The Gospel is one of a kind
“The gospel is the message that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope.”
There is nothing like the gospel, it is totally unique and unchanging. Paul shows in Galatians chapters 1&2 that he received the gospel directly from Jesus (1:12), it “is not man’s gospel” (1:11). There are no alternative gospels (1:6-7) but some people try and “distort (pervert or reverse) the gospel of Christ” (1:7). ‘Gospel’ means “good news to be proclaimed/announced.” The “gospel of Christ” (1:7c) is the good news that “the Lord Jesus Christ…gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present age, according to the will of our God and Father” (1:3-4) and so “…called you in the grace of Christ…” (1:6) so that we now enjoy the status of adopted sons and daughters (see 4:4-7). Tim Keller puts it this way, “The gospel is the message that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope.”
The ‘correct’ gospel should be a marker of church unity. When Paul says, “I went up to set before them (the other apostles) …the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had run in vain” (2:2), he is not worried that there is something wrong with his gospel. He has just said he received it directly from Jesus and needed no man’s approval. He is concerned that Jewish ‘believers’ may come behind him and derail peoples’ journeys from one of grace to going back to earning God’s acceptance. He could have said, “Okay, I get that it is a big ask for Jewish Christians to drop what you have been steeped in from birth. So, I will make a compromise. Let’s have a church for the Jews and another church just for Gentiles. The first church can blend the law with the New covenant…” No! The gospel is for “the Jew first” (Rom. 1:16) because Jews need to be “born again” just as much as the Gentiles and there is now “one new man in place of the two” (Eph. 2:15) [Read Eph. 1:11-22 if still not convinced to see we are now “one body” by “one Spirit,” that is, we Gentiles are not just added on to the existing Jewish way, but both Jews and Gentiles require Christ’s New Covenant which “abolishes the law of commandments expressed in ordinances” (2:14)]
Those who were perverting the gospel were not arguing against receiving Christ but saying that to be a dedicated follower (“perfected” 3:3) required adopting Jewish OT practices post salvation (see 3:1-5). Paul would have none of it and pointed out that the other apostles were in agreement with the gospel that he preached. This is his whole sustained argument from 1:11-2:10, pointing out “they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me” (2:9) and “…even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised” (2:3). Paul says of these Jewish troublers, “…to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you” (2:5).
Discussion and Reflection:
1. Read Galatians 1:6-9, coupled with 2:5 above. Does the same sense of earnestness, in preserving the gospel for the present generation of hearers and the next generation, grip you as it did Paul? [if not, ask God to give it to you!].
2. Discuss what a ‘distorted gospel’ looks like in our present day (hint: anything that says our salvation requires more than what God has already done, we have to do something as well in order to be made righteous. Or that we are good enough without God’s intervention).
Keller says Paul condemns any teaching that is not based on the fact that: (i) we are too sinful to contribute to our salvation (we need a complete rescue) and (ii) we are saved by belief in Jesus’ work-the “grace of Christ”-plus nothing else.
It’s worth repeating what Keller says about what this looks like in churches today:
1. In some churches, it is implicitly or explicitly taught that you are saved through your “surrender” to Christ, plus right beliefs and behaviour. This is a fairly typical mistake in evangelical churches. People are challenged to “give your life to Jesus” and/or “ask Him into your life.” This sounds very biblical, but it can still reject the grace-first principle fairly easily. People think that we are saved by a strong belief and trust in God, along with life committed to Him. Therefore, they feel they must begin by generating a high degree of spiritual sorrow, hunger, and love in order to get Christ’s presence. Then they must somehow maintain this if they are going to “stay saved.” So functionally-that is, actual reality-a church is teaching the idea that we are saved because of the level of our faith. But the gospel says we are saved through our faith. The first approach really makes our performance the saviour, and the second makes Christ’s performance the Saviour. It is not the level but the object of our faith that saves us.
2. In other churches, it is taught that it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you are a loving and good person. This is a typical mistake in “liberal” churches. This view teaches that all good people, regardless of their religion (or lack of one), will find God. This sounds extremely open-minded on the surface, but it is actually intolerant of grace, in two ways.
First, it teaches that good works are enough to get to God. If all good people can know God, then Jesus’ death was not necessary; all it takes is virtue. The trouble is, this means bad people have no hope, contradicting the gospel, which invites “both good and bad” to God’s feast (Matt. 22:10). If you say people are saved by being good, then only “the good” can come into God’s feast. The gospel offer becomes exclusive, not inclusive.
Second, it encourages people to think that if they are tolerant and open, they are pleasing to God. They don’t need grace-they get eternal life for themselves. And so “glory for ever” (Gal. 1:5) goes to them, for being good enough for heaven. The gospel, however, challenges people to see their radical sin. Without that sense of one’s own evil, the knowledge of God’s grace will not be transforming, and we will not understand how much God is glorified by the presence of anyone at all in heaven.
3. A third example is found in churches that are extremely intolerant of small differences of dress or custom. Highly authoritarian or highly ritualized, highly legalistic churches. Often the most obvious, and therefore less dangerous. The first and second are much more prevalent, and perilous. (Timothy Keller, Galatians For You, The Good Book Co.)