Transcripción

Today we set sail on our Wisdom Journey through the little book of Galatians. This is probably the earliest of the apostle Paul’s inspired letters, written around AD 49. Most of the letters from Paul were actually fairly short and compact. In fact, most of the New Testament letters are shorter than the average newspaper article that you can read in ten minutes or less. But even though Galatians might be a short letter, it has some incredibly powerful warnings.  

Verse 2 here in chapter 1 makes it clear that Paul was not writing this letter to one church, but to all “the churches of Galatia.” Galatia was not a city but a region located in the middle of Asia Minor—what we call today Turkey.  

This is where Paul and Barnabas went on their first missionary journey, recorded back in Acts 13 and 14. That was a fruitful mission trip, and many people came to faith in Christ in this region in towns and cities like Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, where New Testament churches were planted. We know that Paul returned to visit these churches on his second missionary trip in Acts 16.

These were Gentile cities, and most of the new converts were Gentiles. Jewish synagogues were also located there, and we know that because Jewish leaders caused a lot of trouble for the missionaries. Still, some of these Jewish people became Christ-followers as well.

Now Paul is writing this letter to these young churches in Galatia. Most of his introduction in the opening verses is typical of his letters. In these days, you signed your letter at the beginning, while today we sign our names at the end.

The letter begins this way:

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. (verse 1)

Paul is stressing the fact that he has been appointed an apostle by the Lord Himself. He is not some self-appointed teacher; he is God’s spokesman. I believe Paul starts out this way because he is about to deliver a stinging rebuke to the false teachers who are trying to lead these churches astray.

With Paul’s normal greetings out of the way, he gets right to the reason for his letter in verses 6-7:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Paul does not spell out the particular doctrinal error at this point, but he makes it clear that the gospel of grace is at stake.

He is astonished that so many of the Galatians are following false teachers. They are turning away from God’s grace as the means of salvation, and they are beginning to follow what Paul calls “a different gospel.”

Paul is not dealing here with some minor issue in the church; he is dealing with a complete perversion of the gospel of grace. As we will see in this letter, this different “gospel” was a gospel of works, a legalistic system of keeping rules—in fact, a return to the Old Testament law.

So, Paul issues this warning:

If we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. . . . I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (verses 8-9)

In other words, the gospel Paul delivered to the Galatians originally is the true gospel. Any teaching that differs from the apostle’s teaching was to be rejected—accursed even, which means that the teacher is going to be judged and condemned by God.

Paul says even if an angel shows up and claims to speak for God in heaven, if his message does not line up with the gospel, it should be rejected. It does not matter if it comes from a bright angel who miraculously appears; if his message is different from the Bible, that is an angel that should be avoided.

Imagine how many millions upon millions of people follow religions supposedly revealed by an angelic appearance. An angel is credited with appearing to Muhammad in the early seventh century (AD 610) and giving him a message that would later form the content of the Qur’an, a message that denies Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth to be crucified and resurrected from the dead.

An angel, it is claimed, appeared to Joseph Smith in 1823, declaring that Joseph had been chosen to lead the true church on Planet Earth. Other angels supposedly appeared to him, and Joseph eventually wrote the Book of Mormon. This so-called revelation claimed that Jesus was only one of the sons of God and that humans can reach heaven by living faithful Mormon lives. Beloved, that is a different gospel. Today, there are several million people following Joseph Smith and nearly two billion people following Muhammad.

The apostle Paul’s warning of a different gospel is just as important today, as it was 2,000 years ago. There is no telling how many religions around the world have had angelic visitations. Indeed, the Bible warns us that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

In Galatia, Paul’s opponents, often called Judaizers, were trying to impose the requirements of the Mosaic law upon Christians. They were changing the gospel of grace into a gospel of works.

Paul responds in verses 11-12:

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

In other words, “I got it directly from the Son of God.”  

Then Paul begins to share some of his own personal testimony. He writes in verse 15, “[The Lord] set me apart before I was born, and . . . called me by his grace.” By the way, that is a good reminder that you are not an afterthought to God. He has plans for you that began before you were even born. And not because you deserved it, but because of His grace at work in your life.

Paul writes in verse 17 that after his conversion to Christ, he “went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.”[1] He was evidently tutored privately by the Lord. During this three-year training program, Paul would have been given his personal tour of heaven, which he mentions in his second letter to the Corinthians (12:1-4).

After this three-year period of isolation in Arabia and time in Damascus, Paul writes that he returned to Jerusalem, and then, fifteen days later, verse 21 tells us, he headed to “the regions of Syria and Cilicia.” Paul’s hometown was Tarsus, located in Cilicia. So, Paul effectively returns to his hometown, but he was a far different man than he was when he left. He now has his assignment to preach the gospel to the Gentile world.

This first chapter of Galatians gives us two warnings. First, we are not to judge ministers or ministries based on their prestige or influence. We have a lot of influencers today, beloved, who are not worth imitating. The true measure of a minister is how closely he is aligned to the Word of God.

Second, we are not to change our message because of a changing culture. Paul’s message was the same, no matter where he went. It was the gospel of the grace of God, calling sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone. That message has not changed in 2,000 years. And if a shining angel shows up at your front door with another gospel, that is an angel you need to avoid—no matter what.