I do not nullify the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
All Commentaries on Galatians 2:21 Go To Galatians 2
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
I do not frustrate the grace of God. I do not reject or spurn, or, as S. Ambrose renders it, "I am not ungrateful to the grace of God." S. Augustine takes it as in the text. They frustrate the grace of God, says S. Jerome, who seek for justification through the law, and those who after baptism are polluted by sin. But this is a moral interpretation; that first given is the literal meaning.
For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Since Christ gave His life as the price of our justification, He would have given it in vain if we could gain that justification through the law. This is a third argument, ex impossibili. No one is so mad as to say that Christ suffered in vain; but He did suffer for our justification; therefore we are justified by Christ, not by Moses—by faith, not by the law.
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