The Galatian church, started by Paul, was being infiltrated by people who opposed the gospel that Paul preached. It was a serious enough problem for the Apostle to write a stern letter to them refuting the false gospel these infiltrators were preaching. After the customary salutation, Paul gets straight down to business. He is astonished that the Galatians are deserting Jesus, the one who called them into fellowship with God. They are listening to a different gospel, and therefore hearing about a false Christ preached by false teachers and false prophets.
There is a Jesus being preached in our own time in many places,
but he is not the Christ of Scripture, the one who Paul preached. This Jesus is
soft where Scripture presents him as strong, affirming where Scripture reveals him
as holy, and permissive where Scripture declares him sovereign. This Jesus is
not the Lion of Judah who treads the winepress of God’s holy and righteous wrath,
but a tame housecat who purrs affirmations and offers life tips. He is another
Jesus, crafted in the image of today’s culture, approved by the world, and safe
for the unrepentant to follow. This is the gospel of the age. And it is not the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Jesus of today’s culture is a man-made messiah who doesn’t
offend, doesn’t command, doesn’t save by grace alone, doesn’t demand
repentance, and doesn’t rule as Lord but waits politely for permission to enter
your heart. This Jesus doesn’t call sinners to die to themselves, he just helps
them feel better about living in sin. This Jesus doesn’t wield the sword of
uncompromising truth; he waves a white flag. And multitudes flock to him. Why?
Because he offers salvation without submission, grace without godliness, and
heaven without holiness.
But this is not the Christ who walked into the Jerusalem temple
with a whip and drove out those who were corrupting his Father’s house of
prayer (John 2:15). This is not the Christ who said, whoever does not bear
his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27). This is
not the Christ who warned, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish
(Luke 13:3). The real Jesus, who Paul preached and to whom Scripture testifies,
is not a passive helper but the "King of kings" who commands every
sinner to repent and believe (Acts 17:30).
Paul warned the Galatians with these sober words: 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 (Galatians 1:8). This generation needs
to hear that same warning, because the gospel being preached today in many places
is another gospel, designed to comfort the unregenerate, entertain the
lukewarm, and deceive the undiscerning.
This other gospel is the gospel of self, not the gospel of
Christ. It says God wants you to be happy, not God calls you to be holy. It
offers your best life now, instead of eternal life through the cross. It
invites you to accept Jesus, but never tells you to repent and believe. It
leaves people unchanged, unregenerate, and unsaved, yet convinced they’re
Christian because they want Christianity on their own terms and not the costly
discipleship way of following Jesus that is demanded of them. St Paul put it
well when he wrotes to Timothy, for the time is coming when people will not
endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves
teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth
and wander off into myths (2 Tim 4).
Jesus warned his listeners in Matthew 7:22: Many will say
to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, in your name did we not prophesy?’ But I will
declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me.’ Do you not see the awfulness
of that? Many, not a few, will stand before him expecting eternal life and be
cast out instead. Not because they never heard of Jesus, but because they were
gaslighted into believing in the wrong one. They never knew the real Jesus
because no one preached Him. We must preach Christ crucified, not as the world
paints Him, but as the Word proclaims Him.
The thing is, God is indeed love (1 John 4), and God so
loved the world (John 3), and Jesus said come to me all who are heavy laden and
I will give you rest (Matthew 11.28). No doubt about that, the message of hope
and new life in Christ is clear. But on the other hand, the message is also
clear that God’s love, expressed ultimately on the cross, does not come cheap.
And those who cheapen it by accepting a false gospel, a tame gospel, are
rejecting God by throwing his costly love back in his face because they want it
on their own terms.
There is a poem called Indifference (When Jesus came to our town)
by Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy, which I think eloquently makes the point, and
very applicable to our day.
When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged him on
a tree;
They drove great nails through hands and feet
and made a Calvary.
They crowned him with a crown of thorns; red
were his wounds and deep.
For those were crude and cruel days,
And human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to our town, they simply
passed him by;
They would not hurt a hair of him; they only
let him die.
For men had grown more tender and they would
not give him pain;
They just passed down the street and left him
in the rain.
Still Jesus cried 'Forgive them for they know
not what they do!'
And still it rained the wintery rain that
drenched him through and through.
The crowds went home and left the streets
without a soul to see.
And Jesus crouched against the wall,
And cried for Calvary.
Come home to God now. Be the prodigal son or daughter now
and return to your heavenly father’s house in penitence and in faith. Christ
died for you to set you free from slavery to worldly sins. God’s costly love
was given for you through death on a cross. God himself has paid your debt to
sin so that you can come to him and be one with him. And with that comes the
demand for repentance, the call to costly discipleship, and the obedience of
following him as lord, master, and saviour.
Acknowledge Kathryn Walter from Electa Gratia for some of
the material used in this sermon.
Philip Starks
Published under Creative
Commons Copyright Licence
