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I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God (Galatians 1:6, NLT).
The Apostle Paul says to the Philippians, “Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.” With the Corinthians (though the church in Corinth had all sorts of problems), Paul writes, “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.” And to the Romans (he hadn’t visited Rome yet), he emphasizes, “I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God.”
But in the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul doesn’t give a greeting or a thanksgiving but a direct rebuke.
Uh, oh . . . what did the Galatians do? Let’s find out.
I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all (1:6-7a).
The Good News of the Gospel emphasizes grace and freedom received by faith.
Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law (2:16a).
But Judaizers (supposed followers of Jesus who emphasized Jesus plus the Law for salvation) had become a predominant influence in the Church of Galatia. Paul emphasizes the difficulty of following works for salvation.
I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die (2:21).
We may not have literal Judaizers in the church, but the spirit of works infects the church today. Have you heard someone say at a funeral, “He was a good man. I’m sure that he is in heaven watching out for us”?
The Apostle Paul visited Galatia on his first missionary journey about A.D. 46 and wrote the book of Galatians around A.D. 47 to 48, making it his first epistle.
You can imagine Paul’s affinity for the Galatians as they were the first fruits of his ministry and then his frustration upon returning to his base in Antioch after that first trip, only to hear that the Galatians were synchronizing Judaism with Jesus.
Paul immediately writes to the Galatians.
Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross (3:1).
When I write the OG (Old Guy) version of a book of the Bible, I’m not writing as a scholar or studied commentator but as someone who has read every book of the Bible many times and developed a theme for my personal growth from each book.
This theme of Galatians is faith in the Spirit of God. Listen to Paul tell the Galatians what they will miss if they follow works instead of grace . . .
After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? (3:3).
The last three chapters of Galatians can be summed in one verse . . .
But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us (5:5).
We have a choice regarding our faith: We can trust in our own ideas and works or, by faith, allow the Spirit of God to set us free.