Galatians 3:23 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

But before faith That is, the gospel dispensation, came, we The nation of the Jews; were kept under the law Under that dispensation, as condemned malefactors are guarded in close custody; shut up As prisoners under sentence; unto the faith which should afterward be revealed Reserved and prepared for the gospel. Observe here, reader, 1st, “The gospel is called faith, (Galatians 3:2; Galatians 3:23; Galatians 3:25,) and the law of faith, (Romans 3:27,) because it requires faith, instead of perfect obedience, as the means of men's justification. This law of faith, or method of justification, came at the fall: it was then established; and till it came, Adam was kept in ward without hope, under the law he had broken. In like manner the Gentiles, under the law of nature, and the Jews, under the law of Moses, were kept in ward, as criminals, and had no hope of pardon, but what the law of faith gave them, as made known obscurely in the first promise, (Genesis 3:15,) and afterward in the covenant with Abraham. 2d, The law of Moses, instead of being contrary to the promises of God, or covenant with Abraham, effectually co-operates therewith. By the perfection and spirituality of its moral precepts, it makes us sensible of our inability to obey it perfectly; and by its curse, denounced against every one who does not obey perfectly, it makes us flee, trembling and affrighted, to the method of salvation revealed to us in the covenant with Abraham, and published to all mankind in the gospel.” Macknight.

Galatians 3:23

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