King James Bible
"But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid."
Paul addresses a potential objection to justification by faith: if believers still sin after turning to Christ for righteousness, does this implicate Christ in promoting sin? The phrase acknowledges the reality that Christians, though justified, continue to struggle with sin in their lives. This rhetorical question captures the false logic of Paul's opponents who argued that abandoning the law for grace would lead to moral chaos. The term 'minister' (diakonos) means servant, suggesting the absurd conclusion that Christ serves sin's purposes. Paul emphatically rejects this conclusion with the strongest Greek negation (mē genoito). This forceful denial affirms that justification by faith does not license sin but rather establishes a new relationship with God that transforms behavior from within.