Today’s reading offers a simplified version of what happens when someone is saved and then has doubts about their relationship with God:
“In the divine order God gives us first the fact of His salvation; then we believe these facts; and as a consequence, we have the feelings suitable to the facts believed. But we reverse this order and say, “I must have the feeling first, and then I can believe in that feeling, and thus I will get hold of the facts.” Of course this is absurd; but it is a very common temptation and is the cause of most of the pitiful uncertainty and doubt that characterizes so much of Christian experience.”While this could be the explanation for some people, there are other reasons that it happens besides someone wanting their experience to “feel” right. Galatians offers them, making no mention of feelings.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:6–10)Clearly the Christians addressed in this letter were fed false teaching and listened to it. The last two lines indicated that those who taught it were people-pleasers, or their listeners were because they wanted to please those who fed them lies. There is no mention of feelings here, only that human desire to be popular, or too polite to say NO to the lies.
Paul, who wrote Galatians, goes on to repeat the truth and to remind his readers that salvation is a done deal in Christ. They cannot add to it by their own efforts. This indicates the problem that caused their foolishness – pride in their own abilities. “I can do this myself” does not come just from the lips of impetulent children. It clings to me like a leech, sucking the very life of Christ from my mind and drawing me into an array of self-improvement programs that do not work. Paul knew their problem from personal experience, as I do:
For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:18–21)This is not about feelings either. Rebuilding my life around that which is dead to that old way of life is simply thinking that I know better how to live than Christ who now lives in me. Duh. This is a slap in the face of God, a sin to confess rather than a feeling to ignore.
Paul ends with the same thoughts that he started in this letter, asking the Galatians to take a good look at who led them astray and from what they were putting aside:
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? (Galatians 3:1–6)PRAY: Jesus, You gave me the ability to hear and know Your voice. That alone is reason to pay attention to who and what I am listening to – my old nature? My desires and own ideas? The lies of Satan? The lies of false teachers? I know that ‘feelings’ can also mess me up, but there is more evidence in Your Word for being led astray by the opposite of facts which is lies. I’m very thankful to know the You, the Truth and the freedom You give.
