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Gal_5:4. But whosoever is justified through the law—a way of justification which necessarily follows from the already mentioned obligation—is separated from Christ, etc. A complete explanation is thus given as to the Χριστὸς ὑμᾶς οὐδὲν ὠφελήσει . Asyndetic (without δέ ), and reverting to the second person, the language of Paul is the more emphatic and vivid.
κατηργήθητε ] In the first clause the stress is laid upon the dread separation which has befallen them, in the second on the benefit thereby lost,—a striking alternation of emphasis. The pregnant expression, καταργεῖσθαι ἀπό τινος (comp. Rom_9:3; 2Co_11:3; see generally, Fritzsche ad Rom. II. p. 250), is to be resolved into καταργεῖσθαι καὶ χωρίζεσθαι ἀπό τινος , that is, to come to nothing in regard to the relation hitherto subsisting with any one, so that we are parted from him. Just the same in Rom_7:2; Rom_7:6. Hence the sense is: your connection with Christ is annulled, cancelled; ἀπεκόπητε , Oecumenius. Justification by the law and justification for Christ’s sake are in truth opposita (works—faith), so that the one excludes the other.
οἵτινες ἐν νόμῳ δικαιοῦσθε ] ye who are being justified through the law. The directly assertive and present δικαιοῦσθε is said from the mental standpoint of the subjects concerned, in whose view of the matter the way of salvation is this: “through the law, with which our conduct agrees (comp. Gal_3:11), we become just before God.” Hence the concrete statement is not to be weakened either by taking δικαιοῦσθαι in the sense of ζητεῖν δικαιοῦσθαι , Gal_2:17 (Rückert, Baumgarten-Crusius, and earlier expositors), or by attributing a hypothetical sense to οἵτινες (Hofmann, who erroneously compares Thuc. v. 16. 1). Whomsoever Paul hits with his οἵτινες κ . τ . λ ., he also means.
τῆς χάριτος ἐξεπέσατε ] that is, ye have forfeited the relation of being objects of divine grace. The opposite: ὑπὸ χάριν εἶναι (Rom_6:14), to which divine grace faith has led (Rom_5:2). On the figurative ἐκπίπτειν , comp. 2Pe_3:17; Plut. Gracch. 21: ἐκπεσεῖν καὶ στερεσθαι τῆς πρὸς τὸν δῆμον εὐνοίας , Polyb. xii. 14. 7; Lucian, Cont. 14; Sir_31:4. Whoever becomes righteous by obedience to the law, becomes se no longer by the grace of God ( δωρεάν , Rom_3:24), but by works according to desert (Rom_4:11; Rom_4:16; Rom_11:6); so that thus his relation of grace towards God (which is capable of being lost) has ceased.