NT - Galatians (try two)

So the first time I posted this it messed up my blog for some reason, so I'm going to try again.

Paul and Barnabas, at the point when the epistle to the Galatians was written, had already been to Galatia preaching the gospel unto all the people in the land (Gentiles). After they left, however, troublemakers came into the land preaching that the people needed to be circumcised of they could not be saved. they stuck to Jewish custom, teaching that a man must first be circumcised before he can come unto Christ. This angered Paul greatly.

The main problem was not in the actual act of circumcision, however, it was in the "pervert[ing] of the gospel of Christ" (1:7). Which gospel of Christ is the "good news" that Jesus Christ atoned for each and every one of us and that He has the power to save us, even with all our insufficiencies. What angered Paul most about these troublemakers was the fact that they preached that the gospel alone was insufficient, that the Gentiles had to become Jews first, through circumcision, before they could become followers of Christ. In essence, they taught that Christ, alone, was not sufficient to save them.
They perverted the gospel and the good news of it. They basically said, "Christ is not enough to save you. Only with the addition of circumcision can you be saved." WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! That's not the gospel at all! That is why Paul was angry with them.

The equivalent today might be something like: "You cannot e Christ's if you do not pay your pastor," "I can never be forgiven of this sin," "I can never forgive you for what you did to me," or some other statement that has the underlying perversion that says, "Christ cannot save you."

"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of hte law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified" (2:16).
"For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (2:21).

I testify, as Paul does, that Christ is sufficient to save us!