SEV Biblia, Chapter 2:17
Y si buscando nosotros ser justificados en Cristo, tambin nosotros somos hallados pecadores, ¿es por eso el Cristo ministro de nuestro pecado? En ninguna manera.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Galatians 2:17
Verse 17. But if while we seek to be justified] If, while we acknowledge that we must be justified by faith in Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, enjoining the necessity of observing the rites and ceremonies of the law, which never could and never can justify, and yet, by submitting to circumcision, we lay ourselves under the necessity of fulfilling the law, which is impossible, we thus constitute ourselves sinners; is, therefore, Christ the minister of sin? Christ, who has taught us to renounce the law, and expect justification through his death?. God forbid! that we should either act so, or think so.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 15-19 - Paul, having thus shown he was not inferior to any apostle, not to Peter himself, speaks of the great foundation doctrine of the gospel For what did we believe in Christ? Was it not that we might be justified by the faith of Christ? If so, is it not foolish to go bac to the law, and to expect to be justified by the merit of moral works or sacrifices, or ceremonies? The occasion of this declaratio doubtless arose from the ceremonial law; but the argument is quite a strong against all dependence upon the works of the moral law, a respects justification. To give the greater weight to this, it is added, But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselve also are found sinners, is Christ the minister of sin? This would be very dishonourable to Christ, and also very hurtful to them. By considering the law itself, he saw that justification was not to be expected by the works of it, and that there was now no further need of the sacrifices and cleansings of it, since they were done away in Christ, by his offering up himself a sacrifice for us. He did not hop or fear any thing from it; any more than a dead man from enemies. But the effect was not a careless, lawless life. It was necessary, that he might live to God, and be devoted to him through the motives and grac of the gospel. It is no new prejudice, though a most unjust one, tha the doctrine of justification by faith alone, tends to encourage people in sin. Not so, for to take occasion from free grace, or the doctrin of it, to live in sin, is to try to make Christ the minister of sin, a any thought of which all Christian hearts would shudder.
Greek Textus Receptus
ει 1487 δε 1161 ζητουντες 2212 5723 δικαιωθηναι 1344 5683 εν 1722 χριστω 5547 ευρεθημεν 2147 5681 και 2532 αυτοι 846 αμαρτωλοι 268 αρα 687 χριστος 5547 αμαρτιας 266 διακονος 1249 μη 3361 γενοιτο 1096 5636
Vincent's NT Word Studies
17. Are found (eureqhmen). More correctly, were found: were discovered and shown to be. See Rom. vi. 10; 1 Cor. xv. 15; 2 Corinthians v. 3; Philip. ii. 8; iii. 9.
Sinners (amartwloi). Like the Gentiles, verse 15. Paul assumes that this was actually the case: that, seeking to be justified in Christ, they were found to be sinners. To seek to be justified by Christ is an admission that there is no justification by works; that the seeker is unjustified, and therefore a sinner. The effort to attain justification by faith in Christ develops the consciousness of sin. It compels the seeker, whether Jew or Gentile, to put himself upon the common plane of sinners. The Jew who calls the Gentile a sinner, in seeking to be justified by faith, finds himself a sinner also. The law has failed him as a justifying agency. But Paul is careful to repudiate the false inference from this fact, stated in what immediately follows, namely, that Christ is a minister of sin.
Minister of sin. A promoter of sin by causing us to abandon the law. God forbid (mh genoito). See on Rom. iii. 4. Not a reply merely to the question "is Christ a minister of sin?" but to the whole supposition from "if while we seek." The question is not whether Christ is in general a minister of sin, but whether he is such in the case supposed. Paul does not assume that this false inference has been drawn by Peter or the other Jewish Christians. 20. I build again the things which I destroyed (a katelusa tauta palin oikodomw). Peter, by his Christian profession, had asserted that justification was by faith alone; and by his eating with Gentiles had declared that the Mosaic law was no longer binding upon him. He had thus, figuratively, destroyed or pulled down the Jewish law as a standard of Christian faith and conduct. By his subsequent refusal to eat with Gentiles he had retracted this declaration, had asserted that the Jewish law was still binding upon Christians, and had thus built again what he had pulled down. Building and pulling down are favorite figures with Paul. See Rom. xiv. 20; xv. 20; 1 Cor. viii. 1, 10; x. 23; xiv. 17; Eph. ii. 20 f. For kataluein destroy, see on Rom. xiv. 20; 2 Cor. v. 1. I make myself (emauton sunistanw). Better, prove myself. The verb originally means to put together: thence to put one person in contact with another by way of introducing him and bespeaking for him confidence and approval. To commend, as Rom. xvi. 1; comp. Rom. v. 8; 2 Corinthians iii. 1; iv. 2; v. 12. As proof, or exhibition of the true state of a case is furnished by putting things together, the word comes to mean demonstrate, exhibit the fact, as here, Rom. iii. 5; 2 Cor. vi. 11. A transgressor (parabathn). See on Jas. ii. 11, and on parabasiv transgression, Rom. ii. 23. In reasserting the validity of the law for justification, which he had denied by seeking justification by faith in Christ, he proves himself a transgressor in that denial, that pulling down.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
2:17 {We ourselves were found sinners} (heureqemen kai autoi hamartwloi). Like the Gentiles, Jews who thought they were not sinners, when brought close to Christ, found that they were. Paul felt like the chief of sinners. {A minister of Sin} (hamartias diakonos). Objective genitive, a minister to Sin. An illogical inference. We were sinners already in spite of being Jews. Christ simply revealed to us our Sin. {God forbid} (me genoito). Literally, "May it not happen." Wish about the future (me and the optative).
