“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” – Galatians 1:8-9
“LET HIM BE ACCURSED” – reserved for those who would dare pervert the gospel of Christ are not only the seething indignation and implacable fury of a righteous God, but a curse itself. Do not tell me the Father of lights is indifferent to tampering with the gospel of his Son. So vehemently does the Almighty abhor another gospel that he twice placed “let him be accursed” into this text. It matters not who you are, dear reader. You may be a mere layman, unknown beyond your little lane of life. You may be a great (in the world’s definition of that term) a great preacher, eminent, renowned, beloved by multitudes. You may even be an angel from heaven, greater in power and might than mere men. But whoever you are, you are ACCURSED if you preach another gospel. Yes, ACCURSED – that is what you are, if you preach a gospel of making Jesus the “Lord of your life” to be saved. ACCURSED – that is what you are, if you preach a gospel of turning from your sins and committing to serve God evermore to be saved. ACCURSED – that is what you are, if you preach a gospel of sacraments to be saved. ACCURSED – that is what you are, if you dare to preach another gospel than that which the Holy Ghost, through Paul, has defined as thus:
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
Such is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ – his substitutionary death at Calvary, where he paid our sin debt with his precious blood; his burial; and his bodily resurrection on the third day, unto the justification of those who believe on him. This, the apostle called “the simplicity that is in Christ”, for it is a simple concept. Sin is the transgression of God’s holy law (1 John 3:4), and committing even one sin is tantamount to violating his every commandment (James 2:10). All men have sinned (Psalm 53:1-3, Romans 3:10), and can never make themselves righteous, regardless of how much they try to reform and improve (Romans 3:20). In short, they are guilty of breaking God’s law, and are condemned to spend eternity in hell (Ezekiel 18:20, Romans 5:12, 6:23, Revelation 20:15). However, they can avoid this terrible fate, for Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, paid the penalty of their sins with his blood when he died for the world’s sins at Calvary. He was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day. If any man will but believe this gospel as his only hope for heaven, he will be saved immediately and irrevocably. His name will be written in the Lamb’s book of life. His sins will be forever washed away by Christ’s blood. The righteousness of Christ will be imputed to his account, so God the Father will no longer see the vile wickedness of a sinful man, but the perfect righteousness of his perfect Son. And, as he now has Christ’s righteousness, he has been pardoned from everlasting destruction, and will spend eternity in heaven with his Savior.
But there be some which trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. It is not my intention now to elaborate upon the falsehoods propagated by obvious non-Christian groups, since those who have denied God and his Christ have proven themselves to be both fools (Psalm 53:1) and liars (1 John 2:24). Rather, I aim to penetrate the mass of damnable heresies circulating within “Christian” churches and masquerading as “the gospel”, for such have deceived many into believing a lie. For the purposes of these pages, I shall introduce you to several “men”, each fictitious characters with ruefully real-life misconceptions about salvation. To be sure, committing to serve God, ceasing from sinful habits, and telling others about Jesus are all noble things, but they are only to be done AFTER a man has been saved, and NEVER in order to be saved. If sonship and discipleship, justification and sanctification, salvation and service are not kept separate, only heresy and confusion can result. As John Bunyan observed, “If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word of God aright, but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.”
I do not doubt there are many professing Christians who oppose the act of rebuking false gospels far more heartily than they oppose the false gospels themselves. They cannot understand why false teachers must be exposed and why their false doctrines must be rebuked. “So different Christians teach different plans of salvation,” they say. “What’s the big deal?” The “big deal” is the souls of men, and where they spend eternity. If, for salvation, they rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ, they will spend eternity in heaven. If, for salvation, they trust their reformation and self-improvement, they will spend eternity in hell. The difference between these two outcomes need hardly be explained, and if God did not think another gospel was a “big deal”, he would not have accursed the men who preach it. No, something which contradicts the simplicity that is in Christ is not merely “different”; it is wrong, it is evil, and it is Satanic. It must be exposed, rebuked, refuted. This is no matter of opinion; this is biblical (Ephesians 5:11, Titus 1:13). If a Christian is not enraged by perverting of the gospel, he demonstrates what ignominious insouciance he maintains toward the truths of the Scriptures. For they are not to be cowardly uttered as if they were philosophical speculations or religious conjectures, as if they were mere human interpretations about which none may speak affirmatively. They are to be boldly defended, earnestly contended for, unceasingly loved, unashamedly proclaimed. Sound doctrine matters, period.
THE REASONABLE MAN
I introduce you first to the Reasonable Man. “Well,” he will say, “you say salvation is by faith, and I say salvation is by works. Your method is just different than mine. Can’t we agree to disagree?” No, we cannot “agree to disagree”, for between you and me there is a great gulf fixed. You are correct, sir, my “method” – if you wish to classify regeneration as a “method” – is quite different than yours. I should not mind that so much, if your method were not quite different than the gospel, and did not command men to work for something which they can only receive by faith. There is only one gospel, just as there is only one way and one Savior. Either we have a gospel of grace, where salvation is a gift for guilty sinners, or we have a gospel of debt, where salvation is a reward which God owes to those who serve him. If my God were a God of generalities, these obtrusive distinctions in doctrine might not be so crucial. But my God is a specific God, and his Word is a specific Word, and his salvation is a specific salvation. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” is specific. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” is specific. “And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” is specific. Need any more be said?
THE INVITATION MAN
I introduce you next to the Invitation Man. “To be saved,” says this fellow, “you simply invite Jesus into your heart.” To be sure, there is an invitation in salvation, but this invitation is not extended from the sinner to the Savior, but from the Savior to the sinner. “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” – this is the invitation. “If any many thirst, let him come unto me and drink” – this is the invitation. “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live;” – this is the invitation. From the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world, is extended an invitation to the sinners for whom he died. If they will, they make take the water of life freely. If they thirst, they may come unto him and drink. If they hear, their soul shall live. They do not invite him; he invites them, and, if they receive his invitation, and lodge their hope for heaven, not in what they do for him, but in what he did for them, they are saved once and for all.
THE LORDSHIP MAN
I introduce you next to the Lordship Man. “It’s not enough just to believe on Christ,” this man declares. “To be saved, you must surrender your life to God, make Jesus the Lord of your life, and faithfully serve him.” I suggest you read Matthew 7, particularly verses twenty-one through twenty-three, where hordes of religious people who call Jesus their “Lord” are cast into hell because they were never born again. If you preach this affront to truth that is called “Lordship Salvation”, do not pretend the “salvation” you speak of is by grace through faith; you speak of “salvation” by the deeds of the law, and distort the gospel in demanding man make himself worthy of salvation. I give you Romans 3:20: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” No man ever has been worthy of salvation, and no man ever will be worthy of salvation. Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). How can they then justify us before God? How can they cleanse us from the crimson stains of scarlet sins? Thanks be to God, salvation is not a process; it is a new birth, an instantaneous act of regeneration in response to faith in Christ. We do not need “lordship” to be saved. We can come to Jesus just as we are, without one plea, but that his blood was shed for us. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
THE RELATIONSHIP MAN
I introduce you next to the Relationship Man. “To go to Heaven,” he avows, “you need to start a relationship with Jesus.” Judas Iscariot started a relationship with Jesus. Nay, he even kissed our Lord on the cheek! Yet he had a devil in him (John 6:70), and did not go to heaven. No, that little doctrine of “relationship” may be very pretty in theory, but there is no Bible to it. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that BELIEVETH – not to every one that has a relationship. A relationship was not nailed to Calvary’s tree to bleed and groan and die for the sins of the world. A relationship did not rise from the dead on the third day, did not sprinkle its blood upon heaven’s mercy seat, is not seated at the right hand of God. All that man needs to go to heaven he can find, not in a relationship, but in the nail-scarred hands of a risen Savior who was dead, and is alive for evermore.
THE CALVINIST
I introduce you next to the Calvinist. “Man has no choice in salvation,” he sneers. “If he is not predestinated, he cannot be saved.” So long as our God is no respecter of persons, this cannot be true. So long as “whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” is in my Bible, this cannot be true. So long as God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, this cannot be true. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” – this is not the description of a capricious god who shuts the gates of heaven to those he has not predestinated. This is the description of a loving God, who is ever waiting and hoping for his dearest creatures to come to him, that they might find rest. The Scriptures abound with invitations for the sinner to be washed in the blood of the Savior, but those invitations would be of no use if man were unable to choose to believe or disbelieve. Why thunder out, “YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN!”, if predestination has long before determined the eternal destinies of men? Why did the apostles preach to heathen masses, if God had already determined who would be saved and who would be damned? This doctrine of “chosen to salvation” is not only contrary to reason; it is an affront to God, to his character, to his goodness, to his mercy. It makes the Lover of men’s souls to be the personification of every libel which men have hurled at him. No, salvation is not reserved for a class of the predestinated. Every man can come to Christ, for “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
THE FALSE REPENTANCE MAN
I introduce you lastly to the False Repentance Man. “You must be sorry for your sins to be saved,” he begins. “Then, you must repent of and turn from them, and start a new life with Jesus.” Metanoia – this wonderful word lies at the heart of much confusion. The Greek word rendered “repent” in the English means a “change of mind” – nothing more, nothing less. Not a change of lifestyle, not a change of behavior, not a change of habit, not contrition, not self-flagellation, but a CHANGE OF MIND. “To repent”, therefore, could not refer to ceasing from sin, since God himself has repented of things (Genesis 6:6, Exodus 32:14). “Repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15) does not mean to change your life, as the perverted modern “Bible” versions insist, but rather to CHANGE YOUR MIND. In this case, it means for men to change their minds from what they hitherto have thought about salvation, to placing their faith entirely in the finished work of Jesus Christ, crucified for their sins, buried, and risen again. When a man trusts Christ as Savior, he has of a necessity repented, for he could not have believed without first changing his mind: seeing his sinfulness and need for a Savior, he leaves off trusting whatever he had heretofore trusted, and comes to Jesus, and him alone, for salvation. You see, dear reader, the saving does not lie in reformation, but in regeneration. Works – which turning from sins most certainly are (Jonah 3:10) – are dead things (Hebrews 6:1), and souls are dead things (Romans 5:12). Dead things cannot give life to other dead things. A dead soul cannot improve; it must be made alive once more, and only the regeneration wrought by faith in Christ can quicken the dead soul. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
CONCLUSION
There are many men who believe what the men listed above believe, and teach these falsehoods as if they were the gospel. They may be good men. They may be kind men. They may be sincere men. But they are accursed men, and the false gospels they propound are a menace to the cross of Christ, to the work of the ministry, to the saving of souls. We must not give place unto silence while they perish in their pernicious ways, sitting idly lest the truth offend them. Of course, the truth will offend them! The truth must offend them, and we must give them the truth. We must preach Christ, the hope of glory. We must warn every man of the damnation which awaits him in hell, except he be born again. We must warn every man that salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast. We must warn every man that only the blood of Christ can cleanse him from all sin, and only the righteousness of Christ can make him holy before God. No good works, no church membership, no water baptism, no sacraments, no lordship, no clean living can spare men from the fires of hell. Let us therefore endeavor to preach faith alone in Christ crucified, buried, risen as the only way to Heaven, and let us refute, at every opportunity, anything which distorts this blessed truth.