READ: Gal. 1:6-9: … turning away so soon from Him who called you …
Paul had already warned against false teachers on a previous visit (Acts 18:23). At that time, it didn’t seem like they would listen to the false teachers. He now finds it incomprehensible that they are doing so. How is it possible that the wonderful gospel of grace and eternal salvation through Christ is being exchanged for a teaching where human works take center stage and man saves himself!
It is a matter of wonder when the Lord God Himself calls you to share in the grace of Christ! But how can it be that you then reject such a gift and allow yourself to be led to a so-called gospel that is not a Gospel, not good news?
Paul says the true Gospel is being distorted. They have been confused by the false teachers. These have presented everything in such a way that, by appealing to the Gospel, they have misled the church members.
Even in our time, distortion and deception are highly relevant. This also applies to the gospel of sovereign grace. The teaching of the “New Perspective on Paul” disconnects “justification by faith” from the cross of Golgotha. According to this false teaching, justification doesn’t mean “acquittal” but simply that someone is also welcome in the church.
According to this teaching, Galatians isn’t about earning salvation through works, but rather about being allowed to belong to God’s Kingdom only if you, as a Gentile, adapt to the Jews. This too is a distortion. It undermines the grace of reconciliation, which is necessary for your acquittal. This, too, has led many astray.
It feels “good” not to emphasize sin and the grace of reconciliation (v.4!) but to see faith as a “ticket of admission.” But Paul says, as before: whoever preaches another gospel, different from the apostolic teaching, is accursed, even if it were an angel from heaven.
Accursed means: eternally lost under God’s wrath. We, too, are warned to test everything against God’s Word!
Are we also at risk of losing the true gospel? How?
Sing: Ps. 52:3,4