Meditation for Monday
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. Galatians 1:8
Accursed? That’s pretty harsh, isn’t it, Paul? The apostle must have been pretty serious about it, because he repeats the same expression – let him be accursed – in the very next verse. And when somebody like the apostle Paul calls down a dire curse from God on somebody, that somebody is in deep trouble! But it makes sense when we think about it. Nothing is more important in this entire world than the message of the Gospel. God poured out His love and compassion toward fallen sinners to such an extend that He gave His only begotten Son for us. God directed the entire of Heaven’s resources to provide this glorious message, and to make it available to all of humanity, and somebody comes along with a different message. Of course God doesn’t like that! It couldn’t be a better message, because only the Gospel directs sinners to salvation. In fact, if it’s a different message, it must direct people away from God’s salvation. Amen! Let such a false messenger be accursed!
That means there is a curse on the cult member who knocks on your door with a different message, even if he says it came from a revelation from an angel. There is also a curse on the legalist who says we must follow the law to be saved, even though by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in God’s sight (Romans 3:20). There is surely a curse on the revivalist who proclaims that salvation is by the saying of prayers or the making of a public commitment to Jesus, or giving Him your heart, a heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked. And there is a curse on the modernist who talks about social movements, ecumenical involvement, and who rejects the concepts of sin and judgment, and who falls prey to the lies of evolution. This all sounds like there are vast numbers of people who are under the curse of God for their false gospels. And so there are. Let us not be among them.
Some Christians look the other way, or even condone, the messages that differ from God’s clear Gospel proclamation. But the Bible is not the least bit uncertain on what the Gospel message is. Hearken to the words of the apostle Paul: ‘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’ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
Paul’s message is to cleave to the message that we received from the Word of God. Because there is a curse if we ever turn to anything else. -Jim MacIntosh