Galatians 1:6
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:”

I started to title this article “Where is your focus?”. However, after reflecting about what the Apostle Paul was communicating to the people which lived in the country of Galatia nearly 2,000-years ago, it became apparent that it was not a where question! If we believe Jesus “saved us”, then it must be a question about who is your focus on and not where is your focus. All the Gospel is a question of who and the answer to any who question about the Truth is always Jesus! Let me explain.

Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is different than most of his other letters in that it is not titled or written to a specific local city church or a person, but rather to an entire country (see Acts 18:23). So, one of the things which made Paul “marvel” is the range and speed with which one particular false teaching had infected an entire country! Now the false teaching itself was not new. Again, what was new, at least to Paul, was how rapidly this false teaching had spread throughout the entire region.

The false teaching that had so rapidly infected the region known as Galatia was that the death and resurrection of Jesus was not enough by itself to bring salvation. We still have that false teaching today, and it is cleverly disguised.

Let me tell you as Paul did the Galatians, that Salvation or the “forgiveness of sins” is by Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing. These false teachers had convinced the Galatians that in order to be truly forgiven or justified from their sins they had to keep the 10-commandments. The Galatians were fooled into believing this, because it is basic human nature to want to be self-righteous. It is also within our human nature to think that we can do no wrong and when caught in a fault, we quickly blame someone else. Remember what Adam did when God called him out about his sin? Adam blamed God for Adam’s sin, because it was God who had given Adam the womanEve. We all want to think that we have no sin.

Since self-righteous is in our nature, it is very easy to forget what we once were, thereby losing our focus and trusting in ourselves. This way of thinking is so contagious that even true Christians can get caught up in self-righteousness. Paul tells us in Galatians 2:11-14, that even Peter temporarily got carried away with this false teaching at Antioch. It can be very pleasing to the carnal mind to think we have somehow earned a part in our own salvation. Many of the false teachers in the early days of the Christian church were Pharisees, which despite all the evidence refused to trust that Jesus was the prophesied Christ of the Old Testament.

These Pharisees became like ravenous wolves trying to stop the Gospel of Christ. When Peter preached Jesus at Jerusalem in Acts 5, the religious leaders wanted to kill Peter. A famous Pharisee of that time warned them that if the Christian teaching was of man it would end; however, if it was of God nothing could stop it. This Pharisee teacher was named Gamaliel. By the way, he is the same teacher which Paul sat under before his conversion (see Acts 22:3). As we read the Acts of the Apostles narrative and the other New Testament letters, it becomes apparent that some of the Pharisees changed their tactics from active opposition to a sneak attack by subversion. In other words, since they could not stop the Gospel by force, they would try and change the Gospel to suit their own desires. The New Testament writer Jude sums it up this way:
Jude 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude goes on to explain what he means by using several Old Testament examples, comparing these hypocritical Pharisees to men like Balaam and others who only looked out for old number 1, or self if you will.

The self-righteous attitude of salvation by works of the law only yields the curse of the law which is death to everyone that does not continually keep all the law. (see Deuteronomy 27 among other places). Now the ultimate intent of these Pharisees by adding to the grace of salvation by faith in Jesus alone, is to exclude anyone that disagreed with them (see Galatians 4:17). If you did not look to the Law of which the Pharisees thought themselves in charge, you could not be in their club. They had more concern for the admiration of mankind for themselves than they did for the salvation of any person. Unfortunately, this same false teaching is prevalent today, excluding many from the saving grace of God.

Who is your focus on? Are you trusting in Jesus or are you trusting in your own works?
Galatians 2: 16-21 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.