Proclaiming Another Gospel

The Judaizing faction in Galatia proclaimed a message that deviated from the Apostolic Tradition and twisted the true Gospel – Galatians 1:6-12.

The Letter to the Galatians opens with a stern warning. What some believers contemplated doing would replace the Gospel of Jesus with something alien. To turn from the “faith of Jesus Christ” to the “works of the law” for justification meant abandoning the grace of God and rejecting the message preached by Paul. This is why he summoned God to “curse” any man, “even an angel from Heaven,” who preached “another gospel.”

This debased message would also create divisions between Jewish and Gentile believers since it required Gentiles to conform to Jewish customs and rituals. Any Gentile believer who refused to do so would become, at best, a second-class citizen of the Kingdom of God. Contrary to the Gospel preached by Paul, whether a man was Jewish or Gentile would once again matter very much.

[Photo by Miltiadis Fragkidis on Unsplash]

There is a lesson in Galatians applicable to today’s churches. Deviating from the Apostolic Tradition is dangerous and could easily result in apostasy and judgment from God.

Some movements in Popular Christianity today teach believers to conform to Jewish customs and rituals. Others are rebuilding the “middle of partition” between Jewish and Gentile believers by dividing the one people of God into two distinct peoples based on ethnicity with two different ways of salvation, purposes, covenants, and future destinies. Both false gospels inevitably divide the Body of Christ.

Thus, the sternness of Paul’s language. Rather than offer his typical thanksgiving and compliments, Paul began his Letter by launching into a rebuke with words expressing astonishment and deep irritation, and he also invoked a curse formula on anyone who preached a “different gospel” - (Galatians 1:6-12).

This false “gospel” was dangerous to the congregation (“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting from the one who called you”). It undermined the basis of the faith and identity of the people of God.

• “I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him that called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel; which is not another gospel: only there are some that trouble you, and would twist the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach any gospel other than what we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preaches any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be accursed. Am I now seeking the favor of men or God? Or am I striving to please men? if I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ” – (Galatians 1:6-10).

The Greek word translated as “deserting” or metatithémi means to “transfer” or “alter” from one condition to another, to abandon a former position. The Book of Jude applies the same word to men who were perverting the Gospel:

• (Jude 4) - “For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, perverting the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Paul was shocked since the Galatians were “so quickly deserting from the one who called you.” This echoes the incident in the Book of Exodus when the Israelites built the golden calf.

God commanded Moses to get down from Sinai, “for they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.” The allusion illustrates the dire situation in which the Galatians had placed themselves by following this alien gospel. It was not “good news” at all! - (Exodus 32:8, Deuteronomy 9:16).

They were forsaking the grace of God for “a different gospel.” The Greek adjective translated as “different” is ‘heteros’. When Paul repeats the warning, he switches to a different adjective, ‘allos’. The two adjectives are often synonymous, but when used together, ‘heteros’ means “different” and the sense of ‘allos’ becomes “another” or “alien” – something foreign.

Paul referred to those who were “troubling” them using the Greek verb tarassō, the same word used in the Book of Acts when Jewish believers argued for the necessity of keeping the Mosaic Law, including circumcision, thereby “troubling” the Gentile members of the Assembly - (Acts 15:24, 17:8, 17:13).

Paul used the same verb in Chapter 5 of Galatians to describe the chief agitator in the congregation (“but the one who is troubling you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is”), echoing the story of Achar in the Book of Joshua, “the one who troubled Israel” - (Joshua 7:1-5, 1 Chronicles 2:7, Galatians 5:10).

The agitators were “altering the Gospel of Christ” into a message fundamentally different in content and purpose than the one preached by Paul and the Apostles. The measuring rod for determining the validity of any message was (and remains) the Apostolic Tradition. The struggle was over the content of the Gospel.

“ACCURSED”

Paul pronounced a curse twice on his opponents.  “Accursed” translates the Greek noun anathema, the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for the Hebrew word hérem or “ban,” the cursing and setting aside of something for destruction - (Leviticus 27:28-29, Joshua 6:17-18).

He was not cursing his opponents but calling on God to do so (“Let him be accursed”). He repeated the formula, demonstrating that he was not engaging in mere rhetoric. His words expressed the depths of his concern. Men who perverted the Gospel would find themselves under God’s curse.

He asked two rhetorical questions: “For now am I persuading men or God?  Or am I seeking to please men?” The adverb translated as “now” is emphatic. Considering what he had just said, was he trying to persuade men or God?  The implied answer to the first question was “God.” He would curse agitators who spread false gospels.

The expected answer to the second question was “no.” The opposite side of the coin was unstated - Paul wanted to please God. Those who sought to please men could not be “Christ's bondservants.” While Paul was attempting to persuade others, he would not become a man-pleaser to do so or otherwise compromise the Gospel of Grace.

The Apostle solemnly affirmed the supernatural origin of his Gospel. He received it through “a revelation of Jesus Christ,” referring to his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road - (Acts 9:1-16, 22:21, 26:17-20, Romans 1:5).

If the Galatians remained on this course, they would “desert” the grace of Christ and embrace a very “different gospel.” The agitators were “perverting” the Gospel of Jesus Christ whether they understood so or not. They risked placing themselves under the curse of God and possibly risked everlasting destruction.

Any believer who embraces the works and rituals of the Law rather than the “faith of Jesus Christ” as the foundation for reconciliation with God abandons His grace and rejects everything for which Jesus died. The Church must cling to the original “word of the Cross” no matter what.

The safety of the Body of Christ is dependent on its adherence to the Apostolic Tradition. Any sermon, prophecy, teaching, or reported vision that departs from it must be rejected decisively and immediately.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Seed of Abraham - (Jesus is the Seed of Abraham, the heir of the covenant promises, and receipt of the inheritance is based on faith in Him)

• The Blessing of Abraham - (The Gift of the Spirit is one of God’s covenant promises and his ways of blessing all Nations in Abraham’s Seed)

• The Hope of the Nations - (The Good News of Jesus Christ and his victory over death offers hope, life, and salvation to men and women of every nation)