Day 90

Memorize: Turning from true gospel

Galatians 1

Key Verses: 5, 8, 12, 18,

After Paul begins his letter in the normal way for that day and age, he gets right down to business. Some in the region where his readers live are abandoning the Good News of the freedom we have in Jesus. Some teachers are coming in and confusing them. Paul condemns these teachers. Jesus’ message is always faith, never faith plus something else. It has always been by faith that the people of God related to the Lord. Nothing has changed.

Paul defends this position by pointing out that he received the message directly through a revelation from God. He didn’t even consult with the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem. As soon as Jesus appeared to him on the Damascus road, Paul set out to discover the implications of his encounter. He spent three years working out what it meant to his faith.

I imagine Paul pouring over the Old Testament, guided by the Holy Spirit. As he read passages that he had studied many times before he discovered the implications of the text in relationship to Jesus’ death and resurrection. The proverbial light bulbs must have been flashing during this time. He understood with a new set of eyes, eyes opened by the Holy Spirit. He saw the consistency of Jesus’ message and the whole of the Old Testament.

The more I study the Scriptures, 36 years of study, the more I am convinced that they are God’s Word. They speak down through the millennia with clarity and conviction. They speak to the human condition, the needs and desires of every people.

Abandoning the faith would be spiritual suicide. I would be giving up on the only thing that could possibly bring hope to me personally or to the world as a whole. Only in the Gospel is there hope for peace and reconciliation. Only in the Gospel is there forgiveness.