Gálatas 2

Gálatas 2

Constable - Paul refuted the charge of the Judaizers that justification by faith led to lawless behavior. He said this made Christ, in effect, a promoter of sin. This could never be. If a Christian puts himself or herself back under the Law, the Law will show him or her to be a sinner since no one can keep the Law perfectly. These verses are a strong testimony that Christians are free from the requirements of the Mosaic Law. What did Paul mean when he said that "while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners" (v. 17)? "Here he [Paul] may simply mean that when law-abiding Jews like Peter and himself cease to look to the law as the basis of their justification before God and find that justification in Christ instead, they put themselves effectively on a level with 'sinners of the gentiles': they have, in that sense, 'been found sinners'-they themselves (kai autoi) as much as lesser breeds without the law. But this applies to all Jewish Christians, even to those who have not appreciated the law-free character of the gospel: by yielding faith to Christ they have in logic, if not in consciousness, abandoned faith in the law, and have had to take their place as sinners, utterly in need of God's justifying grace." (Quoting F F Bruce The Epistle to the Galatians) "Paul is arguing that although it is true that in order to be justified in Christ it is necessary to abandon faith in the law as a means of salvation (premise 1) and hence to become sinners in the sense of being reduced to the level of the 'Gentiles and sinners' of v. 15 (premise 2), the conclusion does not follow that Christ thereby becomes an agent of sin (in the sense of a promoter of actual wrongdoing), support for this statement being given in vv. 18-20." (Quoting Ronald Fung The Epistle to the Galatians) (Galatians 2 Commentary) Douglas Moo - Paul asks if Christ, in, as it were, requiring Jewish Christians to abandon their allegiance to torah as the authoritative revelation of their conduct, is “serving” or “leading others to commit” sin. Paul rejects this implication with his typically strong negative, μὴ γένοιτο—“absolutely not!” (KJV: “God forbid”). (This is the conclusion of a long preceding explanation). (Galatians - Baker Exegetical Commentary on the NT) Herman Ridderbos - The immediately preceding verses were easy to understand as issuing from the situation described in verse 14. Now, however, there follows an objection, perhaps not so much derived from the occasional event at Antioch (it would, e.g., be difficult to put the objection in Peter’s mouth), but an objection which inevitably shines through every preaching of the justification by faith (cf. Rom. 6:1, 15), and one which is apparently raised here in special relevancy to the readers of this letter. The objection has reference to the seeming ethical danger of the doctrine. Does it not make for godless and normless living? The objection begins by saying something that cannot be denied: if even we (Jews) ourselves, quite as much as the Gentiles, are found to be sinners,23 and there is, therefore, no essential difference between those who observe the law and the sinners of the Gentiles … And thence the question which, on the basis of that clause, can be asked, and is as a matter of fact always being asked anew: Is this Christ, then, a minister of sin, serving in its cause? The answer could not be more definitely negative.25 Paul nowhere does injustice to the gravity of sin or to the holiness of the law. Both are always totally assumed. (NICNT - Galatians - 1953) Alan