Galatians 2:15-17 - Justified through faith in Jesus Christ

2:15,16

We now start to move into the theological argument, and Paul first draws attention to himself, the other apostles, and indeed the Judaisers. While the Galatians were largely Gentiles, Paul, Peter etc were all Jews. So what had they found? They had found that they could not be justified by the Law. They were not made right with God by observing the Law. So if the Law “did not work” for Peter and Paul, and the Judaisers, why on earth should it be expected to work for the “Gentile sinners”? No, the Jewish Christians were justified by faith in Christ. So there was a fundamental illogicality in the Judaisers argument.

2:17

One of the charges against Paul's gospel was that it promotes sin. Paul answers a similar charge in Romans 6. Here the argument is a little different. “We are found to be sinners”. Now, how should we take this? We automatically think it means “people who sin”, and it could mean this. However, the term “Gentile sinners” had a broader meaning of those who were outside the Law, and taking into account what follows that would seem to be at least part of the meaning here. So in coming to Christ Paul and other Jewish believers no longer relied on the Law for any righteousness. Now prior to Christ the whole Jewish way, the whole of Jewish thought relied entirely upon the Law. Living by the Law was what it was all about. Now those Jews who believe in Christ no longer rely on the Law. So taking “sinners” in the sense of “those outside the Law”, they have indeed become “sinners”. So is Christ promoting sin? Absolutely not! And Paul will go on to explain why this is so.