PRESERVING THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL—PART II

…so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. (Galatians 2:5, ESV)

The preservation of the truth of the gospel is something that clearly occupied the thoughts and concerns of the Apostle Paul.  He had heard that those he addressed in this letter had basically abandoned the faith they had received in favor of “a different gospel” (1:6-7), a “gospel” that caused them to desert Jesus (1:6).  Of course, Paul argued that there was no other gospel, other than the gospel of grace that had been preached to them, and which they had believed.  What was that gospel of grace, what was that truth?

Paul told them:

¹⁶yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.  (2:16, emphasis added)

Paul later wrote in the same letter:

¹⁰For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’.  ¹¹Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith’.  (3:10-11)

Why would Paul make this such an issue?  It is because the concern Paul was dealing with had to do with certain people Paul referred to as “those who unsettle you” (5:12), who had infiltrated the church (not unlike what Paul talked about in 2:4) telling the Gentile believers that in order for them to be truly saved, they had to become Jews first, and be circumcised.  These people, Jewish Christians who more than likely came from Jerusalem, came to be known as “Judaizers”.  Paul clearly condemned this heresy, going so far as to say,

If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed (Gr.: anathema).  (1:9)

Paul was preserving the truth of the gospel. 

It is so sad that even today, nearly two thousand years later, there are those who “claim” Christianity, those who “claim” to believe in Jesus, who add to the gospel for salvation.  Even more disconcerting, these folks have no Biblical basis for the works they claim are necessary for salvation.  This particular belief system will be addressed in a later article.

Then there are those who make the gospel into something it is not, by claiming all one has to do is “believe in Jesus”.  James addressed this view, saying:

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!  (James 2:19)

This view will also be addressed in a future article.

Of course, because of the centrality of the truth that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, having the Judaizers come in telling these new Gentile believers they had to be circumcised only heaped a burden upon them.  Instead of experiencing freedom in Christ (5:1), these new believers were being subjected to the law, the law the Judaizers themselves could not keep.  The Judaizers added to the gospel (circumcision), making what the people did as important as what Christ had already done.

Why in the world would the Judaizers trouble these Galatians in this way?  Paul gives us the answer toward the end of the letter when he wrote:

¹²It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.  ¹³For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. (6:12-13)

Really?  Yes, the Judaizers were worried about what other Jews might think of them.  As a result, they reinstituted the law, made the law a requirement for salvation, which completely flew in the face of the true gospel. 

One can readily see the importance of preserving the truth of the gospel.  Failure to do so can and does result in people taking the curse upon themselves, rendering what Christ has accomplished to “be of no advantage to you” (5:2), thereby severing themselves “from Christ” (5:4).

Future articles will address the concerns in the church today with more specificity. 

SDG

PRESERVING THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL…

Introduction

The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being threatened—and not by of some “outside” influence, but threatened by some within the church.  This threat, as will be seen in subsequent articles, is oftentimes not even recognized by those who engage in such activity as being a threat.  Instead, they sincerely see their “logic” as being true.  However, their logic proves to be false when scrutinized through the lens of Scripture.

This is the first in a series of articles springing from the letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian churches:

…to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. (Galatians 2:5, ESV)

and

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”  (Galatians 2:14, ESV)

Twice, Paul talks about the truth of the gospel, which tells us that the preservation of that truth was extremely important to God.

Paul’s letter to these churches that were spread out across the region know as Galatia resulted from three things:

    1.    The activity among the believers in Galatia by the so called  Judaizers, and

    2.    The abandonment of the true gospel as a result of the work of the Judaizers, and

    3.    The false accusations made against the Apostle Paul by those who were antagonistic toward him.

Just as it was important in Paul’s day to actively stand against that which might threaten the truth of the gospel, so it is today, because nothing has changed when it comes to “the present evil age” (Galatians 1:4) in which Paul lived and in which we live.  Not only are we faced today with the non-Christian cults and their messages, but the true church is also faced with threats “from within”.  These people are variously described in Scripture as those who “troubled you with words, unsettling your minds” (Acts 15:24), those who present “danger from false brothers” (2 Corinthians 11:26), and “those who unsettle you” (Galatians 5:12).

Those who unsettle some in the church may very well be “well intentioned”, but the problem with that is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Good intentions do not make for good theology.  Good intentions do not make for solid doctrine.

It must be recognized that part of the problem—these good intentions—result from the inability of those who present such "good intentions" to follow the logic of the Scriptures because they are derailed by emotion—emotion, for example, resulting from a sincere desire to believe loved ones are truly saved.  Those who allow themselves to be driven by emotion, those who are well-intentioned, end up providing a false assurance of salvation to people they talk to.  That is dangerous.

Then there are those who claim Christianity, who do not hold to a Biblical view of salvation, but instead allow salvation to be a very man-centered thing.  How?  They do this by adding to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and, in doing so, completely negate the effects of the atoning sacrifice of Christ for themselves. 

Finally, there are those who advocate an “easy-believism”, saying, “all you need to do is acknowledge that Jesus died for your sins and you will be saved”.  Of course, because that statement contains some truth, many will believe it.  However, a statement that only contains “some” truth—even if that “truth” accounts for 99% of the statement—the remaining 1% that is not truth renders the entire statement false.

This series of articles will not address the attacks from without, but the dangers from within, as described above, with a view toward Preserving the Truth of the Gospel.

SDG

Who Is Controlling You?

I just finished another book called Who Will Deliver Us?  The Present Power of the Death of Christ by Paul Zahl.   Powerful.

One of the things he wrote had to do with the power we give to others, power over ourselves.  Zahl wrote:

A ministry of imputation calls for preaching and teaching a dramatic affirmation of the self.  (I had a little difficulty with that sentence, till I read the rest of what he wrote).  It is initially a question of recognizing a virtually universal negative experience (something everyone might experience) of life:  that we allow others to carry our value.  Other people have an extraordinary hold over us:  their view of us, or what we think their view is, matters more than what we think of ourselves.  Imputation (Christ's righteousness credited to us) turns this situation around, declaring that in the great transaction of the death of Christ, God has reaffirmed the priceless value he conferred on human beings in our creation.  (p. 73)

That is pretty heavy.  We all relinquish that kind of control to others every day of our lives--some of us more than others.  How?

THAT I MAY KNOW HIM… PHILIPPIANS 3:8-11

Introduction

In this passage of Scripture we see the apostle Paul explaining to the Philippian church the essential nature of really coming to know Jesus Christ in an intimate way, what is involved in that, and the why behind it all.  Paul addresses the humility involved in knowing Christ, and the absolute dependence on God that is necessary to know him.   And Paul does this without laying down one requirement for the believer.  We will see that it is something that God does in us.

We went camping about a month ago, taking our travel trailer out for the first time.  I was sufficiently nervous dragging something that big behind me on the highway, but eventually settled into it.  However, when it was time to hitch up and come home, I found that the anti-sway bar had broken on the trip up the mountain.  No, I had not noticed it when we originally arrived.  I did fine getting down to the highway, but once I got up to 55 mph, the trailer began to sway, and I don’t mean just a little.  I’m gripping the steering wheel for all I’m worth, thinking to myself, “I can do this”, “just don’t drive 55”, “I can get by without the anti-sway bar”, and “this thing isn’t going to get the best of me!”  Right.  I white knuckled it for about 30 miles before I finally pulled over, got on the Internet and found an RV dealer who had an anti-sway bar to sell me.

White knuckling—holding on so tightly to the steering wheel that our knuckles turn white—is how I initially learned what it was to live “the Christian life”.  It is how I learned what it was to get to know the Savior.  I used to think, “I can do this”, and, as I was taught, I rigorously engaged in having a quiet time, reading and memorizing Scripture, maintaining a prayer journal, evangelizing, worshipping, serving at church, fasting, giving, and being at church every time the doors were open. 

I was way too young in my walk with Christ when I was ordained as a deacon, and in the church culture of the denomination we were in, the deacons functioned as the sounding board for the pastor.  We were given any number of assignments, and mine included attending the deacon meetings, being assigned to at least two different committees, teaching adult Sunday School, and anything else that came up.  Oh, and it was clearly implied that saying “no” was not an option—the culture didn’t allow for that.  So that was how I thought—I have to be involved to be a “good Christian”, in addition to all of the spiritual disciplines I mentioned.  And to make it worse, time with my very young family was sorely missing, as well as true intimacy with Jesus Christ.  All of my “activity” took the place of real time with the Lord.

Now don’t get me wrong—there is absolutely nothing intrinsically wrong with any of these activities.  Engaging in the spiritual disciplines is very beneficial for us as believers.  The Holy Spirit has gifted all believers and those gifts are to be used for God’s glory.  But apart from the gospel—the completed work of Jesus Christ—they are all ritualistic exercises in futility.  Why?  Because of the motivation behind them, thinking we will gain favor with God by engaging in them!  Nothing we do can gain favor with God!   Too often, those of us who engage in the meticulous, ritualistic observance of the disciplines will even feel the need to double up the next day should a quiet time or prayer time be missed.  If we do this, what we are doing is we are legalistically white knuckling the spiritual steering wheel all the way.   Our deeds are as filthy rags. 

The fact of the matter is that the gospel—what Jesus did on our behalf, that is, the “work” to please God that has been already completed—must be taken into account by each of us daily.  I’ll address that in a minute.

Philippians 3:8-11  

⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 

The Gospel...

"No human mind could conceive or invent the gospel."  The Valley of Vision, p. 62

God's grace truly is amazing...his grace is offensive to the law keeper, scandalous to the one that does not understand it, amazing to the one who receives it!

Thank you, Jesus, for your amazing gift of life!