Beware of a Different Gospel

“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, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if 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 you received, let him be accursed.”

Galatians 1:6-9

When I originally sat down to write this blog, I felt a strong urge to pause—and study Galatians. I’d encourage you to do the same. [1]

At the very beginning of his letter to the churches in Galatia, Paul offers his usual greeting...but with a punch. Almost immediately, he anchors everything in the gospel:

1. Christ was raised from the dead (v.1)

2. He gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God the Father (v.4)

There’s urgency in Paul’s words—and with good reason. People were abandoning the gospel of grace and turning to something else. Not that there is another gospel, but there were some who twisted the message, preaching a gospel that added to grace.

Instead of grace, a major theme in this letter, they preached legalism. Instead of justification by faith alone, they taught Christ plus—specifically, Christ plus circumcision.

Today, circumcision may not be the distortion you're hearing through the grapevine, but let me ask you this: 

If you were to hear a different gospel, would you know it?

When the gospel—and the grace of our Lord Jesus—is not central, it’s not a minor issue. Nor is it something we can agree to disagree on. For Paul, it’s everything, and it should be for us too.

If our hope of being justified, or made right with God, rests in our ability to keep any law, do any good deed, or perform any sign, then we’re standing on the same shaky ground the Galatians were.

[Disclaimer: I am not saying that works will not follow genuine faith, nor that fruit—evidence of saving faith—should not be seen in a believer’s life. What I am saying is that these are not prerequisites for salvation, nor are they what justify us.]

“Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

Galatians 2:16

‘Let me ask you—when you first got saved, did you earn it? Or did you believe (Galatians 3:1–2)?’

Apart from Christ, we can’t keep the law. That wasn’t its purpose. The law was given as a guardian—a tutor—to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). It revealed sin (Romans 3:20) until the promised Seed, the Son of God, came. He was born under the law to redeem those under the law from its curse, death (Galatians 4:4–5). He died and was raised so that we, too, could die to the flesh and be raised to new life (Galatians 2:19–20).

We were saved to be free. Free to walk out our faith in love (Galatians 5:1–6). Not to use it as an opportunity for the flesh, as some (Galatians 5:13), nor to return to rigid rules and legalism that never had the power to justify us in the first place.

We need to be careful not to fall into either of those traps:

• One leads us back to slavery to sin.

• The other leads us into bondage to the law.

So, How Do We Safeguard Ourselves from These Distortions?

1. Hold firm to the gospel.

We’ve been saved by grace in Christ alone. There’s nothing to be added. It’s not Christ plus anything. And that truth is freeing—because if nothing I do can earn my salvation, then in Christ, nothing I do can lose it.

2. Walk by the Spirit.

In our flesh, we are slaves to sin. But through faith and the Spirit, we’ve been set free to live for God. This freedom enables us to bear fruit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—all of which align with God’s law (Galatians 5:22–23). We are also free to do good works, not to be justified, but because we already have been.

So, friends, let me leave you with this:

“When Christianity becomes an institution of man’s rules and man’s power over his fellow man, it’s not Christianity at all. And it will quickly deteriorate into joyless, loveless rules, rituals, and religion. But when Christianity is God’s people serving God and serving others in love—according to God’s rule and God’s gospel found in God’s word—then it is the genuine article. And by its very nature, it overflows with grace. The antidote for dead religion is grace.”

For Further Study:

[1] Check out "Galatians | Real Grace. Real Freedom. Real Jesus." on Through the Word