Justification by Faith Alone is Under Attack
This post is particularly long. To help I have recorded a podcast of this. You can listen if that would be easier. https://soundcloud.com/mike-sprott/a-response-to-the-false-gospel-today
The Gospel Under Attack
The Gospel is so profound yet simple. However, today a subtle attack is being perpetrated by the enemy. The devil has devised a great deception in the churches across America. He has begun to divide us over gender, culture and ethnicity. And at its core is a rejection of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We must all stand against this distortion of the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul
The apostle Paul had brought the Gospel to the Galatians many years ago. Paul, a devout Jew and Pharisee, had been redeemed from His church-persecuting, self-righteous Pharisaical system. He had been given the message that all that he had thought about his Jewish identity and his religious works were nothing but filthy rags, and that his self-righteousness had actually caused him to oppose the very God he said he was serving. Paul was a man who was dead in sin and yet blind to his horrific condition. All of this until that day when the Lord Jesus confronted Paul with his sin and his opposition to Jesus, as Paul sought to arrest and kill the believers in Jesus (Acts 9). But it was here that God saved Paul. He showed Paul that he was a sinner, that Jesus had come to die to pay for his sin, and that Jesus had risen from the dead to give Paul life. Paul repented and believed in Jesus, and then God did an amazing thing: God Himself took up residence in the soul of the previous persecutor. The Spirit of God indwelled the delivered sinner.
The murderer became the saint. The persecutor became the apostle. The Jewish Pharisee became the humble slave of the Lord Jesus. Paul’s whole identity changed. He went from a child of wrath to a child of God, who cried out, “Abba Father.” Paul understood the hope of the Gospel. He knew his salvation was not based on anything he had done. He knew he was not worthy of this great grace. In fact, he considered himself the foremost of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). BUT God had saved Paul. And this hope of the Gospel motivated Paul to seek the lost.
The Apostle's Ministry
There was a twist. See, the Pharisee who would have taken so much pride in his Jewishness previously was called to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. He was called to bring this message of hope to people he would have previously considered the unclean and uncircumcised pagans. Paul, the clean one, had realized he was not the clean one by anything he had done or by his identity as a physical descendant of Abraham. He knew that God had saved him not on the basis of works or physical identity (Ephesians 2). God saves BASED on one thing, GOD’s sovereign free will choice (Romans 9). God is the Sovereign over His elect. And God in His wonderful grace had divinely chosen to save Paul even though he was the least worthy of salvation on the entire planet.
This grace was part of the reason Paul was the perfect one to take the Gospel to the pagan Gentiles. They were the far-off people, but God was not partial. God in His grace had ordained for a people, who were not His people, to be called His people (1 Peter 2). BUT they would become His people not on the basis of their nationality, their gender, their race or their self-righteous religious deeds. God was going to use Paul, the least of the saints, to save people, who were furthest from God. WHY? For God’s glory alone!
So the apostle Paul set out to go to the nations. He went from city to city through areas that were full of pagan God-hating people. It was there he sacrificially laid down his life consistently day after day and night after night. Offering hope to all people (to the Jew first and then the Gentile). Spreading the good news that through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ a person could be saved and declared right with God. Sinners could become saints. Children of wrath could become adopted children of God.
By God’s grace there were people in most of the cities Paul visited that were God’s elect. God began to use Paul to plant churches with groups of believers in all these areas. Gentiles and Jewish people together all believing in Jesus alone to save them. The churches included all kind of people: Jews and Gentiles, males and females, slaves and masters, young and old, former murderers, former idolaters, former adulterers and former homosexuals. God was delivering people from their bondage to sin. He was doing this by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
The Enemy's Evil Plan
BUT the enemy of God was not happy with this turn of events. He was losing his people that he ruled over. The enemy saw that Paul, who he had previously controlled, was now helping to deliver people from their bondage to sin. God was being glorified in the sinners who were repenting. “What can I do?” thought Satan.
These people are not taking pride in themselves and their own accomplishments anymore. They are humbly serving the Lord in any and every role that God had ordained for them to serve. They are no longer fighting and bickering over their human identities. They are all unified with one mind and one voice. They all worship God together and seek to submit to the Word of God alone not their worldly philosophical systems. They are exalting Jesus and Him crucified not themselves.
Then the enemy hatched a plan. It was diabolical. It was so wicked the demons shuddered. “I will infiltrate the church with people who profess faith in Christ but are in fact opposed to God. I have them because they are mine, not the elect of God; so I will use them to deceive the people of God.” The enemy’s people were subtly planted in the church. Did they even know they were the enemy’s own? Only God and His hosts knew.
The enemies within were so subtle in their deception. Their words were sprinkled with truth. They affirmed truths about Word of God. They came and professed a desire for purity and holiness. They spoke of helping the hurting and feeding the needy. They gave lip service to the leadership. They even studied the Word to be able to teach others. BUT deep within their hearts was a deceptive rejection of God. See they put stock in their identities. They saw themselves as the real chosen ones. Their pride was more in their ethnic identity than in Jesus Christ. Paul had taught the church their hope was in Christ alone, but the deceivers began to say, “It is Jesus PLUS you, that makes us great.” This deception spread widely through the church when the apostle had moved on to spread hope to other cities.
Before long the church was in a quandary. Many said, “Jesus was their hope.” But others said, “No, it’s Jesus plus you that is your salvation.” Then the deception took root. People began to abandon the very hope that had saved them from sin and death. They began to put confidence in their own flesh. They said, “It is because of me that I am saved. I am special. See, I am the worthy one!”
The Apostle's Response
It was at this time, word got to the apostle Paul of the confidence in the flesh that many had embraced. They had abandoned the very Gospel of hope that Paul had proclaimed to them. They were now seeking to be righteous by works. What they had started by faith they were now seeking to do by religious works (Galatians 3&4). Their confidence was now in the flesh, not in the finished work of Christ. Therefore, Paul wrote them the letter to the Galatians, and it stands forever as God’s holy word on this heresy.
The letter was bold and direct. It didn’t leave any room for a discussion or a dialogue about some kind of compromise. Paul said with confidence, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the Grace of Christ, for a different gospel … You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?” (Galatians 1:6; 3:1). Paul’s confrontation was stern and unbending. It condemned those who had sought to deceive the sheep from the hope of the Gospel. In his letter, Paul stated that those who put confidence in their religious works or identity are in fact worthy of death and condemnation forever. The letter pointed out the fallacy of putting confidence in one’s religious works. He rehearsed once again the Gospel of grace. He clearly announced that in Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, male or female, slave or free man (Galatians 3:28). Our salvation, beloved, is not found in our gender, our ethnicity or our status on earth. Salvation is found in Christ alone and to say the opposite is a false Gospel to be condemned.
How Galatians Applies Today
So, 2000 years later as I was meditating on this amazing letter from God, I thought to myself, “It is all happening again!” The enemy is doing the same diabolical thing again. He is sowing discord and deception into the church. God’s people are being deceived by a “new” false gospel. A gospel that is not really a gospel. It is here that I say, and it is with sadness in my heart, that even some of those I thought were so strong in the Gospel have now abandoned the hope of the Gospel for a false gospel.
Who are they? What is their message? They are men and women. They are people of every tribe, nation and people. They have begun to make salvation about their identity and their own virtue. It is so subtle, BUT it’s wrong and from the pit of hell. Mixed with their lies is some truth. It is so grieving because, instead of the joy of knowing Christ resurrected and sin forgiven, it is now, “I am worthy of salvation because of WHO I AM!” This is a lie from the devil and it must be rejected.
Friends, our identity, our experiences, our mistreatment, our bank account, our gender, our ethnicity, our fleshly desires DO NOT determine our status with God. In our world today, the believers in Jesus are not being told, “You must get circumcised” or “You must keep the sabbath to be right with God.” They aren’t being told that they must keep the Mosaic Law to be right with God. Instead, they are being told, “You must acknowledge that you are a part of an evil system.” “You must be more tolerant of a person’s sexual identity.” “You should signal your own virtue in public for all to see.” “You must realize your worth as a woman.” All of these ‘good deeds’ are just another false religious works system. This is a false Gospel. The evil one and his world started this lie and now its crept into the church (2 Cor. 4:4).
Friends, salvation is based on repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone. We are all sinners: male and female, rich and poor, healthy and ill, strong and weak, black, white, yellow and brown. Jesus didn’t come into the world to save us because of our ethnicity, gender, or social status. He came into the world to save us from our sin because we all are sinners in need of a Savior. AND salvation is not found in self-worth or self-determination or self-virtue. It is found when we become like little children (Matthew 18:3). When we humbly cry out, “I am unworthy, I am a sinner. Please save me!” (Luke 18:13-14)
If salvation was based on race, Jesus would have had to come to earth as man several times for every race! He would have had to come and die thousands of times for every tribe, tongue and people. If salvation was based on gender, Jesus would have had to come to earth as a male and a female to die for each gender. BUT Jesus came ONCE for all. And no, it was not to die for all! It was to die for His own. Those whom He chose before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Those who were a select gracious choice from all of the world. The vast majority of people don’t find this way of salvation in Christ because few are chosen (Matthew 7:13). However, yes, there are many who believe: male and female, rich and poor, healthy and sick, single and married, and from every tribe, tongue and people. Jesus didn’t come for the worthy ones from those groups. He came for the wretched ones. He came for the repentant ones. He came for the humble ones. He came for the ones whom He would call. He came for the ones who would acknowledge they deserve nothing but God’s wrath. He came for the ones who believed in HIM alone. He came for His own.
The enemy is sowing discord and division in the church again today. It is all over another “Gospel”, which is not the true Gospel. God did not come to liberate us from earthly pains (not now at least)! God came to deliver us from sin and the wrath we deserve. We must recognize that God didn’t take us out of this world immediately at conversion for a reason. See God saves the woman in a lost home so she can be witness to her lost family (1 Peter 3:1-6). God saves the slave in a lost work and living environment so that he can be witness to his lost master (1 Peter 2:18-20). God saves us in a lost country under lost leaders so we can be a witness to these lost leaders (1 Peter 2:13-17). God didn’t take us out of these oppressive circumstances. He didn’t liberate us from earthly problems. He saved us in this sin cursed world, so that He could receive glory from all people everywhere (1 Peter 2:11-12). We are saved aliens in this world!
The Savior's Example
Think about the time our Lord came into the world (1 Peter 2:21-25). Think about the circumstances He came to. Couldn’t He have picked a better time in the history of Israel to enter the world? He didn’t come when electricity was around. He didn’t come when His message could be spread around the world in seconds through the internet. He didn’t come when prosperity was reigning. He also didn’t come to a wealthy family. In fact, His conditions made Him a marked man by everyone until His death on a cross. His own people hated him. The government hated him. His own family and home town hated him. His closest friends denied Him. One of His closest followers betrayed Him. And then, He was hung on a cross and His own Father judged Him for other people’s sin! This is far from a “best life now” situation for the Messiah.
Some Caveats
Here I must add some important caveats because I am sure I will be misunderstood and misrepresented if not. Women are amazing and they are truly a gift from God. They are image bearers along with men (Genesis 1:27). As I woke next to my wife early this morning, I was brought to tears in gratitude to God for my help meet that my Father gave me. She is the single most loving and compassionate person I have met in this world. She is gentle and kind, and there is no one in this world I would want to raise my children with other than her. Women are a gift to men. She is my compliment in every way. But Brenda is a sinner, just like I am a sinner. I would argue I am a bigger sinner, but the fact is, she and I both deserve God’s eternal wrath forever in Hell. We were born sinners and we would have died lost forever, if not for the amazing grace of God. But God saved us by grace through faith in Christ alone. AND our worth is primarily in WHO Christ is and Who we are in Him, not in our gender! At the same time, we don’t stop being who God made us in our flesh. She is a woman made by God to be a woman. I am a man made by God to be a man.
At the same time, I am also a Caucasian man. I am a descendant of slave owners. I am in a long line of people on both sides who were white Anglo Saxons. BUT this means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING when it comes to my own personal salvation. Whether my forefathers are in heaven is based entirely on the Sovereign choice of God and to be honest, I am clueless of many of their eternal destinies. But I am not saved because of my ethnicity or my heritage or how well I signal my virtue over my forefathers. My brothers and sisters in the faith are of many different tribes, tongues and people. I have cried with them, prayed with them, rejoiced with them and worshipped with them for years now. I consider them more my family than much of my earthly family. We are united forever together in eternity not because of our color or our culture or even our country. We are united together forever because we are sinners saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We are in Christ not because of our worth but because of HIS Worth. Many of them will be the greatest in heaven, not because of their skin color or their economic status. They will be the greatest because they made little of themselves and much of others (Matthew 18:5-6)!
Final Warnings
In conclusion, the enemy has hatched another great deception in the churches across America. He has begun to divide us over gender, culture and ethnicity. He has done it by introducing a new “gospel,” which is a false gospel. It is peddled by those who take pride in themselves and boast in the flesh. We must not fall for this deception! We are all sinners by birth and saints by rebirth, if indeed we have been born of God. We are adopted children by grace not by our works or our identities in the flesh. We must come together for the true Gospel; not come together for human exalting philosophies of the world. We must repent of virtue signaling. We must take up our crosses and follow our Savior who came into the world to die for repentant sinners. Please friends, do not be deceived by the serpent. Don’t be led away from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ (2 Cor. 11:3).
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