April 2 I Thursday

Judges 16-18

Luke 7:1-30

“For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a licence for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”  —Jude 1:4

As much as we would like to believe that all paths lead to salvation, the hard truth is that there is no other path to experience God except through Jesus Christ. Paul tells us, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Timothy 2:5-6). The gospel is radically inclusive in that Christ gave Himself to everybody––for all people––but it is radically exclusive in that Jesus claims, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Basically, Jesus plus anything equals nothing at all.

Yet, there are two false gospels that show up in a very subtle way at our churches. The first false gospel says we are free but we still need to live a certain way in order to be accepted into the kingdom. They say, “Yes, I believe Jesus was the only Son of God. Yes, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but we still need to obey the Law of Moses.” The motto of these teachers is, “We are not free, we still need to live a certain way to earn God’s favour.” If, however, that were true, then Jesus’s death was not enough. But Jesus has already done everything. He fulfilled the law perfectly. He gave Himself as a ransom to rescue us. The good news is good because He did it all for us.

The second false gospel says we are free; in fact, we are so free that we can live any way we please and do whatever we want. These teachers tell us that everything is permissible to the point that we can live in contradiction to God’s Word because, after all, God is love and simply wants everyone to be happy. The motto of these teachers is, “Grace, grace and more grace.”

When we look at these two false gospels, the first teaches how we should live to earn our way to God and the other teaches that it does not matter how we live. We see legalism on the one hand and license on the other. Legalism says, “Christ is not enough” and license says, “Christ is not concerned.” Sadly, the reality of our culture today is that we have some churches that advocate these false teachings. Hence, Paul tells us, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly” (1 Timothy 4:7). We are called to live godly lives that glorify God because He has saved us by grace through Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Dear God, thank You that I am saved by Your grace through Jesus Christ. Help me to live my life in a manner that glorifies You. Amen!