The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you. (Shemot 12:49)

You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am Yahuwah your Elohim. (Vayiqra 24:22)

One and the same law applies to everyone who sins unintentionally, whether he is a native-born Yisraelite or an alien. (Bemidbar 15:29)

But the Pharisees were experts at discrimination.  They believed they were the "chosen people" and that by their own righteousness Elohim was obligated to treat them better than all other people.

But Kepha and Paul, each in their own time, had learned the differences between the teaching of the Master who taught the written Torah instructions as the proper walk of faith and the teaching of the Pharisees who taught all Jews to follow their commands, traditions and works.  To treat the Gentiles any differently than the native born Jews was an act of sin.  Paul felt compelled to rebuke this hypocrisy, because it was becoming infectious - even the rest of the believing Yehudim and Barnabah were led to join in the hypocrisy.

Yahuwah commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear Yahuwah our Elohim, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.  And if we are careful to obey all this law before Yahuwah our Elohim, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness." (Devarim [Deuteronomy] 6:24-25)

Here, the keeping of all the commandments of Yahuwah is counted as righteousness for those who obey the Law.  How then can Paul say just the opposite?

Christian systematic theologies are aware of this apparent contradiction.  Their answer to this dilemma is that clearly the Old Testament Law must have been "done away with" and a new law established.  This, they say, is what Jesus did, and which Paul is reflecting in these statements about the law.  But the difficulty of this view is that Messiah said quite the opposite.  He stated:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)

If Yahusha declared to his disciples (the founding "fathers" of Christianity) that he was not abolishing the Law, but that the Law was to be in effect "until heaven and earth disappear," then we must come up with a different interpretation of Paul which does not contradict the clear teaching of the Master.

The correct interpretation of Paul's enigmatic statements about righteousness is in realizing that Paul was dealing with two very different "laws."  As a Pharisee, Paul was taught from his youth that the Pharisees law - what is now known as the Oral Torah - was to supersede the written Law of Mosheh.  The Pharisees taught a very different law code than the written Torah of Mosheh.  Their law was like a fence around the Torah.  In other words, they created a whole new set of laws and commandments which must be kept.  They justified it by noting that their laws would keep the people from accidently transgressing one of Elohim's laws.

One of the features of the laws of the Pharisees is what is known as the "works of the law."   These works (Hebrew hv[m or ~yv[m “ma-aseh” or pl. “ma-asim,” which is defined as an action, deed, work; precedent) are not the same as the "works" of obeying Elohim's commandments.  No.  Their term "works of the law" means something very different.  For a Pharisee, the "works of the law" is an action of a Rabbi or sage that justified the practical manner in which a tradition should be observed.  Thus, the "works of the law" were laws based on the actions or “works” of a rabbi.  If a Pharisee or Rabbi performed a certain action, then that action was established as law, and was known as a "work of the law."

The “works of law” are those precedents set by rabbis and sages which convert an action, work or practice into Law.  When the Oral Torah is unclear about a matter, one may default to the precedent laid down by a rabbi, to guide you in your experience.  An example of a "work of the law" is the law concerning the reciting of the Shema.

Once it happened (ma-aseh) those of R. Gamaliel came home (late) from a wedding feast and they said to him: We have not yet recited the (evening) sh’ma.  He said to them: If the dawn has not yet come up you are still bound to recite.  And not in respect to this alone did they so decide, but whenever the sages say until midnight, the precept may be performed until the dawn comes up. (Berachot 2a)

This "work of the law" establishes as law that the evening reciting of the shema can be done up until the following dawn and be accepted as having been done on time.

So, when we come to Paul - and remember that Paul is battling the unbelieving Yehudim who elevated their own law over the Law of Elohim - we see Paul contrasting "faith in Messiah" with "the works of the law."  These must be two very different things in Paul's mind.  And we see that they are.

"Faith in Messiah" must be understood in the context of what it means to belong to Messiah.  Yahusha said to his disciples,

The term "works of law" is not a reference to obedience to the written Torah.  On the contrary, it is a phrase that refers to obedience to the man-made commandments, such as the Pharisees Oral Torah (oral teachings and tradition), as a means of earning one's salvation!    But human effort and human example (works of law) cannot gain favor with Yahuwah.  Only by faithfully following and obeying Messiah can one be righteous.

Paul goes on to say,

And if, while seeking to be declared right by Messiah, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Messiah then a servant of sin? Let it not be!  For if I rebuild what I once overthrew, I establish myself a transgressor.

Paul cannot return to the Pharisaic practice of obedience to man-made tradition because it makes that man a transgressor of Scripture.  You cannot obey man's law and Elohim's law at the same time.  These are at odds with one another.

Justification Through Works?

For through Law I died to law, in order to live to Elohim.  I have been impaled with Messiah, and I no longer live, but Messiah lives in me.  And that which I now live in the flesh I live by fidelity in the Son of Elohim, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  I do not set aside the favour of Elohim, for if righteousness is through law, then Messiah died for naught.” (Galatians 2:19-21)

Paul is declaring loudly that his fidelity is with Messiah and the written Torah – it is no longer fidelity in Oral Tradition of Pharisaic teaching!  He died to the Pharisees law in order to live and obey Elohim's law.  By being "impaled with Messiah" - that is to say, to be associated with Messiah and to suffer on his behalf - Paul is accepting Messiah's demands of obedience to the written Torah of Mosheh as the correct way to express faith in Messiah.  So, he lives in "faith" or "fidelity" to Yahusha by obeying his commands.

Finally Paul summarizes by noting that if he were pursuing Elohim through the Pharisaic laws, he would be "setting aside the grace (favor) of Elohim.  But he is not doing this.  He has abandoned the Pharisaic way and has adopted obedience to Yahuwah's commandments as the source of his righteousness.

Messiah died to ransom those who transgress Elohim's law.  But if Paul were to return to obedience to the Pharisees, he would be transgressing Elohim's law all over again.  And in that case, Messiah would have died for nothing, because Paul would be in sin again.

Finally, an expanded translation of this text will make it easier for the reader to see at a glance what Paul is really saying here.

We, Yehudim by nature, and not of the gentiles, sinners, know that a man is not declared right by "works of law" (a Pharisaic invention), but through fidelity to Elohim (faithfulness to his commands) in Yahusha Messiah.  And we have believed in Messiah Yahusha, in order to be declared right by fidelity in Messiah and not by "works of law" (man's law), because by "works of law" (man's law) no flesh shall be declared right.  And if, while seeking to be declared right by Messiah, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Messiah then a servant of sin? Let it not be!  For if I rebuild what I once overthrew, I establish myself a transgressor.  For through written Torah of Elohim I died to the law of men, in order to live to Elohim.  I have been impaled with Messiah, and I no longer live, but Messiah lives in me.  And that which I now live in the flesh I live by fidelity in the Son of Elohim, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  I do not set aside the favour of Elohim, for if righteousness is through man-made law, then Messiah died for naught.

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