler, under the “schoolmaster”] were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

The English word ‘elements’ here in verse three in the phrase “we, when we were children in bondage under the elements of the world”, is G4747 ‘stoicheion’. It is the exact same Greek word meaning the same thing which we find in verse 9 where it is repeated that being under ‘stoicheion’ places us “in bondage under the elements of the world.” Then verse 10 specifically defines what those elements of verse nine are:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements [stoicheion], whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? [And what ‘bondage’ does the holy spirit have in mind?]
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
Gal 4:12  Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am [Do not submit yourselves to this “bondage”; for I am as ye are [delivered from such “element of the world”]: ye have not injured me at all [You are injuring only yourselves].

Christ Became Sin and Death

In case you didn’t grasp that, Paul said that those who were under the law and were redeemed by Christ had been “under bondage to the elements of the world.” This is just another scripture telling us that clinging to the law is like clinging to sin; not because the law is sin, but because “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom 7:7). It is through sin that we die. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). It is also “through death” that we receive life:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

So life comes “through death”, death comes through sin, and sin comes through the law. Are we saying, then that Christ as stated in this verse, was “made under the law”, was made sin??? That’s right, Christ was sin:

2Co 5:21  For he [God] hath made him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM”.

That’s why all of ancient Israel’s sacrifices had to be “spotless” and “without blemish.” Ancient Israel typifies the world without Christ, and their sacrifices typify our “spotless”, “blameless”, “without blemish”, sacrifice – Jesus Christ, the son of God.

Paul continues to demonstrate the function of the law:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

The obvious answer to this question is, “No, they do not hear the law” or the Galatians would not be submitting themselves to the law which prophesied of a “New covenant, not according to the covenant [the Lord] made with [their] fathers”:

Jer 31:31  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my [new Matthew 5-7] law in their inward parts, and write it [Matthew 5-7] in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The reason the first “tables of stone” were thrown down and destroyed was to signify that those tables of stone typify the stony heart we have under the self-righteousness we have when we are under the law of Moses. That “heart of stone” is destroyed and is replaced with a soft “fleshy heart” meaning a heart that is dominated by the Lord’s spirit which He gives to those to whom He gives it:

Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my [new spiritual] statutes, and ye shall keep my [new] judgments, and do them.

The rest of the fourth chapter of Galatians reveals the hazards of placing oneself under the law. Let it be noted that what the apostle warned would happen to those who place themselves under the law is exactly what has happened to the physical nation of Israel and to the apostate Christian church, which to this day continues to situate itself along with the apostate nation of Israel, “under the law” while at the same time proclaiming its freedom from it.

In verse 22, Paul tells us that Abraham’s two wives typify those in the church who place themselves under the old covenant on the one hand, and those who are under the new covenant on the other hand.

The two wives were Sarah, Abraham’s only true love and his real wife all along. The other wife was given to him by Sarah!

In this allegory, Abraham, the father of the faithful, represents Christ and the wives signify the two vastly different churches which bear His name;

1. Those under the law, “fallen from grace”, believing that a physical Jew is a Jew (Rom 2:28-29). Paul informs us that such people, though physically descended from Jacob, nevertheless amount to nothing more that Hagar, and her son, “the son of the bondwoman”.
2. On the other hand there are those in Christ who know what grace is and what it does. It is only those who are not under the law who are now “counted for the seed” and who are now “the son of the freewoman” even though they are not physically descended from Jacob.

May the Lord give you eyes that see as you read these words:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children [Not one ‘Christian minister in a thousand believes this verse of scripture].
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren [Gentile Galatians], as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son [Those who are under the law]: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

If we are IN CHRIST, we are “Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise” and we are “the children of the freewoman” (Gal 3:29). If we are Abraham’s seed “we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise”; “the adoption” (Gal 4:25); “the glory” (Rom 2:7, 10; Rom 8:18; 2Co 3:8); “the new covenant” (2Co 3:6); the giving of the new spiritual law “after the inward man” (Rom 7:6, 22); “the service” (Rom 12:1) and the promises (Gal 3:16, 29).

Take careful note of who this true wife of Abraham becomes as Paul draws this allegory. Only those with spiritual eyes are capable of following the mind of God as clearly expressed in this chapter.

As God sees it, those under the law (those who believe that “through the deeds of the law some flesh can be saved”, are the bondwoman and her son. “JERUSALEM that now is and is in bondage with her children…is Agar (Hagar).” Hagar was the mother of Ishmael, the rejected son of Abraham, who is called “the father of the faithful.” Abraham’s physical, fleshly descendants are “the bondwoman and her son” who were cast out (Gal 4:25-31).

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Paul’s teaching here is diametrically opposed to the teachings of Christendom. Much of Christendom teaches that since “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Heb 11:28), therefore Christ must remarry his divorced wife as soon as he returns. That is tantamount to teaching that the first Adam in the flesh can inherit the kingdom of God. Christ is already married to another. He is married to those who “are become dead to the law.”

Rom 7:4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

If Christ returns and remarries physical Israel, he would be an adulterer:

Rom 7:4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Insisting that Christ remarry physical Israel not only makes Him an adulterer, but it also flies in the face of the spiritual types of the old covenant:

Deu 24:4  Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Such a false doctrine negates dozens of old covenant statements concerning Israel of which the following is typical:

Amo 8:2  And he said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD unto me, The end is come upon my people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.

“Summer fruits” are contrasted with “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:

Rev 14:4  These [144 thousand (vs 1)] are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

“The end is come upon my people” means what it says – the end of the year, signifying the end of the ages; the “Great White Throne Judgment” and “the Lake of fire”, when there will be “no more death” (Rev 20:14-21:4). Any doubt about the timing of the salvation of Israel should be made clear by simply reading and believing:

Eze 16:55: When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate…THEN you [Jerusalem that now is] and your daughters shall return to your former estate.

“The gifts and calling of God are without repentance”, but their fulfillment will not be according to our time-table. The ‘fullness of the Gentiles’ will not happen until Sodom and Samaria are “returned to their former estate.” Then physical Israel and her daughters will return to their former estate.

Paul was well aware of this scripture in Ezekiel, and it grieved him greatly. Nevertheless, he reiterates the scripture “…cast out the bondwoman and her son [“Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children”]: for the son of the bondwoman [physical Israel] shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman” (Gal 4:30).

Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we [Gentile Galatians], brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son [“Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children” (vs 25)]: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

So much for any doctrine which teaches that anyone (Jew or Gentile) can be saved by the works of the law. Those under the law are the bondwoman and her son. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight…” Why is that? Again, we point out how Paul links the law to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the tree which can in no way lead to life: “…for by the law is the KNOWLEDGE of sin” (Rom 3:20). That is all in one verse, and that is why there can be no such thing as a gospel which is a “mixture of law and grace”. “No flesh” means not even any Jewish flesh.

Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

To paraphrase Ephesians 2:11-19: We are no longer “Gentiles in the flesh.” Christ has broken down the middle wall of partition between [Jews and Gentiles]…now in Christ Jesus [we] who were sometimes afar off [from “the commonwealth of Israel] are made nigh by the blood of Christ…for to make in himself of two ONE NEW MAN so making peace…Now therefore ye are no more [Gentiles] strangers and foreigners [from the commonwealth of Israel] but are fellow citizens [in the commonwealth of Israel] with the saints and of the household of God” (Eph 2:11-19).

There is no room in scripture for the two to remain two. There is only one “truth of the (singular) gospel” to which Paul appeals when confronting Peter. He tells Peter “We…Jews…know that a man is not justified by the works of the law…”

Gal 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Gal 2:12  For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13  And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
Gal 2:14  But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Paul continues speaking directly to Peter, who was acting hypocritically before all the Gentile converts at Syrian Antioch:

Gal 2:15  We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Gal 2:17  But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Gal 2:18  For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Gal 2:19  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

So while some may be confused as to the function of law and grace “we…Jews… [Peter, Barnabas and Paul] know that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ…for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal 2:14-16).

If Peter, Paul and Barnabas, who were all “Jews by nature” (vs 15) knew this bit of truth, who are we to say the Jews are justified by works?

Paul did not stop with verse 16. Let us ollow on with Paul’s thought: “If while (we) seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid” (Gal 2:17). Peter’s and Barnabas’ hypocrisy does not make Christ a  hypocrite.

This is consistent with Paul’s teachings in Romans 6: “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (vs 18). Again in verse 22: “But now being made free from sin, and become servants of God, Ye have your fruit unto holiness…”

Paul doesn’t say “but now that you have no sin”, but rather “but now being made free from sin…” Being free from sin is not to be understood as having no sin, rather it is to be understood as “sin shall not have dominion over you.”

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: [Why is it that “sin shall not have dominion over [us]?] for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

How clear it is that anyone who is yet governed by sin is yet under the law!