No Rebuilding
What would you think if your neighbor came to you and said, “My house has served me well up until now, but to accomplish my vision and cannot contain all I plan to bring into it, I need a new house.” Then they tore down their existing house, but when they rebuilt a new home, it was exactly the same as the one they tore down. It looked the same and had the same lines and boundaries as before.
Would you think they were a little out of touch with reality?
Galatians 2:18 “For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Paul says here that if he rebuilds the things he destroyed, he makes himself a transgressor. Now, someone might read this and stop there thinking he means he does not intend to break the law. To truly understand what Paul is getting at, you have to keep reading.
Galatians 2:19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Paul is actually speaking of the destruction of the Old Covenant way of righteousness being destroyed. The idea of any confidence in the law for righteousness at any point in the life of a believer in Jesus is what Paul destroyed.
Paul is saying that righteousness cannot be initially achieved or maintained through the law.
Paul goes on to say something to make it even clearer: “I do not set aside the grace of God!”
He explains what it means to set God’s grace aside: “If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
My being in right relationship with God will never again be contingent on the law. The law has nothing to do with my being in right relationship with God now. The law was never able to make me a new creation capable of housing the Holy Spirit. The law never made anyone fully righteous. The law never took away sin; it magnified it. That is why Paul makes the point regarding having been crucified with Christ.
When Christ died, I died. When Christ rose from the dead, I rose from the dead. It is no longer I who lives! It is Christ in me! I am now living by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I am a new creation in Him and His habitation! He is my righteousness!
If I try to go back to the law with the idea that I can gain or increase my righteousness, I am rebuilding again something that was destroyed. That is setting aside the grace of God and, in a way, saying that Jesus died for no real reason at all. Relying on the law is like spitting on the death of Jesus and treating it as though it were not needed.
The truth of not rebuilding is a major part of the New Covenant Gospel message. To rebuild the law back into my idea of any means of righteousness is to become a transgressor of the New Covenant grace of God. Believers need to be convinced and committed to not rebuilding again!
