Galatians 3:1

This is a hard verse, you'll see why in a minute.

"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?"

The problem is with my favorite phrase: "That you should not obey the truth." First, what I like about it: It makes you think. One isn't normally asked to "obey" the Truth. Instead, you're asked to "believe" the truth. I like the idea of Truth as a command or a law. Truth has a vitality to it that is ignored only at one's own peril. Jesus is the Truth. In fact, he, and all Paul thinks of Jesus - God, Savior, Risen one, etc - is the particular Truth being referred to in this verse. Sounds strange at first (obey vs. believe) but makes perfect sense.

The problem. The phrase doesn't show up in any other translation I own, and I don't get an explanation of why it's missing from any of the commentaries. Nothing. Not the slightest note. And it's not like one can say the phrase is subsumed into the rest of the text. I mean, the words have been cut out with an exacto blade, and there isn't the slightest hint of the sentiment left. I assume, but I can't know for sure, that the words have been judged to be a later interpolation. The work of a scribe, perhaps, who wanted to jazz up Paul's message.

Seems like a major revision. You see how fond I was of the phrase. It rings true to me. Yet, it may have no place in the Bible. Strange.

Galatians 2:21a

"I do not frustrate the grace of God."

Paul is, at this point, talking about relying on fulfillment of the law as a ticket to heaven. Nothing could be more frustrating to God, I think, than to turn one's back on the sacrifice Christ made in order to live by the law, a task that is impossible to do perfectly. As Paul points out elsewhere - what's the point? Christ would have died in vain if it were possible to please God with obedience to rules alone.

Of course, nowadays there are not so many gentiles keen on fulfilling the laws of Moses. Some, however, may pick and choose particular laws that seem to them to be essential to salvation. For instance, keeping the Sabbath on a particular day of the week or, as I found to my dismay once, undue emphasis on the idea that believers should baptize others. I was told that I could not please God unless I had baptized at least one other person. Anyway...

But put aside the laws of Moses for a moment. Are there other things that we put in their place as steps to salvation and grace? There are some, I know, who think the work of the church is part of that road to grace, or spiritual disciplines. Those things are nice, but if they take the place of Jesus - even for a moment - they frustrate the grace of God. There is nothing we can say, do, own, believe, etc that can take the place of the fact that God is merciful.