Galatians 1:6-9
Thoughts from Stuart Poteet
Dive Deeper
“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, which is not just another account; but there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, even now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”
Galatians 1:6-9
Behind the Scenes
The apostle Paul wrote the letter of Galatians to Christians living in the region of Galatia around the year of AD 48. These early Christians were struggling under the false teachings of a group called the Judaizers who taught that the gospel was incomplete, and that the blood of Christ and faith in Him as Savior was not sufficient for salvation. They believed, and pressured these early Christians to believe, that without circumcision, following of the Law, and observing the traditional Jewish feasts and sacrifices, salvation could not be attained. In essence, they nullified the blood of Christ, counting it as insignificant and irrelevant to salvation.
It wasn’t that these Judaizers were against gentiles becoming part of the family of God, but that they insisted that they must become Jewish in order to be acceptable to God. The sacrifice of Christ, the atonement of His death on the cross, was not enough in their eyes. They came to these early Christians and began teaching them a compelling “different gospel” that brought about confusion and pulled people away from authentic faith and into legalism and false religion.
Paul wrote this letter to sternly warn them and draw them back into the true gospel of Christ. Paul uses his own life as an example, for he was a devout righteous Jew who still needed the truth of the Gospel. He points out that, “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from the Gentiles; nevertheless, knowing that a person is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law; since by works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” (2:15-16)
See, even in his supposed righteousness, in his following of the law, and in his devout adherence to the traditions of his faith, Paul still needed the redeeming blood of Christ to cover his sins and set him free. He still needed a Savior. No work or religious act was ever enough. And Jesus came to satisfy the debt that we all owed.
Make it Real
I can’t tell you how many times I have talked to someone and they have said something similar to this: “I am a pretty good person;, I’m sure the good I’ve done will outweigh the bad, and I will go to heaven when I die.” My heart literally breaks at those words because I see them for the lie that they are. The enemy of our souls has tricked this world into believing that doing good things is enough, that we can somehow earn our way into heaven. It’s essentially the same lie the Galatians were believing and it continues to this day.
The problem with this thought process is that you have to ask by who’s standard are we measuring? If we are using our own judgement to decide if we are good enough, then the scale is bias and constantly changing. If we compare ourselves against those around us, we will always be able to find someone we can consider worse than ourselves. If we look at only our actions and never at our heart, we will always see the best of ourselves.
But that’s not how it works. See, God is our Creator. We are told in Isaiah 66:1 that heaven is His throne and it belongs to Him. So, the determination for who is allowed to enter falls to the owner- God. It has to be His scale we use. We also know that God is holy and can have nothing to do with sin. So not only does He get to decide by what standard He allows people into heaven, but He has made it clear that nothing sinful can enter His perfect kingdom.
See that is the problem. It’s not about being good enough. In James 2:10, we are told, “For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.” So, we see that it isn’t a sliding scale. It’s about purity. Either something is holy or it is not. There is no such thing as sort of holy or half-way holy. If we have ever sinned, we are stained.
Imagine it this way, if you had a stark white shirt and you spilled a drop of red wine on the front of it, it would now be stained. It doesn’t matter that the majority of the shirt is still stark white. That red spot would forever mark that shirt, leaving it imperfect and flawed.
In the same way, we are stained. It doesn’t matter whether it is a little or a lot. We are marked and we are sinful. But praise God, Jesus came to wash us clean. He came to redeem us and set right what was ruined. He came to give us His holiness, which cannot be stained by sin. He came to erase the guilt of our sin and restore us to perfect holiness before a perfect and just God.
This is the beautiful truth of the true Gospel. Where we fail and cannot ever hope to be holy enough on our own, Jesus died so that He could impart His holiness onto me and you. Anything less than this truth is a false gospel. Anything that says you can somehow do it on your own is a lie. We need Jesus. He is the only way, the only truth, the only door through which we can enter into eternal life.
Crystal Garnett
ACF Digital Discipleship Pastor
End in Prayer
Jesus,
I am helpless without you, lost and hopeless. Forgive me for ever thinking I could do this on my own. Forgive me for any self-righteousness I have had. Help me to rest in Your perfection and not in my own acts. Thank You for being all I need, for dying to redeem me, and for loving me enough to wash me clean. I praise You!
In the matchless and holy name of Jesus Christ,
Amen