Taken Over

Twice in my working life I have worked for companies that have either been taken over by, or merged with, other companies. No matter how much they say things won't change they always do. My last experience with this sort of thing happened in 2006 when the credit union I was employed at for the previous 18 months merged with another, larger, credit union. The new management made a promise that nothing would change and all our employees would maintain their jobs for at least one year. Well, within the first month a handful of people "quit" or were force out. Then one afternoon my boss called me from our main branch to inform me that he had just been fired. Fired? I thought he went to the office for training. This was two months into the acquisition. Basically, this signified that everything that we were told was false. As time went on more employees "left," including one I had to help escort out the building. Not a comfortable experience. Within the realm of Christianity, you can find similar deception or false teachings that promise one thing, but deliever another. I stumbled upon a question someone asked about a statement made by a popular Christian pastor. They asked:

"In 1988 [Christian pastor] charged that the church has been taken over by a false gospel. Is he right?"

I bet everybody who read this question would respond with a, resounding, "Yes, he is right!" But, what is often left out is that everybody assumes that what they believe, or what their pastor teaches, is the true Gospel. Yet, if you asked them to explain it, they would all probably have different answers. I am no different, as I believe the main problem with the Body of Christ is that these so-called Christians don't know the Gospel. Or, at the very least, only know a partial Gospel.

"Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve." 1 Corinthians 15: 1-5

Death, burial and resurrection. That is the Gospel. Yeah, I know, every Christian will say they believe that is the Gospel. But, when they go about explaining the reality of it in their lives it is, more often than not, described in terms of their religious experience rather than something taught to them by the Holy Spirit. The individual who posted the statement made by that pastor never defined, exactly, what is this false gospel? The false gospel, in my opinion, is the one that doesn't answer two simple questions:

What is the finality of the cross?

What is the meaning of the resurrection?

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." 2 Corinthians 5: 18-19

I once heard a 72 year old Christian say that in all his life he had never heard a pastor preach on 2 Corinthians 5: 18-19. Perhaps that is because nobody understands or believes the impact of such a passage. Many Christians either believes now, or once believed, that they still have to do something about getting their sins forgiven. The lists of "sacrifices" performed to try and do this is endless. Everything from confession booths to keeping short accounts has been devised to do what Jesus Christ said is "finished." When scripture says that God is "not counting men's sins against them" I think He means what He says. But, Christians, focused on the flesh don't understand the finality of the cross. They think that because we still sin there must be more forgiveness to be earned. Fact is, God took our sins away, in Christ, so that He could make us new creations. He knew there was nothing we could do to propitiate Him when it came to ours sins. Forgiveness requires the shedding of blood and no man had a life to give that would meet that requirement. That is why the perfect, once and for all sacrifice of Jesus is the only thing that satisfied God enough that we are now reconciled to Him. The Christian must realize that how we act is not an indication of how God views us. When He looks at a Christian, He doesn't see our sins, He sees the finished work of Christ on our behalf, and is pleased. Therefore, we don't spend our Christian lives trying to obtain what we have already received. We spend it trusting God in the midst of our sins as He teaches us to say "no" to ungodliness, knowing that our sins will no longer separate us from Him.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" Romans 5: 8-10

Many Christians will say that the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was to prove His deity and victory over death. They are absolutely correct. However, that is not all that His resurrection did. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is our salvation! After all, didn't the Apostle Paul say that without the resurrection we are to be pitied? What many Christians fail to understand is that mankind's greatest problem isn't sin. The greatest problem of mankind is that he is dead! Because of the fall of Adam, God removed His life from Adam and he died spiritually. All mankind comes into this world in the image of Adam, dead to God, but alive to the world. We are an exact reflection of what it is like not to be in the image of God. To illustrate the problem take a person who has died from cancer. If you bring them back to life, but don't cure their cancer, they will only die again. However, if you cure the cancer and bring them back to life, they will live! The death of Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins that caused us to die back in the Garden. Now, raised from the dead, that life we lost in the Adam can be restored to all who believe. And because of the eternal consequences of the cross, that life will never again leave us because of our sins. It is that life of God, the Holy Spirit, that indwells a believer, teaching them and guiding them from within. As we learn to trust in the Holy Spirit we will see a diminishing of the sin in our life as we mature. We will never become sinless because of the complete corruption of our flesh. But, as we learn to live by the Spirit, we will not gratify the sinful nature. And since that life will never again leave a believer we can call it an eternal life. A life that will carry us through this life and on into eternity even after we physically die.

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" Galatians 1:6-8

It is easy to spot a false gospel when it doesn't match up with the clear teaching of scripture. Many cults and false religions will proclaim a Jesus that is not found in the Bible. Their Jesus is a good man, a respected teacher, maybe even sinless, but not God in human flesh, who died for our sins and rose again. But, what about the false gospels that claim to believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ? That truth is said to be held dear, but in practice we realize it is only a cover for the heavy burdens of religion and manmade rules. Instead of the truth of the Gospel revealing itself in mature Christians dependent on the indwelling Holy Spirit, we see immature believers, and even unbelievers, trapped under the yoke of slavery that religion puts around their necks. They are cursed to live a life they cannot live in the energy of their own flesh. All that results is defeated Christians and unbelievers not wanting anything to do with Jesus Christ. The only way to guard against this lie is by guarding ourselves with the truth. By getting familiar with the fullness of the Gospel, sin, death, forgiveness, life, can we be sure not to fall when those that teach us have been taken over by error and are quickly deserting the truth. Just because someone is teaching error doesn't mean we have to fall for it. When you know the Gospel, you can identify when a false gospel is taking over the church and begins to lie to you. And that allows you to stand for the truth or flee from the error. Either way you will have avoided being thrown into confusion.