“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed! Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles…” Galatians 1:6-16

John Piper, American Reformed Baptist minister and author told his congregation in 1983 the reason he had “chosen to preach from Galatians over the next several months is that more than any other New Testament letter, this one is alive. I mean that in Galatians Paul is at his most vigorous. The sheer emotional force of the book has captured me again and again over the years. You can’t read the first ten verses without feeling that something utterly important is at stake. You can’t read Galatians and think, “Well this is an interesting piece of religious reflection”—any more than you can examine a live coal with your bare hands. Galatians is a virile statement of the central truths of Christianity. If we as a people can make these truths and this vigor a part of our thinking and our willing, the bones of our faith will be strong and not brittle, and the emotional force of our life in Christ will not be lukewarm but ardent and intense and undivided.”

Galatians lifts up two things of which we should take notice: the need for the cross of Christ to get right with G-d, and the need of the Spirit of Christ to obey G-d. Anything that diminishes Jesus Christ is anathema to Paul. Anything that puts our own efforts in place of the presence of the Holy Spirit also anathema. And the reason Paul begins with such an immediate punitive tone is that someone had convinced the Galatians to put themselves where the Spirit belonged and to put the works of law where faith in the cross belonged. As Pastor Piper reflected: “Galatians is a virile statement of the central truths of Christianity.” And this is the place we need to begin the study of Galatians.

Pastor Dave