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! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:6-10)

A Man Is Still Only Justified By Faith in Christ Alone

You may believe me when I tell you that I’m not trying to be an alarmist. It simply remains my firm conviction in Christ that I have only saying what needs to be said here at Apprising Ministries. And truthfully, I am even doing so reluctantly. Why things have become so ridiculous that the other day a person who, in this case, happens to be a Roman Catholic was overheard saying — “Jesus was a liberal.” No doubt the inmates have not only taken over the asylum but they are now franchising it out.

Sadly, what needs to rediscovered today is the proper view of how the evangelical Protestant must approach this critical subject of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and how we should approach those who would dare alter it such as the apostate Roman Catholic Church, and those who are expanding it like the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity—because of the deception they receive from their practice of Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism.

And the best way to do this is to look more closely at the above verses from the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the churches in the southern part of the Roman province of Galatia. We know it of course as the Book of Galatians. Dr. Robert Mounce, a noted evangelical scholar who has worked on numerous translations of the Bible, tells us:

Galatians stands as an eloquent and vigorous apologetic for the NT essential truth that man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ – by nothing less and nothing more – and that he is sanctified not by legalistic works but by the obedience that comes from faith in God’s work for him, in him and through him by the grace and power of Christ and the Holy Spirit (NIV Study Bible,1985 ed., 1779, emphasis mine)

What Dr. Mounce has just explained to us is exactly what the historic orthodox Christian message itslef has always been. In other words this answers the critical question: How is a man saved from his debt of sin before a Holy and Righteous God? And clearly a debt requires a payment of some kind, does it not? For the wages of sin – [which is the debt] – is death – Romans 6:23. However you may recall, that Christ Jesus already paid that “wage” – that debt – with His Own death.

But tragically, what is being obscured today in much of the visible church is that God did all of this in spite of what mankind is like; and not because of some inherent goodness on our part.

See also:

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FOOD AND REST

KNOW YOUR BIBLE!