Galatians 2:21

I do not make void the grace of God (ouk aqetw thn carin tou qeou). Common word in LXX and Polybius and on, to make ineffective (a privative and tiqhmi, 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 Cristo dwrean apeqanen). 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 (dwrean), unnecessarily. Adverbial accusative of dwrea, 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.