By Not Known
Like the foolish Galatians, some of us cannot accept the fact that we can gain salvation by just taking God at His word! Believing in Christ Jesus Who died for our sins and rose again from the dead for our salvation just isn’t good enough! Surely it can’t be that simple and that alone — there must be a catch somewhere. Surely there must be some illegible fine print to the contract. Surely there must be something more we must do in order to earn our salvation. Or is there?
Perhaps this may have to do with the fact that many of our forefathers had left China and India with just the shirt on their back and made it good in this land we now proudly call our own. Relying on handouts and not to earn our keep are just some of the things we were taught never to do and will never do. We often feel that we must work hard and smart, to deserve every cent to our name. And rightly so! For God’s scriptural principle remains crystal clear: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thess 3:10b).
So why is God seemingly making an exception to the rule when it comes to the Gospel?
The reason simply is we can NEVER be good enough for God, as much as we try. Whatever we do or try to do, can never be good enough to be accepted by God because it is simply not good enough! It has not only to do with the insufficiency and inadequacy of the best that we can be or can offer to God. It has also to do with the imperfect nature we are all born with. We can never please God on our own terms! The real problem is the problem of sin which only a holy God can adequately deal with.
We have commonly used the word “plus” to indicate the enhancement of a product but there can never be such a thing as “Gospel plus”! For there is nothing we can add to the Gospel which God has accomplished through the sacrifice of His perfectly sinless only begotten Son. We can never ever better what God had already done for us eternally in time and space. And woe to us if we think so.
Let us not be like the Galatian Christians, desiring and trying to rely on a “Gospel plus” when the Gospel by itself is sufficient, adequate and good enough for God. There is only one Gospel ― that of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us joyfully embrace what God has graciously provided for us in His Son.
Joseph Teng