Charles Ellicott Commentary Galatians 2:17

"But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid." — Galatians 2:17 (ASV)

We sought justification in Christ. But if, with all our seeking, something more was needed, namely, a rigid performance of the Law—that Law which we had abandoned—then there was still something lacking in our justification. We were sinners on the same level as 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—that is, by the relation into which we are brought with Him. However, the reference here is not exactly to the mystical union with Christ, which the Apostle regards more in connection with sanctification (the actual growth in holiness) than with justification (the judicial absolution from guilt). In this 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 into which faith brings us.

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

Are found.—Strictly, were found—that is, at a time after we embraced 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 God’s eyes), through the fact that we have lost the old Jewish justification through the fulfilment of the Law; while, according to this Judaizing 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 Judaizing position.

The Judaizers maintained the necessity of a strict fulfilment of the Mosaic law. However, they still called themselves Christians, and here St. Paul had a hold on 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 Judaizing 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 dismisses with pious horror.