Gal 1:6-9
What a truly frightening passage! We can be a church, a Christian, who thinks they are holding to the gospel but find that we have exchanged it for something which is not the gospel at all.
The gospel is good news from God. There is only one gospel, there is one story which is good news for us from God. We do not have liberty to change, amend, alter or otherwise tamper with the gospel.
Where are we tempted to change the gospel in our days?
God, in the gospel, calls us in the grace of Christ into a relationship with himself. The gospel is good news because being in a relationship with God is our highest good, our greatest goal. If we change the gospel, or leave the gospel, we are abandoning God and will find ourselves trying to worship another god, who is no god at all.
This challenge to the church arises from within the church. Non Christians calling us to leave the gospel will not tempt us with another gospel. From within the church, from those who are trying to follow Jesus this temptation rises. There is another way of being Christian, another way of entering into a relationship with God, why not try this way?
Paul writes very strongly ‘let him be accursed’. I think that Paul is not telling us to exercise any kind of physical punishment upon those false preachers, because only God can rightly judge anyone accursed. Paul is warning us that God will so judge all who teach as the gospel that which is no gospel at all.
Why do you think Paul writes so strongly in these verses? What temptation do we face when reading such words?
Is there a difference between a deliberate preaching of a false gospel and a non-deliberate preaching of error?
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3 comments:
Following a false gospel is like not having a gospel at all. With all the cults etc , out there today who call themselves Christians we know that the problem Paul was addressing has not gone away even with such a warning. Paul, as far as I can see was talking to the Judaizers, who said that to be the people of God you need Jesus plus ‘works of the Law’ , but points to all of us as a warning to following/preaching a false gospel.
Where are we tempted to change the gospel in our time is a good question. I think Individually it would be very easy for us to fall into the trap as those living in Galatia mainly, starting of in the Spirit and then being beset with adding our own little rules (or other peoples rules/traditions) as to what is good and what is not. This could be said corporately aswell, not sure if that’s the right answer though lol.
Deliberate and non –deliberate teaching in error of the gospel, is another good question… quick answer I’m not sure! I think they are as bad as each other, none of the 2 are from God.
I think there are a lot of ways we fall into preaching a gospel that may not be the one presented to us in the New Testament. This is often because we, here and now, tend to over-emphasize certain aspects of the gospel at the expense of others. An example is something I heard mentioned by a preacher recently when he said how often at Christmas the gospel is presented as 'baby Jesus with no where to go, no shelter, no room at the inn, can you find room in your hearts for him', (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but you've heard the type of appeals) as if in responding to the gospel we are doing Jesus a favour rather than immensely the other way around. It is preaching designed to provoke response, rather than relying on the Holy Spirit to convict men of sin.
We also have a tendency to give the rose coloured spectacle view of 'come to Jesus and all your problems will be solved', which then leads to people becoming discouraged and disillusioned and walking away when they find there may be even more problems than before.
I could go on...but won't since this is my first comment here! BTW, looks like this could be an interesting blog to follow, thanks.
Phil and Carolyn,
Thanks for your comments.
A form of legalism may have been the false gospel in Galatia, but as you’ve suggested there are many other forms of false gospel. We are often frightened by the freedom offered in the gospel and retreat into the imagined security of rule keeping.
It is wonderful when the Spirit highlights some part of the gospel in our lives and we rightly give thanks for those times. However, we do then face the temptation of over emphasising what we’ve been shown over other equally precious and important truths of the gospel. Remembering that there is much more to our God and his gracious gospel than we will ever understand should lead us into a humility in sharing what we think we know.
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