Galatians 2:17

Are found [ε υ ρ ε θ η μ ε ν]. More correctly, were found : were discovered and shown to be. See Romans 6:10; 1 Corinthians 14:15; 2 Corinthians 5:3; Philippians 2:8; Philippians 3:9.

Sinners [α μ α ρ τ ω λ ο ι]. 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 [μ η γ ε ν ο ι τ ο]. See on Romans 3:4. 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. Galatians 2:2

0I build again the things which I destroyed [α κ α τ ε λ υ σ α τ α υ τ α π α λ ι ν ο ι κ ο δ ο μ ω]. 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 Romans 14:20; 1 Corinthians 8:1; 1 Corinthians 8:10; 1 Corinthians 10:23; 1 Corinthians 14:17; Ephesians 2:20 f. For kataluein destroy, see on Romans 14:20; 2 Corinthians 5:1. I make myself [ε μ α υ τ ο ν σ υ ν ι σ τ α ν ω]. 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 Romans 16:1; comp. Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 5:12. 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, Romans 3:5; 2 Corinthians 6:11. A transgressor [π α ρ α β α τ η ν]. See on James 2:11, and on parabasiv transgression, Romans 2:23. 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.