Galatians: The One Gospel

"That's YOUR interpretation..."

"You see it YOUR way, I see it mine."

"Go to the church of YOUR choice."

"There are many roads that lead to heaven."

Have you heard any of these statements before? Each one of these shows a complete misunderstanding of the Lord's message. Galatians is very clear: Jesus came to give us ONE GOSPEL, and there is no other way to get to heaven. In fact, there are many FALSE ways which mislead many. Paul wrote, "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ" (Gal. 1:6-7). He didn't say, "I'm amazed you are deserting the gospel or the church - he said they were deserting GOD! They distort, obscure, obfuscate the real gospel. It's not a completely new gospel they preach, but a bastardization of the original.

How many false gospels are there now? After 2000 years, men have come up with all kinds of crafty ways to distort the gospel of Christ. It's tough to see the truth sometimes amidst all the traditions of men. Paul said those who preach a different gospel are "to be accursed" (Gal. 1:8-9).

The main false teachers he accused were Jews who were trying to force Gentiles to be circumcised (in keeping with the Old Testament law). Paul had some pretty tough things to say to those Judaizing teachers and those who would follow them:

"You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you...?" (3:1)

"Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (3:3)

"if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you...You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." (5:2, 4)

"I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves." (5:12) This is my personal favorite. He could be saying, "They want to circumcise so much - I wish they would circumcise themselves and I hope the knife slips!" Or, perhaps more appropriately, he could be saying, "They are so interested in cutting things off, I wish they would cut themselves off of the group there!" Either way, it's scathing.

I think we'd better stick to the ONE gospel revealed by Christ and His apostles!

God bless,
Nathan

Tomorrow's Reading: Matthew 1-4