by Martin Luther
from his Galatians Commentary
"Galatians 1:6-9"
Galatians 1:6. "I marvel."
How patiently Paul deals with his seduced Galatians! He does not pounce
on them but, like a father, he fairly excuses their error. With motherly
affection he talks to them yet he does it in a way that at the same
time he also reproves them. On the other hand, he is highly indignant at
the seducers whom he blames for the apostasy of the Galatians. His
anger bursts forth in elemental fury at the beginning of his epistle.
"If any may," he cries, "preach any other gospel unto you than that ye
have received, let him be accursed." Later on, in the fifth chapter, he
threatens the false apostles with damnation. "He that troubleth you
shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be." He pronounces a curse upon
them. "I would they were even cut off which trouble you."
He might have addressed the Galatians after this fashion: "I am ashamed
of you. Your ingratitude grieves me. I am angry with you." But his
purpose was to call them back to the Gospel. With this purpose in his
mind he speaks very gently to them. He could not have chosen a milder
expression than this, "I marvel." It indicates his sorrow and his
displeasure.
Paul minds the rule which he himself lays down in a later chapter where
he says: "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are
spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering
thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Toward those who have been misled
we are to show ourselves parentally affectionate, so that they may
perceive that we seek not their destruction but their salvation. Over
against the devil and his missionaries, the authors of false doctrines
and sects, we ought to be like the Apostle, impatient, and rigorously
condemnatory, as parents are with the dog that bites their little one,
but the weeping child itself they soothe.
The right spirit in Paul supplies him with an extraordinary facility in
handling the afflicted consciences of the fallen. The Pope and his
bishops, inspired by the desire to lord it over men's souls, crack out
thunders and curses upon miserable consciences. They have no care for
the saving of men's souls. They are interested only in maintaining their
position.
Galatians 1:6. "That ye are so soon."
Paul deplores the fact that it is difficult for the mind to retain a
sound and steadfast faith. A man labors for a decade before he succeeds
in training his little church into orderly religion, and then some
ignorant and vicious poltroon comes along to overthrow in a minute the
patient labor of years. By the grace of God we have effected here in
Wittenberg the form of a Christian church. The Word of God is taught as
it should be, the Sacraments are administered, and everything is
prosperous. This happy condition, secured by many years of arduous
labors, some lunatic might spoil in a moment. This happened in the
churches of Galatia which Paul had brought into life in spiritual
travail. Soon after his departure, however, these Galatian churches were
thrown into confusion by the false apostles.
The church is a tender plant. It must be watched. People hear a couple
of sermons, scan a few pages of Holy Writ, and think they know it all.
They are bold because they have never gone through any trials of faith.
Void of the Holy Spirit, they teach what they please as long as it
sounds good to the common people who are ever ready to join something
new.
We have to watch out for the devil lest he sow tares among the wheat
while we sleep. No sooner had Paul turned his back on the churches of
Galatia, than the false apostles went to work. Therefore, let us watch
over ourselves and over the whole church.
Galatians 1:6. "I marvel that ye are so soon removed."
Again the Apostle puts in a gentle word. He does not berate the
Galatians, "I marvel that ye are so unsteady, unfaithful." He says, "I
marvel that ye are so soon removed." He does not address them as
evildoers. He speaks to them as people who have suffered great loss. He
condemns those who removed them rather than the Galatians. At the same
time he gently reproves them for rather themselves to be removed. The
criticism is implied that they should have been permitting a little more
settled in their beliefs. If they had taken better hold of the Word
they could not have been removed so easily.
Jerome thinks that Paul is playing upon the name Galatians, deriving it
from the Hebrew word Galath, which means fallen or carried away, as
though Paul wanted to say, "You are true Galatians, i.e., fallen away in
name and in fact." Some believe that the Germans are descended from the
Galatians. There may be something to that. For the Germans are not
unlike the Galatians in their lack of constancy. At first we Germans are
very enthusiastic, but presently our emotions cool and we become slack.
When the light of the Gospel first came to us many were zealous, heard
sermons greedily, and held the ministry of God's Word in high esteem.
But now that religion has been reformed, many who formerly were such
earnest disciples have discarded the Word of God, have become
sow-bellies like the foolish and inconsistent Galatians.
Galatians 1:6. "From him that called you into the grace of Christ."
The reading is a little doubtful. The sentence may be construed to read:
"From that Christ that called you into grace"; or it may be construed
to read: "From God that called you into the grace of Christ." I prefer
the former for it seems to me that Paul's purpose is to impress upon us
the benefits of Christ. This reading also preserves the implied
criticism that the Galatians withdrew themselves from that Christ who
had called them not unto the law, but unto grace. With Paul we decry the
blindness and perverseness of men in that they will not receive the
message of grace and salvation, or having received it they quickly let
go of it, in spite of the fact that the Gospel bestows all good things
spiritual: forgiveness of sins, true righteousness, peace of conscience,
everlasting life; and all good things temporal: good judgment, good
government and peace.
Why does the world abhor the glad tidings of the Gospel and the
blessings that go with it? Because the world is the devil's. Under his
direction the world persecutes the Gospel and would if it could nail
again Christ, the Son of God, to the Cross although He gave Himself into
death for the sins of the world. The world dwells in darkness. The
world is darkness.
Paul accentuates the point that the Galatians had been called by Christ
unto grace. "I taught you the doctrine of grace and of liberty from the
Law, from sin and wrath, that you should be free in Christ, and not
slaves to the hard laws of Moses. Will you allow yourselves to be
carried away so easily from the living fountain of grace and life?"
Galatians 1:6. "Unto another gospel."
Note the resourcefulness of the devil. Heretics do not advertise their
errors. Murderers, adulterers, thieves disguise themselves. So the devil
masquerades all his devices and activities. He puts on white to make
himself look like an angel of light. He is astoundingly clever to sell
his patent poison for the Gospel of Christ. Knowing Satan's guile, Paul
sardonically calls the doctrine of the false apostles "another gospel,"
as if he would say, "You Galatians have now another gospel, while my
Gospel is no longer esteemed by you."
We infer from this that the false apostles had depreciated the Gospel of
Paul among the Galatians on the plea that it was incomplete. Their
objection to Paul's Gospel is identical to that recorded in the
fifteenth chapter of the Book of Acts to the effect that it was not
enough for the Galatians to believe in Christ, or to be baptized, but
that it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the
law of Moses, for "except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses,
ye cannot be saved." As though Christ were a workman who had begun a
building and left it for Moses to finish.
Today the Anabaptists and others, finding it difficult to condemn us,
accuse us Lutherans of timidity in professing the whole truth. They
grant that we have laid the foundation in Christ, but claim that we have
failed to go through with the building. In this way these perverse
fanatics parade their cursed doctrine as the Word of God, and, flying
the flag of God's name, they deceive many. The devil knows better than
to appear ugly and black. He prefers to carry on his nefarious
activities in the name of God. Hence the German proverb: "All mischief
begins in the name of God."
When the devil sees that he cannot hurt the cause of the Gospel by
destructive methods, he does it under the guise of correcting and
advancing the cause of the Gospel. He would like best of all to
persecute us with fire and sword, but this method has availed him little
because through the blood of martyrs the church has been watered.
Unable to prevail by force, he engages wicked and ungodly teachers who
at first make common cause with us, then claim that they are
particularly called to teach the hidden mysteries of the Scriptures to
superimpose upon the first principles of Christian doctrine that we
teach. This sort of thing brings the Gospel into trouble. May we all
cling to the Word of Christ against the wiles of the devil, "for we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places."
Galatians 1:7. "Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you."
Here again the apostle excuses the Galatians, while he blames the false
apostles for disturbing their consciences and for stealing them out of
his hand. How angry he gets at these deceivers! He calls them
troublemakers, seducers of poor consciences.
This passage adduces further evidence that the false apostles defamed
Paul as an imperfect apostle and a weak and erroneous preacher. They
condemn Paul, Paul condemns them. Such warfare of condemnation is always
going on in the church. The papists and the fanatics hate us, condemn
our doctrine, and want to kill us. We in turn hate and condemn their
cursed doctrine. In the meanwhile the people are uncertain whom to
follow and which way to turn, for it is not given to everybody to judge
these matters. But the truth will win out. So much is certain, we
persecute no man, neither does our doctrine trouble men. On the
contrary, we have the testimony of many good men who thank God on their
knees for the consolation that our doctrine has brought them. Like Paul,
we are not to blame that the churches have trouble. The fault lies with
the Anabaptists and other fanatics.
Every teacher of work-righteousness is a trouble-maker. Has it never
occurred to you that the pope, cardinals, bishops, monks, and that the
whole synagogue of Satan are trouble-makers? The truth is, they are
worse than false apostles. The files apostles taught that in addition to
faith in Christ the works of the Law of God were necessary unto
salvation. But the papists omit faith altogether and teach self-devised
traditions and works that are not commanded of God, indeed are contrary
to the Word of God, and for these traditions they demand preferred
attention and obedience.
Paul calls the false apostles troublers of the church because they
taught circumcision and the keeping of the Law as needful unto
salvation. They insisted that the Law must be observed in every detail.
They were supporters in this contention by the Jews, with the result
that those who were not firmly established in faith were easily
persuaded that Paul was not a sincere teacher of God because he ignored
the Law. The Jews were offended at the idea that the Law of God should
be entirely ignored by Paul and that the Gentiles, former
idol-worshippers, should gratuitously attain to the station of God's
people without circumcision, without the penitentiary performance of the
law, by grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus.
These criticisms were amplified by the false apostles. They accused Paul
of designs to abolish the law of God and the Jewish dispensation,
contrary to the law of God, contrary to their Jewish heritage, contrary
to apostolic example, contrary to Paul's own example. They demanded that
Paul be shunned as a blasphemer and a rebel, while they were to be
heard as true teachers of the Gospel and authentic disciples of the
apostles. Thus Paul stood defamed among the Galatians. He was forced to
attack the false apostles. He did so without hesitation.
Galatians 1:7. "And would pervert the gospel of Christ."
To paraphrase this sentence: "These false apostles do not merely trouble
you, they abolish Christ's Gospel. They act as if they were the only
true Gospel-preachers. For all that they muddle Law and Gospel. As a
result they pervert the Gospel. Either Christ must live and the Law
perish, or the Law remains and Christ must perish; Christ and the Law
cannot dwell side by side in the conscience. It is either grace or law.
To muddle the two is to eliminate the Gospel of Christ entirely."
It seems a small matter to mingle the Law and Gospel, faith and works,
but it creates more mischief than man's brain can conceive. To mix Law
and Gospel not only clouds the knowledge of grace, it cuts out Christ
altogether.
The words of Paul, "and would pervert the gospel of Christ," also
indicate how arrogant these false apostles were. They were shameless
boasters. Paul simply had to exalt his own ministry and Gospel.
Galatians
1:8. "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed."
Paul's zeal for the Gospel becomes so fervent that it almost leads him
to curse angels. "I would rather that I, my brethren, yes, the angels of
heaven be anathematized than that my gospel be overthrown."
The Greek word anathema, Hebrew herem, means to a curse, execrate, to
damn. Paul first (hypothetically) curses himself. Knowing persons first
find fault with themselves in order that they may all the more earnestly
reprove others.
Paul maintains that there is no other gospel besides the one he had
preached to the Galatians. He preached, not a gospel of his own
invention, but the very same Gospel God had long ago prescribed in the
Sacred Scriptures. No wonder Paul pronounces curses upon himself and
upon others, upon the angels of heaven, if anyone should dare to preach
any other gospel than Christ's own.
Galatians
1:9. "As we said before, so say I now again. If any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
Paul repeats the curse, directing it now upon other persons. Before, he
cursed himself, his brethren, and an angel from heaven. "Now," he says,
"if there are any others who preach a gospel different from that you
have received from us, let them also be accursed." Paul herewith curses
and excommunicates all false teachers including his opponents. He is so
worked up that he dares to curse all who pervert his Gospel. Would to
God that this terrible pronouncement of the Apostle might strike fear
into the hearts of all who pervert the Gospel of Paul.
The Galatians might say: "Paul, we do not pervert the Gospel you have
brought unto us. We did not quite understand it. That is all. Now these
teachers who came after you have explained everything so beautifully."
This explanation the Apostle refuses to accept. They must add nothing;
they must correct nothing. "What you received from me is the genuine
Gospel of God. Let it stand. If any man brings any other gospel than the
one I brought you, or promises to deliver better things than you have
received from me, let him be accursed."
In spite of this emphatic denunciation so many accept the pope as the
supreme judge of the Scriptures. "The Church," they say, "chose only
four gospels. The Church might have chosen more. Ergo the Church is
above the Gospel." With equal force one might argue: "I approve the
Scriptures. Ergo I am above the Scriptures. John the Baptist confessed
Christ. Hence he is above Christ." Paul subordinates himself, all
preachers, all the angels of heaven, everybody to the Sacred Scriptures.
We are not the masters, judges, or arbiters, but witnesses, disciples,
and confessors of the Scriptures, whether we be pope, Luther, Augustine,
Paul, or an angel from heaven.
Galatians 1:6. "I marvel."
"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves..." -2 Corinthians. 13:5
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