Some people feel guilty when they try to live by grace instead of the law, because they feel they are doing something wrong. Say, you were always raised to fast on a Sunday morning, and suddenly you decide to eat (many churches do that), you could feel that you have violated everything. That’s likely what happened to Peter here. He knew the truth but then all those pent up feelings of guilt rushed in when he saw the Judaizers, so he backed out.
“But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.” (Galatians 2:17–18)
Paul’s main point here is that going back to the law for justification goes against the gospel. The law simply reveals our sin and shows we can’t become righteous by our own efforts (Romans 3:20). In Christ, we’re justified by faith, not by keeping the law (Galatians 2:16). If we return to the law, it’ll just prove our sinfulness all over again and highlight how pointless it is to try to earn righteousness.
Am I now full on sinning?
Some people were saying that if you’re not under the law, you’re basically sinking to a lower moral standard—“becoming sinners.” , or giving out a free ticket to be “lawless”. Others likely made the accusation, “If God justifies bad people, what’s the point of being good? Can’t we just do whatever we want?”
Paul flat-out denies that Jesus promotes sin. In Galatians 2:17, he basically says, “God forbid you think that!”
Then he moves on to show how absurd it is to think that justification by faith encourages sin. People who say that totally misunderstand the gospel. Justification isn’t some party trick that changes your status but leaves your heart untouched. As Paul says in Galatians 2:17, we’re “justified in Christ,” which means we’re united to Him by faith—and that union changes us from the inside out.
Remember what happened on the Cross
Paul describes this radical change that happened when we share in Christ’s death and resurrection. In Galatians 2:19, he writes, “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.” Then in Galatians 2:20, he famously says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
What does that mean? Once we die with Christ, our old hardware has been changed. You have new desires, likes, and fruits as mentioned in Galatians 5 (yes, you have them). Your mind needs to renew into it. You need to learn to live from the Spirit. This is what Christ did.
We’ve risen to a new life, one we live by faith in Jesus.
And when Christ lives in us, He stirs up new desires—desires for holiness and for God—so the idea of going back to the old way of sinning doesn’t even make sense anymore.
You are Changed
Because we’re in Christ, we’re called to “walk by the Spirit” and not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). Our new identity in Christ means we have new hearts and a new spirit, which produces the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). Even if we slip up, our forgiveness and righteousness remain secure in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit keeps transforming us by renewing our minds (Romans 12:2).
In the case of the law, we were breaking the law all the time, while trying to keep the law. By grace, being a new creation, we are not under the law, and we are under grace, and this freedom allows us to live holy in Christ.
In short, being justified in Christ doesn’t free us to sin—it frees us from sin’s power. Returning to the law for righteousness just puts us back under a burden we can’t carry. Instead, by faith, we embrace the finished work of Christ, live by His Spirit, and enjoy a whole new way of life.
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