Gal 1:6–10 — No Other Gospel

Review

We began a new series on Paul’s letter to the Galatians last Sunday. This wonderful letter, arguably Paul’s first, gives us a window into his heart and his passionate zeal for the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

After Paul and Barnabas had traveled on their first missionary journey through Asia Minor, they planted churches in Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. The believers there came to faith in Jesus Christ, were baptized, and were established as churches. Soon afterward, however, men claiming to come from the Jerusalem church arrived with a different message: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1).

These men claimed to be fellow believers in Jesus and confessed that he was the Messiah. They were not unbelieving Jews who rejected Christ. Nevertheless, they taught that faith in Jesus was insufficient. According to them, circumcision was necessary to ensure that a person truly belonged to God’s people and was accepted before him. They treated circumcision not merely as a ritual but as the sign of a commitment to keep the entire Mosaic Law.

These false teachers are called Judaizers because to Judaize is to live like a Jew—to be circumcised and adopt the Jewish way of life, including the food laws and the other requirements of the Mosaic Law. They were trying to persuade Gentiles who had come to faith in Christ to Judaize.

Paul writes in response to this crisis. The Galatians were young Christians who had come to know the Lord perhaps less than a year earlier. Out of zeal for God and love for their souls, Paul urges them not to accept the false teachers’ message. He recognizes that they have not yet entirely fallen away from Christ or submitted to circumcision, but they stand at the brink. They are in danger of abandoning their hold upon Christ.

Galatians is what I have called the Magna Carta of gospel liberty: Paul’s declaration of the liberty we possess in Christ through the gospel. Galatians 5:1–4 summarizes the central issue:

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Paul is saying, in essence, “Stand firm. Do not submit to the false teachers’ claim that circumcision and obedience to the law are necessary for salvation and acceptance before God. Christ has already set you free; do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

They faced a choice between circumcision, as the Judaizers understood it, and Christ. If they were circumcised because they believed it necessary for salvation, they would abandon Christ. Moreover, circumcision would obligate them to keep the whole law. It was not simply one Old Testament ritual. Under the Judaizers’ teaching, it represented a commitment to obey the entire law as the basis of salvation and acceptance before God. Those who seek to be justified by the law are severed from Christ and have fallen away from grace.

The issue was not circumcision considered merely as an indifferent physical act. Paul’s warning concerned receiving it under the specific conditions imposed by the Judaizers: as something required for salvation and as a pledge to seek justification through the law. Under those conditions, a person could not depend upon circumcision and still depend upon Christ. It was one or the other. To rest one’s standing before God upon the law was to reject the sufficiency of Christ and place oneself under an obligation to keep the whole law.

The letter addresses three interconnected topics. Chapters 1–2 concern the Apostle of Gospel Liberty. Because the Judaizers challenged both Paul’s gospel and his authority, Paul defends his apostolic office. They may have portrayed him as a second-level apostle because he had not followed Jesus during his earthly ministry and was not one of the original disciples. Paul therefore establishes his apostleship as the basis of his authoritative proclamation of the gospel.

Chapters 3–4 concern the Doctrine of Gospel Liberty. There Paul develops the heart of his argument against the false teachers by expounding the Old Testament. He considers God’s promise to Abraham, the later giving of the law at Mount Sinai, and the purpose for which God gave the law. If believers are free from the law as a covenant by which they are justified or condemned, why was the law given? Paul answers that question in these central chapters.

The Judaizers could point to Genesis 17 and observe that God had commanded circumcision. Paul therefore does not evade the Old Testament evidence. He returns to Abraham and reads the command in its historical and covenantal context, then relates it to the law given centuries later at Sinai. The doctrinal center of Galatians is consequently also an extended interpretation of the history of God’s dealings with Abraham and Israel.

Chapters 5–6 concern the Life of Gospel Liberty. The claim that believers are free from the law might seem to imply that they may live however they please. The Judaizers may even have argued that circumcision and commitment to the law were necessary safeguards against indulging the flesh. Paul answers that although believers are free, they must not use their freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; instead, they are to serve one another through love. They must walk by the Spirit and bear the fruit of the Spirit. The law sets forth the right standard, but it cannot provide the power, motivation, or ability to fulfill it. These come only through the gospel and the work of the Spirit of Christ within us.

Thus gospel liberty is not freedom from holiness. It is freedom from seeking justification through the Law Covenant, so that believers may serve God in the new life and power of the Spirit. The Spirit produces the love toward which the law itself pointed but which it could not create in fallen human beings.

These divisions are not rigid. Paul anticipates his doctrine of justification near the end of chapter 2, even while defending his apostleship, and he also anticipates the Life of Gospel Liberty. Galatians 2:20 says:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We are not only justified by faith; we also live the Christian life by faith in Christ. Genuine, living faith is active and “works through love” (Gal. 5:6). Paul is teaching the Galatians the gospel again, now in a polemical form, answering the false teachers’ interpretations of Scripture and demonstrating what the Bible truly teaches.

The same faith that receives Christ for justification continues to look to him throughout the Christian life. Paul does not replace faith with law-keeping after conversion. Sanctification, like justification, proceeds through union with Christ and reliance upon him, though the faith that relies upon Christ necessarily becomes active in love.

Verse 6: “I Am Astonished”

Paul begins immediately with an extraordinary statement: “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.”

Deserting the God Who Called Them

Paul omits the thanksgiving that ordinarily appears near the beginning of his letters. In most of his other letters, he thanks God for the recipients’ faith and love before addressing doctrine or pastoral concerns. Here he proceeds directly to the crisis that prompted him to write. He is astonished that so soon after receiving the true gospel, they are already questioning it and becoming attracted to the Judaizers’ arguments.

The word translated “deserting” was used in Greek Jewish literature associated with the Hellenization crisis about 170 years before Christ. During that period, Greek rulers persecuted the Jews and pressured them to abandon their religion. Some Jews deserted their ancestral way of life and adopted Greek customs, pagan thought, and philosophy. This is the period associated with the Maccabees and the origin of Hanukkah.

The word therefore suggests a radical change of allegiance, worldview, and way of life. The Galatians were deserting the gospel and the Christian way of life in order to adopt an alien philosophy. More seriously, Paul says that abandoning the gospel means abandoning God himself: they are “deserting him who called” them. God the Father called them through the preaching of the gospel and granted them saving faith. To abandon the true gospel of salvation by faith alone in Christ alone is not merely to revise one’s theory of salvation; it is to abandon the God who calls sinners by his grace.

Paul’s language is especially striking because the Galatians had not yet completed this desertion. They were being drawn toward the Judaizers’ teaching and stood in immediate danger, but Paul still addresses them as people whom he hopes to reclaim. His astonishment is therefore both a rebuke and an urgent pastoral appeal: they must recognize where this new teaching leads before they surrender the gospel altogether.

The Grace of Christ

What does Paul mean when he says that God called them “in the grace of Christ”? Some understand the phrase to mean that God called them graciously. It may also refer to the content of the call: the gospel itself. They were called through the preaching of the good news that Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification.

The expression helps us see that the gospel is fundamentally about grace—not grace in the abstract, as though God were merely kind and benevolent, but the grace of God displayed in Christ and in what Christ has done for us. Galatians 1:4 summarizes that grace: Christ “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”

The words “gave himself for our sins” call attention to both aspects of Christ’s work. He died an atoning death, bearing the punishment we deserved, but he also actively obeyed the Father. According to the Father’s will, Christ voluntarily gave himself for us. His work is comprehensive: his entire life was one of perfect obedience to God in our place, culminating in the supreme expression of his obedience and love when he offered himself as our sacrifice.

We must not reduce Christ’s saving work to the payment of a penalty, glorious and essential though that is. The one who bore our punishment is also the one who fulfilled the Father’s will in perfect obedience. He did not become a passive victim of circumstances. He willingly gave himself, and his self-offering was the climax of the obedience he rendered throughout his life.

Delivered from the Present Evil Age

Christ gave himself “to deliver us.” The language of deliverance recalls Israel’s bondage to Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. With a mighty hand, God rescued his people, brought them out of slavery, redeemed them, and made them his own. The Israelites contributed nothing to that deliverance. God judged Pharaoh and his army and saved a people for himself; Israel stood and beheld the mighty works of God.

This has direct bearing on the controversy with the Judaizers. If Christ gave himself to deliver us by his sovereign grace, how can our works contribute to salvation? We are the recipients of his rescue. The saving work belongs to Christ.

He delivers us “from the present evil age,” an expression encompassing our flesh, the world, the devil, and sin. Paul states the negative side, but a positive reality is implied: we are delivered from this passing evil age and brought into the glorious age to come. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection inaugurate that new age, and those united to him already participate in it. We have been delivered from bondage and transferred into the age to come.

This does not mean believers have already escaped every struggle belonging to the present age. We still contend with sin, suffering, and death. Nevertheless, because we are united to the crucified and risen Christ, the decisive transfer has occurred. The powers of the age to come have entered history through him, and his people already belong to that coming creation.

Circumcision, law-keeping, and the rituals of the Jewish way of life have no power to accomplish this rescue. The work belongs entirely to God through Christ. Nothing we do as members of this present evil age can contribute to our deliverance.

Good works remain necessary, as Paul will explain in the final chapters of the letter, but we must preserve the order of the gospel. Good works do not rescue or redeem us from the passing evil age. Those whom Christ has rescued produce good works out of gratitude for their deliverance in him.

Verse 7: Those Who Distort the Gospel of Christ

Paul continues, “Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” The troublers are the Judaizers.

They did not explicitly attack Christianity or deny that Jesus was the Messiah. They claimed to be fellow Christians and brothers in Christ. Nevertheless, they distorted the gospel—not by denying that faith in Christ was necessary, but by denying that faith in Christ was sufficient. They taught that Christ and his work were not enough, and that circumcision and law-keeping were also necessary for salvation.

Paul calls the true message “the gospel of Christ.” That expression is similar to “the grace of Christ” in verse 6. The gospel is fundamentally about Christ and what he has done. It is not fundamentally about us and what we must do, important though our response to it remains. Our response always follows and rests upon Christ’s saving work.

Verses 8–9: “Let Him Be Accursed”

Paul now pronounces judgment upon the false teachers:

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. 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.

The Greek word is anathema: to be under the curse of God. The NIV conveys the force of the statement with the rendering, “Let him be eternally condemned.” Paul repeats the curse for emphasis. Even if an apostle such as Paul, or an angel from heaven, were to proclaim a gospel contrary to the one the Galatians had received, that messenger would stand under God’s curse.

This provides an important principle for evaluating claims of prophetic revelation. Even the most impressive claim—whether someone says that God has spoken directly or that an angel has appeared—must be tested by the Word of God and by the gospel. If a message contradicts what God has revealed in Scripture, it must not be believed, however convincing or extraordinary the experience may appear.

Paul even includes himself in the warning: “Even if we.” His apostolic office does not give him authority to alter the gospel. The truth of the gospel is not established by the prestige of the messenger. Rather, every messenger, even one claiming apostolic or angelic authority, is judged by the gospel already received.

People sometimes make less dramatic claims, saying, “God told me to do this,” or, “I had a feeling from the Lord that I should speak to this person.” Such impressions may sometimes involve innocent matters, but they must never be allowed to contradict or displace what God has revealed in his Word. We must remain bound to Scripture.

Verse 10: A Servant of Christ

Paul asks, “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

The Judaizers apparently accused Paul of being a man-pleaser. They may have claimed that he preached a simple, law-free gospel—faith in Christ without circumcision and the full rigor of the Jewish law—because he wanted to appeal to the Gentiles. In their portrayal, Paul lacked conviction and withheld difficult requirements in order to gain human approval.

Paul rejects the charge. His proclamation of justification by faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works of the law, is not his own invention. He received this gospel from Christ himself, as he will explain in verses 11–12. Paul is not beholden to human beings, nor is he trying to make the gospel more attractive to the unbelieving mind. He is loyal to Christ and is Christ’s servant.

That expression describes not only ministers and ordained officers but every Christian. We are servants of Christ. He is our Lord and Master, and our ultimate loyalty belongs to him regardless of the opposition and disagreement we may face.

To call ourselves servants of Christ is to identify the one whose approval governs us. The world may contradict Christ’s teaching or dislike the gospel we confess, but the Christian’s answer is not to revise the message for acceptance. Our loyalty remains with the Lord who called us.

Application: There Is No Other Gospel

The central application is expressed in the sermon’s title: there is no other gospel. Paul is unambiguous. The Judaizers’ message, with its additions to faith in Christ, is no gospel at all. Any gospel that denies the sufficiency of Christ is false. Anyone who teaches that our acceptance before God depends upon our works or merit denies Christ and proclaims a false gospel.

What we do matters. We must respond to the gospel in faith, and genuine faith works through love. Paul will develop that truth when he addresses the Life of Gospel Liberty. Nevertheless, the gospel itself is not fundamentally about our response, our faith and love, our gratitude, or the good works to which God calls us. It is about Christ and what he has done: his perfect obedience to God’s law in our place, his sacrificial death on the cross, and his bearing of the wrath of God that we deserved. Our standing and acceptance before a holy God depend solely upon Christ and his finished work.

This distinction protects both the gospel and the Christian life. If our response becomes part of the ground of our acceptance, our conscience can never rest, because even our faith, repentance, love, and gratitude remain imperfect. When Christ’s finished work alone is the ground of our standing, good works assume their proper place—not as contributions to our rescue, but as the grateful fruit produced in those whom Christ has already rescued.

This was the gospel recovered by Luther, Calvin, and the other Protestant Reformers. They stood against errors that had arisen in the medieval church and reclaimed Paul’s clear teaching. J. Gresham Machen captures the issue well in his Notes on Galatians:

The point of difference between Paul and the Judaizers … was no trifling difference. It was the difference between a religion of merit and a religion of grace. The Judaizers’ teaching required a man to earn at least part of his salvation by his own keeping of God’s law. Paul saw clearly that to follow such teaching was to despise the cross of Christ. If we have to fill up even the slightest gap by our own works, then we are still lost in sin; for the awakened conscience sees clearly that our own works are insufficient to bridge even the smallest gap. We must trust Christ for nothing or for all; to trust him only for part is the essence of unbelief. There are two ways of being saved, according to the Apostle Paul. One way is to keep the law of God perfectly. That way is closed because of sin. The other way is to accept the gift of salvation which Christ offers us freely by his cross.… A man must choose as the way of salvation either the law or grace. In bidding men to choose the latter way the Apostle was contending for the very heart of the Christian religion.

Let us therefore hold fast to the one true gospel and remember that we are servants of Christ. If we seek the approval of man, we serve man. If Christ has called us, we seek his approval and remain faithful to his gospel.