Sitting at my desk, drinking a Dr. Pepper out of a can got me thinking
about what happens if you shake a can of soda before opening it. It creates a
huge mess that someone has to clean up (be responsible and clean up your own
mess though!). And in this opening section of the book of Galatians,
immediately following Paul’s introduction, Paul explains that there is a mess for him to clean up
in Galatia because someone shook the people up.
Galatians 1:6-10 says, “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning
away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ ⌊and are turning⌋ to a different gospel— not that there is another ⌊gospel⌋, but
there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the
Messiah. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel
other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said
before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what
you received, a curse be on him! For am I now trying to win the favor of people,
or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please
people, I would not be a slave of Christ.”
And right out of the gate it is clear that Paul is trying to solve a
very big problem. The word for "turning away" can literally mean,
"apostatizing from," and the weight of the whole sentence is, "I
am amazed that so soon you are all apostatizing yourselves." Apostasy is
rightly understood as decisively turning away from the gospel, thus as turning
your back on Christianity, thus as proving that you never really belonged to
Christ. Interestingly enough, Paul leaves the verb in the present tense because
he trusts that his letter will restore them. They "are apostatizing,"
not "have apostatized." This is very important. Paul wants to prevent
furtherance of apostasy. So a key fact to learn is that apostasy is a process.
It doesn't just up and say, "I quit on Jesus." Rather, it starts to
excuse sin or false ideas or lack of love for God, and then eventually ends up
where sin is pursued exclusively, God is hated, and false ideas are accepted as
true. (I for one am going to stop sugarcoating the problem of apostasy with the
word backsliding, because backsliding makes it seems like less of a problem
than it is.) John Owen counsels and exhorts us to watch ourselves closely so
that we don't get to the point of complete apostasy:
[H]e
who is spiritually sensible of the evil of his backsliding is unquestionably in
a recoverable condition; and some may be so who are not yet sensible thereof, so
long as they are capable of being made so by convictions. No man is past hopes
of salvation until he is past all possibility of repentance; and no man is past
all possibility of repentance until he be absolutely hardened against all
gospel convictions (Nature of Apostasy, chapter 12).
The thing to note in Galatians 1:6 is that Paul is amazed. He is
surprised. Apostasy shouldn't be common for Christians. Unfortunately though,
in our day, it seems as if a good majority of those who are called Christians
are in some measure apostatizing from the gospel. Paul would be astounded. Now
while it is true that no believer should ever consider himself immune to
apostasy until safely in heaven, it is also true that our lives shouldn't
evidence signs of apostasy. In context this specifically refers to false
doctrine, but false belief leads to wrong living, as Paul will prove in
chapters 5-6, so let's stand our ground against sin and deceit.
Paul's amazement was in part that they were so quickly and easily
seduced away from the gospel. He writes almost as if to say, "You didn't
even object when the false teachers came in! You just bought their lies hook,
line, and sinker." We need to know what we believe so we can stand up
against this type of deceit. (There is a lot these days in the name of
Christianity, Biblical Studies, and Theology that would encourage Paul to write
another epistle if he were here today; so beware!)
One line of thinking that we should beware of
in current evangelical "scholarship" comes in the area of Pauline
studies. People spend more time trying to learn about Paul through his letters
than they try to learn about Jesus through his letters. Paul preached (and
wrote) Christ crucified; that was all. Some scholars will take the phrase that
follows "turning away from" and say, "Paul is amazed that they
are deserting him." This is foolishness of the ultimate degree. Paul could
care less if people deserted him; look throughout his letters to find proof of
that. Paul's ultimate desire is that people follow Jesus; the specific minister
of choice is no big deal. The reason scholars even have an argument here is
because of intrusions into the text throughout the history of its transmission.
(I plan to write a whole post in the near future on the Bible's trustworthiness
so this discussion here will be brief; just know intrusions and variants don't
knock against us at all.) There are 5 main ways to take the verse:
•
From the one who called you by the grace of Christ
•
From the one who called you by the grace of Jesus Christ
•
From the one who called you by the grace of Christ Jesus
•
From the one who called you by the grace of God
• From the one who called
you by grace
Most
English translations follow the first of the above list which is fine because
it is basically the best of both worlds. However, most of the time the shortest
text is preferred because it can explain the other variants. In this case
someone was probably trying to explain where grace comes from, and then
different people tried expressing it differently (some are Christ, some are
Jesus Christ, etc.). It's theologically accurate, but it also makes Paul the
one they were deserting. The truth is that the one who truly calls anyone by
grace is Jesus, whether his name is in the text or not, and if someone is
apostatizing from the one who called them by grace, then they are apostatizing
from Jesus. No man can truly be apostatized from. Paul wasn't out to please
man, and he wasn't seeking to be pleased by men either (cf. 1:10).
Then Paul explains where they are being apostatized to. This lasts from
the end of verse 6 all the way through verse 7. It reads, "⌊and are turning⌋ to a different gospel— not that there is another ⌊gospel⌋, but
there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the
Messiah." Paul explains that they've turned to a different gospel, but
then explains that there is no other gospel. To believe anything but the gospel
of grace through faith is to claim another gospel (good news about the way to
salvation), but to say salvation is anything but grace through faith is not the
gospel at all. And the great thing about the whole book of Galatians is that it
defines and explains what the ONE and ONLY gospel is. (Keep reading the updates
to this series to grow in your understanding of it.)
So Paul points out that they haven't really turned to another gospel,
but he can't just leave it there. So he does something unique in all his
letters. While he always has opponents, this is the only letter in which he
goes after them explicitly. He gives a face to them. He says, "I disagree
with these people and I want everyone to know it." I also think it's
important to note that this was Paul's first letter. (As new believers who
stumble upon a key point of theology, we are quick to call everyone else
foolish and make a whole list of things we are against rather than things we
are for; I don't think I'm alone in this at least...) Since Paul does it here,
and since this is the Word of God, there is no sin necessarily in this tactic.
"Necessarily" is necessary because of the words Paul uses to describe
the "some" he is writing against. They are people "who are
troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah." This is
key. Most of the things we end up attacking others about are less than changes
to the good news of the gospel. Timing of creation, events of the end times,
and whether alcohol and tobacco are right or wrong for Christians are not
things to debate and divide over. Paul was dividing from these people because
they were changing the gospel—a change to the gospel ruins the gospel and makes
the result not the gospel—and shaking up the Galatians. Since the Galatians
were shook up and confused, they wanted to find footing for themselves, and
also wanted to look good in the eyes of these new teachers so they gave in to
the teaching. It created a mess, and Paul knew that they'd started the process
of complete apostasy from the gospel and he was out to stop that.
Paul is so adamant about the fact that this is the only gospel that he
says in verses 8-9, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach
to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As
we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel
contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!" Paul goes so far to
prove that the gospel he preached was the true gospel that he says even he
should be condemned to hell if he starts preaching anything else. The gospel is
what saves, the only thing that saves; if works are added to the gospel, it can
no longer save; if the message is in any way altered, it can no longer save;
and since anything but the gospel can't save, then it follows that anything
that isn't the gospel actually damns; and if the message damns, Paul says the
messenger should be damned too. And he's consistent enough to include himself
in there too.
Paul loved others enough to try to keep them from being damned (cf.
Romans 9:1-5). He was amazed at the fact that anyone would abandon the gospel
of grace for something more. But, it's understandable why they would want to
add works. I (at least) am often guilty of the same. We want some proof that we
have been saved, so we do things so we can look at them and say, "well of
course God loves me. How could he not, when I do all these things?" However,
that defeats the emphasis on faith in Christianity. God's righteous one lives
by faith (Habakkuk 2:4) not works. This is the first step to a Christless
Christianity, which is no Christianity, so let's love others like Paul loved
them and warn people about trusting themselves instead of trusting God. Paul
loved the Galatians enough to tell them they had been deceived, but he also
loved the purity of gospel ministry enough to tell the false teachers they were
wrong (cf. Titus 3:10-11; James 3:1). However, before getting back to either,
Paul will elaborate on the fact that he didn't send himself or pull his gospel
out of a hat.
But first, Paul makes a transitional statement regarding his ministry.
He says in verse 10, "For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or
God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please
people, I would not be a slave of Christ." God was his passion, humility
was his method. Paul wants them to know that this letter isn't him blowing off
steam. This letter isn't him just attacking people. He isn't trying to get
people to like him more. His goal is to please Christ. His goal is to get
himself out of the way and let the Spirit of God do its work. Paul loved God
and wanted to glorify God, and that mindset led him to love people enough to
want to see God glorified in them.
So that sums up verses 6-10 of chapter 1. We've seen Paul appalled at
apostasy, and want to change people's minds. We've seen Paul appalled at false
teaching, and want to get them silenced. And we've seen Paul appalled at
accusations of man-pleasing, and his desire to only glorify Christ. Do we see
people walking away from the faith, even if just maybe starting to dabble in
some form of sin, and actually see it as a big deal and call them back to Christ
(or even just remind them of the gospel of Christ, including the bad news that
initiates it)? Do we see people propagating something less than the gospel and
tell them to change? Do we try to please people or God? The answer to all of
these questions will show us just how much we're living in love right now.
Maybe you don't know Christ. I speak of the gospel, how there's only
one, but I haven't laid it out in these pages yet. Here it is: you've done
things that seek to bring you glory and ignore the glory due to God alone.
That's idolatry of self and it smacks God in the face. However, God loved you
enough to send Jesus to the earth to live a life perfectly for God's glory, to
die on a cross in your place, and to rise again from the dead. All He requires
is that you believe that truth, and if you do, grace has been made yours, and
you can walk in the new way of life that Paul will describe in chapter five of this
book. We're getting there, but I beg you today to put your faith in Jesus,
watch out for apostasy, and love others well.
Til next time.
Soli Deo
Gloria
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