To many, the only thing that matters is that we love God. The real question is NOT, "Does God Love us?" BUT do we love God? The concept seems to be that we merely feel good toward God in our heart of hearts. The Gospel of Love requires NO obedience to his revealed will in the Bible. The modern message is not only "come as you are" but stay as you are. You simply select the "life style" that pleases you and be happy.
The Gospel of Love requires no change in one's life. There is no right or wrong, no moral or immoral, no good or bad. There is only a grey word of an opium-like stupor of a never-never land, where everyone goes to Heaven in the after a while. Repentance is unnecessary for there is no retribution for sin, no judgment day, no Hell. The very basics of the Christian System and the Gospel message is denied or ignored.
God warns against any perversion of the Gospel of Christ in the first chapter of Galatians. In the first century, the Galatian gentiles were incorporating various aspects of the Law of Moses, such as circumcision (chapter 5:3), into the Gospel of Christ. The warning is clear, "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" (Galatians 1:8). The same admonition is repeated in verse nine for emphases. The trouble with the Gospel of Love is that few, if any are actually going to be "accursed."
The Gospel of Christ demands that we please God, rather than ourselves or our fellow man. As Paul expressed it, "if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Galatians verse ten). The Gospel of Christ or New Testament Christianity did not come from man but rather from God, inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 2 Peter 1:20-21). As Paul expressed it, "I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:12).
In Romans 1:16-18 we find the true rationale for the Gospel of Christ:
(1) It is the power of God unto Salvation (1:16). Salvation from the destiny of the wicked - for God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:30).
(2) It is to everyone that believes. (1:16) both to the Jew and Greek (non-Jew). As the golden text of the Bible (John 3:16) states, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Contrary to the Gospel of Love, Jno 3:16 indicates that unbelievers will perish - because they are lost.
(3) The righteousness of God is revealed in it (1:17). As the prophet Jeremiah pointed out, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). Thus the Gospel of Christ directs our way, in the righteousness of God, as we journey through this life.
Dale I. Royal,
Elk City, OK
