Galatians 2:15 - Printer Friendly

ESV: We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;

NIV: "We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles

NASB: We are Jews by nature and not sinners from the Gentiles;

CSB: We are Jews by birth and not "Gentile sinners,"

NLT: You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.

KJV: We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

NKJV: We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

It is unclear from the text whether the words here are a continuation of Paul's rebuke of Peter, as given in the previous verse, or whether this is simply Paul expounding the point of his story. In either case, Paul begins here to make the major point of his letter to the Galatians: Every person is justified—"made just or acceptable"—before God by faith and not by works or the Law.

Paul begins by saying that he and Peter are both Jewish by birth. They seemingly had the advantage of being born into the nation of the chosen people of God, blessed by God with the Law and the sacrificial system. It offered a way to be right with God as a people. They also had the advantage of not being born as "Gentile sinners," born outside of God's chosen people with limited opportunities to be saved and welcomed by Him.

As Paul will beautifully explain in the following verses, Jesus changed everything. More accurately, He brought everything into focus. The gospel truth Paul had been preaching and that Peter himself agreed with was that nobody can be saved by following the works of the Law. We are only justified by faith in Christ.

Galatians 2:15–21 contains Paul's grand statements about the difference between faith in Christ and following the law. Nobody can be justified in God's eyes by the works of the law, but only by faith in Christ. To believe in Christ is to be crucified with Him and to have Him replace your sinful self in you. Paul now lives by faith in the Son of God. More, Jesus gave himself for Paul's sin because He loved him. To say that a person can be made righteous by the law is to say that Jesus died for nothing.

Paul holds a crucial meeting with the other apostles. Do they preach, as he does, that salvation can only be found through faith in Christ and not by following the law? He learns that they do, though ''false brothers'' in their midst are opposed to this gospel of God's grace. After receiving official approval from Peter and the others, Paul later opposes Peter for publicly trying to distance himself from Gentile Christians out of fear of how others might respond. Paul declares that justification comes only through faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.

In Galatians 1, Paul defended himself in order to defend the trustworthiness of his message. He made the case that he was a legitimate apostle. He shows in Galatians 2 that the other apostles stand with him in teaching the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ. He describes a moment in which he rebuked Peter for hypocrisy and then makes the case that only faith in Christ can bring justification for any person in the eyes of God. The works of the law can never make anyone righteous, or Christ would not have had to die.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.