Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.
Parallel translations
- WEB For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker.
- KJV For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
- BSB If I rebuild what I have already torn down, I prove myself to be a lawbreaker.
- NKJV For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
- NASB For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a wrongdoer.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
To rebuild the law system Paul tore down would be to make himself a transgressor. Returning to law-righteousness is the real error.
Overview
Paul argues that going back to law-keeping as the basis of acceptance would prove him guilty, not righteous. Having abandoned that system for Christ, to reinstate it would betray the gospel. The point reinforces that the answer to sin is grace, not a renewed reliance on the law.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Gal 4:9–12But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again?
- Gal 2:4–5This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage;
- Gal 2:12–16For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
- Rom 14:15Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
- Gal 2:21I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”
- 1 Cor 8:11–12And through your knowledge, he who is weak perishes, the brother for whose sake Christ died.
- Gal 5:11But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 2:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.