What Does Galatians 2:21 Mean in the King James?
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse makes the Anointed One’s death the test: if instruction could produce alignment, his death would have no purpose.
THE MEANING
God’s favor gives what instruction cannot produce: alignment. When you make instruction the source of that alignment, you set favor aside. If alignment comes by law, the Anointed One’s death is empty of purpose.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that strict observance can produce the alignment God gives as favor; if instruction could do that, the Anointed One’s death would be needless.
THE ROOT
ἀθετέω
athetéō
GROWS FROM
ἀθετ-
athet-
Set aside, reject, or invalidate.
“Frustrate” can sound like hindering something emotionally, but this verb means to set aside or nullify. The danger is treating God’s favor as invalid by making law the source of alignment.
ALSO GROWS
athétēsis: Annulment or setting aside.
ἀθέτησις
It shows the force of the choice Paul names: favor can be treated as though it no longer counts.
áthetos: Rejected or invalid.
ἄθετος
It echoes the verdict implied when favor is set aside in favor of law as the means of alignment.
χάρις
cháris
GROWS FROM
χαρι-
chari-
Favor, graciousness, or a freely given gift.
“grace” in this verse is cháris. The χαρι- word family includes both favor and what is freely given from favor. This makes the verse’s tension clear: alignment rests on favor, not on something earned through instruction.
ALSO GROWS
charízomai: To grant freely or forgive.
χαρίζομαι
Favor moves toward the other as a free gift; it is not a wage for completing the law.
chárisma: A gift freely given.
χάρισμα
This branch makes the giving within favor visible: what is received as favor cannot be manufactured by performance.
δικαιοσύνη
dikaiosýnē
GROWS FROM
δικ-
dik-
Rightness, justice, or being set right.
“righteousness” in this verse is dikaiosýnē. The δικ- family gathers rightness and the act of setting something right. The verse asks whether this alignment comes through instruction; its answer turns on whether law can supply what favor gives.
ALSO GROWS
díkē: Justice or what is right.
δίκη
It shows the shared root’s concern with what is rightly ordered.
díkaios: Just or right.
δίκαιος
It names the condition of being in right standing that the verse says cannot come through law.
dikaióō: To justify or set right.
δικαιόω
This verb shares the root with righteousness and makes the movement toward being set right explicit.
THE PATTERN
Alignment is counted through trust and received favor; it is not manufactured by works of instruction.
And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.THE THREAD
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.The Greek words for “justifieth” and “righteousness” share the δικ- (dik-) root. Romans 4:5 places that same movement toward alignment beside trust rather than work, opening the contrast Galatians 2:21 makes between law and favor.
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