In Galatians 1:8-9, Paul is trying to explain to people that they already had the gospel.  It had not changed . . . and it would never change.  There would be nothing new at any point in the future.  There would be no new revelation released by some new prophet.  If anyone ever claimed to have a new message, it would be a fake.  Even if an angel came from heaven, it would be a lie!  Let’s think about this for a minute.

No Changes

So many times in so many different aspects of life we find out that what we used to think was true was actually wrong.  People used to think that radium had health benefits.  Madame Curie would disagree(she died of radiation poisoning from radium).  We used to put cocaine in soft drinks.  The supposed medicinal benefits of so many things that have since been proven to be useless or outright harmful is a never-ending list.  I can’t help but wonder what things that we think are true today will turn out to be useless garbage 100 years from now.  I won’t be here then, so I guess I will have long since ceased to care at that point.

Paul is telling his readers that they don’t have to worry about finding out later that some part of the gospel was actually wrong and needed to be corrected.  What a relief!

Relief

This is a huge relief.  We can know . . . we can be confident that the gospel will never change.  The fruits of the Spirit(Gal. 5:22-23) will always be good things that we need to incorporate into our lives.  The works of the flesh(Gal. 5:19-21) will always be sinful things that need to purge from our lives.  We don’t have to worry that we might have missed something.

New Inspiration? . . . No!

There have been a variety of people over the past two millennia who have claimed to have had new revelation from God.  They have preached(and lied) to people, telling them that they need to do something different from what is taught in the New Testament.  So many people have been led away from God.  If they had just listened to two verses from Paul(Gal. 1:8-9), they would have known that the message was never going to change, not even a little.

New and Improved . . . Not!

So many things that we have in this world eventually have a “new and improved” version: phones, computer software, laundry detergent, food, you name it. But the gospel is already good(gospel means “good news”), and it cannot be improved upon.  People can change it, but every time and every way that someone changes it, you will have something less good(actually not good at all because an altered gospel will not save you from your sins).

The Same

Something that does not change might seem boring, but it isn’t.  It is consistent.  And this makes sense because God does not change(Mal. 3:6).  That is part of His character.  He had a plan for salvation.  He executed His plan(culminating the sacrificial death of Jesus(Rom. 5:8) and the subsequent preaching of the gospel(Matt. 28:19-20)).  The Hebrew writer confirmed what Malachi wrote almost 500 years earlier when he stated that Christ does not change(Heb. 13:8).  These should be words of comfort and reassurance.

Conclusion

God isn’t going to switch things up on us.   He isn’t trying to trick us; He’s trying to save us from ourselves(actually from our sin).  We never have to worry about whether or not we have the latest version of the gospel(e.g. is it version 20 or 21?).  We can rest assured that He has given us His will for us.  He has told us what we need to do to be saved from our sins.  He loves us, and that will never change, either.