There I wrote: "And so, in perfect logic, he adds: Because if you allow yourself to be guided by the Spirit, you are no longer under the law. We must understand from these words that those whose spirit has, without doubt, contrary desires to those of the flesh, but who do not do what they want, are under the law; that is to say, they do not remain undefeated in the love of justice, but the flesh that opposes them with their desires overcomes them.” These words are derived from the understanding that had then according to which the text: For the flesh has desires contrary to those of the spirit and spirit contrary to those of the flesh, so that you do not do what you want (Ga 5,17) referred to those who are under the law, not yet under grace (Rm 6,14). He had not yet understood that such words fit also those who are under grace, not under the law (ibid.), Since they also possess the desires of the flesh to those who oppose the spirit. Although they do not give their consent, they would prefer to lack them, if possible. Consequently, they do not do what they want, because they want to lack them, but they can not. They will only lack them when they also lack mortal flesh.

This book begins with these words: Causa propter quam scribit Apostolus.

The reason why the Apostle writes to the Galatians is to make them understand that it is the work of the grace of God that they are not already subject to the law. He does so because, after announcing to them the grace of the Gospel, some of them, coming from the circumcision, did not lack, that, although Christians of name, still lacked the gift of grace. They wanted to continue under the weight of the law that the Lord God had imposed on those who did not serve justice but sin. That is to say, to them, lacking in justice, he had given them a just law to make them see their sins, not to make them disappear. In fact, sins are only erased by the grace of faith, which works through love. The Galatians being already under this grace, such men wanted to submit them to the weight of the law, maintaining that the gospel would not be of any benefit to them, if they were not circumcised and did not accept the other carnal observances of the Jewish ritual. For that reason they had begun to suspect the apostle Paul who had preached the gospel to them, as if he did not maintain the praxis of the other apostles, who forced the Gentiles to live as Jews. In fact, the apostle Peter had yielded to the setbacks that such subjects put him until falling into the simulation, implying that he too was of the opinion that the gospel was of no use to the Gentiles, if they did not fulfill the burdens of the law. From this simulation, the apostle Paul (Cf Ga 2,14) reversed him, as indicated in the present letter.

The same problem appears also raised in the Letter to the Romans, although with some differences apparently. In it, it resolves the same question and puts an end to the divergences that have arisen between the original faithful of Judaism and those of gentility. The controversy consisted in the following: the first ones judged that the gospel had been given to them as a reward, in payment for the merits contracted for practicing the works prescribed by law; prize that they did not want to be granted to the uncircumcised because they did not deserve it; the latter, on the other hand, jumped for joy because they were preferred and not the Jews as killers of the Lord. In this Letter to the Galatians, on the contrary, he writes to people already disturbed by the authority of those who, coming from Judaism, forced them to observe the law. They had already begun to give them credit, as if Paul had not preached the truth to them by not wanting them to submit to circumcision. Hence, it begins in this way: I wonder that as soon as you have passed from the one who called you to the glory of Christ to another gospel (Ga 1,6). In this exordium he briefly pointed out the heart of the matter. Already in the initial greeting, when he presented himself as an apostle not on behalf of men or through the mediation of any man (Ga 1,1)detail that does not appear in any other letter of his-he showed first of all that those who persuaded such points of view did not come from God, but on behalf of men and, secondly, that, as far as the authority to witness the gospel is concerned, it was not appropriate for them to regard him as inferior to the other apostles. He knew that he was an apostle, not from men or through any man, but through the work of Jesus Christ and of God the Father. With the permission and help of the Lord to my effort, I have undertaken the commentary of the letter, from its very introduction.