Galatians 2:21 - Printer Friendly

ESV: I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

NIV: I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!'

NASB: I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.'

CSB: I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

NLT: I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

KJV: I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

NKJV: I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Paul has been arguing, strongly, that it is totally illegitimate to add requirements such as good deeds or rituals to the gospel of salvation. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and any inclusion of works conflicts with that good news (Galatians 1:8–9; 2:16). In the prior verse, Paul dramatically explained why this does not offer us a license to sin: those who are saved by grace through faith have "died" to sin, and will seek to obey God, even if they sometimes slip.

Here, Paul delivers his final argument in this line of thinking about being justified or declared righteous by God. He has already shown that we can only be condemned by the law. If somehow he were wrong, though, and it was possible to be made righteous before God by the works of the law, why did Jesus die? What would be the point? We could all stay on the path of the law and be saved. But the law cannot save, so Paul will not nullify—he will not ignore, or make worthless—God's grace. Paul will instead die to the law. He will place all of his faith in Christ's righteousness and Christ's death on the cross. That sacrifice in his place, not Paul's own works, will be his only means of being counted as righteous before God.

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.