Galatians 2:19

For it was through the law, through the conviction of its inability to give life, that I became dead to the law. The law demanded a perfect obedience, as a condition of justification. This none can render; and it was when I experienced its condemning power, that I fled to Christ for salvation. "When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died", Romans 7:9. Thus it was through the law that I died to the law.

am dead to the law Better, died to the law. The reference is to the time when deeply convinced that he could not be justified by his own obedience, he abandoned for ever all trust in his own "righteousness, which is of the law"; that he might "win Christ and be found in Him", and might so possess the righteousness which is of God on the condition of faith only, Philippians 3:9. We observe that St Paul does not regard faith and works, Christ and the sinner, as supplementing one another. He is -dead to the law", he has no more to do with it, as a means of justification or ground of merit, than if he were dead. The same expression occurs Romans 7:4, where the figure employed is that of the marriage tie, which is entirely dissolved by death.

that I might live unto God not, that I might live in sin or carelessness. The Gospel which provides a perfect righteousness in Christ, which is justification, provides also a life of holiness by the Spirit, a life unto God, which is sanctification. These are distinct, but inseparable nay, the latter is the end and the result of the former.

To live unto God, is to live with the eye of the soul ever turned upward, to have the affection set on things above. Its motto is -sursum corda", its prayer -fiat voluntas tua". The same form of expression occurs Romans 6:11, -Reckon ye yourselves dead unto sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus".