Galatians vies with
1st Thessalonians to be the earliest written New Testament document. Scholars
disagree as to which was first. However,
that it needed to be written so soon after the Early Church was up and running
(1:6-7) says so much about the spiritual danger we all face and need to be
alert to: the Galatian church – made up of newly converted Christian believers
– had lost their grip on the Gospel. Having been converted by trusting in the
real Gospel about Jesus (1:4), they had so quickly and easily drifted away to
embrace and believe a false Gospel propagated by false teachers
(again!1:8-10). It was a sorry-mess of
bolstering up what they were told were the inadequacies and the weaknesses and
the insufficiencies of Paul’s Gospel with mandatory adherence and obedience to
Old Testament laws and religious rules, rituals and regulations.
It's possible that
what the Galatian converts were doing, under the influence of these teachers
was begun with the best of intentions, possibly they were quite pleased with
themselves. Not only had they embraced Jesus as the Messiah and Saviour, but
now, as a mark of their enthusiasm and dedication to God, they were keen to
submit to Old Testament laws with a zeal they perhaps hadn’t had before. They
wanted to grow in their new faith, how better than to fulfil all those things
they possibly didn’t care too much about in their unconverted state. How better
to grow as a church than to encourage others within the fellowship to do the
same.
But rather than
pleasing Paul with their renewed religious activity they were breaking his
heart, for they were returning to the slavery of
'we-have-to-obey-the-law-in-order-to-keep-in-with-God-and-secure-His-blessing'
(5:1). They had “perverted” or "distorted" the Gospel (1:8); they
were turning the Gospel upside-down, back-to-front, inside-out. Why? They were
in effect saying: Jesus wasn’t enough; the Spirit was not enough. That is, Jesus and the Cross were not
sufficient to save them (so 2:15-21), "so we need to keep the Law";
and the Holy Spirit was not sufficient to keep them and sanctify them, "so
we need to keep the Law" (so 3:1-5). As a result, lives were now filled
with legalistic pride and self-righteousness.
However, in turn, this inevitably leads to anxiety, despair, fear,
uncertainty, a breakdown of church relationships, and a loss of hope - issues
that are addressed both directly and indirectly in this incendiary letter.
In this section,
note: Paul uncharacteristically offers no
thanksgiving for the Galatians' faith or love, as he does for other churches
(see Philippians 1:3-6; Colossians 1:3-4); when you turn from the Gospel, you
turn from Jesus Himself (1:6); the Gospel of God's saving grace through the
death of Jesus is not a message devised or dreamed up by anyone, but comes directly from God
Himself (1:10-11); it was the undeserved grace of the Gospel that changed
Paul's religiously zealous life (1:13-24); from the start, Christians have
struggled to understand that we are accepted by God not by what we do but by
what Christ has done for us (2:1-10), that even Peter got it wrong (2:11-14);
for by keeping the law - no-one can be made right in God's sight (2:15-21);
Paul points the Galatians back to the cross (3:1) and to their Spirit-endowed
new birth (v2-3) as the way forward in their life of faith; God's ways in the
Old Testament do not contradict the New Testament Gospel, rather the promises
He made to Abraham and Moses find their fulfilment in Jesus (3:6-29).
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