Assurance

Gal. 1:8 “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

What is the Gospel?

It is not the “Gospel of faith”
It is not the “Gospel of prosperity”
It is not the “Gospel of good works”
It is not the “Gospel of signs and wonders”
It is not the “Gospel of church membership”
It is not the “Gospel of religion”
It is not the “Gospel of denomination”
It is not the “Gospel of church attendance”

Gal 1:6-9 “I am amazed that you have so quickly transferred your allegiance from him who called you by the grace of Christ to another "gospel"! Not that it is another gospel, but there are men who are upsetting your faith with a travesty of the gospel of Christ. Yet I say that if I, or an angel from Heaven, were to preach to you any other gospel than the one you have already heard, may he be damned! You have heard me say it before and now I say it again--may anybody who preaches any other gospel than the one you have already heard be a damned soul!

This “travesty of the gospel of Christ” preached in the church of Galatians’ is the same gospel preached in many churches’ today…the “Jesus plus something else” gospel.

And so, what is the Gospel?

1 Cor 15:1-4 (NIV) Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you have 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.

“By this gospel you are saved”
“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”
Those who find the good news of God’s grace, our unmerited favor, the FINISHED work of the cross “greasy” or one that is permitting “a license to sin” objectionable or threatening are Pharisaic (holier-than-thou: excessively or hypocritically pious; "a sickening sanctimonious smile") by definition. After all do any of us really need a license to sin?

I can’t help but wonder what they are so terribly afraid of.

I heard this one recently….“He can’t forgive me for a sin I did not repent of.” Well, I don’t know about this person but I can’t remember every single time I miss it. I don’t have time to document my sins so that I can, at some point, during the day “ask for forgiveness.” Isn’t it better to be rejoicing that every single sin is now in the “sea of forgetfulness” and even God remembers them NO MORE?

After all, since “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16) isn’t that enough? Apparently not for some who would add “good works” to somehow make us more worthy to receive in greater measure the forgiveness Jesus purchased for us on the cross.

They feel the NEED to assist God, to somehow help Him redeem us from sin by adding additional steps, additional obligations, additional guilt and condemnation.

It’s nothing more than vain religion and it tiring and laced tightly with failure. No wonder we run from church and from its demands for performance.

God GAVE HIS SON, we did not earn it!!

1John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the BLOOD OF JESUS HIS SON cleanseth us from ALL SIN.”

If you love Jesus, if you have confessed Jesus as Lord – you are walking in the light and you are cleansed of all sin, past, present and future!

1John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

We certainly DO have sin, that’s why we needed a Savior! That why we needed to be justified one and for all before God our Father!

Hebrews 10:4-14 (Message Bible) “The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ: You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year; you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice. It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar that wet your appetite. So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God, the way it’s described in your Book.”

When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.

Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:
This new plan I’m making with Israel isn’t going to be written on paper, isn’t going to be chiseled in stone; This time “I’m writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts.”
He concludes, I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.

Thank you God for sending Jesus so that we can be “greasy” and walking in Him!!