How to Spot a False Gospel

The gospel is the end of To Do List Religion.

This summer the lectionary takes the church through Paul’s epistle to the Romans, as good an occasion as any to attend to gospel. I recently taught the preaching class for a cohort of licensed local pastors. As part of the session, I provided them this handout. If it’s true that our natural inertia will always drift away from the gospel, then it’s always wise to revisit how to spot its imposters.

The good news of the gospel is that you can rest in the work of Christ Jesus. Faith is the state of being grasped by the new situation made possible by eschatological promise. There is now no sin other than forgiven sin. And there is now no work that is necessary for you to do for anyone other than for your neighbor. The good news of the gospel is that you can rest in the work of Christ and look to the future as promise rather than threat. Anything else, anything extra added to the finished work of Jesus Christ for you, the apostle Paul asserts, is anathema.

Anathema.

God-damned.

Once you understand the offense of the gospel and the attraction of the law, you realize that, as the church, we are always on the precipice of the very same heresy by which the Christians in Galatia were led astray from the God who called them in and through the gospel. We’re forever tempted to rip the pillow out from underneath your head, to give you something you must do, to prevent you from resting in Christ and his righteousness alone.

Therefore, it’s important to learn how to recognize a false gospel.

Here:

1. If it makes you anxious or afraid, it’s another gospel.