GRACE: NOT BY MAN

Dead, Yet Living – Galations 2:20-21

Verse 20 –  Paul now goes on to explain the meaning of the life in Christ through grace.  We know of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but we do not often think of the Christian life being one of death.  Let’s look at Galations 5:24;  6:14, and Romans 6:6.

“The life which I now live in the flesh” or the present reality of our body.  We still must deal with the reality of sin.  Having been born again by the grace of God we by the Holy Spirit, must reckon (count) the body of sin as dead.

“By the faith of the son of God” is the faith that believes, and a conviction that something is true based on evidence of things seen and unseen.  Jesus Himself believed the Father and did all that was commanded  Him to do.

“Who loved me, and gave Himself for me” Paul reminds the reader of the great love of God our Savior for us, and the awesome price that was paid to redeem us from our sins.

Verse 21 –  This teaching of grace – Paul’s grace – does not do away with the grace of God.

“I do not frustrate the grace of God” The English Standard Version reads, “I do not nullify the grace of God”

“Gal. 2:21 Paul returns to the hypothetical situation raised in v. 18 of imagining that the law was back in force again as a means by which he was trying to earn justification. In that case, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ’s death would have been pointless, for people could earn their own justification by their obedience. But in fact, this is something they can never do. This highlights the depth of the human problem: it cannot be remedied by the God-given law. Sin is so serious that only the substitutionary, atoning death of God’s Son can deal with the problem. God’s grace in the gospel must therefore be humbly and thankfully accepted as the only way of salvation.”  ESV Study Bible notes.

-Tim A. Blankenship