The Letter to the Galatians is an ambulance rushing through the pages of the New Testament with sirens blaring.

You see, the Apostle Paul writes to a group of churches that are in spiritual emergency, yet they don’t have the sense to call 911.  He’s gotten news about them—how they’re losing their bearings, turning to new teachers with a new message, deserting Jesus Christ, and trading in the Gospel for a new “gospel”—an adjusted, modified, twisted “gospel” that would credit their good deeds and feed their pride and steal glory from the Lord Jesus Christ!  That’s what’s going on in the Galatian churches, and Paul confronts it for what it is:  a life-and-death crisis.  So he writes to them, inspired by the Holy Spirit, a letter of urgent spiritual intervention.

Typically, Paul’s letters begin with a “thanksgiving” section, but this element is glaringly absent in Galatians.  No time for such decorum.  Instead, the Apostle cuts to the chase:  these churches are risking the everlasting ruin of people’s souls.  “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” (1:9).

What’s the key error they’re falling for?  It’s the notion that good deeds (religious law-keeping) bring us into God’s favor.  But Paul is fierce in his rebuttal:  “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16).  “All who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’” (3:10).  If your path is performance rather than faith, you have to walk that road perfectly or all is lost.

Still, there’s something in us that likes deeds and duty—we want to look in the mirror and make much of ourselves.  But that path leads to death.  Better to humbly echo Paul:  “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14).  Friends, run to Jesus, trust his saving power and love, and be at peace!