Galatians 1:8-9 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.… The apostle obviously means to state, not only that his gospel was true, but complete — nothing needed to be added to it. The Jewish teachers might have said: "We do not contradict, we only modify, add to, and so improve the gospel as preached by Paul." The grand subject of the gospel of Christ is the way in which a sinner may be restored to the Divine favour, and obtain the pardon of his sin and the salvation of his soul. It is. because the gospel of Christ contains the only true account of the only way of justification, and that a way exactly suited to our wretched circumstances, that it receives its name of "gospel" — glad tidings of great joy. "Another gospel" means, then, a system of doctrine teaching a way of obtaining the Divine favour different from that laid down in Christ's gospel. The leading principles of Christ's gospel are two: (a) that men are restored to the Divine favour entirely on account of the doings and sufferings of Jesus Christ; and (b) that men are interested in these doings and sufferings entirely by believing.Every plan of restoring men to God's favour, which does not embrace these two principles, or which embraces what is inconsistent with either of them, is another gospel. Every plan, for example, which, like that of the Judaising teachers, leads men to depend on their own obedience to any law to any extent; in any degree, either as the ground of their justification or the means of their justification, is another gospel. It is a most momentous consideration, that "the avowed atheist does not more effectually reject the record of God concerning His Son, than the nominal Christian who believes something else than this under the name of a gospel, and trusts in some other Christ than this Christ under the name of a Saviour." (John Brown, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. |
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