Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Galatians: Chapter 2].
personal feeling toward Christ. "He appropriates to himself, as
Chrysostom observes, the love which belongs equally to the whole
world. For Christ is indeed the personal friend of each man
individually" (Lightfoot).
2:21 {I do not make void the grace of God} (\ouk athet• t•n
charin tou theou\). Common word in LXX and Polybius and on, to
make ineffective (\a\ privative and \tith•mi\, to place or put).
Some critic would charge him with that after his claim to such a
close mystic union with Christ. {Then Christ died for nought}
(\ara Christos d•rean apethanen\). Condition of first class,
assumed as true. If one man apart from grace can win his own
righteousness, any man can and should. Hence (\ara\, accordingly)
Christ died gratuitously (\d•rean\), unnecessarily. Adverbial
accusative of \d•rea\, a gift. This verse is a complete answer to
those who say that the heathen (or any mere moralist) are saved
by doing the best that they know and can. No one, apart from
Jesus, ever did the best that he knew or could. To be saved by
law (\dia nomou\) one has to keep all the law that he knows. That
no one ever did.
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Word Pictures in the New Testament
(Galatians: Chapter 2)