Grace - False Gospel Preachers and Those Who Reject Grace 1

"I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you [in] the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another...." (Galatians 1:6-7a)

"Woe to you [experts in the Mosaic law]! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52)

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."  (Matthew 23:13)

"For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."  (Jude 1:4)

There is a lot of talk going around about preachers preaching a false gospel.  To most of us, especially those of us who are interested in hearing and living the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24), a new covenant life is relatively new.  Because we've spent most of our lives studying the law covenant, we contend with our thinking--the renewing of our minds.  But a false gospel and the renewal of the mind of someone in Christ is nothing new.  It is, in fact, very old.  It is the very same issue with which Paul himself contended.

In the passage from Galatians above we read about a "different gospel" that Paul opposed.  While he says here that this "different gospel" is not a gospel at all, it follows that there must be a true gospel.  This tells us that we must be careful to find what both scripture and the apostle Paul inspired by Christ declare as the true gospel.
 

This is not always easy.  The passages in Luke and Matthew above bluntly reveal that Jesus accused the religious leaders of hindering people from entering into the Kingdom of heaven.  What is the Kingdom?  It is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit testifies to us that we have been adopted, that we are free from the law and alive in Christ, and that we have been sealed and are secure in Christ, never to be abandoned.  He reveals that we are righteous and holy, and this good news SHOULD produce peace and joy in us.  But some people resist this message vehemently.

My next email will discuss who these people are/were and how we as Christians who espouse the Gospel of Grace should respond to them.

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy