So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead—killed by the Law itself is literally “For I through the Law died to the Law.” “Dying” to something means primarily to be rescued from its domination and control. “Dying to the Law” therefore means that Paul no longer considers the Law as controlling him, as important in his life; he has given up the Law as a valid instrument through which one is put right with God.

I am dead must be understood figuratively, and a shift from metaphor to simile may be required in some languages, for example, “I am just the same as dead,” or “I am like as though I were dead.” However, it is fairly possible that this figurative language, even in the form of a simile, would be completely misunderstood in the sense that it was the Law which condemned Paul to death. It may be important in this instance to indicate by a marginal note that “dying to the Law” would, in this context, mean “no longer being under the control of the Law.” It may also be necessary, because of the completely wrong meaning associated with “death” or “being killed,” that the implications of I am dead be included within the text, for example, “I am as it were dead and therefore not controlled by the Law,” or “I am as it were dead and thus not under the Law.” The expression killed by the Law itself may then be rendered as “the Law itself did this to me,” or “the Law itself caused me to be this way.”

The phrase “through the Law” identifies the instrument of Paul’s death as the Law itself. It was his experience under the Law that in the light of God’s revelation in Christ had led him to the conclusion of the Law’s ineffectiveness (see Phil 3.2-11).

In order that I might live for God expresses the purpose of Paul’s dying to the Law. To live for God is to live in accordance with God’s will; here it is practically synonymous with being put right with God. To live for God is to have a right relationship with him. This purpose may be expressed in some languages as “that I might live to serve God.”

It is important, however, that the purpose expressed in the clause in order that I might live for God not be connected immediately with the preceding clause killed by the Law itself. Paul was not killed by the Law itself in order that he might live for God (that is, the Law had no such prior intent), but what happened in his life turned out to have the purpose of his living for God. One may therefore introduce this purpose as “all this happened so that I might live for God.”

Paul carries further the figure of dying: I have been put to death with Christ on his cross (literally, “I have been crucified with Christ”). This is a figure of speech which cannot be interpreted literally. Here the Law is implicitly identified as that which put Christ to death on the cross, since in the previous verse the Law is explicitly referred to as putting Paul to death. Elsewhere in his letters, Paul expresses the idea that Christ’s death brings to an end the reign of the Law (for example, Rom 7.4; 10.4; Col 2.14) and that the Christian is free from the Law by participating in Christ’s death (for example, Col 2.20; Gal 3.13). Paul may be expressing the same thought here.

There is a certain complication involved in the passive expression I have been put to death with Christ on his cross. The implication is that this is the result of the Law, but it may be impossible to say in some languages “the Law put me to death,” since only an active animate agent could inflict literal death. The closest equivalent, therefore, may be “I died with Christ on his cross,” “it was as if I died with Christ on his cross,” or “I died, so to speak, with Christ when he died on the cross.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .