Galatians 2:17 - Printer Friendly

ESV: But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!

NIV: "But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!

NASB: But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Far from it!

CSB: But if we ourselves are also found to be "sinners" while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not!

NLT: But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!

KJV: But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

NKJV: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!

In one of the great verses in the Bible, Paul has declared outright that nobody can be justified—"declared righteous" before God—by the works of the law of Moses (Galatians 2:16). The only way anyone can ever be justified and made acceptable to God is by faith in the Christ who died to pay the penalty for our sins. Adding any other requirement to this gospel is false (Galatians 2:4) and worthy of condemnation (Galatians 1:8–9).

Now Paul begins to answer an objection from some of the critics of the gospel of Jesus: If God declares people righteous for free by faith in Christ, won't everyone just go on sinning? What motivation would anyone have to do what is right? Paul's accusers likely pointed to exactly what happened with Peter. When someone feels they are justified by faith in Christ, they eat unclean food with Gentiles! From the Judaizers' perspective, this was the definition of a sinful lifestyle.

Doesn't the idea of justification by faith in Christ turn Jesus into a servant of our sin? Paul answers harshly: Certainly not! May it never be! Absolutely not! He continues on to explain this position in the following verse.

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.