January 23, 2025
Paul’s letter to the young Christians living in Galatia (modern central Turkey) begins well. He is polite, wishing them all the grace and peace of God and Jesus, who gave himself for our sins. As letters go, it’s a very pleasant way to begin.
But then Paul immediately turns angry. He is furious at his readers for deserting the gospel, God’s good news, that they had been taught. He strongly denounces them for moving away from salvation through the grace of Christ to something else.
What was that something else? Reading the rest of the letter, it appears that some of the Galatians were beginning to advocate for circumcision and not eating with Gentiles. These were common Jewish practices and would probably have appeared to the Galatians as fairly benign, especially if they were Jewish converts. A simple way of showing the depth of one’s faith. Nothing to worry about.
But it was something to worry about.
I suppose we should be thankful that it was nothing worse. They were not advocating sacred prostitution. No one was talking about taking up arms and rebelling against the Roman Empire. It could have been worse! But what they were doing was plenty bad, and Paul was right to be concerned.
All Christians need to remember that we are saved by grace alone. Anything that tries to restrict or further refine salvation by grace alone is going against Christ and what he died for. We are not saved by grace and the quality of our life, or by grace and the rightness of our beliefs. We are not saved by grace and austerity or by grace and generosity. We are saved by grace alone.
The temptation to restrict salvation did not die out with the Galatians. It is well and alive today. All the time we hear people trying to restrict or add to the simple gospel Paul preached. People tell us that we are saved by grace and by agreeing with them about LGBTQ+ practices. We are saved by grace and by advocating for a particular role for religion in our country. We are saved by grace and by worshiping God with the right music and in the right way.
Nope. Doesn’t work like that. We are saved by grace.
If you should hear someone trying to restrict or supplement the gospel of grace, I don’t recommend reacting as vociferously as Paul. There are times when Paul’s reaction is appropriate, but not often. Nevertheless, we can’t just let these blasphemies stand. We must speak out against them and lovingly correct these errors.
But first, we would do well to look at ourselves and our own version of God’s good news. Are we, perchance, also trying to supplement the gospel? Are we, perhaps, limiting or otherwise turning away from the good news we were originally taught?
Grace and peace to us all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen!
Paul and Pastor Ken.