The Salvation Labyrinth

Gal.1:11-12 - But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Go ahead and read that again, Paul received the gospel from Jesus Himself. So I ask you Brian MacLaren, from whom did you receive it? How about you Rick Warren, from whom did you receive it? And all the modern emergent teachers and the relevant teachers and all the rest of the evangelical morass, from whom did you receive it? The health and wealth preachers, who taught you the gospel? If not from Paul you have a false gospel.

In the letter to the Galatians the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit shares a truth that some consider intransigent and at the same time has a ripple effect across the modern labyrinth of salvation teachings. Paul informs the Galatians that if they attempt to incorporate Jesus as a component of the law then they will not receive the grace that Christ offers. Think about that against the backdrop of the nebulous doctrinal genre that is alive and well today. What would be so wrong with a Jew that believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior but still believes we must adhere to the law? I mean Paul is being a little inflexible here, don’t you think?

And if a person believes that Jesus is the only way to salvation but they mistakenly believe that He just adds the last link to the law but doesn’t replace it, surely God would overlook that, wouldn’t He? Wouldn’t a gracious God understand when a person believes that Jesus is God and died for our sins but that He requires circumcision for salvation?(or baptism, works, etc.) Well let us see what that God of grace has to say about it Himself.

Gal.5:2 - behold, I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Gal.5:4 - Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace.

In this day of tolerance and dialogue Paul’s teachings in the New Testament that regard the Old Testament law abiders as unsaved would be looked upon as intolerant and exclusive. Think soberly about the implications of Paul’s inspired teachings.

We are so prone to journey upon the wings of our subjective feelings and our fleshly sense of fairness. We apply our reason to the discussion about how “generous” the Lord is about His salvation and since it contains no works of man we neglect to see that many are adding their own intellectual, cultural, and post modern understandings to God’s transcendent offer of salvation. Ultimately these are also the works of man albeit not feeding the poor, baptism, or any other type of ceremonial works of man but works nonetheless. Mental ascension to the gospel is an intellectual work that will not save and intellectual additions and subtractions to the gospel presentation inadvertently and sometimes purposely make the gospel fraught with the carnal intellectual works of man which poison it altogether.

How many modern and compassionate thinkers would reject a Jew who believed today that Jesus was the incarnate Son of God and he became a follower while still believing everyone must adhere to the law? They would offer him a “generous orthodoxy” would they not? But not so the Apostle Paul and not so the Author of the everlasting gospel. The apostle teaches a full surrender, even in a process, but necessitating a complete rejection of all former vestiges of past religious systems that were not Christ and Christ alone. Jesus refuses to have a seat at the spiritual table, He comes in as Lord as all others scatter forever. Today many attempt to gather Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Universalism, liberal Protestantism, and many other deceptions of man and they try and bring them all under the umbrella of the true gospel which in Biblical terms is impossible. Paul prophetically warns us that "they zealously affect you, but not well" and God instructs us to "cast out the bondwoman and her son (works, both physical and mental).

I’ve often thought about what if I were God. If I saw a Mother Teresa, for instance, and she gave her entire life serving the poorest of the poor and was the epitome of kind and gracious, but she believed that her baptism and her good works along with Christ saved her, if I were God I would let her in. But you see, that is me not God. Why do I feel that way in my flesh? Because my sense of fairness is fallen and I see things in a depraved perspective and not as God sees them. I don't fully realize the horror of sin and the colossal rebellous nature of pride, and I have not seen the infinite breach to the holy justice of God that man's fallen works brings. The reason anyone who adds to the perfect work of Christ cannot be saved is because it removes the glory of the cross and it lets the works of man share the sacrifice of God the Son which is blasphemy. We better not allow what God Himself has disallowed, ever.

And so we come to a dialogue that now entertains the idea that a good Muslim, among others, who never hears the gospel could be saved in God’s generous and universal love. Even the Pope is considered saved in most evangelical circles even though he espouses and teaches a false and man made gospel and also claims to be the representative of Christ on earth. Oh how far our human compassion has expanded the Biblical teachings. One of the reasons many fall into these deceptions is because they don’t search the Scriptures for themselves, they rely on books, television, tapes, and a forty minute sermonette delivered by a man who resembles more of a successful American than a rejected prophet of God’s truth and speaks more like Dr. Phil than John Wesley. Christians are now tired of the gospel story of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, it has become stale and familiar. This world has so many more exiting and sensory things that move the human spirit so the divine message has its place within a small time frame a couple of times a week.

And most tragic of all we have changed the gospel offer to be much more expansive and much less exclusive so our conscious can be soothed. Let’s face it, if it got out that we believed that only sinners that became born again followers of the Lord Jesus will go to heaven and all the rest go to an eternal, eternal, eternal punishment, well that would make us the most hypocritical of all, would it not? I mean why did we not go to the grocery store today and tell someone? How about the guy who lives across the street? How many times will we fast for someone’s salvation this week? Will God see us purposely rise early this week in order to get on our faces before the Throne of Grace and beg God to use us to spread His gospel?

So obviously you've read too far, you were “down with it” when I mentioned the message changers, weren’t you? But here we are talking about us and suddenly the ambiance becomes less comfortable and attack oriented because the people in the mirror have suddenly become very familiar, no? The salvation labyrinth continues to expand way beyond Christ’s teachings, but will we surrender to an unusual desperation and anointing in reaching the entire world with the grace that was given to us?

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.

The days are evil…very evil.