I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel— not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:6–10 (RSV)
'Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ.' St. Paul hits the nail on the head. The Gospel is Jesus crucified and risen from the dead. If anyone preaches anything other than this, they are accursed.
Sound harsh? When we consider what is at stake, it is what needs to be said. The Galatian churches had received the Gospel during one of St. Paul's missionary journeys. St. Paul proclaimed what had been revealed to him by the Lord. After he established the churches, St. Paul continued his missionary work.
The Gospel salvation is the free gift of God given through Christ to be received by faith. C.S. Lewis wrote that one of the greatest dangers to the Christian faith is the false gospel of 'Jesus and.....'. Any teaching that implies that Jesus' death and resurrection weren't quite enough, that we need to pitch in and do our part, is a false gospel.
It is akin to the devil's temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. The evil one comes, saying, 'If you are the Son of God....'. Do something to prove that you are who you say you are. Don't rely solely on the Word of God; find a way to prove it to be so.
Others had come to Galatia after St. Paul teaching and preaching that it was necessary to keep the Old Testament law and believe in Jesus in order to be saved. Jesus didn't die enough. His resurrection wasn't all that was needed. You need to show God how serious you are by doing just a bit extra to make salvation complete.
It is tempting to think that I could do something to as my part in salvation. We have a hard time letting go of our longing to be God on some level. We have never gotten past the temptation of the serpent. We want to be like God, even if it is only a tiny fragment.
We cannot add anything to what Jesus has already done. Should we insist that we somehow participate in our salvation, we are saying that Jesus' death and resurrection weren't enough. We are saying we need to add our part to make it real.
This is a false gospel. It leads to death, for salvation is in Christ alone. St. Paul wrote plainly of this in Romans:
While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.
Romans 5:6–11 (RSV)
The Gospel is this and this alone.