Chuck Larsen

Paul feels so strongly about the distortion of the Good News of Jesus that he repeats the curse on those who would dare disturb the peace and security of God’s children. In Galatians 1:9 he says it again, “As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” The contempt to which Paul holds those who distort the gospel is certainly powerfully communicated. Dealing in the slave trade is a despicable business. One should never hold others captive by force, finances, philosophy or false religious teaching. This is especially true since Jesus came to set us free! Paul calls down God’s most profound judgment on those who would seduce God’s children into any form of slavery. It’s a despicable business to Paul and to God.

The Judaizers claim to be God’s spokesmen. They have the inside track and in the name of Jesus, they preach “another” message that instead of setting the faithful free actually enslaves them to a different slave master. The Galatians were redeemed from slavery, set free by the Gospel, only to fall into the peril of becoming slaves again to other religious slave masters. A scandal in the history of Western civilization illustrates how this can happen. In the early 1600s twenty slaves landed at the Jamestown colony and were sold as slaves to the residence there. It appears they were once slaves in the Indies but were snatched away from their Spanish owners only to be sold into slavery to new slave owners in America. What makes this event even more scandalous is that the name of the ship that delivered them from the Indies to Jamestown was the “Jesus.” What inspired the double curse from Paul, the Apostle of the heart set free, was that the horror that the very people he had seen set free by God’s grace on his first missionary journey were now being seduced back into slavery once again. And they were being seduced in the name of Jesus.

This infuriated the Apostle! The preaching of salvation through any works of any law puts the souls of people at risk. Furthermore, it attacked the authenticity of Christ. In the old economy, the law was the center of religious life as seen in the Holy of Holies. The ten commandments, the law, was held in the Ark of the Covenant, upon which the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled, upon the mercy seat, for the remission of the sins of the people. According to the prophets, when the Messiah came, the center of religious life would move from the law to the Messiah. Laws, once recorded in stone, were then to be upon the hearts of people. The Messiah was to displace the law. If salvation still necessitated any kind of law keeping, Jesus was not the Messiah. If the law still had force as the way of salvation, the messianic age had not come. If the Messianic age was not introduced by Jesus, then Jesus was a fraud and a liar and he was “anathema.” Jesus then had been rightly judged and convicted and executed on the cross. Any teaching that would lead to this conclusion must be “anathema” itself!

There is only one Gospel. It is the good news that God sent His only Son into the world, while we were still sinners, to die on the cross and rise from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins and to purchase a place for us in heaven which he offers to us unworthy sinners as a free gift. That FREE gift is received through the channel of faith. Though there is only one true Gospel there are many “distortions” of that Gospel. Paul is shocked that the Galatians had been deterred from the one true Gospel and were being beguiled by a distortion of the Gospel. It happens to us all at times. There is a tendency for us to attempt to add something to the Gospel like the beguilers Paul was addressing. But as Paul said in Galatians 1:6, that is to proclaim “a different” gospel. Then in Galatians 1:7 Paul clarifies, “…not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” Boice observes, “Paul’s agitation results from the fact that by embracing legalism the Galatians have actually turned their back on the gospel in order to embrace ‘a different gospel,’ which, however, does not even deserve to be called by that name.”

The “beguilers” were doing two things. First they were “perverting the Gospel.” The late F. F. Bruce described this perversion like this, “Gospel it is not; it is a message of bondage, not of freedom. It is a form of doctrine of salvation by law-keeping from which Paul himself had been liberated by the true gospel which he received on the Damascus road ‘by revelation of Jesus Christ’ (v 12). That was the gospel which he preached to others, including the Galatians, and there could be no other. It might be expressed in a variety of ways: its presentation to Jews no doubt differed from its presentation to Gentiles (cf. 2:7), but its touchstone was the proclamation of salvation and life through the grace of God, to be appropriated by ‘the hearing of faith’ (cf. 3:2, 5).”

The second thing they did was “disturb the peace” in the Church. Paul says they are “troubling” the believers. Distortions of the Gospel always bring “trouble” to a church. Richison says, “Legalists came to ‘trouble’ the Galatians with their false doctrine (Acts 15:24; Galatians 1:7; 5:10). Legalism always unsettles the soul and throws the church into confusion (5:10–12). ‘Trouble’ carries the idea of to shake back and forth. Legalists are troublemakers.” They always have been and always will be. Leroy Lawson suggests that adding any requirement to salvation by grace through faith alone “is to deny any freedom at all. It is to return to prison. ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery’ (Galatians 5:1).”

There is only one Gospel. It’s the good news of what Jesus accomplished for sinners on the cross of Calvary. It’s received as a free gift through faith plus nothing. So many religions and Christian (so-called) cults subtly add something to that equation in order to gather followers. Paul speaks in the strongest language possible in Galatians 1:8 when it comes to adding something to this simple truth. The Gospel had already been preached to them. They had received it. Even if Paul himself changed the message they should reject it. The Gospel is not Paul’s message. It is God’s message to sinful man. He loves us all and has offered peace with us through Christ’s sacrifice. No one can change that truth. Paul can’t change it. Even angels can’t change it. He writes, “…even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”

Counterfeit money is lacking in authority—it does not have the backing of the federal government. A good counterfeiter can dupe some people into accepting his copy work as legitimate currency. But eventually, when the fake money is brought before the authorities, it will be found false and sentenced to destruction. Likewise, a false gospel lacks something very important: the authority of Christ. The preacher of a false gospel may even believe it himself and persuade men to accept his message. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, there is no salvation in his gospel. Paul tells us that such a preacher will be apprehended by the courts of heaven and judgment pronounced: “Let him be accursed!”

Some of the most despised characters in the history of western civilization have been the slave traders. They were modern pharaohs who cared nothing about human misery or suffering and simply used people for their own pleasure or profit. Jesus rebuked the religious leaders for preventing ordinary people from experiencing the peace of God by laying on them laws and regulations that they themselves could not keep. Jesus cursed them: “Woe to you!”  Paul is speaking to the Galatians and referring to the Judaizers as “slave traders.” As one commentator put it, “Paul is outraged that religious slave traders would perpetrate such a crime against his newly freed people.” This is applicable to anyone who is guilty of such a crime.  The word “accursed” is “anathema.” It’s the strongest word Paul could use. What the cult leaders of Paul’s day are offering is a psychologically powerful, persuasive message that appeals to our flesh but in reality is an enemy of Christian freedom. They offer nothing but a covert slavery. Paul says they are despicable and deserve hell.

When one first experiences God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness through faith in Jesus, it is a wonderful thing. But something happens to our human psyches after some time passes. We begin to take things for granted and look for a new, different, and more earthly pleasure. It doesn’t take long for the aura of our initial salvation to wear off. As a matter of fact it didn’t take very long for the Galatians to turn their attention from their Savior to their own efforts again. Paul says so in Galatians 1:6. He writes, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.”

The term translated “deserting” in many modern translations was always confusing to me when I studied the King James. It says, “removed from.” But it has been widely acknowledged that the phrase “deserting” is actually a military term. It’s used of those who deserted in time of war. According to Richison, “The Galatians changed from the gospel of grace to the gospel of works. They became renegades from the true gospel and capitulated to another gospel. The present tense indicates that the defection of the Galatians from the gospel of grace is not yet complete. They are still in the process of shifting to another gospel. They are transposing the gospel from grace to legalism. They are altering the gospel itself and thus were deserting or turning apostate from the true gospel. This changes the nature of the gospel into a works gospel.” James Boice says, “It is not merely that they have deserted an idea or a movement; rather, they have deserted the very one who had called them to faith. This one is God the Father. Embracing legalism means rejecting God, according to Paul’s reasoning, because it means substituting man for God in one’s life.”

We are “called in the grace of Christ.” This means that it is the grace that comes through faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross to which we’ve been called to come for salvation. Christ procured our salvation for us on the cross. It comes to us as a gift. That means it’s all of grace not of works. Richison adds, “It comes from the unadulterated generosity of God with no strings attached. Christians are the objects of God’s eternal favor. To revert to law is to completely miss this truth. God saves and sustains us by the finished work of Christ on the cross.” Some people today, much like the Galatians of Paul’s day, believe that some form of religious ritual, performance, or sacrifice is essential in order to receive God’s grace. This is patently false! Others might believe that they are saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross, but that works must sustain their salvation. That is also patently false and simply makes our salvation dependent upon ourselves and not on the wonderful, marvelous grace of our God and Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Jewish religious leaders worshiped the law. They did not know or love or worship the law giver but turned the instructions God gave for healthy, happy, community life into their religion. The true believer in Jesus does not worship the law; he worships Jesus, the one who fulfilled the law. In Seminary there are courses in Bibliology. It’s the study of all things pertaining to the Bible. It’s great to learn about the inspiration of the writers, the transmission of the truths contained therein, the translation into many languages, and the content, authors, and dates of all the biblical content. Some people confuse interest in God’s word with the worship of God’s word. It becomes an idol that beguiles us away from our love for God to our love for the law. There is a fine line between Bibliology and bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible.

When we worship the written word instead of the living word, Jesus, we become legalists who miss the entire point of God’s giving us His word. Paul always focused on his love for Jesus and his worship of God the Father and Jesus Christ His divine son. Man cannot win God’s acceptance with works of the law. As a matter of fact without faith in God, it is impossible to please God at all according to the author of the book of Hebrews. When my behavior, my knowledge of the law, or my commitment to the law becomes the key focus of my life, I fall from grace. It becomes about me when it must remain about Jesus! Paul’s opening words in his epistle to the Galatians make that clear. He commends grace and peace to his readers which can only come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He then speaks of Jesus’ action of giving Himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age as God had planned. Then in Galatians 1:5 he concludes, “to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Gromacki says it well in his commentary on this passage. He writes, “To bring glory to God a believer must thank Him for who He is and for what He has done. He must admit, with Jonah, that ‘salvation is of the Lord’ (Jonah 2:9). He does that when he knows that the plan, provision, gift, and preservation of human redemption are all of God. This is the reason why Paul concluded his book with these words: ‘But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Gal. 6:14). When a person adds works to faith as a prerequisite to salvation or as a basis for the retention of salvation, he takes away from the glory of God. To Paul the difference between a true gospel and a false message was determined by whether God received all of the glory or just part of it. Evolutionists strip the glory of creation away from God, and the Judaizers were stealing the glory of redemption from Him.”

According to Paul, grace and peace come from God the Father and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. Then in Galatians 1:4, Paul says something more about Jesus. He “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.” Notice Paul’s identification of himself as a sinner. It was “our sins” he says that Jesus died for. The law condemns us all to hell. If the law is our standard not only will we live with uncertainty and stress, we will eventually end up condemned to hell. Paul realizes that it includes himself. Jesus had to die for us. If man could make himself acceptable to God by works of the law, Christ would not have had to die for our sins. If the legalists of Paul’s day are right in that there are still stipulations of law that are essential for our salvation, we shouldn’t have needed a savior. But Paul knew he did. Sinners know that they do. The healthy don’t need a physician only the sick. The righteous don’t need a savior, only sinners do.

Many people refer to Jesus as our example. Although it is absolutely true that Jesus did set an example for us to follow, He is much more than our example. When you’re drowning, you don’t need someone standing on the dock doing the dog paddle shouting “go like this.” We need someone to save us. That’s what Jesus did and then he illustrates a lifestyle that’s worth living. Kenneth Boles writes, “Paul wants to establish from the beginning what is the important theme of Christianity. Salvation is not based on man’s ability to keep God’s rules, but on Christ’s ransom, paid with His blood. It was Christ ‘who gave himself as a ransom for all men’ (1 Tim 2:6, cf. Mark 10:45). As the Galatians will be reminded, the atoning sacrifice of Christ is not compatible with man-made salvation. Either Jesus saves us, or we save ourselves.”

It was God’s will that Jesus would die for our sins to “rescue us from this present evil age.” The Greek word for “rescue” or “deliver” in this verse is used five times in the book of Acts to described how God rescued people who could not rescue or “deliver” themselves: the rescue of Joseph from his afflictions (7:10), the deliverance of Israel from Egypt (7:34), the rescue of Peter from prison (12:11), the rescue of Paul from the temple mob (23:27), and the deliverance of Paul from the Jews (26:17). The interesting thing is that even the law of Moses was included in the idea of “this evil age” in Galatians 4:3. Jesus died not to enable us to live out the law, but to save us from it. The law condemns us all and it’s too late to win God’s approval by keeping the law. The law has never and will never make anyone acceptable to God. Jesus save us from the law and makes us acceptable to God by His righteousness not our own.

Paul isn’t the only believer or Apostle that preaches the good news of God’s grace. We are saved by grace through faith plus nothing. The law is always alien to the concept of grace. If it’s by grace it’s not law. If it’s by law there’s no grace. Paul will make this clear in his letter, but in Galatians 1:2 he says that his letter to them on this subject is not only from him but also “…all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia.” I believe Paul is insisting that they are also joint writers with him. He means something very specific when he says that these brothers are “with” him.

I think the Greek preposition will shed some light on this for us. In English the word “with” means many different things and only the context can help us determine which definition is best. I can fight “with” my brother. This actually means “against.” I can fight “with” the 51^st Airborne. This actually means “alongside of” for a common cause. It’s this later sense that the Greek preposition “syn” signifies. In this case Paul is saying that the other “brothers” are in complete agreement with him. Paul usually names his co-writers of letters but in this case he left their names out. Many commentators say that they wish Paul had included their names so there would be more information on which to base some interpretation or “the letter could be better defined historically and geographically” (UBS handbook). But Paul wants his readers to know that his message is not dependent on others. He leaves the “brothers” anonymous. The divine origin of Paul’s message is all that matters as he prepares to defend himself against the attacks of the legalists and religious leaders of his day.

He then identifies his recipients as the “churches in Galatia.” These churches were planted on Paul’s first missionary journey after he had assumed the leadership role from Barnabas. After the event on Cyprus in Acts 13 where Saul – the Pharisee – became Paul the apostle to the gentiles, John Mark left the ministry and returned to Antioch. I’ve always been of the opinion that Paul’s new leadership with a gentile focus was too distasteful for the Jewish John Mark who became Peter’s disciple. Paul’s message was the divinely inspired message of salvation by grace through faith apart from the law. Those who had strong religious convictions had difficulty with this message. Even Peter struggled with it when God insisted he violate the dietary law and eat like the gentiles ate. People are so offended by the gospel of God’s grace that all across Galatia, Paul and his companions were beaten, stoned, imprisoned and driven out of town. Christ calls us to leave everything behind and follow Him. For most people, the most difficult thing to leave behind is not their money! It is their religion.