DAY 266

GOSPEL+

Ecclesiastes 10, 11 & 12 and Galatians 1

I tried to “wrap up” Ecclesiastes yesterday and make room for the start of Galatians today. Yesterday, the point I was trying to make is made at the end of Galatians…”The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

Which brings us to Galatians: you might be groaning saying, “Oh no, not another letter from Paul!” Before you cringe let me just try and get out in front of this letter a bit. The letter is written to churches in Galatia. The letter is addressing an issue that the church has. The good news is that two things will emerge in this letter – first we will be able to understand the “issue” that Paul is writing about, and the second is that Paul will in a multiplicity of ways present “the Gospel” – what it is and what it is not.

For today it might be simple enough to plant a small seed with you…the Galatians have received the Gospel – which is terrific – but they have added to it. The picture at the top of this blog post for today is a fragment of one of the oldest pieces of papyrus that contains the Gospel. The Galatians have decided they need more; they have come up with a sort of “Gospel-Plus” [or Gospel+]. The letter will take a look at not only what they have added, but what is the effect of “adding” to the Good News. In the end we will better understand the Gospel.

Just a couple of quick points:

1.      Paul normally has a section where he expresses thanks, but in this letter he does not, rather he is astonished, Paul seems quite agitated.

2.      Verse 4 is a rather short summary of the Gospel – we were lost (we had to be rescued) and so God gave Himself to deliver us. There it is, in a nutshell.

3.      This is a divine message, not even the angels could change it.