No tampering
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 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." (Galatians 1:6-9)
August 30, 2024
Dear friends,
There used to be a popular bumper sticker which said, "Don't mess with Texas!" (Well, it was popular in Texas and among Texans.) When we find things that are just right -- whether instruments or programs or gardens or other people -- we think to ourselves, please don't mess with it, it's just right. "New and improved" is not always a slogan we welcome. When we buy medicines, we appreciate that the bottle has a "tamper-proof" top. A little addition to (or deletion from) the ingredients, however minor it may seem, can make the difference between life and death.
That's how the Apostle Paul felt about the gospel. I've begun reading Galatians and have been studying the first chapter. Here are a couple of observations:
NO TAMPERING. Paul's letter to the Galatians is one of my personal favorites in Scripture. This is the earliest of his epistles, written about AD 48 to the churches he had planted on his first missionary journey in southern Galatia (Acts 14:1-23). Judaizing teachers had followed after Paul and told the churches something like, "If you want to be saved, or to stay saved, you not only need faith in Jesus, you need to be circumcised and follow the law of Moses". Paul, and later the Jerusalem council of AD 49 (Acts 15), saw this religious addition as a negation of the gospel. Salvation by grace through faith is the heartbeat of the gospel.
STRONG WORDS. If anyone, even an angel from heaven, should proclaim a gospel "contrary to what I preached to you", let them be condemned (or accursed; condemned to hell). The preposition παρὰ (para) in verse 8 and 9 (with the accusative) means, "contrary to, other than, more than." Any distortion, addition, deletion, or tweaking to the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ amounts to a substantial change to the entire message of salvation. Cults and sects tend to add conditions to salvation, usually to enhance their own franchises. Liberals and progressives tend to delete elements that are culturally offensive to them. Both responses highlight the sinful tendency in trusting and taking pride in our favorite human authorities. But Paul warns, "Don't mess with the Gospel!"
NOT FROM MAN. His message, along with his apostolic authority, did not come from other people or through any human agency or institution (1:1, 11-12). He was called directly by the Lord as a witness to the resurrection of Jesus and given a message for worldwide proclamation. The gospel is not a social construct. (Much of what we do in the church may be, but the message we have received and believe comes from above.) Nor is the gospel an exclusive franchise for any particular church. Paul summarizes this perfect, unchanging gospel message in 1 Cor 15:1-11, and he expounds it more fully in his Epistle to the Romans. The gospel does not need updating, revision, supplements, add-ons, or improvement. The gospel is about the finished work of Christ which we embrace by faith.
J. Gresham Machen once wrote, "Acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ, as He is offered to us in the gospel of His redeeming work, is saving faith. Despairing of any salvation to be obtained by our own efforts, we simply trust in Him to save us; we say no longer, as we contemplate the Cross, merely 'He saved others' or 'He saved the world' or 'He saved the Church'; but we say, every one of us, by the strange individualizing power of faith, 'He loved me and gave Himself for me.' When a man once says that, in his heart and not merely with his lips, then no matter what his guilt may be, no matter how far he is beyond any human pale, no matter how little opportunity he has for making good the evil that he has done, he is a ransomed soul, a child of God forever." (From What Is Faith?)
Read a few more quotes from Machen here.
IN OTHER READING.
-- From two years ago -- visiting a liberal church.
-- I was impressed with these two recent articles by Jonah Goldberg, who writes for The Dispatch: "Calling for ‘Unity’ Is Just an Appeal to Power" and "Even the most ardent secularist should not deny how Christianity rewired the Western mind."
-- C. S. Lewis did not write a lot of poetry, nor is he generally known for his poetry. But in 1932, not long after his conversion, he penned a few poems for the book he was then writing, The Pilgrim's Regress. Here is one about the weariness of being a pilgrim.
-- The Gentleman Stationer evaluates fountain pen friendly papers...
-- Here’s “A Parent's Guide To Teen Slang” (2024 Update).
-- OK, I'll admit it, I like the joyful music of Forrest Frank.
"Always" here, and "Beautiful As Ever" here.
FINAL QUOTE.
"The genius of Christianity takes the words of Paul, 'who gave himself for our sins' (Gal. 1:4), as true and efficacious. We are not to look upon our sins as insignificant trifles. On the other hand, we are not to regard them as so terrible that we must despair. Learn to believe that Christ was given, not for little and imaginary transgressions, but for mountainous sins; not for one or two, but for all; not for sins that can be discarded, but for sins that are stubbornly ingrained." (Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians)
That's it for this week!
Sandy
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.