Week 46 Galatians 1
I’m not far into the letter before I see this: I am amazed that you are so quickly turning…to a different gospel – not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
It’s a niggling question but I wondered why Paul called this new teaching a different gospel when it was in reality an erroneous substitute.
If I was writing it I’d have said something like this: “You started with the Basic Gospel – the ‘good news’ of Jesus. But now you’ve hived-off into a grotesque alternate. I can understand Clarificatory Adjustments – you update define qualify adjust modify explain revise tweak rearrange alter. Fair enough. But what you’re doing is reinventing the Basic Gospel. It’s not the Gospel. You’ve modified it past the point-of-no-return. Here’s what you need to do: Start with the Basic Gospel and Stick with it. Starting requires Sticking.”
Okay…I know I’m putting words in Paul’s mouth. He didn’t say that. But the rewriting exercise helped me in two ways: a) it clarified what I think Paul was saying and b) it reminded me that with the Basic Gospel I’m on a specifically defined trajectory and whatever directional fine-tuning I do I can’t stray from the established path.
Note: quote from Galatians 1:6-7 (CSB). I’ve thought about this topic before in ‘different gospel’ (November 5/2020) and ‘a hybrid gospel’ (November 6/2020).