Verse 8
Paul leveled his strongest verbal artillery against these teachers. Whoever they were, they apparently claimed the highest authority for their teaching since Paul warned his readers to reject it even if it had come from angelic messengers sent directly from heaven. This is an example of hyperbole: exaggeration for the sake of emphasis. [Note: See Tenney, p. 138, for a chart of the figures of speech in Galatians.] By "accursed" Paul meant under God’s judgment. Islam claims that Mohammed received his revelations from the angel Gabriel.
"In Paul’s eyes, the acknowledgment of Jesus as Messiah logically implied the abrogation of the law . . . If Christ displaced the law as the activating centre of Paul’s own life, he equally displaced the law in the economy of God, in the ordering of salvation-history. Therefore, if the law was still in force as a way of salvation and life, the messianic age had not yet dawned, and Jesus accordingly was not the Messiah." [Note: Bruce, p. 83.]
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