Galatians 1:6-12 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
We see in the above focus Paul greatly concerned about the direction of the churches in Galatia. He paid a big price for their freedom from sin and death. Now he hears of them creeping back into following the law as part of their freedom from the captivity of sin. They were watering down the redemption plan of God through Christ alone and not though man’s efforts. In Galatia, he almost lost his life through stoning because of broadcasting the salvation message of believing in Christ alone as the way to God. The Jews hated this message, following him from city to city with intent to kill him or at least to drive him out of the province of Galatia. Many years later after he had written to the churches in Galatia, they caught up with Paul in Jerusalem, rousing the Jerusalem Jews to kill Paul. When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.” (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.) (Acts 21:27-28) The Roman soldiers’ intervention into this scene saved Paul from being killed. The Romans arrested Paul on the spot and put him in chains. While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. (Acts 21:31) Even then, the crowd was so bold and ferocious that the soldiers had to put Paul on their shoulders and carry him away to their garrison or Paul would have been murdered in their hands by the Jews. The Jews from what we know now as Turkey hated Paul, hated his message, hated Christ. They wanted to eliminate the Good News from the face of the earth. Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written earlier in Macedonia during Paul’s third missionary trip. He writes because he is concerned about the watering down the message of redemption, contaminating it with the law and its regulations. The Christian Jews felt circumcision was necessary to be right with God. This perhaps was to appease the Jewish community who thought rightness with God demanded that one must be circumcised. For the Jew, circumcision was the only sign that you affirmed the covenant between God and Abraham. Abraham showed his fealty to God and his words by having himself circumcised at the age of 99 and having his servants and Ismael circumcised. This physical sign made them followers of Yahweh. Cutting away of the flesh was an act of faith on Abraham’s part, believing God’s words more than what he saw or experienced in the flesh. Even though he and Sarah were beyond childbearing age, he believed they would have a son, and even though he did not own one foot of Canaan, God would give Canaan to him and his descendants. Since Abraham was the father of the Jewish faith in God, even the Christian Jews were troubled by Paul’s teaching of Christ alone as the only way to God.
Paul was not putting aside the law; he was advocating that Christ fulfilled the law. When Paul talked to the leaders of the Jerusalem church, he explained that the law and its regulations do more than just harm the redemption message; it kills the message, making God’s plan of salvation of no effect. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:4-6) Paul says twice in the above focus, let those people who teach such a damnable message be under God’s curse. Even if an angel teaches such a message let him be cursed. Of course, the fallen angels and demons preach this message of man’s effort to please God to lead people away from God’s redemptive plan. Following the law leads only to condemnation, for a person will always fall short of God’s holy perfection. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (John 3:17-18) Paul, a rabbi of rabbis, knew the Good News would be rejected by the religious leaders. He understood the religious leaders would lose their position of deference if the message of Jesus Christ alone became the salvation message for all Jews. He knew he was picking a fight with strong people, powerful leaders within the Jewish community. Rather than to back down on this message, to water down the plan of redemption through Jesus, he would face their anger, their rage, and he would experience horrendous persecution and threats of death all his life. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. But his message came directly from Jesus: he was blind for three days because Jesus intervened into his life on the road to Damascus. He remembers those day when his life was lost in blindness. Now he was determined to lead men and women out of spiritual blindness. Under great harassment and trials, he brought the light of God to a dark world, desperately lost in sin.
Paul’s preaching was pure, Christ alone: only his work on the cross counts for man’s salvation; no other work is needed to know God. This is the work man must believe—that salvation comes only through the work of Jesus Christ. Mary believed God’s words, “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38) Mary believed the angel’s words rather than the reality of her circumstances: being unmarried, not knowing a man. Abraham believed God’s word, even though not understanding how Isaac could come from Sarah and his old flesh, past childbearing age. Paul was now traveling through Asia, preaching faith in Jesus’ words and work, not man’s efforts to please God. To the Jews, he was teaching the Outer Court to the temple where sacrificing of animals took place was no longer necessary. He taught that the Holy Place where the gold candlestick was placed, and where the incense altar was, and where the gold plated table with twelve loaves of bread was, were no longer necessary to please God. The work in the Holy Place reflected man’s effort of getting close to God. Jesus on the cross tore down the partition between man and God. No longer would the Holy Place of man’s efforts be needed, for now man could enter the Holy of Holies because of the work of Jesus, not man’s work. We see Jesus fulfilling the work of the law by being sacrificed for the sin of mankind. God pays the price for man’s rebellion to his ways, not man paying the price. Jesus became the ransom to get mankind out of the kingdom of darkness: Egypt. The Red Sea will be broached; the devil and his cohorts will be swallowed up by the blood of Jesus Christ. The morning light of heaven: Christ himself, will be revealed to the whole world. Paul paid a heavy price to reveal Jesus Christ, but his price was nothing compared with Jesus. As Jesus was ending his fleshly existence on earth, suffering and dying on the cross, He knew God’s mission for him was coming to an end. As dying flesh, he was thirsty. Knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “IT IS FINISHED!” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28-30) No other price has to be paid for man’s salvation; no other work has to be done to know God and possess eternal life; IT IS FINISHED! Now and forever IN CHRIST is total victory over sin and death. We are now known as Children of God. Someday when Christ returns, we will be transformed in a twinkling of an eye, meeting him as He comes to us. Then there will be no more tears, no more heartaches, no more separation; we all will be present with him forever. Paul in his letter to the Galatians is shocked that this glorious message of eternal life through faith in Jesus would be watered down, causing them to miss this time of reunion with Christ, not getting to experience eternal life with God himself. We must be ever diligent to prevent anything from getting in the way of the Good News that Christ alone is the way to our salvation.
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