Pastor Ben continued are current series by preaching Galatians 1:11-24. One of the initial things that caught my eye was that Paul gave his credentials of what makes his message true and of God. It also means that the Gospel that Paul preached isn’t some fairy tale or made up, but of God. Anyone who preached something different or added to the Gospel preaches a false Gospel.
This idea of the false Gospel got me thinking of a quote from the book To Hell and Back where a Catholic Chaplin George Zabelka was having a conversation with a military personnel member over the dropping of the atomic bombs over Japan. They were pondering how he could bless the men who were flying off so they could kill and or be killed. The question that came about and we need to ponder is that are we trying to get God to condone our false Gospel or something even worse, something that is evil? So are we are we trying to become more like Jesus or are we trying to make Jesus look like us?
This idea of the false Gospel is that it tends to make us either feel good or it makes us right and everyone else who disagrees with us wrong and even our enemy. This Gospel tends to elevate our own desires and make us or our cause holier than what it really is. So my question is, are we adding rules to Christianity to make ourselves feel better? Or are we adding those rules so that we can keep other people out of the Kingdom or to make others or ourselves jump through extra hoops to enter Gods Kingdom or to make sure we avoid hell?
Another thing we have to consider with our false Gospel is we have to wrestle with the idea of what is truth. The famous cultural idea is the idea of truth and even the Gospel is that it is all subjective. The Gospel or the truth is what we make of it and how we interpret it. If we look at the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no one can see or access God except through Jesus (John 14). John also tells us that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God ( John 1). In essence, there is absolute truth and the only we can find it is through Jesus and not only seeking Him but also submitting to His will and plan. The best way we can fight this false Gospel is to seek Gods face and submit to His will.
I will close with this. How are we doing at submitting to God and His truth? The more important idea is that are we living out that truth and grace in a dark world? To close out here is a paraphrase of my favorite C.S. Lewis quote. It is God isn’t safe but He is good. Are we living in that goodness or are we seeking to live in comfort because that’s what the false Gospel is all about.
Grace and Peace
Tom Boustead
