No Purpose

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:21 ESV)

I was considering these words of the Apostle this morning and the incredible depth of reasoning that this one verse holds. Here Paul, in simple terms, states the case that to believe one can live righteously by keeping the law as a Christian nullifies God’s grace and renders Christ’s work useless to us. It seems impossible that he should say so, but he does so in no uncertain terms.

Observe how carefully stated his reasoning is. He begins with I, meaning Paul the apostle; the believer. His statement here does not deal in any way with the justification that brought him from the world to God. He says, “I, as a believer, as an apostle, as I am now, do not nullify the grace of God.” His appeal is not to the ungodly to trust grace and be made righteous, but to those who have been made righteous not to nullify that righteousness.

Now he explains what, as a believer, would nullify the grace of God in his life; if he were to seek righteousness as though it were to be had through the law. As he goes on to say in 3:21, “If righteousness were through keeping the law, of what use is Christ to us? If we could merely have kept the law and been declared righteous, then the grace of God is a silly, useless thing.” He is making an argument to the Galatians so that, through very simple reasoning, they might recognize once again the scope of grace. “Galatians, God’s son did not die to ‘assist’ you in keeping some set of rules. He died so that you could live as free people able to determine God’s perfect will for your lives. The alternative to freedom in Christ is not another road to freedom, but to remain in bondage.” (See Romans 12:2)

The most shocking part of the verse is the last. First, that there is an outside chance that Christ died for no purpose is an utterly horrifying proposition. That would mean that we are once again hopeless. It is meant to shock them back to reality. Such an insult to God is this idea that even those who seek to maintain personal holiness through the law must shutter at the thought. Secondly, he is intimating that they are rendering the death of Christ purposeless. Not that it is purposeless in reality, but that in seeking to be made righteous through the law they have destroyed Christ’s purpose in their own lives. Those who would make themselves righteous have no part in the work of Christ at Calvary which actually brings righteousness. They nullify God’s grace in their lives.

It is an incredibly complete argument within one verse. If one can merely apply reason, apart from our emotional attachment to the ‘safety’ of law keeping, it becomes clear that Christ must be all in all. Or perhaps that he must be all or nothing to us. He is our righteousness or we have none. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless