Galatians 5:6

Anxious to remove all possibility of a misconstruction of his meaning, St Paul gives a reason for thus connecting the inheritancewith faith. The fact of being circumcised or of being uncircumcised in itself is of no avail to a man's salvation. If he is -in Christ Jesus" he is safe; and he is in Christ by faith a faith working through love. We have a repetition of this statement in ch. Galatians 6:15 with the substitution of -a new creature" for -faith working through love".

Abraham believed before he was circumcised, St Paul was circumcised before he believed. Therefore the being circumcised or uncircumcised in itselfavaileth nothing.

but faith which worketh by love better, working by love. Most commentators regard this statement as reconciling the language of St Paul with that of St James concerning justification. But it may be observed that St Paul nowhere teaches that the faith which is without worksjustifies. He does assert (and St James does not contradict him), that man is justified by faith without works. Neither works, nor love, nor any other Christian graces, cooperate with faith in the justification of the sinner. They are the necessary fruits of a living faith.

The addition of the words, -working through love", is an answer by anticipation to the charges of Antinomianism, so constantly brought against those who maintain the doctrine of justification by faith only.