I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.

                                                                                                                   Galatians 2:21 

Today’s passage is at the heart of Paul’s message to the Galatian churches and is a reminder for the church today to proclaim the gospel alone as the means by which we are saved. To neglect this truth is to be in danger of nullifying the grace of God. I would like to recommend that you spend some time with this passage (Galatians 2:15-21) and to read and study it with a number of different translations and/or paraphrases. Using multiple translations will bring clarity and provide a broader and wider understanding of what God is declaring to the church then and now.

The passage begins with a declaration of Paul’s knowledge that salvation is by faith alone and not by works of the Law.

…nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

                                                                                                                   Galatians 2:16 

Three times Paul declares that works of the Law will never save anyone, no matter how moral they believe themselves to be. Likewise, Paul proclaims three times that being justified (being made right with God) is by faith in Jesus. Works of the Law can be thought of as doing the things that we should do while avoiding the things that are not conducive to godly living. I believe one of the obstacles keeping Christians from living in complete victory is that even after their conversion, they find themselves battling against sin. I also believe this becomes an obstacle for non-believers because they are expecting followers of Jesus to be without sin (something not rooted in reality and displaying a misunderstanding of the gospel). So the presence of sin in the life of a Christian can lead to doubt for them and skepticism on the part of the non-believer. Paul addresses this reality in the following passage:

Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

                                                                                                Galatians 2:17-18 (MSG)

 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man.                                                      

                                                                                                   Galatians 2:19 (MSG)

The gospel is the proclamation that Jesus has died to pay the penalty for every sin that we would ever commit. Although we should live our lives for God and strive to be moral people, the reality is that Christians are not perfect people. Rather, we are being perfected. A maturing believer will begin to desire the things of God over and above the things of the world. That’s the power of experiencing the work of God’s Spirit in your life! But it doesn’t come with trying harder or attempting to become a better person, it comes from total surrender to Jesus Christ.

In order to guard against the nullification of God’s grace in our lives, I believe it is vital that we understand the following passage (presented using three different translations/paraphrases).

For if I [or anyone else should] rebuild [through word or by practice] what I once tore down [the belief that observing the Law is essential for salvation], I prove myself to be a transgressor.

                                                                                                       Galatians 2:18 (AMP) 

Rather, we are sinners if we start rebuilding the old systems I have been destroying of trying to be saved by keeping Jewish laws, for it was through reading the Scripture that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favor by trying—and failing—to obey the laws. I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ.

                                                                                                   Galatians 2:18-19 (TLB) 

Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God.

                                                                                                   Galatians 2:18-19 (NLT)

Let me be candid…if we begin to make adherence to the Law a part of receiving or keeping salvation, we have begun to nullify the grace of God in our lives. Lamenting past sin, wallowing in pity and self-deprecation does not bring about the life that Christ died for you to live and it certainly doesn’t make anyone more godly. If, after receiving salvation by faith, we begin to make observance of the Law a necessity for salvation we begin to “rebuild what we have destroyed” and we become transgressors. I believe that is why Paul said that he had died to the Law so that he might live to God (Galatians 2:19).

So three things follow as a means of not nullifying the grace of God in our lives:

 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 

                                                                                                            Galatians 2:20 

For spiritual victory and freedom, I believe we must (1) live by faith in Christ, (2) know that God loves us, and (3) know that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is sufficient to save us and give us eternal life.

How about you? Have you received the good news of salvation by faith in God’s Son Jesus Christ? Are you attempting to be a moral person as a means of being accepted by God? If you are a Christian, are you living like a fellow heir of God’s kingdom?

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

                                                                                                     Galatians 2:21 (MSG)