If you read any of Paul’s letters, almost all of them begin with a greeting and then with Paul thanking God for the believers that he is writing to. Not so in Galatians. After his introduction, he launches into the heart of things: “I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God... you are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all.” (1.6-7)
Ever made a commitment to God, only to find that within a week, you are turning away from everything that you promised? You want to ask yourself the question that Paul asked the Galatians: “who has cast an evil spell on you?” (3.1)
That’s an accurate analogy, isn’t it? It’s sometimes like while we sleep, someone is weaving a spell over us. We wake up and it’s like all the passion and clarity that we had before is gone. We forget the Good News and go back to our default mode of trying to save ourselves and control our own lives.
As the hymn says, we are “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”.
So what do we need? We need a more powerful magic, a more powerful spell to set us free from the enchantment. And so in this letter, Paul gives them the straight truth, 100 proof gospel.
This is why we need to keep going deeper into the gospel. This is why we have to keep on fighting to believe, clinging relentlessly to faith in Christ alone. Only the gospel can set us free from the chains that we keep snapping on our ankles.
Lord, today I need to be reminded of things that I have forgotten while I slept. Refresh my soul, renew my amazement at grace. Amen.
I had a question about the whole Gentile situation. I know that in the OT and the NT, Gentiles were not really supposed to be associated with. It became a problem that even Peter and Paul argued about. What exactly was the original problem that made Jewish people hate them so much?
ReplyDeleteGreat question. It's not exactly true that the Gentiles were supposed to be avoided in the OT. In fact, the original calling of Israel was to be a light to the nations, so that the Gentiles would see who God was through Israel. Unfortunately, instead of being a light to the nations, Israel wanted to be like the nations - worship their gods, even engage in abominable practices like temple prostitution and child sacrifice. The barriers in the OT law were set up so that God's people wouldn't be influenced by the other nations, but there was always provision made for foreigners to join God's people. There were even Egyptians who traveled with the people of Israel out of Egypt.
ReplyDeleteAs time went on, there was an increasing separation from the Gentiles and Jewish nationalism (fueled by the Babylonian, Persian and Roman occupation) so that by the time of the NT, Jews distinguished themselves pretty sharply from Gentiles. Think of the way the Koreans are still at odds with the Japanese. Yet. there were still God-fearing Gentiles who had converted to Judaism, and to do so, they would be circumcised and then obey the law of Moses.
So as Jesus comes and dies and rises and starts a movement, the gospel begins to be embraced by Gentiles (read Acts 10). Since this started with the Jews, there is this tension, what do we do with the Gentiles who are believing? Some said, they need to be circumcised and keep the law, others said, no, it is only faith in Christ that is needed. This was Paul's position that he articulates so clearly in Galatians. Galatians was written just before the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, where the church leadership agreed together that all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are saved not by keeping the law but by faith in Christ alone. Read Acts 15, and it will help a lot I think.
That's a short and overly simplistic, but I hope it helps.