The book of Galatians is one of the earliest New Testament books to be written — close to fifteen years after Jesus’ death and resurrection — and was written because the church was already under attack from false teachings, as Paul describes it, “a different gospel”. You would have thought that so soon after Jesus’ life on earth that people would have been wiser and more spiritual; there were still many people walking around who had seen and known Jesus firsthand. But human nature, when it has not been transformed by God’s Spirit, has a nasty habit of drifting away from the truth.
In response Paul wrote the book of Galatians, the most passionate and straightforward description of the gospel that we can find in the Bible. We are saved through faith in the Lord Jesus, period, was Paul’s repeated message. We cannot earn salvation with good works or rituals. False teachers had tried to convince the Galatians that they were still bound to the Old Testament Jewish law, most specifically circumcision, and that no one could be saved without those outward acts and rituals. Paul states in no uncertain terms that this “new” gospel is no gospel at all, and that anyone teaching a different gospel — man or angel — would be cursed.
Attitudes that please God are always balanced. Good works and rituals cannot save us, but that does not mean that we should swing to the opposite extreme of doing whatever we want because faith alone will save. The extreme of works alone is wrong, but so is faith based on words alone. When we have faith in the Lord Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to guide and teach us, works are a natural result — but those works could never save us. No one could ever do enough works to wipe away the sins and shortcomings of their life.
We are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ — a faith that is lived out every single day.
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