Galatians 1:1-10--No Other Gospel

Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- 2 and all the brothers who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

No Other Gospel
6 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-- 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even 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. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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We see Paul address himself many different ways, but one of his favorite ways to address himself is that he is an apostle--one who is called and sent by God, and specifically in the New Testament sense of the word, one who has seen the risen Christ and been chosen to help plant the Early Church.  Paul is going to argue what the real gospel is in the book of Galatians so it is important for him to establish his credentials and an authority on the subject matter (we'll get to that more tomorrow in verses 11-24 of chapter 1).  For now though notice that Paul argues that the message he is bringing is coming directly from Jesus Christ and God the Father--this is the main argument of the text we'll tackle tomorrow.

Paul then makes one of the great "summary statements" of the gospel (there will be several in Galatians).  Take a look at his greeting.  The Church (those who have been saved by Christ) now have grace and peace from God through Christ because Jesus gave of Himself for our sins, to deliver us from the present evil age (not just from the power of evil, but eventually from the presence of evil), according to God's predetermined (predestined) will from the before the beginning of time, so that God alone may receive all the credit and glory and honor for the work that He accomplished through Christ.  Wow!  If that isn't the gospel, I don't know what is!

But Paul quickly has to turn and rebuke the churches in Galatia for quickly turning away from the one and only gospel that was preached to them originally--turning aside to the false gospels of the Judaisers (a "gospel plus" message spread by some of the Jews that wanted to continue to require that the Gentiles first become Jewish before becoming Christians and continue to adhere to all Jewish customs, traditions, festivals, feats, etc).  Paul makes one of the boldest statements here--even if someone claiming to be an angelic messenger comes and brings you a different gospel, don't believe them and let them be accursed (this is the Greek word for "damned," but Bible translators usually won't translate it that way--and Paul means it just that way.  Anyone that would preach and teach a false gospel is deserving of hellfire and damnation for leading people astray).

Then Paul says that he doesn't care if what he says is popular.  If he were around today he might say "I'm not about Facebook friends, like, or follows.  There is only one person with whom we need to hear "well done, my good and faithful servant" and it's not any mortal man--it's the God-Man, Christ Jesus our Lord.  What Paul is about to say is harsh, blunt, and might make some people not like him anymore.  Paul says that the stakes are too high and that he has no choice but to be very direct on this subject matter.  In fact, you'll get the idea when reading this letter that Paul is experiencing some righteous indignation, and I think you'd be correct.  He's quite perturbed at what has been going on and how quickly these churches has abandoned what they originally believed and knew to be true, and Paul knows the souls of these men and women are at stake--people that Jesus died for.