For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor (Gal. 2:18).
What is it that we have destroyed?
It’s important I believe to state at this point that, “what we have destroyed” was actually destroyed by our Faith in Christ. The direction of our Faith being in what Christ accomplished at Calvary.
Most folks I believe would say that what was destroyed was our sin. And that is certainly true. Our history of sin was destroyed, but I do not believe that is what Apostle Paul is addressing here.
So what was he addressing?
To understand this, let’s look at Colossians 2:13-14.
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Blotting out the handwriting of Ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross;
Verse 20 then adds, “Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to Ordinances, 21. (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22. Which all are to perish with the using;), after the commandments and doctrines of men?”
This my friend, I believe is what Paul was talking about in Gal. 2:18, when he said, “if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” (allow me to add here for clarity that it is the direction of our faith which brings the destruction of the Ordinance into reality by the work of the Holy Spirit. That direction being in Christ and what He accomplished at Calvary makes the fact of what Christ did for us a reality by the power of the Holy Spirit.)
Under the Old Covenant, the Jew was to be careful to live according to, and not to transgress the Law. Those of us who are under the New Covenant are to be careful not to transgress Grace by living our life according to the Old Covenant (Laws and Ordinances [Gal. 5:4, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the Law; you are fallen from Grace]).
Anytime we use Ordinances or Laws to direct our lives, whether old ones or new ones (which are made up by men), we are in essence ordering our lives after the Old Covenant. When the Bible tells us that the old Covenant is past, that does not mean we could not still try to live our lives according to its demands! It means we are free from living according to its demands. The New Covenant does not force us into a position of Grace. It allows us a position of Grace.
It’s up to us if we order our lives according to this position of Grace or according to a position from which we use Laws, Commandments, and Ordinances trying to force ourselves into the things which we do from day to day.
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