You've been feeling tired, irritable and you're losing weight, so you go see your doctor for a physical and after he runs you through all kinds of tests he tells you "you're in good health for a person your age." That's good news. After all you didn't expect to reverse aging. Your boss calls you into his office and you follow his direction with a certain amount of fear and trembling, but he says, "I've been evaluating your work. You're always here on time. You're dependable. You're trustworthy. You work hard. I've decided to give you a promotion and a raise in salary." That's good news. That's good news and when we hear something like that we celebrate.

The gospel is also good news. It's good news about God. Had God so chosen he could have abandoned us in our rebellion and just let us stand there in judgment and take the consequences. The good news - the gospel - is that he didn't do that. Instead, according to verse 6, "he called us by the grace of Christ." The good news in verse 4 is that he " . . . gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age." That's good news. That's worth celebrating

WHY WAS PAUL UPSET?

But why was Paul so upset. He was upset because these people heard the good news, understood, welcomed, responded to it, obeyed the gospel, but now they were turning away from it. He actually says they were deserting God. But what was the alternative. Sometimes, I hear people say, "I think I'm going to give up on Christianity?" If I get the chance, I always ask "What is the alternative." Frankly, I have never heard anyone suggest a better alternative.

Paul was upset not because they were changing their point of view, not because they were deserting some philosophical or theological system. He was upset because they were deserting the one who offered them good news. Paul was at a loss to explain why people who heard the good news, comprehended it and responded favorably to it would turn around and desert it. Frankly, I don't understand it any better than Paul did. It's a tragedy when it happens, but you and I know that it takes place on a regular basis.

INFERIOR QUALITY

The Galatians attraction to the "other gospel" which is not really the gospel was upsetting to Paul because they exchanged it for something inferior. He called that a perversion of the gospel.

We recently acquired a new copier in our offices. It's a "state-of-the-art" duplicator with a lot of bells and whistles. I was just thinking about the changes that have taken place in the field of duplication since I've been doing church work. I started out with an old spirit duplicator that printed everything in some pretty awful looking purpose ink. I thought we really stepped up in the world when we went to mimeograph and then I found out about copy machines. The first one we had in the office was an old 3M Thermo-Fax, which required a special flimsy paper. We got a copier that used liquid toner, and I managed to pour some of the liquid down the front of my body and suffered some fairly significant burns. Then we went through a period with the offset presses and finally we've come to advanced copiers. What do you think would happen if we announced to the secretaries, "We're getting rid of your new copier and going back to spirit duplicators." I think we would probably be looking for new secretaries very shortly.

In a spiritual sense, that's precisely what the Galatians were doing. They were giving up freedom in Christ and the glorious privileges of the gospel for a religious system that was tired, worn out and had proven its inability to bring good news to people in their sinful condition.

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