A few years after establishing several churches throughout a region of Asia Minor known as Galatia, the Apostle Paul was compelled to write to them in order to correct a deadly flaw that had developed in their theology. In what came to be the first chapter of the epistle he outlined for the Galatians (and us) the way of life and the way of death. Those ways revolve around one singular issue–what professing believers do with God’s gospel.
In verses 1,11,12 Paul makes it clear that he received his gospel by revelation directly from Jesus Christ. Therefore, to reject Paul’s (read Christ’s) gospel totally or partially is to reject the revelation of Jesus Christ. As if that were not serious enough, it gets even more serious. In John 12:44-50 Jesus makes it clear that His gospel came to Him by revelation directly from God the Father, and that to reject it is to reject both members of the Godhead. In short: THE BIBLICAL GOSPEL IS THE MIND OF GOD IN WRITTEN FORM. TO REJECT, CHANGE OR DOUBT ANY PART OF IT IS TO REJECT BOTH GOD THE FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST HIS SON. The two passages mentioned above should send every Word doubter to his/her knees.
In verse 4 Paul told the Galatians that Jesus died to empower them to resist the evil of the world and thereby fulfill the will of God. In verses 6,7 he told them that because they had rejected God’s power they had welcomed the world into the church: “I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him Who called you,” which they had done by embracing “another gospel.” He then explained two extremely important, universally overlooked points–the Galatians had not actually embraced another gospel, but rather had accepted a PERVERTED VERSION OF THE TRUE GOSPEL, and in doing so had REMOVED THEMSELVES FROM GOD. We must not read past the last part. Note it: To accept any version of Bible Scripture other than that given to us by the prophets and apostles separates us from God. In Isa. 59:2 we are told that sin separates us from God. Therefore, believing anything other than what God has given us in His Word is sin, the wages of which is death (Rom. 6:23). A believer’s eternity is determined by one thing and one thing only–what he/she does with God’s Word.
Paul wisely highlighted the difference between the true gospel and a perverted version of it which is designed to say what the perverter wants it to say. Satan rarely does away with a verse or passage. He prefers to edit the Spirit-inspired message to make it say what he wants church people to hear. Recall that during the “Great Temptation” he quoted a passage out of Deuteronomy in an attempt to entice Jesus to sin. The quote was correct; the context was not, as Jesus noted in Matthew 4:6,7. Jesus knew the Word and therefore could not be tricked by the devil. We must also know the Word in order not to be deceived by him. Unfortunately, most parishioners know very little about God’s Word and refuse to obey what little they know. But why should they? Satan has deceived them into believing that they are saved, born again and heaven bound. To the masses, obeying God, as I was told by an ex-missionary, is just too much trouble. To be continued. L.J.
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