by Jacob Ninan
Serious Christians will agree that there are many disturbing problems which the universal church is facing. We cannot say that the church we see now is what Jesus wants it to be (Eph.3:10). Instead of being this challenging example to the world, the church is losing relevance and impact. Those who love the Lord and want to value Him above everything else are becoming few. Young people are deserting the church in large numbers, and old church buildings are being sold for lack of attendees. Of course, many of the problems that are troubling local churches are due to interpersonal difficulties. These are to be expected, because the church consists of us imperfect people! But what is more serious is that there are some root level problems that have crept in, with respect to the teaching of the church and its direction. As a result, the Lord's expectations from His church are not being met. Also the benefit that the Lord has planned for individuals and families does not reach them, and the impact of the church on society and mankind in general is diminished or distorted.
There are many types of challenges that the church is facing, but think about what happens if the Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ brought to this world, for which He gave His own life, is modified or replaced by other so-called gospels! These other gospels seem to offer some attractions, and that is why people are drawn to them. They give an appearance that makes people believe that they are true, but they misapply words from the Bible or take them out of context, resulting in outcomes that God did not intend at all. If we think that these false gospels are modern entries to the scene, we will be surprised to note that the apostle Paul himself burned with fury towards people who brought forth deviations from the true Gospel in his day. His fury was such that he wished to place God's curse on them who brought out false gospels (Gal.1:6-9). What we need to understand is that these false gospels are not harmless variations which we can ignore, but dangerous and poisonous ways by which Satan is trying to lead God's people away from His truth. What we stand to lose are eternal benefits which God has prepared for us at the cost of great sacrifice.
The other problem is that a lack of understanding of the corruption of the Gospel not only brings in wrong teachings and practices in the church, but also allows bringing people into leadership who should not be there. We can imagine the kind of problems this will raise.
There are so many false gospels and variations from the truth around us that we need to make efforts to define clearly what the true Gospel is. Wrong teachings spread in such devious ways that most of us would have become exposed to some of them, and it is possible that we may not recognise some of them as being wrong because they have become very common. Just think that Adam and Eve were highly intelligent without any of the blemishes we have now because of sin, when they were deceived by Satan! But they were not able to see through Satan's schemes! Please bear with me as I try to explain this as clearly as I can. Even if you feel you know the Gospel clearly, don't skip this part because we need this with which to compare false gospels. If we know the special features of the original currency note, that makes it easier for us to identify the counterfeits.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
We know that after God completed the creation of all things, finishing with the creation of man, He felt that everything was very good (Gen.1:31). The special thing about mankind that distinguished us from the rest of creation was that God had created us in His likeness (Gen.1:27). This meant not that we are gods, but that we have special God-like abilities that none of the animals have, in order to enable us to communicate with God and to enjoy fellowship with Him.Adam and Eve were innocent when they were created, because they had not had any opportunity so far to choose wrong. But they had the ability to make choices, and that was how God tested them by giving the choice between the fruit of two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Let us try to get some insight into what really happened when Satan tempted Eve and when she fell.
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Indeed, has God said, "You shall not eat from any tree of the garden"?' The woman said to the serpent, 'From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die."' The serpent said to the woman, 'You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate" (Gen.3:1-6). First, Satan tried to cast doubts into Eve's mind whether God had really forbidden eating from any tree. His next step was to make her think that God did not really mean that they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit, because God's real motive was to prevent them from becoming like Him! What finally convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit was that unlike a fruit that would cause her to die as God had warned, it would make her like God, knowing good and evil. She thought that that was a good thing.
Eve was unable to see through Satan's guile in misleading her to think that disobeying God would actually help her to become like God! In believing Satan telling her that she would not die even if she disobeyed God, she did not understand what that death would mean. In reality, Adam and Eve's disobedience to God resulted in their 'death' in that they got eternally separated from God. They lost their fellowship which they had been enjoying, and they became scared of God and ashamed of themselves to meet Him. What they did not anticipate was that getting the knowledge of good and evil for themselves apart from a relationship with God was in fact a declaration of independence from Him. Further, they did not realise that when they chose to disobey God and obey Satan, they were choosing Satan's rule over them instead of God's. Another major thing that happened was that the dominion over the earth which God had offered them, they had now handed over to Satan (Gen.1:26). Now Satan became the ruler of this world (Jn.14:30). This was the reason why Satan was able to offer the world to Jesus if only He worshipped him (Matt.4:8,9).
All of us who are born as descendents of Adam and Eve are born in this condition of separation from God. Our human spirit which was intended to be able to communicate with God is now born spiritually dead. We inherit a sinful nature from birth which shows itself from early childhood when we naturally begin to fight, steal, tell lies, etc., without anyone teaching us. God cursed the whole earth on the day Adam sinned, and so now our life here on earth is a struggle in many ways (Gen.3:17). So we see that the cause of all the problems that we face in this life is sin. We suffer not only when we sin personally, but sometimes also when people sin against us, and we also suffer from the indirect results of people's sins through the years, such as 'natural' calamities, diseases, climate change, pollution, etc.
God had anticipated even before He started creation that because of the free will with which man was going to be created he might end up disobeying Him and sinning against Him. So God made a plan for our salvation through His Son Jesus even before He began creation (1Pet.1:20). When man sinned, God immediately announced to Satan that one day the Saviour of mankind would crush his head (Gen.3:15).
The main reason why the Son of God took the form of our flesh was to deal with sin, which is at the root of all our problems. That is why He took the name 'Jesus' which means Yeshua or 'Yahweh saves' (Matt.1:21). Obviously, we need to be saved not only from the guilt of our sins, but also from the power of sin in our flesh that prompts us to continue sinning (1Jn.2:1). It must be clear to us now that if our salvation does not deal with the problem of sin, it will miss the root of our problem. So, any gospel that does not focus on salvation from sin is a diversion, and will not accomplish what Jesus died to prepare for us.
How shall we receive salvation?
The Bible tells us that there are three phases of salvation that we can experience. The first stage is called by theologians as justification, which God gives to us instantaneously when we go to Him in repentance and faith. He forgives our sins, washes away the record of our sins with the blood of Jesus, credits the righteousness of Jesus to us in place of our sins which Jesus bore, adopts us as His children and gives us free access into His presence. He also gives us a new heart that hates sin and does not want to sin any more, but wants to obey our Father in everything (Ezek.36:26,27). The second part of salvation is called sanctification through which we are set apart for God, increasingly set free from the power of sin in daily life and moulded into His character. This work is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in which we need to cooperate. The final transformation takes place in a process called glorification when we stand before God in eternity. We will be given a 'glorified body' just like the one Jesus had after His resurrection, and then there will be no more presence of sin or its results such as temptation, pain, sorrow, sickness, etc.It is very important for us to understand that Adam and Eve lost their relationship with God when they made a decision to overrule His command and instruction, to disobey Him. They did this to choose their independence from Him so that they would be in control of their lives and they could do what they liked. If we want a salvation that will restore us to God, there must come a reversal in our life from all these moves. That is what repentance means, to turn back from living our own lives where we were doing our own things, to turn to submit to God's commands and instructions, and to stop sinning as we used to do before.
But we can't do this by ourselves, without Jesus. It is when we hear the Gospel of Jesus that He has given His life to make atonement for our past sins that we begin to get a hope that there can be a new start for us. Then we turn to Jesus, confess our sins to Him, receive His forgiveness and decide to obey Him from then onwards in every part of our life. That is when salvation begins in our life. We must see here that repentance and faith in Jesus are inseparably joined together, and we cannot ignore the need for repentance when we think we believe.
What happens many times is that people do not hear a clear presentation of the Gospel, but only parts of it, along with varying levels of distortion. Unfortunately many get stuck with those distortions. What we need to do is to constantly learn from the scriptures, and then correct the errors we may have absorbed earlier. Once we understand the totality of salvation and what it means, then we can also see that different verses in the Bible that pertain to salvation must be looked at together in the light of this understanding. Different verses must not be taken in isolation and assumed to be stand-alone truths. For example, when verses mention only faith, we must remember that repentance cannot therefore be ignored, and when verses talk about repentance we must not separate it from faith and think that it is connected with 'works'!
I am also reminded to say that our response to salvation begins with our choice, when we are convicted of our sins and hear the good news of salvation through Jesus. A most foolish thing would be to assume that God has already chosen whom He is going to save and He will save them irrespective of their choices!
Some false gospels
I am not addressing here other religions or Christian cults that offer their own version of what they claim to be good news. But my concern here is about different ways in which the genuine Gospel is distorted by people and still assumed to be true. Usually this happens when someone takes some verses or passages from the Bible and start interpreting them without reference to other parts of the Bible. One reason why some preachers do not preach the whole Gospel is that in order to include more people into the kingdom of God they widen the narrow gate or lower the walls. Others want more number of people in their church and they want to somehow draw more people in and avoid people getting offended. Still others are looking for popularity. Because what they say seems to align with the Bible verses they quote, people get misled into thinking that they must be right. I would just like to point out some of the most common distortions of the Gospel for you to avoid, without going into detail here discussing each one.Just believe
Talking about sin and repentance can be offensive to many people. So the preachers emphasise believing and faith. Believing is taught many times as merely accepting certain facts about Jesus, agreeing to a few statements and showing their assent in some way. We can see that this makes it very easy for people, who do not have to acknowledge their sins or give them up, and their life can go on as before they 'accepted' Jesus! Now they are told that Jesus is on their side to bless them and He will take care of them. Have they come into salvation at all? Yet they are assured that now they are children of God and 'in Christ'.All your problems will be solved
Without helping people to see themselves as sinners who come under the wrath of God, people are taught about the love of God for them, and His grace as an unmerited favour towards them. Their reason for coming to Jesus is the promise that now He will take care of them. All they need to do whenever they face any problem is to pray and ask God to deal miraculously with those problems. These preachers know only about telling people to fast and pray, and nothing about dealing with the sin or foolishness that caused those problems, or repenting and learning to walk faithfully with Jesus in the future. Are these people getting saved?God will give you health and wealth
When these preachers talk about salvation, their focus is on removing the consequences of sin such as sickness and poverty rather than dealing with the individual's sins and his relationship with God. Even though God does occasionally heal people as a sign and wonder even in these days, there is no blanket promise in the Bible that we can be totally healthy and without sickness, or that any time we are sick we can claim miraculous healing. Sickness and poverty are going to be taken away only in eternity, but many are drawn to this false gospel offering freedom right now. Again what is missing is the presentation of the true Gospel.Leave everything into God's hands
We have seen how we ought to cooperate with the Holy Spirit when He wants to sanctify us entirely in our body, mind and spirit. But this variation of the Gospel presents trusting God to do all of our sanctification entirely from His side. This too sounds attractive, especially for those who have experienced the difficulty of saying no to temptations. But God's goal of giving us victory over sin requires us to deny ourselves in order to follow the way of Jesus. It is in this way that we exercise our will to choose God instead of our desires.We are gods
People are taught that when they become children of God, they actually become like God with some measure of His powers. They actually think that they have become 'gods' with a small 'g'. Now they begin to act like God, thinking that they can declare things into happening, transfer 'life' into dead situations by speaking words, etc. Now, instead of requesting God to do things for them, they think that they can make things happen by 'faith'. This heretical teaching has found its way very subtly into many churches and Christians, so much so that it is being taken as a normal part of their faith and life. But we are not gods, but only created beings!We must regain the world
God's original intention for man was to rule over all the world and everything in it. But now, after man has sinned, Satan is the ruler of this world. The Lord Jesus has defeated Satan and all his demons when He gave His life for the sins of the whole world and demonstrated it by coming back to life after three days. But the day Jesus will vanquish Satan from the earth and throw him into the lake of fire is still in the future. But some Christians have taken it upon themselves as their responsibility to rid the world of all the corruption of sin that is there and regain the earth for Jesus to come and reign over. Here again, the true Gospel gets sidetracked.Saved to save
This is a subtle variation from the Gospel which Jesus has planned for saving us from our sins, which includes not only justification, but also sanctification and glorification. The emphasis in this kind of approach is to think that once they have experienced justification they are 'saved', and that now their duty is to share that good news with others and bring them also into that experience. This is good in itself. But the problem here is that those who are justified ought also to be helped to go on to experience more and more of sanctification. That gets ignored, neglected or taken for granted while people are busy only with evangelism, planting churches, etc. Of course, evangelism and church planting are essential, but then the further goal is to help every one to grow into maturity (Col.1:28).Conclusion
Remember, Jesus came with the Gospel to save us from our sin, not only from the guilt and punishment of sin, but also to let us partake of His character after giving up the pull of our old nature when we are tempted. Then you can understand the concern that many Christians have moved away from this goal to attractive looking deviations, to a greater or lesser measure. The sad result is that they lose the possibility of experiencing all that God has promised. The Gospel such people believe is not the original one Jesus or the apostles presented. Let us get back to God and listen to Him as He opens His word to us.