Galatians 2:17 - Exposition

But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ ( εἰ δὲ ζητοῦντες δικαιωθῆναι ἐν χριστῷ ); 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" ( Galatians 2:14 ), 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 Philippians 3:15 ); 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? ( ἆρα χριστὸς 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.,' ἆρ ἔφυν κακός ; ἆρ 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 χριστὸς 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 chal ı ̄'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, Acts 3:21 , and once inweaved in a sentence, Acts 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.