GALATIANS 1:8

The Christians in the region of Galatia had been infiltrated by false teachers. Paul was writing this epistle in order to wake up these believers to the great problem that the false teaching was causing. Originally Paul had gone to these people and preached to them the gospel of salvation by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometime after Paul left, false teachers arrived. The false teachers still used the word “gospel” and they used the name of Jesus, but the problem was that they gave a different meaning to the gospel than the things that Paul had taught. Paul taught clearly that salvation was by grace through faith in Jesus. This salvation is a free gift that cannot be merited or earned in any way. If you are saved, you are accepted by God, not because of anything you have done, but because of what Jesus did when He died, was buried, and rose from the dead. The false teachers perverted the gospel of grace by adding human works to it.

The one true gospel is the gospel that the Apostle Paul originally taught. You will know that gospel if you know clearly the things that Paul taught about the gospel. They are recorded in his epistles. The epistle to the Romans especially is the great doctrinal writing on the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you do not understand Romans and if you do not understand all of the things that Paul wrote about the gospel, then you do not understand the gospel the way you should. What about those who preach or teach a different gospel from the one that Paul taught?

Paul wrote in Galatians 1:8-9, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any one preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.” The first thing that Paul warns about is the fact that it is not the person that preaches the gospel that is important, but the content of the gospel. Not who is preaching, but which gospel do they preach? That is the question. Human beings too easily become attached to someone’s personality or to their reputation or to what they have done in the past. Paul said not to make that mistake. Do not become attached to the person who is delivering a message.

Become attached to the gospel, and if someone comes along who does not preach the gospel, then they should be rejected. And it does not matter who it is that is doing the preaching. If they are not preaching this gospel that Paul recorded in his epistles, then they should be rejected. Paul included himself and he included angels in this. If the Apostle Paul appeared today and preached another gospel than the one recorded in the book of Romans or other epistles, then Paul himself should be accursed.

How prophetic Paul was when he wrote these verses in Galatians! He said if he “or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel…let him be accursed.” Several of the cults and false religions say that an angel revealed to them the things that they teach. One of the cults of our day have added another book to the Bible that they falsely call “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” There is only one gospel, and there is only one testament. It is important to note that the same false cult claims that an angel revealed it to them. Remember what Paul said when you hear such things. He said, “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

In the rest of Galatians chapter one and in the first part of Galatians chapter two Paul is going to state very clearly his own personal history and from where he obtained the gospel that he preaches. Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, “For do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” The first thing that Paul talks about is his motivation. Why did he preach the gospel that he preached? What motivated him? That is a very important question. It is not only what you do, but why you do it. The false teachers not only have a false message, they have a false heart. They are men-pleasers instead of god-pleasers. If they were trying to please God, they would go to God and find out the truth. Jesus said that you cannot please God and man. If you are going to please God, you must stand for the truth above all. You must preach the truth no matter what anyone says or thinks.

Paul did not try to please man, and he did not get his message from man either. He wrote in Galatians 1:11-12, “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul is emphasizing the fact that the reason that he has authority is because of where he got his message. He did not get it from man: he got it from Jesus Christ directly. You do not really know anything spiritually speaking unless you learn it from God. That is one of the problems that can happen to people who go to religious schools and to seminaries: they might end up only learning from man and never learning from Jesus Himself. That is what happened to those who teach systems of theology instead of teaching God’s Word. But that did not happen to Paul. He was taught “by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

What made the difference in Paul’s life was Jesus Christ. There came a time in Paul’s life when he actually met Jesus, was converted to Jesus, had his sins forgiven by Jesus, and had his life changed by Jesus. Hopefully you have had a similar experience. It is called being born again. Jesus said, “Except you be born again, you shall not see the Kingdom of God.” On the road to Damascus Paul was born again, and Paul reminds us of how much his life was changed by speaking of what his life was like before he met Jesus. Paul wrote in Galatians 1:13-14, “For you have heard of my manner of life in times past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it; And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.”

There are two important things to note about Paul’s life before he met Jesus. The first thing to note is how great of a sinner Paul was. Paul did not become a Christian by becoming a better person: he became a Christian by repenting of his sins and finding forgiveness in Jesus. In other words Paul did not earn or merit his salvation. He was saved by grace, not by works. Anyone who realizes how great their sins have been also realizes that their salvation through Christ was only by the grace of God.

The second thing to notice about the life of Paul before he was saved is how much he had been involved in the Jewish religion and how much he had achieved in the Jewish religion, and yet those religious pursuits and accomplishments did nothing to give him salvation. Until he had a salvation experience by placing his faith in Jesus, he was lost. He was religious, but he was a lost soul. Practicing the Jewish religion with all of the zeal that he had could not save his soul. This is important to note because the false teachers who had come in among the Galatians were Judaizers. In other words, they told the believers in Galatia that they could not be saved unless they practiced the Jewish religion. They added law to the gospel. But Paul had already been practicing law the best he could and better than many of his “equals in the Jews’ religion,” yet salvation was found only by grace through faith in Jesus.

How did this happen? How did Paul get out of religion and get into faith in Christ? Paul wrote in Galatians 1:15-16, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” In these verses where Paul refers to his own salvation, the emphasis is entirely upon God and what God did to accomplish the salvation. First Paul said, “It pleased God,” to reveal the Son in Paul. It started with God. It did not start with man. How does Paul describe his salvation? He said that the Son was revealed in him. If the Son has been revealed in you, then you have been saved. If the Son has not been revealed in you, then you have not been saved. It is not a work that you do: it is a work that God does when He decides to do it. True belief in Christ is a gift, a gift that God has put in your heart. It would not be there unless God put it there. That is what happened to Paul, and that is what happened to you if you are really saved.

It pleased God, God revealed the Son in him, and also God called Paul by His grace. God called Paul. You cannot get saved until you are called. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” You have to be called first, and then after you are called, you have to respond positively to that calling by coming to Christ and calling on His name. But you do not even have a chance to respond to that calling until God does the calling. People get called to Christ by God in God’s own time. Jesus was revealed to Paul “when” it pleased God. The timing of it all was God’s completely. He knows when the time is right. You do not. That is why you had better be careful about telling people they are saved just because they prayed some words that you told them to pray. You are not God. Salvation is of God. It starts with God and Christ, and it ends with God and Christ.

Salvation is the work of God, not the work of man. That is why Paul wrote that God called him “by His grace.” Grace is the unmerited favor of God. No person deserves salvation. No person does anything to earn or obtain salvation. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Jesus paid it all. Salvation is a gift: entirely and completely a gift. Salvation is by grace and by grace alone. Paul knew that, and that is why he said, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me.”

Salvation is entirely the work of God. God begins doing this work in a person’s life even before they are born. Paul said that God “separated him from his mother’s womb.” In other words a human is not even conceived unless it is part of the great plan of God. Therefore, from the time that a person is conceived and God puts a soul into them, God begins organizing the circumstances of their life and God begins working in their heart so that they will be ready when He calls. Nothing is by accident. The womb into which you were conceived was not an accident. In the permissive and all-knowing and all-powerful will of God it was all permitted and arranged so that you would be you. God loves you and has a plan for you. That plan includes having faith in Christ and then taking the gifts that God gives, and fulfilling His purpose for you by using those gifts for the glory of Christ.

Paul got saved by Jesus on the road to Damascus, and then Paul started fulfilling the will of God for him. There is always the question now that you are saved: what does God want you to do? After God saves you, He leaves you on the earth for a reason. Paul understood God’s purpose for him. Paul said that the purpose that Jesus was revealed in him was so that Paul “might preach Him among the heathen.” Several of the apostles preached Christ primarily to the Jews especially at the beginning of their preaching ministries. Most of the earliest Christians were Jews, and so when Paul had a ministry to go primarily to the gentiles, it was something new.

God gave to Paul this ministry of taking the gospel of Christ to the gentiles. Paul was set aside for that task. Paul was prepared for that task even before he was saved. To Paul was revealed the great doctrines so that the difference between Jew and Gentile could be properly taught. That special calling by Paul was important for the believers in Galatia to remember, because the false teachers were primarily Judaizers, who taught that the gentiles had to become more like the Jews in order to be saved. The false teachers taught that the gentiles had to be circumcised and had to obey other laws from the Old Testament in order to be saved. The false teachers perverted the gospel because they added requirements to salvation that God had not revealed to Paul. The only requirement to be saved is to turn from your sins and turn to Christ. A Jew can be saved by doing that, and a gentile can be saved by doing that. A Jew does not have to become a gentile and a gentile does not have to become a Jew in order to be saved. Both Jew and gentile can be saved by grace through faith in Christ. Who would know the truth about law and grace, the Apostle Paul to whom had been revealed by Christ the doctrine of salvation, or false teachers who had a human and legalistic motivation for what they said?

Beware. The same false teachings are widespread today that corrupt the gospel of grace. If anyone adds law to grace, they are making the same mistake that Paul spoke against. If you have never been saved by totally relying upon Jesus to save you and doing nothing to save yourself, then today you can to turn to Christ and receive His salvation by grace alone.

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