Gal 1.7: “not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
- Again notice the division: a true gospel and its distortion. What the Circumcision party taught is not new, but justification by works of the law (See Romans 9.30-10.4). This is the way of all other “truths:” through some action, moral acts, cognitive enlightenment, etc., justify yourself. This is true today as it was at the time of writing because, as Solomon so rightly surmises, “There is nothing new under the Sun.”
- Call it whatever you will— any form of justice that is not rooted in repentance, faith, and forgiveness will instead be rooted in works and self-justification. Call it Social Justice— that doesn’t save because ultimately it seeks a moral creed and justice apart from God’s righteousness— one of tolerance towards things that God has called sinful (disobedience to governing authorities, homosexuality, theft, envy).
- Call it Conservativism— that doesn’t save because you are just as guilty before a holy and righteous God as the person striving for Social Justice.
- As Paul will show, there is only one gospel. That gospel brings you in alignment with God’s moral creeds. That alone will create justice as God has defined it (what is truly just and right and good). To do any more or less than such a code is to be in rebellion against God. You will either say, “God’s law isn’t truly good because he condemns what he shouldn’t condemn,” or you will say, “God’s law isn’t truly good because he doesn’t condemn what he should condemn.” Both statements are so blasphemous, that I tremble for the church or nation that adopts them (implicitly or explicitly).
Gal 1.8-9: “But if even we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one who received, let him be accursed.”
- Twice Paul repeats the same conditioned command, drawing attention to the importance of what he is saying. This isn’t an optional teaching.
- “If we or an angel… if anyone…” Just as this isn’t an optional teaching, Paul adds emphasis by the categories that this command pertains to. Easiest to see and address is the “if angels.” In the past, heresies and false religions have sprung from the alleged message of angels. Consider that both Mormons and Muslims argue for the veracity of their sacred revelations with the claim of angelic messengers.
- More prevalent today is a desire to experience the supernatural— to have a spiritual experience that is real. It seems necessary to say that even if an angel were to really be speaking to those who claim to have had such revelations, their message could only be received if and only if it aligned perfectly with what God has already revealed in Scripture. Any addition or alteration to the Word of God is, from this and other texts, heretical and satanic.
- As for any message that doesn’t contradict Scripture, why would God need to repeat himself when his word is already revealed, and his messengers already equipped? In short, he wouldn’t. At one time, there was no completed scriptures, and so God spoke through prophets and apostles. But the scriptures have been completed, and John (the last true apostle to be left alive, writes in the last book (Revelation 22.18-19), “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophesy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophesy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”
- In other words, To say that anything comes directly from God as a revelation is so heinous as to warrant the full wrath of God against all sin. It is to show yourself as a reprobate, an unbeliever who has no part in the kingdom.
- Maybe that sounds harsh, but compare what John warns to what he writes in 2 John 1.10-11, what Paul says in Galatians 1, what Jude says in his own epistle (Jude 3-16), or what Peter says in 2 Peter 2.17-22. In every one the statement is this element: those who spread false doctrines, false gospels, heresies, etc. are of such a nature as to be damned. We are not to have fellowship with them except if they repent and turn to the gospel through the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (see Saul’s conversion in a few weeks).
- Second most notable point that Paul makes is “if we.” A legacy of speaking the truth is not a credible excuse, if the teacher now blasphemes God and denies the essentials of the faith. The defense that, “they wrote a good book before,” or, “they preached this sermon and it was good,” are not defenses for what Paul writes here. The if-then clause says that if they preach a different gospel, then they are outside of the fellowship. What is a different gospel? Simply,
- A different God (denial of God, the trinity, Jesus’s divine and human natures, etc.).
- A denial of Scripture as the only authoritative text (you cannot claim to serve God and yet deny what he testifies about himself in his singular means of revelation).
- A denial of the divinely appointed means of salvation.
- To part from any of these is to be “outside of orthodoxy,” or more simply, “a heretic and nonbeliever.” Perhaps it is controversial, but it seems necessary to note that even historically famous figures like Martin Luther King Jr. were outside of orthodoxy (he famously questioned several critical elements of the faith, including the physical resurrection – see here and here – notably point 6 in the second link).
- Third and finally, “if anyone.” If your brother or sister speaks heresy, in truth and love rebuke them. Tolerance is tacit compliance with their false teaching which, if believed by an unbeliever, will not save. You will participate in ferrying that soul to hell, and well paid for by the approval of the world. The slogan “white silence is violence” is only true to the extent that we speak the truth. The truth— that message which alone is absolutely true— is that apart from repentance of sins and faith in Jesus as your substitutionary atonement— your propitiation— your redeemer— your Lord— you will suffer eternally under the just condemnation of a holy, righteous, and angry God, who will not allow the sinner to go unpunished.
Gal 1.10: “For am I now seeking the favor of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
- That is, after all, the context of Galatians and the whole Bible. C. S. Lewis puts it this way in The Great Divorce: “there is no alternative. There are only two kinds of people in the end. Either you will say to God, “thy will be done,” or God will ultimately say, “thy will be done.”” Paul, through the holy spirit, commands us to not compromise with those who distort the gospel, who preach any other way of salvation, who deny the trinity, the infallibility of the Word, the virgin birth, the deity and humanity of Jesus.
- First, then, we should know well the essentials of our God-given religion as laid out clearly in Scripture. That is our final authority in all things. We should not join in ministry to those outside of Christ’s church, no matter the cause. If they preach a different gospel, let them be accursed. Our message is not philanthropic, driven by unity, or any other reason to compel us to be joined with unbelievers or false teachers. Go and heal, serve and care for the needy and oppressed. But always go with the gospel on your lips.
- Second, do not submit to a false teacher. Alistair Begg is right in saying that nowhere in scripture are you commanded to remain in a church that denies the essentials of faith. Quite the opposite; you are called to stand for truth, and separate from other gospels that teach a righteousness through works. To put it quite bluntly, we have no communion with the Roman Catholic Church, with the Eastern Orthodox Church, or with the many progressive and seeker sensitive “movements,” which have forsaken the truth of God’s word for the praise of this world. As John writes, they have gone out from among us because they were not a part of us to begin with.
- Third and finally, never stop praying, reasoning with, and preaching to the lost around you. Yes of course show acts of generous mercy, but do not hold back the reason for the hope that is in you. Or are the sinners saved by your mercy ministries, or compelled by the righteousness which you do? No, but Paul says in Romans 10.14 that they do not believe him who they have not heard (Jesus), and they do not hear unless someone preaches, and someone doesn’t preach unless they are sent.