Galatians (2)

Galatians 1:6-7:

“I wonder that you are so quickly turning back from the One having called you by the grace of Christ to another gospel, which is not another; only there are some troubling you, even determined to pervert the gospel of Christ.”

The verses above are adulterated very often by unstable and unlearned heretics who believe that true Christians can confess a false gospel of salvation conditioned on the sinner, or at least can confess a false gospel for a short period of time (contrary to passages such as John 10:4-5 and 2 John 1:9).

Paul says that he wonders that the Galatians are so quickly turning back from the One having called them by the grace of Christ to another gospel. A very important question we have to ask ourselves here is this: Do the Galatian Christians KNOW that this is another gospel? Are they AWARE of this perversion? Do these Galatians THINK that they are being troubled? It boils down to what these “some” (“Judaizers”) are telling/teaching the Galatian Christians. They are obviously not blatantly teaching a false gospel, for Jesus said that the elect of God CANNOT be deceived and CANNOT follow a false shepherd.

Later on in the book of Galatians these “Judaizers” were advocating the observance of circumcision. Paul taught in Romans that there was “much profit” in circumcision (Romans 3:1-2), BUT there was no profit in circumcision if one did it thinking that it formed at least some part of the ground of their salvation. In the book of Romans the profit (or benefit) of circumcision had nothing to do with the ground of salvation. But in the book of Galatians and the false teaching Judaizers, being circumcised was of no profit whatsoever, even to the point of being cut off from Christ. Paul simply wants to know WHY the Galatians are observing circumcision (cf. see the article, “What about the Galatians?”).

Galatians 1:8-9:

“But even if we, or an angel out of Heaven, should preach a gospel to you beside the gospel we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, and now I say again, If anyone preaches a gospel beside what you received, let him be accursed.”

Notice that these Galatians KNOW and BELIEVE the same gospel that the apostles preached. They know what the true gospel is and have received it. This gospel is the good news that Christ has obtained salvation for them. Jesus freely gave His people eternal life. The condition for eternal life is the atoning blood and imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, without any contribution from the sinner. Since the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23), all whom Christ shed His blood for and established His everlasting righteousness on behalf of, will, without fail, receive salvation.

Jesus Christ is the good Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep. These blood bought sheep KNOW their Shepherd’s voice and will NEVER follow another’s voice. In fact, they will flee from a strange (false) shepherd (cf. John 10:4-5). Those who believe that the Galatian believers confessed a false gospel MUST also say that these Galatians did NOT flee, but in fact followed the voice of strangers (in contradiction to John 10:4-5).

From all this we see that these Judaizers appeared and sounded like true shepherds. Otherwise the sheep would certainly have fled. The Galatians (unlike the apostle Paul) were ignorant of these teachers’ ulterior motives. By what they said, they appeared like those who wear genuine sheep-skin. But the apostle was about to expose their true wolf-nature by ripping off their superficial cloak of (seeming) orthodoxy.

The Galatians did NOT know precisely WHY the Judaizers were teaching them to observe circumcision, but Paul DID. This is key. And what was the WHY? It was the observance of circumcision in order to add to or supplement the work of Jesus Christ. The Judaizers believed the work of Jesus Christ to be defective, and so Paul exposed them and told the professing Christians of Galatia that IF they followed the Judaizers in their heresy, THEN Christ would profit them nothing. And indeed Christ’s precious death profits all those for whom it was in place of.

Those who seek to add to or supplement His death with any antichristian effort (including the so-called “faith” of those God-haters who believe that Jesus Christ died for everyone without exception) will be profited NOTHING. If those aforementioned blasphemers die believing that Jesus Christ died for those who will ultimately perish, then they will endure the curse and wrath of God for all eternity. And all those who will endure God’s holy wrath are not profited by Christ’s death for the simple reason that Christ did NOT die in any sense whatsoever for them.