05. The Problem - 1:6-10

The Problem - 1:6-10

“I wonder that ye thus quickly change, from him that called you in Christ’s grace, to a different gospel; which is not another one …” (1:6-7a) From verse 6 and onward Paul presents the case. It is remarkable there is no commendation to begin with, as in other epistles. Paul nearly always commends what is acceptable in the sight of God. Paul could even find things to commend in the Corinthian assembly; indeed he makes many commendations in the beginning of 1Corinthians although they were in a very carnal state. But that is not the way he writes here. Immediately he says, “I wonder that ye thus quickly change, from Him that called you in Christ’s grace.”Here we see early on a deviation from the truth. We do not know exactly when historically this started but these opponents had a quick entrance after Paul’s first missionary journey and it was very effective. The word “changed”here is a radical change which really means “to be moved (or ‘carried’) away.”It is a very strong word. It affects not a basic doctrine only; it affects the very relationship “from Him that called you.”I mentioned the precious relationship we have with the Lord Jesus and with our God and Father, but through the influence of these false teachers, these relationships were immediately affected, and that is why I say the result would be no glory for God the Father.

“Him that called you in Christ’s grace”refers to God. God is the One here who calls. The Lord Jesus in a touching way in John 10:1-42 called His sheep by name and He drew them out from the fold of Judaism and to Himself. Later in John 10:1-42 He told them that He would draw other sheep from elsewhere, that is the Gentiles, and together they would follow Him. This is this power of the call. We will see more about the call in verse 15 but here we have stressed the relationship we have because of God’s call. When God called Abraham there was an immediate relationship established between him and God, the God of glory (Acts 7:2). Here the enemy is at work to turn the saints in Galatia away from the enjoyment of their relationship with God. If Satan cannot make us lose our salvation (and he cannot), he will try to make us lose the enjoyment of our salvation. Do you see how subtle he is? Consequently there is no fruit for God, it least not for the time being.

“In Christ’s grace”means in the power of Christ’s grace. It is not like the King James translation, “into the grace of Christ,”no, the call is in the power of the grace of Christ. Here the grace of Christ is seen over against what we will see later in Galatians, the power of the law connected with the flesh. The call is connected with God and with the grace of Christ, that is how Paul preached the full gospel as we have in Acts 20:1-38, the gospel of the grace of God through which we have been called, but here the Galatians were deviated from that call and brought under a difference influence, they were “moved away to a different gospel.”The word “different”here means an altogether different kind, while the word “gospel”of course, means “good news.”Paul says as it were, “Yes, you think it is the gospel, but it is not the gospel at all, it is a totally different kind of gospel, which is not another one”(not a gospel of the same kind at all). It sounds a bit complicated, but it is to show it is a counterfeit. For the Galatians the gospel had been, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you are saved,”but now it was added, “you then need to be circumcised.”This can be checked out in Acts 15:1-41 where that situation was again faced.

However, these false teachers added something else to the gospel saying (as it were), “You need to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved,”or “You are saved, but now you need to keep the law in order to live a holy life and to be sanctified.”Paul explains in this epistle to the Galatians, that whatever is done as being under the law of Moses places one under the curse of the same law. We will never be able to please God by placing ourselves under the law whether it is to be saved or whether it is to live for God, there is no way that you can mix law and grace together. If you have grace (and this epistle is one hundred percent grace), and mix one percent of the Mosaic law with it, you do not have anymore this pure grace that Paul defends here. Sad to say, in the history of the church, we see that this mixing has been done over and over again so that the whole has been leavened, the grace which was there has been leavened by a mixture of law and rules and regulations, and so the pure grace was gone.

What Paul presented is very simply this, “Salvation is by faith plus nothing.”However, the evil teachers, as we will see in this book, said “Salvation by faith, yes, but you also need circumcision, you also need to keep the law.”And then, when it comes to the Christian life, they would say, “You can live by faith and grace, yes, but you also need to keep the law otherwise you cannot please God.”That is how the enemy tried to turn those believers away from the true foundation.

“... But there are some that trouble you, and desire to pervert the glad tidings of the Christ.” (1:7b)

These opponents presented a different gospel which in fact was not a gospel at all. The believers in Galatia thought it was a gospel of the same value as Paul had presented to them, but Paul’s gospel was clearly different. Many passages in Romans explain the gospel but let me quote 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 where Paul summarizes the gospel he preached, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: and that he was seen......”(vv.1-5a). That is Paul’s gospel. He calls it “my gospel”(Romans 2:16; 2 Timothy 1:8), he identified with it. That would be another topic to study in detail. The best way to study such a topic is to take a concordance and list all the different expressions, “the gospel of God”(Romans 1:1), “the gospel of [God’s] Son”(Romans 1:9), “the gospel of Christ”(Romans 1:16), “the gospel of peace”(Romans 10:15), a wonderful expression, “the gospel of the uncircumcision”(Galatians 2:7), because mainly Gentiles have accepted this gospel, “the gospel of your salvation”(Ephesians 1:13), “the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”(2 Thessalonians 1:8), “the glorious gospel of the blessed God”(1 Timothy 1:11) and “the gospel of the grace of God”(Acts 20:24). Paul’s ministry was connected with the “mystery of the gospel”(Ephesians 6:19) where we see Christ in the glory connected with the believers on this earth as members of His body. Paul speaks about “the fellowship in the gospel”(Php 1:5), “the truth of the gospel”(Galatians 2:5) and “the defence of the gospel”(Php 1:17). We will see in this book many aspects of how Paul defended the precious truth of the gospel.

Let me mention four points in this connection. Firstly the gospel, the glad tidings, are connected with the Christ, the anointed One, and this speaks of a new order of things that has nothing to do with the law system which was given to man in the flesh. The second aspect is seen in verses 11 and 12. It is not according to man but it is by divine revelation. The third aspect of the gospel is in verse 16 where we see the gospel is a Person, a Person who is presented to the nations. Finally, in verse 23 we see another aspect of the gospel, it is the gospel of the faith; it is connected with the faith not the law system. To summarize, it is of the Christ, the anointed One, a new order; it is given by divine revelation; it is a Person, it presents a Person and it links us with a Person and so there is a relationship with Christ, with the Son of God and it is a faith system over against the law. We will see later in this book the tremendous contrast between the law and the works of the law, and faith and the works of faith.

“But if even we or an angel out of heaven announce as glad tidings to you anything besides what we have announced as glad tidings to you, let him be accursed.” (1:8) This is very strong language. The word “accursed”means “to be under a curse so one cannot be touched.”There is an illustration of this in the book of Joshua when Jericho was going to be destroyed by God, Joshua made it very clear that the people could not take anything from Jericho, because Jericho was under God’s curse but Achan “took of the accursed thing,”“goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight”for himself (Joshua 7:1; Joshua 7:21) and so brought the curse upon the whole people and for doing this he was stoned to death. This word “accursed”means you are under God’s curse and you are untouchable, you are under God’s judgment.

There are today people like the Mormons who believe in the Bible but they believe also in the Book of Mormon which was allegedly given by an angel to Joseph Smith. They are an example of this. Such false teachings touch the very foundation of the Christian faith; otherwise Paul would not use such strong language. Paul even saw the possibility that he himself could fall back into Judaism and present something other than the pure gospel to the Galatians, if that were so he says, “I would be a curse.”

“As we have said before, now also again I say, If any one announce to you as glad tidings anything besides what ye have received, let him be accursed …” (1:9)

We read in Acts 14:1-28, when Paul was on the way back to Antioch at the end of his first missionary journey, that he went through the assemblies he had formed to strengthen them and even then maybe he already sensed the danger, and so he wrote here, “As we have said before”(in v.8). He was eager to visit the brethren again on his second missionary journey “and to see how they do”(Acts 15:36). Perhaps already at the end of the first missionary journey he had warned them of this danger. We see in 1 Corinthians 15:1-58 what the gospel is, and Romans also gives many key verses about the gospel, you can look them up yourself. If something else is presented by anyone, “let him be accursed.”Why?

“…for do I now seek to satisfy men or God? or do I seek to please men?” (1:10a)

Those who taught another gospel were out to satisfy men. In chapter 2 we will see more about them in connection with Acts 15:1-41 where the Pharisees were very prominent. It is not clear whether these were Jewish Christians who were under the influence of this teaching, whether they were the Pharisees, or whether they were the Jews in general, it does not really matter. Possibly they were the Jews eager to have Gentile Christians circumcised because all the religions that existed at that moment were accepted but a new religion would not be accepted in the Roman Empire, and so long as Christianity was seen as part of Judaism there was no problem.

However, Paul presented something entirely new and so the risk would be for the Jews in general that they would be under scrutiny from Rome concerning this new religion, so they might have been very eager to impose circumcision on all those believers so that they would not have this threat coming from Rome that their religion would be examined. Maybe this was the general motive for these opponents to get everybody who claimed to be a Christian circumcised so that they would be seen as Jews.

“If I were yet pleasing men, I were not Christ’s bondman.” (1:10b)

If Paul had sought to please men, for whatever reason, political, religious or some other reason, he would not have been “Christ’s bondman.”Paul was a bondman of Jesus Christ, he was an apostle but at the same time he was a bondservant, he did not hide that. Paul is in many ways an example for us, he said, “Be my followers as I am of Christ Jesus”(1 Corinthians 11:1). Christ is the prime example, the true bondman and we follow Him; Paul also was a bondman and we try to follow him as well. Christ is our model in perfection and Paul is the model Christian, the model follower.