Just as Jesus Christ is the only power of God, and there is no other
name than that of Jesus, given among men, whereby salvation can be
obtained, so there can be only one Gospel. “Power belongeth unto God,”
and to Him alone. See Ps. 62:9-11. A sham is nothing. A mask is not a
man. So this other gospel, to which the Galatian brethren were being
enticed, was only a perverted gospel, a counterfeit, a sham, and no real
gospel at all. Some versions give verses 6 and 7 thus: “I marvel that ye
are so soon removed ... unto another gospel, although there is not any
other.” Since there is no other gospel now, there never could have been
any other, for God changes not. So the Gospel which Paul preached to the
Galatians, as well as to the Corinthians,—“Jesus Christ and Him
crucified,”—was the Gospel that was preached by Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, and Isaiah. “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through
His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.”
Acts 10:43.
[Sidenote: “Accursed.”]
If any man, or even an angel from heaven, should preach any other gospel
than that which Paul preached, he would bring himself under a curse.
There are not two standards of right and wrong. That which will bring a
curse to-day would have produced the same result five thousand years
ago. Thus we find that the way of salvation has been exactly the same in
every age. The Gospel was preached to Abraham (Gal. 3:8), angels being
sent to him; and the prophets preached the Gospel (1 Peter 1:11, 12).
But if the Gospel preached by them had been different from that preached
by Paul, they would have been accursed.
Why should one be accursed for preaching a different gospel?—Because he
is the means of fastening others in the curse, by leading them to trust
for their salvation in that which professes to be power, but which is
nothing. Since the Galatians were removing from God, it is evident that
they were trusting to supposed human power—their own power—for
salvation. But no man can save another (Ps. 49:6, 7), therefore, “cursed
be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose
heart departeth from the Lord.” Jer. 17:5. The one who leads men into
the curse must, of course, himself be accursed.
“Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way.” Deut.
27:18. If this be so of the one who causes a physically blind man to
stumble, how much more must it apply to one who causes a soul to stumble
to its eternal ruin! To delude people with a false hope of salvation,—to
cause them to put their trust in that which can by no means deliver
them,—what could possibly be more wicked? It is to lead people to build
their house over the bottomless pit. Well might the apostle deliberately
reiterate his anathema. Here, again, we see the gravity of the situation
that called forth this epistle.
[Sidenote: “An Angel from Heaven.”]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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