Few things amazed the apostle Paul, and this is one of them—that new believers so easily and summarily abandon their new faith. He was extremely tolerant in many areas (see Phil 1:15, 1 Cor 8:7-8 for example). But one thing he would not tolerate was any message that compromised the message of grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It boggled his mind that the first converts of his worldwide mission would become like withering plants (Matt 13:5).

They were now holding to a façade of the gospel, but denying the very foundation on which it was established. What they were believing now was masquerading as the “gospel,” or good news. It appealed to them as “better news” than what Paul preached, an improvement. But they were rejecting the true gospel, Paul says, for “a different gospel; which is really not another.”

The message of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is not just one of many angles on what could be construed as a better way of life. It is “the truth” and it admits to no variations. It was Paul’s “go to the wall issue,” and he wouldn’t tolerate any modifications, adjustments, rewordings or other manipulations which cut the core out of the message – the grace of God. This has nothing to do with a minor theological variation within the accepted stream of the Christian faith. It is not simply an intramural debate among Christians, a variant part of legitimate “Christendom.” Rather, to use the terms of theologians, it is not orthodoxy, but heterodoxy—“a different word of glory.” Genuine Christianity as was revealed to Paul and as he taught opposes everything else that is essentially law-based. This would include not just other religious systems, but also much of present day “Christendom” that is a facade for law-based religion.

This aberration among the Galatians found its source in false teachers who were intentionally “distorting the gospel of Christ.” Historically, certain Jewish “so-called” believers moved in after Paul would leave an area to subvert his teachings. With great duplicity, they ostensibly affirmed faith in Jesus Christ, but also pressed the new Gentile believers to follow the law of Moses, in particular, to be circumcised. The issue of whether Gentiles needed to become Jewish proselytes was the central concern of the early church. In this letter Paul answers the question in unambiguous terms—“NO!” We today should be as clear in our thinking about this as he was.

Father, thank You for the simplicity of the gospel message of grace. I commit to defending it and teaching it as You revealed it to Your apostles.