Watering Down The Gospel

Perhaps the worst aspect of legalistic preaching is the way it waters down the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word gospel means "good news" and nothing could be further from being good news than the message that we have some part in either entering into salvation or living the life once we have become a Christian. We can only live the Life in the same way we entered, by trusting Christ.

Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians to address the matter of how we are to live the Christian life. Some people think Galatians was written to defend the truth of salvation by grace and not by works. That isn't why the book was written. The Galatians were already Christians. How could they be confused about what that meant? Their confusion was about how to live the Christian life now that they were believers.

A group of Judaizers had come into the church telling these saints that, while they were indeed saved and on their way to heaven, they had to do their part in the meantime. Their part, said these legalists, began by being circumcised.

Paul wrote the church and called them idiots (see Galatisns 3:1) for falling for such foolishness. He asked them, "Have you had some sort of spell cast on you? You became a Christian without doing a single thing, but now you think that what you do is an important part of growing in your life in Christ? Did you become a Christian by anything you did or didn't do? No? Then what makes you think that now you are a Christian, what you do has anything at all to do with receiving God's blessings?? Does God work in and among you because of what you do or because you simply trust Him?" (You can read this challenge from Paul in Galatians 3:3-5.)

The gospel is the fantastic news that you and I have been made righteous because of what Christ has done. We don't have to do anything - just believe it! Paul wrote in Romans 1:16-17 that the gospel is the power of God to salvation and that in it the righteousness of God is revealed. For anybody to preach that there is something we must do before or after we become a Christian in order to be righteous is to water down the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and to insult His finished work at the cross. The righteousness of God is a gift, not a goal we have in life. (See Romans 5:17)

To think that we can become more righteous by doing all "the right things" is to "nullify the grace of God," according to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:21. In fact he says that a person makes Christ Himself of no effect by thinking that what we do has anything to do with the gospel at all. (See Galatians 5:4)

The next time you hear a preacher saying that there is something you need to do to become more righteous, I hope an alarm goes off in your heart. Not everybody who says they believe the Bible is preaching it. Legalism is very subtle at times. Remember that a diluted gospel is a polluted gospel, which is no gospel (good news) at all. Don't fall for a watered down gospel being preached by those who claim to believe the Bible.

The gospel is the good news that you are 100% righteous because of what He has done, not because of anything you need to do. You don't have to do anything. You will find that you want to do some things, but that is a different story altogether.