Monday, August 5, 2013

The True Gospel vs The False Gospel

Galatians 1:8, 9
  • 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. 
  • 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.

Source: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%201:8-9&version=ESV

These two verses show how serious Paul was in regards to the importance of the truthfulness of the preaching of the gospel. The first verse implies that there were men who preached a different gospel which is actually a false gospel. The verse also implies that even an angel or demon could deceive human beings into believing a false gospel as well.

And there have been books published by people who claimed to have seen or heard from Jesus or angels who gave them a message about Jesus Himself or other teachings different from that revealed in the Bible.

This distortion of the message of the gospel was such a grave matter to the apostle Paul that he essentially declared a curse on the person or angel/demon who preached a false gospel.

He then repeats the same statement in the verse 9.
  • If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed!

The reason why it is such a serious issue when we talk about the truthfulness of the gospel is that the salvation of souls is at stake. Depending on the truthfulness of the gospel, a person might go to heaven to be with the Lord, or hell to be damned to eternal conscious suffering forever.

The practical implication for us is that whether we actually believe the true gospel, and actually live it out. According to the true gospel of Jesus, we have been forgiven of our sins, not based on our good works/deeds, but by our faith/belief in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, and He was buried, and on the third day, He rose again from the dead for our justification. The justification of sinners means that we are legally declared righteous in the sight of God because our sins were punished by Jesus on the cross while His good works/life/sinless perfection come to us through faith in Him.

God now sees us as He sees Jesus His Son. Now, we are in Jesus and Jesus is in us. 

Any attempt to be made right with God through one's own efforts result in only damnation because,
  • No one is righteous, no, not one. (Romans 3:10)

Let us hold on to the true gospel and praise and thank Jesus for His mercy, grace and love in His sacrifice for us. Hallelujah!  

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