Today's encouragement comes from Galatians 1:6, where Paul wrote this:
"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— . . . " (ESV)How was this false "gospel" “different” from the true one? It still spoke of Christ, of faith, and of repentance. It was a "different" "gospel" because it *added* things to the pure gospel. If we add but a drop of poison to a perfect-ly good glass of wine—it is no longer any good. If we add circumcision and the ceremonial law to the true gospel, it is not good news anymore. If we add anything foreign to the gospel of God’s free grace in Jesus, we now have "man's” gospel; or, more accurately, we have the "devil's” gospel—because it leads people to hell.
There is a lot at stake with regard to the biblical and preached gospel of Jesus. Let us treasure it, believe it, and die for it. But let us never pollute it, to our own destruction.
[Puritan quote of the day: "Nothing more prostitutes the conscience, and no-thing utterly undoes men more, than being fast and loose with God in sacred vows and promises.” —Richard Steele, in, "The Character of an Upright Man"]
