For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.
Parallel translations
- WEB For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
- KJV For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
- NKJV For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
- NASB For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live for God.
- NLT For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Through the law Paul died to the law so that he might live to God. The law's own work led him beyond itself to life in Christ.
Overview
Paul explains that the law, by condemning him, brought him to the end of self-righteousness and to Christ. Having died to the law's demands as a path to life, he now lives for God by grace. This paradox shows the law's purpose was never to be the ground of salvation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 26
- Rom 7:4Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
- Rom 6:2Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
- 1 Th 5:10He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.
- 2 Cor 5:15And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.
- Rom 6:11So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- Rom 3:19–20Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- Rom 8:2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
- Rom 14:7–8For none of us lives to himself alone, and none of us dies to himself alone.
- 1 Pet 2:24He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
- Titus 2:14He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
- Rom 6:14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
- Heb 9:14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!
- Gal 3:24So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
- Gal 2:20I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
- Col 2:20If you have died with Christ to the spiritual forces of the world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its regulations:
- Rom 10:4–5For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.
- 1 Pet 4:6That is why the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged as men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
- Rom 5:20The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
- Col 3:3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
- Gal 3:10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
- Rom 7:6–11But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
- Rom 7:14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
- Rom 4:15because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
- 1 Cor 10:31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.
- Rom 7:22–23For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.
- 1 Pet 4:1–2Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves with the same resolve, because anyone who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 2:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.