“No Other Gospel (Galatians 1:1-12)" | 8/17/25
Galatians 1:1-12 | 8/17/25 | Will DuVal
But if you don’t yet receive our newsletter (sign up for it!), but I introduced this new series there in this way (if you read it and already know the answer, don’t ruin it): Let’s play a game - it’s called TRIBOND; anyone familiar? One of our family’s favorite games growing up: I give you 3 things and you have to tell me what they have in common. Ready?
Coca-Cola’s “New Coke”,
Microsoft’s “Windows Vista” operating system
and the sequel Dumb & DumberER
What do they have in common? They were all attempts to improve upon an already-PERFECTED product, that therefore proved to be miserable FAILURES themselves.
When Coca-Cola decided in 1985 to change the formula of their classic, beloved soda, the public response was swift and severe: sales PLUMMETED; daily complaints to the company hotline (1-800-Get-Coke) QUADRUPLED; ADS for New Coke appearing on baseball stadium scoreboards all across the country received impassioned BOOS from nearly every fanbase; special interest groups were formed - the “Old Coke Drinkers of America” - to lobby the company to switch back. And less than three months later, they did just that.
And we don’t have to review all the gory details of VISTA’s failure, or the embarrassment that was the sequel to the single greatest middle school boy comedy of all time, because you get the point: You don’t MESS with PERFECTION.
That is the central message of the book of GALATIANS: that the GOSPEL that our Lord Jesus entrusted to His Church - the literal “good news” of what Christ Himself ACCOMPLISHED for us in His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of our sins - according to the book of Galatians, that news is not just “GOOD”; it is, in fact, PERFECT! Infinitely more perfect than “Old Coke” or Windows XP or Dumb & Dumber… is the GOSPEL. “That Christ died for our sins… was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4) - that NEWS is IMPECCABLE, flawless, unable to be improved upon in ANY way by any ONE. And as a matter of fact: to ATTEMPT to - you start tweaking it even the slightest bit… adding TO the gospel… - and all of a sudden you have RUINED, corrupted, “DISTORTED” is the word Paul will use this morning in chapter 1… PERVERTED - the entire thing. Because to add anything to the gospel is to completely UNDERCUT both the
FREE-ness of God’s grace and the all-SUFFICIENCY of Christ’s WORK. As soon as you say, “Sure, I believe in JESUS; I know he died for me. But to truly be SAVED, don’t you kinda need to OBEY God as well?”
Pray the “Sinner’s Prayer”?
Get BAPTIZED?
Join the Church?
Pray and read your Bible?”
…As soon as you say, “Jesus PLUS… baptism;
Jesus PLUS… church”
Jesus PLUS… this magic prayer”
Jesus plus ANYTHING, what you’re REALLY saying is “Jesus isn’t ENOUGH to save me; I better help Him OUT a little.” What you’re REALLY saying is, “Ehhh, grace can’t really be FREE; everybody knows there’s no such thing as a ‘free lunch’; what’s the CATCH, God? Show me where to PAY; how do I make MYcontribution.”
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But the GOSPEL says: “You’ve already MADE YOUR contribution: you contributed ALL of the SIN (J.D. Greear, “Galatians 1” sermon). That’s what you’re bringing to the table here; you bring all the SIN. And JESUS brings all the SALVATION.
And if you try and add anything TO that grace, that free GIFT of salvation that he offers you, all of a sudden it becomes NOT a gift at all.
We’ve got a sister church in our denomination that recently purchased a new (but OLD) building, that they’re gonna RENOVATE; it belonged to this dying church that wanted to GIFT the building to another church, but for legal / TAX purposes, it had to be SOLD. So they “bought” this old but beautiful building for ONE DOLLAR. And they made it a whole thing… they asked all the members to bring one PENNY each…
That’s the OPPOSITE of the GOSPEL. The GOSPEL is: if you contribute even one PENNY, salvation is no longer a GIFT; it’s a SALE. And God says, “It’s NOT for SALE”.
Jesus + ANYTHING = NOTHING. No Deal.
But Jesus + NOTHING = EVERYTHING.
That’s the message of Galatians, in a nutshell.
Galatians has been called the Christian’s “Declaration of Independence”. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free,” Paul’s gonna say in chapter 5. “Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery”. Trying to EARN your own salvation is nothing short of spiritual SLAVERY; it’s a “BURDEN” you and I were never meant to CARRY. But on every single page of Galatians, JESUS beckons us: “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28) Let me set you FREE.
Not surprisingly - if you know anything about church history and particularly the REFORMATION - Galatians was Martin Luther’s favorite book. Aside from the apostle PAUL, who WROTE the book, NO ONE tried to EARN his salvation harder than Martin Luther. Because official Church doctrine in Luther’s day declared that: “If any one saith, that by faith alone the [sinner] is justified (“made RIGHT with God”; SAVED); in such a way as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to obtain the grace of Justification… let him be anathema.” Anathema literally means “DAMNED”, let him be sent to HELL. PAUL is actually gonna use the exact SAME word here in chapter 1, to say the exact OPPOSITE thing that that medieval POPE just said;
the POPE said, “If anyone says, “Jesus plus NOTHING”, let him be DAMNED;
PAUL’s gonna say, “If anyone says, “Jesus plus ANYTHING,” let HIM be damned.
But back to LUTHER; he was a MONK. Much like Paul, Luther was a professional religious person, a rule-keeper. And he later journaled, “I was a GOOD monk and kept my order so strictly that I could claim that if EVER a monk were able to reach heaven by monkish discipline I should have found my way there… If it had continued much longer I would, what with vigils, prayers, readings and other such works, have done myself to DEATH” (Luther, quoted in Phillip Ryken, Galatians, 4). Yet try as he may to WORK his way into heaven, Luther just couldn’t seem to SHAKE this nagging, terrifying question: “How GOOD is good ENOUGH, to earn your way into heaven?” After all, Jesus said, “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).
So Luther couldn’t SLEEP. Until one day, the Holy Spirit opened his eyes - his spiritual eyes - to finally see the true message of Galatians, and indeed, of the entire New TESTAMENT. Whereupon Luther rejoiced in his now famous COMMENTARY on Galatians: “We find no rest for our weary bones unless we cling to the word of GRACE.”
This book changed Luther’s LIFE. And it can change YOURS too. Maybe you resonate with him: “I feel like I’ve worked myself nearly to DEATH trying to earn God’s love and favor.”
Can I just tell you: I am SO glad you’re here. And GOD is too.
But before we OPEN it and begin READING it, let me give you FOUR reasons why we’re studying this extraordinary book together this fall.
The first is just that: because it IS extraordinary, beautiful, glorious; it is GOD’S. We believe that “ALL Scripture is God-breathed” and worthy of our utmost attention and affection. But with SOME books of the Bible, like GALATIANS, their transcendence and HEAVEN-liness is just a bit more self-evident.
The second reason we’re studying Galatians right NOW is that we just finished the OT book of NUMBERS in June, and God willing, after Christmas, we’ll head BACK to the Old Testament again to the book of Deuteronomy. We alternate Old Testament - New Testament because “ALL Scripture is God-breathed”, but we can only understand the Old Testament in LIGHT of the NEW. And in particular, we can only rightly understand the LAW, the TORAH, books like Numbers and Deuteronomy, in light of GALATIANS. Galatians is the single greatest COMMENTARY on the OT Law you can find.
The THIRD reason we’re studying Galatians right now: I gave you a LIST back in JANUARY of what I thought - after a lot of prayer and discussion with fellow leaders here - needed to be our top 10 resolutions, priorities in 2025. And #1 on that list is the same aim it’s been for the last 6 ½ years that I’ve been lead pastor and MAKING these lists: SOUL-winning. We want to see souls WON to Christ through the ministry of this church. And yet that is still arguably our church’s greatest weakness. We do a great job of discipling Christians toward deeper spiritual maturity. We do a fantastic job of plugging Christians into life-giving COMMUNITY with fellow believers. The thing that we still kinda STINK at is reaching those who do not YET know the Lord with the love and hope of JESUS. And I’ve got a THEORY; hear me out:
We talked about this a lot at our elders’ retreat this weekend, and we’re probably gonna be sending you an anonymous SURVEY to fill out, if you would, to HELP us get better, or at least diagnose the problem. But the kinds of questions that’ll be on there are like:
“How many times have you shared the gospel with an unbeliever in the past 6 months?”
“How many unsaved friends have you invited to church?”
But most IMPORTANTLY, “If the answers are “less than I ought to”... I know I OUGHT to be sharing, OUGHT to be inviting…” - here’s the REAL question: “What’s STOPPING you?”
And I’ve got a THEORY. Maybe it’ll be multiple choice, and we’ll include all the usual responses: “I’m afraid of HURTING or even LOSING those relationships”; “I’m afraid of OFFENDING people”; or “I feel UNEQUIPPED… what if they start asking questions about the Bible that I can’t answer”. Yeah, yeah, yeah…
But NO. I don’t think that ANY of those are actually the REAL #1 reason that MOST of us in this room shirk back from sharing the gospel with unbelievers. Here’s MY theory:
The single biggest deterrent to our evangelism is that we are convinced that non-Christians have already HEARD the gospel. So if they don’t ALREADY buy it, why keep selling?
This isn’t North Korea, where most of the people you walk by on the street have literally never even heard the name “Jesus”. Your neighbors, your co-workers, your in-laws: they KNOW about him, right? So if they’re not interested in FOLLOWING Him, if they haven’t already joined “Team Jesus”, what DIFFERENCE is it gonna make, what GOOD does it do, for me to keep PUSHING it? They’ve HEARD the gospel; if they choose to IGNORE it, or worse, REJECT it, that’s between them and GOD now.
Here’s why we’re studying Galatians, Church: Because you’re WRONG. They HAVEN’T heard the gospel. And I mean “heard” in BOTH of the important, biblical senses of the word.
First, the Bible talks often about the difference between physical eyes and ears and SPIRITUAL eyes and ears; Jesus lamented that a LOT of the people that even HE would speak to would “hear but not hear” (Mt 13:13). They had physical appendages hanging off the sides of their heads that picked up the vibrations in the air caused by his voice and could successfully translate them, cognitively, into meaningful words and phrases… BUT, he said, “You HEAR but never UNDERSTAND” (13:14). You’re not opening your SPIRITUAL ears to hear.
I had read the Bible cover to cover multiple times, graduated seminary, and probably “heard” the gospel a THOUSAND times before I actually HEARD the gospel… and BELIEVED. Any of you have that experience of going away to college, or youth camp, or wherever the Lord met you and finally opened your EARS to HEAR, and your first thought was: “Why has no one ever TOLD me this before?!” And you started getting ANGRY about it. But then you went back and listened to your pastor’s old sermons in the archive online… re-read your mom’s old TEXT messages from when you were going through that crisis of faith… you re-read GALATIANS again, for the TWELFTH time, but THIS time with your spiritual eyes OPENED, and you realized, “Holy cow: it’s been here ALL ALONG!” The GOSPEL! Christ crucified and resurrected for the forgiveness of my sins, by GRACE alone through FAITH alone in CHRIST alone - it’s all HERE!
The unbelievers that you and I aren’t witnessing to may have “heard”, but they haven’t yet “HEARD”. And sometimes it takes the thousand-and-ONEth time. So we keep sharing.
But friends, when I say, “They haven’t HEARD the gospel” - for many, many… perhaps even the MAJORITY of your unsaved loved ones, I mean that in the most literal, physical sense as well. It’s not - like ME - that they grew up in a solid church and could give you the right answers - “The gospel? Sure: Jesus died for our sins…” and they just haven’t TRUSTED in it yet; haven’t pushed the chips in and bet their LIFE on it yet - No!
Many if not MOST of the people that we rub shoulders with on a daily basis have not even HEARD the true, biblical gospel… at least not enough to correct the FALSE gospels they’ve been told. Don’t believe me? ASK them!
“According to the BIBLE, what is the good news?” (I’m not even asking if you BELIEVE it… just what IS it?)
And I am CONFIDENT that at least 2 out of every THREE of them are gonna say, “God wants me to be a good person… follow the Golden Rule: “Do unto others…”...”
THAT is their “good news”. HALF of them won’t even MENTION Jesus.
“Just be a good person…”
“Okay, well what about JESUS. He’s pretty important to Christianity, right?”
“Well, yeah, he’s the ultimate EXAMPLE of how to live…”
“Okay, but what about the CROSS; what does THAT have to do with anything?”
They haven’t HEARD. “And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never HEARD? And how are they to hear unless we TELL them?” (Rom 10:14)
That’s the third reason we’re studying Galatians: MISSIONAL MOTIVATION.
And fourth and finally: because WE need to hear it again too. WE need to be REMINDED of this glorious gospel of GRACE all over again, day after day. Phillip Graham Ryken sums it up this way (3): “Galatians is a letter for recovering Pharisees… The GOSPEL… is the good news that Jesus Christ has already done everything necessary for our salvation… Most former Pharisees, however [find it] hard to leave our legalism behind… We believe that God loves us, but secretly we suspect that his love is conditional, that it depends on how we are doing in the Christian life… For most Christians… there is still something of the old legalist in us… Galatians was written for people like US.”
It may have been written TO the churches in Galatia; but it was written FOR people like US, West Hills.
2 more VERY quick things then I promise we’ll dive in: commentaries and context.
I like to offer you a list of the commentaries I’ll be leaning on along the way as a reminder and encouragement to YOU to do the SAME whenever you undertake a deep study of God’s word. There is a WEALTH of good resources out there, many of them FREE nowadays online; avail yourselves of them.
And lastly: CONTEXT. Why was Galatians WRITTEN? We’ll unpack it more especially when we get to point #4 this morning… eventually… but Paul’s opening to the letter isn’t gonna make much SENSE to you without a little historical context.
Paul had established these “churches of Galatia”, to whom he is writing here, during his first MISSIONARY journey, around the years 47-48 AD. Now just a couple years have passed, not long, but Paul gets word that this group of Jewish traditionalists, known as the “Judaizers” - who accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but taught that it was still NECESSARY to follow the OT Law if you wanted to please God and belong within His family - these “Judaizers” had infiltrated the church in Galatia and begun “distorting” the true, pure, biblical gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone… by adding TO it the OT LAW, and in particular: CIRCUMCISION. Circumcision was THE defining MARK of Jewishness, and what these Juda-IZERS were effectively telling the Gentile CONVERTS to Christianity in Galatia was that they had to become Jews too. Jesus alone isn’t enough; for full inclusion in the people of God, you need Jesus PLUS Judaism; Jesus plus the LAW. And Paul is writing this letter to WARN the Galatians against these false teachers.
So without further ado, I invite you to STAND as you’re able…
(SCRIPTURE:)
“Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
6 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— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But 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 [“anathema” is the Greek word; DAMNED]. 9 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.
10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not MAN’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
This is the word of God… Seated…
These opening 12 verses offer us even MORE context and introduction to this wonderful book than I’ve already given you. They answer ALL of the “Who, What, When, Where, Why” questions we ought to bring to any new book of the Bible, with an extra, BONUS answer tacked on at the end to the question “HOW”? Let’s take them in turn.
First of all: WHO? Who is writing? Verse 1, WORD 1: PAUL (vv1-2a)
Greco-Roman letters opened MUCH more sensically than OUR letters do today, “Dear [Letter Recipient]...”, then they have to scan all the way to the BOTTOM to figure out who’s actually WRITING them; makes no sense. Modern letter formatting is ANOTHER example of “innovation gone awry”. But I digress…
“Paul” wrote this letter; in fact, he specifies for us at the end, in ch6, that he wrote it “with my own hand”. For MOST of Paul’s 13 NT epistles, he used a SCRIBE, and he just dictated. But when the subject was PARTICULARLY pressing and important… we almost imagine Paul hearing the news out of Galatia about these Judaizers, and IMMEDIATELY storming into his office, reaching for the parchment, without wasting a SECOND to go find a scribe. No time; too urgent!
Who WAS Paul? Formerly known as “SAUL of Tarsus”, we met him first in Acts ch7 at the murder of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Paul helped oversee his execution. Paul was a Jewish zealot, a “Pharisee among Pharisees”, who was worried and ANGRY about this new “Jesus movement” within 1st c Judaism, and decided to devote his life to putting an END to it. But just 2 chapters later in Acts 9, as he was on the road to Damascus to round up and imprison more Christians, Saul had a personal encounter with the risen Lord JESUS. And he would NEVER be the same again. Christ turned his entire life upside down, gave him a NEW name - “Paul” - a new IDENTITY - “follower of Christ” - and a new CALLING - “AMBASSADOR for Christ”. Specifically, God told him: you are my “chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles”.
And that’s what Paul reminds us of in the SECOND word of his letter now: “APOSTLE”. It’s a title that means “SENT one”, one who has been authoritatively commissioned for a task. There are still what we might call “little a” apostles around today, just as there were in PAUL’S day; the Bible refers to Barnabas, Timothy, Apollos and others as “apostles”. Today, we might consider missionaries and church planters to be “SENT ones”. But they are to be DISTINGUISHED from THE Apostles, the “capital-A” Apostles like Paul, Peter, James, John - the O.G. 12 minus Judas plus Matthias… PLUS PAUL - those 13 Apostles were distinct in that they had all personally witnessed the resurrected Christ, and been sent out to testify about him and to record authoritative Scripture, that would serve as the “foundation” of the church, according to Ephesians 2 (v20).
But by word THREE of the letter, Paul is already IMMEDIATELY on the defensive, defending his apostleship, undoubtedly because it was under ATTACK by the Judaizers, who sought to UNDERMINE Paul’s authority in the eyes of the Galatians. “Who” INDEED, the Judaizers were asking, “does this PAUL think he is, claiming to have a MONOPOLY on the GOSPEL? He wasn’t even one of Jesus’ original TWELVE!”
To which Paul REPLIES here: I am an apostle “not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father”. “Unlike y’all,” Paul says, “I received MY calling and commission DIRECTLY from Jesus himself; just like the OTHER 12, I saw him - the resurrected CHRIST - with my own two EYES on that Damascus road. That’s why Paul immediately adds now, “who [was] raised from the dead”; I know it cuz I ENCOUNTERED him, PERSONALLY.
But now Paul adds something INTERESTING in v2; it’s why I had to add “Paul ET AL” for the letter’s authorship. Who’s writing? “Paul… AND ALL the brothers who are with me”. Paul doesn’t open ANY other letter this way; why does he do it here? To remind the Galatians that the gospel that he’s about to remind them OF is NOT in fact just “PAUL’S” gospel; it is the CHURCH’S gospel, EVERY true believer. And Paul is also not the only one concerned about the Galatians’ DESERTION of that gospel; we are ALL worried about y’all, and sending this letter of WARNING.
TO Whom? As we’ve said, to the GALATIANS (v2b); specifically, to the CHURCHES there. Frank Thielman explains (570): “Galatia refers to the southern region of the much larger Roman province of Galatia… including [cities like] Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and Pisidian Antioch.” Cities in which Paul had INITIALLY received some of the warmest WELCOME for the gospel in ALL of his missions work. We read in Acts 13 and 14 that in Pisidian Antioch “many Jews… followed Paul and Barnabas… urg[ing] them to continue in the grace of God” (13:43); at Iconium, Paul “spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed” (14:1); in Lystra, Paul miraculously healed a crippled man so they began WORSHIPING him as a GOD (14:11)! These Galatians were BIG fans of Paul… before the Judaizers moved in and started sowing seeds of doubt and dissension.
But clearly Paul KNEW that leaving their old ways behind was going to be difficult for the earliest Jewish converts to Christ in Galatia; listen to his message to them during that first missionary journey in Acts 13: “My friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.” (13:38-39, NIV)
Paul told ‘em from the START: “Jesus plus NOTHING; you don’t NEED the law of Moses any more. We’ve got something INFINITELY BETTER now: the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29).
And that is why Paul can now send the Galatians WHAT, in v3?
GRACE & PEACE (vv3-5).
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father…” - but he wants to remind them that grace and peace come ONLY from a knowledge of the TRUE gospel! “Grace” that you EARN by your adherence to the law isn’t grace at ALL; it is no longer a “free gift” of God. “Peace” that relies on ANYTHING less than the finished work of JESUS on the CROSS isn’t peace at all; you’ll NEVER be at peace. Like Luther; how can you SLEEP without an ANSWER to that question: “how good is good ENOUGH to win God’s FAVOR?”
Paul reminds them of the good news of the GOSPEL now in v4, the REAL gospel - that while we were yet sinners, NOT good enough for God, “Jesus Christ… gave himself for our sins to deliver us”.
Moses gave you LAWS to follow.
The Buddha gave people teachings.
Muhammad gave the 5 pillars.
But only Jesus CHRIST gave us HIMSELF. As an atoning sacrifice “FOR” our sins. Not just some good principles to live by, to try and MINIMIZE your sin and then hope to God that he’ll just OVERLOOK it when we DO fall short; No. Jesus gave HIMSELF - he DIED! - to DEAL with our sin problem once and for ALL.
To “DELIVER us” - “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness,” Colossians 1 says; from “the present evil AGE”, Paul puts it here. Ryken explains (12): “By ‘present evil age’, Paul means ‘the course and current of this world’s affairs as corrupted by sin.’ … He means ‘the totality of human life dominated by sin and opposed to God.’ Ours is an age of corruption, decay and death… and Jesus died on the cross to save us from ALL of it… Even though we continue to live in this evil realm, we are being rescued from it… The age to come has burst into the present age. We ourselves no longer have to live the way we used to live when we were under the power of evil. Already we are beginning to live the life of the age to come, when God’s will is always done.”
We live “ACCORDING to the will of our God and Father”. Jesus DIED, Paul reminds us here, “according to the will of God”. What a COMFORT to us, what “grace and PEACE”, when we SUFFER in this “present evil age”, and we’re tempted to think, “God, how COULD you? I thought you were a GOOD Father; is this REALLY your WILL?” - what a comfort to be able to look to the CROSS, and know that even the greatest tragedy in all of history is not outside of, does not THWART, the perfect will of God, who is working ALL things together for good for His people.
To HIM, and Him ALONE, v5, “be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
God the FATHER willed the plan.
God the SON willingly GAVE himself for our sins, to deliver us.
And God the Holy SPIRIT opens our spiritual EARS to HEAR this good news and BELIEVE it and thereby BE delivered from our sin.
Our salvation was ARRANGED by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and APPLIED to us by the Spirit; from start to finish, it is a 100% work of GOD, such that HE gets ALL of the glory and honor and praise. If you had to prove that you were a “pretty good person” by obeying God’s Law BEFORE he would save you, if God looked down from heaven and saw some “really great POTENTIAL” in you and THAT’s why he saved you… friend, if there was ANYTHING in or about YOU that helped bring about your salvation, then YOU would get at least SOME of the glory. But GOD says, “I am the Lord… my glory I give to no other” (Isa 42:8), because I do ALL of the saving. You did all the SINNING, that was YOUR contribution; I’ll take it from HERE. So that I might receive all the glory, forever and ever.
All that’s left for US to do is RESPOND, like Paul here, with a resounding “AMEN!” Truly! I BELIEVE it! THANK you, Lord.
But enough of the PLEASANTRIES. In all his OTHER letters, after the salutation like this, Paul includes at least a few verses of THANKSGIVING: “I thank GOD for you in all my prayers…”. But not HERE. No pat on the back; just a swift kick in the PANTS.
“I am astonished”; Paul, we might say, is APPALLED. Why is he writing?
#4- To ADMONISH them (vv6-10).
“I’m ASTONISHED that you are so quickly DESERTING…” orthodoxy? Is that what Paul says? Deserting the right set of beliefs? It’s TRUE; but it’s not what he SAYS.
“You’re deserting HIM!!” Who called you in the grace of Christ. When we abandon the true gospel, friends, we abandon THE LORD.
We betray HIM, when we “turn to a different gospel”, not that there IS another one; there’s NOT!
“Jesus + You”, “Jesus + Your Good Works” isn’t “good news” at ALL, because if your salvation depends on YOU in even the SLIGHTEST, friend, you are in TROUBLE.
Now, the good news for the GALATIANS is that the present tense of Paul’s verb choice here - you “ARE DESERTING” - would seem to indicate that at the time of his writing, they had not yet “completed their apostasy”, at least. But they are well on their way.
And now we’re introduced to the INSTIGATORS in v7: “there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel”. John Stott (23) astutely pointed out that “The church’s greatest troublemakers (now as then) are not those outside who oppose, ridicule and persecute it, but those inside who try to change the gospel.”
Sometimes that’s LEGALISM - “Jesus isn’t ENOUGH; you need the LAW too” - but sometimes, more commonly TODAY, it’s LIBERALISM - “Jesus isn’t even really REQUIRED for salvation, because there are MANY paths to God…” - that’s being taught RIGHT now from pulpits all across our country. Many are “troubling” God’s people and “DISTORTING” His gospel.
The Greek word there for “distort” literally means to “REVERSE”.
They are REVERSING the gospel. Ephesians 2 says we are saved BY grace FOR good works; the Judaizers are teaching salvation BY works FOR the meriting of God’s grace. Instead of “God saved us, so we obey Him”, they teach “We obey God, so he saves us”; they’ve REVERSED it. And it’s actually an ANTI-gospel.
So Paul warns “even if an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to this one” - even if the angel GABRIEL should (allegedly) appear to you at Mecca and preach to you the Qur’an… even if the angel MORONI should (allegedly) preach to you the Book of Mormon… even if the (allegedly) infallible POPE should preach to you a “gospel” of “Jesus PLUS baptism and sacraments and Mary and saints and indulgences” - let him be ACCURSED! Damned to HELL.
Tell us how you REALLY feel, Paul. He says, “Okay, just in case you MISSED it…”, and then he REPEATS himself again in verse NINE: “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary…” But now he shifts from the subjunctive verb tense to the PRESENT. The threat is no longer HYPOTHETICAL - “if anyone SHOULD preach”; there is a real and present DANGER in Galatia - “those who ARE preaching a false gospel can be DAMNED.”
And then Paul tells us why he DIDN’T write this letter in v10: he DIDN’T write it to win any POPULARITY CONTESTS. “Am I now seeking the approval of man”; Paul says, “I don’t know if you can tell from my TONE, but I’m not writing this to try and make FRIENDS.”
I seek GOD’S approval. I’m writing to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”; what Y’ALL think of me matters ETERNALLY LESS to me, than what GOD thinks of me.
Is that true of US, church? When we send out that survey, perhaps some of us WILL check that box; the reason we DON’T share our faith more often and WARN unbelievers of the eternal consequences of ignoring the gospel is that we are AFRAID. We are MORE afraid of what they will THINK about us, than of what’s gonna HAPPEN to them if they don’t HEAR and BELIEVE the good news. We’re more afraid of unpopularity for us, than HELL for THEM.
Not Paul; he says, “Look, If I were still trying to please man, I wouldn’t” have signed UP for this gig, to “be a servant of Christ.” Cuz Jesus made it pretty clear when he said in John 15 (vv19-20) that: “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
But friends: the gospel FREES us from the “fear of man”, from people-pleasing. When you come to understand that the Creator God of the universe LOVES you and accepts you UNCONDITIONALLY, not because of what you’ve done for Him, but because of what Christ has done for YOU, it FREES you from the need to earn OTHERS’ approval. Once you’ve received GOD’S approval, what can MAN’s add to it? Nothing!
Paul’s opponents were undoubtedly claiming that it was PAUL who was changing the gospel in order to win favor with the Gentiles, who would understandably prefer NOT to be circumcised. But Paul assures them here, “I don’t CARE if you like me or not; I care about the purity of the GOSPEL - Jesus plus NOTHING!”
Lastly, question #5: HOW? How is it that Paul can actually KNOW that his gospel is the TRUE one?! How did Paul RECEIVE the gospel? Moreover, How can any of US TODAY receive it?? The answer: is only by a REVELATION OF CHRIST (vv11-12)
Look, I’m not saying that unless you’ve been knocked off your horse and BLINDED by a physical VISION of the resurrected Jesus like PAUL was… that unless you’ve audibly HEARD his voice and had scales literally fall off your eyes then you haven’t truly been changed and saved. But friends: you MUST have your SPIRITUAL eyes opened, your spiritual EARS opened to HEAR the gospel as more than just air vibrations that cognitively make SENSE to you.
They say the 18 inches between the head and the HEART can be the longest distance in the UNIVERSE. Has the gospel made that 18-inch journey to YOUR heart yet?