Galatians 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
In the preceding passages, Paul is talking about avoiding a return to the Law and our old lives and ways. Believers have been crucified with Christ so that we could truly die to sin and the wickedness we face in our day-to-day lives. [I think that what might be more wicked than sinners sinning and Christians dealing with that is other so-called or false Christians presenting the gospel or biblical teachings in a new way that is actually contrary to God and biblical teachings. One of the most common forms of this is things that kind of roll off the tongue like "live your best life" and "love is love". All "live your best life" encourages is a self-centered lifestyle. A biblical way of encouraging biblical principles would be "walk in a manner that brings glory to God". Galatians backs this up in verses 19-20 "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." Now if the person saying this went into these verses and explained that what they meant is that "your best life if what God has in store for you", then that would accurate, but that typically isn't the case. When people say "live your best life" they typically mean, "do what you want but better". That is antithetical to the way God would have us conduct ourselves. The other kind of subtle lie is "love is love". No, it's not. Love is clearly defined in scripture and what it looks like is also clearly defined. Love isn't always fluffy or comfortable and love sometimes means speaking truths that might be hard for the person you are with to hear.] So when we come full circle back to these passages we do live physically but Jesus Christ dwells in us spiritually. Christ's resurrection power through His spirit is worked out through the Christian who chooses to live by faith in the Son of God. Now we get back to verse 21. If God's grace of sending Christ to die on the cross to pay for our sins still meant that the Law Of Moses was what justified us, then it would render God's grace through Christ unnecessary. Paul goes on to rail against us continuing to return to the law as foolishness.
So we have a couple of concepts in the passages I presented, but the idea in 2:21 is that we don't want to say that we need to return to the Law as if Jesus's death and resurrection on the cross was a waste of God's time. We die to the Law so that we can now live to God through Jesus Christ's work on the cross.
Application: Jesus calls us to walk with Him in His power. Not ours. I think too many times we all kind of lean on our own understanding and get super fixated on the things we think based on A, B, C, D, etc, but a walk in Christ means using the wisdom He provides, and not our own understanding, or works or adherence to the Laws of Moses. Christ saves, and the result of that for us should be works as Christ moves us forward in the life He has for us.
[] In the brackets are some additional thoughts that are loosely related to the topic.
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