The Warning Against a Different Gospel

AMY TURNER

In Galatians 1, Paul speaks strongly to believers who were turning away from the true message of Christ. He tells them they were being drawn to another gospel, which was not the gospel at all. This false message centred on the idea that salvation could come through keeping the law and through human effort.

Paul reminds the church that faith begins with the Spirit, not with the works of the flesh. To return to law-keeping as a way of salvation is to go back to weak and empty things. In chapter 5, he makes it clear that such a path is disobedience to the truth.

The danger in Galatia came from those who insisted that Christians must still follow Jewish laws to be saved. Paul’s teaching is clear: if works are added to grace, then grace is lost. Any message that mixes human effort with God’s free gift of salvation is not the gospel and cannot save.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Ephesians 2:8