UNITED STATES
A WING AND A PRAYER
Carlin Lawrence carlin@agairupdate.com
The Danger of Turning Away from God’s Grace
Jesus didn’t please everybody, and it’s foolishness to think we can.
B 10 | agairupdate.com
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7). The word “gospel” means good news and if you’re telling me that God will forgive all of my sins and account me righteous if I will believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, that’s good news. But if you’re telling me that I must follow certain rules and regulations and keep certain parts of the Law of Moses in order to be righteous, then that’s not good news. Jesus Christ is the only One who has ever kept the Law of Moses perfectly, and He did that to free us from that obligation. Paul wrote to these Galatian believers to correct the false teaching of salvation into God’s heaven by keeping the Law of Moses. False teachers have hindered the true gospel of Jesus Christ from the very beginning of Jesus’ church! Anyone who leaves the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ for a legal obligation with God is actually depending on their own old selfrighteousness to get into God’s heaven. Christians are to do good works, but that’s a result of our salvation, not the cause of it. “ As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8-9). The Greek word that’s translated into our English word “curse” is the Greek word “anathema” and it means to be under the curse of God. Paul is telling us that if we’re depending on our works to get into God’s heaven we’re actually nullify God’s grace and are placing ourselves under the curse of the law. “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). When someone says, “It’s good to believe in
Jesus Christ, but it takes more than that to be saved” don’t believe it! Humans are incurably self‑righteous; we love to boast of our selfrighteous works, but it’s extremely hard to boast of our self-righteousness when we come face to face with the grace of God. None of us can say, “God loves me because I am so perfect. Look what I have done.” When we relate to God on the basis of God’s grace, it leaves no place for bragging about ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4:1-5). “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). The fear of man is a huge obstacle in the lives of us all; even great men have been snared by the fear of what people think. Abraham, Saul, David, and many other great biblical giants have fallen into this trap—and we’re no exception. There’s a weak idealism that has permeated human society and culture that says that we’re to be agreeable and well liked, even if it goes against God’s Word. Just because it’s politically correct doesn’t make it right in God’s eyes. Jesus didn’t soft-shoe around the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (Matthew 23) John the Baptist wasn’t afraid to rebuke political leaders for their ungodly lifestyle (Luke 3:19). Peter and John were commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, but they replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and hear…We must obey God rather than men! (Acts 4:18-20, 5:29). Jesus didn’t please everybody, and it’s foolishness to think we can. Even if you’re kind, generous and nice to everybody, some people will hate you for being so kind and gentle. Some people who will hate us just because of our looks. Can we help that? It’s the nature of sinful mankind to be hateful.
