Galatians 1:6-7 I marvel that ye are
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel: Which is not another;
What
would be a better gospel? Would it be better if God required you to live in
sinless perfection? Would you prefer that God require you to achieve a certain
level of righteousness to earn your way to Heaven? Do you think it would be
better to base salvation on your works and on your merit? You can have peace by
having faith in what Christ did or you can have peace by keeping the law of
God. All of it. All the time. Now, I know that most people know that you can’t
do that, so they have a hybrid gospel. That is what the Galatians had, or at
least they thought they had it. But there is no such thing as a “hybrid”. Another
gospel, is no gospel at all.
The
gospel is the “good news” that God the Son, entered into his creation. The
eternal word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ
lived a perfect life and offered himself unto the Father, as a substitute for
sinners. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree and suffered the wrath of
God for our sins, satisfying the Father. The ransom was paid with his life. We
are redeemed by His blood. He was laid in the tomb for three days and three
nights, his body dead and lifeless. But at the dawning of the first day of the
week, the tomb was empty, Jesus arose. We have a living Saviour.
If
you trust that Jesus died for your sins, and you turn from your self-reliance
and self-righteousness to Christ Jesus, He will save you. Freely, by his grace.
Trust in the risen saviour and you’ll be saved. That is the gospel Paul
preached. That is the only good news there is. If you add to that message, or
take away from that message, it is no longer good news.
There
is no such thing as another gospel, as if spiritual life is cafeteria set up
where you can pick and choose your own way. There is no other gospel. By
looking to and heeding to and listening to another message, another way of
salvation, they were turning away from Christ Jesus. The blood of Christ was
not enough. The death of Christ was not enough. The wrath of God poured out on
the God’s only begotten Son was not enough for these Galatians.
There
are two paths before us. The gospel, and every other message of salvation,
which is no gospel at all. If you turn from the true gospel, where will you go?
“Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the
words of eternal life”. When they
turned from the gospel, they have no place else to go for salvation. Every
other gospel is taking you away from Jesus.
2 comments:
Amen brother! Well said!
Thanks, Barry!
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