Useful Bible Studies > Galatians Commentary > chapter 2
Galatians 2:15-17
Nobody is righteous
There are three kinds of people. And they all do wrong things:
(1) There are *Jews. They should know the rules that God has made. But they still do wrong things. People cannot make themselves righteous in front of God.
(2) There are people who are not *Jews. They do not know the rules that God has made. So they do not know what God wants them to do. Because of that, they do many wrong things.
(3) There are Christians. They may be *Jews. Or they may not be *Jews. Christians still do wrong things. But they do not do those wrong things because of Christ. They are Christians because they ask God to make them righteous. God does that because Jesus died. And so Christians believe him.
The word ‘righteous’
The word ‘righteous’ means ‘completely good’. But nobody is completely good. So nobody is righteous. And there is nothing that people can do to make themselves righteous. Only God can make people righteous.
Only Jesus Christ is righteous. Christ is righteous because he is God. And God is completely good; he never does any wrong things. But Christ died on behalf of people who are not righteous. He died so that God would make them righteous.
When people ask God to come into their lives, God changes their lives. Immediately, those people become Christians. And God makes them righteous. They still do wrong things, but God is still working in their lives.
Next part: God changes lives
See the word list for explanation of words with a *
Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 450 page course book.
© 2015, Keith Simons.