Today’s Text, verse is tough!
In fact, I have had to include a second (Galatians) verse to help further clarify what Paul is saying. At least what I believe he is saying.
Paul here asks, in his sometimes opaque way: “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.” Galatians 2:17
Meaning: “But if, while we (true Believers) seek to be justified (saved) by Christ (by faith alone), we ourselves also are found sinners (by side-stepping Jesus and trusting the Law of Moses) , is therefore Christ the minister (helper to) of sin (at least inconsistency, if now downright error)? God forbid.”
To Paul, falling back on the Law of Moses, for one’s soul salvation, is nothing less than a blatant SIN! It is a denial of the Power of the Grace of God! We who have been saved, who have received salvation as a “gift,” would never want to so dishonor Christ!
To revert to the (inferior) Law of Moses (for salvation) … would in essence (according to Paul’s logic) make Jesus Christ a “minister” (a “servant”) of sin! An “accessory” to sin, one scholar words it!
Jesus certainly preached salvation as the result of belief in Himself, of faith in His Father! (John 5:24 … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”)
If Jesus is wrong here, and a man or woman has to also add obedience to Moses’ law as an aid to salvation … Jesus has become an adjunct to Moses! Moses who would then be a co-saviour! That’s impossible! Nearly blasphemy! Paul preaches: “Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.”
Maybe Galatians 2:18, the next verse will help us. “For if I (Paul) build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” That is: “For if I build again (go back to) the things which I destroyed (man’s works for salvation, including any legal list or lists), I make myself a transgressor.” And here “transgressor”means something like “stepping across the line!”
From Grace back into Law!
From Jesus back to Moses!
Now I too say, “GOD FORBID!”
The verb “destroyed” above is a translation of the Greek “kataluo,” to “loosen the bonds” of something! To “set free” something or someone!
Folks, no matter what anyone says … the LAW does not justify anyone!
Only the Blood of Jesus can do that!
Wow!
I never realized how much the Epistle of Galatians (it first half anyway) so dogmatically emphasizes “salvation” apart from human works, particularly obedience to the Mosaic Law.
Truly, we are “saved by Grace!”
Hallelujah!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell