Which is really no gospel at all

“which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” (Galatians 1:7)

 

The fact that person’s soul is in decomposed state is same without change in the past and present. It would be because of a phenomenon originated just from the larger numbers of population than before that we say people are more worse these days. And some think that Christian people are nicer than others, but it would be because of a feel showing only on the outside. The reason why Bible says Paul the apostle great is because he knew how to look at the inner of oneself deeply. He understood what the true gospel was. Moreover he put himself in practice what a proper life should be like for the gospel, and demanded also to do it to Galatians.

 

Paul was called an apostle through permit of God, who made achieve the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After then his heart was filled with the grace and peace of Jesus Christ. And he always wished to share the fellowship of faith with his brothers in Jesus. So he showed an attitude of glorifying God in all the life, thanking God given to himself the salvation of grace. There are included those things inside of the greetings Paul did to Galatians the members. Though it could be usually said doctrinal things in the saying hello, furthermore Paul had a special reason to say certainly so now to them. In the church of Galatians, there were those who give wrong teaching that salvation can be achieved through the deeds by Judaism, so Paul had been wary members not to receive such the fault. This Book, the Epistle to Galatians, eventually represent the theme of liberation from the law of Judaism. The present Christians’ faith appears quite similar in some ways to that of Galatians at that time.

There’s not any other complete belief except believing in Jesus at all, that is, the most complete belief in life is only to believe in Jesus. As long as without the belief in Jesus, people’s thoughts and lives won’t be able to escape from corruption fundamentally. If whatever hasn’t a definite standard, there could be produced a lot of wrong theory and speculation. As we know, there is a saying, ‘Mu-ju-gong-san’ in Korean. This word means an abandoned mountain without its owner, meaning that there is no owner, so anyone can take and use it as one wants. There was no law of normal regularity under anarchy before, so if anyone occupies something first by force, he could become a master or even a king. And when a person in power sets up a law and enforces it, a new order of society was created accordingly. Even now, undeveloped industries of untapped regions or countries may be utilized by somebodies’ hands as if a material of real estate without owner in terms of economy and technology. Like that, it is a general principle in the world society to have the authority as the owner if anyone achieves a successful result by researching, developing, and implement of something ahead of other people. But it is impossible for that principle to be applied to the relationship between God and man. Because man as God’s creature cannot control the power of God or the sovereignty of God by own will. For the related to this, there is one important thing people often misunderstand about the achievement of praying. It is desirable to have a belief within God that prayer will make everything come true, but we should not regard everything will be accomplished without fail by one’s own will. The result of prayer is get only in accordance with God’s will. Jesus on the hill Gethsemane prayed this, ahead of Crucifixion, Luke 22:42, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Paul made it clear that there is no another gospel at all. What others had taught Galatians, was not a pure gospel, but something wrong else. Here the true gospel Paul said means the good news that Christ bore the cross instead of man for Redemption according to the will of God the Father, and resurrected. To people, that’s a good news of eternal pleasure. He who has this gospel could anytime live in full joy. However, we can often see too many cases that church members lead wrong their life with a faith of contradiction. They are people imbued with wrong ideas, as followers of ‘a strange gospel’ which is not the true gospel. Therefore people called so-called good preachers and their followers need to be careful by themselves not to be under a situation of risk.

 

Really a good preacher is a person who delivers Jesus Christ according to the teachings of the Bible. A sermon, which focuses on self-thought and experience, is a wrong preaching, as it is different to Christ’s gospel. Even if he speaks well like an angel or shows practice of great ability to bring a fire of the sky, he is nothing but a liar to be cursed. The right preacher tries not to go with man’s taste, but only sincerely to convey Jesus of the Bible in order to please God.

 

(Written by Koonoh, Pastor of JDO Presbyterian Church in Korea, on Dec 27th 2020)