Galatians 2:17-21 – a verse by verse devotional commentary

Main Reading: Galatians 2:17-21

If you know me, you know I have a lot of Bibles. But I only own one Bible-carrying case....It was a gift from my girlfriend, and it came personalized with my name and favorite Bible verse on it. In this article, we’ll cover that verse which sits atop the cover of my grey NET cloth over board bible; Galatians 2:20. I hope that, maybe, this fun fact will fuel your interest…Maybe, now, you’ll want to see why

I would choose that verse over the thousands of other options.

And just to preface what I have to say about this passage and why it’s so important to me, I want to state the obvious: Christianity isn’t for people who are doing just fine. It’s not for people who’ve got life all figured out, who’ve cleaned themselves up, and can look in the mirror and say, “I think I’m pulling this off.”

If that’s you, I have practically nothing for you. I can’t help you. But if you’re tired of trying to fix yourself…If you’ve made promises to God & broken every last one of them…If the wheels came off your Christian life years ago and you’re still trying to pretend they’re spinning—then, welcome. You’re in the right place. And Galatians 2 is for you.

v. 17 – “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!”

Paul is always one step ahead. He always seems to know just how his skeptics would respond to the things he wrote. [He anticipates questions/objections 17 times in Romans & 1 Corinthians alone!]

Galatians 2 is another example of Paul’s apostolic ability to anticipate. As soon as he says “no one is justified by the Law” (Galatians 2:16), Paul already hears the grumbling. If it’s true that we’re not made right with God by our own goodness…

If our flesh can’t be fixed by the Law...If forgiveness is based solely on Christ…

You can bet and believe it—the questions will come. Some will be astonished…others will be angry.

When I started paying attention to some of the things Paul writes about God’s grace, I often found myself closing the book and feeling like I needed to take a lap! I thought to myself: “Can what I just read really be true? And if so, how come I’ve been in church my whole life and heard so little about it?”

But there will be other questions coming from the opposing side…And this is where Paul gears up for objections from a religious person’s perspective. They have questions and complaints, like: “If people still sin after coming to Christ, isn’t He enabling them?” “If you tell people they’re forgiven before they clean up their act, won’t they just go wild?” “Won’t this message just make people think that sin is okay?”

Paul says to all of these objections: “Nonsense. Absolutely not! By no means!” Do you honestly think that a person hearing about the grace of God will be inspired to sin? Are you really trying to say that the Gospel produces sinful living? I’ve come in contact with plenty of people who, somewhere down the line, unfortunately got that impression. “You can’t just go around telling people ‘Jesus died for all of your sin,’ they’ll live however they want!” ... “They’ll go out and live a life of complete disregard for good morals & behavior!” But is that fear really reasonable? Do people go crazy with sin as soon as they get a taste of God’s grace? Does forgiveness somehow result in an increase of evil? Well, let’s look at what the Bible says…because, I think, it’s the complete opposite way around…

❶ Colossians 2:20-23

"If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—'Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch' (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. "

As it turns out, legalism—living by law—is what produces more sin! It’s the craziest thing…the more Law you preach, the more creative sinners become in breaking the rules.

❷ Romans 6:14

"For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."

You can try to “lay down the Law” on someone all you like...but that isn’t what frees them from sin’s power—only God’s grace can do that.

❸ Titus 2:11-12

"For the grace of God has appeared , bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age"

A set of rules can’t successfully train you in sanctification, that’s a job for the grace of God alone.

❹ 1 John 1:8-2:1

The apostle John’s most profound words on grace were written—not to give us a license to sin or an excuse, but—so that people would not sin!

Putting more laws in place doesn’t ensure that people will quit breaking them…

The Law has no power to change sinful criminals…only the Gospel can do that.

But when a sinner hears, “You’re forgiven. Totally. Because of Christ alone”—that does something. It kills the old self & raises up a new person who wants to obey & do good works.

If someone’s going around, doing nothing but lying, stealing, sleeping around, & hurting people, It’s probably not that they haven’t heard or understood the rules…I bet they know the laws and they probably even know they’re guilty of breaking them! What they might not know is the Gospel…Someone who really trusts that Jesus died for them will not desire to indulge in all kinds of sinful activity every chance they get.

So, when you encounter a person, who’s enslaved to any sin, how should you approach them? Not like this: “Hey you idiot! Haven’t you heard your behavior is an abomination? Read this book. Memorize this ten-step plan.”

Instead…call sin what it is—be clear & uncompromising. Use all the Bible has to say about it—but don’t stop there…As soon as conviction hits, introduce the Good News: Christ died for this. Christ died for you.

If you’re unsure that this is the way to go. If you don’t think it’s smart to comfort sinners with the Gospel rather than smacking them across the head with the Law, maybe an illustration would help:

Two guys are walking on two different tightropes. One is hooked to cables and harnessed-in safely. He even has a net underneath to catch him if he falls…The other has no safety gear whatsoever…Which is more likely to fall? Easily the one with no protection—He’ll tense up and fall to his doom.

The other man is free & safe to run down the rope, if he so chooses, because he is so secure! I was listening to a video, one time, where a guy was teaching on this subject and someone asked: “Are you saying that Jesus really died for all my sin & accomplished my salvation all on His own?

If that were true, we could live however we want!”

The teacher answered: “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. But now that you know Jesus died for all of your sins, and you could do whatever you want, what do you actually want to do?” In other words, no one, who sees Christ on the cross and knows that it was for them, wants to sin as much as possible.

As a Christian, when you understand that God is pleased with you today, yesterday, and forever…That He’s forgiven you and no longer angry with you, you’re freed-up to do all kinds of good works! But if you don’t trust in God’s grace, you’re liable to concoct some sort of scheme where you exhaust yourself by trying to pay God off.

"Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt" (Matthew 18:23-34).

I say all this to say: Jesus isn’t making us into worse sinners, and Paul’s gospel preaching wasn’t encouraging sin, despite what his opponents say. Instead, the ones who were actually training people to sin were Paul’s opponents themselves!

The Judaizers—Paul calls ‘em “the circumcision party”—the spiritual descendants of the Pharisees, who even though they had 2,000+ rules, Jesus accused them of creating sinners (Mt. 23:15). Even though they were poisoning the church with legalism, these people had the audacity to assume: “We who worked for salvation, aren't all that sinful. But those who just believe in Jesus, they’ve got problems”...“We follow the Law” they thought. “And anyone else isn’t welcome”

They chose who to accept, and associate with, based on the Law…But this mindset runs into a real issue when Jesus sends Peter to the house of Cornelius [a Gentile]! You can’t determine who’s in and who’s out of the Church based on the Law, because all of us fall short of it—the Jews who knew it backwards & forwards, and Gentile Christians alike…

The admission—the recognition—that you are a sinner is crucial. In fact, anyone who’s hoping to “get right” with God, whether by works or faith, is automatically admitting that they’re a sinner, anyways. [There’s no need to be justified if you’ve never done any wrong, after all!]

So, basically, everyone in all corners of Christianity can—and should—agree that we’re all sinners in need of saving…the issue is: how is that accomplished? By our own efforts? Or as a gracious gift from God?

In Paul’s day, people were trying to use God’s Law, given to Moses, as a path to eternal life. Paul says this isn’t the way to go. Christianity isn’t about making improvements to an old sinner. Christianity is about killing the sinner and raising the dead. That’s what Paul’s talking about.

v. 18 – “For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor”

Let’s translate that: If I try to go back to earning righteousness after being forgiven for free, I’m not “getting serious” about holiness—I’m actually sinning against grace by calling Christ’s death insufficient.

Imagine you have a plot of land and you can finally build your dream home.

The framing is done, but no stairs have been built and, in order to access the second floor, you need a scaffolding. Finally, the house is completed and it features a staircase and an elevator. But you decide to call the construction company and ask “how much would it cost for you to set that scaffolding back up?” This is exactly the kind of foolishness Paul is warning against. If we knew that Jesus was our salvation, and we decided to opt for another method, we’d be just as stupid as the guy scaling a scaffolding when he could’ve used the stairs. Again, Paul isn’t in the wrong for teaching justification by faith. Those who want to insert the Law in Jesus’ place are the “transgressors”…

v. 19 – “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.”

Contrary to popular opinion, the Law isn’t intended to save you…It’s supposed to kill you. In 2 Corinthians 3:6-7, Paul calls the Law a “letter that kills” and the “ministry of death”! And he says these kinds of things again in Romans 7:9-10, 8:2 - "I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me... For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."

The Law doesn’t make bad people good—it makes dead people out of all of us.

So, how does the Law kill? Yes, it can condemn people to Hell…But it’s more than that! The Law kills any notion in your brain that says: “I’m a righteous person. I can do this! I’m pulling it off!” And it brings you to the realization that: “Jesus is my only hope for salvation.”

Before you ever take a medicine, you have to first understand how sick you are. And before you ever trust in Christ, you must understand how bad your sins are. That’s why, when a young man said to Jesus: “I’ve kept all the commandments!”

Jesus gave Him one more that He knew he couldn’t follow. “Go sell everything & give the money away.” Jesus was looking to bring the guy under the full weight of the Law to see how dead he really was. And, if you haven’t been killed by the Law yet, let’s give it another try. You don’t love God & love people perfectly. You don’t honor your parents. You do hate people. You have committed adultery. You are a thief & a liar. You are jealous of others. You are a sinner.

I read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis [the author of The Chronicles of Narnia] last year, and in it he wrote: “No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good.” In other words, until you understand the Law—God’s rules & standards, you won’t understand that you are guilty of breaking them. Paul is saying something really similar here, in verse 19, “By trying really hard to be righteous through the Law, I learned that it’s impossible.” So, I hope that’s true for you too. I hope that you’ve felt so short of the standard that you’re sitting here with nothing and are ready for Jesus. I hope that the Law has killed you so the Good News of the Gospel can make you alive. Now, as a Christian—saved by Jesus Christ—your life is no longer defined by the Law. You are a forgiven and free person who Jesus will, one day, raise up from the dead so that you will “live to God” forever and ever. So, when the Law reminds you of your sin…When people around you dredge up your past…

When the Devil himself says: “you claim to be saved but you still sin, so you’re comin' to Hell with me.” You can say: “I’m dead to the Law”—Christ died for me—my punishment has already happened. That’s where Paul goes next.

v. 20 – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”

In other words, the old way of thinking about righteousness as a result of keeping the Law is over. That ended when Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law’s demands

and you, as a believer, were united to Him by faith. While this is one of the most beautiful lines in all of Paul, it isn’t just poetry—it’s profoundly real. Christ died for you, He also died with you, and you died with Him! Your old self and your sins were nailed to the cross with Him. [Just like when Adam & Eve sinned, and God killed an animal to give them clothes to cover them. Or when the Old Testament priests killed a sheep instead of a sinner]. So, now that you’ve already died and your sins have been paid for, everything’s changed.

I mean, think about it—the Law can’t pronounce a dead person guilty! The police can’t handcuff a dead body, drag it into court, and issue a jail sentence! We have these things called “life sentences,” you know? Once a criminal dies, they’ve done their time. So, as a person who has already died, the Law has no authority to pronounce you guilty any more! And no longer can you try to use the Law as a way of earning salvation or becoming righteous, either! That’d be like pulling a corpse off of the cross and telling it: “Get to work!” [like Weekend at Bernie’s].

Remember when Jesus said: “Take up your cross and follow me” (Luke 9:23)?

That wasn’t some sort of self-improvement program or piece of advice—it’s a call to remember that you are dead every day. Your life is not about you. You’re dead, remember? It’s no longer about proving to God that you’re good enough,

because the Law already condemned you to death because of your sins.

Now, your life is about dropping your achievements and high opinion of yourself and picking up Christ, who did it all for you—all the law-keeping and all of the dying.

True Christian righteousness, then, is not about looking at yourself—but

looking to Christ crucified for you. That’s your new identity. That’s your new life.

And when someone—yourself, your enemies, or the Devil—tries to dredge up your past, remind them: they’re 2,000 years too late. They need to go back to a little hill called Calvary where Jesus died. All your sin was settled there. That person who did all of those things is dead. And all this can only be true if you have died with Jesus Christ.

See, it matters a great deal who you’re buried with. "So Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet" (2 Kings 13:20-21). We don’t know anything about this guy—not even his name—except that he was buried with Elisha.

But even better for you, as a Christian, you are buried with Jesus Christ Himself! "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:3-11).

Something struck me as I visited Jamestown last year. [The 1st permanent English settlement in America]. Within the city’s walls was a graveyard, and each burial plot was marked with a simple, white cross. I got to thinking: why do we do that? What’s with all the crosses in burial sites? Well, I’m sure at one time, people did this as a way of saying: “We know who this guy died with, and we know who’s going to come pick him up by the end of the world.” All of this has been great news. It’s beautiful, shocking, and true all at once. Now, here’s your job: Don’t undo it. Don’t ignore God’s grace. Don’t go back to trusting yourself. Paul says:

v. 21 – “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose”

Let’s think back to where this whole argument started: people were adding Law to the Gospel. And what’s behind that strategy? What causes people to do that? Well, I would argue that when someone adds to the Gospel,

that displays a distrust in God’s ability to forgive and a low view of what happened at the cross.

Remember, in Paul’s day, some were acting as if God wasn’t powerful enough to overcome an uncircumcised penis! If you go on trying to justify yourself with something you can do—some law you can keep or some ceremony you can perform—you will empty the crucifixion of all its value in your life. Remember Jesus, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane? He asked: Father, if there be any other way to save people, let’s make it happen (Mt. 26:39). At that moment, God the Father could’ve said: “Good idea! Let’s make people work for it.” But He didn’t. Instead, Christ died because there was no other way for you and I to make it. So, don’t insult the blood of Jesus by insisting to accomplish your salvation in your own strength.