There is an urgency about this letter from Paul. If you looked at some of his other letters (Romans, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians) then you would see that here in his letter to the churches in Galatia there is no congratulations, no encouragement or thank-you. He is greatly disturbed. He cannot believe what he is hearing. He never thought this would happen.
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” (Galatians 1 v 6-9)
Be reminded of what Paul has said in v3-5, the clear gospel message is in 4 statements about what Jesus the Messiah has done:-
- who gave himself for our sins
- to rescue us from the present evil age
- according to the will of our God and Father
- to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
So what is going on in Galatia?
Paul says they are deserting the One who called them into grace, they are turning from Jesus; they were speaking a different gospel that wasn’t a gospel; they are confused by some people, preachers and teachers presumably; there is a curse of God available.
One of those places was Antioch which Paul and Barnabas had come back from on Paul’s first missionary journey. In Acts 15 the whole problem was discussed in the council at Jerusalem.
Acts 15:24 “We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said.”
What is not clear is whether some leaders had left the Jerusalem church to visit Antioch in secret and they did it with their Pharisaic spirit or that they in fact were sent by Jerusalem but they overstepped their remit and began to bring their rules that had never been laid out by the Church in Jerusalem or by Paul and Barnabas.
Some people have a personal campaign, an untested and unchallenged voice. They are the lone rangers of the church.
Some people can be within a gracious Church but come out as law enforcers. Being within grace doesn’t mean grace is within you.
Some people speak with authority without being under authority.
Some people when they speak, disturb and steal peace and think this is what God does to His children.
Some people go further and do more than what was expected or asked of them. They may have an entrepreneurial passion and belief and be willing to take risks to make it happen. But breaking from the whole doesn’t mean they are right.
Some people are just some and not everyone. It can be fixed.
The Jews in Galatia who had come to know Jesus would not be expecting the non-Jews to simply join the ‘family’ simply because of belief in Jesus and nothing else. They had special privileges from Rome as a Jew. They had permission to be the worshipper of one God. These Gentiles were threatening this. Paul had preached that Gentiles came also from the line of Abraham just like the Jew and should not worship local gods as the Jews didn’t. So to the outside position it looked like there were 2 ‘Jewish’ groups. So would Rome tolerate this? Would the Jews lose their privileges? So some preachers and teachers gave a different gospel. Every follower of Jesus should be circumcised at least and then everyone will be happy with the status quo. For Paul this was actually a curse because it was completely a different message than the gospel. The different gospel was about surviving the old age which Jesus had rescued us from not embracing the new age He had ushered in. The glory to God that the gospel brings was now experiencing a curse because it was not the gospel at all.
The Gospel is a complete new way of living not a crutch to help you survive how you have lived.
Missions Paul 