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Galatians
Throughout Christian history, people have "added on" various requirements to the gospel message, almost always with an appeal to Scripture. Inevitably the result is a distortion of the faith that does great damage.
In first century Galatia, the challenge came from Judaizers, teachers who insisted that belief in Jesus was not enough for salvation. One must always keep the law of Moses, they said. In a way, one can understand their point of view. For centuries, Jews had held to the Law as the righteous path to favor from God (see Deut. 6:1-9; 30:15-20; compare Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28). The Judaizers perceived Jesus as perhaps building onto the Law of Moses, but not replacing it.
However, their teaching greatly troubled the young believers in Galatia who had responded to Paul's message (Acts 13:13 - 14:26). If what the Judaizers said was true, Paul had been wrong and Christ alone did not really save a person.
Not surprisingly, Paul was outraged. He was furious with the the deceptive claims of the Judaizers and zealous to defend the integrity of the gospel. So he composed the letter that we call Galatians.
If Galatians emphasizes anything, it is that Christ alone is sufficient for salvation-nothing more and nothing less. Centuries later, after the church had again embraced add-ons to the faith, a young priest named Martin Luther claimed Galatians as his own, calling it the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. It helped usher in a reclamation of the faith in which salvation is based on Christ's grace, not on people's efforts.
Still every generation is marked by a tendency to classify believers according to their outward observances. Some are considered to be first class, others second class. In nearly every case, the resegregating of the church results from add-ons to the simple, pure gospel of Christ. But when believers hold to Christ alone, then their faith and the church will grow. That is the message of Galatians.
