Every culture has unique expressions that can seem foreign to others. For one who is astonished, the British have the expression that one is “gob-smacked.” “Gob” is slang for “mouth.” To be smacked is to be slapped with an open hand. So someone who is “gob-smacked” opens his mouth, claps his hand over it, and lifts his eyebrows in amazement. Paul was gob-smacked. He was amazed and astonished. He was shocked and outraged. Thus (his address to the Galatians) seethes with righteous indignation. (Ryken, P. G. (2005). Galatians. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (pp. 15–16). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.)
In Galatia, it was the accursed false teachers, specifically the Judaizers, who were plaguing the Galatian churches. With the book of Galatians as Paul’s only epistle in which he has no word of commendation for those to whom he writes, after his brief salutation he immediately launches into the reason for his writing: his extreme concern and perplexity about the false teachers who were undercutting the gospel of grace he had so carefully preached and expounded while he ministered in Galatia. He was deeply grieved that the truth of God’s sovereign and gracious offer of redemption through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone was being corrupted by the teachings of salvation by works, namely, that a) a Gentile had to become a Jew surgically and ceremonially before he could become a Christian and that b) all Christians had to obey and honor the Jewish law and traditions in order to obtain and maintain righteousness from the Lord.
How do you think people come to faith? What difference does it make if you believe that you can either earn your salvation or sustain it by the things you do? What does this say to others about our power or about God’s expectations? The answers found here impact faith, assurance and who we say God is.
In Galatians 1:6–9 we see the dangers of: 1) Defection (Galatians 1:6), 2) Deception (Galatians 1:7), and 3) Destruction (Galatians 1:8-9) of those who would pervert the Gospel of Grace.
First, the Apostle Paul defends the primacy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in warning of the:
1) Defection (Galatians 1:6) from the Gospel
Galatians 1:6 [6]I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- (ESV)
Paul could hardly comprehend that the Galatian believers were already abandoning his apostolic teaching. He was astonished/amazed (thaumazo, a strong word, meaning to be astounded) and bewildered. He could not fathom why they were so quickly deserting Him, that is, God, who called them by means of the grace of Christ. He was not surprised by what the false teachers were doing but was shocked by the favorable response they received from Christians in Galatia.
• There are many things to be concerned about for someone we care for. We care about their financial, mental and physical health. As important as these elements are, someone’s spiritual health is of eternal concern. Money, emotion or physical health, will all pass. But eternal life is dependent on someone’s spiritual state in relation to Christ. If we would intervene if someone was in distress in lesser areas, why would we not intervene in terms of something that is of eternal significance?
The apostle was especially surprised that the Galatians defection from the Gospel had come so quickly. Tacheos (quickly) can mean either easily and readily or soon, and sometimes a mixture of all three, as was probably the case with the Galatians’ deserting the true gospel. The believers apparently offered little and ineffective resistance to the false teachers and therefore were fickle in their allegiance to the truth. They quickly and easily came under the influence of heretical doctrines.
Quote: John Stott has wisely observed: “To tamper with the gospel is always to trouble the church. You cannot touch the gospel and leave the church untouched, because the church is created and lives by the gospel. Indeed the church’s greatest troublemakers (now as then) are not those outside who oppose, ridicule and persecute it, but those inside who try to change the gospel.”( J. R. W. Stott, Only One Way: The Message of Galatians (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1968), 23.)
• I only recommend it to theologically mature believers, but it is profitable at times to read, watch or listen to heretical material and unpack scripturally why it is so. The obvious danger from those young in the faith is that the bad material may influence negatively, but for those mature spiritually, it is a useful exercise to test your theological ability, see where your weaknesses are and study up on those areas to enable you to have a solid biblical faith as well as the ability to defend it against false teachers.
o Paul for example did this in Athens in order to answer the critics of the faith in a manner that addressed their particular theological errors. (Acts 17).
The Galatian Christians not only were being confused and weakened in their confidence to live by grace but were actually deserting. This verb is PRESENT TENSE, indicating the Galatians were in the process of turning away. The term behind deserting (metatithemi) was used of military desertion, which was punishable by death during time of war, much as in modern times. Although the false teachers of Galatia instigated the turning, the Galatians willingly participated in it. Meaning, they were relying and living under the bondage of legalism instead of understanding, living and teaching grace. The false teachers were accountable for their corruption of God’s truth, but the Galatian Christians were also accountable for being so easily misled by it to pursue legalism. (Utley, R. J. (1997). Paul’s First Letters: Galatians and I & II Thessalonians (Vol. Volume 11, p. 10). Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.)
To desert the gospel of grace that Paul had taught them was not simply to desert a doctrine but to desert Him, the God who had called them to salvation. Called is an aorist participle and could be translated, “who called you once and for all” (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13–14; 2 Tim. 1:8–9; 1 Pet. 1:15).
• In scripture there are two calls. There is a general call that human preachers make to repentance and faith. This is an external call.
• There is another call that is internally done by God. It is an effectual call to salvation (cf. Rom. 8:30).
Please turn to Romans 5
For the Romans 8 chain of salvation we see the effectual working of God’s internal call:Romans 8:30 [30]And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (ESV)
In Galatians 1:6 Paul continues to explain that the only gospel of God is the gospel of grace, which is the gospel of divine redemption totally apart from any work or merit of human effort Grace is not only the blessing upon which believers are redeemed but it is also the blessing upon which they are sustained.
Romans 5:1-2 [5:1]Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV) [2]Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (ESV)
What Paul is saying in Romans 5 and in Galatians 1:6 then is that we live in grace from the moment of salvation, and if grace ever stopped, we would lose our undeserved salvation and perish in sin. The grace of Christ therefore, is God’s free and sovereign act of love and mercy in granting salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus, apart from anything people are or can do, and of God’s sustaining of salvation to glorification. What Paul is seeing in Galatia is an absurdity then. It is absurd to accept a gracious salvation and then endeavor to maintain righteousness through human efforts, ceremonies, and ritual.
Paul would not tolerate a single drop of legalism being intermixed with God’s pure grace. In summary then, to desert/turn away from any part of the grace of Christ is to turn away from the power of God to that of human effort. The word translated “desert” (metatithesthai)… extended metaphorically to one who had changed allegiance from one country to another, a political traitor, or one who had switched sides in an armed conflict, a military deserter. Paul wanted them to realize that the God who called them out of pagan idolatry to salvation and new life in Jesus Christ did so on no other basis than his own good pleasure and gratuitous favor. To forget this is worse than betraying an army or a country; it is to betray the true and living God. ( George, T. (1994). Galatians (Vol. 30, p. 91). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
• Paul is not speaking of losing salvation that is already received but of polluting the pure stream of living grace by putting a barrier between oneself and Christ and therefore of being severed, or separated, from His power and healthy fellowship with Him.
• We do poor service to Christ and his church when we indiscriminately lead men and women to profess faith in Christ but then leave them vulnerable, like the exposed infants of ancient Rome, to the ravenous wolves that seek their destruction.(George, T. (1994). Galatians (Vol. 30, p. 90). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
The Judaizers were promoting a different gospel, a completely contrary and ineffective means of being right with God. In the words of the entire book of Galatians, although, they had “begun by the Spirit,” some of the true believers in Galatia were trying to be “perfected by the flesh” (Gal. 3:3). Although they had “come to know God, or rather to be known by God,” they had turned “back again to the weak and worthless elemental things” (Gal. 4:9); and although they had been “running well,” they were now being “hindered … from obeying the truth” (Gal. 5:7). The counterfeit gospel preached by the Judaizers was based upon the work of Christ plus human endeavour, such as circumcision and Jewish ceremonies. …To add to the gospel—whether works, sacraments, baptism, or anything else—is to detract from the gospel. Obviously, the success of counterfeiting depends upon the similarity of the forgery to the real thing. We are not deceived by monopoly money, so there is no risk of someone’s accepting payment with it. When someone, however, pays you with a counterfeit $20 bill, and you believe you are receiving real money, it is serious. You have been defrauded of $20. The idea of counterfeit is what Paul means by ‘different.’ The gospel taught by the Judaizers was a counterfeit and, because it was a counterfeit, it was deadly; it was soul-damning. (Pipa, J. A., Jr. (2010). Galatians: God’s Proclamation of Liberty (p. 29). Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications.)
Illustration: Embracing heretical doctrines leading to Apostasy is likened to “a story which is told of a man who, resisting the cost of oats for his mule, decided to gradually substitute sawdust in its diet. Everything went fine for a while—but by the time the mule was satisfied with sawdust, he died. The same is true spiritually. The changeover from truth to error is sometimes a slow process, and many people often don’t always know the difference. But, before you know it, the falsehood kills. (Michael P. Green. (2000). 1500 illustrations for biblical preaching. Includes indexes. (23). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.)
The Apostle Paul defends the primacy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in warning of the:
2) Deception (Galatians 1:7) by those who would pervert the Gospel
Galatians 1:7 [7]not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (ESV)
The distorted teachings of the Judaizers presumed to be a form of the gospel, but Paul declares that in one sense, their teaching is “different gospel” (v. 6) but not that there is another one. There is only one message of good news, the gospel of salvation by God’s sovereign grace through the gift of faith. Any message that is either more or less than that is not the good news in any sense.
There are two important words here that Paul describes the Gospel. Paul compares a different Gospel in verse six and says that not that there is another one in verse 7. In verse seven, he uses the Greek word Heteros means “another of a different kind”; whereas (in verse six) he uses the Greek word allos indicates “another of the same variety.” Paul says that the Galatian drift toward “a different gospel” is not a mere variation, but in reality the acceptance of a view that is a totally disparate teaching. Since salvation is by grace alone, the Galatian emphasis on the works of the Law was not another Gospel but a completely another way of salvation of a different kind that did not offer salvation at all. (Derived from: Believer's Study Bible. 1997, c1995. C1991 Criswell Center for Biblical Studies. (electronic ed.) (Ga 1:6). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.)
• A poison labeled as such can recognized by its warnings on the label. But a poison put in the fridge and labeled as juice is assumed to be safe to drink and a lot more dangerous.
• Just because a speaker or writer is popular doesn’t mean he or she is orthodox or still orthodox. Just because a publisher has previously published solid theological works does not mean that it necessarily continues to do so. Erdmans for example was at one time a conservative publisher. Now it often produces dangerous religious books.
Paul describes in Galatians 1:7 that the Judizers are disturbing the Galatians. Distrubing is from tarasso, which literally means to shake back and forth and therefore to agitate and stir up. Figuratively, it connotes deep emotional disturbance and refers to an unsettled mind.
Although they were oblivious to it, the churches of Galatia were being shaken to their very foundations by the false teaching of the unregenerate Judaizers, who were assenting to the basic truths of Jesus Christ but who were spiritually disturbing and subverting the believers by adding works to grace, which is to utterly distort the gospel of Christ. Metastrepho (to distort) carries the idea of turning something into its opposite, of reversing and thereby perverting it. The least bit of law that is added to the gospel of Christ reverses its character and turns it into that which is contrary to God’s gracious provision of salvation and sanctification based entirely on the merits of His sinless, sin-bearing Son.
Please turn to Titus 1
Whenever the gospel is perverted the church is unsettled. To change the message of grace is to stifle and eventually asphyxiate the church. Paul wrote this to Titus:
Titus 1:10-11 [10]For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. [11]They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. (ESV)
• Was Paul tolerant to differing opinions of the Gospel? No. He said of the Judiziers, here described as the circumcision party, that they must be silenced. False teachers cannot be allowed to have a forum in churches under the banner of tolerance. Paul doesn’t engage in a running battle with the false teachers. In fact, he doesn’t address them directly. Rather, he speaks to the congregation about the problem and points out the dangers that beset their faith in Christ. (Panning, A. J. (1997). Galatians, Ephesians (p. 19). Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House.)
Illustration: This is like the situation with fire ants. Fire ants are amazingly adaptable, fiercely aggressive, and multiply seemingly overnight. Worst of all, insecticide sprays generally can’t destroy the mound’s inhabitants. Like a mighty army they have marched in, impervious to brute force. Scientists have now found a rather crafty way to wipe out whole colonies. Pellets of the ants’ favorite food are tainted with a special tasteless, odorless poison and sprinkled around the mound. The worker ants immediately begin gathering up the tainted treasure and take it down into the heart of the colony. Then they unwittingly feed the poisoned pellets to their queen, slowly killing her! When the queen dies, no more workers are produced, and so in a couple of weeks the entire colony starves to death. How ironic! Food that looked so good caused their starvation.
• That is how it is with false doctrine. Those who lack discernment import it into the heart of the church, thinking it is harmless and in fact quite good. (If not rejected), the next generation starves to death spiritually. Green, M. P. (1989). Illustrations for Biblical Preaching : Over 1500 sermon illustrations arranged by topic and indexed exhaustively (Revised edition of: The expositor's illustration file). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
Finally, the Apostle Paul defends the primacy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in warning of the:
3) Destruction (Galatians 1:8–9)of those who would pervert the Gospel.
Galatians 1:8-9 [8]But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. [9]As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (ESV)
The Judaizers who were misleading the Galatian churches probably had impressive credentials and may have been among those who claimed to be from the Jerusalem church and to be authorized by James, the leader of that church (cf.Acts 15:24). In addition to proclaiming their modified form of the gospel, which Paul declared to be no gospel at all, they sought to undermine Paul’s authority and teaching in every way they could. Although the particular heresy of the Judaizers was legalism, Paul’s warning applies equally to the opposite perversion of libertinism or antinomianism, which, under the guise of freedom in Christ, removes all standards of righteousness and morality. Even if Paul or any of his associates were to change their teaching, the Galatians should not listen to them but treat them like heretics, which they would then be. Paul did not ask the Galatians to be loyal to him but rather to the unchanging message of Christ, Christ alone, that he had preached to them.( George, T. (1994). Galatians (Vol. 30, p. 97). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
Quote: As Dr. Alan Cole expresses it, “The outward person of the messenger does not validate his message; rather, the nature of the message validates the messenger.” (MacDonald, W., & Farstad, A. (1997, c1995). Believer's Bible Commentary : Old and New Testaments (Ga 1:8). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.)
Although “an angel” who was truly from heaven (and therefore set apart from the fallen angels identified with hell) could not teach anything contrary to God’s revealed truth, Paul here is speaking of a hypothetical situation. But the apostle was reaching for the most fanciful possibilities imaginable to make his point that absolutely no messenger, no matter how seemingly godly and good, should be believed or followed if their teaching does not square with God-revealed apostolic doctrine. The truth outranks anyone’s credentials, and every teacher or preacher must be evaluated on the basis of what they write and say.
• This passage directly speaks against such claims as that of the Mormons, whose Book of Mormon claims angelic authority as delivered by the Angel Moroni and “translated” by their founder Joseph Smith. (KJV Bible commentary. 1997, c1994 (2373). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.)
• The final determinant, the ultimate yardstick to judge right doctrine and actions is the word of God. If anyone deviates from this standard, they are to be warned, shown where incorrect and if they unrepentantly continue in heresy, must be cast out from the assembly (Mt. 28, 1 Cor. 5).
Why do people become entrapped then with the teaching of false teachers promoting their false systems? Many false systems are attractive because they emotionally appeal to love, brotherhood, unity, and harmony. Many false teachers are popular because they seem to be warm and pleasant and claim to have great love for God and for others. It is because distortions of the gospel by such deceptive personalities are so appealing that “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14).
• Like all false teaching, it is mixed with truth and priorities are confused.
o True love, and brotherhood however is not in contrast or removed from truth but based on it.
Finally, Paul turns from the hypothetical to the actual in verse 9 as he reiterates his concern. As we have said before refers to an earlier visit, not to the preceding clause in the text, since now (arti) is an adverb of time. The sense seems to be, “What I said at that time I am saying again now” From the start of his ministry among them, Paul had warned them of imminent gospel perversions. The gospel which you received refers to the once for all (aorist tense) preaching of the good news of grace in Christ which they had previously believed. This truth was the basis of faith.
Looking at one final passage, please turn to 2 John 1
False teachers not only should not be believed or followed but should be left to God’s judgment to be accursed. Accursed translates anathema, which refers to that which is devoted to destruction. (cf. Ro 9:3; 1Co 12:3; 16:22).
• Our job is to warn of the danger, discipline unrepentant error and teach truth both to the family of God and the world at large.
The apostle John warned:
2 John 1:7, 10-11 [7]For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. [10]If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, [11]for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. (ESV)
• Does this all seem harsh? The purity of the Gospel is that important. It is not the “Christian” thing to politely tolerate Gospel hersey. It is the biblical command from God to be diligent in preaching and accepting only the Gospel of God.
(Format Note: Outline and some commentary from MacArthur, J. (1996, c1987). Galatians. Includes indexes. (9). Chicago: Moody Press.)
