e testimony of many good men who thank God on their
knees for the consolation that our doctrine has brought them. Like
Paul, we are not to blame that the churches have trouble. The fault
lies with the Anabaptists and other fanatics.

Every teacher of work-righteousness is a trouble-maker. Has it never
occurred to you that the pope, cardinals, bishops, monks, and that the
whole synagogue of Satan are trouble-makers? The truth is, they are
worse than false apostles. The false apostles taught that in addition
to faith in Christ the works of the Law of God were necessary unto
salvation. But the papists omit faith altogether and teach self-devised
traditions and works that are not commanded of God, indeed are contrary
to the Word of God, and for these traditions they demand preferred
attention and obedience.

Paul calls the false apostles troublers of the church because they
taught circumcision and the keeping of the Law as needful unto
salvation. They insisted that the Law must be observed in every detail.
They were supporters in this contention by the Jews, with the result
that those who were not firmly established in faith were easily
persuaded that Paul was not a sincere teacher of God because he ignored
the Law. The Jews were offended at the idea that the Law of God should
be entirely ignored by Paul and that the Gentiles, former
idol-worshippers, should gratuitously attain to the station of God's
people without circumcision, without the penitentiary performance of
the law, by grace alone through faith in Christ Jesus.

These criticisms were amplified by the false apostles. They accused
Paul of designs to abolish the law of God and the Jewish dispensation,
contrary to the law of God, contrary to their Jewish heritage, contrary
to apostolic example, contrary to Paul's own example. They demanded
that Paul be shunned as a blasphemer and a rebel, while they were to be
heard as true teachers of the Gospel and authentic disciples of the
apostles. Thus Paul stood defamed among the Galatians. He was forced to
attack the false apostles. He did so without hesitation.

VERSE 7. And would pervert the gospel of Christ.

To paraphrase this sentence: "These false apostles do not merely
trouble you, they abolish Christ's Gospel. They act as if they were the
only true Gospel-preachers. For all that they muddle Law and Gospel. As
a result they pervert the Gospel. Either Christ must live and the Law
perish, or the Law remains and Christ must perish; Christ and the Law
cannot dwell side by side in the conscience. It is either grace or law.
To muddle the two is to eliminate the Gospel of Christ entirely."

It seems a small matter to mingle the Law and Gospel, faith and works,
but it creates more mischief than man's brain can conceive. To mix Law
and Gospel not only clouds the knowledge of grace, it cuts out Christ
altogether.

The words of Paul, "and would pervert the gospel of Christ," also
indicate how arrogant these false apostles were. They were shameless
boasters. Paul simply had to exalt his own ministry and Gospel.

VERSE 8. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed.

Paul's zeal for the Gospel becomes so fervent that it almost leads him
to curse angels. "I would rather that I, my brethren, yes, the angels
of heaven be anathematized than that my gospel be overthrown."

The Greek word anathema, Hebrew herem, means to accurse, execrate, to
damn. Paul first (hypothetically) curses himself. Knowing persons first
find fault with themselves in order that they may all the more
earnestly reprove others.

Paul maintains that there is no other gospel besides the one he had
preached to the Galatians. He preached, not a gospel of his own
invention, but the very same Gospel God had long ago prescribed in the
Sacred Scriptures. No wonder Paul pronounces curses upon himself and
upon others, upon the angels of heaven, if anyone should dare to preach
any other gospel than Christ's own.

VERSE 9. As we said before, so say I now again. If any man preach any
other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Paul repeats the curse, directing it now upon other persons. Before, he
cursed himself, his brethren, and an angel from heaven. "Now," he says,
"if there are any others who preach a gospel different from that you
have received from us, let them also be accursed." Paul herewith curses
and excommunicates all false teachers including his opponents. He is so
worked up that he dares to curse all who pervert his Gospel. Would to
God that this terrible pronouncement of the Apostle might strike fear
into the hearts of all who pervert the Gospel of Paul.

The Galatians might say: "Paul, we do not pervert the Gospel you have
brought unto us. We did not quite understand it. That is all. Now these
teachers who came after you have explained everything so beautifully."
This explanation the Apostle refuses to accept. They must add nothing;
they must correct nothing. "What you received from me is the genuine
Gospel of God. Let it stand. If any man brings any other gospel than
the one I brought you, or promises to deliver better things than you
have received from me, let him be accursed."

In spite of this emphatic denunciation so many accept the pope as the
supreme judge of the Scriptures. "The Church," they say, "chose only
four gospels. The Church might have chosen more. Ergo the Church is
above the Gospel." With equal force one might argue: "I approve the
Scriptures. Ergo I am above the Scriptures. John the Baptist confessed
Christ. Hence he is above Christ." Paul subordinates himself, all
preachers, all the angels of heaven, everybody to the Sacred
Scriptures. We are not the masters, judges, or arbiters, but witnesses,
disciples, and confessors of the Scriptures, whether we be pope,
Luther, Augustine, Paul, or an angel from heaven.

VERSE 10. For do I now persuade men, or God?

With the same vehemence Paul continues: "You Galatians ought to be able
to tell from my preaching and from the many afflictions which I have
endured, whether I serve men or God. Everybody can see that my
preaching has stirred up persecution against me everywhere, and has
earned for me the cruel hatred of my own people, in fact the hatred of
all men. This should convince you that by my preaching I do not seek
the favor and praise of men, but the glory of God."

No man can say that we are seeking the favor and praise of men with our
doctrine. We teach that all men are naturally depraved. We condemn
man's free will, his strength, wisdom, and righteousness. We say that
we obtain grace by the free mercy of God alone for Christ's sake. This
is no preaching to please men. This sort of preaching procures for us
the hatred and disfavor of the world, persecutions, excommunications,
murders, and curses.

"Can't you see that I seek no man's favor by my doctrine?" asks Paul.
"If I were anxious for the favor of men I would flatter them. But what
do I do? I condemn their works. I teach things only that I have been
commanded to teach from above. For that I bring down upon my head the
wrath of Jews and Gentiles. My doctrine must be right. It must be
divine. Any other doctrine cannot be better than mine. Any other
doctrine must be false and wicked."

With Paul we boldly pronounce a curse upon every doctrine that does not
agree with ours. We do not preach for the praise of men, or the favor
of princes. We preach for the favor of God alone whose grace and mercy
we proclaim. Whosoever teaches a gospel contrary to ours, or different
from ours, let us be bold to say that he is sent of the devil.

VERSE 10. Or do I seek to please men?

"Do I serve men or God?" Paul keeps an eye on the false apostles, those
flatterers of men. They taught circumcision to avoid the hatred and
persecution of men.

To this day you will find many who seek to please men in order that
they may live in peace and security. They teach whatever is agreeable
to men, no matter whether it is contrary to God's Word or their own
conscience. But we who endeavor to please God and not men, stir up hell
itself. We must suffer reproach, slanders, death.

For those who go about to please men we have a word from Christ
recorded in the fifth chapter of St. John: "How can ye believe, which
receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from
God alone?"

VERSE 10. For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of
Christ.

Observe the consummate cleverness with which the false apostles went
about to bring Paul into disrepute. They combed Paul's writings for
contradictions (our opponents do the same) to accuse him of teaching
contradictory things. They found that Paul had circumcised Timothy
according to the Law, that Paul had purified himself with four other
men in the Temple at Jerusalem, that Paul had shaven his head at
Cenchrea. The false apostles slyly suggested that Paul had been
constrained by the other apostles to observe these ceremonial laws. We
know that Paul observed these decora out of charitable regard for the
weak brethren. He did not want to offend them. But the false apostles
turned Paul's charitable regard to his disadvantage. If Paul had
preached the Law and circumcision, if he had commended the strength and
free will of man, he would not have been so obnoxious to the Jews. On
the contrary they would have praised his every action.

VERSES 11, 12. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was
preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This passage constitutes Paul's chief defense against the accusations
of his opponents. He maintains under oath that he received his Gospel
not from men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

In declaring that his Gospel is not after man, Paul does not merely
wish to state that his Gospel is not mundane. The false apostles made
the same claim for their gospel. Paul means to say that he learned his
Gospel not in the usual and accepted manner through the agency of men
by hearing, reading, or writing. He received the Gospel by special
revelation directly from Jesus Christ.

Paul received his Gospel on the way to Damascus when Christ appeared to
him. St. Luke furnishes an account of the incident in the ninth chapter
of the Book of Acts. "Arise," said Christ to Paul, "and go into the
city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Christ did not send
Paul into the city to learn the Gospel from Ananias. Ananias was only
to baptize Paul, to lay his hands on Paul, to commit the ministry of
the Word unto Paul, and to recommend him to the Church. Ananias
recognized his limited assignment when he said to Paul: "Brother Saul,
the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou
camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be
filled with the Holy Ghost." Paul did not receive instruction from
Ananias. Paul had already been called, enlightened, and taught by
Christ in the road. His contact with Ananias was merely a testimonial
to the fact that Paul had been called by Christ to preach the Gospel.

Paul was forced to speak of his conversion to combat the slanderous
contention of the false apostles to the effect that this apostleship
was inferior to that of the other apostles.

If it were not for the example of the Galatian churches I would never
have thought it possible that anybody who had received the Word of God
with such eagerness as they had, could so quickly let go of it. Good
Lord, what terrible mischief one single false statement can create.

The article of justification is fragile. Not in itself, of course, but
in us. I know how quickly a person can forfeit the joy of the Gospel. I
know in what slippery places even those stand who seem to have a good
footing in the matters of faith. In the midst of the conflict when we
should be consoling ourselves with the Gospel, the Law rears up and
begins to rage all over our conscience. I say the Gospel is frail
because we are frail.

What makes matters worse is that one-half of ourselves, our own reason,
stands against us. The flesh resists the spirit, or as Paul puts it,
"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit." Therefore we teach that to know
Christ and to believe in Him is no achievement of man, but the gift of
God. God alone can create and preserve faith in us. God creates faith
in us through the Word. He increases, strengthens and confirms faith in
us through His word. Hence the best service that anybody can render God
is diligently to hear and read God's Word. On the other hand, nothing
is more perilous than to be weary of the Word of God. Thinking he knows
enough, a person begins little by little to despise the Word until he
has lost Christ and the Gospel altogether.

Let every believer carefully learn the Gospel. Let him continue in
humble prayer. We are molested not by puny foes, but by mighty ones,
foes who never grow tired of warring against us. These, our enemies,
are many: Our own flesh, the world, the Law, sin, death, the wrath and
judgment of God, and the devil himself.

The arguments which the false apostles advanced impress people to this
day. "Who are you to dissent from the fathers and the entire Church,
and to bring a contradictory doctrine? Are you wiser than so many holy
men, wiser than the whole Church?" When Satan, abetted by our own
reason, advances these arguments against us, we lose heart, unless we
keep on saying to ourselves: "I don't care if Cyprian, Ambrose,
Augustine, Peter, Paul, John, or an angel from heaven, teaches so and
so. I know that I teach the truth of God in Christ Jesus."

When I first took over the defense of the Gospel, I remembered what
Doctor Staupitz said to me. "I like it well," he said, "that the
doctrine which you proclaim gives glory to God alone and none to man.
For never can too much glory, goodness, and mercy be ascribed unto
God." These words of the worthy Doctor comforted and confirmed me. The
Gospel is true because it deprives men of all glory, wisdom, and
righteousness and turns over all honor to the Creator alone. It is
safer to attribute too much glory unto God than unto man.

You may argue that the Church and the fathers are holy. Yet the Church
is compelled to pray: "Forgive us our trespasses," I am not to be
believed, nor is the Church to be believed, or the fathers, or the
apostles, or an angel from heaven, if they teach anything contrary to
the Word of God. Let the Word of God abide forever.

Peter erred in life and in doctrine. Paul might have dismissed Peter's
error as a matter of no consequence. But Paul saw that Peter's error
would lead to the damage of the whole Church unless it were corrected.
Therefore he withstood Peter to his face. The Church, Peter, the
apostles, angels from heaven, are not to be heard unless they teach the
genuine Word of God.

This argument is not always to our advantage. People ask: "Whom then
shall we believe?" Our opponents maintain that they teach the pure Word
of God. We do not believe them. They in turn hate and persecute us for
vile heretics. What can we do about it? With Paul we glory in the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. What do we gain? We are told that our glorying
is idle vanity and unadulterated blasphemy. The moment we abase
ourselves and give in to the rage of our opponents, Papists and
Anabaptists grow arrogant. The Anabaptists hatch out some new
monstrosity. The Papists revive their old abominations. What to do? Let
everybody become sure of his calling and doctrine, that he may boldly
say with Paul: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach