Confronting Gospel Confusion, part 1

In Galatians 1:6-12, Paul literally comes out swinging in his confrontation of the Galatians' abandonment of following the gospel of Jesus Christ and their embracing of the legalism the Judaizer's (traditional Jews who now follow Jesus, but mandate the keeping of ceremonial Jewish laws) are pressuring them with.  He uses some pretty strong language like "astonished" and "deserting" and "distort" and "accursed" (we'll unpack those tomorrow).  What I'd like to address now is what I believe to be the reason for the Galatians' turning to legalism.

Think about this: a person or situation that has entered your life and caused the very foundational beliefs of your life to be shaken.  I suppose this could be a good thing, say, like the birth of a child - makes you do a reevaluation of everything.  But typically these are stressors in your life: job change or loss, moving, relational breakdown, or some kind of financial crisis.  When one of these stressors comes into your life, where do you run?  What do you go to in order to find relief and peace?  If you run to anything other than the gospel of Jesus you are being an idolater, for you are looking to something other than Jesus to be your Savior.  Idols are what are called "functional saviors."  Another way to define them is "something you life for, and feel that you can't live without."

Tim Keller says that there are three main categories of idols: personal, religious, and cultural. Personal idols include things like: money, romance, looks, sex, self-expression, or your kids (this list could go on).  Religious idols can be truth (you love your theology so much that you forget about grace), spiritual gifts/experience, or morality (following the rules, serving, giving, avoiding sin and sinful people).  Cultural idols can be things like what family you're a part of (or not), political affiliation, ideologies, or even geography (living in a certain part of the country will bring you 'salvation' and fix your problems).   The times in our lives that idols take center stage is at times of distress - when our world gets turned upside down.

I think this is what happened to the Galatians.  Paul planted the seed of the gospel in them, and it was just beginning to take root to grow, but it was still a tender, young plant.  People (Judaizers) came into their midst and shook them up with their message of legalism (you need to add to the gospel of Jesus) and the Galatians took the bait and were running to an idol of religious moralism.  Paul hears of this and confronts their idolatry with the gospel (see Galatians 1:3-5).

So, when your life has gotten shaken up, where have you gone?  Have you run (or are you currently running) to some functional savior?  Has this crisis exposed a shallow belief in the one true gospel of Jesus?  If so, take heart, for God in his mercy has given us Pauls' letter to the Galatians to help us repent and course-correct.  What Paul unpacks through the rest of verses 6-12 are 4 truths about the gospel and people.  We'll take a look at those tomorrow.