130929 Twisting the Gospel

Galatians 1:6-10, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. ¹⁰ For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul was astonished that the Galatians seemed to be turning away from the simple gospel he had preached to them. Twice in the book of Romans, and once in his second letter to Timothy, Paul uses the words “my gospel”. He wasn’t talking about a book such as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John had written about the life of Jesus. He was talking about the good news that he had given to them about the consequences of faith in the life of a believer. We have a very clear picture of the gospel that Paul preached in this letter along with the others he wrote. The Galatian people were deserting Paul and following after men who twisted the gospel to their own advantage. It has been nearly 2000 years since Paul wrote these words and the problem still persists.

Paul’s gospel, as presented in his letters, show a clear picture of how a person may come to know Christ. First, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death. Second, God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners (and subject to death and hell) Christ died for us. And as a result of Christ’s death, if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. We are saved by God’s grace through faith which is a gift of God. Men came to Galatia with…

A twisted gospel. This “gospel” is not based on grace through faith instead it is…

Demanding some “work”. After Paul’s first missionary journey he and Barnabas reported to the church in Antioch the wonderful things that God was doing among the Gentiles. After that report they were confronted by some men who opposed them. Luke writes about it in Acts 15:1, But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

These men, called Judaizers, followed Paul all the days of his ministry trying to draw aside those who had come to the grace of God through faith. They truly believed that a Gentile must first be a Jewish convert before one could become a Christian. What the Judaizers could not accept was that a person would be able to be accepted by God without becoming a Jew first.

Today we do not have that problem. We do have other problems with those who would add works to the simple gospel of grace through faith. Baptism, like circumcision, is a part of a person’s identification with faith. Some Christians teach that a person must be baptized in order to be saved. This is one of the ways of…

Rejecting grace through faith. At the Jerusalem Council Peter pointed out the answer to the problem that the Judaizers had. Let’s look at part of what he said. Acts 15:11, But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Keeping the law never brought a person to salvation. The law was given as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, we will see more about this later on in our study of Galatians. Those who tried to impose “law keeping”, or salvation by works, were placing a burden on the Gentiles that the Jewish nation had been unable to keep. Peter had seen Gentiles accepted by God at the house of Cornelius. The reason he knew they were accepted by God is that they received the Holy Spirit the same way the Jews had on the day of Pentecost. They came the same way Abraham had. They believed God and it was counted to them as righteousness.

In a real sense these Judaizers were…

Following the way of the world. Their world at least! They could not understand that they were really calling the Galatian Christians to go back to their pagan roots. Listen while I read, Galatians 4:8-10, Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? ¹⁰ You observe days and months and seasons and years!

Obviously the Judaizers were asking for more than just circumcision. They were asking for full submission to the law the Jews had failed to keep themselves. Paul could see that what they were really doing was turning back to spiritual slavery. In his letter to the Romans, Paul goes into great detail teaching that the law never was intended to bring a person to salvation. We will be able to touch on some of this as we go further into the book of Galatians. Now we come to a very difficult concept for some people and that is that…

Rejecting the gospel brings God’s curse. It doesn’t matter where the rejection of the gospel comes from, even if it comes from within the church. Rejecting the gospel always ends in destruction.
No matter the source. Even if Paul himself or an angel from heaven brought another gospel they should be accursed! The real source of opposition to the gospel is no less than Satan himself. Look at what Paul wrote to the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 11:12-15, And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. ¹³ For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

The Corinthian letters were written several years after the Galatian letter. We can see from this passage how the problem Paul was confronting continued. Throughout his ministry Paul was confronted by false apostles who were trying to lead the church away from the truth. He saw them for who they really are — servants of Satan! After all, Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Satan has many servants who openly oppose the gospel and even the idea of God. Many of these work outside the church and make no pretense of being righteous. The problem confronted in Galatia, and in churches throughout the world today, are those who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. The enemies of the gospel are…

Even inside the church. Peter understood the problem as well as Paul did and wrote about it in, 2 Peter 2:1-3, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³ And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Peter compares false teachers in the church to the false prophets in Old Testament days. These teachers will bring in destructive false teaching. They will even deny the Lord himself! Throughout the history of the church we witness the rise and fall of cult groups. Usually they are centered around a false teacher.

Among modern day cults are the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many different groups that call themselves “Christian” but practice salvation by works rather than by grace through faith.

Their end is destruction. Toward the end of his ministry Paul wrote a letter to the church at Philippi. In it he talked about those who turned away from the faith and became enemies of the gospel. Listen while I read from that letter. Philippians 3:18-19, For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

Paul is writing from Rome where he is being held prisoner for the gospel’s sake. These false teachers were self-centered people who wanted to profit somehow from the church. “Their god is their belly” seems to imply that they were leading people astray to take advantage of them. Their minds were set on earthly things.

Paul’s heart was broken over the way these people had slipped into the church and led it astray. Before his imprisonment he met with the Ephesian elders to tell them that he would be taken prisoner. During that meeting, recorded in Acts chapter 20, he warned them that after he departed “fierce wolves” would come into the church and they would not spare the flock. He also warned them that men would arise from within their group twisting the truth in order to lead people away. The elders were to keep a close watch on the flock and protect them from the wolves.

This is just as true today as it was then. If Satan can be an angel of light his followers can appear to be righteous people and need to be carefully examined or they will be allowed into roles of leadership.

My prayer for this church is that there will be spiritual, and biblical, sound leadership in the years ahead to prevent it from being taken over by a false teacher after I’m gone.

We must remember…

There is only one true gospel. And…

It does not require our work. Look at what Paul wrote in Titus 3:4-7, But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

When Jesus came into the world he said he came to seek and to save that which is lost. He didn’t come down to find good people who could earn their way into heaven. Christ died for the ungodly, the unrighteous, the unworthy and the unable to save themselves. There is no human activity that can cause a person to be acceptable to God. Salvation comes only because of the mercy of God.

If it were possible for a person to save themselves by good works then God was unjust in allowing Jesus to go through the torment of a trial, crucifixion and death. When Jesus prayed to the Father asking if it was possible that the cup should pass from him, the Father would have sent in the angels in a heartbeat if there was any other way for mankind to be saved. No, the real gospel does not depend on our work…

It is based on the finished work of Jesus. Listen while I read Hebrews 9:11-12, But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) ¹² he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

From the time of the first sin of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden until Jesus’ death on the cross all sin was covered by the blood of animals. Adam and Eve sinned and the result was the death of animals to provide clothing for them. After that whenever a person sinned an altar of stone was erected and an innocent animal was brought to the altar and its blood was shed. It was sacrificed as a substitute for the person.

When God called his people out of Egypt to form the covenant nation Israel he took them into the wilderness and taught them how to worship him. That worship centered around a tabernacle, or tent, that was modeled after the heavenly Temple. Every time an animal was sacrificed it was pointing forward to, as John the Baptist put it, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That Lamb of God was, and is, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Jesus did not enter into the temple on earth he entered into the heavenly Temple. He didn’t go before the altar in heaven with the blood of an animal he went before the heavenly altar with his own blood! This effectively ended the sacrificial system in Jerusalem. Where those sacrifices had been offered daily and did not actually cover the sins of mankind Jesus, through one sacrifice, once for all made atonement for our sins.

The hymn writer, Philip P. Bliss put it this way:

Free from the law, O happy condition, Jesus hath bled, and there is remission;

cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, grace hath redeemed us once for all.

Once for all, O sinner, receive it; once for all, O brother, believe it; cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

Now we are free there’s no condemnation, Jesus provides a perfect salvation;

“Come unto Me,” O hear his sweet call, come, and he saves us once for all.

Ever since the church came into existence there have been those who would twist the gospel demanding works of righteousness. They rejected grace through faith and instead substituted the world’s way of self-righteousness.

No matter where rejection of the gospel comes from, even from inside the church, the result is destruction. There is only one gospel and…

It is to be proclaimed to all the world. Listen to the last instructions Jesus gave to his disciples before he ascended into heaven. Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Throughout the history of the church this is been called “The Great Commission”. Usually, when it is quoted, the quote begins with verse nineteen. “Go therefore,” tells us to look back at what is just before it. When reading the Bible, anytime you see the word “therefore” you need to ask, “What is therefore there for?”. In this case, “therefore” looks back to, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus has been given all authority and operating in that authority we are able to make disciples whenever, and wherever, we go.

The gospel, the good news about Jesus, needs to be spoken to every person on earth. Jesus gave his life on the cross in order that those whom the Father gave to him could be saved. Since we don’t know who the Father has given to Jesus we need to be always prepared to tell anyone who asks what the reason is for the hope that we have and we should always do it with gentleness and respect.  We need to be tuned to the Spirit of God as much as possible all the time. That way we will detect when people are asking why we have hope and not just passing the time of day. We need to reflect Jesus like the moon reflects the sun. The people we meet and interact with should wonder why we are, how we are and who we are.

The world we live in is filled with false teachers so much so that we consider it to be normal and don’t bother to oppose them. In fact, in our live and let live world, it is not considered respectful to tell someone that they are wrong. And it would be shocking to say that such a false teacher is cursed by God. However that’s what the Bible says and we have no choice but to follow the Bible. Paul had such compassion for his Galatian brothers and sisters that he was willing to risk rejection by them in telling them the truth. We have a responsibility to encourage the truth and discourage the lies that surround us. But remember, we are to speak the truth in love not in anger or argument. Have you turned your life over to Christ accepting him as Lord and Savior? If you have don’t be led astray by the false apostles.

 All scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.