I'm reading Galatians as I work through a workbook with Tim call Sonship.
What a change the Apostle Paul describes in the closing verses of Galatians 1.
22 And still the Christians in the churches in Judea didn't know me personally. 23 All they knew was that people were saying, "The one who used to persecute us now preaches the very faith he tried to destroy!" 24 And they gave glory to God because of me.
How wonderful it must be to be able to say that God was getting glory because people could see a change in him. Truly it is all about God getting the glory. Do people give glory to God when they see what he has done and is going in our lives?
4 He died for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 That is why all glory belongs to God through all the ages of eternity. Amen.
That is the plan of salvation in a nutshell explained in the beginning verses of Galatians. God dies for our sins so he gets glory!
Some how the people in Galatia had been convinced of another plan of God.
6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ. You are already following a different way 7 that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ.
We will see later in Galatians the consequences of this new false belief. But for the moment it is Paul's chance to say he was a sinner changed by God alone. Not change somehow by his association with important Christian leaders, although he did respect, collaborate, and submit to them. Nor was his faith a follow through from his fervent faith as a Jew, far from it. That kind of faith led to murder. It is interesting that he mentions his meeting with Jesus brother James. It is James who writes in his book Chapter 4 that our fights come from our own desires and that Christians actually murder ( even if it is in their hearts) so they can get what they want. In the end we need a humble faith that sees it is all about God, our faith is for his glory. The glory he gets from a changed sinner. Who always still needs to come back to the death of Jesus. It is the death of Jesus that rescues us from an evil world so God gets glory. We never grow out of a need to know that and to live by it. No "meat" or "maturity", no "ministry" or "strategy" will take us beyond the Glory of God coming from him rescuing sinners.
I am glad for a God who died to save me from a sinful heart which wants its own way and its own glory, but now I can live according to his mercy and show that mercy to others so God gets the Glory.
De brief aan de Galaten (1:1-5)
De brief aan de Galaten
[1] 1 Van Paulus, een apostel die niet is aangesteld of gezonden door mensen, maar door Jezus Christus en God, de Vader, die Christus uit de dood heeft opgewekt. 2 Aan de gemeenten in Galatië, ook namens alle broeders en zusters die bij mij zijn. 3 Genade zij u en vrede van God, onze Vader, en van onze Heer Jezus Christus, 4 die zichzelf gegeven heeft voor onze zonden om ons te bevrijden uit deze door het kwaad beheerste wereld. Dat is de wil van onze God en Vader. 5 Hem komt de eer toe tot in alle eeuwigheid. Amen. | 
