Paul’s letter to the Galatians begins nicely enough but then
gets down to the heart of the matter. “I am astonished that you are so quickly
deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ…” The Galatians have
been “bewitched” (3:1) and have abandoned the Gospel of grace for a gospel that
is no Gospel at all. The believers in the Galatia churches - Antioch of
Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe – (Acts 13:4-14:28) originally embraced the message
of the Gospel that “a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by
faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16) but now have let go of the Gospel to cling once
again to the Law. The trouble for the Galatians is the same trouble the
faithful always seem to face. Change. I think we should cut them a little more
slack then Paul suggests, (i.e. 5:12) after all change does not come easily to the
church in any age and the changes the Gospel called forth for the Galatians were
monumental. And maybe it is always more difficult for people who are really good
at following the Law to fully believe that the Gospel does all the work which in a real sense means
to “let go and let God.”
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