Galatians 2:17

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) We sought justification in Christ. But if, with all our seeking, something more was needed: viz., a rigid performance of the Law—that Law which we had abandoned—then there was still something wanting to our justification. We were sinners on a par with the Gentiles, and all that Christianity seemed to have done for us was to lead us deeper into sin. A profane thought!

By Christ.—Strictly, in Christ—i.e., by the relation into which we are brought with Him. The reference is here, however, not exactly to the mystical union with Christ, which is regarded by the Apostle rather in connection with sanctification (the actual growth in holiness) than with justification (the judicial absolution from guilt). In the present instance the Apostle is speaking of justification; and when he says that “we are justified in Christ,” he means practically through faith in Him, or through that circle of forces within which we are brought by faith.

We ourselves also.—We who were by our birth Jews, as well as the Gentiles.

Are found.—Strictly, were found—i.e., at a time subsequent to our embracing Christianity, if the only result of our Christianity was that we were still sinners.

Sinners.—Sinners actually, through our positive transgressions, and sinners theoretically or judicially (in the eyes of God), through the fact that we have lost the old Jewish justification through the fulfilment of the Law; while, according to this Judaising theory which St. Paul is combating, our new Christian justification is insufficient.

Is therefore Christ the minister of sin?—Our English version is probably right in making this a question. It is put ironically, and as a sort of reductio ad absurdum of the Judaising position. The Judaisers maintained the necessity of a strict fulfilment of the Mosaic law. They, however, still called themselves Christians; and here St. Paul had a hold upon them. “You call yourselves Christians,” he says, “and yet you insist upon the Mosaic law. You say that a man cannot be justified without it: it follows that we, who have exchanged the service of the Law for the service of Christ, are not justified. In other words, our relation to Christ has made us, not better, but worse—a thought which no Christian can entertain.”

No doubt St. Paul used some such argument as this in his controversy with St. Peter at Antioch, but it would probably be stated in a simpler and less speculative form: “If you still fall back upon the separatist Jewish observances, what is the good of being a Christian?” Here, in writing to the Galatians, the Apostle paraphrases what he had said in language more suited to a theological treatise and to the natural speculative bias of his own mind.

God forbid.—The Judaising theory was quite sufficiently condemned by showing the consequences to which it would lead. It makes Christ Himself a minister of sin—a suggestion which the Apostle puts away with pious horror.

Benson Commentary

Galatians 2:17-19. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ — Through the merit of his obedience unto death, by simply believing in him, and in the truths and promises of his gospel; we ourselves are still found sinners — Continue in sin; if we are still under the guilt and power of sin, in an unpardoned, unrenewed state; is therefore Christ the minister of sin — Does he countenance sin, by giving persons reason to suppose that they are justified through believing in him as the true Messiah, while they continue to live in the commission of sin? God forbid — That any thing should ever be insinuated so much to the dishonour of God, and of our glorious Redeemer. For if I build again — By my sinful practice; the things which I destroyed — Or professed that I wished to destroy, by my preaching, or by my believing; I make myself a transgressor — I show that I act very inconsistently, building up again what I pretended I was pulling down. In other words, I show myself, not Christ, to be a transgressor; the whole blame lies on me, not on him or his gospel. As if he had said, The objection were just, if the gospel promised justification to men continuing in sin. But it does not. Therefore if any, who profess the gospel, do not live according to it, they are sinners, it is certain, but not justified; and so the gospel is clear. For I through the law — Understood in its spirituality, extent, and obligation; applied by the Holy Spirit to my conscience, and convincing me of my utter sinfulness, guilt, and helplessness; am dead to the law — To all hope of justification by it, and therefore to all dependance upon it; see notes on Romans 7:7-14; That I may live to God — Not that I may continue in sin. For this very end, I am delivered from the condemnation in which I was involved, am justified, and brought into a state of favour and acceptance with God, that I might be animated by nobler views and hopes than the law could give, and engaged, through love to God, his people, and all mankind, to a more generous, sublime, and extensive obedience than the law was capable of producing.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:15-19 Paul, having thus shown he was not inferior to any apostle, not to Peter himself, speaks of the great foundation doctrine of the gospel. For what did we believe in Christ? Was it not that we might be justified by the faith of Christ? If so, is it not foolish to go back to the law, and to expect to be justified by the merit of moral works, or sacrifices, or ceremonies? The occasion of this declaration doubtless arose from the ceremonial law; but the argument is quite as strong against all dependence upon the works of the moral law, as respects justification. To give the greater weight to this, it is added, But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ the minister of sin? This would be very dishonourable to Christ, and also very hurtful to them. By considering the law itself, he saw that justification was not to be expected by the works of it, and that there was now no further need of the sacrifices and cleansings of it, since they were done away in Christ, by his offering up himself a sacrifice for us. He did not hope or fear any thing from it; any more than a dead man from enemies. But the effect was not a careless, lawless life. It was necessary, that he might live to God, and be devoted to him through the motives and grace of the gospel. It is no new prejudice, though a most unjust one, that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, tends to encourage people in sin. Not so, for to take occasion from free grace, or the doctrine of it, to live in sin, is to try to make Christ the minister of sin, at any thought of which all Christian hearts would shudder.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ - The connection here is not very clear, and the sense of the verse is somewhat obscure. Rosenmuller supposes that this is an objection of a Jew, supposing that where the Law of Moses is not observed there is no rule of life, and that therefore there must be sin; and that since the doctrine of justification by faith taught that there was no necessity of obeying the ceremonial law of Moses, therefore Christ, who had introduced that system, must be regarded as the author and encourager of sin. To me it seems probable that Paul here has reference to an objection which has in all ages been brought against the doctrine of justification by faith, and which seems to have existed in his time, that the doctrine leads to licentiousness. The objections are that it does not teach the necessity of the observance of the Law in order to acceptance with God. That it pronounces a man justified and accepted who is a violator of the Law. That his acceptance does not depend on moral character.

That it releases him from the obligation of law, and that it teaches that a man may be saved though he does not conform to law. These objections existed early, and have been found everywhere where the doctrine of justification by faith has been preached. I regard this verse, therefore, as referring to these objections, and not as being especially the objection of a Jew. The idea is, "You seek to be justified by faith without obeying the Law. You professedly reject that, and do not hold that it is necessary to yield obedience to it. If now it shall turn out that you are sinners; that your lives are not holy; that you are free from the wholesome restraint of the Law, and are given up to lives of sin, will it not follow that Christ is the cause of it; that he taught it; and that the system which he introduced is responsible for it? And is not the gospel therefore responsible for introducing a system that frees from the restraint of the Law, and introduces universal licentiousness?" To this Paul replies by stating distinctly that the gospel has no such tendency, and particularly by referring in the following verses to his own case, and to the effect of the doctrine of justification on his own heart and life.

We ourselves are found sinners - If it turns out that we are sinners, or if others discover by undoubted demonstration that we lead lives of sin; if they see us given up to a lawless life, and find us practicing all kinds of evil; if it shall be seen not only that we are not pardoned and made better by the gospel, but are actually made worse, and are freed from all moral restraint.

Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? - Is it to be traced to him? Is it a fair and legitimate conclusion that this is the tendency of the gospel? Is it to be charged on him, and on the plan of justification through him, that a lax morality prevails, and that people are freed from the wholesome restraints of law?

God forbid - It is not so. This is not the proper effect of the gospel of Christ, and of the doctrine of justification by faith. The system is not suited to produce such a freedom from restraint, and if such a freedom exists, it is to be traced to something else than the gospel.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. Greek, "But if, seeking to be justified IN (that is, in believing union with) Christ (who has in the Gospel theory fulfilled the law for us), we (you and I) ourselves also were found (in your and my former communion with Gentiles) sinners (such as from the Jewish standpoint that now we resume, we should be regarded, since we have cast aside the law, thus having put ourselves in the same category as the Gentiles, who, being without the law, are, in the Jewish view, "sinners," Ga 2:15), is therefore Christ, the minister of sin?" (Are we to admit the conclusion, in this case inevitable, that Christ having failed to justify us by faith, so has become to us the minister of sin, by putting us in the position of "sinners," as the Judaic theory, if correct, would make us, along with all others who are "without the law," Ro 2:14; 1Co 9:21; and with whom, by eating with them, we have identified ourselves?) The Christian mind revolts from so shocking a conclusion, and so, from the theory which would result in it. The whole sin lies, not with Christ, but with him who would necessitate such a blasphemous inference. But his false theory, though "seeking" from Christ, we have not "found" salvation (in contradiction to Christ's own words, Mt 7:7), but "have been ourselves also (like the Gentiles) found" to be "sinners," by having entered into communion with Gentiles (Ga 2:12).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Some interpreters think, that the apostle here begins his discourse to the Galatians upon the main argument of his Epistle, viz. justification by faith in Christ; though others think it began, Galatians 2:15.

If, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners; if (saith the apostle) you make us grievous offenders in our expectation of being justified by Christ, and not by the works of the law, you make

Christ the minister of sin, who hath taught us this. But others think that the apostle here obviateth a common objection which was then made, (as it is also in our age), against the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ; viz. That it opens a door of liberty to the flesh, and so makes Christ a minister of sin, as if he relaxed men’s obligation to the law of God; which is the same objection which the apostle answered in his Epistle to the Romans, Romans 6:1-23. If while, we plead for justification by Christ, we live in a course of notorious disobedience to the law of God, then Christ must be to us a minister of sin, and come into the world to purchase for us a possibility of salvation, though we live in never so much notorious disobedience to the law of God. As if there were no obligation upon men to keep the law, unless by their obedience to it they might obtain pardon of sin and justification. This calumny the apostle disavows, first, by a general aversation:

God forbid!

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But if while we seek to be justified by Christ,.... As they did, and not only sought for, but obtained what they sought for, because they sought for it at the hands of Christ, and not as it were by works, but by faith, even a justifying righteousness in him.

We ourselves also are found sinners; that is, either we should be so, were we not to rest here, but seek to join our own works with Christ's righteousness for our justification, and so make Christ the minister of sin, of an imperfect righteousness, which cannot justify, which God forbid should ever be done by us; or we are reckoned sinners by you, judaizing Christians, for leaving the law, and going to Christ for righteousness; and if so, Christ must be the minister of sin, for he has directed and taught us so to do; but God forbid that any such thing should be said of him: or if we are still sinners, and unjustified persons, notwithstanding we seek to Christ to be justified by him, but need the law, and the works of it to justify us, then Christ, instead of being a minister of righteousness, is a minister of the law, the strength of sin, which accuses for it, and is the ministration of condemnation and death on account of it, which God forbid should ever be: or this is an objection of the adversary to the doctrine of free justification by the righteousness of Christ, as if it made void the law, discouraged the performance of good works, opened a door to licentiousness that men might continue sinners, and live as they wish, being under no restraints of the law, or under obligation to obedience it, and by such doctrine make

Christ the minister of sin; who hereby teaches men to live in sin, and in the neglect of duty; to which the apostle answers,

God forbid; as holding such consequences in the utmost abhorrence and detestation; see Romans 6:1.

Geneva Study Bible

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

(4) Before he goes any further, he meets with the objection which abhorred this doctrine of free justification by faith, because, they say, men are by this means withdrawn from the performing of good works. And in this sort is the objection: if sinners should be justified through Christ by faith without the Law, Christ would approve sinners, and should as it were exhort them to sin by his ministry. Paul answers that this conclusion is false, because Christ destroys sin in the believers: for so, he says, do men flee to Christ through the terror and fear of the Law, that being acquitted from the curse of the Law and justified they may be saved by him. And in addition he together begins in them by little and little that strength and power of his which destroys sin: to the end that this old man being abolished by the power of Christ crucified, Christ may live in them, and they may consecrate themselves to God. Therefore if any man give himself to sin after he has received the Gospel, let him not accuse Christ nor the Gospel, but himself, for he destroys the work of God in himself.

(s) He goes from justification to sanctification, which is another benefit we receive from Christ, if we lay hold of him by faith.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Galatians 2:17. The δέ dialectically carries on the refutation of Peter; but the protasis beginning with εἰ cannot have its apodosis in εὑρέθημεν κ. ἀ. ἁμ. (Hofmann[98]); on the contrary, it runs on as far as ἉΜΑΡΤΩΛΟΊ, which is then followed by the interrogatory apodosis. Consequently: But if we (in order to show thee, from what has been just said, how opposed to Christ thy conduct was), although we sought to he justified in Christ, were found even on our part sinners. This protasis supposes that which must have been the case, if Peter’s Judaizing conduct had been in the right; namely, that the result would then have been that faith does not lead to, or does not suffice for, justification, but that it is requisite to combine with it the observance of the Jewish law. If faith does not render the Ἰουδαΐζειν superfluous, as was naturally to be concluded from the course of conduct pursued by Peter, then this seeking after justification in Christ has shown itself so ineffectual, that the believer just stands on an equality with the Gentiles, because he has ceased to be a Jew and yet has not attained to righteousness in Christ: he is therefore now nothing else than an ἁμαρτωλός, just as the Gentile is. But if this is the case, the apodosis now asks, Is Christ, therefore, minister of sin (and not of righteousness)?—seeing that our faith in Him, which seeks for righteousness by Him, has the sad result that we have been found like the Gentiles in a state of sin. The answer to this question is, Far be it! It is a result to be abhorred, that Christ, instead of bringing about the righteousness sought in Him, should be the promoter of sin. Consequently the state of things supposed in the protasis is an anti-Christian absurdity.

The subject of ζητοῦντες and ΕὙΡΈΘΗΜΕΝ is, as before, Peter and Paul.

ΖΗΤΟῦΝΤΕς] emphatically prefixed, in reference to the preceding sentence of purpose, ἵνα δικαιωθῶμεν κ.τ.λ.; so that this ΖΗΤΕῖΝ ΔΙΚΑΙΩΘ. is not in reality different from the ΠΙΣΤΕΎΕΙΝ ΕἸς ΧΡΙΣΤ., but denotes the same thing as respects its tendency. To the ζητοῦντες then corresponds the ΕὙΡΈΘΗΜΕΝ, which introduces an entirely different result: if we have been found, if it has turned out as a matter of fact, that, etc. (Romans 7:10; 1 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Corinthians 15:15; 2 Corinthians 11:12). As to εὑρέθημεν we must, however, notice that—as in the apodosis ἈΡᾺ ΧΡΙΣΤΌς Κ.Τ.Λ. we cannot without proceeding arbitrarily supply anything but the simple ἘΣΤΊΝ, and not ἌΝ ἮΝ (Galatians 3:21)—the aorist requires the explanation: inventi sumus (Vulgate, Beza, Calvin, and many others[99]), and therefore neither reperimur (Erasmus, Castalio) nor inventi essemus (de Wette and many others), nor should be found (Luther), nor were to be found (Schott). Observe, moreover, that in εὑρέθ., in contrast to ζητοῦντες κ.τ.λ., the accessory idea of something unexpected suggests itself (comp. on Matthew 1:20).

ἐν Χριστῷ] nothing else than what was previously put as ἐκ πίστεως Χριστοῦ, but expressed according to the notion that in Christ, whose person and work form the object of faith, justification has its causal basis (2 Corinthians 5:21; Acts 13:39; Romans 3:24). Its opposite: ἐν νόμῳ, Galatians 3:11, and the ἰδία δικαιοσύνη, Romans 10:3.

καὶ αὐτοί] et ipsi, also on our part, includes Peter and Paul in the class of ἁμαρτωλοί previously referred to in Galatians 2:15.

ἆρα Χ. ἁμαρτ. διάκ] is, at any rate, a question (Vulgate, numquid), for with Paul μὴ γένοιτο is always preceded by a question (Romans 3:4; Romans 6:2; Galatians 3:21, et al.). “With this, however, either mode of writing, ἄρα (Lachmann) or ἆρα (Tischendorf), may stand. Both express igitur, rebus sic se habentibus; but ἆρα (Luke 18:8; Acts 8:30), although Paul does not elsewhere use it (but just as little does he use an interrogative ἄρα[100]), is the livelier and stronger. See Klotz, ad Devar. p. 180; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 39 f. To take ἆρα for ἆρʼ οὔ, nonne (Olshausen, Schott), is a purely arbitrary suggestion, which fails to apprehend the subtlety of the passage, the question in which (not ἆρα in itself, as held by Hartung) bears the trace of an ironical suspicion of doubtfulness (comp. Buttmann, ad Plat. Charmid. 14, ed. Heind.). Besides, ἆρα is never really used for ἆρʼ οὔ, although it sometimes seems so (Herm. ad Viger. p. 823; Heind. ad Plat. Theaet. p. 476; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 216). See Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. ii. 6. 1. Rückert has mistaken the sense of the whole passage: “If we, although we seek grace with God through Christ, nevertheless continue to sin, etc., do ye think that Christ will then take pleasure in us, greater pleasure than in the Gentiles, and thus strengthen and further us in our sin?” Against this it may be urged, that Paul has not written εὑρισκόμεθα; that the comparison with the Gentiles implied in καὶ αὐτοί would be unsuitable, for the sin here reproved would be hypocritical Judaizing; and that Galatians 2:18 would not, as is most arbitrarily assumed, give the reason for the μὴ γένοιτο, but, passing over the μὴ γένοιτο and the apodosis, would carry us back to the protasis and prove this latter. The nearest to this erroneous interpretation is that of Beza and Wieseler, who (so also essentially Reithmayr) find expressed here the necessity of the union of sanctification with justification.[101] But the right sense of the passage, as given above, is found in substance, although with several modifications, and in some cases with an incorrect apprehension of the aorist εὑρέθημεν (see above), in Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Erasmus, Luther, Castalio, Calvin, Calovius, Estius, Wolf, Wetstein, and others; also Semler, Koppe, Borger, Flatt, Winer, Usteri, Matthies, Schott, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Hilgenfeld, Ewald, Matthias; several of whom, however, such as the Greek Fathers, Luther, Calovius, Koppe, Usteri, Lachmann, taking the accentuation ἄρα, do not assume any question, which does not alter the essential sense, but does not correspond with the μὴ γένοιτο which follows; while Hilgenfeld unnecessarily supposes a breviloquence: “then I ask, Is then Christ,” etc.?

Χριστός] “in quo tamen quaerimus justificari,” Bengel.

ἁμαρτ. διάκ.] ἁμαρτ. emphatically prefixed, in contrast to the δικαιωθῆναι: one, through whom sin receives service rendered, sin is upheld and promoted.[102] The opposite, διάκονοι δικαιοσύνης, 2 Corinthians 11:15.

[98] Hofmann explains it, as if Paul had written εἰ δὲ ἐζητοῦμεν (if we, when we became believers, sought, etc.) δικαιωθῆναι ἐν Χριστῷ, εὑρέθημεν κ.τ.λ. (we thereby exhibit ourselves at the same time as sinners). According to Hofmann, the εὑρέθημεν is intended to apply to both members of the sentence,—a forced, artificial view for which the context affords neither right nor reason.

[99] So correctly also Lipsius in Hilgenfeld’s Zeitschr. 1861, p. 73 ff. He, however, improving on Holsten’s similar interpretation, thus explains the whole passage: “If we, being born Jews, have, by our seeking after the salvation in Christ, confessed our sinfulness (and consequently, at the same time, the impotence of the law to make us righteous), does it thence follow that Christ, by inviting also us Jews to seek righteousness in Him and not in the law, has led us astray to a life in Gentile impurity? “But this inference does not stand in logical consistency with the protasis, and could not even suggest itself as a false conclusion; for ἁμαρτίας is assumed to be taken in a different sense from ἁμαρτωλοί,—the latter in the sense of defectus justitiae, the former as vitiositas ethnica. Holsten also understands ἁμαρτίας as the unfettering of sin in the moral life (comp. Galatians 5:13; Romans 1:6 f., et al.),—an idea which is here foreign to the context.

[100] Which is assumed by Wieseler, Buttmann, Hofmann.

[101] They take the essential sense to be: “If the man who is justified in Christ has sinned, Christ is not to blame for this; for (ver. 18) the man himself is to blame for the transgression, because he builds again the dominion of sin which He had destroyed.” So Wieseler. This interpretation is utterly unsuitable, if ver. 15 ff. is still addressed to Peter. It may be urged also against it, that Paul, by using εὑρέθημεν (instead of εὑρισκόμεθα), would have written in a way both obscure and misleading; further, that the relapse of the justified man into sin did not at all suggest or presume as probable the conclusion that Christ was to blame for it; moreover, that the expression ἁμαρτίας διάκονος must assert something of a far stronger and more positive character (namely, sin-producer); lastly, that ver. 18, taken in Wieseler’s sense, would, notwithstanding its carefully-chosen expressions, contain nothing more than an almost meaningless and self-evident thought, in which, moreover, the destruction of the dominion of sin, which has been accomplished by Christ or by the justifying grace of God (Romans 8:3), would be attributed to man (κατέλυσα).

[102] Luther’s gloss: “Whoever desires to become pious by means of works, acts just as if Christ by His ministry, office, preaching, and sufferings, made us first of all to be sinners who must become pious through the law; thus is Christ denied, crucified again, slandered, and sin is built up again, which had previously been done away by the preaching of faith.”

Expositor's Greek Testament

Galatians 2:17. εἰ δὲ … ἁμαρτωλοί. The last verse arrived at the conclusion that Jewish converts by their own act condemned themselves to be guilty of a broken law. The argument now proceeds on this assumption “If it be true (as has been shown) that we by seeking to be justified in Christ were found to be ourselves also sinners as well as the Gentiles—if our sin was then discovered, and it be admitted that confession of sin lies at the root of all Christian life, what then is the attitude of Christ toward sin?”—ἆρα Χ. ἁ. διάκονος; This clause is clearly interrogative, and the true reading is ἆρα, not ἄρα (inferential). For here, as always elsewhere In Pauline language, μὴ γένοιτο repudiates a monstrous suggestion, put forward in the form of a question, the mere statement of which is repugnant to the moral sense.

It was objected to this doctrine of God’s free grace in Christ to guilty sinners that it held out a license to sin by doing away the wholesome restraints of the Law, and so encouraged men to continue in sin by its assurance of pardon. The fallacy is here dismissed with scorn on the strength of the very nature of Christ, but is more fully exposed in the sixth chapter to the Romans.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. while we seek] Rather, while seeking, i.e. earnestly desiring. The reference is to the time when they embraced the Gospel. Hence, for ‘are found’, read, “were found”, found ourselves in the same position as those ‘sinners’ of the Gentiles, whom we had been accustomed to look down upon, and needing, like them, a free salvation.

we ourselves] not necessarily, ‘I and Peter’ (see note on Galatians 2:14), but we who, as Jews, inherited the advantages of the chosen race.

is therefore … of sin?] Are we to accept the inference that Christ is the minister of sin? The word ‘sin’ has direct reference to ‘sinners’ in the former clause. The Judaizers might taunt the Apostle with the suggestion, that, as faith in Christ had made them ‘sinners’, Christ had become a minister to a state of sin.

minister of sin] The antithesis occurs 2 Corinthians 11:15, “ministers of righteousness”. Is Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith, employed in a service, which so far from emancipating men from sin, promotes sin?

God forbid] Lit. let it not come to pass! This formula is used by St Paul fourteen times to express a strong denial and utter repudiation of some proposition, either put forward by himself, or suggested by an opponent. “Away with such a thought!” There is of course neither ‘God’ nor ‘forbid’ in the Greek, but the English phrase is an excellent idiomatic equivalent.

17–21. The argument of these verses is somewhat obscure—an obscurity due, partly to the inadequacy of language to express the intensity of the Apostle’s feelings, partly to the introduction of metaphorical expressions, which elude the attempt to define them accurately.

St Paul, like other Jewish believers, earnestly desiring to escape the penalty of conscious sin, had abandoned all trust in the law, and had thrown himself entirely on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. If he is now told that in doing this, he and they had foregone their privileges as children of Abraham, and reduced themselves to the position of sinners of the Gentiles (Galatians 2:15), it might be said that Christ is a minister of sin. Away with such a false conclusion! St Paul had swept away all notion of justification by obedience to the law, because he knew that a man is justified by faith apart from such obedience, and to build up the edifice which he had pulled down would be to stand self-convicted as a transgressor of the law. ‘I’, he says, ‘for one, through the law, through experience of its inability to give life, turned my back on it for ever as a ground of justification before God. I died to the law. Thenceforth, as a ground of justification, it was no more to me than to a dead man. I did this, not that I might be free from the law, as a rule of life, but that I should live the only life worth living—a life impossible to me so long as I sought justification by the law—a life consecrated to God. I have been speaking of dying. There is another sense in which I died. I am crucified with Christ, a partaker of His death, a death issuing in resurrection; and this resurrection life, which I share with and derive from my Divine Lord, itself not natural but spiritual, transforms my whole natural and earthly life, so that I live this latter in the faith of Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not, like the Judaizers, set at nought that grace of God to which I owe so much. And yet to seek justification by works would be practically to nullify it: for if by the law man obtains justification, Christ’s death was purposeless and superfluous’.

Bengel's Gnomen

Galatians 2:17.—Εἰ δὲ, but if) When Peter withdrew himself, and refused to hold any longer that communion in living [food] with the Gentiles, which he had begun; it was the same thing as if he had said, that he had lived a heathen sinner, by the fact of and during the continuance of that communion. But Christ had formed a close relationship with the Gentiles, on account of which he had very properly eaten with them. Wherefore if Peter committed sin in eating with them, the consequence will be that Christ was the minister of that sin. Paul so shrinks back from the impropriety of such a consequence, that he not only subjoins, God forbid, but immediately softens the expression by turning it into an interrogation, and by using also the word διάκονος, minister, which is well adapted to mark the indignity implied in this passage. There is no blame attached to Christ, conferring righteousness and holiness upon the Gentiles; but the whole blame lies with him, who renews [builds again] a separation from the Gentiles, after they had been converted to Christ; see following verse.—ζητοῦντες) while we seek, ever since we have received faith and freedom from the law. This word, to seek, is represented [virtually expressed] in the preceding verse; and “if while seeking—we are found,” is a strong antithesis to it.—εὑρέθημεν, we are found) now, anew.—καὶ αὐτοὶ) we ourselves also, of our own accord.—Χριστὸς, Christ) by [in] whom, however, we seek to be justified.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ (εἰ δὲ ζητοῦντες δικαιωθῆναι ἐν Ξριστῷ); but if while seeking to be justified in Christ. The present participle, "while seeking," that is," while we sought," is referred back to the time indicated in the words, "we believed," of the preceding verse - the time, that is, when, made aware that works of the Law could not justify, they, Cephas and Paul, severally set themselves to find righteousness in Christ. At that time they in heart utterly renounced the notion that "works of the Law" had any effect upon a man's standing before God; they saw that his doing them could not make him righteous, as well as that his not doing them would not make him a sinner (see Matthew 15:10-20). This was an essential feature of their state of mind in seeking righteousness in Christ. They distinguished Levitical purity and pollution from spiritual and real. And the principle was not only embraced in their hearts, but, in course of time, it embodied itself also, as occasion served, in outward deed. They, both Paul and Cephas himself, were bold to "live after the manner of Gentiles" (ver. 14), and with Gentiles to freely associate. If this was wrong, it was most heinously wrong; for it would be nothing short of a presumptuous setting at nought of God's own Law by which they flagrantly proved themselves to be, in a fatal and damning sense, sinners. But it was by the gospel that they had been led to think thus and to act thus; in other words, by Christ himself. Would it not, then, follow that Christ was a minister to them, not of righteousness, but of sin, of damning guilt? The participle "seeking" does not merely mark the time at which they were found to be sinners, but also and indeed much more, the course of conduct by which they proved themselves such. The words, "in Christ," are not equivalent to "through Christ," though the former idea includes the latter; the preposition is used in the same sense as in the sentences, "In God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 1:1); "Of him are ye in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:30); "Sanctified in Christ Jesus" (1 Corinthians 1:2). It denotes a state of intimate association, union, with Christ, involving justification by necessary consequence. Comp. Philippians 3:9, "That I may be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ." We ourselves also are found sinners (εὑρέθημεν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἁμάρτωλοι); we ourselves also were found sinners. The word "found" hints a certain measure of surprise (comp. Matthew 1:18; Acts 8:40; Romans 7:21; 2 Corinthians 10:12; 2 Corinthians 12:20). Cephas was behaving now as if to his painful surprise he had found himself to have been previously acting m a most guilty manner. The word "sinners" appears to denote more than the state of ceremonial uncleanness incurred by violating the prescriptions of Levitical purity; indeed, it meant more even as used by thorough-going ceremonialists (as in ver. 15); it points to the gross outrage which would in the case supposed have been put upon the majesty of God's Law. In the next verse "transgressor" is used as a convertible term. "Ourselves also" - as truly as any Gentile of them all. There is a touch of sarcasm in the clause, having a covert reference to St. Peter having turned his back upon his Gentile brethren as unfit for him to associate with; he thereby was treating them as "sinners." Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? (α΅ρα Ξριστὸς ἁμαρτίας διάκονος;); is Christ a minister of sin? Αρα is found in the New Testament besides only in Luke 18:8 and Acts 8:30, in both which passages it simply propounds a question, without indicating whether the answer is expected to be negative or affirmative. So Soph., ' (Ed. T.,' α΅ρ ἔφυν κακός; α΅ρ οὐχὶ πᾶς ἄναγνος; The inference here is so shocking that the apostle is unwilling to put it forward except as a question that might fairly be asked upon such premisses. This gives the sentence a less repulsive tone than the reading, which without an interrogative puts it thus: Ἄρα Ξριστὸς ἁμαρτίας διάκονος. God forbid (μὴ γένοιτο). "Abhorred be the thought!" we both say; but (the apostle means his interlocutor to understand) since it cannot without horrid impiety be said that Christ was a minister to us of sin and not of righteousness, it follows of necessity that we did not sin against God when we set the works of the Law aside and sought righteousness in Christ alone without any respect had to them. The Greek phrase is one of several renderings which the Septuagint gives to the Hebrew word chali'lah, ad profana, which is frequently used interjectionally to relegate some thought to the category of what is utterly abhorrent and polluted. The Hebrew word is discussed fully in Gesenius's 'Thesaurus,' in verb. St. Paul uses the Greek phrase twice again in this Epistle (once absolutely, Galatians 3:21, and once inweaved in a sentence, Galatians 6:14); ten times absolutely in his Epistle to the Romans (3, 4, 6, etc.). It occurs also Luke 20:16. It is impossible to mend the vigorous rendering of our Authorized Version. Galatians 2:17

Vincent's Word Studies

Are found (εὑρέθημεν)

More correctly, were found: were discovered and shown to be. See Romans 6:10; 1 Corinthians 15:15; 2 Corinthians 5:3; Philippians 2:8; Philippians 3:9.

Sinners (ἁμαρτωλοί)

Like the Gentiles, Galatians 2:15. Paul assumes that this was actually the case: that, seeking to be justified in Christ, they were found to be sinners. To seek to be justified by Christ is an admission that there is no justification by works; that the seeker is unjustified, and therefore a sinner. The effort to attain justification by faith in Christ develops the consciousness of sin. It compels the seeker, whether Jew or Gentile, to put himself upon the common plane of sinners. The Jew who calls the Gentile a sinner, in seeking to be justified by faith, finds himself a sinner also. The law has failed him as a justifying agency. But Paul is careful to repudiate the false inference from this fact, stated in what immediately follows, namely, that Christ is a minister of sin.

Minister of sin

A promoter of sin by causing us to abandon the law.

God forbid (μὴ γένοιτο)

See on Romans 3:4. Not a reply merely to the question "is Christ a minister of sin?" but to the whole supposition from "if while we seek." The question is not whether Christ is in general a minister of sin, but whether he is such in the case supposed. Paul does not assume that this false inference has been drawn by Peter or the other Jewish Christians.