Holy Priest-Martyr Anthimus, Bishop of Nicomedia (303); Our Venerable Father Theoctistus, Fellow-Ascetic of the Great Euthymius (467)
Galatians 1:1-10; 1:20-2:5; Mark 5:1-20.
Read Galatians 1:1-10; 1:20-2:5
This is the very beginning of St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. There is a striking difference between this one and all of his others—his greeting is cut short and his introduction is rather curt. After offering his greeting, he cuts to the chase: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel”.
The Galatian Church to which Paul is writing very quickly and dramatically turned away from the Gospel of Christ which he preached to them. Deeply troubled by this, Paul pulls no punches. He reaffirms that there is no gospel other than the Gospel of Christ. He goes so far to say that if anyone, even an angel, preaches a different Gospel, let him be accursed.
Why would Paul be so adamant about this? Why such strong language? Why the insistence that the Gospel of Christ cannot be altered in any way whatsoever? In short, the reason for this is that the Gospel of Christ, that he died and rose from the dead saving us, gives us life. By uniting ourselves to Him, we die to sin and death and rise with Him in eternal life.
The Galatians had turned away from this Gospel by believing that we are saved by following the Law of Moses. As we know from elsewhere in Paul’s writings, the Law of Moses shows us where we have gone wrong but cannot give us life. Only Christ can give life, and by turning to the Law instead of Christ, the Galatians turned away from life and back to death.
We can face a similar temptation. Even well-meaning Christians sometimes say that what’s most important is that we do the right thing. The secular social justice advocates will tell us the same, though without the Christian language to decorate it. Sometimes, Christians believe that by following the precepts of the Church, by going to Church on Sunday and Holy Days, by following the fasts, etc… we can earn heaven.
If we find ourselves thinking along these lines, we are being tempted to place our hope in following some law rather than in Christ Himself.
I once heard in a homily that Christianity is not about bad people becoming good. Instead, Christianity is about dead people becoming alive. Christianity is not about following a set of rules or moral precepts needed to enter heaven. That’s Islam.
We need the rules to help us along the way. For instance, we need the Church to tell us we need to go to Church on Sunday because we truly need to worship at the Divine Liturgy to grow spiritually. However, we ought never to be fooled into thinking that by following the rules we can go to heaven.
When we are united to Christ, we have died to sin and already risen to eternal life.