Scripture
6I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. Galatians 1:6-7
Observation
Paul would normally start out every letter he wrote to the churches with some form of gratitude and thanks. Romans, Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians all received a warm thanks. Not here. No, Paul jumps right in to the issue at hand. The churches in Galatia have abandoned the Good News for fake news. In turning away from the Gospel of the “loving mercy of Christ” they have turned away from Christ himself. No wonder Paul was so urgent in his letter. Paul’s essentially saying, “They brought you a completely different gospel. They claim it is just an alternative gospel of the same kind, but it isn’t at all. It is all together different.” Anything other than Jesus is just a sorry substitute for the true source of our salvation. It’s the same trick the Devil pulled in the Garden of Eden, a perversion and distortion of what God had actually said to get Adam and Eve to turn away from God. Martin Luther put it this way, “Note the resourcefulness of the devil. Heretics do not advertise their errors. Murderers, adulterers, thieves disguise themselves. So the devil masquerades all these devices and activities. He puts on white to make himself look like an angel of light.”
Application
Just like you I woke up to all kinds of bad news. The heart break of what’s happening in Ukraine due to Russia’s unprovoked and brutal invasion. Over a million Ukrainian refugees on the run for their lives. The ripple effect of this war on our economy here at home means an astronomical rise in gas and food prices. If there’s any time when we needed some Good News it’s right now. Here’s the deal though, God’s Good News is highly offensive. If we aren’t careful we will make the same mistake the churches in Galatia did which was to prefer a gospel that painted us as the savior of the story. The world loves movies and stories where man or woman saves the world. This is our preferred narrative. This is NOT the Good News we've been called to preach, but it might be the one we prefer to believe. Biblical commentator David Duzik puts it this way:
When we understand how offensive the true gospel is to human nature, we better understand why someone would want to pervert it.
• The gospel offends our pride. It tells us we need a savior, and that we cannot save ourselves. It gives no credit to us at all for our salvation; it is all the work of Jesus for us.
• The gospel offends our wisdom. It saves us by something many consider foolish—God becoming man and dying a humiliating, disgraceful death on our behalf.
• Third, the gospel offends our knowledge. It tells us to believe something which goes against scientific knowledge and personal experience—that a dead man, Jesus Christ, rose from the dead in a glorious new body that would never die again
Prayer
The phrase Paul uses really grabs me, “turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.” I’m turning towards You this morning. I don’t want to fall for the same self-help subversive lie that has been deceiving Your followers for years. Anything that takes my eyes off of You, no matter how it’s packaged in tasty religious wording, is a perversion of Your love for me. There are many things to fear and worry about, but I’m going to revel in the Good News that You came for me, that You love me, that You died for me and that You rose for me. You did what I could not do so I could receive what I could not earn. You are the Good News the world desperately needs right now and I pray that my life would put that news on bright display!
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