Galatians 2:18
18 For [gar] if [ei] I build [oikodomeo] again [palin] the things [tauta] which [hos] I destroyed, [kataluo] I
make [sunistao] myself [emautou] a transgressor. [parabates]
KJV-Interlinear
18 "For if I rebuild what I
have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. NASB
All of the scriptures of the Old Testament, are about
Jesus Christ, Jn. 5:39, 46; Lk. 24:27.
Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law of Moses,
Matt. 5:17-18.
The Law was kept perfectly by Christ, Rom. 10:4,
and therefore fulfilled by Christ.
No one ever fulfilled the Law or any or all of its
requirements in all of human history, except Christ.
And yet even His fulfillment did not provide
salvation for humanity, but it did qualify Him for being the perfect and only
redeemer for the securing of salvation for all of humanity.
Therefore to revisit the Law, which has been
fulfilled and therefore no longer applicable to anyone, is to reinvent sin and the
old ways prior to salvation.
Peter and the Apostles were trying to reinvent and
apply the requirements of the Law, and in particular the principle of
circumcision, as a requirement of salvation.
And in that attempt, they were returning to the old ways and returning
themselves to the status of sin or transgressors, by defying the new principle
of salvation by faith, not of works.
If a thing has been destroyed, then it needs to
remain destroyed. If the thing is evil
in itself, then if does not need to be brought back to resume its promotion of
evil.
Peter and the Apostles previously mentioned, were
trying to appease both traditional Jews and the gentiles by playing both sides
of a cultural ritual game. This was just
an early application of political correctness, which whenever it is applied in
life, becomes an evil in itself.
To try to reinvent again something that Christ had
already completed was not only a sin, but an insult to all that Christ had
done.
So, Paul states in the first person, ‘I,’ meaning
to apply this principle to anyone including himself.
But the reference is to Peter and the Apostles for
the practices that they had been pursuing, but also to you and me and to
everyone in general who tries this.
If you try to do something that Christ has already
fulfilled, like works, then you are transgressing the very principle of His work,
and that makes you a sinner merely by the nature of your insult, which is a
form of rejection of what Christ has already accomplished.
Christ did the work of salvation. You cannot do anything to add to that work. You cannot do anything to improve upon His
work. You cannot do anything that would be a better substitute for His work.
So do-gooders or workers for the Lord take heed,
lest your very pattern of life disqualify you from spiritual advancement.
