The Heart Of Paul’s Theology: Paul And The GalatiansSample

Paul’s Understanding of Gospel: Galatians 1:6-7

Paul also revealed his concern over the Galatians’ under-realized eschatology was by describing his disagreement with the false teachers as a matter of the “gospel.” Consider the way Paul summed up the matter in Galatians 1:6-7:

I am astonished that you are … turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-7).

Now, we can be confident that the false teachers in Galatia had not stopped talking about Jesus. They still claimed to be Christians. So, why did Paul call their message a different gospel, or no gospel at all? 

To catch the significance of this statement, we have to remember that the term “gospel,” or “good news” as it’s sometimes translated, comes from the Greek word euangelion. This New Testament Greek terminology was based on the Old Testament Hebrew term mebaser, especially as it was used in Isaiah. Consider the prophet Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7).

In this passage, Isaiah spoke of the time when the Old Testament exile of Israel would end. And he used the term “good news” to describe the announcement that the exile was over, that God had established his reign in human history, and that God had begun judging his enemies and blessing his people. As Isaiah said here, the good news of salvation is “Your God reigns,” the reign of God. This reign of God after the exile is what the New Testament calls “the kingdom of God,” which is also another term for “the age to come.”

So, when Paul said that the false teachers had “no gospel at all,” he implied that they denied that Christ had brought the age to come, the age of salvation, the age of the kingdom of God. By teaching circumcision and implying justification by works of the law, the false teachers rejected the true significance of Christ’s first coming. They had no good news or gospel to offer anyone because they didn’t believe that Christ had brought the Kingdom of God, or the age to come, in any significant way. Here again, Paul understood the root of the problem in Galatia was that the false teachers had an under-realized eschatology. The Christian gospel is the announcement that the Christ has indeed brought the Kingdom of God to earth; he has introduced the age to come.