…If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 

(Galatians 1:9)

Taken from the Anglo Saxon godes spell, ‘good words or speech’ the English language derives the word ‘gospel’.  The Greek word translated ‘gospel’ is εὐαγγελίζεται euangelizetai, stands for the act of good speaking, literally communicating a good message.  And for Paul, the message was sacrosanct and if any choose to deliver a different ‘gospel’, one did so at your eternal peril.

Twice Paul offers this imprecation at the beginning of Galatians.  To Paul it was a serious matter to understand and communicate the gospel without deviation or corruption.

For Paul to be so exercised about false gospels, demands he was categorical as to what was the one true and authentic Gospel.  So where did he find it?

It is important to remember that the message of good news is first to be found in the Scriptures, and for Paul, a major contributor to the books that would form the New Testament, these were the Hebrew texts of the Old Testament.

Thus, Paul references Isaiah:

As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ (Romans 10:15)

Here is the quotation:

How beautiful upon the mountains
    are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
    who publishes salvation,
    who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’ (Isaiah 52:7)

The Hebrew here is a verb בָּשַׂר basar, which means ‘to bear (glad) tidings’ as it is used in the positive sense, reinforced in third line ‘of happiness’ – here the Hebrew is טוֹב towb, ‘pleasant’ or ‘agreeable’; properly ‘beautiful’.

And what is that good news but that God will redeem and deliver Israel.  Here the word ‘bear good tidings’ is again employed by a psalmist, possibly David:

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
    tell (basar) of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvellous works among all the peoples!  (Psalm 96:1-3)

However, the mechanism by which this good news of deliverance is achieved remains a mystery in the Hebrew Bible; moreover, its relevance to all nations, not just the nation of Israel, will not be made plain until the Messiah is revealed as Jesus, and only then once he is glorified by the cross and resurrection.  Here Paul reflects:

…(on) how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:3-6)

Given that even to the Jews the Gospel was a mystery and many would deny Jesus was the Messiah, being clear about the Gospel of Christ, that is, the Messiah, or ‘anointed one of God’ is imperative.  And he learnt that Gospel directly from the author himself, as he attests:

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:11-12)

And Paul is very clear with the church of Galatia that he passed this on as a very specific teaching:

even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (ibid 1:8)

He states that:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. (Galatians 1:6-7a)

Docetism was one such heresy that the early church encountered that claimed that Jesus was always Spirit and never a man, therefore he only pretended to die on the cross.  Paul identifies the false gospel proposed by Judaizers in his letter to Galatians, who insisted that Gentiles must become Jews (and if male must undergo circumcision) before and Gentile might benefit from the promise of salvation through faith.  

Since that time there have been any number of distortions.  Today, some people say that telling people about the one true God suffices, to which James says:

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (James 2:19)

While others advocate telling people God loves them is enough yet Paul considers the ungodly…

…although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

Thankfully, Paul tells us exactly what the Gospel is:

…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also… (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

This states that:

• there is one God, Creator and Almighty; that our perfect relationship has foundered through our lack of faith, which leads to sin and is sin; 
• God the Father anointed the person of God the Son to take the just punishment for this unbelief, 
• Jesus is that Christ, or anointed one
• he died as our substitute and was resurrected on the third day – this first born of a new creation in which we may all share; 
• his resurrection is historically attested and scripturally affirmed, all this being prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, centuries before Jesus was born.  

These then are the elements of Gospel of Christ; so, for instance, quoting John 3:16 (which is alternatively proposed) as the Gospel will be seen to be deficient.  

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

At best, it is only part of the Gospel, quite apart that it is quoted in isolation of the context of next two verses which reveals its specific subjects of judgment and election.

This magnificent verse affirms God’s intention and his desire, and is good news, a gospel of sorts, but the Gospel of Christ contains not just the mechanism of salvation but states the reason; that every human has sinned.  Why is this critical?  First, implicitly this states that only God is good (Mark 10:18) but more importantly, that apart from Jesus Christ, all men and women are evil.

Without conviction of sin, all may believe their pliant conscience affirming them to be a ‘good person’.  To receive the true gospel, people are required to hear that ‘you are not only not good, in fact, you are wicked to the core’.  The world values self-esteem, yet the Gospel of Christ intimates that God will only relate to a person once their self-esteem is shattered!  

The message of the Gospel is tough.  Paul insists that it is never sugar-coated, declaring that all stand condemned apart from Christ in their complete depravity is an essential truth.

Thus John 3:16 does not offer the foundational knowledge of that conviction; moreover, while God’s chooses those he saves, no evangelist can know who among the lost God has chosen.  Thereby the act of bringing the Gospel is to appeal to the individual in order to evince a response – to return to Paul and the quotation in his book the Roman believers:

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’(Romans 10:14-15)

Just as the Gospel of Christ must not be subtracted from, neither does it allow for augmentation.  It does not need to be explained, argued or contended, merely delivered.

Thus the reason why slick arguments or polished presentations are redundant; is that the Gospel is ridiculous without accompanying revelation.  As Paul reminds the church of Corinth who responded positively to his preaching, but who were quarrelling over who baptised them:

 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  (1 Corinthians 1:17-18)

God asks us to trust that the truth of the Gospel is sufficient, and that is ‘the power of God for salvation’ (Romans 1:16).  This power is demonstrated in the conversion accounts of two women, one named and another unnamed; in the first instance, Luke describes watching Paul proclaiming the Gospel:

And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.  (Acts 16:13-14)

Lydia received revelation through God opening Lydia’s heart, as did another woman, a Samaritan, whom Jesus met at Jacob’s Well near Sychar.  Having told the woman about her life and its sinful nature, yet without condemnation, she realises that before her is a holy man.

“Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (John 4:19-26)

As a Jewish man speaking to an unaccompanied woman, let alone a Samaritan, Jesus already does something unprecedented, but further still, he does not berate her for her ignorance as she might of expected – the Samaritans has a folk religion which stated the Mount Gerizim was a holy mountain rivalling Mount Moriah, which the Jews derided – and was probably well used to abuse because of her lowly station; Jesus respectfully leaves uncontested her mistaken beliefs and simply points to the future and himself.  It is remarkable that in the Gospels, this is the only time that Jesus states he is the Messiah – and the conviction of the woman’s response is no less astonishing.  It might be concluded then that revelation flows from response, and the nature of that response elicits revelation.  

Neither Jesus or Paul argued the Gospel because there is no point; just as faith offends reason, so does the Gospel.  

Which brings a final consideration.  If the Gospel of Christ is clearly defined, why is it roundly ignored by churches from Galatia in the first century up to the present day?  This is Paul’s analysis:

Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  (Galatians 1:7b)

And who are these? Jesus warns the church:

 ‘Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves…’ (Matthew 7:15)

A prophet, that is one who claims to speak the authoritative word of God, in departing from the Gospel of Christ not only imperils assurance of salvation of others but risks his or her own soul.

The curse that Paul refers to in the letter to the Galatians is spelled out by Jesus, also during the Sermon on the Mount:

‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and, in your name, perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”  (Matthew 7:21-23)

The Apostle John expands upon this.  Having first warned of antichrists, people who not only teach falsehood but embody it by their claims, he writes:

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.  The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.  No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.  This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.  (1 John 3:7-10)

Jesus expects – 

…this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.  (Matthew 24:14)

Proclaiming the Gospel, the True Gospel of Christ, is both a commandment and a precondition of Jesus’ return – ensuring it is correct gospel message is vital for both the soul of the preacher and that of those to whom it is preached.