There Is No Other Gospel

Galatians 1:6-9

January 18, 2004

 

            A few months ago we had a two-part series on revival and the gospel of Christ. In that series I had several aims. One aim was to clearly define what the gospel is. A second aim was to show how badly many churches today have missed the essence and heart of the gospel message and in reality do not preach the gospel at all. As we come to Galatians this morning, Paul uses the word gospel in the NAS text four times, once in each verse. The gospel, as I have stated for the last two weeks, is the heart of the church’s message. It is the good news that salvation is available to all who would call upon the name of the Lord. It is the good news that through Christ we can be reconciled to our Creator, against whom we have sinned in infinitely heinous ways. The gospel is “glad tidings of great joy.”

            If the gospel is the central message of the Church, then it is essential that we understand it, believe it, and proclaim it, and it is absolutely necessary that we proclaim and believe the true gospel message and not a false substitute. In this text this morning Paul’s main point is that there is no other gospel message than the New Testament message of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. There is only one gospel message, and anything that falls outside of this message is heresy and deserving of condemnation.

            Sadly, throughout history the perversion of the gospel message has not come from outside the church, but from within it. The greatest threat to the purity of the church has never been godless governments, false religions that deny the Bible and have some other book, or hateful men who would seek to kill and persecute Christians. John Stott explained who the greatest threat to the church is, saying, “Indeed, the Church’s greatest troublemakers (now as then) are not those outside who oppose, ridicule, and persecute it, but those inside who try to change the Gospel.” Oh, how the Church has so often tried to change the Gospel, and even in our day that very thing is happening. The attacks on the gospel are usually subtle. If you are looking for a church to stand up and say, “We deny the gospel and we preach something else,” you won’t find it. You must bear this in mind when you read Christian literature and hear preaching and teaching. The subversions and perversions are subtle. And the proponents of them can sound convincing.

            Perhaps the most subtle form of gospel corruption in our day is the church that practices the bait-and-switch tactic. This tactic is one in which people’s felt needs are stroked, and people are brought in the doors by appealing to what their flesh desires and craves, and then once they are in, usually (although not always) an attempt is made to slip in the gospel. How convincing can proponents of this view sound! One such example that is widespread and not confined to any one church is a new magazine called Revolve. This magazine is the New Testament in a magazine format, styled after popular magazines such as Glamour, Seventeen, and CosmoGirl, according to a Fox News article. One article featured on the cover says, “Beauty secrets you’ve never heard before.” People know and understand that the average teenage girl wants people to think she is beautiful, so on the cover of this magazine are offered secrets to beauty. Thomas Nelson Bibles publishes this magazine, and when asked why they were doing this project, Laurie Whaley from Thomas Nelson explained that they took surveys and found that a majority of teenage girls do not read the Bible. She goes on to say, “We were like, why not? And they said it is too big and it doesn’t make sense. We asked them what they did read, and they said, ‘magazines.’” The solution for Thomas Nelson, then, was to appeal to the fleshly desire teenage girls have to read magazines such as Seventeen instead of reading the Bible. This is the bait-and-switch technique, and the rationale is to reach as many people as possible, which almost always can sound appealing.

            Let me state that true preachers of the Gospel always desire to reach as many people as possible, but the Gospel message makes it impossible for them to appeal to the flesh to do so or to try to focus on felt needs people have. The Gospel message says that Jesus is what is valuable, and that we are cut off from Him because of our sin, and that we need forgiveness so that we can know the infinite, eternal, majestic, glorious God and be His children. The Gospel message is not, “Come to Christ and have a better marriage,” or “Come to Christ and learn beauty secrets you’ve never heard before.” That is, in fact, a perversion of the gospel message because it makes something other than the glory of God out to be the most valuable thing, which is idolatry. This modern method and modern message is nothing other than a distorted, perverted gospel, and it teaches idolatry in its method.

            I say all of that to point out that this distortion is subtle, and this distortion comes from within the church, not from without. Revolve was not published by Doubleday publishers, a secular publishing company. It was published by a company that publishes Bibles!

            In this passage the Apostle Paul is clear that there is only one Gospel, and any distortion of this one, true Gospel brings a curse on those who teach it and by extension those who embrace it. You remember that the Galatians had been infiltrated by false teachers who taught that a person must keep the Law of Moses to be saved. They taught salvation by works rather than salvation by faith. The Galatians were following these false teachers, and it is in response to this that Paul writes this letter.

            Last week we looked at the introduction to the letter. Usually after Paul introduces a letter like he does in verses 1-5 we find a statement of thanksgiving or blessing. Galatians is the only exception to this rule. Galatians is the only letter where Paul begins with astonishment and pronounces a curse. The reason he does this is because of the seriousness of the problem plaguing the Galatian churches. The Galatians were defecting from the truth of the Gospel. Because of their current defection from the truth coupled with the fact that there is no other true Gospel, Paul reminds them of three truths they must recognize to prove themselves true believers rather than accursed enemies of the cross of Christ. There are three truths you must recognize if you are a true believer and not an accursed enemy of the cross of Christ this morning, and these three truths are found in verses 6-9. Let’s look at them together.

 

#1 – Recognize that to believe another gospel is to desert God Himself (vv. 6-7)

 

            The first truth is found in verses 6 and 7, and that truth is this: Recognize that to believe another gospel is to desert God Himself. To believe another Gospel is to desert God Himself. Look with me at verses 6-7. Paul writes, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different Gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the Gospel of Christ. In these verses Paul makes the Gospel a personal issue between a person and God. How you receive or reject the Gospel directly relates to how you deal with God Himself.

            Notice that Paul begins with amazement. He says, I am amazed! This word signifies wonder mixed with displeasure. As Paul writes this letter he is in shock. He cannot believe that these Galatians who received him as an angel, even as they would have received Christ Jesus and who would have plucked out their own eyes for him, should now desert God by turning away from the Gospel of Christ! How much anguish the Apostle must have felt as he wrote this letter! What is it that has so astounded and amazed this apostle?

            He says that his amazement is that the Galatians are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different Gospel. His amazement has three aspects to it. First, he is amazed that the Galatians should desert God Himself. Notice he says that they were deserting Him. For Paul, this was a very personal issue between them and God. If a person deserts the true gospel and forsakes it, that person has not simply rejected a body of doctrine or a system of teaching; that person has rejected the God of glory Himself. Oh how shocking it is that men should have heard the glories of God and received them and then desert this same God!

            What does the Apostle mean by deserting? The KJV translates the word are removed, which is a rather poor rendering. The word was often used of a military revolt or desertion, which often would have been punishable by death as treason. It also could signify a change of religion. The basic idea is desertion, a passing over from one realm, namely the sphere of Christ and the gospel, into another, the sphere of accursed enemies of the cross.

            A question that is raised is, Were these Galatians really saved? Were they brethren if they were so capable of this? The Apostle’s language here indicates that he believed his readers to truly be converted, yet at the same time confused. He uses the present tense of this verb, meaning that the Galatians were in process of deserting. They had not completely defected, but rather they were progressing in the wrong direction. Should they continue in this direction without repentance, doubtlessly the Apostle would have recognized them as unbelievers, and he would have used the aorist or perfect tense. This letter, then, is a warning to professing believers who are being seduced by false teachers. Those who heed the warning prove themselves to be true brethren; those who refuse it prove themselves to have denied the Gospel and to be accursed.

            How necessary it is for us to reprove the brethren when they err, and not as unbelievers, but as brothers. The Apostle here demonstrates supreme love, boldness, and gentleness in his rebuke, not condemning them, but informing them of the outcome should they continue in their present course. These Galatians certainly had received Paul well and believed his message, and so with confidence and boldness he directs his comments to them as a concerned brother. Should the day come when he must change from present to past tense with his writing, they would no longer be considered brethren, but the apostle here recognizes the weakness and foolishness of these Galatians, and therefore has not as yet regarded them as totally cut off from Christ and without hope.

            Not only is Paul amazed at the present desertion that is occurring, but he also is amazed at the ease and speed of this desertion. He says that he is amazed that it is happening so quickly. He cannot believe with what ease these false teachers were able to confuse the Galatians. It seems as if the Galatians offered little or no resistance at all to these false teachers, but readily received them as well.

            Thirdly, Paul is amazed that they are deserting God, who he describes as Him who called you, for a different gospel. These Galatians had been called by God Himself in grace. They had been called to the gospel of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and now they were following those who did not preach grace, but rather taught a system of works salvation. Paul is utterly astounded that anyone should be tempted to leave the grace of God for this perversion of the Gospel! He calls what the Galatians were being seduced by a different gospel, and realizing the implications of such a statement, he adds at the beginning of verse 7, which is really not another. The KJV here also confuses the Greek text, as it translates the NAS different in verse 6 with another, the same word that it uses in verse 7. In the Greek text, however, the words are not the same. In verse 6, Paul calls it a different gospel. The meaning of the word different in this case is different as in quality. It is a different gospel in its essential quality and characteristics; it is a departure from the orthodox and true gospel that Paul and the Apostles preached. In verse 7, Paul adds, which is really not another or as in the KJV, which is not another, and the word translated another is a word that means another of the same type. It is not another gospel of the same type as the true gospel. The Apostle’s meaning, then, is that the Galatians had deserted God for a different gospel, but then he clarifies by saying that this different gospel is not really another gospel of the same type with the same saving effects. His point is that there is no other gospel at all! The ESV renders the passage, 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. While being a loose translation of the Greek text, it conveys the point of what Paul is saying. The Gospel is the only gospel, and so any different gospel is really no gospel at all, for there is not another gospel! Paul is astounded and astonished that the Galatians should desert Him who called them in grace for a non-gospel.

            Paul further clarifies why he has called it another gospel, saying only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. “It is not as though there is another gospel,” the Apostle is saying, “but it is that there false teachers who are disturbing you and troubling you as they desire to pervert the true gospel message.” This false gospel only receives the term, I think, because the false teachers called it the gospel. It was a perversion of the true gospel. So Paul says, in effect, “I am calling it a different gospel because of those who are trying to disturb you by perverting the true gospel.” He wants the Galatians to understand the ramifications of following this diluted, distorted gospel. If they believe the false teachers, they desert the God who called them in grace. It is not just that they have a doctrinal difference; it is that they depart from God Himself.

            This is why doctrine, especially about the gospel, is so crucial. To believe a false, distorted gospel is to be cut off from Christ and alienated from God. It is not just to have a minor error in thinking. It is not just to have a mental block about one area of truth. It is not just to have a different opinion. It is to be severed from God and an enemy of the cross of Christ!

            Oh, how we need in our day to take the gospel seriously. Eternal destinies hang in the balance. Christianity and the preaching of the gospel is not a game. It’s not about trying to build a big church or get a following or make people feel good about life. How people react to the true gospel message will determine their eternal destiny. For those who receive it by faith, eternal life. For those who reject it, whether because they believe a false gospel or because they hear and reject the true gospel, eternal damnation. Church is not a game. It is not a social organization. It is the pillar and ground of the truth, the place where souls should be able to come and hear the Word of God and be rescued from this present evil age. I am afraid that Americans have become so consumer driven and marketing driven that we have lost the gravity of what is at stake, and we don’t realize the weight of getting the gospel right and the seriousness if we get it wrong, both for us and for those who hear.

            So, Paul reminds these Galatians that to believe a false gospel is to desert God Himself. It is not a small thing. There are those who would desire to distort the gospel, those servants of Satan disguised as angels of light who desire to trouble the church of God, and they do this by preaching a different message and denying the infinite value of the glory of God in the face of Christ. When true believers begin to fall for this false teaching, it is astonishing and heart-breaking.

 

#2 – Recognize that the message validates the messenger (v. 8)

 

            Number two. The second truth to recognize is this: Recognize that the message validates the messenger. I find this in verse 8, where Paul writes, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! Paul is, in this verse, setting up a hypothetical and impossible situation. This verse is purely hypothetical to prove a point. Paul and his associates would not dare preach a false gospel, and certainly the angels, whose entire existence is for the purpose of magnifying the glory of God, would not preach another gospel. So this is an impossible situation, but Paul is constrained to give it as in illustration to prove a point. Paul’s opponents more than likely claimed that Paul was so strong about his views because he preached them, so it was a personal issue to Paul. It was an issue of the messengers rather than the message. So in this verse Paul makes this point: the message vindicates the messenger. Or, to put it another way, it doesn’t matter who the messenger is; it matters what the message is. The message is not vindicated by who says it. The message is vindicated by whether or not it agrees with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the supreme Word and messenger to us. It is through Him that God has given His final word to us in this age. Therefore, even if an angel should contradict, it does not matter, because Christ is the authority, and it is His message that counts, not the human or angelic messenger who might be preaching.

            Notice that Paul even includes himself in this verse, as well as the other believers with him, mentioned in verse 2. Even if we, he says, including himself. If Paul were to go back to the Galatians and change the message, he would be accursed. He himself did not decide the message, and he did not have the right to tamper with it or change it to suit his desires or the desires of his hearers.

            This verse is so crucial because there are people who claim to have messages that contradict the true gospel, and some of them claim these messages came from God’s angels or a specific angel. Here Paul eliminates all other possible messages. God will not give a message that contradicts the gospel, and if anyone else should try to contradict, even an angel from heaven, that angel would be accursed.

            When you come to this word, accursed, let your mind linger for a moment or two. Don’t just skip over it lightly. There is something infinitely weighty in this word. The meaning of accursed could be translated ‘devoted to destruction.’ In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the OT, it was the word used for that which the Israelites were to utterly destroy because it was under the ban. J.B. Lightfoot explains it like this: This word was used in the OT of a person or thing set apart and devoted to destruction because that person or thing is hateful to God. Hence in a spiritual application it denotes the state of one who is alienated from God by sin. Now, that is a paraphrase of his words, but it is an accurate paraphrase, and the point is clear as a bell. Accursed means to be devoted to destruction because you are someone that is hateful toward God. You are someone who is an enemy of the cross of Christ if you proclaim a false gospel. You are alienated from God by sin, and as Rendall says in his commentary, you “are outcasts from the faith, and dead to the Spirit of Christ.”

            I implore you to take seriously the meaning of this. This is not a light thing. To be devoted to destruction at the hand of Almighty God is a dreadful and terrible thing. John Piper helps show the gravity of this by saying, “The Bible does not reveal to us the eternal curse of God that we may yawn and turn the page. The wrath of God is revealed to shake unbelievers out of their stupor and to take the swagger out of the Christian's walk and the cocky twang out of his voice.” When you read this word, accursed, you should tremble. You should mourn over those who are false teachers and accursed, under the omnipotent wrath of God. You should realize that it is all of grace that you are not under this wrath, and praise God and walk before Him humbly with great joy and contentment, recognizing His great salvation toward you. Oh if we only felt the incredible force of this word, anathema, or accursed! If only God would rend our hearts asunder when we think of the millions of people, even billions, who are at this very moment under this divine curse, and unless God grants them repentance they will perish and be destroyed forever and ever under omnipotent, never-ending, dreadful, terrible wrath of the Almighty God! This is why we have prayer meetings. This is why we have, by God’s grace, a radio program. This is why we tell others the Gospel. May we never speak glibly or lightly about false teachers, but may we realize the incredibly seriousness of being accursed.

            Paul, then, reminds us that it is not the messenger that matters. What is important is the message that is proclaimed. Even if an angel should preach a false gospel, we should not receive it, because the message validates the messenger, the messenger does not validate the message.

 

#3 – Recognize that anyone who perverts the gospel stands condemned (v. 9)

 

            In verse 9 Paul moves from the purely hypothetical to the realm of reality and possibility, saying, As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! Some have seen this as mere repetition; I don’t see it that way. I don’t think the apostle would carelessly repeat himself, especially in the context of pronouncing a divine curse. In verse 8 he presents a purely hypothetical situation. In verse 9 he applies it to the present situation in Galatia. In verse 8 he tells us that we must recognize that the message validates the messenger, and verse 9 therefore logically follows, as Paul tells us to recognize that anyone who perverts the gospel stands condemned. Anyone who perverts the gospel stands condemned.

            This is the logical conclusion from verses 6-8. In verses 6-7 Paul teaches that forsaking the true Gospel is tantamount to forsaking the living God. In verse 8 he teaches that the messenger is irrelevant, the truth is what matters, and any departure, even by an apostle or an angel, brings a divine curse. In verse 9, then, he applies it, saying that if there be any false preacher in Galatia preaching to the Galatians, that man is to be accursed. If angels cannot escape the divine judgment of God if they were to tamper with the truth, how much more shall a mere mortal, fleshly man be considered worthy of eternal damnation who leads souls to condemnation through a false and empty gospel!

            This was obviously something that had previously concerned the Apostle Paul. He tells us that he and his associates had already told the Galatians to watch for this. He writes, As we have said before, and the idea is that of forewarning. It seems from this text that Paul and his companions had previously warned the Galatians that if anyone should pervert the gospel, that person was accursed. Now he finds himself having to reiterate his point. He says, If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! The if in this verse is a different word in Greek than the if in verse 8. In verse 8 the if signified a high degree of improbability, whereas in verse 9 the if signifies a high degree of probability. Sometimes this construction translates ‘since’ in certain contexts, as if the conclusion was assumed. Here I think if is more appropriate, but understand that the Apostle thinks it very likely that there are false teachers among the Galatians as he is writing. His warning is stern and severe. These false teachers are to be accursed.

            What does that mean for the Galatians, and by extension, what does that mean for us? What did Paul want them to do with this warning? How did he want the Galatians to treat such men? John Calvin contends that this curse that Paul pronounces is an instruction to the Galatians as to how they should treat such a false teacher. How, then, should the Galatians have treated such a one? The answer for them then is the answer for us today, and I believe that Puritan John Brown puts it well. Let me read you his explanation in his commentary. He writes, “We should be very cautious how we charge men with preaching another gospel; but whenever we are conscientiously persuaded that they do so, the line of conduct to be followed by us is very plain. We must not acknowledge them as teachers; we must not listen to their instructions. They must be to us ‘anathema.’” If we are persuaded that someone is a false teacher, we are to regard them as unbelievers, people who are under the curse of God. We should be very careful about making such a judgment and not come to this conclusion quickly and without solid, verifiable evidence, but if we do, we are to regard such men as false teachers who are condemned before God. Brown goes on to say of the Apostle Paul, “Never was there a man more disposed to bear with the weak brethren; but never was there a man more determined to oppose, and to expose, false brethren; and I believe it will always be found that, when the love of the truth renders men kind and forbearing to others who really love the truth, it renders them just in the same degree intolerant (so far as church-fellowship is concerned) in reference to those who are enemies of the truth.”

            There is much wisdom in Dr. Brown’s words as he properly applies this text. To the same degree that we are kind, patient, forbearing, and loving toward those who love the truth, however immature and weak they may be, so much will we be intolerant, inflexible, unmoved, and stern against those who are enemies of the truth. Remember, now, that Paul discerned this difference well. He realized that the Galatian believers were weak brethren who loved the truth. They were foolish, yes, and they were being blown about by every wind of doctrine because they were immature and unstable, but because Paul knew that they had received his preaching, as he says in verse 9, he bears with them and warns them of their error. But for these false teachers who were enemies of the truth and tried to seduce the children of God with their errors, he has no tolerance, but only a divine curse to pronounce.

            Paul, then, wants us to recognize that anyone who perverts the Gospel stands condemned. This is a difficult message in our day. We live in an age of tolerance, where even the church has thrown out discernment for tolerance, with the claim that it is being loving. Yet Paul exhorted us in Philippians 1:9 to grow in love with real knowledge and all discernment. If we truly love those who love the truth, we must oppose and expose those who are false teachers and seducers.

            I want to close with an exhortation. Just as in Paul’s day there were true believers who were being led astray by seducers who needed correction and warning, so in our day and in our city I am convinced that there are many true children of God who are following false teachers who would pervert the gospel of Christ. I do not know who they are, either the false teachers or the Galatians within Wichita, but I am convinced that there are Galatians in our city at this very moment sitting in churches under men who are accursed. That is a heart-breaking, gut-wrenching reality. I want to encourage you to pray for the Galatians in our city, and by this I mean those who are deserting Him who called them for a different Gospel, and who are doing so completely unwittingly. I do not doubt for one instant that there are many who love the truth of God, yet who have been led astray, who need a word of warning, and then a word of encouragement to walk by the Spirit and to be filled with the Spirit and to prize Christ and His glory more than all this world has to offer. So will you pray this week for the Galatians in Wichita? Will you pray that God will send them someone, even one of us in this room, to warn them, to help them see the truth and to turn from their present desertion? Oh that God might be pleased to turn many to the truth and away from false teaching! Even pray that the radio program would be used of God to give such who are His children a warning and a place to go to be built up in the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and pray that we would never be those who would pervert or distort the gospel of Christ. May God be merciful to His Church, and grant her repentance and a love for the truth. Let’s pray.

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