Why does Galatians 2:21 say that Christ might have died in vain?

Peter's deviation from the truth of the Gospel in this practical way might seem on the surface to be but a small thing; it had nevertheless a very serious side, and this the Apostle Paul makes manifest in the last verse of the chapter. Having defined his own position which was in strict accord with the truth of the Gospel, he said: "I do not frustrate the grace of God." The emphasis is evidently to be laid on the "I" — "It is not I who am frustrating the grace of God" — the inference being that it was Peter and those influenced by him who were committing themselves to this sorry work. The grace of God had brought both Jews and Gentiles together in this new and exalted privilege and they were frustrating this in practice by separating them! Moreover, they were in principle going back to law, and if one goes back to it at all, one goes back to it for all; and to go back to it for righteousness means that Christ has died "in vain" or "for nothing."

"Christ has died for nothing" (N. Tr.). His toil, His sorrows, His death under judgment, as a sacrifice for sin, all for nothing, inasmuch as after all righteousness can come by the law. God takes a most toilsome and expensive way to accomplish a certain result, and lo! man can achieve the same result in a much simpler way. Then the death of Christ is simply a tragic blunder!

And then the conclusion. "I do not frustrate (set aside) the grace of God; for if righteousness is by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (or: has died for nothing). If righteousness can be obtained by works, by a self-made character, or through keeping ordinances, then the death of Christ was superfluous and the grace of God is set aside. Christ is dead in vain if there is any other way to obtain righteousness than by faith in Him and through the grace of God.

(V. 21.) To turn back to the law is not only to make myself a transgressor for having given it up as a means of justification, but it is frustrating the grace of God, and, further, if righteousness come by the law, there was no need for the death of Christ — "Christ has died for nothing" (N. Tn.).

To speak and act thus is not to frustrate divine grace. "I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ died in vain" (ver. 21). The soul must be brought to this. If flesh were at all competent to attain to righteousness by law-keeping, the death of Christ was needless; but if (as was indeed the case) we were altogether without strength, grace (and that alone) can avail before our God. The soul that has learnt in any measure its ruin by nature is thankful and content to take its place as an object of abounding grace — grace founded upon the atoning death of the Lord Jesus.

A legal attitude attempts to frustrate (or set aside) the grace of God. Paul will do no such thing, nor allow the principle of law to be mixed with the principle of grace, for "if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died in vain" (v.21). Law could never produce righteousness: grace alone has done this by virtue of the cross. If I dare to suggest any other means of healing my unrighteousness than through the cross of Christ, if I dare to think I can gain or maintain a righteous standing before God on the ground of law-keeping, I am saying in effect that it was useless for Christ to have died! Yet, this is exactly what many professed Christians are guilty of, although they don't realize it. If it is not Christ alone to whom one clings for safety, how dangerous is the ground!

There can be no such thing as Christ dead in us, so to speak; but when, practically, we are not living on Christ, this soon works out, and betrays itself in our ways, which brought Christ to the cross. The apostle had come to this point: it was Christ living in him, not the law. "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." All that the law could do was to bring in its killing power upon them that were under it. There was no striving, as we often see in these days, to keep the law in a spiritual way now that he was converted; but "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God." That expression, "live unto God," is very serious and beautiful. The law never produced life in a single soul: it kills. Whereas here you find Paul dead to the law, but alive unto God on a totally different principle. The question was, How did this life come? If all that the law did was to bring conscious death upon his soul, (which refers to his going through the sense of condemnation before God,) what is the spring of the new life? Not the law, but Christ. He has done with the law, in Christ, and he is left free, yea, and has life in him to live unto God. Hence he says, "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." So that this shows us not only the source and character of the new life, but that it is all sustained by the self-same thing which gave it existence. As it was the faith of Christ that produced the life, so it is the faith of Christ that is its power. A person may admire what is good and lovely, but this is another thing from being it. And what gives power? Looking to Christ; the soul feasting itself upon Christ. The objective means is Christ. "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God" — they did — "for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." It was their principle that righteousness came by the law, and not alone in Christ dead and risen. Then, says he, if it be so, "Christ is dead in vain." Were it merely a question of the law, all the necessity would have been that Christ should live and strengthen us to keep the law. But He is dead. Their doctrine, he insists, makes Christ to be dead gratuitously; whereas it is in truth the essential thing, the very and only way in which the grace of God comes to the soul.

The conclusion drawn by Paul is of the utmost importance. "We do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Let us suppose that a righteous man could knock at the door of heaven, and claim to enter by right on the ground of his own works. Such an one would never know God; love would not have introduced him there, and God is Love. It would have been the wages of his own work, he would have deserved to enter. But it is not love when a workman is paid the wages he has earned; it may be done with courtesy, but it is always a debt - there can be no love in it. It is love that has saved me. It is the operation of love in God's gift of His Son, and in the blessed Saviour's own sufferings for us, when He drank the cup which the Father gave to Him, the cup of death and of the curse which our sins had filled. By this we understand through grace the love of God.

69 But if righteousness can be obtained by observing the law, the death which Christ in His infinite grace suffered for us, is not needed: I am righteous by my own deeds: I frustrate the grace of God. "If righteousness is by the law, Christ is dead in vain"; a principle of the utmost importance. Legal righteousness (that is righteousness by works) and Christianity cannot go together, the one annuls the other. It is not that the law is bad or imperfect: it is the perfect rule of human righteousness, the righteousness which becomes the children of Adam; but no righteousness is found in them, they are sinners. There is none righteous, no, not one. The law being perfect condemns us, but we have died in Christ who bare our sins in His own body on the tree, and the law can no longer slay or condemn us. The Saviour has borne all for us who through grace believe on Him. Moreover He has given us, or rather He is in us, a new life, which is holy and obedient.

Thus, we are dead to the law, that we might live to God; righteousness is obtained, for we have become the righteousness of God in Christ, sins are put away by His death. But if I had obtained righteousness by keeping the law, there would have been no need that the Son of God should die for me. If Christ has put away my sins and become my righteousness before God, I am not justified by works of law but by faith in Him. If my righteousness is by works of law He is dead in vain.

Thus, as he says most emphatically, "I do not frustrate the grace of God;" they did, every one who substituted aught but Christ and His cross. Every one who went back from such a gospel as this was, as far as it went, frustrating the grace of God. "If righteousness come by the law," (he does not merely say, "come of the law," but come by it,) "then Christ is dead [died] in vain." Not so; it is exclusively of grace by Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. It is wholly apart from works of law.

Verse 21. "I do not frustrate the grace of God," etc. It may seem bold to say that this is, even among true Christians, an exceptional claim of praise. But it is so. Of three apostles Peter, Barnabas, and Paul two fell, as we have seen, under the opposite condemnation, and one only stood fast in the truth. And as it then was in the morning of the gospel, and in such illustrious instances, so has it continued, and will go on to the end, when true faith shall have perished and a form of godliness alone remain (2 Tim. 3:6; Ps. 12:1). For wherever nature has a voice it contradicts the cross of Christ, and rare is it for that voice to be at rest. Yet how simple and affecting is the truth denied! Christ (he well knew, and would have us also know, the weight and value of that Name) died gratuitously, the apostle says, if man has, or can acquire for himself, a righteousness apart from Him. For righteousness can be manifested only in two ways: by law or by the grace of God. By the first, man stands, if stand he can, upon the footing of his own obedience. He is righteous as a doer of the will of God. By the last, man takes another name from that which was his native heritage, and stands upon the merit of a righteousness which has proved and glorified itself apart from him, yet freely makes itself his own. Because Another is righteous, he is justified by faith in Him.

In the last verse of chapter 2, we read, "If righteousness come by the law, then Christ died for nothing." Now the Apostle turns to the sufferings that the Galatian Christians passed through when first they confessed Christ. They thought it was well worth while then to suffer for Christ's sake. But if they are justified by law, it was all a terrible mistake. Christ died for nothing, and their own sufferings were all without reason, all in vain. Paul adds: "If indeed (they are) really in vain." It is as though he said, But though I say this, I really cannot believe it is so. I cannot help but think that surely those sufferings meant that you did truly trust to Christ.