The Book of Galatians #2
Galatians 1:6-9
So the whole point of Paul writing Galatians is to settle the issue raised by these false teachers.
One, is Paul an apostle? Two, is salvation by grace? Three, does a Christian live under legalism or does he live under grace? And we're going to cover all three of those.
Remember, the first two chapters deal primarily with Paul's credentials. The second two chapters deal with salvation by grace and the third two chapters, the Christian and legalism.
And as I mentioned last week, Paul just jumps in with both feet into what’s going on. He just condenses things down to the reason he is writing, and he does it in rather fiery terms. He's tremendously upset because of the false teachers.
And there are three reasons that are kind of spilled out of his words here.
First of all we see
1. His Wonder
Verse 6
He’s writing because he can't believe they have defected so soon.
That's a very dramatic expression. There is no commendation at all. This is the only letter that Paul ever wrote that is included in the Bible where he doesn't say, "Hey, you're nice people. I love you. Thanks for being who you are, and praying for you." He says nothing like that. He just fires out. He says, "I marvel." What this word really means is, "It's incredible to me. I'm astonished. I cannot fathom this. It is absolutely incredulous that you have denied grace."
Now this word that Paul uses when he says, “I marvel”, he uses in only two ways.
One is when he talks about the wonder that will fill the hearts of those who see Christ coming in His glory.
The other is here where he can’t believe people would deny grace as the basis of salvation.
He uses the same word concerning the wonder of the return of Christ for the shock of seeing these Galatians turn their back on the concepts of grace.
His disbelief is not that false teachers were on the scene and peddling lies. He was amazed that the Galatians bought what they were selling so quickly.
Notice what he says in verse 1.
“turning away so soon”
He either means so quickly, in the sense of easily or readily, or else it means so soon after I've been with you. Either way, he is shocked that it is happening.
If nothing else that underlines the significance of continued and repeated and habitual study and worship at home, personally, and with the body of Christ corporately.
There is something to be said for going to church week in, week out, for establishing a teaching ministry that repeats and repeats. Why? Because so soon we forget. They had the best teacher there was, and the false prophets came along and undermined everything he did, and did it quickly.
Now, notice the phrase “turning away” or the word "removed." "I marvel you are turning away so quickly” or “are so soon removed." That is literally the word to defect. It is used in a military sense of a revolt. It is translated in old lexicons to transfer one's allegiance. It's a defection. It's a deserter. It's the word used for a turncoat. Paul says, "I can't believe it. You're already spiritual deserters. You're turncoats."
A literal translation is "You are in the process of removing yourselves." There is a dual responsibility that is heard in that phrase. For a Christian to buy what a false teacher is buying is his own responsibility. Paul blames the false teachers for what they do, but he sure blames the Galatians for what they did. They're responsible. And they're just giving up without a struggle. I can't believe so quickly you are in the process of defecting, of removing yourselves, from the grace of Christ.
A verse later he mentions the “gospel of Christ”.
What is it they were turning from? It is the fact that God in grace gave us His Son to die. God in grace calls us to Himself. God in grace justifies us when we believe. Everything in salvation is grace. "For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."
No part of salvation is yours. And this is what Paul preached, the grace of Christ. Grace simply means God's freedom to love and to grant the gift of salvation apart from anything you are or anything you do. That's grace.
So he says, and I love this, look at this, keep it in mind, "I am absolutely astonished that you are in the process of removing yourselves from Him."
They were not removing themselves from a system or a religion or a philosophy. They were removing themselves from a person. From God. From Him who called you into the grace of Christ.
That is so important. You remove yourself from Buddha or Mohammed or Krishna, and it’s no big deal. But if you turn your back on the gospel of grace and you're turning your back on God. You cannot forsake grace without forsaking God.
Well look at it in depth later, but notice Galatians 5:4.
You are fallen away from grace as a principle. He's not saying you've lost your salvation.
He's saying, "If you try to get saved by law, you've fallen away from the only principle that can save, and you've rendered the work of Christ on the cross meaningless." And so he says, "You've turned away from God, who called you."
Notice he also says, "to a different gospel."
They were not just forsaking God and grace and becoming atheists or secular humanists, they were exchanging the gospel of Christ for a different approach. The Greek word means “ a different kind”.
He says, "You've defected to another system, and I can’t believe it”.
All through this letter we will find him coming back to this amazement at what their were doing.
3:1-5
4::9-15
5:7
He just can't believe that they have abandoned it.
And so, first of all, Paul wonders. He just wonders at the Galatians' defection. "How could you do it?"
Secondly, we see
2. His Wisdom
verse 7
What does he mean when he says, “It’s another, but it’s not another?”
Here’s what he is saying, I think: You have defected from the true gospel to a different kind of gospel which isn’t the gospel at all.”
It may look the same and use the same words and point in the same direction, but it is not the same. They don’t accomplish the same things.
The thing that is deceptive about false teachers and teachings is that they sound so right; it sounds like the same gospel.
Any good false teaching will include Christ dying and rising again and being the Messiah and believing in Him. And in Galatia they included that. All they did was add works at the beginning and works at the end, without changing the middle. Therefore they had a perversion of the truth
What they wind up with is what Paul mentions in verse 7. These Judean Judaizers troubled the church.
It means to be agitated, to be shaken. And this little series of churches in Galatia were rattled to the very roots, because the gospel of grace was being attacked. And they were teaching salvation by faith plus law works. That was a perversion.
You know what the word "pervert" literally means? Reverse. You add one work to grace, and you've reversed it and turned it into a works system. They weren't just fouling up the plan of salvation. They were reversing it, and turning it into a works system. You cannot modify grace. You just destroy it.
The greatest enemy of the church is not those who openly oppose it, but those who are inside, tampering with God's Word. Whenever I hear a preacher or somebody that claims to be a theologian who denies the inspiration of Scripture, it just sets me on edge. To hear some so-called preacher place salvation in the context of works is a perversion of the gospel of Christ.
And so Paul, in his wisdom, explains about the false teachers' deception and exposes them for who they really are.
We see His wonder at their defection, his wisdom regarding the false teachers' deception. He shows them what they were doing
Lastly, we see
3. His Warning
His warning is about God's destruction.
verses 8-9
Now, I'm sure that the Galatians were really impressed with the credentials that these false teachers had. They probably said, "We came from the Jerusalem church, and we came from James," although James denies, in chapter 15 of Acts, verse 24, that he had anything to do with them.
Maybe they were saying "We are the official representatives of the church. We're from the Jerusalem church. That Paul, he's some fly-by-night from Antioch. What does he know?"
And so they came in and they really laid their credentials out, and they moved right in to pervert the truth. And their perversion was legalism.
So Paul says, let me give you a hypothetical situation: "If I come back to you, or if one of my buddies comes back to you, or even if you have an angel arrive out of heaven, and he deviates one iota from what you have heard, let him be cursed. Reject it. I don't care who gives it.”
Have you ever noticed how difficult sometimes it is to reject a false system because the people in it are so nice? Paul says, "I don't care if it's me or if it's a beautiful angel from heaven, let him be accursed." So many buy false doctrine because the package is so nice. Don't you know Satan knows that?
Then in verse 9 he moves from the hypothetical to the actual.
verse 9
Do you see what he's saying? "First of all," he says, "I don't care if it's me, one of my friends, or an angel out of God's holy heaven, if he preaches anything else, let him be devoted to destruction. And "if there's anybody there doing it now, let him be anathema."
Let God destroy me and let Him destroy His own holy angels if we preach a lie.
Now, what should He do to these false teachers who are in fact doing that very thing?
And here Paul really bears down. He uses the word "accursed."
The idea of God cursing something is an idea we don’t deal with very often. Generally we like to think about love and grace and mercy. But Paul, in very strong language, deals with these who are accursed.
And the word that literally means devoted to destruction is the word "anathema." And that is the word that is used at the end of verse 8 and at the end of verse 9. And throughout the history of God's dealings with man, there have been certain things which God has devoted to destruction.
Time won’t allow us to look at those, but it is a fascinating study with many scriptural illustrations.
I’ll just mention a couple to get the thought in our mind.
In Joshua, God declared the city of Jericho would be accursed. And when He got through, there was nothing left. What was salvageable and could be used to honor God was taken by Israel; the rest was left alone.
Some of the Israelites got greedy, and sinned against God by taken some of the cursed leftovers. In particular, Achan is singled out in Scripture as hiding some of the loot, and when Iwarel started losing battles, Joshua couldn’t understand why. It was because of the sin in the camp.
Nobody touches what God has cursed and gets by with it.
That’s just one Old Testament example; there are many others.
Here Paul is specifically talking about false teachers.
Why such strong language? Because the primary target of all false teachers is to attack the doctrine of salvation. You know why? Well, it's the only way they can guarantee that the soul is damned and kept from God.
If someone ever gets to the truth of salvation, whatever else Satan might try to do really doesn't get the job done, because you're already belonging to God.
So God’s response is to consider them “accursed”.
What should our response be?
2 John 1:7-11
We are to have nothing to do with false teachers. People always claim they are going to tyr and stay and change it and God’s using us and blah, blah, blah.
I'm not going to tell you what the Lord says or doesn’t say. But if it were me, I would pack up my Bible and get out of there so fast they wouldn't know what hit them. You know why? I would never subject myself to a cursed teacher.
Should we stay in the liberal church? Should we stay in the Roman Catholic church? I don't think there's any way you can do that.
Every so often someone will marry someone from a false church and go through their indoctrination and throw away everything they believe.
And I’m telling you it is a disaster waiting to happen. I’m not going along to get along. The warning of the Word of God is, you run from false teachers. You don't subject yourself to them.
And by the way, I’m not going to their church just because it’s family. John says, “To receive them is to be a part of their evil deeds”.
Right? It's pretty clear. Paul says, "Let them be accursed."
False teachers and false teachings are destined to destruction. There is only one other group in Scripture called “accursed”. What is the other anathema?
1 Corinthians 16:22
"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema."
Only two things in the New Testament devoted to destruction: false teachers, people who don't love the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don’t want to be in either group.
Let's pray.
