I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Paul is astonished. The Galatians have believed for a short time, and they're already abandoning the gospel for a counterfeit. Not a different god. A different gospel. The temptation is to improve on grace with law.
I pastor a church full of people recovering from religious legalism. They came to Christ because grace freed them. But within months, they're back to performance. They're measuring their spiritual maturity by disciplines and behaviors. They're comparing themselves to others. The gospel of grace is so counterintuitive that we revert to law the moment we're not thinking.
Paul's amazement is justified. Why would we prefer law to grace? Why would we choose to perform when we could simply receive? Because law gives us the illusion of control. We understand performance. We can measure it. But grace is uncontrollable. It makes us dependent. So we keep reaching for the law, the disciplines, the rules that let us feel like we're earning something. Paul is saying: that's the temptation you need to resist.
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