How can it be the same religion and yet two different gospels?
I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, and are accepting another gospel. Actually, there is no “other gospel,” but I say this because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ.
(Galatians 1:6-7)
[The above was directed at those non-Jews who had embraced this “other gospel”.] Who were these “some people” and what were they teaching?
Some men came from Judea to Antioch and started teaching the believers, “You cannot be saved unless you are circumcised as the Law of Moses requires.”
(Acts 15:1)
“Brother Paul, you can see how many thousands of Jews have become believers, and how devoted they all are to the Law.”
(Acts 21:20)
These missionaries went out – against what the church in Jerusalem would have wanted we later learn – to “complete” the faith of non-Jewish followers of Jesus. There is nothing to indicate that they were anything other than well intentioned. And what message did they bring? Exactly what they were living in Jerusalem! And why shouldn’t they? Their new life in Messiah Jesus was authentic: why not share it as they experienced it? “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander!” By that thinking, it stood to reason then that these non-Jewish believers should likewise be devoted to the Jewish religion and culture. It was a fatal assumption…
Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised, it means that Christ is of no use to you at all.
(Galatians 5:2)
What was lived out in Jerusalem, taken outside the confines of that culture, became a “different” gospel: one that killed the life it should have brought. What had the power to bring new life to believing Jews became dead on arrival for non-Jews. Now to clarify, the Apostle Paul will go on to say that circumcision or uncircumcision is irrelevant in and of itself (Galatians 5:6). As we will see here, it’s not about the “thing” – it’s about what the “thing” brings with it.
…did you receive God’s Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it? How can you be so foolish! You began by God’s Spirit; do you now want to finish by your own power?
(Galatians 3:2-3)
What was a natural expression of worship for Jewish believers became a measure to justify oneself before God for non-Jewish believers – the age-old religious trap.
It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions; in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups; they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these.
(Galatians 5:19-21)