PREACHING A DIFFERENT GOSPEL

The Bible reveals that the world through its wisdom did not come to know God; God was pleased through the foolishness of the preaching of Christ crucified to save those who would believe. The Creator God made us, his creatures, as dependent beings by his design. Our purpose is to know and worship Him as Creator and Father. But we rebelled against Him and His design for us. God’s plan of redemption provides forgiveness and life only to those who would bow before Christ at the cross and receive reconciliation and the Holy Spirit as free gifts of grace. The Apostle Paul wrote clearly that we are saved through faith by grace; it is a gift of God, not of our own works and there is no room to boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). Our works do not add anything to the salvation accomplished through Christ.

In Romans 3:23-26, Paul elaborated:

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus”.

Because Christ the sinless one died for our sins and took our penalty for sin, those accepted in Christ through faith no longer need to pay the penalty for their own sins. Indeed, “He was delivered to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25).

The author of Hebrews declared:

“But now he [Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:26b-28).

We see clearly from the Bible that Christ’s sacrifice at the cross was once for all and complete. Any attempt to suggest that His sacrifice is not sufficient and we need some additions is distorting the truth of the gospel. It is tantamount to preaching a different gospel.

We see such a problem highlighted in the epistle to the Galatian believers. The Christians in Galatia began by believing and by faith, but turned away from faith and sought to attain their Christian goal by human effort and by observing the law of Moses. Certain Jewish teachers told them that they needed to be circumcised in addition to believing the gospel in order to be saved. They were in fact saying that Christ’s sacrifice at the cross for our sins was not sufficient; something else was needed. In the case of the Galatians, they were told of the need of circumcision like their Jewish believers. But the addition can take various forms in our context. It can be the need for another spiritual experience; it can indicate the requirement of following a certain ceremony or way of worship; it could be a call to follow a certain charismatic leader and only adhere to his teachings. The list can go on.

The Apostle Paul was indignant when he noted a different gospel being preached. He stated clearly in Galatians 1:8-9:

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!”

We see the seriousness of preaching a different gospel. There are eternal consequences. In this case, it is preaching a gospel-plus, that is, a gospel that claims that something extra is needed in order for the gospel to be complete and to effect salvation and Christian growth. Grace would no longer be grace; merit theology would come in and it can come in different forms. To accept such a teaching is to be deceived; and we can be sure that the evil one is behind this. We have to be clear that there is nothing we can contribute to effect our salvation. We are a people with no righteousness of our own to plead before God. We are spiritually bankrupt and must plead for mercy. Only in Christ and Christ alone can we be forgiven and justified. Only in Him and through His Holy Spirit can we grow in sanctification and be conformed to His image. It is through grace and grace alone that we are accepted in the beloved and there is no place for us to claim any iota of merit of our own. Only as we come to know God and His presence do we begin to discover ourselves as we really are.

But the deception of a different gospel can take another form. It is taught and advocated in antinomianism, a teaching that claims that the law no longer applies to us and we are free to live without adhering to the moral law as we have already been forgiven by grace. We certainly cannot take Christ’s gift of forgiveness and neglect His demands for right living. It is one of the greatest tragedies that some believers have come to believe in ‘cheap grace’ – believing in a Savior who leaves us much as we were, instead of actually transforming us to be what we ought to be in Him. In developing a right relationship with God, God expects us to grow to increasingly live with moral integrity, to nurture right relationships with others and to reform society and bring it into conformity to Christ’s teachings. We are to be ‘light of the world’ and ‘salt of the earth’, as taught by the Lord Jesus.

We must take note that the true gospel is centered on the cross. The Lord Jesus Himself said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). The cross in the days of Jesus speaks of suffering and death, a death that was very painful, agonizing and reserved for the worst of criminals. It also denotes weakness and was considered a ‘curse’, not something beautiful to wear as a necklace. The cross, in Christian theology, shapes every aspect of Christian living; it not only justifies, it shows believers how to live and how to die, how to love and how to lead and to serve.

In his ministry, the Apostle Paul focused on the cross and Christ crucified; he understood suffering, hardship, and weakness as integral parts of Christian service. This was in contrast to the false apostles in 2 Corinthians who focused attention on rhetoric and oratorical abilities, showmanship, powerful deeds and ecstatic visions and experiences. They focused on outward manifestations rather than the inward reality.

Once the cross is not at the centre of the preaching of the gospel, it is a different gospel, a false gospel. They turned the gospel of grace, centered on the atoning work of Christ on the cross, to a message of self-promotion, self-development, a triumphalism less and less based on the actual gospel of Christ crucified.

The Apostle Paul considered himself an unworthy servant of Christ. He knew he was one with Christ and exalted with Him; yet he was humbled before the Lord, very conscious of his unworthiness and the wondrous grace of Christ in his life. It is because of this attitude that Paul focused on his weaknesses, and boasted of his weaknesses in Christ. He understood that when he was weak, he was in fact strong. In his weakness, he depended wholly on Christ and His enabling and as a result, he became strong. In effect, Paul was living out the principles of the cross in his life and ministry: strength out of weakness, life out of death, and glory out of suffering. Paul claimed that ‘he died daily’, denying himself, and in the process, ministering ‘life’ to others. He truly understood that his sufferings for Christ would prepare him for the glory that was to come. In fact, Paul considered his long list of sufferings as temporal; they could not even be compared with the wondrous glory that was to come.

In 2 Corinthians 13:5-6, the Apostle Paul exhorted the Corinthian Christians:

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test”.

Paul was confident that he and his co-workers passed the test because he was preaching the true gospel. If the Corinthian Christians were adhering to his gospel, they also would pass the test. On the other hand, if they hearkened to the false gospel preached by the false preachers, there were doubts whether they actually passed the test. Note that the result of this test has eternal consequences; the test was not to be taken lightly.

Similarly, for those who preached antinomianism and their followers, the Apostle Paul had this to say:

“For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 5:5-6).

This is indeed a sobering and serious warning. Let us not be deceived into thinking that we can live in any manner we like since we are already believers. The Bible is very clear about the consequences of such a life.

The Apostle John also had similar warnings:

“We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:3-6).

Perhaps, the warning we cannot afford to neglect is the warning given by the Lord Jesus Himself:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evil-doers!’”(Matthew 7:21-23).

From this passage, it is possible to see that people can exercise spiritual gifts like prophesying, casting out demons and performing miracles and yet not be sharers of God’s saving grace. What we do publicly and what others commend us for do not indicate how we will fare in reality when we come before the judgment seat of Christ. What really and finally counts is how we are related to Christ Himself. If we are responding to a false gospel, it is almost certain that we are not truly related to Christ as born-again believers. This is the case even though we may appear spiritual with many spiritual experiences and impressive manifestations of spiritual gifts.

Jesus’ claim in Matthew 7 that He never knew them and branding them as evil-doers indicates that very likely, the power behind their gifts and miracles actually came from the evil one. The devil, we are told, can dress as an angel of light. The false prophets and teachers can do likewise; they are in effect servants of the evil one. Some of them may not even be conscious that they are being used by Satan, and they may even be zealous in their own way. Nevertheless, the true gospel will bring about repentance and a new spiritual birth. This will result in a new creation and a restored new relationship with Christ and God. Anything short of this will not do.