Galatians: Win the Approval of Human Beings, or of God?
By Colton Rohn

Paul wrote the book of Galatians in 49 AD. After the book of James (45 AD), Galatians is the second book of the New Testament Canon! At this point in Christendom, disciples have been growing for 20 years (Acts 2)! Not only are Jews becoming Christians, but for the past decade, even Gentiles have been getting baptized into the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 10, 11). Paul, also known as Saul, was baptized 14 years earlier in Damascus by devout Jewish observer, Ananias (Acts 9:18). After his baptism, Paul fled to Arabia where he spent three
years with the resurrected Jesus on Mount Sinai (Gal 1:11-21, Gal 4:25)! After Arabia Paul traveled through Syria to Tarsus in Cilicia (Gal 1:21; Acts 9:30).

Barnabas brought Paul from Tarsus to Antioch to help lead the church at eight years old spiritually (Acts 11:25-26). From here they were called by the Holy Spirit to their “first” missionary journey. Traveling through Cyprus (Seleucia, Salamis & Paphos) they converted the proconsul, Paulus. From there they
planted the church in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra & Derbe. While in Derbe the city stoned Paul and left him for dead. However, Paul did not die, but got back up and went into the city, then he left the next day. After traveling through Galatia encouraging the churches and establishing elders, Paul and Barnabas
returned to their home church at Antioch in 48 AD (Acts 14:23). The following year Paul and Barnabas are sent to the council meeting in Jerusalem to discuss the conundrum for physical circumcision for Gentiles to become Christian.

Apparently, some men went throughout Judea, and Antioch, teaching that Gentiles must be circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses if they wanted to be saved (Acts 15:1)! During the meeting, Peter explains how God used him to allow Gentiles to enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 10). Then Pauland Barnabas share the good news of what God did through them throughout the province of Galatia. James finalizes the decision that Gentiles do not need to be circumcised to become saved! A letter is sent throughout Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia to inform the disciples of this truth (Acts 15). It is at this time that Paul writes the churches
throughout Galatia that he helped established from 46 AD – 48 AD, the book entitled Galatians. When a lot is happening, and a lot of movement going on, false doctrine wants to creep into the church quickly, but we must keep in step with the spirit, oppose false doctrine, and always preach the truth! Are we trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? Will we preach the original doctrine, or be swayed by the crowds to teach what their itching ears want to hear?

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” Gal 1:6-8

Some people were teaching that you must be circumcised to be saved, Paul says this is a different gospel. A teaching that has a form of the good news, but because it is counterfeit, it condemns those who preach it and those who follow it! The gospel will never change! If someone is preaching a different gospel, then we know they are preaching a heresy! The gospel message will not change from the first time it was preached in Acts 2! No matter who you are, if you preach a different message than what was delivered for the first 20 years of
Christendom, you are eternally condemned!

Look at what Peter preaches for the first gospel message in Acts 2 at 29 AD: “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him…When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Acts
2:22-39

One must believe that Jesus is the son of God, that he died for their sins, rose from the dead on the third day and ascended into heaven. One must then repent from all sin. Be Baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; To have salvation! Anyone who is
teaching a “different gospel” is not only hurting people; they are condemning them with false hope and a false doctrine! “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness… So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and
heirs according to the promise.” Gal 3:1-26

The message is clear; you cannot work your way into heaven; But can you have heaven without being clothed with Christ? Forgiveness happens in the waters of baptism according to Acts 2:38. Not because of your effort, but because of your faith and the working power of God (Col 2:11-12)! Today many people are foolish because people are bewitching them with false doctrines! One famous false doctrine is the Sinners prayer!

Starting in the 1700’s with the mourner’s bench, later becoming known as the anxious seat, and has now evolved into the what we know as the Sinner’s Prayer for Salvation. Charles Finney formed a theological system around the anxious seat which Dwight Moody took and created the inquiry room. R.A. Torrey took the inquiry room to the streets to have on the spot conversions, to “receive Christ” with no strings attached. Billy Sunday was converted with this technique and would preach fire and brimstone sermons. After the lesson people were
offered salvation with a prayer and even told, they were saved just because they walked down the aisle to where he was standing, others because they shook his hand. Billy Graham was converted at a crusade like one of these. Graham and Bill Bright took this “four-step formula” of salvation to what it is today, the Four Spiritual Laws. This pray Jesus into your heart concept is taught that you can be converted on your home, in your car, at a concert, or in the privacy of your bathroom. We see that this teaching has been handed down from one doctrine to another, all evolving from the anxious seat. To understand that this truly is a “different gospel” let us look at what Finney says in his 14th Lecture on Revivals, “when advocating the necessity of something like the “anxious seat” – “The church has always felt it necessary to have something of this kind to answer this very purpose. In the days of the apostles, baptism answered this purpose.

The gospel was preached to the people, and then all those who were willing to be on the side of Christ were called out to be baptized. It held the place that the anxious seat does now as a public manifestation of their determination to be Christians” (The Millennial Harbinger, Volume 5 edited by Alexander Campbell, Charles Louis Loos) This teaching has won the approval of many people throughout the last 300 years, but it does not win the approval of God!

Of them the scripture is true: “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.” Gal 5:7-10 Let us run the race and finish it! Let us not get disqualified because of a “different gospel” but let us be in the race to please God by following the original gospel message; believe, repent, make the good confession, get baptized, & stay faithful.