Galatians 2:21

I am not rejecting as useless what God did for me ◄ kindly/that I did not deserve►, as my opponents are doing. I fully accept that God saved me by acting kindly towards me. If it is because people obey the laws that God gave to Moses that God erases the record of their sins, then Christ died ◄for nothing/needlessly►.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

In Context

20It is as though I was with Christ when he was crucified {died on the cross} [MET] (OR, It is as though my old way of life ended when Christ died on the cross.) No longer am I directing the way I behave as I did before I believed in Christ. Now Christ is directing how I behave. And whatever I do now while I live, I do it trusting in God’s Son. He is the one who loved me and offered himself as a sacrifice for me.

Read all of Galatians 2

Cross References

Psalms 33:10Yahweh frustrates the things that the pagan nations decide to do. He prevents them from doing the evil things that they plan to do.

Jeremiah 8:8Your men who teach you the laws that Moses wrote have been saying false things about those laws. So, why [RHQ] do they continue saying, “We are very wise because we have the laws of Yahweh”?

Romans 8:31So ◄I will tell you what we must conclude from all these things that God does for us./what shall we conclude from all these things that God does for us?► [RHQ] Because God is acting on our behalf, ◄no one can win against us!/can anyone defeat us? (OR, it does not matter if anyone opposes us)!► [RHQ]

Romans 11:6Since it is because he acts kindly toward those whom he chooses, it is not because they have done good things that he has chosen them. If God chose people because they did good deeds, then it would not be because he was acting toward them in a way that they did not deserve.

1 Corinthians 15:14And if Christ was not raised from the dead {if God did not cause Christ to become alive again}, then what we preached to you was useless, and your believing in Christ is useless.

Galatians 2:16But we (exc) now know that it is not because some person obeys the laws that God gave to Moses that God erases the record of that person’s sins. God erases the record of a person’s sins only if that person trusts in what Jesus Christ has done. Even we (exc) Jews trusted Christ Jesus. We (exc) did that in order that God would erase the record of our sins because of our trusting Christ, and not because of our obeying the laws that God gave to Moses. God has said that he will never erase the record of people’s sins just because of their obeying those laws.

Matthew Henry on Galatians 2:12-21

Peter Reproved by Paul. ( a. d. 56.) 11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. 12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. 13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. 14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Galatians 2:21